The Father That Runs to Us

So I had the praise report. So I've been asked a couple of times how the Mercy Tree staff was selected to come down. So short story, the Lord. But the Lord put it on the hearts of our executive directors as well as our chief executive director to pray about it and decide who was going to come out to Mercy Tree. So when they prayed about it, they got the group of names and one of the names was our sister, Kathleen Hall. So the way it worked is the first group came down to brothers and then the ladies would follow a few months later. So about two weeks before the ladies were set to come down, Caitlin had sent some boxes and she was preparing to come out and she suffered a medical emergency. So we did the only thing we knew how to do and spray and we actually came out to the Wednesday night Bible study and prayer meeting, sorry, and we asked you all to join us in prayer. It was a long road for her. She got set back, but how many of you guys know that delayed doesn't mean denied? So she was just delayed a little bit. I think it took about three months and two weeks ago, she came out and she's now with the Mercy Tree staff. I wanted to share a quick scripture out of Isaiah 4031. It says, "But they who wait for the Lord "shall renew their strength. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles,

"they shall run and not be weary, "and they shall walk and not faint." And that basically describes our sister, Caitlin. After all she'd been through and just waiting on the Lord, she got down here and has been such a blessing and an asset to the staff at Mercy Tree. I mean, this young lady has surgery months ago and we had her out playing tennis on Friday. She's playing cornhole. I mean, the Lord's really doing something great in her life and she's just been a blessing to have. So she's gonna come up and share her testimony. So if you guys would show the love of Christ or a sister, Caitlin Hall. (audience applauding) - You know, I'm up here 'cause this is all Steve's fault. We're at Steve because we played cornhole last night and we won't discuss how it turned out. (audience laughing) You know, but before I get started, I wanted to read one of those scriptures out of Proverbs 8. You don't have to turn Proverbs 8, 28. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Yes, it's a, I'm gonna start off with the, y'all know I'm Kathleen Hall and my first soak of the day is I was born in the 1900s. (audience laughing)

I was born in 1970. It was actually born in California. I was raised in Illinois all my life. I believe or not, my mom and dad were stationed over here. I just recently found that out. I've just recently found out my dad was a general and, but I really want to just want to, I'll go on a rabbit trail, so I'm sorry, but I was raised by babysitters and grandparents, 'cause my dad was so in Vietnam until 1973. I bet I was still raised by parents and grandparents. At seven years old, I started smoking. I started drinking. I started doing drugs at seven. Because in my life, I wasn't taught right from wrong and I didn't know how to say yes or no. I was if you use most of my life, but between the ages of eight and 12, I was molested by an uncle. It was told if I said anything, he would harm my family and I would never see my family again. I tried to say something about it, but they didn't believe me, so at the age of 12, I kind of like took that key to my heart, locked it up and never let anybody back in again. And it finally came to light when his own daughter turned to men for doing the same thing to her, but they believed her but not me. I've been bullied all my life in school.

I was always picked on in my life. I've been abused. I've been beat up so bad that my dad couldn't recognize me in the hospital. And like I said, I never, I didn't know, yes, I didn't know, no one said why you doing that. I never had the structure that I needed in my life. At 10 years old, I was taking care of my dad and my brother. I was cooking, cleaning, mowing, driving a car, going to the bank, going to the grocery store. She didn't do that when you're 10 years old. But I knew if I told my dad, no, he would beat me. My dad used to abuse me, my brother used to abuse me. I've had a lot of abuse in my life 'cause by the time I came into it, I've been in the mission a long time. I started the mission teens in 2009. So it's taken me 17 years for the Lord to heal me, but I know when I came in the mission in 2009, I did not like men at all. I had such a big fear of them because just the way I was treated and how I was looked at, because I was trying to fit in in high school. I was trying to see, I mean, I hung out with the preppies, the hoodlums, the gangsters. I mean, I tried to fit in, you know, I didn't make it, I did. But I just couldn't fit in. I would try to seek attention. I couldn't get the attention I needed. I did things that I shouldn't do to get the attention I needed.

