It Takes Work

Praise the Lord. I share with Brother Field before the service that the Lord made something real in my heart this week, and I've questioned as to whether or not he would have me share it. Let me rephrase that. I want him to share it. If he wants to use me, that's fine, but, you know, we're a family here, by the way. We know that. If I were to go down a rabbit hole somewhere along the way, and you're my brother and my sister, you know, you can say, hey, love you, brother, but could you let somebody else share? We want the Lord, don't we? Absolutely. It's in his heart, and it's got to be not by might, not by power, not by our wisdom or emotion or anything else. It's by his spirit. That truth is shared, that's revealed, that speaks to our heart right where we are. From the first words spoken this morning until the last song sang, the reality of what—I'm just going to trust the Lord to help me share this. I can't put it in words. He has to. But his love has been so lifted up, exalted, and magnified here this morning. His amazing love and power to save, and—well, let me just start here. I want to share a little bit of background. I'll start with Isaiah chapter 53, and we'll start there in verse 3. This is speaking prophetically of our Lord, Isaiah was prophesying. Speaking of our precious Lord, he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I recently read where that, the root word for that word iniquity, he was crushed for our iniquities, laid on him was the iniquity of us all. It's not just, in that word it's not, it doesn't convey just the sin that was committed that we committed, if you will. I mean, folks, we have to face the truth of the matter. If it had been us there instead of Adam and Eve, we'd be in the same place today. And I praise God that that iniquity, it doesn't just address the sin and the wrong, it addresses the punishment, the judgment of God against that sin. The iniquities of us all was laid upon him. I couldn't help but think, you consider that, and then, let me, and you don't have to turn here, but I'll try to keep this brief, but in Matthew, 26th chapter of Matthew, he was there with, in the garden, and he had, you know, gone further into the garden with Peter, James, and John. He says, then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, my father, if it is possible, may this curse be lifted. up be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will." And I know you remember there in Luke, I'll turn there right quick to Luke 22, verses 43 and 44, an angel appeared from heaven, appeared to him and strengthened him. And this was after that, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. His capillaries, it was such an anguish, his capillaries were rupturing and blood was mixing with his sweat. And he suffered this for me and for you. For every person present, in fact, God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten

Son that whosoever should believe in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. This love is beyond our comprehension. I want to make one last, read one last scripture here. Well, praise the Lord. I thought I had it marked. To what? Take your time. Praise God. Okay. Yeah, here it is. This is in Matthew 20. We can begin there in the 20th verse of 20. Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down, asked a favor of Him. What is it you want, He asked. She said, Grant that one of my, grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right hand and the other at your left hand in your kingdom. You don't know what you're asking, Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink? It was the very cup that we read earlier about the anguish He was going through. We can, they answered. Jesus said to them, You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right hand or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father. The Lord Jesus, in His love and His discernment, knowing right where these disciples were, He did go ahead to address their request, or their mother's request to be placed at His right hand, His left. And He addressed that, and later on, a little later down here, it says, you know, the other disciples were indignant about them asking such a thing, and He addressed them about, we know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise

authority over them, not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. But there was, there's something here. I remember Brother Thomas saying one time, he says, and this is when he was well on up in years, he says, I don't know why I'm getting so emotional in my old age, I get emotional at the drop of a hat. And I'm asking and believing the Lord to help me with my emotions because that's not what's going to convey what I'm wanting to share. Emotions will not, only His Spirit. So you don't know what you're asking, can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink? We can answer, and I put myself in the Lord's place, and in my lack of discernment, if you will, because the Lord knew right where they were, He knew what they... He could receive and couldn't receive present tense. But when they said, we can, I would have said, no, you can't. You cannot. You never will be able to, never. I'm the only one that can drink the Father's cup. I'm the only one. And to take all of your sin, your iniquity, to take the judgment of my Father, my God, against that sin, to drink that cup, not only the sin, but the consequences of it. I'm the only one that can drink that cup. And was it a battle for Him to drink that cup? Sweat and drops of blood, God please, Father, if it can be any other way, if you can take this cup, please do. But for me and for you, He said, nevertheless, not my will, but yours. You know, when they came to get Him, after this session of prayer, God somehow or another, and it's by grace, by God's grace.

