SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parquay Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we confess this what we just sang, and that your glory is what our hearts long for.
SPEAKER_01: And yet that presents a dilemma because the Bible says that we've sinned and fallen short of your glory.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible also goes on because it's a story of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a story of guilt or blame.
SPEAKER_01: It's a story of redemption because we've fallen short of your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you've come to restore that which we forfeited through disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: You've come to restore by your own obedience.
SPEAKER_01: And cause us to be a people that live for your glory.
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: So what we see, God, in this beautiful confession this morning is that it's your nature.
SPEAKER_01: Redemption is in your nature to restore and give back what we forfeited.
SPEAKER_01: So your glory is what our hearts long for.
SPEAKER_01: So we've come today to get in touch with our deepest appetite and to kind of align our affections with our deep appetite of soul that says, I just long for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says of your glory that one day it's going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we uh want to get our heads around that.
SPEAKER_01: We want to just take a moment and just kind of breathe that in.
SPEAKER_01: Of all the things that are happening in our world today.
SPEAKER_01: We get to live for what we were created to experience.
SPEAKER_01: We get to live a life that craves that, that longs for that, and not only just kind of longs for it like it's never gonna happen, but we get to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: And the more we experience it, the more we want to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, increase our appetite today with your word and your presence.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: And we're in a series, if you're our guest today, we're in a series called Encounter.
SPEAKER_01: And in the series called Encounter, what we're doing is we're looking at different encounters that people had in the Bible with God.
SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to look at the experience of a man named Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Saul was a, let me give you a little bit little bit of background about Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Saul was a very religious person, a very driven person.
SPEAKER_01: He's like a type A personality, very hardcore.
SPEAKER_01: He's the zealous guy that talks real loud at work on Monday when you walk in and you're like, hey, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, man, I will take a pencil and jam it in your neck.
SPEAKER_01: Just lower your voice, okay?
SPEAKER_01: That was Saul.
SPEAKER_01: He was just religiously obnoxious, uh, brilliant man, brilliant man.
SPEAKER_01: He was zealous for God and for religion, but his zeal was not based on knowledge until this happens.
SPEAKER_01: Um, excuse me, Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk to you this morning about the beauty of a life interrupted.
SPEAKER_01: The beauty of a life interrupted.
SPEAKER_01: And before I read, let me just kind of tweak that and give you a couple of definitions.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when I say the beauty of a life interrupted, that's what we're going to see in the text, but I want to say this.
SPEAKER_01: When we feel interrupted, there's a good chance we're being invited.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel interrupted, there's a good chance what's really happening is God is really just inviting you to kind of live from a bigger perspective.
SPEAKER_01: And so don't get offended that thing every day doesn't go your way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, like one of my kids asked me recently, Dad, you get up in the morning and you kind of go to work, and you you seem, you know, everything seems to go your way every day.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, really?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever gave you that idea?
SPEAKER_01: But well, you don't come home frustrated and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: I get frustrated in the midst of the day, but one of the things that allows me to get back to a good place is I gotta tell myself, hey, I'm this happened and it's an interruption, but maybe God's invited me to live and think differently in this moment, which is what we're gonna see in Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: We'll start reading verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: It says, But Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, and he went to the high priest and he asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: But rise and enter the city, and you'll be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_01: The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
SPEAKER_01: Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
SPEAKER_01: So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
SPEAKER_01: For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.
SPEAKER_01: But Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and that he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_01: So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you again may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight, and then he rose and was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: And uh reading the Bible, let me say this, and then I want to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Reading the Bible sometimes is like you're being in a room.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in a room and all of a sudden the lights go out?
SPEAKER_01: And immediately the first thing is, I can't see anything.
SPEAKER_01: But if you'll just kind of set there for just a couple of minutes, your eyes will adjust, and you'll be able to make things out there all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_01: What felt like just total, oh, I can't see my hand in front of my face.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty soon, you will like be able to see some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Things will begin to your eyes just adjust and you can see clearly.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you read the Bible, a lot of times you read stuff and you're just kind of like, I don't get that, but just kind of sit there with it.
SPEAKER_01: Keep looking at it, and all of a sudden things will manifest themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, as I was getting ready the past three weeks for this morning, I just kept reading over Acts 9, reading over Acts 9, Acts 9, verses 1 and 19.
