WEBVTT 00:00:00.059 --> 00:00:06.062 Let's just stand to our feet and lift up our Bible and make a confession, hallelujah. 00:00:06.062 --> 00:00:22.443 Let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I know you're working in me both the will and the due for your good pleasure, and that's stronger than the people at Chick-fil-A, right. 00:00:22.443 --> 00:00:25.307 Anyways, I understand faith. 00:00:25.307 --> 00:00:27.551 I'm here to learn. 00:00:27.551 --> 00:00:29.195 I'm here to grow. 00:00:29.195 --> 00:00:34.585 I'm here to receive revelation, knowledge that'll change my life. 00:00:34.585 --> 00:00:37.432 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:37.432 --> 00:00:41.720 Now everybody's hungry for a chicken sandwich, right. 00:00:41.720 --> 00:00:46.649 And that the clothes, though on Sunday man Popeyes. 00:00:46.649 --> 00:00:47.591 This won't work, will it? 00:00:47.591 --> 00:00:49.935 Hallelujah. 00:00:52.140 --> 00:01:02.637 Well, I'm going to be reading out of the Passion translation most of the night tonight and, if you'll just turn with me, though, you can follow along in whatever version is in your lap. 00:01:02.637 --> 00:01:08.346 We're going to start in 1 Corinthians 1, towards the end, at 26,. 00:01:08.346 --> 00:01:10.128 1 Corinthians 1, 26. 00:01:10.128 --> 00:01:27.861 And it's entitled Above their God's Calling, and it says Brothers and Sisters, consider who you were when God called you. 00:01:27.861 --> 00:01:36.001 Not many of you were wise scholars by human standards, nor were many of you in positions of power. 00:01:36.001 --> 00:01:40.472 Not many of you were considered the elite when you answered God's call. 00:01:40.472 --> 00:01:47.969 But God chose those whom the world considers foolish to shame those who think they are wise. 00:01:47.969 --> 00:01:53.849 And God chose the puny and powerless to shame the high and mighty. 00:01:53.849 --> 00:02:01.427 In the Greek that means the word shame means to embarrass, to confuse, to baffle and to frustrate. 00:02:01.427 --> 00:02:04.381 How many of you have frustrated the heathen, right? 00:02:04.381 --> 00:02:12.465 How many of you, the God in you, the Holy Spirit in you, has risen up and frustrated the heathen before amen, verse 28,. 00:02:12.465 --> 00:02:23.633 He chose the lowly, the laughable, in other words the outcasts in the world's eyes, the nobodies, so that he would shame the somebodies. 00:02:23.633 --> 00:02:24.817 That's good, isn't it? 00:02:24.817 --> 00:02:27.484 Sometimes I like the passion translation. 00:02:27.484 --> 00:02:30.008 I've been reading it a little bit more here recently. 00:02:30.008 --> 00:02:43.527 For he chose what is regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is regarded as prominent, so that there would be no place for prideful boasting in God's presence. 00:02:43.527 --> 00:02:52.094 For it is not from man that we draw our life, but from God, as we are being joined to Jesus, the anointed one. 00:02:52.094 --> 00:02:58.012 And now he is our God given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness and our redemption. 00:02:58.012 --> 00:02:59.135 Amen. 00:02:59.135 --> 00:03:00.539 You know my dad, our pastor. 00:03:00.539 --> 00:03:02.807 He preaches really good about redemption, doesn't he? 00:03:02.807 --> 00:03:05.216 Verse 31, let's finish it out. 00:03:05.216 --> 00:03:06.901 And this fulfills what is written. 00:03:06.901 --> 00:03:10.996 If anyone boasts, let him only boast in all that the Lord has done. 00:03:10.996 --> 00:03:13.581 Amen, I will boast in the Lord, my God. 00:03:13.622 --> 00:03:15.605 We used to sing that old song. 00:03:15.605 --> 00:03:16.228 It's been a while. 00:03:16.228 --> 00:03:26.473 It used to be kind of a Wednesday night favorite around here, but I just wanted to preach a message entitled you Are Qualified. 00:03:26.473 --> 00:03:30.806 And you know my dad preaches a message similar to this. 00:03:30.806 --> 00:03:33.933 I think he calls it from qualified to called. 00:03:33.933 --> 00:03:35.823 And we're called. 