Radiant Church
Obeying The Commands Of Jesus | Hal Perkins
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MusicBed SyncID: MB01SMWFTC7HQ4K
- Duration:
- 48m
- Broadcast on:
- 12 Aug 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
(upbeat music) - Hey, thanks for listening to The Radiant Church Podcast. This is David Perkins and we're so glad that you're listening. Hey, if you're a part of our family meeting online or in person, we would encourage you to get connected at Radiant Church KC across all social media platforms. God is doing something incredible in Kansas City and we love connecting with you, whether it's through our app or even through all the content available on our YouTube page. Hey, our prayer is that God uses this message to change your life and that you could become a dynamic disciple of Jesus. Thanks for listening, enjoy this message. - Yeah, good morning, good morning. You know, I'm not sure did we get the glory of that video we just saw? People giving all kinds of times in obedience to Jesus, let's celebrate that. Come on, I mean, that was a really big deal. Good, good, thank you. Thank you, thank you. - Hey, partner, thank you, thank you. And there's one more thing I wanna celebrate for a second. Most of you wouldn't know this, but I brought in 17 of people I work with all day in my day job to help in the summit last weekend. And then many of them were here on Sunday morning and we talked and talked and they were stunned with this church's hunger for God, love for people. They just were overwhelmed and so I want to celebrate this church, your radiance, it was beautiful, so let's celebrate what God's doing to us. That's really good. Yeah, ready to go, Joe, all right baby, all right. And I've got Joe up here to help me. And I told him (laughs) they already know you, I had three things planned to do with him, but we only got to one of them in the first service. And Joe, I'm not gonna do any better this time, I apologize, I'm sorry. - That's okay. - There you go, all right. So, anyhow, but let me, I want to introduce Joe again. He's a graduate of Blue Valley College, I mean high school, sorry, high school, and then went to Mid-American Nazarene University, got a degree there in youth and family ministries, graduated magna cum laude. (audience applauds) And then he went to Denver Seminary and got a degree in spiritual formation and graduated with a 3.94 GPA. So, what I'm telling ya, (audience applauds) and part of the reason I told you that is because I want to ask Joe open-ended questions, the kind of questions that work that are helpful, but it would take too long. We didn't even come close in the first service. But I did, I am gonna ask Joe some questions, I hope better than the first service, but Joe's just gonna answer, and he's got more than a one-word answer, but today he'll give one-word answers, right? But Joe, I do want you to pray for us at the end. - Oh, truly. - All right, Joe embodies. What I want to talk about, (audience applauds) thank you, Matt. So, today we're going to work hard on, we're gonna work a little, on this whole process of 21 days of prayer, I was actually going to preach about something different, and Pastor David had to go to, what is he? - Peru. - Peru, yeah, Peru, and on a missions trip. And so, asked if I might just get the 21 days of prayer going, so we're gonna work on that a little bit. And it's significant that we, I understand I'm looking for all this, here we go. I'm gonna actually start, where I was gonna start, and let me just read for us, and just how about this, in honor of God's word? Could we stand in honor of the word of God? God inspired it, and now we have God's word written, so here we go, then Jesus came to them and said, all authority, say authority. - Authority. - Thank you, in heaven and on earth, has been given to me, Jesus, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son of Holy Spirit, which is what I was gonna preach about today, and teaching them to obey. Say obey. - Obey. - Everything, say everything. - Obey too. - I've commanded you. Say command it. - Tell my one. - So now this is easy. There's a difference between teaching them, and teaching them to obey. Parents, all said. So, we're gonna work on some of this a little bit, and surely Jesus said, I will be with you the whole time, to the very end of the age. So now we're gonna move into a little bit of some of the commandments of Jesus tied to prayer. So three of Jesus commands, two is disciples, to help us during the 21 days of prayer, go like this. Rejoice always, is that a promise? Is that a promise? Joe is that a promise? No! That's not a promise. It's a... - Amen. - Come in. - All right, good, all right. Rejoice or pray without ceasing. In everything gives thanks, for this is the God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And there's more. Here comes some more. Do not quench the spirit. This deserves a whole sermon. Do not despise prophetic utterance. Huge, but examine everything carefully. Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. Cling to the good, abstain from every form of evil. All of those are commandments. And then comes a promise. Now made the God, I mean a prayer. Now made the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. Oh Jesus, we need to be sanctified entirely. So if the world can see you, you were holy. We need to be holy in everything we do just like you. So Lord, our prayer sanctify us entirely. And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete. We were incomplete. We didn't have what we needed until we had you. And then we still drug all kinds of stuff. Lord, purify us and clean us so that we're complete. Make us complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls us. There's the promise. Faithful is He who calls you. And He also will bring it to pass. Let me remind us that that promise is in the context of eight commands. And the whole teaching of scripture about commands. So today, I'm gonna talk about commands here. But say, oh good. Joe? Say good. I'm sorry. (laughing) Oh wow, all right. Here we go. So Lord, thank you that you will help us this morning and to hear your voice. Thank you that you will help us, to hear that we might believe you instead of all the other ideas. And do what you say, which will save us. Save us. Thank you Lord. Amen. Amen. So you may be seated. I love the commands, Joe. I didn't tell you I was gonna ask you this. Do you love the commands? Yes. (laughing) That's good. I'm picking on Joe. Okay, anyhow, I love the commands. I love the commands. They've saved my life. Jesus threw His commands and saved my life. There were things that I would have done that would have ruined my life except for the command of God. There are things I would not have done that I did except because of the commands of God. I did the good and I didn't do the evil. I did as well as possible. And that little level of obedience of not doing that which God told me not to do and doing what He told to do has saved my life, saved my marriage, saved my family. It's just, I just love the commands. Joe, do you love the commands? Yes. (laughing) Don't you love Joe? I love Joe. I mean, I'm serious. So, so, I love the commands. But these commands that I just went through, forgive me, Lord, they're a bit much. I mean, actually they're extreme. I mean, think about it. Rejoice in the Lord once a week. Always or pray when it works or what's the command? Pray continuously. Yeah, thanks, Joe. Good job. Or occasionally give thanks in everything. And honestly, Lord, I don't even know how to process that 'cause I gotta do other stuff. How do we do these commands that are kind of like totally consuming? Are you with me? I mean, I don't wanna say this to the Lord about his commands, but these seem kind of ridiculous. Is that okay? I mean, how do we do that? Well, I did wrestle with it. I mean, I'm now wrestling it with you, but I wrestle with it, Lord, honestly, I wanna take your commands seriously. But how do we get honest and real about those kinds of commands? And I had an idea. Now, if you are here and you don't like baseball, I'm gonna talk about baseball three times a day. And so you may as well just be patient. Hang out. The end is better than the beginning. But I'm gonna talk about baseball a little bit. So I was thinking about these commands. And I thought about baseball. I used to be a baseball nut. And I thought about baseball. And I knew everybody's batting average on the starting lineups of all the major league. I was nuts. And, but I knew the batting average. See, let me, in case you don't know about baseball batting averages, baseball batting averages are compiled like this. They call perfect a thousand. Now it's really 1.000, but they call it a thousand. And so a perfect batting average is a thousand. So like if you came up to bat a hundred times and every time, every time, except when you walked or except when you got hit by a pitch, you came up at 100 out of 100 times, you hit a single or a double or a triple or a home run, then you'd be hitting a thousand and it'd be perfect. Like Jesus was, okay, you'd be perfect. Or facts are no one comes close. In fact, in the major leagues, the best of the best of the best of the best. If someone hits, let's say, 280 and they call it 280, it's 280 out of a thousand. If someone hits 280, their percentage is 280, then they are very good. It's so good that their position is probably stable. If someone hits 300 or 30 out of 100 times, they get a single, double, triple, home run. If 30 times out of 100, they get up and they hit it, they get hit safely, that's a 300 batting average and those guys are probably all stars, at least it used to be that way. All stars. If someone hits 400, that means four out of 10 times or 40 out of 100, if someone hits 400, they are one of four people in a century who did it. They are out of this world, okay? Now, let's turn that into following Jesus. Rejoice always, always is a thousand. Am I hitting a thousand? Joe? You hitting a thousand? - No. - Okay, didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry, are you all right? - Oh, do him just fine. - Okay, good, all right. So, so if you hit 200 out of a thousand, that's quite a bit of, say, rejoicing always or in everything giving