SPEAKER_01: And one day the thought went through my mind, God, how is this really relevant?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is great.
SPEAKER_01: There's a man going around and he's basically uh persecuting Christians and and he's locking them up, men and women, if they belong to the way, capital W, to reference Christianity, and and he's persecuting them.
SPEAKER_01: It's basically religious persecution.
SPEAKER_01: We don't really, I don't know how relevant that is to our day and age.
SPEAKER_01: And then I started laughing because I watched the news that night.
SPEAKER_01: You heard of a group called ISIS?
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden it just, see, the longer you sit there, the more and and stare at the text, the more clear it just kind of becomes.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's really nothing new under the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was going around, I don't know that he was beheading people, but he was locking up Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And he said he had authority to do it.
SPEAKER_01: He had letters from the high priest, he had permission.
SPEAKER_01: This was this was religiously uh uh an okay thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, the more I stared at the text, the more it got clearer, and the more it got clear, and the more it got clear.
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to share with you five or six things that we just kind of take away from this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: Starting with number one is simply this that no one has done so much that God has given up on them.
SPEAKER_01: No one has done, no one's beyond the pale, no one's done so much that God has given up on them.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look again, if you would, at verse one and just kind of stare at it.
SPEAKER_01: The lights just went out, and it's like I I can't really see anything.
SPEAKER_01: It says, but Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, What do you mean, but Saul?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 9 picks up, I mean, it kind of continues this flow of thought that happens in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Well, happens in chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch, Philip, the Holy Spirit tells Philip to go run alongside this chariot.
SPEAKER_01: Long story short, this guy's reading from the scroll of Isaiah, does not understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Philip explains the gospel to him.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great phrase, great verse in Acts chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Philip says, Do you understand what you're reading?
SPEAKER_01: And the guy says, How can I unless someone explains it to me?
SPEAKER_01: And so he invites Philip to come up and set with him, ride shotgun.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says this, and beginning with that verse, he told him the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I had a professor in college that would come along, he'd walk by your desk and just grab your Bible, and he'd just kind of thumb through it, and he would just put his finger down into a verse and say, Read that verse, and you'd read it out loud, and he'd say, Tell me the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you couldn't tell him the story of Jesus from random verses, like some poor fool got he got Leviticus one time, where it kind of gives you instructions how to do certain things, I'll just leave it at that.
SPEAKER_01: And our professor said, Tell me the story of Jesus, and the kid was like, The law points us to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the kid couldn't, and the professor kicked him out of class.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to waste my time with people who cannot learn.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else doesn't want to learn today?
SPEAKER_01: You can't tell the whole sweeping narrative.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's not a bunch of Old Testament stories and New Testament stories, it's one story, the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, please, Hammer, don't hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what Philip does.
SPEAKER_01: Philip tells him the story of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Just cover from that verse.
SPEAKER_01: You're reading in Isaiah, bam! I pick up the dialogue and bring Jesus to bear on it.
SPEAKER_01: And so when the Bible picks up in Acts chapter 9, verse 1, and it says, But Saul.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, contrary to everything that was going on around, all this cool God stuff, Saul was still being Saul.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If you went back and don't write now, but you went back to chapter 7, they killed a man named Stephen.
SPEAKER_01: More religious persecution.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't behead him, they stoned him to death.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says in Acts chapter 7, they took their coats off and they laid them at the feet of a man named Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Same guy.
SPEAKER_01: If Saul were alive today, he would be with Isis.
SPEAKER_01: Now, see, the more you stare at the Bible, the more clear it kind of becomes.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: No one has done so much that God has given up on them.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, but Saul, Acts chapter 9, verse 1, steal, but Saul, steal three horribly tragic words.
SPEAKER_01: You and I should not be the people we are today, a month from now, a year from now, two chapters from now.
SPEAKER_01: Sanctification is this progressive reality where we come more and more like Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way.
SPEAKER_01: Men or women, equal opportunity, destroyer.
SPEAKER_01: He might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, uh, okay, I got it.
SPEAKER_01: No one is has done so much that God has given up on them.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the application.
SPEAKER_01: Who have you given up on?
SPEAKER_01: Who is it in your life that when you get around them, you just roll your eyes like, uh, brace for impact.
