What Matters Most

Praise God, that's such a simple, rich truth that we, everyone seem, everyone need. My mind has gone to, as it seems to often go, to familiar truths that we need to see in fresh ways. And I thought about a scripture that I'll turn to, you'll know where it is, it's in Philippians chapter 3, where Paul speaks about one thing that mattered to him. And it would be easy, particularly when you look around, look at religion, to imagine that, you know, God gave Paul a commission to go out and start churches, and man, I'm going to go out and see how many churches I can start, that's the one thing that matters to me, or I'm going to, I'm going to see how many souls I can win, and I'm going to, we're going to prop up the statistics, and how much money we can raise to do good works, and, you know, how big a church can I make, you know, where the pews are empty, we need more people, and where that's the focus in so much, and yet Paul had a different focus. I'm amazed, and I shouldn't be, at just how much was said in the men's meeting this morning that just dovetails exactly with what I've been saying, because there is a balance in everything. And the Lord helped Paul to understand what really mattered, because yes, God called him to preach the gospel, yes, He called him to raise up churches, but if He just said, OK, I'm going to do it, that would have been religion, that's what it would have wound up. God help us to see how the kingdom of God really works. And so this is, the familiar Scripture, of course, is where, you know, Paul says, I press on and so forth, I take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me, and I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting and so forth, forgetting and reaching. That's a Scripture we've heard many times. And yet you can look at that and just sort of lift it out of its context, and I don't want to do that, because what is the one thing? It's not just the reaching. There was a reaching for something. God had a purpose that He was working out in Paul's life that went way beyond the stuff that he did, and every other thing that we tend to see and value in this life.

And you go back to verse 10, well, you go back really to the beginning, and I won't go into it, but he describes his own religious life and all his accomplishments. Based on that, man, he was an important guy, an accomplished guy, full of virtue, full of zeal for God, except it was all in time, all based on lies, based on religion, and it was all Paul doing it for his own glory. And then one day he met Jesus, and everything changed, and it changed in amazing ways. And all of a sudden, I believe he began to see in a moment of time what he had really been. And we remember how he describes himself to Timothy, and the amazing grace that God showed to him, the mercy that God showed to him, and he refers to himself as the chiefest of sinners. And yet here is this one who showed him himself, and yet brought him to such a place of service, not, oh God, I owe you everything, so here I'm going to give it everything I got. It got way beyond that, because what did he seek to do when he realized who Jesus was and what he was like? I want to know him. I want to know him. That's not religion, that's personal. This is a real person I'm dealing with here. This is not just somebody way out there setting up a religion and telling me to follow it. This is somebody I want to know personally. And I need, anybody here need to be reminded of that? Yeah, that that's what it's about, because, you know, I was thinking about the service we had recently where, you know, I emphasized the truth that we're waiting for the power and the power is waiting for us, and the principle of stepping out in faith based upon the promises. And thank God all of that's true. In fact, there's an article. a brief article that will come out in the next paper when I can get the editor's letter done and get it to the printer. But anyway, that's wonderful truth, but the danger in that is you can reduce that almost

to a formula. As though I need to put together all the stuff that I need to do and how I'm supposed to do it. I can read the book and, you know, you can build a religion that you can teach in a classroom. If you're not careful. And none of that begins to touch on what Paul is really talking about. And he somehow, the Lord revealed to him what really mattered. I need to walk with this one. I need to get to know him. So anyway, he says, I want to know Christ. Then he elaborates on what that means. And it gets into territory that really shows us what the nature, what the real purpose of our being rescued is all about. It's not simply, we've said these things many times, it's not simply about erasing the debt of my sins so I can be, my name can be put on a list of those who get into heaven. It's about changing me completely from what I was to what I will be, what he created me to be. And whatever life I live down here is a part of a process that is ongoing as long as we're here. So that's what Paul is talking about. I want to know Christ. And of course he begins by saying, I want to know the power of his resurrection. Well we've often pointed out the scriptures where the same power that brought Jesus out of the grave in spite of anything the devil could do and set him on a throne over everything is the power that he has given for us. It is absolutely available to us to live out his purpose for our lives in his kingdom here while we're on this earth. So but Paul said, I want to know that. Now know it doesn't mean I want to go to a classroom and be able to write it all down. I want to experience that in my life because you can know everything about this and if

