Gods Check Points- 2-7 1996 Wed PM

 2-7 1996 Wed PM

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Genesis chapter 37. Look at if you would at verse number 14, please. Verse 14. Verse number 14. And you can turn this down a little bit, Brother Gene. Thanks. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the Vale of Hebron and came to, and he came to Shechem. Now what's going on here is Dad has sent off Joseph to check on his brothers. And if you know the story, Joseph was well beloved of his dad and wore a coat of many colors. And when he goes, his dad says, Listen, I want you to go check on your on your brothers. I want you to bring me word again on how they're doing and how the flocks are doing. Verse 15. And a certain man found him, and behold, he was what? Wandering. He's just out there wandering around in the field. Did you ever feel that way? And the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence. For I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. Now let me make a statement to you, and I want you to listen, if you would, just a little bit tonight. Joseph was sent to find his brethren to check on them and to check on the flocks. He had no idea of knowing that he wasn't going to see his dad again for years and years and years and years. He had no idea of knowing what was about to transpire in his life. He had no way of knowing he was going to go down to his brethren and they were going to fight over what to do, whether or not to kill him or how to kill him. He didn't know he was going to end up in a pit. He didn't know he was going to be sent to the Midianites and sold into slavery if you would. He didn't know he was going to be bought by Potiphar and go into Potiphar's house and be over his household. He didn't know that Potiphar's wife was going to lie about him and he was going to end up in prison. He didn't know that the baker and the butler were going to be in prison with him and that whole story. And he didn't load it later on he would come out and have a dream and end up in second in command of Pharaoh in Egypt. He didn't know any of that. And when he took off, there he was wandering out there and a guy saw him and said, Oh yeah, they're down this way. May I say to you that Joseph went for one purpose and one reason, but God had a completely different purpose and plan in mind for Joseph. Now, if you haven't faced this yet in your life, I believe if you walk by faith and walk in God's will, sooner or later you'll think you're going one way for one purpose, for a set purpose, and God has something totally different planned. That's one of the things. Somebody says, Christianity, is it boring? Absolutely not. I've never been bored yet. Challenged, tested, tried? Sometimes feeling defeated? Sure. Bored? No. Absolutely not. Brother Now, I know people that are in this church that never planned on being here. I know people that will probably live and die here that aren't planning on doing that. In fact, right now, you aren't planning on staying in this church. You got plans. You never know what God's going to do. And if you follow him by faith, brethren, you'll be going one direction. I'll be going one direction and thinking we're doing something, and probably in our minds we're doing right. In fact, Joseph was doing what he was supposed to be doing here, but God had a totally different plan in mind, and God could see ahead of him if you would, and all he needed to do was keep his momentum, keep going, and he ended up where he was supposed to be. And you get over there to the end of the Genesis when he finally gets reunited with his brethren. His dad had come up to see him, the wagons had come up and everything. And now his dad had died, and he says, Listen, I know that God sent me before you to preserve our way and our family in the future. And the idea is God had a plan here. Even though he was wandering around, God sent a man and got him where he was going. He just didn't know the heartache that was coming, but he also didn't know the blessings. I'll guarantee you right now that there's people in here that are going through some things, uh, just like maybe some of us are. And you uh you're going through this and you're kind of maybe wandering around maybe a little bit, or maybe you just found an area that you're supposed to be in, and you got a plan, you got a purpose, and you got a direction, but you never know. God may have something totally different in mind. Stay with me a little bit, and look, if you would, at 1 Samuel chapter 9. Let me give you the principle again. 1 Samuel chapter 9. Think with me just a little bit tonight. I'm not scolding anybody. There's nothing uh negative in this message. Look at 1 Samuel 9. Notice the same type of illustration here, and you'll see this uh many times throughout the Bible. 1 Samuel chapter 9, and uh this is the story of uh Saul. Look, if you would in verse number 3, please. And the asses of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. And Kish said to Saul, his son, take now one of the servants with thee, and arise and go seek the asses. So what did his dad tell him to do? Go find my donkeys. And he passed through Mount Ephraim, passed through the land of uh Shashleshah, and but they found them not. And they passed through the land, they keep on going, if you would, and you read the story down, and they're talking in verse 5 about, let's go back, we're not going to be able to find them. But he the servant says to him in verse 6, Behold, now there's a in a city a man of God, and he's an honorable man. All that he saith comes surely to pass. Now let us go thither, peradventure, he can show us our way that we should go. They go up and they see the seer, if you would. They see the prophet. And look what it verse 15, brethren. Look at verse 15. Now the Lord had told Samuel, that's the prophet, the seer, in his ear, a day, one day, a day before Saul came, saying, Tomorrow, about this time, I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the land of the Philistines. For I've looked upon my people because they