But I never hope it just made my life worse. But I really want to talk about what the law is done for me, because it's been-- since August 18, I have been delivered of everything for four years. I thank the law for that. In 2009, I came in the mission weighing 88 pounds. I looked like Cousin It. I mean, I had hair all the way down to my knees. I had scabs and scabs all over my face, because when you're so far out there, you pick at your face, and it's really nothing there. And it took a long time for me to uncover my face, probably two months. The Lord just says, it's time to get rid of your darkness. And I never understood what that was. And let me go back a little bit. I was involved in church. I used to sing in the choir. I would play the organ. I taught Sunday school. I did the church camp thing. But I did all of them things, because I want to get away from the abuse I was struggling at home. So in all of them years, I didn't really know how-- I didn't know-- I knew about the ark. I knew about Genesis. And I knew about Jordan. But that's really only the things I knew. But I really didn't know how to get relationship with Jesus Christ.

I didn't know that until I got into the mission. Like I said, I came to the mission weighing 88 pounds. It probably took me six weeks to finally eat a whole plate of food. It took me two months just to lift up a plastic table, because I was so weak you could see the skulls, and it looked horrible. I mean, I knocked on my dad's door one day, and he goes, hello, can I help you? He didn't recognize me. I was so bad. So I was in a psych ward. And that's when I just got to the point of my life. I just want help. And I went to the hospital and said, I need help, or I'm going to kill somebody. That's where I was at in my life. I wanted to-- I tried to get help. I couldn't talk to my dad about anything, because at first of all, I wasn't the first son that was born. I was a mistake in my dad's eyes. I really was. I mean, I was spoiled for a long time that my brother came along, and that was it for me. I was on the back burner light, forgotten about. But I came in to the mission team in 2000-- gosh, 2009? Yeah. I did all right. I mean, I'm not going to say how long I stay, because obviously,

I leave and come back, left and come back, left and come back, because I'll tell you what the role is. This is not safe anymore. You've got to have accountability in your life. You've got to have somebody can talk to you. You've got to have someone to say, hey, I need help. And I'm 56 years old, and I need that in my life. I need someone to let me know, hey, you made a mistake. Let's sit down and talk about it. I need that. I'm not embarrassed to admit that, because I've been on my own for so long that I need help in my life. And I love-- thank you all, first of all, for praying for me, because it's a miracle that I'm here. I'm going to talk about a few things that the Lord has done. I remember in 2011, I had to go to jail, because I'm also a certified nurses assistant, but I haven't done it in a long time. And I remember I was stealing a patches from my residence, which I always said, I will never hurt my residence, never say never, it comes back on you. I learned that. And I remember I did it almost there all the time, and something and he said, I need to stop. I'm going to get caught. So what I did, I turned myself in. And they said, we knew you've been doing it for a long time, OK, we were just waiting on you and said an embarrassing to you. So I had to go to jail, spend a nine in jail. First, I'm in jail, and it scared me to death.

I mean, I pray for the people that have to go to prison for the rest of their life. I was in jail for one night, and it terrified me. I was so scared. So I remember then I got to jail, and I went back to the mission. And after a year, I finally called my public defender, and I said, it's time to do the crime. If you do the crime, you've got to do the time. And I was writing the state of Illinois, the collective, an elderly abuse is 25 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, and I was ready. Now, after a year being clean and sober, I said, it's time, because I didn't want to hinder me anymore. I knew the Lord has so much more for me to do. So I talked to my public defender, and he says, you know what? You know what you're getting yourself into. I said, yeah, but I know God is going to get me through it. You know, by then, I knew God was going to get me through it. Well, even 24 hours later, and he goes, are you? Are you by any chance sitting or standing? I said, well, I'm standing. And by the time I was standing, the door bill rang, and I thought it was a cops coming to get me, but it wasn't. Thank you, Jesus. He goes, "Since you turned yourself in, "since you volunteered, you went and got help." We're going to, after another year of probation,

we're going to expunge your life. We're gonna expunge your record. You won't serve any jail time, but your fines are gonna be $316, which is John 3.16. You know, my record's clean. God took care of that for me, you know. He's restored my dog, me and my daughter. You should just call me Katie. This is my friend Katie. I did a lot to my daughter. She's been through me. There were a lot, I took her places. She should've never went. I beat myself all the time. She's like, "Mom, get over it. "I forgave you a long time ago. "You gotta quit beating yourself." I mean, she helps me out, but I can't help it, you know. So the last 14 years, it's taken a long time for her, it reminded her relationship to rebuild. Now she calls me mother, mom, mama. You know, if she says mother, she wants something, you know. Anybody that are parents, you know, she'll go through the mama, the mama, the mother phase and she'll go, "How much is it and what do you want?" You know, I love her, she's a miracle, you know. I wanna skip all that 'cause I really wanna get to, but that's one thing God did for me. It took 17 years of the Lord of self and my dad's heart. 17 years was a long time.