sin still has a hold in your life, what good is that? If the changes are not literally being worked out in here, then what good is any of this? Because God's purpose is not just to save sinners, give them a ticket to heaven and say, you know, go for it. This is absolutely a life changing, character changing experience that God wants us to have. Clearly it doesn't happen all at once. But Paul says, this is the focus of my life. If I never preach another message, if I never talk to another soul, if I never get out of prison, whatever else, none of that matters if this is out, if this is missing. He went through some pretty tough, tough things, didn't he? And yet this is the one thing he said, I want to know him. I want to know the power that was released in his resurrection because without that, we're helpless. We have no hope of being anything or being any different than we were. Praise God. All right? So how does that happen? And this is where it gets challenging, all right? The power of his resurrection, participation in his sufferings. Praise God. We get to share in sufferings. But once Paul was given a real understanding of what the need was and what was going on, wow, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. Participation, the word participation there in the Greek is the word that is also translated fellowship. Now stop and think about this, and we've said this many times, how did Jesus get from being a basically a child of Adam, born into Adam's family, to where he is now? What did it take to get from here to there? He did what his father told him to do here, but he had to die.

The life that he got from Adam had to be literally renounced and put to death. You can't reform it. You can't fix it. It has to die. And then he had to receive a brand new life. And of course, the process of death was not so simply boom. There was a lot of suffering. Now, how did Jesus get to be what he is now? The scripture we've used many times in Hebrews. How did he become this perfect, wonderful? He said, oh, he was a son of God. Well, he came down here and lived as a man. He was tempted in every way, just like you and just like me. Well, you talk about somebody who understands. Yes. And loves me anyway, sees everything about me, knows the worst things about me. Oh, wow. I want to learn. But listen, but what he what he did to get to that point, he make he praise God. I'm going to have to look it over and read it. It's in Hebrews chapter two is the one I'm thinking of. In verse ten, I'll read the whole whole passage, maybe that's what the Lord wanted in bringing many sons and daughters to glory. That's what he's after to take us from what we were to a place where we can be in a holy place just like Isaiah saw and be totally at home there, totally fitted for that life in bringing many sons and daughters to glory. It was fitting. It was the right thing to do that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should do what?

Should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect. Through what he suffered. It absolutely cost him everything this world could possibly have provided, but he saw what this were, what this world was about, what it stood for. He saw the he knew all about the life that God had set and given and they'd given him the job of saving you and me and doing that for sinners like us. God, that's amazing. And when Paul, when it dawned on Paul what the reality was of what who Christ was and what he'd done, I want to know him. But the fellowship of his sufferings means exactly where this is translated. I want to participate in that. I realize in order for me to to become what he wants me to be. There's a path that I have to follow. And it means that means some suffering. Yeah. Now, we think of suffering as pain or loss or something like that, and it certainly involves those things. But it's anything that says no to what this nature, this old nature wants. And the Lord has a way of putting us in circumstances every day in our lives where we have choices to make. And he wants us to learn how to be, how to walk with him and how to make the choice to believe him, to agree with him when it hurts. Because life is going to hurt. Life will be hard, but they are the very instruments that God uses to make us complete, to make us perfect. We, too, need to be made perfect through suffering. Boy, we'd like it to be some other way. We think, oh, I want to know Jesus. He's so wonderful and I'll feel wonderful all the time.

If I have the slightest, slightest thing wrong with me, I could just say, make it go away, Lord. Oh, I wish he can do that. And he does. But we need to find out what his will is, what his heart is. And there's no way to do that by just walking with a book. Thank God for the book. But we need to walk with the author. He wants, do you believe that he actually wants to walk with you? That's the amazing thing. You know, I thought about, I thought about David and how he learned not just to live under the law and be a good person and all that, but there was something, there was a connection that David enjoyed with God. And yet that was under the old covenant. And he and he had an experiential knowledge in which he he learned about the Lord, not just. from a book and not just from the scribes and all of that, but from going through stuff. I guarantee there are people here who have gone through difficult places, but God has given you the grace to look to Him, and He has given you a knowledge that you could not have gained any other way. And you can say, I know Him. My knowledge of Him has increased. He walked with me through that. David of course spoke about the green pastures and the still waters and the shepherd part and all of that, but he also spoke about the valley of the shadow of death, a dark valley. What was the deal with the dark valley? He was with me. Think of the stuff that David went through and the times when he dealt with questions. How long, oh Lord?