00:03:35.842 --> 00:03:41.924 You have a ministry, every believer has a ministry, and you have a calling to guard and to look after. 00:03:41.924 --> 00:03:50.987 And you know, if you are waiting to become perfect before doing anything for God, you'd never do anything right. 00:03:50.987 --> 00:03:55.682 No one would ever be used by God if God was looking for perfect people. 00:03:55.682 --> 00:04:00.133 But instead he called one perfect person and that was his son, jesus. 00:04:00.133 --> 00:04:04.766 Right, and Jesus came here and he made us perfect. 00:04:04.766 --> 00:04:06.972 And people missed that point. 00:04:06.972 --> 00:04:08.862 They're, oh no, I could never be perfect. 00:04:08.862 --> 00:04:09.463 But the blood. 00:04:09.463 --> 00:04:15.908 When you get in Christ, when you shift your identification in Christ, you are made perfect. 00:04:15.908 --> 00:04:25.670 And when God looks at you, he looks at you through the blood of Jesus, through his son's blood, and he sees you without any flaws. 00:04:25.670 --> 00:04:27.372 He sees you perfect. 00:04:27.372 --> 00:04:33.913 And so you know, I'm just, I got this limp, I'm just using this limp for Jesus. 00:04:33.913 --> 00:04:41.617 No, he wants you healed, he wants you whole, he wants you made perfect and he already sees you made perfect. 00:04:41.617 --> 00:04:48.699 Not only that, he's given you the ability to receive that healing and to receive that perfection into our lives. 00:04:48.699 --> 00:04:57.822 And so there's a few things that hold us back from fully obtaining, sometimes from feeling qualified. 00:04:57.822 --> 00:05:01.870 So if you're feeling unqualified tonight, let's all stop together. 00:05:01.870 --> 00:05:07.254 I'm kind of sometimes I'm preaching to myself up here, so feeling unqualified. 00:05:07.254 --> 00:05:14.550 So I just made a small list that I got out of a book entitled Qualified by Tony Cook. 00:05:14.550 --> 00:05:16.940 I knew I was gonna think of the name. 00:05:16.940 --> 00:05:22.093 I have a wife that anyways, praise the Lord, she keeps me on my toes. 00:05:23.297 --> 00:05:28.593 So Moses was a murderer and a stutterer, but he became a mighty deliverer, right. 00:05:28.593 --> 00:05:32.975 Gideon was insecure, but he became the Lord's mighty warrior. 00:05:32.975 --> 00:05:39.165 David was an adulterer because this, but he became the sweet psalmist of Israel. 00:05:39.165 --> 00:05:42.995 You know, before he was an adulterer he was a worshiper, right. 00:05:42.995 --> 00:05:50.726 And so he was a man after God's own heart, and God said that way before he ever made a mistake. 00:05:51.848 --> 00:05:55.915 Peter was a denier, but he became the proclamer of the Holy Ghost. 00:05:55.915 --> 00:06:00.663 John was the boisterous one, but he became the apostle of love. 00:06:00.663 --> 00:06:03.651 Saul the terrorist became the apostle of grace. 00:06:03.651 --> 00:06:04.392 John. 00:06:04.392 --> 00:06:07.766 Mark the quitter became profitable for the ministry. 00:06:07.766 --> 00:06:09.810 Jeremiah felt too young. 00:06:09.810 --> 00:06:11.153 Sarah felt too old. 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:17.742 And when the Lord appeared to Isaiah, he said woe is me, for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips. 00:06:17.742 --> 00:06:20.514 That's in Isaiah 1812, if you want to look it up later. 00:06:20.514 --> 00:06:24.084 But and then, when Peter encountered Jesus, what did Peter say? 00:06:24.084 --> 00:06:28.533 He said depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord. 00:06:28.533 --> 00:06:30.062 That's in Luke 5. 00:06:30.062 --> 00:06:32.891 But you know, paul? 00:06:32.891 --> 00:06:35.237 Paul said of himself let's turn there together. 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.125 And again, I'm reading out of the Passion translation. 00:06:38.125 --> 00:06:40.980 You can just read along in whatever version is in your lap. 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:46.870 But 1 Corinthians, 15, 9, we're going to read 9 through 11, eventually here. 00:06:46.870 --> 00:06:57.060 And in verse 9, paul says yes, I am the most insignificant of all the apostles, unworthy even to be called an apostle. 