Description
LESSER KNOWN PERSONALITIES OF THE BIBLE
OMLWSWD
March 14-15, 2009
Ed Young
How are you guys doing? It’s great to see you today, great to see you today. I want to welcome also, all of our campuses: down in South Florida in Miami, Downtown Dallas, beautiful Fort Worth, and also that country church in Grapevine, Texas.
Man, you guys look great. Fired up! I’m just fired up to be here, I tell you what. I’m excited to be here. We’ve been in a series of talks called ‘Lesser Known Personalities of the Bible.’ And it’s kind of a unique angle to me about certain characters in the Bible, because a lot of us have heard of the major players. A lot of us have heard of Moses. Maybe you’ve heard of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. Maybe you’ve heard of Samson, you know, the biblical body builder. Over in the New Testament, many of us can name some of the disciples. Not all, but some. Maybe some can name all of them, I don’t know. We’ve heard of Jesus, Saint Paul, Saint Peter. You know, we’re kind of familiar with names like that.
But this series is about people that we kind of skip over when we read Scripture. You know, people that are a face in the crowd. They’re sort of in the background.
Well, over the next several weeks we’re going to bring people from the background to the foreground. The people that we might skip over, we’re going to look over them because they have some amazing stuff in their lives. Now, we’ve been examining characters recently in the Old Testament. So if you have your Bibles you might want to turn your Bibles to 2 Kings, that’s in the Old Testament, 2 Kings 6.
Maybe you’re saying, “Ed, I didn’t bring my Bible. I mean, I’m sitting down here in South Florida, or I’m in Fort Worth, Downtown or in Grapevine, I don’t have a Bible.”
Well, that’s ok, share with someone. You might meet that special someone if you’re single. You know, I wrote a song years ago for my kids about sharing. The lyrics are very, very deep. And I’ll teach it to you right now. “Share, share, share, everyone likes to share. Share!” What do you think? It’s a great song, so share your Bible.
Anyway, whenever you talk about someone in the Old Testament, you have got to realize some things about the Old Testament. Because some people look at the Old Testament and think, “Whoa! It’s ‘R’ rated. It’s blood and guts and crazy stuff. And it just seems like it’s just wheels off. You mean, Ed, the same God in the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament?”
The answer is yes. But we have to understand several things about the Old Testament.
Number one, there was something called the civil law. God was setting up a theocracy. Note the words, ‘God is sovereign, we’re not.’ You can see that theme throughout the Old Testament.
There’s a ceremonial law that is foreshadowed in the Old Testament that leads into the New Testament. It’s the foreshadowing of this death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. But in the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was set up. And you can read all about the intricacies of the sacrificial system.
Then, there’s the moral law. So there is the civil law, the ceremonial law, and the moral law. The moral law is about those things we can glean from characters in the Old Testament. The principles, the precepts, the skinny on the gimme if you will. And that is what we’re going to talk about today.
Because we’re going to talk about a very, very lesser known personality of the Bible. In fact, this guy was so lesser known, he didn’t even have a name. I mean, he had a name, but his name wasn’t mentioned in Scripture. He was Elisha’s servant. Say it with me, “Elisha’s servant.” I’m not talking about Elijah. I’m talking about Elisha. Elisha’s servant.
Elisha was a cool cat, because he was the first guy in Scripture to ever be known as ‘the man of God.’ I thought that was interesting. They called him, “Hey, there’s the man of God. There’s the man of God. There’s the man of God.”
That’s a great message to your life and mine, because we should have people in our lives who are men and women of God. We should have people in our lives who are speaking truth to us. We should have people in our lives who we should and can talk to, who give us guidance and direction.
Could it be that some of us are talking to the wrong people? I mean, could it be that some of us are listening to the wrong people. You might be thinking, “Well, Ed, I’m, you know, I’m listening to this Christian guy, or this Christian girl.”
Once again, Christian guys and Christian girls might not be the men or women of God that should be speaking into your life or mine. So it’s very, very important we understand who is speaking to us.
This servant, Elisha’s servant, was really a member of the school of prophets. He was studying under Elisha. Elisha was his mentor. He was gleaning from Elisha and gaining stuff from his life.