SPEAKER_01: Here she comes.
SPEAKER_01: We've got a yes on this side of the room.
SPEAKER_01: We've got anybody over here?
SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
SPEAKER_01: We write people off on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: It's just because they get on our nerves or they wear us out or they're not as cool as we are, or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: See, the first thing the Bible tells us is, hey, no one has done so much that God has given up on them.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we take away from this encounter is that a right knowledge of God changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: A right knowledge of God changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 says, now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
SPEAKER_01: And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: That's the only question.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if if later today, uh, if you're our guest today, we're having a meet and greet after our third service back here in the warehouse, and we're gonna be touring our new children's ministry building, you're welcome to come.
SPEAKER_01: Free food.
SPEAKER_01: You can kind of see how God's moving in the life of this church.
SPEAKER_01: We're having to create more space for the students that we're raising up.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh you say, well, uh oh, oh, oh, oh, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but one of the things that that that you see here, if on the way walking over there, a light from heaven kind of flashes, and I get knocked to the ground and I'm blind for three days, I'm gonna have a bigger question than who are you?
SPEAKER_01: My question is gonna be, do you have an attorney?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna get this on in court, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna get mines.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's gonna owe me some money for this.
SPEAKER_01: When we live in a country where somebody spills hot coffee on themselves and sues McDonald's and gets millions of dollars, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're so litigious, but Saul, the only question he had was this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's knocked to the ground, he's blind, and he says, Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that is the most clarifying answer you can get to any question in the world.
SPEAKER_01: I watched a video this week of Nagme Abedini.
SPEAKER_01: Her husband Saeed is imprisoned in Iran, wrongfully imprisoned, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we can get all up in a twist.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I saw Leonardo DiCaprio uh speaking at the UN.
SPEAKER_01: What is why do we have an actor speaking at the UN?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Hello, what's wrong with us?
SPEAKER_01: We got a man in prison, and we got Leonardo DiCaprio talking about carbon emissions.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, just just go away, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just go make another bad movie and get overpaid for it.
SPEAKER_01: But he's in prison.
SPEAKER_01: His daughter turns like eight years old while he's in prison, been there two years, and the video was his wife, Nagme, reading a letter that Saeed wrote to their eight-year-old daughter, and he basically said, Hey, you may be asking why, you may you may want to know why, but the answer to why is who.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, I just burst into tears because I thought about this right here.
SPEAKER_01: Who are you Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And if you can get a biblical, not a cultural, answer to the question, who are you Lord?
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that can happen to you that'll shake your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason we're so easily shaken, the reason that some people say, Well, I just can't believe in the doctrine of election.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe in a God that would make people, and they would just never have a chance.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have the right answer to the question, who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn, it'll come up on the screen, Exodus chapter 34.
SPEAKER_01: I think anytime in the Bible when God self-discloses, God kind of says, This is who I am, we should pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: This is Exodus 34.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses has gone up to get the Ten Commandments, and God kind of self-discloses with these words from Exodus 34, 7.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_01: See, what you see in that is that there's balance in God.
SPEAKER_01: We love that part that says keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, yes, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: And then God, who kind of says, Hey, I am a God of love, but let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: I will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just take one attribute of God and make that your God.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: You know one of God's attributes, and you want that to be God.
SPEAKER_01: You want that to fit everything.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Hey, I will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I'll visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generations.
SPEAKER_01: I've told you before, I don't mind telling you again, you're not just obeying today for yourself, you are obeying for the legacy you're gonna leave here on this earth long after you're gone, to the third and fourth generations.
SPEAKER_01: Why else would the Bible say, all through the Psalms, one generation will tell of your deeds to another?
SPEAKER_01: One generation will tell of your deeds and your children, and he even says in one point in the 72nd Psalm to your children and the children's children, those yet unborn.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because one of the things when God self-discloses, you see balance in God.
SPEAKER_01: You don't see extremism in God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, I'm a God, it's I keep steadfast love, forgiven to thousands, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: Mom and dad, if you clear the guilty, you are misrepresenting authority to your children.
SPEAKER_01: If you wink when your kids disobey and you go, Oh, I know it's wrong, but that's just so cute.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care if they're three years old, you are ingraining a bad pattern of behavior in them.