things. And what my real point here is that as we move into 21 days of prayer and we are committing to spend a little more, maybe quite a bit more time alone, work in our relationship with God. If we're doing that, then I would like us to think we've got this magnificent lifelong goal of hitting a thousand. Every time you go up to bat and baseball, you wanna get a single or double or triple homerun, right? So, you intend to hit a thousand. But the reality is, we don't. Everybody say amen, Joe, say amen. - Amen. - Okay, I'm sorry, I'm doing stuff I didn't say was gonna do. - No, you did. - Oh, good, all right, thank you. Everybody say he's good. Oh, I feel better now, all right, thanks, Joe. So, here's the deal. We need to think about this. Carefully, so as not to take God's commandments cheaply or take them so seriously that we can't hit perfect and we give up with discouragement, 'cause we're confused, we need to understand that there's something very appropriate and realistic that we're on a long journey. Our goal is to hit a thousand, but in this moment, this day, we want to take little steps of progress. So, in the 21 days of prayer, I want to encourage us to think clearly about what I do in that time I have with the Lord, but think about it practically enough to say, if I will do this little adjustment, which I'll try to give three of them here in the message, if I'll do this little adjustment, then I will be, if I start out, let's say if my batting average is, what should we say? None of us know what our batting average is, we don't know, right? We don't know, we should have a clue how often, but let's say we're hitting 100, spiritually, in terms of obedience to these specific commands. Let's say, if at the end of 21 days, our average has increased to 102 out of a thousand, but we're going the right direction. See, it's really not where you're at, we're all at different places, well, I understand it, we're all at different levels of maturity. The issue really isn't where you are, that's important, but that's not the real, the issue is which way you're pointed, which way are you aiming? So, our aim is a thousand, but if during the 21 days, we would determine, we're going to aim for thousand, but during that little, whatever time you have, if we could just work and work the muscle, that would probably be really important. So, our batting average got a little better, our spiritual average, a little bit better, then if we did it the next 21 days, because we started a habit, the first 21 days, and we're praying that that habit will just keep going, that you won't go back to the other things that were taking your time to keep spending time with the Lord. And then, pretty soon, if it turned into 21 years, I guarantee God will not only rescue your life, he'll transform it. I mean, I really mean, he'll save you, he'll transform you, and he'll empower you through this improved and determined focus and resolution to hang out meaningfully with Jesus. He'll empower you and he'll make you radiant so that you look and sound like Jesus on the job at home, wherever you are, then the world gets to see a radiant Christ follower, radiant disciple of Jesus. They think that you, but it's really Jesus living his life in and through you, his words become your words, his acts become your acts, you are holy as he is holy, you do the kinds of things he does, and the world will see Jesus through a radiant church. 21 years from now, I prophesy. Got it? So, baseball analogy number one. Okay? You okay? - Yes! (laughs) Great. It might turn, I scare you, I'm sorry. No, you've turned. Oh, you're used to it, yeah, I keep scared, okay, good. Okay, thanks, partner, you're doing great. So, another one. As I was trying to hear the Lord for this message, my mind drifted, and I think it was a holy spirit you can tell us later, my mind drifted to something that happened when I was eight, because I was already thinking about baseball. When I was eight, you won't believe this, I was nuts. Baseball game of night, Little League, I would put in my uniform at seven o'clock in the morning 'cause I couldn't wait to get to the game. I was that hyper, that intense, and I got to the game, and in this game I'm gonna talk about, I was on deck, that means I was getting ready to go up to hit when the first player headed me through hitting. I was on deck, and I started walking to the plate, and my coach, third big coach, head coach, but he was at third base, so he stops me, and he says, "Come here." So I went to him, and he looked at me, and he said, "Now," he said, "Here's what? "This picture, he's wild, he can't throw a pitch "over the plate, so here's what I want you to do. "I want you not to swing, don't swing." And I looked at him, and I didn't put my uniform at eight o'clock to come and plan and not hit the ball, and I had thoughts, I remember them, and emotions, because what you think usually turns into an emotion, and I don't know what I said, but I was thinking, "Who do you think you are, the coach?" I didn't like it. I wanted to, boom. And I looked at him, and I don't know what I said. I think it was just an expression on my face. You