And that’s something else I would encourage all of us to do. I have mentors in my life. Make sure you’ve got mentors in your life. And that’s one of the cool things about technology. We can have mentors who are across the world. But especially to the students, and the young folk in the house, make sure you’ve got a mentor.
So Elisha’s servant was looking up to Elisha and learning from this great man of God. So, 2 Kings 6 is where we go.
Does anybody here do any texting? Have you ever done texting before? Of course, most of us text. Texting is fun, because we, you know, have our own little language. LOL. OMG. BRB. All those little things. And they’re changing. My kids try to keep me up to date; I try to be semi-up with the times.
I want to give you, though, something that you might want to incorporate into your texts. It’s a new phrase. And here are the letters. O-M-L-W-S-W-D. Write that down. OMLWSWD. I want that to be the new thing. We’ll begin it right here at Fellowship Church. Don’t tell anybody. OMLWSWD. That is the new saying and the new texting for you and for me.
2 Kings 6. Let me set the context for you. We understand the Old Testament a little bit. We understand Elisha, the first guy to ever be called the man of God. Elisha was so in touch with God, he was reading the King of Syria’s mail. I mean he had hacked into his email account. I mean, they would zig, God’s people would zag. And it freaked out the Syrian king. The Syrian king was thinking, “This is a joke! Every time we get ready to do some sneak attack on the Israelites, boom, they’re somewhere else.”
He thought someone in his Syrian army was giving secrets to the Israelites. But he found out Elisha, the man of God, was the one who was doing all this stuff. So the king said, “You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to take Elisha out. We’re going to find him, track him down.
We’re not going to kill him, but we’re going to capture him and get all this information from him. We’re going to get the 4-1-1 from Elisha. We’re going to find out how he’s hacking into all of our stuff.”
They found out that Elisha was living and hanging out at a place called Dothan. I’m not talking about Alabama. Dothan, over in the Middle East. Some of the people from the dirty south got that. Dothan. Dothan. Elisha was there with his servant and he was just, you know, doing what men of God did, doing the prophet thing. And at night, the Scripture says in 2 Kings Chapter 6, the Syrian army, in a stealth-like fashion, crept up and surrounded the city of Dothan.
And if you have your Bibles, look at 2 Kings 6:14. “Then he (the Syrian king) sent horses and chariots and a strong force there (Dothan). They went by night and surrounded the city.
When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.”
So this servant is walking on the wall, I’m sure, sipping his first cup of espresso, just watching the sunrise. An army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. So here this servant, Elisha’s servant, is walking on the wall, sipping his morning brew, looks around and he sees the sun rising and reflected are all the chariots and the shields and the spears and he looks and this guy began to lose his mind. I mean, how about you? I would. I mean I would get terrified. And it doesn’t say that exactly in Scripture, but his reaction was probably, “Aah! Mommy! We’re surrounded! 360 degrees, we’re surrounded. North, south, east and west, we’re surrounded. The Syrian army. I can even smell their coffee breath. I can smell their cologne. It’s terrible, it’s horrible!”
Can you identify with that? Do you feel surrounded today? Do you feel surrounded by this schizophrenic economy? Do you feel surrounded by debt, surrounded maybe by creditors, surrounded by people pulling at you?
Maybe you’re a student and you’re saying, “You know what, Ed, I feel surrounded by peer pressure.”
Do you feel surrounded by a habit that’s tripping you up? Do you feel surrounded, maybe, by some toxic relationships? Do you feel surrounded by stress and anxiety?
Everybody listening to my voice right now and watching this can say, “You know what? Yeah. I mean, I could feel Elisha’s servant. I can dig what he was talking about.” Surrounded. And I love his response. I mean, I love what he said. I love the honesty of Scripture. He said in 2 Kings 6:15, “Oh my Lord, what shall we do?”
O-M-L-W-S-W-D!
Have you ever had an OMLWSWD moment? Wow! What do you do? Do you freak, do you scream, do you say, “Ah! This Syrian army has surrounded me. They’re surrounding my marriage. They’re surrounding my family, they’re surrounding my business, they’re surrounding me. They’re surrounding me!” Do we do that? He was talking here, as the servant to Elisha.