I mean, Jesus Himself said of Himself, He says of Myself, I can do nothing. He was dependent upon the Father and His Spirit, His grace, His power. That's where we're at, my brother, my sister. We're dependent upon our precious Lord's precious Spirit, His grace, His love, His power. But you know, when they came, you remember, Peter drew his sword out and whew, whacked off the man's ear. And I agree with, I don't remember who said this, but I think he was after more than the ear, he just missed. Because he was ready to exercise, say, yeah, now it's time for all the angels to come or whatever and we're going to get this thing settled. All right. And he, whew, the Lord said, put your sword up. Shall I not drink the cup the Father's given me? Shall I not drink it? And he even put the fellow's ear back on, healed him. So, but he did say, I don't know, that thought, it's just, they didn't know what they were saying. Yeah, we can drink it. They didn't even know the cup he was referring to. He does say, you will indeed drink from my cup. We drink this morning from His cup, a cup filled with the love of God, salvation beyond our ability to comprehend, love beyond our ability to comprehend. We drink from a cup that washes us clean, white as snow, that comes with the promise of being sealed with His Spirit, eternal life. God's life is the only life that's eternal. He gives it to His children. They drink from His cup. And I know, I believe with all my heart, we can rejoice in that together. I'll tell you what, this morning, folks, oh my, we have every reason to worship our precious Lord in spirit and in truth, to enter into His gates with thanksgiving, into His courts

with praise every day, all day long. He is so worthy. He is so good to us. Now true, His cup, I mean, that initial salvation that He brings, that eternal life, we're sealed in Him. We move from being slaves of sin, dead in trespasses and sin, we're made alive. We're translated out of a kingdom of darkness, slaves to Satan and this wicked world into the kingdom of His dear Son, a kingdom of light and love and grace and strength and virtue, everything that we stand in need of from day to day. Praise God. We drink from his cup and his cup does, I mean, that's, you know, that's step one to be born again. It's worth everything to be born again. We become his children and then, okay, it's time to start growing. That's what the rest of this journey will be about for everyone that comes to the Lord. The rest of the journey is all about growing in him and we will share in his sufferings and we will share in his death, both with respect to death itself and then one of these days, unless the Lord comes first, we are going to die. This dust is going back to the earth from which it came. But all through this journey, they will be difficult. The Lord Jesus himself, he says, in this world, you're going to have trouble, but encourage yourself. Be encouraged. I've overcome the world. The victory is mine. I'm giving it to you. In this battle, know that I've won it. It is finished. Praise God. I rule, I reign in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth.

No one can stay my hand or question what I do. I love you. I love you. I want to be filled with that love. Love as we know it in this world has been battered and bashed around and, oh, it's not the love of God. His love is all about others. It's all about the object of his love, which for him, it's us, his children. And for us, it should be, yes, first and foremost, back to him, but also to him here, for the sheep lost and found. God help us. I'm just, well, praise God we can do that right now. Let's just have a word of prayer here together, amen. Lord, we're so thankful for your precious presence here this morning. So thankful for this privilege, Lord. There's so many scattered through the earth, and you know right where they are. You love them. You're going to take care of them somehow, but they don't have the privilege we have here this morning to come together and the liberty to worship you, to draw near to you. And we just ask you, Lord, please, this love, your love that is so beyond our ability to comprehend, fill us with it. Reveal to us, Lord, yourself, your love. And we often say, whatever it takes, and we have to say it, God, by your grace, because there are things, no doubt, in each and every one of us that you have to bring us to a realization of our need to be able to lay down, as you told the disciples, Lord, to deny self, to take up our cross and follow you. Lord, we have a cross. You've designed a cross perfectly for each and every one of us to put self to death so that you can live through us, so that you can shine through us, so that you can love through us, Lord.