00:06:57.060 --> 00:06:58.384 Think about it. 00:06:58.423 --> 00:07:02.593 He wrote half of the New Testament, and that's the way he saw himself. 00:07:02.593 --> 00:07:10.184 And he said because I hunted down believers and persecuted God's church, aren't you glad that he didn't stop writing there? 00:07:10.184 --> 00:07:11.730 That he didn't, just so. 00:07:11.730 --> 00:07:13.093 He just continued right on. 00:07:13.776 --> 00:07:22.324 In verse 10, it says but God's amazing grace Thank you, lord, for your amazing grace has made me who I am. 00:07:22.324 --> 00:07:30.944 In other words, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me was not fruitless. 00:07:30.944 --> 00:07:33.824 In fact, I worked harder than all the rest. 00:07:33.824 --> 00:07:39.098 I'm even glad that he didn't stop there, you know, because it sounds like he's boasting in Himself, right, but he's not. 00:07:39.098 --> 00:07:42.783 He's sneaking it in, right, yet not on my own strength, but God's. 00:07:42.783 --> 00:07:46.661 So you can work harder than all the rest, but, man, you got to do it in God's strength. 00:07:46.661 --> 00:07:50.834 There's so many of us that are doing it in our own strength and you're not getting anywhere. 00:07:50.834 --> 00:07:56.055 You're just using the title busy just to compete with everybody else's busyness. 00:07:56.055 --> 00:08:01.403 But, man, when you stand in front of the Lord on judgment day, you don't want to just say I was busy. 00:08:01.403 --> 00:08:08.326 No, you want to be busy in His strength, doing what he's called you to do, full of God's purpose for your life, amen. 00:08:08.935 --> 00:08:13.156 And it goes on to say for His empowering grace is poured out upon me, verse 11,. 00:08:13.156 --> 00:08:21.084 So this is what we all have taught you, and, whether it was through me or someone else, you have now believed the gospel. 00:08:21.084 --> 00:08:23.142 So God's grace is His ability. 00:08:23.142 --> 00:08:30.108 And God poured out His grace, or His ability on Paul and made Him who he was. 00:08:30.108 --> 00:08:38.333 And so later on, in verse 2, timothy 1-9, we can turn there together if you want to. 00:08:38.696 --> 00:08:41.325 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, and the Passion. 00:08:41.325 --> 00:09:00.201 He gave us resurrection, life and drew us to Himself by His holy calling on our lives, and it wasn't because of any good we have done, but by His divine pleasure and marvelous grace that confirmed our union with the anointed Jesus even before time began. 00:09:00.201 --> 00:09:04.937 This truth is now being unveiled by the revelation of the anointed Jesus, our life giver. 00:09:04.937 --> 00:09:19.083 I love that, our life giver, who has dismantled death, obliterating all its effects on our lives, and has manifested His immortal life in us by the gospel, by the power of the gospel. 00:09:19.083 --> 00:09:26.886 You know, I'm telling you, the gospel delivers us from all things and you have a calling, you have ability that he's poured out upon us. 00:09:27.434 --> 00:09:44.865 Paul wanted Timothy, a young preacher in the faith, his son in the faith, to know that it's not about Him, to stop looking at His flaws, stop looking at His fears and understand that it's not all about you, it's not. 00:09:44.865 --> 00:09:54.221 And so if Paul's telling Timothy that, he's telling us that he's telling me that tonight it's not all about me, it's not all about my, for no more. 00:09:54.221 --> 00:09:59.759 No, we're stretching on, we're grabbing a hold of the high calling of God, we are moving forward. 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:01.698 Amen, we are breaking through. 00:10:01.698 --> 00:10:07.767 And so Mark Hankins likes to say all the time if you knew what was on the other side of that mountain, you would move it. 00:10:07.767 --> 00:10:11.913 And for you to move your mountain you got to move your lips. 00:10:11.913 --> 00:10:12.274 Amen. 00:10:12.456 --> 00:10:14.534 And so we are qualified to do that. 00:10:14.534 --> 00:10:19.306 We're qualified to minister to the saints. 