Description
FLAVOUR: LOVE LETTERS
God’s Love Prepares Us For Life
April 2008
Lisa Young
God wants us to be ready for anything that might come our way. The Bible doesn’t just offer random answers to general questions; it offers specific, relevant advice for the issues you face today and every day.
Transcript
Intro: I am so excited to be here tonight. I hope you are, too. I mean, candle light, isn’t that awesome? In fact, I’m talking about light tonight so it was really kind of cool. Today my husband and I were working out, we were jogging through a park over in Coconut Grove and we were talking about some illustrations for my talk tonight. He said Lisa, ladies love candles; talk about candles. So I actually am not using an illustration about candles but I’m so happy that they provided these for us. Everybody tonight we want to say thank you to all the ladies who are here, but also those who made all of this possible, Valerie, Dianna, Megan, and Theresa. I know I’m forgetting other people who volunteered. Everybody back at the sound board, thank you so much because somebody did some work to make this possible for us to joy. So we should never, ever, ever take that for granted. If this is your first time at a Fellowship Flavour for women I want to say welcome. Raise your hand if this is your very first time here. Oh my goodness, yeah. That’s great.
Well, let me just tell you a little bit about what Flavour is. I don’t know if whoever invited you told you but Flavour for women is all about ladies, women understanding the great sphere of influence that God has given each of us. I don’t know whether you know it or not, but we wield much power. We have a lot of influence. Everything from what the marketing choices we make or things that we decide to buy. If the women were taken out of the marketplace, I’m telling you there would be a huge shift in trends because basically we are very influential in determining what’s out there in the secular market but also in how people are affected for living. So that’s what Flavour is all about, it’s us understanding the amount of influence that we have. But not only understanding the influence and the power that we wield, but how we should use it. And at Fellowship Church we teach the Bible and we have been talking about that tonight already through music. But God has given each of us unique gifts and abilities to influence others on his behalf. And when you walked into these doors I hope that everything that you experience and everyone you talked to that’s a part of Fellowship Church that you’re going to see that we’re very serious about this task because it’s a privilege to share with others how Christ has impacted our life. So that’s what Flavour is all about. It is about a gathering together so that we can refocus and recalibrate and know that God has something special for us to do for him. And I don’t know whether you realize it or not but he’s wired you uniquely with special talents and special gifts to do something unique for him.
And if tonight is your first time here and you’re thinking well I’m not sure exactly what this all means. I hope by the end of the evening you will understand.
Now so far tonight we have been talking a lot about God’s word. And when you walked in you saw the tables with the candles on them. Again, beautiful candles. I mean, we may not be sharing a romantic dinner with our person of choice. But just look around and say hey thank you, you’re better than nothing. But the scripture that’s out there is just a beautiful picture of what Flavour is all about because our source of inspiration is God’s word. So tonight we’re going to be continuing a series that I have been doing with Flavour. Last time that we were together we talked about God’s word as a love letter and tonight we’re going to continue taking about what God’s word does to help us get prepared for life.
Now, what I want you to do, I want to tell you something that happened, a piece of advice that my friend told me that her mother told her. And then I am going to give you an assignment while you’re there at the table. I have a friend, and we were going around the room sharing one thing that your mom told you that was really important advice that she wanted you to understand so that you could be prepared. So I’m talking to this really good friend of mine; her name is Dedo, D E D O. Her name really is Debra but her little brother couldn’t say Debra so he called her Dedo. So my friend Dedo told me that her mother told her never to drive out of her driveway with dirty underwear. I was quick say Dedo, why is that the case? Why was that one thing that your mother told you and especially that one thing that you chose to remember that your mother told you? She said well my mom said you never know when you’re going to be in a car accident and so you better be prepared and dressed night. You don’t ever want to go out looking sloppy. She said especially have clean underwear on when you go out because you never know if you have an accident then the paramedics will know. I guess she was afraid, Dedo’s mother was worried her reputation might be scarred for life in their little town if indeed that did happen. So do you have one piece of advice, it could be humorous, that you could share to the person to your right, a little piece of advice that either your mother gave you or someone gave you to help you be prepared? I’m going to give you a minute to share real quickly. I’ll tell you what, pick a partner and y’all share back and forth. Come on, you can think of something, just one little thing, a piece of advice. It could be about trust. It could be I don’t know, just think of one little thing. Okay, are y’all about done?