My dad wasn't beating on him and he didn't talk about things. When I was telling him, I was moving, I heard in North Carolina to do what God's called me to do. It was the first time in my 56 years of my life that he said he's proud of me. And that meant a lot to me. To my dad never tells me that. He never did, you know, and it was just amazing to hear that from my father, you know. I love my dad. He was always there for me, bailed me out of here, bailed me out of there, you know. And sometimes I go through it right now thinking, "You know, I should be home taking care of my dad, "but I know my old self, I can't do it. "I know where I'll get myself to." But I'm really gonna get to the exciting part. Last year, I guess probably September, October, or last year I started praying to the Lord, you know, 'cause I decided when I came here four years, came back to the Oregon Center four years ago, I said, "God, this is it. "I can't do this anymore. "I don't wanna die anymore. "I don't want my dad to bury him again, another child. "I don't want my daughter to bury her first parent." I said, "It's either I do it now, "or you put me somewhere where I can't ever go "anywhere I see anybody again." And I remember reaching out and I got back,

I got up to you to go to the one in Hillsboro, Oregon. But this time I did it the right way, 'cause God knows if you're serious. God knows if you're tricking him, if your heart's really into it. 'Cause every time I've been in the mission, I always had a car to go home to. I always had a home to go home to, and I could get a job. 'Cause seeing as you're not that hard to find a job. 'Cause it's just, but they're really an evil right now in Illinois. But this last time, God entered my prayer to get me an organ. I actually sold my car. I got rid of my possessions. I told my dad if you ever saw the house, I had nothing to do with it. And I took two suitcases, $200 and said, "Jesus, just me and you." And he knew I meant it, because the moment I walked in the Oregon Center, I have been blessed. You know, my daughter's been out three times. It come to see me. I've been home a couple of times to see her. I got a job, cleaning houses. You know, the Lord has blessed me. You know, 'cause I surrendered. I finally gave up.

I never, and I don't focus on the past. What I did in the past is gone. You know, I focus on the now. But anyways, in September or October last year, I had started praying to God. I said, "God, I'm getting stagnant where I'm at." 'Cause I felt like I wasn't going out. I felt like I hit that wall. You know, and I said, "Lord, I just, I need to go somewhere else." I said, "I want to continue what you call me to do, but I would really like to be closer to home." That was specific, gotta be specific with God. 'Cause he's got a sentient humor. So I just prayed. I probably prayed it three or four times, and I just let it go. You know, like he heard it once. He'll remember it again later. And then March 14th, Susan got a phone call from Taylor. Saying, "The Lord is calling Katie to come out." And immediately I said, "Yes." I started crying 'cause of the prayer got answered. It just blew me away, you know? 'Cause God answers some prayers, but sometimes the prayers are no, or maybe wait till later. But this one was really quick, like within six months.

So I was ready to, so I was ready to go. Like AJ said, I had my boxes here, I had my tickets bought, and then May 29th, I had a tumor. I went to the hospital 'cause I didn't know if I was having a stroke, I didn't know what it was. I said, "It's just the enemy, man, the enemy." 'Cause I tell you what, when the Lord is blessing you, it's something the enemy will try to take you out. And that's what I thought it was, and I tell Susan, I said, "Man, it's just the enemy taking me out." You know, I couldn't, dishes or something, but they were telling Susan I need to sit down because I didn't know if it was a stroke. So I ended up going to the hospital May 29th and they told me I had a 3.3 centimeter tumor on the left side of my brain. It's a men's, I can't pronounce word, something that the ladies get at 100% of women, 80% of women get them. I mean, that's what I had, it was 3 centimeters long, like a size of a grape. So I went through all that, but I'll tell you what, first when I got home from the hospital, I got really down in depressed, I said, you know what, they don't want me no more. I'm talking about people here, like they're going to give up on me, they don't want me here anymore, my plans are ruined, everything that you wanted me to do got her shattered. I really want it to a deep, deep depression and then it wasn't for the, you all praying for me, all the other centers praying for me, I wouldn't have made it, you know, because when everybody found I was having a surgery, all 20 centers, now 21, we're 21, we're reaching out praying for me and I've never experienced that in my life. There's a lot of people that know me, but I have no clue who they are, you know, and it's just a wonderful feeling. So after my first 6-week checkup, I said I'm ready to go and they're like, no, you gotta