00:10:19.306 --> 00:10:20.148 Holy things. 00:10:20.148 --> 00:10:22.346 I'm sorry I missed. 00:10:22.346 --> 00:10:23.495 I'm gonna go back to verse 11. 00:10:23.495 --> 00:10:24.217 So where am I? 00:10:24.217 --> 00:10:26.301 At Second Timothy 1, 11,. 00:10:26.301 --> 00:10:33.855 And he has anointed or consecrated me as His preacher, his apostle and His teacher of truth to the nations. 00:10:33.855 --> 00:10:59.654 The confidence of my calling enables me to overcome every difficulty without shame, for I have an intimate revelation of this God and my faith in Him convinces me that he is more than able to keep all that I have placed in His hands Woo, that's speaking to me Safe and secure until the fullness of His appearing. 00:10:59.654 --> 00:11:04.695 Verse 13, allow the healing words it's like a prophetic, right here, right now. 00:11:04.695 --> 00:11:17.095 Allow the healing words you've heard from me to live in you and make them a model for life, as your faith and love for the anointed one grows even more. 00:11:17.095 --> 00:11:24.934 Guard well this incomparable treasure by the spirit of holiness living within you. 00:11:24.934 --> 00:11:29.787 You know we have a treasure that's living on the inside that we need to guard. 00:11:29.787 --> 00:11:36.519 And I'm telling you you are qualified and so you know. 00:11:37.722 --> 00:11:43.041 Selena gets to preach to the young people all the time and you know what God has qualified. 00:11:43.041 --> 00:11:45.447 Let no man disqualify. 00:11:45.447 --> 00:11:54.754 And so sometimes your friends, you get around the wrong friends, especially young people, and they will try to talk you out of your qualifications. 00:11:54.754 --> 00:12:04.754 They don't see the call of God on your life, they don't know what you've been through, they don't know that God snatched you out of the fire and sets you on a rock and you're standing on a firm foundation. 00:12:04.754 --> 00:12:06.134 Some of them they don't see it. 00:12:06.134 --> 00:12:24.754 Sometimes it's loved ones, it can even be our parents, sometimes it's unsaved parents, sometimes it's unsaved spouses that don't see the call of God on your life, they don't see what you're capable of in your ministry and in the calling of God and they try to disqualify you. 00:12:24.754 --> 00:12:26.481 They try to talk you out of it. 00:12:26.481 --> 00:12:32.187 They speak against it 24-7, and I'm telling you get out from under that. 00:12:32.187 --> 00:12:46.522 You know I'm not talking about literally, I just mean like prayerfully, and know that you can walk in your qualifications, that God has qualified us, amen, and set us on a rock and we are a witness for him. 00:12:46.522 --> 00:12:48.926 And so I just want to move on to number two. 00:12:48.926 --> 00:12:56.812 The only thing, the only thing that can disqualify you is you, is you. 00:12:56.812 --> 00:13:00.195 You know, sometimes we can be, we can get in our own way. 00:13:00.195 --> 00:13:03.445 And so Paul. 00:13:03.445 --> 00:13:13.385 Several times he talked about getting his flesh under right, and so, let's see, I just want to skip. 00:13:13.385 --> 00:13:15.110 I'm going to skip one scripture, let's see. 00:13:15.110 --> 00:13:20.200 I'm going to go back to 1st Corinthians and start in verse 9, but I'm going to stay in the passion translation. 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.623 1st Corinthians, 9-24. 00:13:26.268 --> 00:13:30.091 Selina had quoted the other running scripture earlier, about running our race. 00:13:30.091 --> 00:13:30.993 This is a different one. 00:13:30.993 --> 00:13:33.155 1st Corinthians, that was in Hebrews 12. 00:13:33.155 --> 00:13:35.883 But 1st Corinthians, 9-24,. 00:13:35.883 --> 00:13:46.755 Isn't it obvious that all runners on the racetrack or in the stadium, in other words, keep on running to win, but only one receives the victors prize? 