Now, okay, I’m sure that you guys are so much wiser now that if you had to leave this place right now the whole evening would be worthwhile because you learned something valuable. Raise your hand if you have something that we just can’t live without tonight, raise your hand. Just yell it; we don’t need a microphone. Always be happy. That is so much better than wearing clean underwear. Always be happy. Anybody else? Anything? One more, just one more. When things don’t fall into place like a puzzle piece don’t force it, don’t push it, because it’s just probably not meant to be. That’s very good advice. The underwear is looking worse and worse. I’m going to have to call Dedo when we get done tonight and say Dedo they don’t teach you that much in Texas, do they?
Life is all about preparation, being prepared. There was a book that I picked up in Sam’s. I love to go to Sam’s and pick up books, or Costco. They have those book sections that are just so rich. I love them. I could spend hours. But there was one particular book that Maria Shriver had written. Maria Shriver is the wife of the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And this book that Maria wrote was entitled “Just One More Thing.” And in this book she gives advice that her mother gave to her, Eunice Shriver, who would tell Maria as she was walking out the door, Maria, just one more thing. Maria, just one more thing. Inevitably when we’re getting ready to leave and especially as you’re launching a child out the door to experience life you want to just go, just one more thing. I have to tell you just one more thing. Now we’re always preparing for something. In fact, the Bible says in Jeremiah, God was telling Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and had plans for you.” So we’re always making plans. Now if you have ever had a child before you know that you start thinking about how to get prepared for that experience. You start planning for the prenatal care. Then you want to make sure that you have everything in place before that moment happens, you know, the moment. Well I think back when our oldest daughter, LeeBeth, was born. She is 21 years old now, so a long, long time ago. When I was expecting her, my husband, Ed, who is the pastor of this church for those of you who might not know, Ed was in seminary. So when we went to take Lamaze classes he had a very difficult time going to all of the classes. There were 6 or 8 classes that we were supposed to attend. He was taking Greek and Hebrew at that time. And they tell you in seminary, never take those two together but of course Ed took the two together. And so is he’s trying to juggle Greek, Hebrew, and Lamaze. Which Lamaze, to him, was worse than Greek or Hebrew. And so we would go to the class and he made 3 classes out of the entire course, which was either 6 or 8. I can’t remember. I remember his mother went with me twice, so that was interesting. But I decided to rent the video from the library. So I went and at that time it was VHS, it wasn’t DVD. So I got the VHS and one evening, I guess a Friday night, when this young couple was having a romantic date together watching a Lamaze video.