get my MRI in North Carolina, I can get insurance that quick, don't worry, I'm ready to go. You know, I wanted to come out here, I've been ready for a long time, but I thought, you know what, Lord, let's just wait until my 3-month follow up. So I went, got my 3-month follow up and I'm all clear, I had no cancer, there's a slim chance what I have will never come back again. And I'm here, I have a, I meant to bring my shirt and I knew I should have brought it, but I have this shirt that says I survived brain cancer, I'm invincible, and I meant to bring it, you know, God has, I can't do anything about the Lord, I think it's in, I just read it the other day I think in John 15 or something that without you I'm nothing, without the Lord I'm nothing. It's not me standing up, there's a holy spirit in me doing it because I don't like getting in front of people and if I'm getting a lot better at it. But thank you from the bottom of my heart for praying for me, you know, every time you guys come on, we've been waiting for you and I'm like, okay, but what's your name again? You know, because, you know, because you all know me before I came here, I mean, I knew Abby and Charlotte could be texts all the time, you know, how you do hanging in there, you know, and, but the Lord is good and then I'm going to talk about, we have a bus, some of you know about the bus story, but this, this is, God's got a sense of humor. I think, I can't remember how long ago it was, but from the other center I came from an organ, sometimes it got to take three or four or five vehicles for the whole house to go to church because there's 30, there was 35 people there at once. So I just started praying, I said, Lord, it'd be really cool if we had a bus. That's all I said, that we have enough for all the, at least 18, 20 people get in the bus and maybe take two cars. Well, a week later, a mercy tree got a bus and that was the bus I was praying for and God's like, you wanted a bus, but it's going to go where you're going. And that's where he brought it to. So that's an entrepreneur to me, you know, I mean, God has been so faithful to me, he's never let me down. I'm the one that lets him down.

I'm the one that doubts him and my whole time through the process when I went through this surgery, I never once got mad at the Lord. If anything, I was grateful for the Lord because when it's tumor got removed, I looked at it as God was getting rid of all that old stuff from my past to make room for new stuff being here. And that's how I look at it today. You know, I've had no complications since all my checkups have been clear. They're said, you're ready to go. You're ready to go. We'll leave the people to Christ of all my, all my doctors were Christians and knew what I was doing. The pamphlets went out, the brochures went out, they're like, you really want to go because the day they told me I was having surgery, I said, well, am I leaving in two weeks? So that's why I'm supposed to go. My tickets bought, my bags were there, no, I know you got, I got mad. I was like, there goes my dream, you know, but I got through it, but I never once got mad at God. I woke up early morning being grateful for the Lord because I tell you what, there's been so many times I should have been dead, I should have been in prison. I should have been. God's like, no, like I just read in Romans 8, 30, and he works everything out for his glory. I always say, he turns our mess into a message and our story for his glory, you know, and I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just a walk in testimony because I have put my body through a lot and I've been getting yearly checkups and you know what, I'm healthy. That's what I blame it on. And sometimes I don't call all timers. I call it some timers, you know? I do. No, but I'm grateful. I mean, I feel really great. Yes, I did play tennis. I hammered some pallets the other day, but I needed that. I needed to get my body to rebuild because after I had surgery, I kind of just went limbo for three months because I was, I had to get myself ready to come