cry the the their cry is coming to me. And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said unto me, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of. This same shall reign over my people. My brethren, I've preached on this before. Saul was out looking for donkeys. God had a different plan. The people that never find God's plan sometimes get frustrated because it didn't go the way they wanted it to go. It didn't go the way they expected it to go. And they have a little pity party and sit down and go, hmm, and stop doing anything. Come on, amen. Brethren, you need to get used to something. It's not always going to go the way you plan. It's not always going to go the way I plan. It's not always going to go the way we see it. Even when we get this great spiritual insight on what God's doing with our life, maybe it's not quite the way he had it, and he's just giving us enough to keep us going until he gets us where he wants us. Amen. Are you thinking or are you sleeping? How many are thinking? How many are thinking about sleeping? Not yet. Not yet. So look what happens here. Verse 18. Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is. Now look at Saul comes near to Samuel. That is the seer in the gate, and he says, He goes up to Samuel, who is the seer's, and says, Hey, I'm looking for the seer's house. And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer. Mark it down. That's not a coincidence. Go up before me into the high place, for ye shall eat with me today and tomorrow. I will let thee go and will tell thee all that is in thy heart. And look what he says. And as for thine asses, those donkeys that were lost three days ago, he says, Set not thy mind on them, for they are all found. And on whom is the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee and on thy father's house? He was out looking for donkeys. He shows up to a guy at a gate and he says, Listen, we're looking for the seer's house. And he says, I'm the seer. And the seer, the prophet says, by the way, he never even mentioned his donkeys. Those donkeys you're looking for, they're found. Everything's fine. I wonder how he slept that night, amen. Now, look what happens next, and you read it somehow if you want. Look at chapter 10 and look at verse 1. Then Samuel. Well, look at verse 27 of chapter 9 first. And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel and Saw said to Saul, bid thy servant pass on before us, and he passed on. But stand thou still a while, and that I may show thee the word of God. Now, may I say to you, uh, be careful, if you could and would, be careful about people coming up to you and prophesying before you on what you're going to do or what you're going to be. You never know when you run into some charismatic fool. Amen. And they got this word of knowledge, quote unquote, and they're going to come up to you and tell you what God, be careful. Try the spirits. I've been told different things by different people when I was on the mission field and all kinds of things, and none of them came to pass. So you've got to be careful about that. But, brethren, I want to say this to you. There's been some things that happened in my life that I look back and I see a principle where often God has you going for a certain purpose and a certain reason, a certain direction, and you think you got it figured out, he's got something totally different planned. It's kind of like the carrot. And you just keep going, you just keep going, you just keep going. And you go, oh, look at this. What a big, tremendous blessing. And we almost act like we knew it all the time. Well, we just kind of fell into it non-coincidentally. Have you been there yet? Look what he says. Verse, chapter 10, verse 1. Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured upon the head and kissed him and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? Um I remember, and I'll give you a couple illustrations. I remember after I got saved, I had uh I was in a church back in Beauford, South Carolina, and I, after I got saved, began praying for a wife. That's fairly normal now. I've seen through the years, after a man gets saved and he's not married, he he, it's not too long before he says, Pastor, uh, would you pray with me that I could find a wife? And uh I was praying for a wife, and if a woman walked in and kind of the right age and everything, uh, you know, you have a pretty big uh age span in there that you're thinking about. And uh and she's she's she's breathing and she uh is carrying a Bible. I mean, I would probably tell you that in all honesty and with some shamefacedness, uh, I would look and say, Is that her Lord? Is that the one I waited for? Well, I got to the place after doing that for a while that uh a man came by and he he was in this little sailboat, and he and another guy, and they were sailing, and uh I got wind and a word a little bit later that one of the men had got uh very, very ill and had to go back home. He was sitting in San Diego, California with the boat and needing somebody to help him, and and a call was made, and I said, Well, Pastor, if if you don't see anything problem with this, I'll just go help him get that boat wherever he's going. And so I got rid of everything I owned, uh, just literally just gave it away to people in the church and everything, and I didn't need it, I was single, and it you know, didn't mean anything to me, and I gave it away, and I'd pull up with a truckload of stuff and say, here, you can have this and you can have that and take whatever you want. And the church liked all the stuff they got and everything. And I was left with a van and a couple of things that I needed, and uh, I drove out here to San Diego. And uh, literally, true story, I decided, okay, I I'm not gonna have a wife. I'm going, it looks like, to help this guy on the mission field. I'm not gonna look for a wife anymore. I'm done with that caper, and Lord, uh, I'll just I'll just be a martyr. And uh I remember, I remember, I remember just giving up, done, finished, kaput, stop praying, wasting my time.