Ed and I popped in the video and we sit there and he was lying on the sofa and I will never forget as things went on and on he just went ooh. He was making worse sounds than the woman who was actually giving birth. And the bad thing about this video is they did not use an epidural so the pain was great, the noise was great, the graphics were tremendous. And Ed decided, I don’t think I can do this. And I was like what do you have to do? I have to do it all, you know? It did know go as well by the end of the night he was on the floor with a pillow over his head in a fetal position. I thought this is not good. But we did that, why? To be prepared for childbirth. We wanted to know what was ahead of us. Well, fast forward the clock to when LeeBeth was going to kindergarten. I gave her a pep talk. Now honey, you’re just going to be with someone else for several hours and they’ll have snack time and mat time where you actually lay down and take a nap. I mean, I wanted her to know what kindergarten was going to be like. And then she went through her elementary years and getting ready to go off to college I thought wow, she is actually leaving town. She’s taking a big step. She’s going away to school. Now LeeBeth’s sophomore year of high school I began to worry about how prepared she might be for life and for college because we were sitting in a restaurant and evidently they brought out this loaf of bread, like a wheat bread with this wonderful honey butter. And I began to eat and I guess I was eating quite a bit because LeeBeth just said well gosh mom, be a pig. And I thought uh, well not only did she say gosh mom, be a pig, but she started to make a farm animal sound. She said, gosh mom, don’t be a pig, (making chicken sounds). I said LeeBeth, that’s a chicken. That’s not a pig. And of course my mind rushes to think, where did I go wrong? Did I pin her diapers on too tight? Were the illustrations in the books I read not good or did I perhaps have it all mixed up myself? I thought LeeBeth, she doesn’t know her farm animals and she’s a sophomore in high school. And short of taking her to the zoo that weekend. That would be odd, a sophomore in high school with all the other little children who were going to the zoo I decided well, I’m sure she’ll get it eventually. Well we go into her junior year, the end of her junior year and we moved to the country. We live in a town called Flower Mound, Texas and it’s away. When I’m coming home I pass buffalo. It is truly Texas. There are buffalo in a field; there are all types of wildlife. I will see dear. Well LeeBeth told me one day, she came in from school and said mom, I saw a peacock out by the street. I’m like, really? A peacock? There are peacock in Florida. I have seen beautiful peacock. And I’ve seen them at the zoo, beautiful big tails with pretty colors. And I’m like LeeBeth, you saw a peacock? Now LeeBeth being a typical first born girl, she always has the last word. In fact I nicknamed her Last Word LeeBeth. And those of you who are mothers of daughters, you understand the predicament that we sometimes find ourselves in where we are the uneducated ones and they are the educated ones. And I wanted to quickly say, remember, you got confused between the pig and the chicken.
I might know more than you. But she said no mom; I promise you there was a peacock out by the mail box. I said okay, LeeBeth did it have a big tail? Yes mom, it had a huge tail. Well was it bright colors? She goes, well not really bright colors. It was more brown. And I said I don’t know mom, it was a peacock. Well she came in another day and said I saw the peacock; I saw it again today. And I’m like, I can’t believe it. I said Ed, we have peacocks. Can you believe this? Well, I questioned her again but she was certain that it was indeed a peacock. So one day we were driving out of the driveway together. She goes, mom there it is, there’s the peacock. And I looked over and I saw a road runner. And I said LeeBeth, that is not a peacock that is a road runner. And of course there was this second where she thought she might debate me. And I said honey, trust me, it is not a peacock. So consequently when LeeBeth got ready, the car was packed and she was ready to go to Waco, she started out at Baylor University, I made a book for her of farm animals, the sounds that they make, and a picture of a peacock and a road runner. I told her, I said LeeBeth, you might want to look these over while stopped at the traffic lights on your way to Waco because I certainly don’t want you to go to college and not know your farm animals. I wanted her to be prepared. Now that’s a very, very, very, silly illustration of how a mom desires for her child to be ready for life. God wants you and me to be ready for anything that might come our way. And therefore he gives us something way better than the book that I gave LeeBeth; it’s his word. And too often we look at this book and we think, oh my goodness what a cool thing that I take to church on the weekends and what a nice adornment on my coffee table or bedside table. But how often do we look at this as truly the book that prepares us for life? I can tell you that throughout my life I have had many situations where I just didn’t know what to do. I faced things that I didn’t know how to handle. And as I look back over the course of my life I see how God’s word had so many answers for me. And they weren’t just random answers to questions that I wasn’t asking; they were answers that were relevant to my life, exactly where I was.