Now, what did Elisha do? If Elisha had listened to his servant, what would have happened? He would have missed God. That’s why I said earlier, who are you listening to in your life? Who’s speaking into your life? Because if Elisha just listened to his servant, he’d of gone, “Aaaah! I’m out of here! Let’s go, it’s over, it’s terrible!”
But I think it’s so tremendous to see the contrast here. Elisha’s servant saw an army, Elisha saw God.
Elisha’s servant was paralyzed with fear, Elisha stood on the fortress of faith.
Elisha’s servant just saw a bunch of people, Elisha saw the real battle.
Elisha’s servant saw the opposition, Elisha saw an opportunity.
Did you hear that? An opportunity. And I’m here to tell you right now at this beautiful campus in Plano, Texas, that your opposition is a great opportunity. Did you hear that? Let me say that once again, I’ll rewind it. Your opposition, you feel like you’re surrounded, and confounded by the Syrian army. You’re surrounded by this or that. Your opposition can be the greatest opportunity in your life.
Wow! Think about that for a second. Download that for a second. Apply that for a second. That’s the skinny on the gimme in today’s talk.
Your opportunity, my opportunity, from God is usually riddled in opposition. Why do you feel under attack? Why do you feel like the evil one himself is after you? You know what?
He’s tipping his hand, he’s showing his card. The reason you feel the stress and the pressure and the anxiety; the reason you feel like you’re surrounded is because you’re a marked man, you’re a marked woman. The devil knows what’s going to happen if you see this as an opportunity. He knows if you have the eyesight of God, then things are going to go to the next level. And he doesn’t want things to go in any of our lives to the next level.
He wants you and me just to concentrate on the enemy. “Look at those spears, those shields, those chariots, the Syrian army, there’s no way. I mean, they’re surrounding us. It’s just me by my lonesome. I’m like Elisha’s servant. OMLWSWD? I guess it’s curtains for me.”
Well, listen to what Elisha did. I love this. I love this. Here’s what Elisha told him after his OMLWSWD word. Elisha said, in 2 Kings 6:16, “Don’t be afraid…”
That’s kind of funny isn’t it? Hey, don’t be afraid. Here this servant is looking at the Syrian Army. “Hey, don’t be fearful. Don’t worry.”
And when I had concentrated sometimes on the enemy; when I concentrate on my foe, and I’m sure you’re the same, it can cause us to be frozen in fear. And we can miss the breakthrough of faith. So we need this today, don’t we? Don’t be afraid.
“…Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
Now that is some deep stuff! Elisha was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, Mr. Servant. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
If you are a follower of Christ, I’ve got some wonderful, wonderful breaking news for you this morning. You have the advantage. You are in the majority.
You’re thinking, “Ed, you don’t understand. I mean, I’m going to this public school and people are messing me around. I feel like I’m the only one.”
Or, “I’m going to this university and I feel like I’m like maybe one of three believers.”
“I’m working at this company and people do this and that.”
“You don’t understand. I’m in the majority? Ed, what are you smoking? Are you crazy?”
Think about heaven. Just for a second. Think about heaven. Think about heaven before Lucifer got kicked out. See, heaven is a real place and you had Lucifer, who is now the devil, who was the worship leader. I mean, he was one of the main guys in heaven. All these angels were in heaven. Angels are created beings. They live forever. They’re more powerful than you and me. We don’t become angels when we die, when we go to heaven. I hope you know that. Jesus was not an angel. We need to understand angels are messengers and they’re very, very powerful in heaven. Everything was happening. Angels have a freedom of choice. They either choose to love God and worship him, or not.
Lucifer, that’s right, who is now the devil, tried to take over God’s position. He tried to usurp God from the throne. Because of it, he got kicked out of heaven. He fell. Lucifer took one-third of the angels with him. They fell to earth. The angels are now what we call demons. Fallen angels. Demons. A third of them are wreaking havoc on planet earth. It does not take someone with an Ivy League education to realize that we have got an evil problem in the world today. I will not bore you with the stats there. A third of the fallen angels are wreaking havoc on our world today.
But, two-thirds are with you and me! Isn’t that great? And of course, Jesus is with us. Two-thirds are with you and me. And a third is on the other team. So our leader, of course is Jesus, and their leader is the defeated foe, the devil. We’re fighting, not for victory, but from victory. There’s this land, this real estate, that God wants all of us to claim in all of our lives, and he wants us to start young. Don’t waste your time, don’t sow your wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. No, no, no. Some of you will get that later.