unknown 12:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Finished. And uh we uh we looked in the phone book that first Sunday morning for a church to go to, and it said independent fundamental Baptist. We went to a church and uh it just wasn't us. It may have been Independent Fundamental and Baptists, but it was dead. And we you you can tell a dead church when you walk in, amen. And uh we didn't go back there, and uh, we looked in the phone book again that afternoon. We saw Lighthouse Baptist Temple at that time, and uh we said, well, maybe this is it. And we we went to the Amherst property that night and sat in the back, and uh I didn't know it that evening as I walked in there, but uh uh my wife was sitting in the choir. Had no idea. I wasn't looking for one at that point in time. I was going to the mission field, and you know, there wasn't enough room real on the boat for anybody else at that time, so uh I just kind of resolved that we wouldn't, I wouldn't get married or anything like that. And we started going to the lighthouse, uh just fellowshipping there and everything. And uh, I'm sure that when I walked in, my wife knew. I think she probably thought, who is that handsome? Well, well to do. Soon to be missionary. I think I walked in and I had a uh I think I had a red pullover uh with a hood on and black uh military glasses. Yeah, just I mean, you know. What are you laughing at? You can you can picture it. And anyways, uh we uh we stayed there for three months. We had some problems getting some of the parts we needed for the boat, and over that period of time I got to know Patty just a little bit, but I was I was moving on and and I wasn't uh looking or anything like that. But before uh before I left, we we kind of knew that there may be something there, and we started writing a little bit and everything. But please look up here and listen. I I had resolved not to look for a wife, and I certainly wasn't gonna look one in for one in San Diego. I didn't have a short period of time, it was gonna be gone. And uh so I just decided I wasn't wasn't gonna get one. Isn't it amazing the way the Lord works things out? We were uh we were heading for the island of Fiji, and uh we uh we sailed to uh um down in Cabo San Lucas and down to Honduras and turned right and went to the Galapagos and went out to Tahiti and got to Samoa. We thought, well, we'll stop Samoa just for a couple days and then we'll move on. You know, uh God just stuck us right in Samoa. Our boat broke. It has a tendency to slow you down. And we had to fix the thing and everything, and uh, I didn't know it. It didn't dawn on me at that time. I was 30% retired disability, I had a gray ID card, and one day I looked up and there was a C-141 coming in, and I looked over on the iron and it looked like it was coming down, and it landed. I thought, man, I didn't need to go check this out. And when I went over to the airport, they say, Oh, yeah, they land all the time. They come in from Hawaii, and I thought, hmm, gray ID card, military hops. You can get out of Samoa on free and fly and everything like that. And Patty and I was continuing to communicate and everything, and it wasn't too much long later that uh we had talked a little bit about the possibility of marriage. And we had uh we had a long courtship, uh long distance. It was uh definitely by faith. I think more faith on her part than mine. Because I was asking her to leave America and leave her family and leave everything and come to live on a little boat in Samoa with me, her honey to be here. Isn't that romantic? Tahiti didn't, I'm sorry, uh Fiji never did develop. We we ended up staying in Samoa and God knew what he was doing because we we really saw some fruit and working with different ministries and helping to get some things started in the island of uh American Samoa. You know what's interesting? I had to come back to the States to get a re-evaluation. I had a bum knee at that time, and I had to get a reevaluation on the knee. And when I came back and walked into the medical review board at Balboa, they saw me walk in. They said, Where's your cane? Where's your crutches? Where's your brace? Where's all that? I said, I don't have it, I don't need it. They said, uh, okay, well, uh, let us see you. And they went through all the checks and everything, and they said, uh, well, um, we're gonna take your ID card back, give you severance pay. I thought, oh, that's nice. So when do you need it back? And they basically said, now. Well, that was the only way I had to get back to Samoa. There was no other way. I didn't have any money, didn't have any deputation, didn't have any support, didn't have anything like that. We were getting $400 a month from the military, and we're kind of subsiding on that. When they took my gray ID card back, uh we were left here. And uh we ended up coming to the lighthouse. And but I didn't come for the reason of being a pastor here. That never even crossed my mind. That was laughable. We came for totally different reasons than that. But you know what's interesting? I believe with all my heart this is where I'm supposed to live and die. San Diego, I I don't have any aspirations of going anywhere. This is just it. I mean, uh spiritually, I I know this is where God wants me. There's no doubt in my mind about that. And why would I want to live anywhere else that snow? I don't need to see it snow. I saw it snow a lot when I lived in Ohio. Shoveling snow, I don't need to shovel snow. Skiing, snowboarding, I'm I don't care about that. I'm 42. Why do I want to wreck my knees and my back and my amen, my head and all that kind of stuff, amen? This is kind of nice. I like the I like the climate here, like the like the weather, like the city, like the work. And uh I'm just gonna be, but please look at me. I never plan on staying in San Diego. I was thinking, Bill, Bill Longo came and preached for us. Uh, I don't know how many years ago, Brother Bill, uh four years ago, three years ago? I can't I can't even remember. I'm sorry? Yeah, and and and and well, I tell you what, uh, it was just like we we we talked a little bit and Matt. He said, well, maybe, maybe San Diego. Things worked out, this worked out and everything. But he didn't he didn't plan on coming here. It just kind of worked out that way. I could tell other, I could tell you about other people who came here under some good situations and some not so good situations. But God brought people here and they're in God's will. What I'm trying to say to you is this you may be going through something right now personally, maybe in your in your job, maybe in your family, maybe in your personal walk, and you kind of look and say, I, you know, I it just seems like I I I I I think I'm going the right direction, but it it it there's no rhyme or reason to it, and I and I and I can't see far enough to know kind of what to do in this thing, but I guess I'm doing