Now we looked last time at Psalm 119 and I’m not going to belabor I know you have a scripture card in front of you. In fact, Valerie, can you get me one of those scripture cards? You have a scripture card with the first portion of Psalm 119. Psalm 119, if you don’t know, is the longest chapter in the Bible so of course that’s the one that I picked for us to look at, the longest one. But if you will, on your own, just read through Psalm 119 because it is so rich in explaining what God’s word does for us, the great gift that it is to us. It is a gift. And I hope that we will never, ever take it for granted. I’m going to read this and you can just read silently as I read. “I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees. Do not utterly forsake me. How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart they might not sin against you. Praise be to you, oh Lord, teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word.” Say that last phrase with me, “I will not neglect your word.” Have you ever been guilty of neglecting God’s word? I have. I have been so guilty of that just taking it for granted, forgetting that it was a gift, a love letter specifically for me. I have let it sit on my bedside table unopened for days on end. I have used it as, I guess, an art piece on my coffee table before. But God desires for us to look at this book as a great gift to prepare us for anything that comes our way.
Psalm 119:105 is just, to me, one of the greatest verses. And of course you go through the Bible and think that is the greatest verse, that’s the greatest verse. I mean, they’re all great but Psalm 119:105, and you have a little note card on your table so if you want to look at that you can. Psalm 119:105, you can write it down and then read it later on in your Bible. It talks about God’s word and it says this: “Thy word is a lamp into my feet and a light unto my path.” It is interesting that this verse talks about two sources of light. It describes the Bible as two sources of light. It says it’s a lamp and it’s a light. And as I was looking over this I thought how interesting because a lamp illuminates the here and the now. And yet a light goes ahead. It’s like, it’s bigger; it shows more. But I thought about how that applies to me. There have been times in my life, and perhaps you’re there right now, where I have been experiencing darkness and Jesus compared himself to light. In John, the Book of John, he says, I am the light of the world and with him there is no darkness and he says that the light penetrates the dark. In other words, we’re given a picture that darkness is something bad or represents evil and light represents Christ. And so for the Bible to be referred to as a lamp or a light, that is the goodness of God. And so he has given us that as a tool, as something for us to use to prepare ourselves for any darkness that we might face. So when I think about God’s word as a lamp, I’m like wow, for right now he is giving me light to understand the circumstance I am in, to understand what I’m processing at this time. Now I know in a room this size with a group of women from all different backgrounds, some of you have just come from work, others have come through I don’t know what this week, you have maybe left children who are saying please don’t go, I don’t want a babysitter, all of those different things. I have been there done that and I am here. I showed Valerie an e mail that I got just before I came from one of our twins who I had taken her cell phone away and she was giving me a whole sheet of lists and reasons why she should get her cell phone back while I’m out of town.
So I know how you come to this place thinking oh my gosh I’m just happy to be here. A lot of us have experienced different types of darkness. And God’s word says that right now, right here for this moment I will provide light. It is a lamp unto my feet right here, right now, and Jesus is that light. Perhaps you’re here and are thinking, I’m not sure who Jesus is. I have been to church, I have understood, my whole life I have heard about him, but did you know that Jesus wants to be a part of your every step, your every here and now; he wants to be a part of your life? And once you invite him in the light goes on, the lamp illuminates and he is there for the here and the now and he going to light your path for the future. So whatever you’re going through right now, God wants to illuminate your space, your darkness right now with his supernatural lamp, with his word.