In your mighty power, love, grace, virtue, everything, God, please, reveal and make real this holy love and fill us with it. We want to be, Lord, brothers and sisters in a church, a local assembly, that are filled with your love and that your love can flow through us abundantly. And we ask it in the precious, worthy name of your precious Son, Jesus Christ, amen. Praise God. I'm reluctant to get up, I don't want to mess this up, but I appreciate the Lord's faithfulness. I appreciate what's been shared. And I've had a number of thoughts, and usually it's more than is necessary to get into. I have the kind of a mind that can run down all kinds of rabbit trails, and I don't want to do that. But I do believe the Lord wants to see what He shared through Brother Cole. will Carl translate it in our lives in a deeper way. Anybody here need that? Yeah, there's a reason for him lifting up the Savior because that's the foundation of it all. Thank God we're not just in a religious body of rules. It's got to get beyond that. But I don't know, I had a phrase come to me and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on it, but I remember a phrase that occurs two or three times in Paul's letters, and it's typically a King James translation, and it's walk worthy. And walk obviously has to do with how we live. And then the worthy part describes how we live. And I'll say this real quickly, I think we need to be very clear that walk worthy doesn't mean I gotta earn it as I go. He doesn't save me by, okay, you gotta keep it or else. Thank God.

But you know we sing the song, is he worthy? And I think it's pretty obvious he is. He is worthy of everything. And the expression walk worthy has everything to do with the fact that, it answers the question, do our lives reflect the value that we place on what he did? Do we just sing that and say, oh, that feels good, or what happens when we walk out the door? Is that reflected in our lives? And that's what the Lord is after, and there are at least three places, and I'm just gonna refer briefly to one. This doesn't need to take a lot of time. But one of those occasions is in Philippians 2 toward the end, Paul's been talking about his ministry and all the things he went through in order to carry it out and the fact that he didn't care about anything except living for Christ, and if he died, that was gain. So he couldn't lose. But anyway, he says in verse 27, and by the way, I'm gonna change things up and use the NLT today, just to, like I say, change things up. The NLT is a, what's the word? It's not a translation, it's a paraphrase. Trying to say the same thing in modern language. Above all, verse 27, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven. Now, here's where they translated that.

Conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ, okay? So what Paul is, and the Lord, through Paul, is concerned about is conducting. There's action. Now, we could sit here and say, I believe this, I believe that, and I believe what Jesus did and all of that, but that doesn't have, if that's not translated into our conduct, what we do, if it's not put into action, what good is it? And so that's what the Lord is emphasizing here. And so I'll just read a little of this. Then whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the good news. Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. Sounds like a restful, joyful experience, isn't it? You ever wonder about the fact that the Lord tells us that we're supposed to come to him and find rest or we take our burdens to him and he gives us peace that passes understanding, and then you read a scripture that says fight the good fight of the faith. Now how do you put that together? How do you put fighting and peace in the same book? And they're all, are we supposed to just alternate between these two terrible, over these two states? No, I'll tell you what God wants to do. He wants to put in us such an inward rest and confidence.

The peace is in here. The peace is what happens in here where I know where I stand. I'm not trying to hang on by my, you know, gripping unless he let me go and I'm out. He's doing, he has done something for me so that I can come and find a rest and know that I'm safe in his hands. This is salvation, not self-effort. This is something I cannot do for myself. It's entirely dependent on him and what he has done. Praise God. And I can find a confidence and a rest in that, not only in the fact that I've been accepted. Okay, now you're in. As Carl said, that's just the start. When he marks us with his spirit, he says, that one is mine. Now you start the process. the journey of growing in this new life that he's given to us. Praise God. So now it comes out into the living part. And we quickly find out, as we said recently in a service, we're at war. We have the fight against the forces that we cannot see. They're very real. We have the force against the person, the old person that lives in this flesh that we see in the mirror. And so everything that we do,

if we're going to live out what he has put in, it's gonna be a fight. And God wants us to have such a confidence on the inside that we can have peace. We can have confidence and rest and still get out there and fight. Now, you know, he says, don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. You think about two soldiers. One is fighting out of a spirit of, oh God, what's gonna happen, I'm afraid. I've gotta do it or else. And the other one is saying, I know what I've got. I know what I can do. I know who's with me. Which way do you think the Lord wants us to be? See, we're gonna have to get out and fight. If we're gonna grow, if we're gonna do what he, live out what he has done, is he worthy of our doing that? Is he worthy? And we can all sit here and say that. But there are choices that God is seeking for us to make in our lives that are going to have to go against the opposition that Carl was talking about. It will be a fight. There will be choices that will be uncomfortable, that will be hard, just like Jesus, in order to accomplish the Father's will for us. Look what he went through. And you think about, oh, he's the Prince of Peace.