right. I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing and doing what I'm doing, what I'm doing, and everything, and and I hope it works out. And sometimes, brother, you don't have a plan and you you don't have a big vision, and sometimes you think you got it stuck and you think you know your work, and somewhere along the way, instead of chasing donkeys, you find out it's something totally different. Look if you weed at 1 Samuel chapter 17. Stay with me. 1 Samuel chapter 17. I was thinking about Brother Miracle here, Brother Miracle. Uh I remember getting a call one day, and Brother Miracle said, uh, uh, Brother Fisher, you all have a Bible Institute down there. And I said, Yeah, and I Art, I don't remember all the details of the conversation. And he's he said, you know, I I'd like to I'd like to finish Bible Institute and have that training and everything. And and really I think uh, Brother Art, if I'm not mistaken, that's the reason you you came, was to go to Bible Institute. Came from the Bay Area, left the beloved 49ers, and uh, and uh still haven't lost that affinity. The Chargers didn't quite do it, amen. And anyways, uh, but uh the Bay Area, they love the Bay Area, and uh it still has a very special place for the Miracles when they were able to go up and visit. But came down here to go to Bible Institute. You know, when when Brother Miracle came, I didn't say, well, maybe someday you'll be on staff and you'll be associate pastor and you'll do this and you'll do that and everything. That wasn't the plan. He just came to go to Bible Institute. It's amazing what God has done along the way and in his life and family's life, and had a tremendous impact on this church in many different ways. I mean, I uh I I don't know when visitors come in, I mean, uh, and they meet and greet Brother Miracle, he's he's always known as that big uh uh friendly guy. And I'll say, Well, listen, I I I'll call a visitor up and I'll say, uh, hey, listen, uh, you visited our church. I hope you got something from the message and hope you felt friendly. He said, Some of them will say, Oh, yeah, that big friendly guy came up to me. The big one, you know. And I say, Oh, Brother Miracle. He said, Yeah, that's the one, Miracle. Oh, yeah, we felt very comfortable and everything. That's important. But Brother Miracle, they they didn't come to with a plan so much to be here and stay here, if you would, and be on staff here. They they came to go to the Bible Institute. Look at 1 Samuel, if you would, chapter 17. Say, preacher, you're trying to tell me something? I'm just trying to say, whatever you're going through right now, maybe you feel like, boy, I just don't know. Just be careful. Maybe God's got something for you. Look at 1 Samuel 17, verse number 16. And the Philistine drew near, morning and evening, and presented himself 40 days. This is who? Goliath. And Jesse said unto David, his son, Take now for thy brethren and Epha of his parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren, and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how the brethren fare, and take their pledge. So what is we supposed to do? His dad sent David and said, Go down there and take this to the captain and see how your brothers are doing. That's all he knew. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Epha, and they were fighting with the Philistine. David comes, verse 20, and rose up early in the morning, left the sheep with the keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded him, and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to battle and shouted for the battle. They always shouted, trying to get that adrenaline pumped up. Amen. Verse 21, and for Israel and the Philistines had put in the battle in array, army against army. You know the story. David leaves his carriage. He he goes up to greet his brethren, and he hears this Goliath and everything. And you know the story and what happened? David did not go to that battlefield to kill Goliath. That's not when he left home with those cheeses and all the things that he was supposed to take. He didn't go and say, I'm going to go up there and kill this giant, and then Saul will make me captain of the host, and then one day I'll be king. He didn't go with that purpose. He just went to do what his dad told him to do. But please look up and bear that. God had a whole different plan in mind. Completely different. Christianity is exciting. Trouble? Sure. Oppression? Yes. People against us? Absolutely. The world sometimes hates us? Yeah. Boring? No. Knowing what's going to happen next? If our lives and our soul and our will is given over to God, we don't necessarily know what's going to happen next. Because he owns us, he bought us, he paid for us, and he's in control, and we're just trying to submit to his will for our lives, and he's the one moving the chessboards of the pieces around on the board. So David, when he goes to see his brethren, he doesn't know that he's going to end up killing Goliath and becoming captain of the host. He never envisioned, look at chapter 18. He never envisioned this. Stay with me. Chapter 18, and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knit into the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Brethren, when he left to go up there, he didn't know he wasn't coming back. Are you with me? These are small little illustrations compared to what goes on in this Bible, but I remember one day uh deciding at the colony house, the military director, I remember going out, and you've heard this illustration, I'll say it again. I remember one day I said to Patty, uh, listen, I want to put a little garden in that side of the house over there that's opened up. And we went out and started digging and found out it was landfill from something and had asphalt in there and concrete and all that. I was mentioning to Chris Sturger about that, and uh Chris said, Yeah, I remember that. I came over and helped you do that. And uh, we dug this thing up and sifted the dirt down and put it back in there and everything. And I was building the garden. I thought it was gonna be a nice little garden, and and you know that roots don't grow well in asphalt underneath the surface and and bricks and uh concrete and all that kind of stuff, the landfill that was over there. And uh, anyways, uh, we didn't know it at the time, but uh God had an addition planned for the Colony House where where men were gonna come. And when you were a military director, and the military was much more active out here before they started cutting back in the in the years of Reagan, in the years of the almost 600 ship navy. I mean, there was a lot of military personnel out here, uh, NTC and apprentice training and and uh all the other schools and everything. And and there were times at the colony house when we were over there, we had 15 guys staying with us uh that were coming to church, and and uh we had seven or eight living over there