But it also says that it’s a light into our path. Now a path is something that is ahead of us. It is all about the journey. And God’s word is a light for that journey. Now how many worriers do we have in the house? Any worriers, raise your hand if you’re a worrier. I’m not really a worrier. If I worry about anything, it’s the here and the now. But what about the future? Do you worry about the future? God’s word through this verse says I’m going to be a light unto your path. I’m going to be a light for your future so if you have worries about the future, this is where you get your preparation. Maybe you’re thinking way ahead and you’re thinking, how am I going to process my work? At my office they’re laying off people or I heard on the news about the economy; I’m not sure about what’s coming. And you start worrying and processing all these things and there’s so much uncertainty. How do you handle that? I remember when we found out our son had a genetic disease, Neurofibromatosis. Our son is 16 years old. For those of you who don’t know, I have a 21 year old, a 16 year old and then twins who are 13. Our son was born in 1991 and when he was 2 months old we found out that he had this neurological disorder. By God’s grace he has had no problems. If you saw him today you might think he’s younger than he is because his development is a little bit delayed but other than that he is pretty much a typical 14 to 15 year old although he’s 16 and his development is just delayed a little bit. He will catch up eventually. But when we found this out, you know, just like any new parent we came home from the hospital, we’re thinking everything is fine. And then I start noticing a few things and by the time I go for the check up at 4 weeks the doctor tells me this word, Neurofibromatosis. I’m like, you have to spell that. I don’t even know how to spell it let alone do I know how it means and he explained it. It’s a disease where tumors form on nerve endings in the body. Now I’m looking down at this little precious baby boy, truly a gift from God. I just like every other mother counted ten toes, ten fingers and said we are in such a great blessing spot here because our son is healthy only to find out that he had issues with his health.
And so as I went home, our oldest daughter who was five at the time had the flu and Ed had come home from work to stay with her while I went to the pediatrician appointment. So I came home and I said Ed I was speechless. I didn’t even know how to tell him and I went ahead and told him. And all of the sudden our lives were bombarded with questions. Well what does that mean? Here he is now, does he have a tumor on his brain now? What about 6 months from now and how will we know? And the clincher on this is the doctor said that they would not do an MRI until he is a year old because it’s very difficult on a child that size to do one unless he had a seizure or something to demonstrate a tumor we were just going to leave it alone until he turned a year old. You talk about uncertainty, it’s like I don’t know. I was scared to let him cry at night. I didn’t know whether I should let him cry himself to sleep or if he woke up in the night it was just chaos. And I will never forget, we didn’t know the whole ordeal or the ramifications of this disease. I saw pictures. I had friends who sent information to me that they pulled off the internet. We didn’t even own a computer at the time. And Ed and I just thought, what are we going to do? And Ed was talking to his brother who is also in the ministry and his brother said Ed, 2 Corinthians 12:9 is your verse. And 2 Corinthians 12:9, it says this, “But he said to me,” and this is the apostle Paul, “my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Now when Paul, the apostle Paul writes this in Corinthians he is talking about some type of affliction he has. And we don’t know if it’s a physical affliction, a relational affliction but it was some type of affliction. And he says that this affliction which caused so much uncertainty, the way he was going to deal with it was because God’s grace was sufficient. If you look at the original language of the Greek, it’s the present tense, my grace is sufficient for the here and now. And then tomorrow you wake up and you say my grace is sufficient and then the next day you wake up and say my grace is sufficient. So you see how the path, the future though maybe uncertain in the world’s terms, every single day God’s grace is sufficient. Now, if we hadn’t had wise counsel through scripture we would have continued on going oh my gosh God, why, how, what are we going to do? But because of God’s word we were able to process this and we were prepared for today and the next day and the next day and the next day. And I’m telling you for the 16 years that have transpired from that moment God’s grace has been sufficient.
Now God’s grace wasn’t just carved out for Lisa and Ed. It was carved out for you and you and you and you and you and it’s available. I am so thankful for God’s word and how it has illuminated every single thing that I have gone through in my 47 years of life. Thankfully I had a father who taught us that this book was life’s manual and I had friends who lived by it and I had a church that taught it.