00:13:46.755 --> 00:13:51.245 Yet each one of you must run the race to be victorious. 00:13:51.245 --> 00:13:55.772 A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect. 00:13:55.772 --> 00:14:12.200 Say that out loud, say every respect, every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win a laurel wreath that quickly withers, but we run our race to win a victors crown that will last forever. 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:13.682 Verse 26,. 00:14:13.763 --> 00:14:19.053 For that reason I don't run, just for exercise, you know recently. 00:14:19.053 --> 00:14:22.159 Well, I've already always exercised, but I've never really ran. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:28.629 And so Selina and I have tried to begin running, and I hate running Like with a passion, I hate running. 00:14:28.629 --> 00:14:35.866 I feel like my legs just don't work at that speed and Shin Splintz tried to come on me, all kinds of things. 00:14:35.866 --> 00:14:44.761 But, praise God, we're pressing on, we're pressing through the pain and we're exercising more, and that's a good thing for our heart, right. 00:14:44.761 --> 00:14:47.125 But we're not just exercising. 00:14:47.125 --> 00:14:52.894 You know, there's another scripture that says exercise profited little, but it does profited, right. 00:14:52.894 --> 00:14:57.528 And I'm telling you, it extends your life, it extends, you know, your ministry. 00:14:57.528 --> 00:15:01.114 It allows me to sing better, have more lungs, right. 00:15:01.114 --> 00:15:03.523 So I don't just run for exercise. 00:15:03.523 --> 00:15:08.609 That is, paul ran with his eyes on the goal of ending well. 00:15:08.609 --> 00:15:15.120 And it says it goes on to talk about boxing or box like one throwing aimless punches Verse 27,. 00:15:15.481 --> 00:15:18.187 But I train like a champion athlete. 00:15:18.187 --> 00:15:19.448 That's us. 00:15:19.448 --> 00:15:19.889 Amen. 00:15:19.889 --> 00:15:22.052 I subdue my body. 00:15:22.052 --> 00:15:27.224 In other words, it means that I beat my body. 00:15:27.224 --> 00:15:28.285 Black and blue. 00:15:28.285 --> 00:15:36.554 It's obvious, a metaphor of placing the desires of one body, one's body, as second place to the desires of the Holy Spirit. 00:15:36.554 --> 00:15:47.634 Amen, so he gets his body under control, so that, after preaching the good news to others, I myself won't be disqualified. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:54.129 So, you know, like Selena was saying earlier, kind of in her own way, in a different way, we're one. 00:15:54.129 --> 00:16:01.205 So I can't say that she stole my message, but she just said a lot of things that I wanted to say. 00:16:01.205 --> 00:16:04.168 The Holy Spirit was moving on me to say. 00:16:04.168 --> 00:16:12.200 But you know, it's real easy to get up here and tell other people what to do and what not to do, right? 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:31.144 And there's preachers and pulpits all over the world that are good at they're good at turning a phrase, they're good at studying a handful of scriptures and are copying somebody else's word and are, you know, copying somebody else's revelation but then they're not living it. 00:16:31.144 --> 00:16:35.292 So if I'm not living what I'm preaching, then it falls flat on its face. 00:16:35.292 --> 00:16:37.962 I can never so so. 00:16:38.062 --> 00:16:40.467 So another word is doing the word. 00:16:40.467 --> 00:16:46.720 If I'm a doer of the word, that is the greatest authenticity to what we preach. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:53.720 If my dad is doing the word, that's the greatest authenticity to what he's up here preaching about amen. 00:16:53.720 --> 00:17:00.219 And so we are, we're not just hears of the word, we are doers of the word amen. 00:17:00.219 --> 00:17:10.564 And so it's really important for you to live the same way, so to keep your flesh under, to keep your body under, to train spiritually. 