at one time, and and we built that edition, and they lived out there, and and uh uh Patty was uh cook and uh and uh confidant and listener and uh and all the rest of the stuff to the guy's kind of mom and everything like that. And uh we didn't know we were gonna build an addition, all that was gonna happen. We were just building a garden. But God had something else planned. What I'm saying to you, it can be something real small. It doesn't have to be a city changing or a or a life changing, it could be while you're right here in San Diego going through things right now, and it's almost like, well, I just fell into it. Please look up here. No, God had a plan. God had a plan. And without knowing it, by staying in his word and staying in church and staying in prayer and staying around other Christians doing something, he led you into it. And he knew what he was doing. Maybe, uh, maybe your dear, well, I was out, you know, and I understand uh Saul was looking for donkeys, and God said, No, I'm gonna anoint him king. And David, he just went down to give some cheese to his brother. And Joseph, he just went down to check on his brother. But God had a plan. Statement. If you go a direction and you got a plan you think you know, and you get to the end of it, and you feel like, man, that's not it. I guess I just wasted my time and made a mistake. Maybe you didn't waste your time. Maybe you learned something while you were following what you thought God was doing in your life, but you got to the end and you hit a brick wall and you said, Man, I must have the wrong way here. Maybe you weren't going the wrong way, and God was leading you that way, and he was teaching you something there, and he had another plan, but that's the only way he could get you to where you are going to be. For example, oh uh a year ago, about maybe a year and a half now. You remember when we began to look at that urgent care facility over on uh Montezuma in El Cahon Boulevard? Some of you are here during that time? Oh, you don't know, but I I started looking at that thing well ever before I brought it before the church and met, had men meet down there, and we looked at that thing and looked at that thing and looked at that thing. And and boy, if you remember, I stood up and preached and said, you know, if God doesn't veto this, it looks like maybe we'll do that. And and I preached the messages on how we're gonna have to go by faith and and do that. You remember those messages? So I mean, we were looking at that thing, open house down there, and we walked through it and took our teenagers down and kind of planned the whole thing and looked at the thing and would have had to build an auditorium, and and everybody was kind of mapping out, and this will be the this will be our nursery. Remember that? And this will be, boy, look at that big kitchen, we could do this and that, and all kinds of stuff we were looking at. Uh there was a snag. Uh it was in the amount of about two million dollars. Just a small snag, that's all. And we looked at it, we thought, well, maybe we could do it, and we met and talked and everything like that. And finally, to make a long story short, oh, I think in about January or February of last year this time, I said, Nah. We started talking again, it just didn't look good. It was well beyond our reach. I don't know when I told the church, I I'm gonna say the end of February, first part of March, some of you maybe remember better than I do. And then we just let it die, and I said, Look, it's just not, it doesn't gonna work out unless God does something. And I just can't see it. We'll bury ourselves. Now, somebody might have said, boy, the pastor doesn't know what he's doing. You know what? I I think we're probably just chasing donkeys. I think we're probably just bringing cheese down to the boys. I think we were just out, you know, going down to check on the brethren down in Dothan. Because you know what, about three months later, uh, the fire inspector showed up and said, You gotta do something. And little did we know that we'd be over here. If you would have told us in November, by next year you'll be at a Seventh-day Adventist church, we would have said, What? Are you crazy? Us? Seventh-day Baptist? But, brethren, please uh understand something. Through that whole process of evaluating and looking, I think God was getting ready for us to move. And he was getting us prepared. Because wouldn't you agree? It was getting a little small over there for the whole church. Did you feel that, or was I the only one? Those of you know what I'm talking about. And some of you here, you'd never been to the property over there on a regular basis. You you started it in our church, and God's brought you here since we've been here. And we praise the Lord for you, believe me. We're glad you're here. You're an answer to prayer. We need help. But it was getting a little crowded over there, and uh there's a there was some uh parking problems. And other things. And uh I look back now and and I'm not remorsed at all that God showed us urgent care, and we talked about that. Why? Because it got us behind the scenes thinking about the possibility of making a move. And even I after it was over, and I believe God vetoed the thing, you know, it wasn't so much that I felt discouraged, I felt at peace that we looked about it, and I know some people were still saying, we've got to do something, we've got to do something. You know, God did it in his timing. Now I don't know what you're going through tonight. Would you ever think right now you might be chasing donkeys, but God's got something else? May I say to you, you better keep chasing those donkeys. That's all you know to do. You better take that cheese down, if that's what you know to do. You better go check on those brethren, those flocks, if that's what you've been told to do. You do what you've been told to do by God, and you don't try to figure out the rest, and you just do what you're told to do. And it's like when you get to checkpoint every, then I'll show you what to do next. And so you go towards checkpoint over with everything you got, and you don't worry about what's past that. You know where people get discouraged? They don't go towards checkpoint A and keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going and keep going. They're somewhere along the line saying, I don't like this.

unknown 34:18

Yeah, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

I don't like God's will for what he's doing in my life. I'm not, I'm not even gonna know some people, you know, it's like, well, they want to move from the pew to the pulpit. Yeah, you know, and they don't want to take all the steps in between. They just sit down in a minute or sit down in the pew and say, I should be up there preaching, I can do better than that. Well, maybe you could for one message. That one message you got that's just burden that just give you a chance, man.