And though I’ve neglected it at times, I have always come back because I know that I know that I know that it prepares me for anything. God’s word prepares me for life but it also prepares me for death. Just recently at Fellowship Church we lost a precious, precious staff member. Vanessa Whitwell was one of my closest friends. She was 34 years old, she would be 35 May 9th. And Vanessa was one of the original four people that I called when God put Flavour in my life and in my heart and said you know what, this will be something great for Fellowship Church. So when I got back home from a time off and a time where God really spoke to me I pulled together several people, Yanci McGregor, Tianne Moon, Laura Strickland, and Vanessa Whitwell. I said okay girlfriends this is what I envision. What do you think? And they were so excited, all four of them. And Vanessa was in charge of our women’s ministry and she goes, this is awesome. This is going to be a fresh thing for women because more than anything we want women to understand how beautifully unique God made them and that they have something to offer the world. And they can make a difference if they’ll just let God use them to Flavour other people. So Vanessa was one of those women. She was just larger than life. She was beautiful, a pageant winner. If you weren’t a Christian you could really not like her because she just had it all together. Beautiful, she sang like an angel. Her voice was incredible and Vanessa was so talented she had done pretty much any job that there was to do at Fellowship Church. She had done it. She had worked with children’s ministry. She did the drama for Adventure Week with all the kids. She was usually the villainess; she liked to be the villain in the Adventure Week plays. And she would sing with the praise team. She ran the bookstore. She is the one who put The Source together here in Miami. Everything that you see back there has Vanessa’s touch and everything that you experience at Fellowship Church has Vanessa’s touch. She collapsed two weeks ago yesterday with a brain hemorrhage. 35 years old, one of my closest friends. She and her husband Andy baby sat for our children whenever we would come to Miami or go out of town to a conference, like a second parent to our children. As we walked through this dark time, through this time where you’re going, why God? Why? So young, so talented with a husband left to grieve, with a father who is going, I don’t understand this. She is so incredibly gifted. With other family members and our staff — we’re a young staff and so we have never lost anybody like this. And my children were going but mom I don’t understand; why did God choose now? So for us it was a dark time and yet in the midst of the darkness God’s word brought light because it told me and it told others and his family, you know what, it is not going to be easy for us but there’s a confidence because we know the end of the story. I know where Vanessa is. The bummer is us. She is singing like she has never sung before. She is experiencing things, the glory of God. You had to know Vanessa because you see all that bling back there, that’s dialed down bling. Vanessa was the queen of bling, bling was her thing.
The more it sparkled, the better. And I thought to myself, she would come into a room and would go we could do this and we could do that and how about if we put pink flowers here and the rose petals and the candles. It has to be big. That’s just how Vanessa was. But for the first time in her life she walked through gates and looked around and said it’s perfect. And the glory of God is so bright as Revelation tells us, the light is so bright. See the light goes on even to the end in heaven. The light is the glory of God. So the bling is just over the top in heaven. So the bummer is for us. But I think about how prepared we are for death by God’s word because we know that he is in control and that he is victorious over death. When our daughter, Lauri, who is one of the 13 year old twins, she is highly, highly organized. I’m telling you, efficient. Ed has always said that she could be a personal assistant right now and could have everything lined up and ready to go for any person who has a task to be done. And Vanessa had told Laurie on many occasions, as soon as you get to be 16 you’re coming to work for me. Laurie and Vanessa had this special bond and that was something they looked forward to doing. So as we walked down that ICU hallway and my girls were saying goodbye to Vanessa as she was on life support, Laurie asked me with tears streaming down her face, mom, Vanessa promised me that I was going to work for her. I don’t understand. Again, God’s word. I said Laurie, we’ll talk in just a minute. We went and she said goodbye to Vanessa, kissed her hand and then we went back out to the waiting room. And I said Laurie, Landra was there and Vanessa’s stepsisters and several other little girls who this woman of God had influenced in a tremendous way, I’m talking she brought these little girls together and said let me tell you about the God that I serve and you can serve him, too. And I said Laurie, Lauren, Shelby, Landra, Hailey, I named them each one; I said you know the story of Moses and how Moses took the children of Israel out of Egypt and the bondage of slavery and God led them through the wilderness and they were coming upon the Promise Land and God said Moses, it’s time for you to come be with me. You’re not going to go into the Promise Land. Well that seems like a rip off, doesn’t it? You go through the desert, you do all this stuff but you don’t get to go into the Promise Land. But God said Moses, you’re going to come home with me. It wasn’t a rip off; it was the greatest thing. The Promise Land? The Promise Land that Moses thought he was going to experience was nothing compared to the one that God had for him. But Moses handed the baton to Joshua and said Joshua, you lead the children of Israel into the Promise Land. You are going to do it. So once again through God’s word I had light for these little girls. And I said God has taken Vanessa to be with him but he’s left you to do the work. You are going to pick up the baton that Vanessa is passing to you and you’re going to lead out. You’re going to be the one that Flavour’s other girls. You’re going to be the one that puts bling into everything we do, say, touch and feel at Fellowship Church. You’re going to be the one that has a light for others to see. You can do it. God’s word gives us the strength and the capacity and understanding to say the things we need to say, to experience the things that we need to experience through the dark times and shows us the light. And I’m excited because these girls, my daughters, they are so fired up for the legacy that they’re going to get to experience even though it was born out of a dark time. But Jesus overcomes darkness. His word prepares us for everything we will face. The scripture, don’t ever, ever, ever neglect it.