The time is now to start living for the Lord. And it’s time to get in this faith fight. And some of the guys man, we like to watch competitive things, competitive sports. And we may be into competitive skiing or competitive fishing. We’re all into competitive stuff. It’s just that testosterone thing of the guys, you know?
What’s it called, the UFC? You ever heard of that before? I have. I like that stuff, man. Are those guys, those guys are bad to the bone or what? I know it’s violent, but I like it. I’m just going to admit to you right now. I don’t know if we have anybody here in the UFC, you know, if we do, I’d love to meet you. Anyway.
There’s a fight, guys, I’m talking to the guys now, much bigger and badder. There’s a competitive deal going on much broader and deeper than anything we can think about.
Bigger than football or boxing or UFC. I mean, this is on a level that a lot of us don’t even realize. And I’m going to challenge you, guys, to join the faith fight. Join it.
And I laugh when people say that Christianity is for the quiche eaters and those who need a crutch and those who are soft and the weak male. That is a bunch of junk! It’s for people, it’s for guys who are men enough to stand up and to admit their sinfulness, who turn from their sin to receive the grace and mercy of Jesus and then to discover the implications of walking with him and fighting the foe. Because the battle, the Bible says, is not against flesh and blood; it’s against principalities and forces and things that we can’t even see.
You see, the servant just saw what was tangible. And Elisha saw the intangible. That’s the fight out there; we’re in a faith fight. And that’s what he’s going after.
So, Elisha said, “Hey, don’t be afraid. There’s more of-of-of us than there are with them.”
Check out 2 Kings 6:17. “And Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”
Our eyes are opened when they’re closed. Say that with me. “Our eyes are opened when they’re closed.” I’m talking about closed in prayer. And I’m referring to warfare prayer. Begin to pray in your life, “God, open my eyes. I want to see like you see.” Pray for your friends. “God, open their eyes that they may see like you see.” I’m telling you, all heaven and all hell will break lose in your life.
Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes. He’s like, “Wow!” And he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So these angels, these big bad dudes were all around. They were surrounding Elisha and his servant and Elisha’s servant didn’t know it until Elisha prayed the prayer to open his eyes. This is the first instance of spiritual Lasik right here we have in Scripture.
Illus: You know, I’m blind as a bat. And I have a close friend of mine I grew up with, Doctor Rick Milne; he’s one of the best eye surgeons in the Southeast. And I was over there speaking and he was kind enough to do the Lasik deal on my eyes. You know, it was free-99. Is that sweet! That’s the only way to do it, isn’t it? Free. I like that. Free. And so, Rick, I mean lowers you on that chair and you get all nervous, cause, you know, all these machines are buzzing. And all of a sudden he does the procedure.
I said, “Hey, when are you going to do it?”
He said, “It’s done!”
And then, he raised me up in that chair and I’m looking and I’m saying, “Wow, I can see without contacts! I can see without these coke-bottle glasses. I can see the leaves on the trees, man!”
That’s what this servant did. I guarantee it was the same reaction. That’s what I’m going to challenge you to do. I’m going to get up in your chili and say, pray regularly that God would open your eyes to see what’s going on in your marriage, in your family. There’s a fight for the marriages and the families. There’s a fight for purity. There’s a fight for success and blessing. There’s a fight out there. And I’m telling you whose behind it; it’s the devil himself.
Don’t, though, freak out and try to become some demon duster. I know some people and they OD on crazy pills who all they think about are angels and demons. Demon dusters.
The Bible never tells us to worship angels or get into angelology and worry about what your angel’s name is. I don’t know. The Bible says they are messengers, they’re powerful. They protect us, they help us, and I’m telling you, when we get to the other side, we’re going to say, “Wow! I can’t believe how my angels protected me and helped me, who ministered to me in ways I didn’t understand. Because obviously, I’m limited, God’s unlimited.” And we get to heaven; we’ll see how these creatures helped us out.
Now remember, don’t freak out over angels. It’s great to know about them. I’ve pretty much told you all you need to know about them. If you want to read a book or two about them, great. But don’t just lose it over it. You know, people, “Oooh, angels, everybody is an angel. I have angels all over around my house, angels.”