unknown 34:48

Come on, come on.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

But you know, that one message won't do for 52 weeks out of the year. After we've heard it for three weeks three times a week for 52 weeks, we got the message down. And may I say to you, there's so much more than the ministry than just standing up here and making a fool out of yourself. You've got to make a fool out of yourself 24 hours a day. That's hard sometimes, amen. What you see up here is the tip of the iceberg. Believe me. If all I had to do was this, man, I'm one happy camper. But there's more to it than this. If you're moving towards checkpoint B, or C or D or X, I don't know how far along you are. Go towards that one. That's the one you know to go towards. And keep doing that and keep doing that, and maybe that'll be it, but maybe God's got something else planned, but I'll guarantee you it's not gonna get doll and boring. I was thinking uh our bus ministry right now. Uh a couple people visiting, that's okay. Our bus ministry right now. Uh, would you in the bus ministry say we're facing it and going, well, we don't know exactly what we're doing right now. We've got a plan. It's just recently that we found out, you know, we've got to make a few changes and everything like that. Brother, it's not a time to get discouraged. And I'm glad we're not. I've talked to a few people, they're not discouraged at all. They just say, man, we just got to buckle down and keep at it and got a little character and backbone and and uh, you know, and just keep on going. And that's good. That's the way it should be. So many people, when they when they face some of these things, you know, they they get to the place where because they can't figure it out, brethren, uh, who said we're supposed to figure out every step of the way? I I got a I got a sneaking suspicion that if I would have gone to Patty when I proposed and said, now Patty, listen, uh, I need to I need to tell you some things in the future here. But um, Patty, uh, if you marry me, you're gonna go to Samoa and live on a little boat. Then uh then you're going to go lay in a hospital for a while. And then we're gonna fly you out, and you're gonna be in another hospital in Hawaii, beautiful Hawaii, for 30 days. Somebody says, Do you want to go to Hawaii? I said, We've been there. Tripler Army Hospital. 30 days she laid in there. And then you're gonna go back to the States, and your husband's gonna leave you to go back, and then he's gonna come back, then you're gonna come back down to San Diego, then you're gonna do the military ministry for a while. In fact, one night you're gonna walk down and you're gonna see this big fish laying in the sink, and you're gonna get kind of mad and tell Doug, I've had it with these guys. I remember that. You shouldn't say that. Hey, listen, it gets frustrating sometimes. And then one night Doug's gonna walk home and say, guess what? And uh he's gonna say, what? And he's gonna say, Well, I'm the new pastor. And oh. And so if you were to do all that, Patty, all you have to say is yes, and we'll do it. She probably would have said, No. Not in this life, not in the next life, not in any life. Because I just can't see myself doing that. And brother, we don't see ourselves with what God has planned for us, but that's why we have this new nature. And he's got something planned well and above and beyond what we ask to think. The bus ministry is going through some transitions, but may I say this, and and I hope you don't mind minding me taking a little bit of time. The bus ministry has been through transitions before. Sure we have. Brother Sturger, I remember when uh when we looked at splitting A's from the B's. We say, why did you actually do that? Over in our property, over in Amherst property. Every once in a while uh we would look and you know the A's and the B's are learning at different levels. And we looked at that situation and we decided it would be best to split out the A's from the B's. And you know what? That has been tremendously efficient. We get to reach those B's in a much more efficient way. They're still part of the church. Always will be. I remember when uh when we were talking to Brother Sturger about going from where we had multitudes of Sunday school classes and then junior church. We had multitude of bus Sunday school classes, and then we decided to go to a longer junior church. That was a transition. I remember when it came in the the previous fire inspection before July, stay with me, and uh they said, well, and you gotta get rid of this, and you can't beat in there and everything, and there was just no way to have bus children on our property anymore, and we moved them to Crawford. That was a big transition. But you know what? God all along the way knew what he was doing. Everywhere. And now we may, I don't know what we're doing. You say, well, well, what do you think now? I don't know. We're meeting after the services tonight to talk about it again. And I'm praying, doing a little fasting, seeking God's direction. But I know this: you just keep chasing donkeys, and sooner or later you find God's will. If that, in fact, if that's what we're supposed to be doing. Or if he says, just take that cheese down there, or if he says, go down and visit your brother. But I do know this too. If this, if these examples are anything that's going to happen to us, there's gonna be trouble along the way. Hey, Joseph ended up going down to see his brothers and ended up in the pit, and then when he rode away, he was on the back of a camel of the Midianites or whatever he was, and he looked back and and I and he saw his brother and and I don't even think they were waving at him. And off he went and he got stowed. Could you see the market that was going on when he was stolen to Potter's first house? I mean, he was the he was well beloved of his dad and and was missing his dad probably. I mean, it wasn't a bed of roses, that's for sure. And then he goes into Potiver's house and God begins to bless him, and the woman lied about him, and he ends up in jail. Can't you see him in jail going? But he kept a good attitude. I didn't, I I we could ask him when I get there, but I wonder if he said somewhere along the way, I wonder what I got here. I go down to see my brothers, and here I'm in jail. The butler, the baker caper, and the next thing he knows, he's up with Pharaoh, and he's Pharaoh's putting his ring on him, putting his robe on him, and everybody's