00:17:10.564 --> 00:17:15.740 The same way in champion runner trains, amen. 00:17:16.541 --> 00:17:25.905 And so I know I didn't plan on using this example, but I'm looking back at the Coonses and Katie just ran a race. 00:17:25.905 --> 00:17:28.893 She ran one yesterday, saturday. 00:17:28.893 --> 00:17:30.939 That was the Nike race in the Woodlands. 00:17:30.939 --> 00:17:33.886 I think she came in 17th, so that was really good. 00:17:33.886 --> 00:17:53.924 But the week before she ran, or two weeks ago, she ran in the state meet and they had some some things happening things happen in their training and instead of running her best race, she literally ran her worst race and she was like I'm so sorry, my legs just wouldn't work. 00:17:53.924 --> 00:17:58.991 I had the lungs, I had the energy, but my legs were just jello, they just were. 00:17:58.991 --> 00:18:04.182 Whatever she said, like you know, just concrete, I guess, and they just wouldn't work. 00:18:04.182 --> 00:18:09.756 And so that was a huge blow to her. 00:18:09.756 --> 00:18:23.724 And so her parents were encouraging her and we were encouraging her back in the youth, because she really is a champion athlete and so to train, to train like a champion and to not have the results of the champion kind of were a big blow. 00:18:23.724 --> 00:18:32.906 So she turned it around this weekend and went out and ran, I believe, better than a minute over her last race. 00:18:32.906 --> 00:18:34.609 So that was, that was awesome, so. 00:18:35.575 --> 00:18:38.282 But there's lots of effort and training isn't there? 00:18:38.282 --> 00:18:49.127 She wakes up really early and she runs and she runs and she runs and is well athletes of her parents that her parents are. 00:18:49.127 --> 00:18:51.179 You know, carol can't even keep up with her. 00:18:51.179 --> 00:18:55.607 When Carol gets on the bike and Katie's running, forget it. 00:18:55.607 --> 00:19:09.654 You can't keep up and that's how fast Katie can run and how far she can run and she just keeps going and going, like an ever ready battery, right, and you know we should be the same spiritually. 00:19:09.654 --> 00:19:24.580 There's nothing, there's no storm in life, there's no devil in hell that should be able to talk you out of your qualifications and to talk you out of your calling and your ministry and or anybody or any human being on this, on this earth. 00:19:25.202 --> 00:19:41.932 And I'm telling you, when we train, when we know exactly what the Word says, then and we know all of His promises, like Selena said earlier, are true, they're yes and they're amen, and he's God, is your best cheerleader. 00:19:41.932 --> 00:19:46.001 He's holding your hand, he's saying yes, you can, and he's shouting your name. 00:19:46.001 --> 00:19:52.982 You know, champion, that's my favorite, my favorite part of champions, when we're talking about the blood of Jesus. 00:19:52.982 --> 00:19:54.895 It's calling out my name man. 00:19:54.895 --> 00:19:56.359 If we get to that part, it gets me. 00:19:56.359 --> 00:19:59.146 Every time the blood of Jesus is calling out my name. 00:19:59.146 --> 00:20:26.128 We're redeemed and we're set apart, we're consecrated, and when we stay that way, when we live that way, it's easy, and all you have to do is open this Bible every day and dig in, because every day is a new day and you get to start over with learning, fresh revelation, and it's and that's what it's all about to train like a champion, train spiritually like a champion, amen. 00:20:26.128 --> 00:20:44.586 And so the next thing I want to talk about, to staying qualified and knowing that you're qualified is real simple, and that is walking in the light, and so, like it's very easy. 00:20:44.625 --> 00:20:47.474 There's darkness all around us, haven't you noticed? 00:20:47.474 --> 00:20:50.540 There's darkness on every corner, right? 00:20:50.540 --> 00:20:52.424 You know Mark Hankins. 