SPEAKER_01: I never disobeyed when I was growing up and thought it was cute.
SPEAKER_01: Because no one looked at me and said, Oh, that's really cute.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, my dad said, What did I tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: And I hated that question, but what it taught me was, I have transgressed the authority figure in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare for impact.
SPEAKER_01: Because it was coming.
SPEAKER_01: There was no time out.
SPEAKER_01: Our kids, they took after our their mother.
SPEAKER_01: My mother, my my mother, creepy, that got weird.
SPEAKER_01: My wife, her parents would look at her and say, We're so disappointed, and it would just crush her.
SPEAKER_01: My dad never said that to me once.
SPEAKER_01: I wish my dad would have said that to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: Stings for you.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, because my dad through my wicked heart, my dad took that belt off while he was asking the pop queos, what did I tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: And you had to answer that question, and then you had to confess your sins one to another.
SPEAKER_01: What did you do?
SPEAKER_01: So there's the standard, you fell short of the standard, and I'm here to punish the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: And it was like a square dance.
SPEAKER_01: And you try, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes my dad, he was a big old, strong redneck, he would just hold you up, whack, whack, whack, and just throw you down, grab another.
SPEAKER_01: I saw my dad whip a whole little league team one time.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01: He was the coach, and one of them was like, Oh, you didn't whipping me.
SPEAKER_01: You mess up on our farm and see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Whip 15 kids at one time.
SPEAKER_01: I thought he had to stop and break, take to take a cigarette break, but he didn't.
SPEAKER_01: He pushed through.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: what you see in God is that, hey, he says, hey, I'm a God of steadfast love for thousands, forgiven iniquity and transgression and sin, but I'm balanced.
SPEAKER_01: It's what John says in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: God is a God of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: You can't run to either side of the equation and say, I love grace.
SPEAKER_01: Grace without truth is just permission.
SPEAKER_01: But truth without grace is just law.
SPEAKER_01: But grace and truth is God.
SPEAKER_01: And God self-discloses way back in Exodus and says, hey, this is what I'm about.
SPEAKER_01: See, a right knowledge of God changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: Saul struck to the ground, blind, disoriented, his friends freaking out.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to them in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like, okay, I got one question.
SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a right knowledge of God today?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, I think I do.
SPEAKER_01: I I think, uh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh see, there's a difference in the God who is and the God that you can agree with.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you worship a God you can agree with.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't believe anything, he doesn't do anything that offends your sensibilities.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just caution you, be careful that that God, that your God is still worthy of worship.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because when after God says, Hey, visiting the iniquity, he says, I'll by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_01: And then the next verse says this, the next sentence in this passage says this, and Moses.
SPEAKER_01: This is Moses' response to God's self-revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_01: When God reveals himself to you, do you just bow down and worship, or do you get offended?
SPEAKER_01: You see, a right knowledge of God changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking with a friend last week, and he just seemed down.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I'm in a conversation, I I'm not a good liar.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're in a conversation, and my friend was just down.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey man, what's up with you?
SPEAKER_01: You look like you're depressed or something.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I just, I'm just, I don't know, I just gotta lie.
SPEAKER_01: And he just started talking and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And and somehow we got on the subject of how we view God, and I said, Where's God in all this?
SPEAKER_01: And and he said, You know how I view God?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, tell me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, as a kid, when I would come in every day, my lasting memory of my dad was my dad asleep in our recliner in his recliner in our living room.
SPEAKER_01: Every day my dad would come up from work, get in the recliner, and pass out, fast asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as a little kid, I grew up with a dad that was always asleep, and I never wanted to wake him up and bother him.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, this is a grown man, people.
SPEAKER_01: He just wells up with tears, and he said, So, my image of God is that he's asleep in his recliner, and I don't want to wake him up and bother him.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, it all depends on me and I.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, and now I'm depressed.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's a wrong knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's not who God is.
SPEAKER_01: See, a right knowledge of God changes everything, is a second takeaway from this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing we take away is simply this: God operates with the belief that he gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: God operates with the belief that he gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just pick up.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, he said, and he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_01: You know my favorite part of verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: The first word.
SPEAKER_01: But but who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: I am Jesus whom you're persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: I'm you you you you are coming to the wrong person.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus said, and then God speaks.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks and says, but, but, enough with trivial matters.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get on to what needs to be done.