know what he did? He looked at me, and he said, "Hey, Perk, do you trust me?" And I didn't say, "Yes, I didn't say anything." It wasn't so much that I didn't trust him. I didn't like him telling me what to do and not do. So I dutifully did it and walked. Hang on to that, we'll come back to it. But as I'm musing, maybe I'm musing, trying to hear the Lord, something happened to me that I don't know if I'd ever had this thought before, but it came to my attention. Jesus, you are my coach, you're a perfect coach. And I could tell you about what it means to me that Jesus is my coach. And I know it doesn't use the word coach in the Bible, but it doesn't use Trinity. But there are ideas in the Bible that we can put words to that if they fit what scripture says, and I'm not pushing that, I'm not trying to push that idea. I just said it was meaningful to me. And I could talk to you about it, but I might just, if you don't mind, I'm gonna try to do the first commandment that we talked about, that we read, rejoice in the Lord. I just wanna do it. So Jesus, and here's how you rejoice in the Lord, and maybe you can do this in your time with the Lord. In one way, there's lots of ways, but maybe you can just say, I'm gonna talk to Jesus or talk to God, I'm not gonna talk about me, I'm not gonna talk to my problems, start with, I'm gonna talk to God about God. It's called Halloween, His Name. I'm gonna start there, and so Jesus, I'm gonna start there right now. And if I can, how will your name a little bit accurately so that I actually think who you are, that will change my thinking, and when my thinking is changed instead of from all the problems and battles of life to think about who you are, then in that moment, I will be able to authentically, with seriously, I'll be able to rejoice. So Jesus, to rejoice in you, I want to say you are my coach because in his right thinking, you did what coaches do. You show me, you show us how to play the game. Well, it's not a game, it's life and it's eternity. You show us, and then you tell us the secret, because all we can see is what you do, but we don't know how you do it, then as a good coach, you tell us the secret, and you did that through your word, and you do that by your spirit, and you show us. And then, I don't know that I'm what? Jesus, I want to make this authentic. Let me just think, you showed me what to do when powerful things oppose me, when there's situations that are dominating or manipulating or intimidating me, and he showed me that in those times I need, I need not to be governed by anything or anyone, but you showed me that I can look at them, and in a calm, peaceful, maybe even with a wink, say, you would have no power over me at all, unless it were giving you my fault. Jesus, you did that, and I don't know how exactly, but then you told me later how you did that, and you showed me that maybe in the difficult things I'm looking at down the road, the things that are painful or fearful, and I maybe have anxiety, I'm nervous about it, you showed me that when you were going through those kinds of situations, something about you, you were able to look at your disciples, and you were able to think about them, and wash their feet, serve them, deny yourself to serve, somehow you had, and you told me the secret, you're a good coach. I'm saying, you've coached me in the life, I rejoice in you, I rejoice, thank you, I praise you for being my coach, I could go on way too long, I think I wanna just go here. Jesus, as I was thinking about you as coach, it what came to my mind, that yes, you are a coach, but there's something greater than the team. It's actually an army, but before we become a team member, you, you, want a family, not because you're needy, but because, because you want all of the universe, every person you created to have the same delight in life forever and ever and ever, that you and the Father and the Spirit experience, you made us so we could be included in your family with joy ever more, I can't even imagine that, and but we all messed it up and walked away, but then you came, and maybe you took off your coach's hat for a little bit and you put on your brother hat, big brother, and you went to a cross, not for your sin, but for all the times that we had been rebellious and ignored you and treated you as if you didn't matter or didn't even exist, just went independently of you, you died not for your sin, but for hours, and then you took what we deserved and then you gave us a position of being right with you you made it possible, you didn't force it, you didn't impose it, but you made it possible for us to be the very righteousness of God and you, after having done, you threw open your arms, maybe on the cross, you threw open your arms and said, "Whosoever will may come." You made us for a relationship, you said, "Come to me," and you made it possible that whosoever would, if they would, they could come and you said, "Now, there is a condition, I love you, "can't stop me from loving you, "but there is a condition, you need to trust me, "I'm a good coach, you need to put your faith in me, "you need to change your mind about who's king