out here because we're a pioneer and it's going to take a lot and I'm ready to go. I'm ready for whatever God's got for me and thank you again for praying for me and I'm always available. You want to talk to me because I got so many other things that God's done and you all have a blessed day and I love each and every one of you. Thank you so much. Praise God. Thank you, Katie. It won't be cause of the games as night though. You know, when we were singing this morning, something came back to me. It's been on my heart all week and it even mirrors some of exactly what Katie was saying, but I, you know, how many songs do we sing this morning that had the term father? I mean, anybody notice that and there was that one song, I don't know if it used the word father, but it said all I can feel is his, his tenderness and embrace. I just thank God for his mercy. I thank God for, you know, when Jesus told us to pray, what's the first thing we were supposed to say? Father. And we come from so many different backgrounds. In some cases, the natural father we had maybe didn't measure up to everything. In most cases, there's no perfect father other than the father. So only one. And then some people have fathers who are on the other end of the spectrum. There were no father at all. And that produces a lot of hurt, baggage, pain, suffering and a need for a lot of healing. But the thing that has kept coming back to me this week, I don't know about you guys, but you know, for me personally, and I'm sure for you too, you can encounter things in yourself that you really don't like. Maybe things that have been there for years or things that reoccur. And there comes a poem where you say, I've got to talk to somebody about this. There's an issue here that somebody must understand. But who is it understands everything. It says for us to cast all our care on him because he cares for us. And when we come to an impasse sometimes, and I thought about this regarding the prodigal son, remember? The parable goes, this young guy asked for his hidden inheritance early. And that was a great offense back then. If someone did that, it's like just shelving it in somebody's face. So in his father's face, he's shelving this, I want my inheritance now. So he took what was given to him and he went out. And when he spent everything, what happened? He got so

hungry. He got in the place of destitution. He got in a place to where he thought, okay, well, when my father's at, he's, you know, even the servants had enough to eat. I don't have anything. Maybe I can just go back. Maybe I can just go back and be a slave. Excuse me. What gives me about it is as people who have even like suffered like Katie did or people who you see that go out and live some kind of life to where they just live to the loss of the flesh, they need salvation. But good people who think they're good need salvation too. And the thing is we both need the same Savior, we both need the same Father. And a lot of times when we're in church, we're raised in church and religion, we adopt this certain way of doing things and it turns into a self-effort. And then what happens is we become spiritually exhausted and we don't even realize what's going on. But do you know that church people and even Christians, people who are Christians, need to be able to go the same Father. When you can admit, if you've got issues that maybe you never address simply because you either tried to hide from their parents to say, "I'm proud of you or I love you." That's there. But if we're treating our Heavenly Father like that, that's not what He's looking for. And I personally am so glad because the more I go along, the more I encounter needs in my own life to where I am forced to go out when I go out to pray and say, "Remember, I remember this week even." If there's somebody that I've got to talk to, a counselor, a therapist, is Christ the counselor? One of His names would be counselor. We need counseling. We need healing. It also said, you know, we were talking about the different names for Jesus. One was everlasting Father. Isn't that amazing? Well, we have a Father to go to. And we all need that. And I thought, you know, have you ever been in a place where you thought, "What I'm going through now, I really don't think I can tell anybody because I don't know who to tell. We can tell our Heavenly Father." When Jesus said you go and you say, "Father." And when I was thinking about the protocol, the parable about the prodigal son, you know, when this guy finally comes to his senses and he goes back to his Father's house, what does it say when he was a great way off? He ran. Didn't that sound like God we got? Our God is the ultimate Father. And it talks about us even knowing and giving our children things. And it says, you're evil by nature. You're evil. And you know how to give good gifts to

your children? What about our Father in heaven? He promised to give us, meet our needs, to give us the Holy Spirit. His love is so great that in that parable, that Father ran. I don't know any other way to say it, but I want to read that this morning. I went, "Gosh, Lee, what in the world?" What kind of Father do we have? That He would run to us in our hour of need when we have totally messed up and come running. You see people that are separated at times, families, someones in another country, they come up to show up at an airport and they run. Have you ever seen that? It's quite emotional to see families who are united, they were separated. All our unbelief and what we do other than faith has a tendency to separate us from God. And sometimes we don't know it. It's not always the drugs or prostitution or anything like that. Anything that's in the flesh is not of God. And if it's self-effort, if it's self-effort, that comes into the same category of self-righteousness, which is the worst thing of all. Because it replaces righteousness with a false righteousness. But God and His mercy, I've seen this in a lot of, I'm not talking just professing Christians, I'm talking about Christians who have gone through a whole lot and they've been in church their whole life. And it's like that thing about the new covenant, the old covenant we had to live up to law. But when Jesus came, He fulfilled that new covenant and our righteousness is in Jesus Christ. And everything is wrong with us. This is the thing, we can go to church and adopt some form of religious effort. I know he already said that, but it's true. It's true. And what happens is we end up like the guy, the prodigal son, feeding stuff to the pigs and we would eat that because we're so empty. Our God is a Father who knows what each person is going through here. And if you've been in church all your life and you're even afraid to say some of the things that are wrong with you, you have a Father that's looking on the horizon of honesty and wants you to be honest about it. If you say, I've wrestled with this or that, God, the Father is looking and He's going, I want to run to you. Jesus said, no man can come to me except the Father drawing, being always the Father that wants to draw to Himself. And I don't know if I just, when I was thinking about it, back to the whole airport scene, you know, those people were separated and whatever we've done that's not a faith that is separated from the Lord, even if it's in our own mind, it's not in His mind. It says, come near to me, I'll come near you. God's gone nowhere. old people that maybe didn't wind up or some of our friends here did. You know what? The need is