SPEAKER_01: But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what to do.
SPEAKER_01: See, God operates with the belief that he gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why is that a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Because most of us operate with the belief that you get to tell God what to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's why all the formula little books they sell at the bookstore are bestsellers.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're going to somehow back God into a corner with our little prayers, and then He now, oh, he obligates us.
SPEAKER_01: We've got him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just going to say to you, no, you don't.
SPEAKER_01: You never have, and you never will have God backed into a corner where his only recourse, his only response is to do what you're telling him to do.
SPEAKER_01: No, God operates.
SPEAKER_01: And Saul says, Hey, hey, who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting.
SPEAKER_01: But stop boring me with your small questions, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But rise and enter the city, and you'll be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, I got a plan beyond your circumstance right now.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Saul's blind, knocked to the ground, disoriented.
SPEAKER_01: He is out of it.
SPEAKER_01: He's just kind of like, oh, and all of a sudden, God drops this merciful truth into his head and into his heart.
SPEAKER_01: There's more.
SPEAKER_01: You think this is nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I could have killed you right here on the road.
SPEAKER_01: Don't jerk with me.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody asked me to write a college recommendation for them.
SPEAKER_01: Don't ask me that.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'll say crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to leave it to your grandma and your neighbor who you babysit her cat when she goes out of town to say, oh, she's a sweet person.
SPEAKER_01: He's a nice young man.
SPEAKER_01: You should let him in, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I like to say crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Like, this person understands the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: Bam! This lady over here looked at her husband like, what?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the law of proportionality is simply, and I go on to inform this college about the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if this is a law, but it should be a law.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's one of the things that I look for in my children, the law of proportionality, which is basically this.
SPEAKER_01: Do they understand what this is in relation to that?
SPEAKER_01: That's the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just say to all you students in here, most of you don't.
SPEAKER_01: Someone said to me a couple weeks ago, one of the elders said, Hey, the next time Aaron preaches, why don't you go down and speak to the students?
SPEAKER_01: Because I will smoke them like a pack of fools.
SPEAKER_01: That's why.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got time to hear about, you know, we got clicks, and I got a boyfriend and my Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like the witch and the wizard of Oz.
SPEAKER_01: I'm shrieking.
SPEAKER_01: What a world, what a world.
SPEAKER_01: Don't shrink me with your smallness because I'm gonna go berserk.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy was like, Well, I'd like to be there for that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Not because I'm mad at these kids.
SPEAKER_01: I got two down there, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's not that.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you do, because I would talk to them about the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: And they would go home and say, and the parents go, hey, how was Wednesday night?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Pastor Neal talked about the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, go to your room.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just take high school four years in relation to that.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't because you got so much drama.
SPEAKER_01: It's so much, oh my God, if I don't get to go to this party, or if that boy doesn't ask me out, my life is gonna be ruined.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: You think God is so moronic and peonic and small that, oh, if He doesn't let you sin all you want to in the next four years, then you're gonna be in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Please.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested in that.
SPEAKER_01: And you may be thinking, I'm so glad I'm not your kid.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: I may be thinking the same thing about you.
SPEAKER_01: Because the law of proportionality says, hey, what is this in relation to that?
SPEAKER_01: So I tell my daughter, whom I love, who every once in a while just looks at me when she doesn't get her way like she's just dead.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going inward now, I'm giving you no emotion.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you think that hurts my feelings?
SPEAKER_01: If I could get your mom to do that instead of doing this, I would be in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell my daughter, hey, this school over here where you got like 20, well, I don't care, 2200, you have 5,000.
SPEAKER_01: Then you go off to college and there's like 50,000.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a drop in a mud puddle.
SPEAKER_01: Don't waste your affections on people over here.
SPEAKER_01: Most of them you'll never see again.
SPEAKER_01: And they come to my house and I put the stink eye on them.
SPEAKER_01: We prosecute shoplifters, kids.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I don't like them.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you're gonna waste your life and your parental authority on high school.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna get kids one day and you're gonna start laying the shuck and jive on them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, honey, don't let this boy do anything.
SPEAKER_01: Bli, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And your daughter's gonna look at you and go, hey, mom, did you mess around when you were in high school?