of the Lord, "you need to recognize that you receive me as Lord "and you come into a relationship with me, "not based on how good you are, "but how good I was and I offer that to you, "if you'll but trust me, if you'll put your faith in me." So Jesus, I'm blown away by you. And then you went away, but you told it would be better for you to go away because if you went away, then you would send your spirit not to live next to us, but to live in us. So let me ask, do you really believe Jesus by his spirit lives in you? - Absolutely. - God lives in you? - Absolutely. - And that's amazing. - Absolutely. - I told you, yes, we'd be good, he's absolutely. Thank you, buddy. - Every day. - Every day. - Praise God. Can you believe that God actually comes to live in us to do what? Coach us. Coach us. Show us, convict us when we're wrong, 'cause it'll kill us. Show us what is right, 'cause it'll save us. Give us perspective, truth, that we can believe, and when we believe that frees God to empower us. It's amazing, this salvation. Jesus, it's amazing. I honor you, it's my coach. Thank you, I would join you, I've got a coach. I've got a life coach. So let me push on, that was the introduction. After I get old, I'll learn how to do this. Let's talk about the first command. It said rejoice always. Put up the rejoice and lower always, because Paul says that at the end of his life, this was the first church he wrote to, rejoice always. At the end of his life, he said rejoice in the Lord always. Maybe they didn't get it the first time, I don't know what, but he said it this way this time. So rejoice in the Lord always, always. So Jesus, how do I rejoice in you? Now, we could take 10 minutes and talk about all the stuff that people rejoice in. In the Bible, there's a ton of illustrations or stories or directives about rejoicing in the Lord. For example, it's, is your way difficult and challenging? Well then rejoice, because then your faith has a chance to grow. As long as everything is easy and super simple, you don't need so much faith. But when it's difficult, when you're challenged, rejoice, why? 'Cause that's when your faith has a chance to grow. Joe, do you agree? - Yes, absolutely, absolutely. - I'm sorry, I quit hollering so fast. - No, you're good. - Okay, thanks, partner. - I enjoy it. - I do, I need to stand back, well, let's see anyhow, good job. Yes, rejoice in the Lord always when you're going through difficult times. When people say, oh man, I have evil against you, falsely, when they offend you, when they speak badly about you, when they do things that hurt you, when they act like enemies, Jesus said, rejoice, because your father who knows will reward you. Other times rejoice because your name is written down in Lamb's Book of Life. You got the idea. But I wanna talk today about rejoicing just a moment in the Lord. That means in a person, his name is Jesus. Everything needs to go back to Jesus. Rejoice in the Lord always. So Joe, I'm gonna do something here. I'm gonna put on this cap. I forgot to take it off in the first service. I'm gonna put on a cap. This has a cross on it, you probably can't see it, but it has a cross on it. So I'm gonna pretend that I'm coach Jesus. Everybody say, okay, Joe, is that okay? - Yes. - Okay, good. I'm gonna pretend. Now in reality, I know that I'm not Jesus, but I'll tell you what else I know. Jesus lives in me and because of Christ in me, the hope of glory, there's the real possibility that hope that is in me can get through me and the glory of God can be manifest by my words and my acts. So in a sense, as the body of Christ, we are radiant. We are the body of Christ and when we listen to our coach and believe him and do what he says, the world will see Jesus, they'll think it's us, but it'll really be the word becoming flesh again. You awake? I just said something. So Joe, I've got my Jesus coach hat on, all right? So I'm gonna pretend like I'm Jesus, your coach, fair enough? - Yes. - Okay, good. So do you, let me just tell you first. I Jesus loved you so much, I would die for you. And I'm wondering, do you believe that? - Absolutely. - Thank you. And because I'm God, I not only want what's best for you, I know what's best for you. Do you believe that? - Absolutely. - So here comes a hard question. Do you trust me? - Absolutely. - Really? - With everything that I have, 100%. - Praise God. I love you. So Joe, I'm gonna tell you what to do. Is that okay? - Afu-ui. - I'm God. - Afu-ui. - And you're not? - Afu-ui. - Okay, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to rejoice in me. Will you? - Absolutely. - With me. - Praise God. Thank you. I love coaching you. - I love being with you. - Is it okay for coach Jesus to tell us what to do? We're Americans, you know? But we actually changed our mind when we were born from again, 'cause you can't be born from again unless you repent. Because without repentance, there's no forgiveness of sin. And repentance means I change my mind. I receive Jesus as Lord. Just as you receive Christ as Lord, so walk in Him, everybody with me? So I made a fundamental change. It's a big deal to be a Christian. It's a big deal