Prison

We’d love to hear from you!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Father, god, we thank you for tonight.
We thank you for your love andyour mercy and thank you for the
lesson tonight and we pray Godthat it would resonate in our
hearts and that God it wouldfind a good place in our spirit.
In Christ's name, amen.
I'm reading a book Well, I reada lot of books, but I'm reading
a book by a guy by the name ofCan you get that door, fred?

(00:24):
By the name of Bob Sorge, andI've read just about every book
that Bob Sorge has written.
And Bob Sorge used to be aworship leader and a pastor in
upstate New York, here and shhin upstate New York, and for 20
years.
And then he had a nodule on hisvocal cords and they said that

(00:51):
with laser surgery they couldclear that up immediately.
Well, he had laser surgery onhis vocal cords and what
happened was he lost his voice.
He can only whisper.
I've heard him speak.
He can only whisper.
I've heard him speak, he canonly whisper.
And it was a very dark momentfor him because he was really a

(01:12):
great leader.
He was a very well-known and hestill is a very well-known
minister and writer and hiswhole world changed.
His whole world went like crazy, and he had to resign from the
church, of course, and so on,and he's written a ton of books,
and so the book that I'mreading right now is called the

(01:33):
Secrets of the Secret Place byBob Sorge, and so I want to talk
about this thing aboutconfinement and about prison.
So I want to talk about thisthing about confinement and
about prison, and I think it'san interesting observation what
we're going to talk about heretonight.
I want to read a few scripturesfrom first Acts 28, 17.

(01:55):
It says Jewish leaders and hesaid to them brothers, I was
arrested in Jerusalem and handedover to the Roman government,
even though I had done nothingagainst our people or the
customs of our ancestors.
So here's Paul, arrested.
He becomes a prisoner.
In Ephesians 3.1, it says whenI think of all this, I, paul, a

(02:19):
prisoner of Christ Jesus, forthe benefit of you, gentiles,
get that door.
Where are the kids going?
Okay, thanks.
In Ephesians 4.1, it says,therefore, I a prisoner for
serving the Lord.
Again, he uses the wordprisoner.
In Philemon 1.1, it says thisletter is from Paul, a prisoner

(02:44):
for preaching the good news.
In Philemon, chapter 1, verse 9, it says this but because of
our love, I prefer simply to askyou, consider this as a request
from me Paul, an old man andnow also a prisoner, for the
sake of Christ Jesus.
So in these verses, paul iseither in prison or he calls

(03:09):
himself a prisoner of Christ, aslave for the Lord.
So I go to the book ofRevelation, and I go to
Revelation, chapter 1, and Iwant to read verses 9 through 11
.
It says I, john, this is John.
This disciple, 96 years old,who was also your brother and
companion in tribulation and inthe kingdom and patience of

(03:32):
Jesus Christ, was in the islethat is called Patmos.
It was an island for the wordof God, for preaching and for
the testimony of Jesus Christ.
He said in verse 10, I was inthe spirit on the Lord's day and
heard behind me a great voiceas of a trumpet saying I am
Alpha and Omega, the first andthe last, and what thou seest

(03:53):
write in a book and send it untothe seven churches which are in
Asia Ephesus, smyrna, pergamos,thyatira, sardis, philadelphia
and Laodicea.
Now, what did John receive onthe Isle of Patmos?

(04:13):
Well, it tells us in Revelation,chapter 1, verse 1, the
revelation of Jesus Christ.
So we get the book ofRevelation from a man that's
imprisoned on an island, and soyou would say man, why would God
allow this?
Why does God allow what heallows in our life sometimes?
Okay, and so this is what wewant to talk about here tonight.

(04:33):
So I want you to go to yournotes and I don't usually like
to really copy other people'sworks, but for the study tonight
, let's look at this the secretof confinement Is confinement
good or bad?
Is being in prison, physicallyor emotionally, good or bad?
And so it says, like John theprisoner, you may find yourself

(04:59):
in a place of restriction, and Iwant to stop right there.
A place of restriction, you know, solomon told us in the book of
Ecclesiastes and some of youwill be looking forward to this
and maybe not looking forward tois not a good word he says when
you get older, you'll lose yourmolars, your eyesight begins to
dim, your body begins to leanand you don't sleep much.

(05:23):
You won't have a lot of sleepwhen you go to bed at night.
And this happens when you getolder.
Okay, people get their molespulled out, their eyesight
begins to dim, their body beginsto lean, which means you have
issues with your back and allthat, and you don't sleep a lot.
The Bible says Solomon said youhear the birds earlier than a

(05:43):
lot of people in the morning.
And so this is restriction,okay.
And when you get older youcan't do the things that you
used to do when you were 20 or30.
You like to think you can, weall like to think that, but we
can't, and so you have to usewisdom.
So when Bob Sawyer used theword restriction, it really

(06:03):
resonated with me.
And it says and they be feelingthe emotions that accompany
imprisonment and confinement.
Now we've all seen people whoare either disabled, people who
are confined to their homes, andthey have a lot of emotion.
I mean, you go visit somepeople in a nursing home.