It’s about Jesus, not the angels. See what I’m saying to you? I mean, I love angels. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, they’ll live forever. But remember, it’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus.
2 Kings 6:17, “Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
People right now are like, “Well, Ed, I don’t really see God working.”
Your problem may be your spiritual eyesight. It’s not, though, a lack of God’s power. Maybe you’re thinking, “You know, I don’t really see God moving and grooving and wheeling and dealing in my life.”
It’s not a lack of God’s power. It could be you need spiritual Lasik. It could be you need to pray regularly for your eyes to be open. It could be you need to hear from the man or woman of God that God has placed in your life. It could be you need to do that. And then, things will open up.
I love Ephesians 6:12. It says, I mean, it pretty much tells us there’s a bigger battle going on. It says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Again, two-thirds versus one third. We’ve got Jesus. They’ve got the devil. We always have an advantage.
So, three things right quick. Pray that your eyes will be open regularly.
Number two. Pray that others eyes would be open regularly.
And number three, do what the Scripture says.
You know, there’s one key to unlocking what it means to walk with God. It’s obedience. I mean, it really is. It’s obedience. It’s not always feelings.
I think sometimes we expect God to act like we act, or to act like another human being. He’s not going to do that, because he’s God. I mean, quit expecting God to act like a person. He’s not a person; he’s God. So we don’t always have to have a quiver in our liver or a spring in our step or an ‘Amen’ all the time.
“Well, I felt those things; I guess God must be here.”
Sometimes we are going to feel those things. But it’s not always those things. Many times it’s just doing what God wants us to do.
Husbands, it’s loving your wife like Christ loved the church.
Ladies, it’s loving your husband in a self-sacrificing way. It’s serving, it’s leading.
Hey, mothers and dads. It’s not being your kid’s best friend. It is being a parent. Right? It’s being a parent.
And just think about your finances. It is bringing to the house what is God’s. It’s saving and being good stewards of our stuff. And it’s enjoying the blessings. It’s not freaking out over the economy and always debating the stimulus package and everything. Because there’s only one stimulus package that always works. That’s what God says about our finances. All this other stuff, you know, believe this or that. And, you know, whatever. But it’s God’s stimulus package that is so awesome. And it’s really seeing the unseen. It’s living by faith.
Illus: You know, when I went to the Florida State, I was one of the few Christians in our entire dorm. And I had a lot of opposition. I mean, so much peer pressure. Only God gave me the ability to do what he wanted me to do. And I was not always perfect by any stretch, but the opposition was real. And there were so many times that I wanted to cave in or that I wanted to just run into a little Christian fortress, maybe transfer from Florida State to a Christian school and live with Christians the rest of my life. And when our toilet got clogged up, maybe call a Christian plumber with a little fish on the back. And only listen to Christian music for the rest of my life. And that’s fine and dandy, but, I’m here to take turf for the kingdom of God and so are you.
That opposition that I felt at school led to the greatest opportunity in my life which was and is Fellowship Church. Had I not gone through that hellish opposition at Florida State with those skirt-chasing, cocaine-snorting, dope-smoking, wheels-off people, I would not be standing here today.
So you’re looking at someone who’s not perfect. I’m fallen and fallible like you. But God allowed me glimpses of what the real battle was. God opened my eyes and I began to journal and to pray and to talk to him and to pour my heart out to God. And God used that opposition as an opportunity to do what we’re doing today. It’s all about God. It’s all about Jesus.
It’s just seeing him and the unseen. But think about Jesus, just for a second. Think about Jesus. You know, when Jesus came on planet earth, he saw the real battle, didn’t he? He saw the unseen. Of course, he saw the seen too. But he saw the deal. He knew our sin problem. He knew that we were in a lurch, you know. We were involved in this separation from God caused by sin, because God’s holy, we’re not.
Jesus did something, he lived this perfect life and died a sacrificial death on the cross. And he offers you and me, the world, eternal life. He offers it to us. And if we’ll basically wave the surrender flag and turn to him and turn from our sins and receive his grace and forgiveness, we can become people of God.
So, it all starts and ends with Jesus. And I’ve got to ask you, before we close this thing down, have you made that grace reception? I mean, the ball is in the air. It’s right there, and we have stick-um on our hands. You know, some of the old-school guys know what that means. And we either receive it, or we don’t. But we’re wide open. And God has thrown this ball to us. It’s just mercy and grace. It’s the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and all we have to do is catch it.