to be a disciple of Jesus. I made a fundamental change. I changed kings. I changed the old kingdom and the old government. I entered a new kingdom, a new government. It's called the kingdom of God. And he is king of the kingdom. That means I ain't king no longer, right? That means what the king says, I say because I know you love me and what's best for me. And because I trust you, you're smart, you know what's best. And because you're my king, the answer's yes. Absolutely. I like absolutely better than yes. Do you? What do you think, let me not ask Joe, what do you think Jesus thinks about Joe's heart? Can you imagine? Can you imagine how to light it? King Jesus is for Joe. So I want to just ask you, we'll take a moment. I believe with all my heart, that King Jesus has just spoken to you. He did it through Scripture. He did it by the Spirit. And he actually did it through his body, right? So would you be willing to answer Jesus? We'll just be quiet for a moment. Would you be willing to answer Jesus? And just his statement to you is wasn't a question. He didn't ask you what you think. He said rejoice always. Now remember, if you say yes, you're not saying, I know I'll hit a thousand. You're saying, geez, I know that you know my intention. You see my heart. And my determination is to get better at rejoicing in you. Is that okay? Am I compromising that? Does that make sense? I don't want to compromise, but I want to make it possible in real. So would you right now talk to Jesus about what every said to you so far? (audience chuckling) Okay. I'm gonna go to the next one, pray continually. I'm gonna chop most of it out. But I want to ask my wife, Debbie, who someone asked me in the first service to tell about her. Well, she's the best speaker of the house, okay? (audience clapping) And you'll know that in a moment. And this wasn't in the script, and she didn't want me to say it in the second service, but I'm going to. We'll talk about it at lunch. (audience laughing) If we eat together, on August 9th, 1969, 55 years ago, this Friday, she made a promise to Jesus. She promised Jesus that she would love that guy next to her for better or for worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health. And she kept her promise. It's unbelievable. Thank you. And I'll tell you something that I tell her almost every day. I have a present every day. She's my present. And almost every morning she wraps it. How'd she do in rapping today? Never mind. (audience laughing) So, I want Debbie to tell a story, but I just want to say this much, this whole idea of praying continually, praying. Most of the time when we hear the word prayer, we think of talking to Jesus. And that's true. Ask, seek, knock. There's tons of verses that make that, just obedience to those directives clear. But as we grow in mature, we learn that prayer is really a conversation. And we actually, the more mature we get, we learn to listen more than talk, like Jesus did, which I don't have time to talk about. But I want Debbie to tell you about an 11-year-old who was at the beginning, pretty mature in praying continually. - So, if I've been married for 55 years, I must have got married when I was 10, don't you think? Let me tell you a story. So, there was a little girl named Stephanie. She was 11 years old when she heard that there was a work and witness team that were going to Australia. And she said, "Daddy, daddy, can I go? "Honey, that cost $3,000. "Oh, but daddy, I think Jesus wants me to go." Well, if you can come up with a $3,000, then you can go. Well, she prayed. She made a few phone calls, and pretty soon she was on the team. Now, the plan was that they were gonna go down to Australia, they were gonna be on a university campus and talk to the students about Jesus. But when they got there, they found that they had just elected a new student body president that was an atheist. And she said, "There will be no Christian activity "on this campus." These people had paid thousands of dollars to get there. So they went to a room and they began to pray. Well, except Stephanie. She went up to the student body officer's office and knocked on the door and said, "Hi, my name's Stephanie. "I'm here from America, "and I'm gonna be praying "that you give your life to Jesus. "Oh, and I'm not going back to America until you do. "Bye." And she went back to the room and began to pray. Well, they prayed all through Monday. They prayed all through Tuesday. And Tuesday night at seven o'clock, as Stephanie was praying, she began to wail. From deep inside, she was calling out and crying. And she was so emotional they put their arm around her and said, "Tried to calm her down." And then said, "You know, I knew we shouldn't have brought the kid." And they tried to calm her down. That went on from seven to 11. At 11 o'clock, she was at peace. She had prayed through. Wednesday morning, there was a knock at the door. They opened the door and there was a disheveled, hair a mass student body president. She said, "Where is that little girl?" "I haven't been able to eat. "I haven't been able to sleep. "I came here to give my life to Jesus." So they welcomed