bowing down to him. I mean, it's looking pretty good. That looks real good when his brothers come. And he has to hide while he weeps. My point is, he couldn't see it all the way along the way. Hey, if we could, it wouldn't be faith. I get discouraged sometimes. I don't know what's going on next sometimes. And if anybody says they do, they're maybe more spiritual than the rest of us. Ladies, your husband doesn't always have it figured out. Even if he says he does. Humor him. Just say, I'll pray for you, dear. And then when he comes and says, now we almost had it, but I think now it's this, just say I'll pray for you. Relax. At least he's thinking, at least he's looking, at least he's searching, at least he's in his Bible, at least he's trying to follow God. And sometimes it will look unorthodox. Doesn't make any sense. Since when does some of these things in this Bible make sense? God's will is not always something you just you just look at and say, oh yeah, that that fits. God has ways well beyond our ways, well past finding out. Just go what you can do until you you find out what's next. Look at one more. Stay with me. Look at Acts chapter 9. I'll I'll I'll close this. And I know you might say, well, I don't know, this message. Listen, brother, you may be going through something right now, and if you're not, maybe the person next to you is. Acts chapter 9. I don't know where you're at. I didn't know who was going to be in here one way or the other. But I really think that with this bus ministry situation also, we need to look at it and say, God's got a plan. We just need to keep going through checkpoint delta or whatever it is by this point in time until we find out what's next. Oh, by the way, if anybody's wondering, we're not shutting down the bus ministry. Just just if anybody has even thought about that. That hasn't been part of our discussions. When when when Brother Sturger and I talk, we don't talk about shutting it down. That's not that's not a You know, God's calling us without repentance. I mean, we're we believe God's in this thing. And by the way, we didn't do it. We didn't continue the bus ministry. We didn't move on with this bus ministry just to report in a newspaper how many we had. If we would have done that, we would have bailed out of the bus ministry when everybody else did at the gas crunch. There was a number of times when we could have bailed out and had a good reason. No? Had a good excuse. No, so we're not we're not closing the bus ministry down. There's people in here who's giving their lives to those riders. Watch them develop for years. No, we're we're we believe God's got a plan. Just excited to watch what's next. You say, well, so the whole message is about the bus ministry. Oh, no, no, no, no. The whole message is about your life. And my life. And the church's life together. Amen? Smile or something like that. Like you enjoy it. Are you thinking? Are we okay? I guess we are. Acts chapter 9. Look at it. Saul was breathing out threatenings. And look at verse 2, please. And he desired of him letters to wear? Damascus. So Saul wants to go to Damascus. Look what he wants to do. And nothing ever found of the way of this way, Christianity, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And he journeyed and he came near Damascus. Now, please, what was he going to Damascus to do? He was going to Mascus to find Christians, to bring them back, so they could kill them. And on the road there on the way to Damascus, well, you know his testimony. He tells you about it again in the Acts, book of Acts, at least twice. Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city. It shall be told thee what thou must do. You know, on his way to Damascus, Saul didn't have that plan. His whole life was about to change. His whole eternity was about to change. He didn't have that plan. He was just doing, and by the way, if you read in other accounts, he was doing this zealously and thought he was doing it as unto God. But he was doing it, he said later, in ignorance. Is that right? But he thought he was doing this under God. He thought he was killing Christians under God. He was practicing his religion with zealousness. And please realize that God goes before him and tells a guy that there's this man coming and he's a chosen vessel and he's going to come in, and Anias and everything, and God got the whole thing planned out. But Saul, who became Paul, certainly couldn't figure it out. Was there trouble? Oh yeah. If you know it wasn't too much later that they had to let him over the wall in the basket, because they were after him. Brethren, there always seemed to be trouble surrounding these unorthodox ways that God directs us. Almost weekly, we run into people, we soul-winning calls from people, people you run into. Almost weekly, we run into people who are in the midst of great trouble and trial. May I say to you, a lot of those times, it's opportunities to win them to Christ. Now listen to me. You may have run into somebody earlier this week, or maybe going to run into somebody tomorrow, the next day, or last week, or two weeks from now, and they're going to be in great distress. Brother, do you know what? God brings us to us sometimes, bring them to us in that stress, in that distress, so we have the opportunity to lead them to Jesus. I run into often Christians through different contacts, sometimes your contacts, and they are Christians already in great distress, and I realize that God is using that as an opportunity to draw them to himself so he can use them in some way, shape, or form. Tomorrow night, uh, there'll be door knocking going on. We're going out into some areas and we're going to knock some doors. You know, you're going to run into some people out there that they might be in great distress. And I don't know how many times I've heard somebody who's been out in personal evangelism come back and say we knocked on the door tonight, and when we open the door and they said we said we're from a church, we'd like to talk to you about the Lord. The people said, You know, we've just been thinking about that. We've just been praying about that. We've just been considering finding a church, and it's not always the Baptist church that they're looking for. Why? Because they had trials going on and problems and stress. Brother, I'm telling you that God works on people's lives sometimes in unusual ways that brings about these analysis of ourselves to people, and God's using them to draw them to Himself. That's