Several days ago, I guess it was about a month ago, Ed and I were headed out of town for a conference and I was meeting him at the airport and I’m usually the one that’s running late. So I’m in the car, I get on my cell phone and I say honey, I’m running late. I’ll be there in a minute. He was like where are you, what street? It doesn’t really matter. I am still where I am and it is going to take me some time. But as I got to the stop sign I realized I had left my Bible at home. Now I wasn’t going to speak so it wasn’t that big of deal. I didn’t have notes that I had to have or whatever but it just caught me. I left my Bible at home. We were only gone for 3 days but in those 3 days I felt like my arm was missing. I felt like a body part was not there. I felt somewhat like I do when I get in the car and I don’t fasten my seat belt, just like something’s not right because I had left it at home. I knew that there was going to be a Gideon Bible in the drawer in the hotel room where we were going to stay. They’re so faithful about that. But I had just left a part of me at home and I’m so, so very, very thankful that at this time in my life this book means that much to me. Don’t neglect the word. It will prepare you for every single situation you might face whether it’s in the here and the now or whether it’s out there in the future. God’s word works. Okay? Let’s say it one more time together. Get your pink slip out. Okay, ready? The last part, the last line. 1, 2, 3, “I will not neglect your word.” Is that a deal? It’s a deal. Let’s pray together.
God, I thank you so much for just not leaving us in a lurch to live alone without any instructions, God. I thank you so much that you have given us a life manual. And Lord, it is thousands of years old but so relevant for today. And God I am a testimony of that fact. There are others here who are a testimony to the fact that your word is relevant and that it illuminates our path. Thank you, God, for bringing us out of the darkness through your Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord right now I pray that if there is someone in this room who does not know you personally, right now Father I just ask that with every head bowed and every eye closed that you would just overwhelm them with your love, and overwhelm them with your compassion for where they’re living right now. Thank you, God, for your presence in this place.
If you’re sitting here and you would like to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ I want to share with you a prayer that I prayed many years ago but that you could pray right now and the light can be a part of your life. Jesus Christ can come and be a part of your very existence. Just say these words to yourself: God, I don’t understand everything but I know one thing, I want the light to come on in my life. I know I have messed up, I have failed, I have fallen, and I have made so many mistakes but God, I ask you to forgive them. Forgive me, Lord. Come into my life. I receive the greatest gift that anyone could ever receive and that’s your Son, Jesus Christ. I know that he died on the cross for my sins past, present and future and because of that fact he puts a light in my life that shines brightly. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my life.
If you prayed that prayer that is the greatest decision you will ever make and we would love to visit with you about that. Valeria, Theresa, Dianna, Megan, myself, and others are in the back. You just ask somebody and we will share with you what’s the next step because this is the most important decision you will ever make, by far the most important decision. God, we thank you for this time. I thank you for anyone that is here who is experiencing darkness but you have shown them the light through your word. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.