SPEAKER_01: And you got no authority because you did not understand the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what God says.
SPEAKER_01: God operates with the belief that he gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Because he understands the law of proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He relates to us from something bigger.
SPEAKER_01: He relates to us out of eternity while we relate to him out of time.
SPEAKER_01: And so God operates with this crazy belief that he gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when God speaks to Ananias, I don't have time to go into this because we've got to go eat cookies.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but when God speaks to Ananias in a vision, by the way, look over here later in this Acts 9 passage, and God speaks to Saul in a vision.
SPEAKER_01: God's looking for people who understand proportionality so he can reveal things to them, so he can give revelation to them.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting for God to show up and write it on a handwriting on the wall.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are gonna get married, students.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking to you right now, you're gonna grow up and you're gonna get married, and because you didn't understand the law of proportionality, your marriage is gonna be flat and one-dimensional, and you're gonna marry a pretty boy or a cute girl, and they're not gonna have a big soul, and you're gonna go back to when you were 16, 17, 14, 12.
SPEAKER_01: Someone the other day introduced me, a 12-year-old introduced me to her boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And I just looked at the mom, because I'm not a good liar.
SPEAKER_01: I just looked at the mom and said, Why?
SPEAKER_01: And the kid, the 12-year-old boy, looked at me like, I promise you to God and his son Jesus, you don't want to do that with me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I will snatch a knot in you so fast, son, you will walk with a limp the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: We'll change your name to Jacob right here.
SPEAKER_01: And he went, Who's Jacob?
SPEAKER_01: I rest my case.
SPEAKER_01: 12.
SPEAKER_01: That is, hey, it's not that kid's fault.
SPEAKER_01: That's that mom's fault.
SPEAKER_01: Because she thinks it's cool that her 12-year-old.
SPEAKER_01: And she's really very, she's very mature for 12.
SPEAKER_01: No, she's not.
SPEAKER_01: She's 12.
SPEAKER_01: Give it a rest, mom.
SPEAKER_01: See, God, He acts on this belief.
SPEAKER_01: He operates with this belief that He gets to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Let's keep moving here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm getting bogged down.
SPEAKER_01: I might need to take a little cigarette break myself.
SPEAKER_01: I got worked up there.
SPEAKER_01: Because I see it every day.
SPEAKER_01: We don't understand the law performance.
SPEAKER_01: We make this try to sound so big, and we're just like, yo, oh God, this is so big.
SPEAKER_01: Can't you see how big this is?
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, that is like a little nanospeck compared to what I've got in store for you.
SPEAKER_01: But because this is so immediate, you can't just say no to this because you believe that is really real.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly, friends don't always understand.
SPEAKER_01: I love verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: The men who were traveling with him stood speechless.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want friends like this?
SPEAKER_01: They stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
SPEAKER_01: Friends don't always understand.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this: unless you get this, you'll worship a God your friends and your family can agree with, but not the God who is.
SPEAKER_01: And tragically, many people they worship God about as much as their peer group let them.
SPEAKER_01: Fifth thing we take away from this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: God uses ordinary people.
SPEAKER_01: Push star by this.
SPEAKER_01: God uses ordinary people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
SPEAKER_01: How do you want to be known?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't just says there was a disciple.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what Ananias did for a living.
SPEAKER_01: He had a job, he did something, he had a career.
SPEAKER_01: I think he was married.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to do an interesting word study, look up the phrase, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's all through the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: God speaks to Abram, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks to Gideon, here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: See, when I say God uses ordinary people, what I mean is that it's not about intellect or resources, it's about availability.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah sees the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died, and that ends with him saying, Here I am, Lord, send me.
SPEAKER_01: See, ordinary people are just people that are available.
SPEAKER_01: God uses ordinary people.
SPEAKER_01: So you may be sitting here kind of thinking, Well, that's me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm an ordinary guy, I'm an ordinary woman, I'm an ordinary student, live in an ordinary house, drive an ordinary car, got an ordinary relationship, got an ordinary bank account.
SPEAKER_01: You're a great candidate to be greatly used of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because God just says, hey, Ananias, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: And Ananias says, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He just says his name.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say what's the mission.