We've used those scriptures many times. And yet somehow it did not destroy the confidence and the faith that God had allowed that because it was doing something to set him free from things, to prepare him to trust God when it hurt. And so he had a knowledge of God as someone who had not walked through that process and had that kind of confidence toward God. They never knew it about, they never understood that. And David had absolutely been in the presence of his enemies, had he not? But he'd also experienced the Lord setting a table, feeding him, giving him exactly what he needed. But think of the new covenant of what God has done. He helped the people and I believe that we have many brothers and sisters from the Old Testament that God has brought through. But the covenant that we're under right now is totally different because now it's not just going through a priest, we all know him. Everyone who surrenders their heart, everyone in whom he comes to live has a personal relationship with him and knows God personally. We have the privilege of standing before him with his own righteousness attributed to us. But it isn't just, you know, David talked about the Lord being with him and that's an awesome thing, but we have something greater than that. You remember how the Lord spoke about the Spirit? He said, He dwells with you, but what? Shall be in you. See, that's the thing, I was thinking about this and realizing the reality that the Jesus we talk about, he's so much more than just an example. Now, I mean, we can read the scriptures and we can see the character and how he treated people and the amazing love that he showed and say, oh, what a wonderful example. Or we could look up in our imagination and picture him on a throne somewhere shouting down encouragement and instruction saying, do what I say, do what I tell you and I'll

just send the strength. You know where he's at. We put him way off somewhere. And we talk about, you know, spending time with the Lord. Sometimes we think of that as, okay, I'm going to go spend time with the Lord and then I'm going to go do all the, do other stuff. Do you think that's what the Lord wants? Or are we meant to just walk with him through every day with a greater consciousness? You know, I wish there was a way we could push a button and make this all happen, but this is a matter of the Lord reminding us and beginning to learn and beginning to reach out and say, Lord, I need you today. I need the truth. I need the faith. I need all of that. But you're right here with me in this. You're holding my hand, walking me through. I need the heart that says, well, like David searched me, tell me all about myself. I'm so glad he can do that without condemnation, with help. But I also need him to teach me your ways. Do you realize we don't have to call way out there. We can say, Jesus, you're right here with me. Show me how to handle this. Show me how to be the person that you have called me to be. Wow. Do you think he'd answer something like that? I mean, here he is. He's in us and with us. How much attention do we give him? Do we really pay any attention to him? I wonder how sad he must be to think, oh, these people that I did all of this for and

I have given everything, and I'm not trying to convey a sense of guilt. or you know what I'm saying. But yet there's a hunger, there's a longing. Can you believe when you look in the mirror and you know and you begin to see what's lacking in you, that Jesus who was used to create everything and went to the cross and did all of that, He wants to spend time with somebody like me? Do you really believe that? That's what the scripture is conveying. If Paul, the chiefest of sinners, could so understand the love and the mercy of God that he said, I want to know Him. I want to spend, I want to be, I want to enter the fellowship of His suffering so I understand when stuff happens, it's Him working in me and I'm going to join Him because I understand that to get to where I'm going, to become what I am meant to be, requires a whole lot of dying, a whole lot of saying no, a whole lot of experiencing stuff and believing God anyway. It's just the way it happens. And you think of the ministry that God gave to him and all that he was able to do, and yet did he not, in 2 Corinthians 4, the scripture we've also used many times, talk about all the things that he went through. He says, such and such happened, oh it was terrible, but God brought us through, but God, you know, we were beyond strength, we were this, we were that or the other, but God brought us through. But what was his conclusion about that? What was the reason that happened? Well, that's in 2 Corinthians 12, that's exactly right, but in this one it's death is at work in me. So you see the fellowship of his sufferings, and of course it goes on to talk about death. Death is at work at me. Do you realize there's death that has to work in you for you to become what God wants you to be? Death is at work in me. But what's the result of that? Is that an end in itself? Death is at work in me, but life is at work in you. Just like Jesus was willing to do everything he did because of what it was going to do for you and me, Paul realized, I want to be like him, I want to know him, and he's got a purpose for my life. In order for me to fulfill my purpose, I too have to die. But the result of that is that my vessel is going to be used for life. Now, yes, I'm not there yet. I mean, I haven't got all of this, but I'm on the way. I understand the process, but I understand it's more than taking scriptural formulas. I want to know this Jesus. He who was there is here. Well, now think about this. We're his body, right? If your foot is hurting, is that just something apart from you, or is that you? You may be the little toe in the kingdom of God, or you may think you are.