Have you received this pass? Have you received this ball? Have you? Because the ball’s in your court. It’s in my court. We have a freedom of choice. Make that decision.
Well, how do you do it? You simply do it by just saying this. You can say this right now. You don’t have to even close your eyes. All you have to do is just say, “Jesus, I receive your grace and mercy. I turn from my sins and I turn to you. I ask you to come into my life.”
Wow, if you said that with me, God heard it. Boom! You’ve made the grace reception. You talking about stick-um. You can’t get rid of the ball now. You’re in! And here’s the good news. You win! You’ve got the advantage. It’s two-thirds against one third. You’ve got Jesus and the other team’s got the devil. Now you’ll discover the turf that he has for your life.
So, Elisha’s servant, what did he do? He saw the unseen. He saw those things that no one else saw. And because of it, there was a great victory that was secured.
You might be saying, “Well, what do you mean, victory?” Well, Elisha jumped down off the wall, ran up to the enemy. While he was running, he prayed that they would be smitten with blindness. The whole Syrian army couldn’t see. So Elisha led them to Samaria, the capital city of Israel. There’s this little guy by himself, leading this entire army.
And then he says, “God, open their eyes.” They opened their eyes and they were like, “Wow, we’re surrounded now!”
And then he did something really weird. They gave the Syrian army a feast. They fed the Syrian army this five-course meal. Then they sent them on their way. And the Bible says they didn’t mess with Israel for a long, long time. So that’s the end of the story.
Pray. Face your fear. What’s fear? False Evidence Appearing Real. See with the eyes of Jesus.
Here’s your homework. Here’s the skinny on the gimme, as they say in Australia. This right here is called the Snapshots Journal. This something that I have been doing since I was seventeen. Journaling. Because if you don’t pick up the pen, the devil wins. I’m telling you. And thoughts really untangle themselves when they they roll off our lips and especially as they translate though the fingertips as we begin to write. There’s something powerful about the written word. The B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me. The Bible.
I want to challenge you to pick up one of these journals. This is a journal that we designed. This is Italian leather, the real deal. It normally retails for twenty five dollars. I want everybody to have one. We want you to. We’re going to give them to you for twelve dollars. Now that is dirt cheap. And if you can’t afford twelve dollars, just go up to somebody and say, “You know what, I can’t afford it.” I’ll just pay for it myself, ok. I want you to have one. And here’s what I want you to do.
For the next 30 days, I’m going to ask you to journal, to begin to write your prayers, to pray that God would open your eyes that you would see with the eyes of Jesus. Because this cover is a replica of a painting of Jesus’ face that I did several years ago during one of the messages.
Pray for others that their eyes would be open. And pray that God would reveal to you the turf he wants you to take for his kingdom.
And this is a cool journal because it has different Scripture verses like Hebrews 13:20-21 on page 20. It says, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom the glory forever and forever.”
Well, after you read that, just begin to journal. What is that verse saying to you today? You don’t have to write, you know, some fourteen-hundred word paper. Just write a paragraph or two.
And then, here’s a quote from one of our series that we’ve done on the life of Christ. “Every day we’re to ask, ‘Good Shepherd, search me, examine me.’ You see, a shepherd checks out his sheep. He looks at the cuts and the bruises and the parasites. And as we make ourselves available to the good shepherd, he inspects us. He cares for us.”
So this is an awesome, awesome journal. 30 days. If you miss a day or two, don’t beat yourself up. 30 days. And you watch and see how God gives you spiritual Lasik and he gives you a whole different perspective to the opposition in your life.
So that’s your homework. And these are available at all the campuses. Again, if you can’t pay that, man, I’ll just give you one. But I’m telling you, it’s awesome.
Man, I needed this, how about you? And in this crazy world, man, in this world that is so whacky, I mean, is our world crazy or what? The only thing that makes sense is a personal relationship with Christ. The only thing that makes sense is seeing the way Jesus sees. And we have that ability and power. We can tap into it. It’s always on tap. But it’s up to you, and to me. Let’s bow for prayer together.
[Ed ends in closing prayer.]