00:20:52.424 --> 00:21:11.234 He used to tell this story more in the past than recently, but when him and Trina first got married, they were on the road ministering and they just basically lived in a little shack of a home, and so when they would get back home to that little house and they turn on the lights, all the roaches would run. 00:21:11.234 --> 00:21:18.674 And so his point about that is when you turn on the light of God's word, all the roaches run. 00:21:18.674 --> 00:21:35.358 All the things in your life just scatter, and I'm telling you, light invades darkness and you have a powerful light, and so I just wanted to talk about something, a problem that I see, and relate it back to the world. 00:21:35.398 --> 00:21:50.201 You know, the more we drive, the more I see people at night without their headlights on, and it's an epidemic, it really is, and it's almost always a Toyota or a Lexus product, and I don't know what that is about a Toyota. 00:21:50.201 --> 00:22:04.842 So if you own a Toyota I'm being completely serious check your headlight switch, like, just look at it from time to time, and like yesterday when it was raining all day long and it was dark and you're you hadn't been to the car wash in like a year. 00:22:04.842 --> 00:22:15.076 So that little headlight, you know, whatever I'm trying, the sensor on your dash is like covered in muck and whatever, and it's never going to turn your headlights on. 00:22:15.076 --> 00:22:21.057 So go ahead and just flip your headlights on, please and so, but it really is, you're always. 00:22:21.057 --> 00:22:25.597 And so at first I would try to like catch up to the person and honk, we'll catch up. 00:22:25.597 --> 00:22:27.586 Really slow right, slow down. 00:22:27.586 --> 00:22:30.917 Honk at them, try to get the, and they don't know what I'm talking about. 00:22:30.917 --> 00:22:37.285 They're just happy driving down the road without any lights on, and now I just dodge them and kind of run them out of the way. 00:22:37.285 --> 00:22:39.875 I drive a big F 350 so I can do that. 00:22:39.875 --> 00:22:42.138 If you want to die, get in front of me. 00:22:42.138 --> 00:22:46.530 But uh, I'm being nice. 00:22:46.530 --> 00:22:49.373 I'm sorry, selena says I bully people out on the road. 00:22:49.373 --> 00:22:55.173 But so check your headlight switch and check the headlight switch in your heart. 00:22:55.173 --> 00:22:58.154 Just make sure that you're reflecting God's word. 00:22:58.154 --> 00:23:01.955 Make sure that you're studied up to show yourself approved. 00:23:02.645 --> 00:23:06.115 It's not worth going through life living in the dark. 00:23:06.115 --> 00:23:14.872 You know, I was going to use the same example of we get to tow trailers from time to time. 00:23:14.872 --> 00:23:20.934 Nothing big, nothing heavy, but the whole we've learned goal get out and look. 00:23:20.934 --> 00:23:27.270 So if I have a trailer we're backing up at night, selena's going to get out and call me on the phone and she's going to guide me back. 00:23:27.270 --> 00:23:40.726 And so years ago we had a boat and we were at the end of the day and I think she was half asleep and I didn't ask her to get out and look and I backed the rudder, like the propeller part, right through the garage, you know. 00:23:40.726 --> 00:23:43.153 So to this day there's a really nice slit. 00:23:43.153 --> 00:23:45.292 You know that's rusted by now. 00:23:45.292 --> 00:23:49.633 That was like 10 years ago or whatever, and I could have fixed that, I guess. 00:23:49.765 --> 00:24:10.608 But anyways, it's just so simple to get out and look, you have, if you're married you're married to your best friend, you're married to your partner for life, and they have a great ability to get you back on track and to guide you back into whatever you're trying to get into and to let you know hey, your lights are out, your lights are dim. 00:24:10.608 --> 00:24:25.611 Whatever the situation is, lean on your spouse as your helpmate, amen, and don't drive around in the dark without your lights on, especially if you have a dark vehicle. 00:24:25.611 --> 00:24:30.871 But you know we are to be a light and it's so simple to be a light. 