But if you're sore, the head is right there considering you part of Him and helping you right through that. Is that the truth? Oh, we need to see ourselves as He sees us. The devil will tell us everything else except that we are the objects of His mercy and His love. He has given us everything we need. But Paul understood. I was born with a life that's corrupt. The only answer is to kill it. But the way God's going to do it is that I'm going to participate in the death. I'm going to start agreeing with God when He engineers circumstances that cause me to die to that, to say no to it, to let it go. But in the process, something else is going to happen. There's going to be life that will get stronger because I've got a life that He wants me to live out. What good is it if He puts it in there and it never comes out? Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Just back up a chapter, and that's in there. Praise God. There's such a simplicity in this. And I just pray that God will somehow make this real to me, that every day when I get up, yeah, I want to spend time with want to talk to him. That's important. Absolutely. Listen to his voice. But how many of us acknowledge him all the time? Learn to be conscious of that. Trust in the Lord most of the time, no, with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In most of your ways, in all of your ways, do what? Acknowledge the book. It says acknowledge him. Oh, God wants us to be personal and real. Now, not private and separate in the wrong sense, but God wants us to absolutely know him to where we're in a situation and we can say, Lord, you've allowed this, and I know you're right here with me. What are you trying to show me? How am I supposed to handle this? What's your will in this? And God, I tell you, God will lead us and teach us in ways that we have not imagined before now. Boy, do I need this. And Paul understood enough to talk about the ministry is, I get it. I know what's happening. I know why I'm having to go through such hard things. God's got a job on his hands to change a guy like me and to make me fit to express new heaven's life in me. But praise God, I get it. I understand it. He's putting that today. He's putting me in a situation where I've got to say, yes, Lord, I surrender. Your will, not mine. And something is dying and it's losing its hold. I'm saying, no, I'm treating it as something that is gone and dead. And I'm focused on one thing, because all this is going to go away anyway. There's no purpose to live for down here. No

value. I don't care how many people you pack in your church. People are looking at outward things and valuing things by that. But God helped me and every one of us to embrace whatever God brings our way because we know it's taking us to a perfect place in Him. It's bringing forth newness of life. And yes, this is the foundation of everything He did. But you see where it goes back to. It's not just, oh, I want to be the greatest missionary that's ever lived. I'm writing books of the Bible. I'm teaching, I'm this, I'm that. It wasn't about Him at all. He understood. He has called me and I'm going to have to get to my goal the same way my Savior did by letting it all go. Whatever the process is involved, however painful it may be, whatever it takes to say, no, I don't want that. I renounce it. I'm going to do it. I'm not even going to complain. No, I've really gone too far, right? Does God have a job to do on you? Yeah, He's got one to do on me. And here is Paul, well into his ministry, been mightily used of God, suffered amazing things in his experience writing to these believers. Powerful servant of God. And yet his sense was, this is what matters. This is what defines my life. This is what I want, and I haven't arrived. I haven't arrived. I understand too that I'm on a journey here. This was mentioned several times this morning, the balance between realizing that I haven't arrived and yet God can actually use me right here where I'm at if I'll just agree with Him. All of this is about agreeing with God, recognizing what it is that He's doing and agreeing with it and cooperating with it in an actual sense, but not just as a religious formula, as a person to walk with who's real. Do you believe that Jesus is here as well as on the throne? God has given Him that power through the Spirit to be here, to be everywhere He needs to be in person. We can talk to Him. We can listen to Him. We can be taught by Him. We can say, well, didn't He say, take my yoke and learn from me. I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. And that rest is not dependent on circumstance. It's awful easy to equate, you know, being in need and going to God as God fix it. And of course, how many times have we pointed out Paul's example that was referred to? a while ago where he went to God, God fixed it, this is bad, and God said, no, it isn't. I sent this because you got a problem, Paul, with pride. You want to serve me, but your pride is going to get in the way if I don't do something