SPEAKER_01: The answer is you, whatever the question is, the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_01: Ananias, yes! Well, let me get the question out.
SPEAKER_01: Yes! When God, when you hear God calling, how do you respond?
SPEAKER_01: See, this way my mind works.
SPEAKER_01: I start spooling down the road and thinking about Ananias' great-grandkids reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine them?
SPEAKER_01: Their friends reading about Saul and Ananias, and they're just gonna go, Well, that's our great-grandfather.
SPEAKER_01: He's the guy that went over and laid hands on Saul and he received the Holy Spirit, and the scales fell off of his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And then that cat, Paul, went on, his name was Saul, got changed to Paul, and he went on and wrote 13 books of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how'd your grandfather know?
SPEAKER_01: Your great-great-grandfather know.
SPEAKER_01: He just he always walked around with this kind of funny smile on his face.
SPEAKER_01: When I was around him, I was really captivated by him.
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of like he was listening to music that no one else could hear.
SPEAKER_01: You ever wonder how your grandkids are gonna talk about you?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they take me to Chick-fil-A every Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01: God uses ordinary people.
SPEAKER_01: Sixth thing we take away is just understand the nature of authority.
SPEAKER_01: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I laughed out loud when I read this.
SPEAKER_01: When I just kept staring at it until it kind of manifested itself.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just keep going.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight at the house of Judas.
SPEAKER_01: Look for a man from Tarsus named Saul.
SPEAKER_01: For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision.
SPEAKER_01: A man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
SPEAKER_01: But by the way, I don't have time to go into this, but there might be somebody just waiting for you to get the same vision they have.
SPEAKER_01: But verse 13, but Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to the saints of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Think about who Ananias is talking to.
SPEAKER_01: And Ananias is telling the Lord, God and King.
SPEAKER_01: This is the God who says in Genesis 17, when Abram was 99 years old, God says, he self-discloses again and says, I am the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Walk before me and be blameless.
SPEAKER_01: No one talks to 99-year-old people that way anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_01: We talk to them like in hushed tones.
SPEAKER_01: Would you like some more oatmeal?
SPEAKER_01: Are you done with your breakfast?
SPEAKER_01: Can I take your tray?
SPEAKER_01: And God just kind of rips his shirt open and says, I am the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Walk before me and be blameless with your 99-year-old self.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Understand the nature of authority.
SPEAKER_01: Ananias does.
SPEAKER_01: He kind of lost his place there for a minute because he says to this Lord God Almighty, this King of kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_01: But Saul has authority from the priest.
SPEAKER_01: Just picture God kind of reaching back and going, The thermostat at my house is set on authority.
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk to me about authority?
SPEAKER_01: But God's gracious.
SPEAKER_01: He just kind of says, uh, Saul now understands the nature of authority.
SPEAKER_01: He's encountered uh uh uh uh authority.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, understand the nature of authority.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Revelation chapter 4, about verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, but the Bible says this, because people, oh, why does God get it says that they say to the Lord, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.
SPEAKER_01: That's why.
SPEAKER_01: Why does God get to determine sexuality?
SPEAKER_01: Because He created all things, and by His will they exist, and they were created.
SPEAKER_01: And you were created, and I was created to live for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when I violate what the Bible says about sexuality, the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 1 to 8, that if I reject this teaching, that we should possess our body in sanctification and honor, not in passionate lust, like the heathen who don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 that when I reject that, I'm not rejecting the will of man, but the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God created all things, and by his will they exist, and they were created.
SPEAKER_01: For you and I to kind of look at God and say, who are you to tell me how to live my life, spend my money, spread my love, raise my children, or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You might as well go home today and bake a cake and then ask the cake what you should do with your life.
SPEAKER_01: It makes about that much sense.
SPEAKER_01: You created that, and then you sit and wait for that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: When my wife bakes a cake, the cake doesn't get a vote.
SPEAKER_01: The cake has a short shelf life in our house.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, and we just read it because good because God told him, He said, Hey, you go.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: He's my chosen instrument.
SPEAKER_01: If we could put that last verse up there, I believe it's verse uh 15 and 16.
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles, the unbelievers, and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the seventh thing we take away from this encounter, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: And suffering takes many forms.