Yeah, he was. Because there's a certainty in what God was leading him to do, but boy, look what it took to do it on his part. Look at the choices that he had to be willing to make, not just, okay, I agree with that, but I'm gonna act based upon that choice. That is going to be translated into action. And I'm gonna pray, I'm gonna ask for strength, I'm gonna go into the cross, I'm doing whatever it takes. It's worth it. Do you think about what's in his heart, what's in God's heart? What does his love mean? That we're worth it. In the condition in which he finds us in this world, he sees eternal value because we are his creatures. And it's not the value that we can bring to the table in ourselves, but it's what he is capable of making out of us because of his power and his love. Oh, praise God, I wanna be on board with that, don't you? This is what this is about. It's seeing the salvation that is so awesome translated into a real victory in our lives. And I think everybody who's served the Lord any length of time, you know it's a war. You know it's hard. You know, we don't always do that great, do we? But I'll tell you, God wants us to know that he's with us and understand the process to the point where we can actually cooperate

with what he's doing. So anyway, he reminds us, Paul is encouraging the believers to stand together and there's some fighting that's going on. We're gonna have to recognize we've got enemies. We're not out to be hateful, but we are out to stand for Christ. We are not going to be intimidated. We're always gonna recognize, yes, there's an enemy, but we are on the winning side. You remember the unseen warfare course and the statement that is a perfect one. We do not fight for victory. We fight from victory. Did he win the victory? Is he willing and desiring to give that victory to us so that we can exercise it? The devil recognizes that. God wants us to recognize it and he wants to encourage. I believe there's people here this morning that God wants to encourage. With his love, yes, that you're accepted, but also with the hard things that you're facing right now, with the battles that you're facing in your life right now, God wants me to recognize what's going on and what he's looking for from me, but what he's willing to do. If I will just simply cooperate and put into action what he has given to me, praise God. So certainly that's a good encouragement.

Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies, but this will be a sign to them. that they are going to be destroyed. Interesting about the destiny. What is their destiny? To be destroyed. Very simple. But that you are going to be saved, even by God Himself, for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege, the privilege of suffering for Him. Someone's going to die if we serve the Lord. There are things that you just think you can't let go, and they're going to hold, and they're just, oh. And you know you don't have the ability to do anything about it. But there are things that God is going to bring through our lives, and He's bringing them right now in some of your lives, isn't He? You know He's touching things in areas in your life where He wants to give you a greater freedom and a greater confidence. How do we get that except by going to battle? It doesn't happen. Praise God. All right, the privilege of suffering for Him. Is He worthy? You see how is He worthy translates into a lot of practical things that aren't so much fun, not to the flesh at least. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I'm still in the midst of it. So then He asks the questions about, you know, what does this really mean to you? Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ, any comfort from His love, any fellowship in the Spirit?

Are your hearts tender and compassionate? All right, if that's the case, then what? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and one purpose. Don't be selfish. Well nobody has a problem with that, right? I mean we're all so selfless. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Nobody here would ever do that, right? You don't really care what people think about you, think of you. Oh God. Do we need deliverance? Do we need some help growing up? Yeah, we do. And God's going to put the things in front of us and touch the areas of our lives where He's wanting us to grow, and He's doing it because He loves us, not because He's upset. Praise God. All right, don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves. Boy, that comes natural, doesn't it? Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others too. And then of course is the wonderful passage about what Christ is the ultimate example. We didn't just come down and do what He did, but look what He was before. He was our creator. That's how God created everything, it was through Christ. He was the one who wanted all the words. You know, we've talked about this many times. But in spite of the awesome place He had, He was willing to come down.