just as great. And the father's love is just as great. The father's love. He wants the people who have been religious that are struggling and trying to measure up just for them to know you don't have to. You can't. I'm your father and I showed you how much I love you to the death of Jesus Christ, my son. And he went there willingly. That's the father's love. And I mean, I guess to me, when things happen in your own life and God makes something real to you, it enables you to be able to speak to it so it's not just religion. Nobody needs religion. There's all kind of religions in the world that have taken everybody straight to the pit. Guess what? Christ's religion will do the same thing even though it has the name of Jesus on it. We need to know who our father is and he wants us to know. He wants us to know that he loves us greatly enough to run toward us when we've totally screwed everything up. Excuse that word. You know what? The praise God, the Lord, he's so good to us. He's truly a father. I didn't notice that when we were singing, "Father, I want you to hold me." You know what I'm saying? Father, I want you to hold me. My wife read a book one time and it was about a Muslim woman. And because of the issue with men, abusive men, you know, in a Muslim community, I mean, the male is a dominant force. And not only that, severely abusive. So when this woman, who was a Muslim, I think she was in another country, I think the name of the book, I think, was I dared to call him father. She came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and she knew who her father was. And the very thing that represented the worst abuse she'd ever got, which was a man, she encountered in God her father. I'm just sharing from my heart because I believe that our father wants us to know how much he loves us. And he wants us to know that no matter what it is that you're going through, you think you can't tell him. You can tell him. You can lay at his feet and he will run and wrap his arms around you. If I don't have that kind of father, I'm not going to heaven. I got too many faults and too many needs and too many failures. I need to know there's someone who understands me. But you know what? We're creating his image. Who was it that made us? Does he know everything that makes us tick? And he knows how much of our clock that ticks is broken. He has the power to fix it all. He has a 100% healing. He has therapy. He has grace. I'll tell you what, there's nobody like God, our father. There's nobody like Jesus. He was the expression of God. He said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the father." And God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to himself. He was holding his arms out and said, "I love you. Enough to die for you." Even before we were born here,

I mean, it was 2,000 years ago he did that. He did that for the people that came before him. The whole world. I, when I think about the love of God and him being our father, and I guess I had to think about it a little more assuredly this week because I encountered something else in me that I didn't like or that it wasn't good. Guess what? Is anybody else in the same condition on me? You are whether you know it or not. You too, Aaron. I love you, brother. Oh, man, we have a great God. We have a great Father. Father, think about it. Father, I appreciate him. I praise him. I rest all of my faith in the salvation that he's provided for me. And I also rested in the way that when I encountered something new or something fresh or even something old that I thought was gone comes back, that I can go to my father with it and confess and be honest. And you know what? We do that. He wraps his arms around us. I believe that. That's the salvation that I need. That's the God that I need. But that's the God. That's who he is. And it's a like that Muslim lady. She saw God was her father. What a father he is. Amen? That's all I have. I don't want to get emotional, but I typically do. Before, well during the song service, I've had God's covered in my heart for a long time. And when Steve said I said, "Oops, I guess I'm going to have to get up. I wasn't playing on getting up." And everything has been a blessing. I just want to do it as a confirmation. If it ain't ringing true in your heart, just believe it so, that God's covered in it. It's not about what we do for him. His covenant is regardless of how we fail or anything. It's all about God's Word and what He wants to do for us. It's not conditional. It's unconditional love. That's His covenant. Lord help me just to get ahold of my emotions. Lord, where is it at? I came. I was even trying to find it. In Hebrews 8, 16 through 13, but I just want to read the highlights. I mean, because it says in here, "If the first covenant had been enough, there wouldn't have been no need for a new covenant." But Jesus is the one that proclaimed it and that stamped it with God's approval by His own blood. That's what made that covenant supreme over any other covenant, any other promise. And the covenant is a promise. And it's God's promise to us. And guess what? It's not about what we can do. It's what He's doing in us, in through us. There's a Scripture. It's God that work within us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. So even in that, He's the one giving us the ability to want to because our flesh don't. In verse 9, "Not according to the