her in and she made Jesus the King and Lord of her life. And then she got in front of the student body and told them, she said, "There's a group here from America. "They've got a very important message for you. "And if you wanna hear what Jesus has done for me, "I'll meet you in the cafeteria." You see, there was a little girl who heard the Holy Spirit, who obeyed the Holy Spirit. And when she prayed, she prayed until she prayed through. And God took care of the rest. Amen. Amen. (audience applauds) (audience applauds) What I'd like to tell you about is if you really wanna know what Jesus did, if you wanna describe Jesus in one word, you can say, "He prayed." And I can prove that to you. But I can also prove he prayed continually. And that was the secret, the secret to his victory over sin. Over water, over bread, that was the key. But I gotta move on. So, last one, and everything, give thanks. And Joy was going to, you know, I was gonna talk to you about all these things. But right now, I wanna tell you all about Joe. I don't know what you know about Joe. I'll tell you a little bit that the first time I ever heard Joe, I didn't see him. I heard Joe praising God, rejoicing in the Lord behind me at a prayer meeting. And I thought, "Who is that?" And in that same prayer meeting, someone pushed him to the front, and he got on the microphone, and he prayed, and he prayed, and it felt so agonizing, incidentally. If you know Joe against all medical odds, he's speaking much better now than he was two years ago. He's gaining, he's gaining. Little steps of progress. He's, he's not, he's not a thousand percent, but he's three percent or five percent better. And that's a medical, medical, or God, or both. Or maybe just God. Joe's does lots of exercise. So a way to go, there's a part that we play. Way to go, Joe. Then we got a little bit of coin and in and out, off and on. Then his mom and dad, Bob and Terry Schuchart, and fighters have dinner at their house. And so I was curious about Joe. So I pummeled him with questions, and I heard all the work that they had done, and all the struggle had been for Joe. And being kind of nosy, I said to Bob and Terry, I said, so with all the challenges that Joe has had, he certainly got discouraged, or maybe even depressed, or discontented, or complaining. And in that moment, Terry, do what you did. Do you remember what you did? You don't remember, yep, that's exactly what Terry did. She didn't say shut up, but she put her hand up like this. And she said, I can count the number of times that Joe has complained. On less than five fingers is my memory. I said, really? And she said, really? It's the glory of God, parents, and Joe. There's the miracle. He didn't complain, but he gives thanks. He rejoices in the Lord, and he's making progress. He's getting better, not just physically, but in the Lord and in the Spirit, he's making progress, right? Right, amen. Thank you, Joe. And so, I'm just praying, Lord, help us all to make little steps of progress in 21 days. Help our spiritual average to just a little more routinely, rejoicing in you, giving thanks in everything, rejoicing always, praying without ceasing. Thank you, Lord. Joe, I didn't do a very good job of that. Would you be willing, you've traveled this road. Would you pray for all of us to do a little better? Absolutely. Bill, help with me and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you, and I know for me in my story. I have rejoiced, oh, oh, always, and give thanks to you all with us. The joy of the Lord is my strength, and you, you, just say over us. It's your word, it says that you put us to your banqueting table and your banner over us, if love, read it, church, it's better over us, if love, and if he dwells in us and he is safe over each and every person here in the congregate kitchen, and if you haven't made a decision to pull the king, king, king, king's word words, this a personal invitation to receive Jesus today, and it is the best decision I have ever made. And if that's true for you, just give praise to God. If that's your story, thank you, John. Yes, thank you. So thanks, Joe. Maybe the obvious is probably something here, this might, I don't know, you haven't known enough about Jesus to make him your life coach, and I'm using that word today, but it's a good word, he'll save your life. He really will, and I said it quickly, he really will rescue you. He really will transform me, if you rejoice, if you pray, if you have conversations that are meaningful, he'll empower your life for goodness, for eternity, and he'll make you radiant. I promise that there are things on our side, and it starts with a determination, Jesus, I don't want to run my life, I want you to coach. I want you to come in to my heart by your spirit and become my coach, and there'll be a ton of things that you'll grow in, but that's where you start. And if you're here today and you haven't determined, I'm using language, I think we, you haven't determined to make Jesus your coach, it's like you've said, it's the best thing you'll ever do. How many agree with that? It's the best thing you'll ever do. You save your life.