As a baby, and as a young person, and submit to His parents, and grow up, and be hated, and go through everything that He went through. Tell you, He thought you were worth doing that for. Amazing. If we can look in the mirror and be honest, and then think, He thought I was worth dying for? Whoa. What is His value? How should I regard Him? If I sing the song, is He worthy? Do I just sing it and go home? Or does that help to change the way I think about myself, and my life, and how I live? Wow. So anyway, and of course we know what all He did, and God elevated Him, gave Him that high place. Dear friends, let me just get to a simple thought here, a couple of simple thoughts, and then I think that'll be enough. Dear friends, verse 12. You always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I am away, it is even more important. Now where was Paul at this time? I believe he was in prison. Well, he says he was at the beginning. So here is a principle that I have used over the years. I haven't been back to it in a while, but work hard to show the results of your salvation. So here you've got something called salvation. Let's remember what the deal is here. We didn't come to this because we're worthy of anything. We needed Him. We were sinners without any hope.

You know how that should affect us in our attitudes toward one another? There should never be somebody who's just critical, looking down their eye. Every single one of us needs salvation. You can say, oh, but they're wrong. Well, you're wrong the way you're going at it. We need to have a heart that loves one another and recognizes we are all in need of a Savior. Let's keep that thing, that part straight. My status in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with my virtue or anything that I brought to the table. It's entirely His doing, and it's for Him, not for me. Praise God. But work hard. Boy, that sounds like, doesn't sound like salvation, does it? Work hard. How many of you know it takes work? Okay, maybe that's a title. For my part, anyway. It takes work to serve God. Now, what does work mean? You're exerting energy against something that is giving you resistance. You're having to overcome something with sufficient energy. If work involves picking something up, then I have to have more strength than the gravity that holds it. I have to have some energy to make something happen. The stuff that God is seeking to bring to happen in my life and in yours takes energy. It takes choices. It takes work. And God doesn't want us to be afraid of that, but He does want us to understand. It's so easy just to say, well, I'm in. I'm not doing, I'm not robbing banks. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. And not realize that we are in a process of growth, and the only way we are going to grow is by fighting and putting forth an effort. Okay? There's got to be an effort that is put forth. And that, an effort means a choice, doesn't it? We're running up on issues in our lives, things that need change. We don't have the right attitude. We don't act like we're supposed to. I'm sorry, I'm talking to righteous people here. You would never need that. But, you know, God puts His, shines His light on a need, and we have a choice, don't we? Am I going to, it's their fault. It's theirs. I was born that way. Or are we going to say, Lord, thank you. I am going to make a choice to act differently, to handle this differently, to live out what you have put in. Because if He's put it in here, there's something that does need to come out. What good is it if it sits in there and it never comes out of there? God wants us to live out, to walk out, to walk worthy. All of these things are dovetailed together. Do, so there is a work that has to happen. And it's a matter of, well, let me read the rest part, the part of it. Work hard to show the results of your salvation. The results,

that's a pretty good way to put it. If God's really done something in here and He's changed the inside, there's something in here that He wants to bring out that's a result of that. What good is it if we just talk the talk and don't walk the walk? We all know that concept. God is, the world needs to see salvation in action with changed hearts and changed lives. Well, that ain't happening if it's coming out of my ability. And yet there is a work. There is effort that I have to put into it. Did Jesus have to, He was certainly looking to the Father for strength, but did He work in the garden? Was He putting forth a real effort? Did He make a choice to say, I have, I'm going down this road and I know I need help and man, I'm going to pray. And that was an outward expression of something that He knew was a need right there. But He was absolutely willing to do that. There are things that we need. We need to pray, obviously, but you could, you can apply this to every area of life where what He wants and what His nature would bring forth is the polar opposite of our human nature. And we are constantly in a situation where we're making choices. And I'm afraid that the further we go, the more you're going to find out, wow, I didn't know about this. I didn't know about that. I didn't realize what I was really like. Isn't it amazing that the Lord loved you anyway all this time? Wow. What an awesome. Savior. What an awesome, patient Lord that we have. So anyway, but he's saying basically in the light of everything that he's done, we've got a choice. We've got choices we need to make that are affecting us right now. And there are things where our nature is going to say, I'm tired. I'm weary. We had to service about that recently. Lord, you take care of it. Or take care of them. They're bothering me. And the Lord is trying to take care of you and trying to get you to make choices to rise up and be the person that he has made you supernaturally to be. Praise God. So all of this is focusing on our, what is our part? Work hard. It means putting forth real effort and making real hard choices. It's hard to serve the Lord. Thank God. But what would that be without verse 13? For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. You see, everything about salvation coming to him in the first place, but everything about living it out is faith. Faith means I'm going to step out because of what God has told me to do and what he's promised. If I'll step out