covenant that I've made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt." Here it is. God's already. He made a promise back then and He delivered them back then and looked what they did because we can't keep it because they continue not in my covenant and I regard them not safe for Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. "Say it to the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts." Only God could do that. And I will be to them of God. And He is a God and Father. And they shall be to me of people. God chooses us. Not we ourselves. In days shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, "Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. It's God's mercy. Nothing we can do. Excuse me. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more." In that He said, "A new covenant He hath made the first old. Now that which decafed and waxed old is ready to vanish away." And thank God for that. We're part of the new covenant. God's amazing unconditional love. You mentioned what kind of jumped out to him as we were seeing him this morning. You know, I'm thankful for all the different ways God speaks to us. He's certainly given us His Word. And it's a very special anointing He put on the creation of His Word and the preservation of it. But God's, and He speaks to us a lot of times through His Word, but He speaks a lot of ways. Sometimes it might be through somebody else or it might be through a scripture or it might be through somebody's read or written or whatever. But sometimes He speaks to us through songs because a lot of these songs that were written, I mean, where did these hymns come from? The songs we see, where did they come from? It was God taking His people through things, making things real to Him. And then they were just giving voice in music to the testimony. It's their testimony in music is what it comes down to. I just can't get away from how it fits with what's been said But it's the words to the him what a friend we have in Jesus It says what a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and griefs to bear Praise God all our sin all that was in the past those things that we come up with and we remember We might remember them, but they've been dealt with you know that feeling that we have like oh gosh

I've got to do something I've got to deal with this I've got to fix this well in a sense It's correct that did have to be dealt with but the thing is God already dealt with it because he did that in his son On the cross that sin did need to be paid for it did need to be judged It needed to be taken care of but he did what we couldn't do He took care of that all of our sins, but not just our sins all our sins and griefs to bear Even the struggles the heart aches the the pains that we go through he bore that for us to and as a result What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer not an obligation not a duty But what a privilege to be able to carry everything to God in prayer is where tells us that we can come boldly To his throne of grace right because what's the first thing we find to obtain mercy? Then we find grace to help in our time of need whether that help us for ourselves Whether it's for somebody else's situation. We can come boldly seeking that because we find mercy at his throne What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer And so I thought about this with what Daniel said this morning that we don't always take advantage of what God has made available Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to him in prayer Well, he's teaching a Sydney. He's learned. He's helping us learn that this is what we have available It says children to come boldly to that throne of grace And it says have we trials and temptations That's what you call the rhetorical question You don't really expect an answer because the answer is obvious everybody already knows what the answer to that is have we trials and temptations yet Yeah, there's trials there struggles There's battles of all kinds things that we maybe were a hand had a hand in causing things Maybe we had nothing to do with that came upon us. There's battles. There's temptations things that we struggle with here Be in what we know God wants us to be and being as free as he wants us to be So have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? Good Lord. Is there trouble anywhere in this world? Yeah Well, what's the response we should never be discouraged Take it to the Lord in prayer praise God. He does not want us to be Discouraged by the presence of these battles that we have take it to him in prayer Take it to our father And here's this I thought about this one. Steve was speaking Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrow share?

Jesus knows our every weakness take it to the Lord in prayer those things we Struggle with and have a hard time communicating He already knows about them We can be open with our Lord and take it to him honestly in prayer because he knows our every weakness And he wants to meet us and help us and strengthen us Are we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care Precious Savior still our refuge take it to the Lord in prayer Do your friends even despise forsake you take it to the Lord in prayer in His arms he'll take and shield you you will find a solace there that word solace means Refuge protection a place of safety in his arms He will take and shield you as we come before that throne Calling on his name believe in what he said here that we have the privilege to carry everything in prayer to our father Who knows our every weakness who paid for every sin who made a way for us to come boldly to that throne of grace He will take us in his arms shield us and we'll find a refuge there that we're looking for praise God. He's so faithful [BLANK_AUDIO]