why we've got to continue to look. We've got to continue to search, and we've got to continue to be open-minded. I'll guarantee you, God will bring men in our church that may be saved or unsecond that come to this church and they don't know it, but they're going to go to the Bible Institute. And they're going to get struggled in the Lord. They may be in this church for a long time, or they may go out and do something else. But God will bring them here. And God will bring women. Sometimes they come and you look at what they've got going on, and it just looks like a what a mess. But how were you found? I'll tell you how he got me. It looked like I had everything together. But inside, brethren, I was a mess. In my heart and in my head. And I was going down. Destroying, self-destructing. Little booze. Wrong way of living. God knew his too. And many of you would have that testimony too. And I'll guarantee you, please, one more last thing. There are also out there Christians who are backslid, that are destroying themselves, that we will run into. And God wants to use them as a chosen vessel. And you'll run into them too. They're just as important to reclaim. Seeing people saved, glory to God, I get thrilled out of that. Seeing people reclaim for the Lord and go on to do something, I get a thrill out of that too. They're out there. Such were some of us. I don't know. Maybe tonight you feel like you've been chasing donkeys for a while, or all you feel like you're doing is just taking the cheese, or maybe you just feel like, well, I'm just going down to check on somebody. It doesn't seem like anything is going on. Or man, here I did this and this didn't work out, and I did that and that didn't work out. Did you ever think that all things work together for good? And that God's got a plan and a purpose and a way and a rhyme and reason. Now, if you just keep on going. I'll make this last statement and it's 8.15, we'll close. And do you know understand this is a more of a pastoral message, I guess. In our bus ministry right now, we're going to keep on going. We don't see clearly yet everything, but we're still, there's still a lot of activity going on behind the scenes. People making calls to, we've checked with laylaw again, we check with different things, and we're looking for different things, and there's things going on. We're praying. Don't give up on that. Don't stop yet. We're kind of right in the middle of it. It's exciting, but see what's happened. You say, I already know what's going to happen. Do you? Wow. That's impressive. Come tell me. I'm interested. But don't get discouraged if God does it a different way. I've learned something. It's best sometimes not to open your mouth. And tell everybody what you think God's going to do. He'll humble you. He'll really humble you. I mean, I remember, oh, I think God's going to do this, you know. And oh, really? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Got it all. Yeah. I think he's shown me. Yeah. Not even close. Have you ever been there? Sometimes it's best just kind of keep your mouth shut and let your words be few. Watch what God does. Keep your chin up and keep going. Don't get discouraged too much. Keep in your Bible. Keep in His presence. And I'll guarantee you, when you finally get to whatever it is that's next or where you're at right now, you'll be happy. He knows the desires of our hearts before we do. And he puts them in there sometimes and then moves us towards those desires. I think Jesus said, Not my will but thine be done. And that's the way we have to be too. That if he allows me to pastor this church until I'm older and grayer and hairless. What are you laughing at? I think I'd be very content with that. As long as we keep doing something for God. In fact, I'm sometimes not real happy with myself. You know what I'm talking about? But where God has me and what he has me doing. I'm happy with that. You say, would you do it all over again? Wouldn't want to. I heard somebody say, oh, if I could just go back and live life over again, I think, why would you want to do that? I don't want to go back and be a child again. You say, oh, if you could change it all. Well, why would I want to change what God's done? Well, it could get better. It could have got worse. I don't know. Rather than looking back and looking and saying, well, I'd like to do it all over again. Maybe instead of that, and maybe living in the past, and I shouldn't have done this and I shouldn't have done another. I just wouldn't have done this. Why don't you start right now and so rather than looking at what I should have done, maybe I'm looking at what I'm doing right now and go to the next checkpoint and wait on him. And just keep on going. Hey, it's not time to quit. If anybody's even considered, it's not time. We don't rest yet. You say, I'm not planning on resting, I'm planning on quitting. Well, don't do that yet. The only time we're going to rest is in the millennium when we're in charge. And we will be in charge. Amen? I think some of y'all are going to have some cities to kind of be in charge of. That's a whole different sermon. It's not time to quit, not time to rest. It's time to keep on going. And do something for the Lord. Brethren, redeem the time. As I look at this thing lining up, have you watched the news? Have you kept in touch? You say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lord's coming. The Lord's coming. Don't be a scoffer. He is coming. Oh, he is coming. And you can't tell me it's not getting closer. Come on. Look at this thing. We got the world in world system just more and more and more. We got one world religion. I mean, they're all joining hands and singing the Coke song. Amen? Like to teach and all that stuff. Every time they do that, I say, glory to God. I'm not worried about all these different parachurch organizations that are doing all that stuff. Man, they're just getting all ready. Everything's fine. Economically, the world's getting closer and closer to that one world thing. It'll be interesting to see who's elected next in America for president. Hey, who are you going to vote for? Consider the choices, amen. Looks like to me we're getting closer. Let's see. Lead me, God. But there's still some work to be done. Still something for God has us to do down here, or we would be in heaven. And if you're discouraged tonight, then God's got something for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here to listen to this little message.