and he's not going to do it, he wants me to take the step. I mean, you think about facing an enemy without fear. What about David? Would that giant have ever fallen if David had just sat there, said, Lord, it's your battle. It was the Lord's battle, but he picked up his stone and he did his part. And like the song says, God did the rest. That's what God is looking for from you right now. There are battles in your life right now in mine where God wants us to get off our whatever and say, Lord, give me this. I'm trusting you for the strength. I'm going to make the choice to do the hard thing, the thing that I know I don't have the power to do, but I am trusting you right now that you're going to give me the strength when I do it. When you use a power tool, does the tool just do this job by itself or do we have to pick it up and pull the trigger and engage the power? What God wants us to do is engage salvation power by making hard choices. There are going to be choices where you don't feel like it. Everything in your nature is going to fight against it. You're going to need strength you don't have. That's salvation. That's the whole ballgame. We just need the Lord. And of course, you know, where Paul goes next, he's really meddling. Do everything without complaining and arguing. Seriously? Okay, I'll do it, but I don't have to be happy about it. But God wants us to have a thankful heart that has enough faith to see what's going on, to understand the process, to understand the need, understand why God does what He does, understand why He puts us in the valley of the shadow of death sometimes. And we're stepping out and we don't feel it. Something's wrong. God wants to bring us to a place where our faith is just settled in Him. We know what He did. We know where we stand. And when there's an enemy to fight, whether it's in here or out there, God's going to give us the courage to step up and say, Lord, I'm going to do what you told me to do. And in doing that, I am trusting you to kick in the power that I need to bring me through. And even if I don't feel it or see it right away, Abraham waited 25 years for Abraham waited 25 years for a son, didn't he? But yet there was a steadfastness. God, I know who you are. I'm going to obey you. I'm going to trust you. That's all God is looking for from every one of us, except what He says right here. What does that mean? When you're facing the hard thing that you really don't want to do, you don't feel like doing, you've failed so many times, you don't think you can. There has to come a time when we step out and say, Lord, you told me to do this.

You know it's not in me to do it, but I believe you and I'm going to step out in faith and do what you told me to do. And I am trusting you to help me to grow. Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Yeah. So the Christian life is full of hardness, but I'll tell you, we've got a God that will back up His children. And this is the same writer who earlier said, and in fact, he declared his certainty in chapter 1, I am certain that God who began the good work within you, within you, not just to tell you what to do, but within you, will continue His work. How long? Until I mess up real bad. No, wait a minute. Until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Praise God. I'll tell you, when Christ calls us into His kingdom, it's a sure thing, but there's a process that God is looking for from you today, right now. Whatever the issue is in your life, it may be something that's really hard, and the devil is just going to try to paint a bad picture and fill you with fear. And God wants us to lift up our eyes and say, wait a minute, He told me to do it. He's promised to give me the strength to do it, and I'm going to make the choice to do it even though I don't want to, I don't feel like it. I'm going to not only do it, I'm going to thank Him for it. I'm not going to complain and fuss. I'll just leave it at that. Has that touched anybody's knee today? Well then, he did that, I didn't, because boy, I was in need this morning just getting up here. Just getting up this morning. I didn't sleep very well last night, and so I was tired, and I don't feel like getting

up and doing all this stuff when I feel that way, so ... You know, that's where we have to make choices. See, it's not how we feel, it's not how things look. God puts us in situations where we need Him, and He's faithful. To Him be the glory. Praise God.