about it. I know something about you, you don't know. And I know what it takes, and what I need from you is trust. I need you to come to me with a willingness that if this is the path that it takes to serve me, you're willing to do it. You're willing to be in prison, you're willing to be embattled with spirits or whatever form this was, whether it was physical or whatever it was, doesn't matter. If it's something our old nature doesn't like, and we have to put up with it, and that's God's plan, then what's God looking for from us? Faith, trust, thanksgiving, those are choices, and looking to Him and realizing that when bad stuff happens, He's not just off there somewhere shouting down instructions, He's holding our hand. The same One who was made perfect by what He suffered is still experiencing those things by living in us. You think about that? You ever thought about that? Yeah, one time He walked the earth and did all the stuff and experienced all that stuff. He's still experiencing it. If you are, and He's in you, again, if my toe is hurting, is not my head involved and knows about it and cares? Yeah, there's an absolute connection that God has made. Thank God that we're not alone. We absolutely have someone who lives in us and with us, and so that's what Paul is after. Let me go back to where I started. I want to know Christ. How personal is that to you? When you're going through something, do you realize God wants you to learn something about Him from being with Him, talking to Him, and realizing He cares? The devil will do anything he can. He wouldn't want to be with somebody like me, or, boy, I'm uncomfortable with that.

He might have to look at some of the stuff that I'm looking at or do some of the stuff that I'm doing. God help us. God help us to be so connected and understanding of what He wants and agreeing with it that whatever it takes for Him to change me and put the stuff to death that would ruin me and hinder Him, Lord, do whatever it takes to make that happen and bring me to the place where resurrection life is what happens because that's where He's going with this. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His resurrection. This is experiential, and participation in His suffering, fellowship. So what does that bring? Becoming like Him in His death. When He died, Paul says in Romans 6, He died to sin. It was a renunciation. It was a choice to say no to the world, no to the old life, no to everything that was wrong. Even if it takes my life away, praise God, I choose God, I choose His way. Do you realize that's what it takes? What did Jesus say about, not just about the cross that was assigned to Him, is there one for us? Whoever would be my disciple, whoever wants to follow me must do what? Take up the cross. Sounds like it's something that I need to do. I need to say, Lord, help me. I get why you saved me. I was a mess, Lord. Even if I thought I was something like Paul did, oh, when I see it in your light, you're going to show me all the needs that are there, but then you're going to show me where you're taking me. Lord, whatever it takes, that's what matters. That's what matters.

And so, Lord, just do it. Now, of course, we know that God only works in some things, right? Oh, wait a minute. Romans 8, 28, in all things, God is at work in those who love Him, those who are called according to His purpose. And what's the purpose? conform us, to change us, to conform us to what? The image of His Son. That's where He's going with this. Oh, Paul understood this, he said, yes, that's what it's all about. Lord, do whatever you gotta do. But again, this is another thing that was pointed out this morning, and rightly so. You can go in many different ditches. One of them is, it's all about what's this private stuff that's happening with me. Me and Jesus, we're cool. He's working in me. He's helping me to say no to this and say no to that. But that wasn't all there was to Paul's life, was it? That was a means to an end so that Paul could literally, now he could go out and he could do stuff, and it would be the Lord in him doing it, not him. More and more. Even then, he said, I haven't got there yet. I'm on the road. Every day I'm having to leave stuff in the behind, I'm having to forget it and realize I messed up. Lord's teaching me. Thank you, Lord, for teaching me. I can forget the ... I don't have to carry that burden. I can leave it and I can move forward. But Lord, every day I want to be more like you.

I want to have more of that life in control. That's what it comes down to. Something like him in his death, and so, so means as a result. He says somehow, that's the translation here, but it doesn't mean, oh, it's vague, it's just maybe it's going to happen, maybe it's not. It's just that whatever it takes, because I don't understand everything that it takes. I don't know what's wrong with me, and he does, and he loves me. And everything he's doing is not a matter of condemnation. It's a matter of love to release me from a prison, the prison house of sin. Praise God. And so somehow, what am I doing? I'm attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Now that sounds like the devil could twist that in your mind and say, boy, if I live up to it, someday I'll be raised from the dead. Is that what he's talking about? In the context, he's talking about exactly what he said at the beginning of that verse. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to understand resurrection life as opposed to Adam's life. And so what he's doing is taking me through a process where I am attaining more and more of that. I'm learning how to live that instead of me, and the Lord's taking me through whatever it takes to make that happen. Wow. I'll tell you, I want to know this Christ, and I don't want to have this, boy, I'm not so sure about that. I'm uncomfortable with this. I'm afraid of that. What's he going to say when he finds out about it? Like he doesn't know. And yet he knowing everything about you, everything about you, went to the cross and sent the