00:24:30.871 --> 00:24:33.472 It's so simple to be a witness for the Lord. 00:24:33.472 --> 00:24:47.946 There's so many different areas that God uses us on a daily basis to reach out to people, and I'm going to use a personal example Hallelujah. 00:24:48.845 --> 00:24:50.751 So I like to eat breakfast. 00:24:50.751 --> 00:25:04.330 I'm a breakfast guy and breakfast is the best meal of the day and I like good breakfast places, but I also like mediocre breakfast places and the I-Hob right down the street from the church. 00:25:04.330 --> 00:25:12.875 They've been there for about 27 years and we've been in this area for about 25, 26. 00:25:12.875 --> 00:25:15.271 So basically the whole time. 00:25:15.271 --> 00:25:41.993 I know one waitress that opened there for this entire time and then that whole time Selena has never been to breakfast, like we'll go after a service or something to go minister to somebody a time or two she's been or with some relatives, but just, I know all the employees, I know all the waiters and waitresses and she's never been with me and so one of them I kind of helped out of a jam. 00:25:41.993 --> 00:25:48.969 They all know who I am, they all know where the church is and I brag on, you know, invite them to service and so on and so forth. 00:25:50.907 --> 00:26:07.838 And so finally I talked her into going with me a few weeks ago, and Manuel wasn't even our waiter, and he comes over and he starts a conversation in Spanish with Selena, which was kind of funny that he just somehow knew, and so he so. 00:26:07.838 --> 00:26:08.525 But he's leaving the table. 00:26:08.525 --> 00:26:14.576 He's like I'm going to let y'all enjoy your breakfast, but you're just, y'all are just over here growing in love. 00:26:14.576 --> 00:26:23.429 You know, some people get to 75%, 80% and they stop there, but y'all are just going to keep going and going and going to the end. 00:26:23.429 --> 00:26:38.493 And he just he turned around and walked off and like that was something that we were standing, a scripture that we had been standing on, that Jesus loved his disciples to the end, knowing that he was going to be betrayed. 00:26:38.493 --> 00:26:42.894 He loved them to the end, and so we're loving each other to the end. 00:26:43.226 --> 00:26:51.973 We just reached over 25 and 1 1⁄2 years, I guess, of marriage and we are just, it's like starting over again. 00:26:51.973 --> 00:27:01.494 We just decided, you know the trajectory that we're on we weren't happy with and so we just started over completely from scratch. 00:27:01.494 --> 00:27:13.946 It's not even New Year's, it's not even, you know, new Year's resolution time, and I'm telling you, we're about a month into this of totally I have all new habits, and so does she. 00:27:13.946 --> 00:27:26.775 Just your daily life, but it's centered around this right here, and so that's why we can get up here and minister together, and she shares half of what I'm going to say. 00:27:26.775 --> 00:27:41.994 It's not because she read my notes, it's because we've been fellowshiping one with another in unity, reading our Bible and studying the word together and growing closer to each other, and so, you know, I'm kind of like an open book when I get up here. 00:27:41.994 --> 00:27:48.511 So hopefully y'all can take that and hopefully that helps you in your own life. 00:27:48.664 --> 00:27:53.717 And so, hallelujah, amen. 00:27:53.717 --> 00:28:05.790 So no leave here tonight knowing that you're qualified, knowing your qualifications, and so it's not anything you've done, it's all on God. 00:28:05.790 --> 00:28:06.751 He's called you. 00:28:06.751 --> 00:28:10.535 He's called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 00:28:10.535 --> 00:28:21.989 I never even read my light scripture, but there's one right there he's called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, and it is marvelous, it's wonderful, it's amazing. 00:28:21.989 --> 00:28:26.535 His life and following His plan is greater. 00:28:26.535 --> 00:28:32.690 It will bring you more joy, it will bring you more satisfaction than anything the devil has to offer. 00:28:32.690 --> 00:28:35.567 Amen, amen, hallelujah.