SPEAKER_01: Some people get their head chopped off because of religious zealots who don't believe the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And some people suffer because their girlfriend breaks up with them or their boyfriend breaks up with them because they won't do what they want them to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's a form of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mock that.
SPEAKER_01: Some people suffer because, hey, some people don't even ask you out because they know what you stand for.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's an aloneness that comes with obedience, and you just gotta endure.
SPEAKER_01: Some people suffer because you're not in the in crowd at work.
SPEAKER_01: Suffering is a many splendid thing.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different levels of suffering, but you're going to suffer.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's cheery.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go eat cookies on that note.
SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't take us off guard.
SPEAKER_01: What makes suffering bearable?
SPEAKER_01: Suffering is not a matter of what or why.
SPEAKER_01: Suffering is a matter of who.
SPEAKER_01: Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_01: And if you get a biblical response to that question, get your head around who he is.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't rob you of your joy.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't upset your life.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, Paul said this, and I'll be done in Acts chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders, and he says, And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, he begins with, This is what I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And then he gets to, this is what I do know.
SPEAKER_01: Constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except this.
SPEAKER_01: I know this.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
SPEAKER_01: But I do not account my life as any value nor as precious to myself.
SPEAKER_01: If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: I love this verse, and I do not like this verse all at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you know that before I became the pastor here, I traveled and preached all over the country.
SPEAKER_01: I was on the road about 180, 109 days a year.
SPEAKER_01: And uh one summer I did like 10 weeks of youth camp.
SPEAKER_01: About week number seven, I was ready for Jesus to come back.
SPEAKER_01: I was just, I was just fried.
SPEAKER_01: And I came home and I think I complained the whole weekend.
SPEAKER_01: I got home on Friday, Friday night, complained.
SPEAKER_01: Saturday morning I complained.
SPEAKER_01: Saturday night I complained.
SPEAKER_01: Sunday I complained.
SPEAKER_01: I think I even fasted from church because I've been at church all week.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to go to church.
SPEAKER_01: Monday morning I had to get up, pack the suitcase, go get back on a plane, go talk to more teenagers who do not understand the law, proportionality.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife, the whole weekend, she just kind of had this look on her face.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, babe, I'll be praying.
SPEAKER_01: I know that God's gonna use you.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're tired.
SPEAKER_01: Finish well, finish well.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole weekend I thought, my wife doesn't get it.
SPEAKER_01: God helped my wife to get it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm working so hard.
SPEAKER_01: She's just staying here at the house.
SPEAKER_01: How hard is this?
SPEAKER_01: We don't even have kids.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me, God?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you've allowed me to put up with her.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I thought that.
SPEAKER_01: And then she drove me to the airport.
SPEAKER_01: You could tell we were just married because after a while she was like, You can drive yourself to the airport.
SPEAKER_01: It was still novel back then.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, my husband flies on airplanes.
SPEAKER_01: Now she's like, Hope they saved you a spot in economy parking.
SPEAKER_01: So I get there, I check in, I fly somewhere up north, somewhere, I get to the camp, I unzip my suitcase, and there's a note laying on top of my clothes.
SPEAKER_01: And it said this, and now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every camp that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
SPEAKER_01: But I do not account my life of any value, not as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01: And as if that wasn't enough, my rebellious, mouthy wife wrote underneath that, on a yellow sheet of legal paper, kneel.
SPEAKER_01: Stop accounting of your life and finish the course.
SPEAKER_01: Three weeks to go.
SPEAKER_01: P.S.
SPEAKER_01: This is their first and only week of camp.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been convicted and full of rage all at the same time?
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, and I somehow made it.
SPEAKER_01: And every night I would get my note out and read it.
SPEAKER_01: And when I called her, she never referenced it.
SPEAKER_01: Did you get my note?
SPEAKER_01: No, she didn't have to.
SPEAKER_01: She could tell in my voice.
SPEAKER_01: I'd have her front-end alignment.
SPEAKER_01: I was a lot better now.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna suffer.
SPEAKER_01: And what's happening in a lot of other countries is gonna come here.
SPEAKER_01: It's already here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you saw what happened in Oklahoma this past week.
SPEAKER_01: Co-worker went off the DPN.
SPEAKER_01: And so Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: The test of the litmus test of Christianity that that awaits us is how how will we suffer?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.