message of his love to your heart, saying, I have the power to set you free and give you an eternal future, free from the power of sin and death. But it means you're going to have to surrender and let me do what it takes. That's what your life is going to be about from now on. Oh, Paul understood that in ways that are amazing because God had a call to help him to share with us. I thank God for what's written in here, but I need more than this. I need more than history. I need more than a tradition. I need more than the rituals of religion. I need the Savior who's alive and in the world today, just as much as he was when he was in the flesh, more so because he came back the first time. He came back on the day of Pentecost and he inhabited his people. The promise of the new covenant was fulfilled. Not just he's going to be with us, he's going to be in us. If you know him today, he's in you. Wouldn't it be a good thing if we learned how to acknowledge him every day and say, Lord, thank you for being in me. Touch me, teach me, do whatever it takes, Lord. And if it takes something that is hard and even painful, I'd sure appreciate an explanation, but without one, praise God, I'm going to trust you anyway. Lord did eventually explain to Paul, didn't he, and then he said, yeah, I get it. I wanted to serve him and I didn't realize there was something in the way and now he's put his hand on it and now I'm freer to serve him than I would have been if he hadn't. I hadn't allowed that terrible thing that's been bothering me. And sometimes the perfect will of God is to take it away and put us in those green pastures. Praise God. Every single one of us is unique in the kingdom of God. God knows what you need and what I need. But you strip it all away down to the one thing.

What is it? I want to know Him. And I want, in the process of knowing Him, I want to reach for the thing that He died to give me, which was a new life. And I want that life to come out. But again, I started to talk about the balance. You could talk about just me in this private, oh, what I'm becoming. But the purpose of that is that He can live in us. What was the purpose of what Jesus suffered during His earthly life? It was so the Father, again, there's something pretty personal about that, the Father lived in Him and was doing His work. And Jesus was kind of cooperating with that, wasn't He? Even when it cost Him everything. That same pattern is being worked out in you and me today. But the bottom line that drew me, I mean, many of these truths we've heard many times. But I need them all the time. But the thing that we need to realize, I hope that this could get across, Jesus is talking to you. And don't you listen to a voice that tells you different. Jesus is talking to you. I love you. I died for you. I want you to know me. Loving me is going to mean some tough things in your life. It's going to be some wonderful, pleasant things too. But it's going to be some hard things because I need you, there's part of you I need to put to death so that we can get to the good stuff. But I want you to know me and I want you to know that I'm the same Jesus that walked around this earth, that met the woman at the well, told her all that she did. That was mentioned this morning.

Told her all that she did and she was excited about it. Would you be excited about the Lord telling you everything you did? Everything about yourself? But yet the spirit by which He did that was such that it became a, oh God, I want that. Thank God. It was a spirit of love and mercy that looked beyond her fault and saw her need. And He wants you this morning to realize that in a deeper way perhaps. To trust Him with the issues of your life, to realize He knows what you need. You might need something hard right now, but He's right there. Just because you can't feel Him, you can't see Him, He's right there. The same Lord that was with David and how much more with us when He lives in us and not just with us. Is there an army arrayed against you? He's got a table. Are you in a dark valley? He's right there. Whatever the course, wherever the course takes you, He's there and He's real. And He loves you enough to want to spend time with you and for you to get to know Him. What an amazing Savior we have. So you see what Paul was focused on in his life wasn't how great a ministry I can produce. It was I want to know Him. Now out of that grew all the other. But he never lost sight of the focus of what his life was meant to be about. What is yours about? What is mine about? What is the one thing we do? One thing matters and that's reaching out so that I can experience more of what He ... No matter what it costs, that's what matters. I want more of His life to be free, to be lived out in me. And then His purpose for my life can be complete.

And one day this will all be gone, we won't have to worry anymore. Thank God. Thank God for that kind of a Savior. Do you want to know Him today? Is that the one thing that matters in your life? Good challenge, isn't it? I believe the Lord will help us. And don't let the devil sit there and tell you, well, I've told you this 20 years ago and look where you're at. You bad person, you hogwash. We start where we're at with what we have and don't have and we just move on. That's what Paul wanted. said, oh, can't we bring everything from our past and lay it at his feet and just go on free? Isn't that what Paul said? Forgetting what's behind and reaching. Praise God. That's his heart toward you and you and you today and me. To God be the glory. Praise God.