(06:26):
You know there's a lot ofemotion.
You know, because the one thingthat older people do not want
to lose is their independence.
That's why people want to stayin their home.
They don't want to go to anursing facility, they don't
want to go to a care facility,they want to be in their home
with their family.
It's very important to a personbecause once you lose your

(06:50):
independence, you lose youridentity.
All of a sudden, someone elseis taking care of you.
All of a sudden you're at thebeck and call of other people,
and sometimes they're not verygood at taking care of people.
That's just the way it is.
There's a lot less peopleworking in the system.
So feelings such as now we'veall experienced this, okay
Especially like we've all beensick.
We've all either had COVID orwe've had illnesses or things

(07:14):
that have confined us to bed,okay, and so the one thing that
we think of is well, why doesGod allow this?
Why am I sick?
Why doesn't God just heal me?
Okay, because there's a purpose.
God didn't send the sickness,but he allows it in our life and
if we use it for the benefit ofGod, it can prosper us.

(07:35):
So it says here that feelingsof hopelessness, uselessness you
ever feel that when you just,you don't have it.
You're down, you're sick,you're in bed, you feel useless.
Despair, abandonment, rejection, reproach, perplexity,

(07:56):
loneliness, vulnerability andboredom.
All of these emotions takeplace, a lot of them, when
you're confined.
When you're confined eitherphysically, because of a
physical illness, but I want youto also think of emotion.
I want you to think of how manypeople are a prisoner of their
own emotions.
Emotional prisons is a verytough prison to get out of.

(08:19):
It's very hard for people toescape that prison because they
feel a lot of these adjectiveshopelessness, uselessness,
despair, abandonment, rejection.
That's why people get on theledge.
That's why people are way outthere sometimes and they're hard
to rescue.
And it's very, verydisheartening to see a person

(08:40):
lose hope and then decide, well,my life doesn't count.
This is what these people areexperiencing, and any of you
have ever been to trainings forsuicide training.
The one thing that you alwayshave to give a person that's on
the ledge is hope.
You got to give them hope.
You can give them everythingelse in the whole world.
You can say I'll give you amillion dollars if you don't

(09:00):
jump or hurt yourself or killyourself, but what that person
needs is hope because they'refeeling these emotions.
They're feeling this, andpeople feel this when they get
physically ill.
And people feel this whenthey're in an emotional prison.
They don't know how to expressthemselves, okay, and so on.
So look what it says next.
With such a host of emotionsassaulting the prisoner's

(09:22):
equilibrium, it's challenging tomaintain an unswerving
confidence in the secret of thischapter.
Listen to what he says now,when you're confined, now, this
is hard for us to accept.
Sometimes, when you're confined, god is closer than you realize
.
Think about that.

(09:42):
Now you're saying to me well,man, I've been sick and I don't
know.
I didn't feel God real close tome and I've had, and we've all
been through, traumaticexperiences Everyone in this
room, we've all been out thereand accidents, different things
that have happened to us and weweren't really thinking that
well, god is really with meright now.

(10:04):
All we were thinking about issurvival.
You know how am I going tocrawl out of this hole?
Okay, so he says the Lordassures the afflicted soul I
will be with him in trouble.
So what's that saying to me?
This is what it's saying to me.
It's saying that, no matterwhat I'm going through,
physically or emotionally, okay,whether I'm stuck or moving

(10:27):
forward or whatever.
The Bible says in Psalm 91 and15, okay, and I'm going to read
verses 14 through 16.
It says this Therefore, will Ideliver him?
I will set him on high becausehe has known my name.
He shall call upon me and Iwill answer him.

(10:50):
I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honorhim with long life.
Will I satisfy him and show himmy salvation?
So what does God see when weread this verse here, when I
read Psalm 91, 14,.
It says this because he has sethis love upon me, because we,

(11:11):
as Christians, set our love uponGod.
He says, therefore, I willdeliver him or deliver her,
whatever the situation thatyou're in physically or
emotionally, or spiritually, ok.
And he says I will set him onhigh.
Now, this is the hope that Godwants to give us when we're down
and out, when things aren'tgoing the way we're expecting.
And he says because he hasknown my name, we know his name.

(11:34):
Okay, he shall call upon me,and that's what we do, and I
will answer him.
That's a promise.
I will be with him in trouble,I will deliver him and honor him
.
Being in prison is a confinement.
And what is a confinement?
It's a quarantine, it's anincarceration.

(11:54):
If you're in a physical prison,like in Auburn, it's a
detention, it's a captivity,it's a limitation, it's a
restriction, it's a restraint ora boundary.
So you're saying Pastor, wait aminute, try to bring this
together for a minute.
You're telling me, like whenI'm sick, ok, I'm in quarantine,

(12:15):
I'm incarcerated, I can't go towork, I can't do what I want to
do, I can't take care of myfamily, I can't make a living, I
can't drive my car, I'm tooweak, I'm too tired, I'm too
dizzy, I'm on medication, okay,and you're under restriction and
restraint.
A lot of people are experiencingthis all the time.
Emotionally, they're inconfinement, and it's our job as

(12:38):
Christians to help each otherout of that confinement.
I don't care who you are inthis room.
We all have emotionalroadblocks.
We all have things that keep usfrom going across the line,
breaking the boundaries, talkingto people, being transparent,
being open or whatever you wantto call it.

(13:00):
We all have these limitationsand they're confinements, and
it's like we're in quarantineemotionally and God wants to
break us out, because the Biblesays where the spirit of the
Lord is, there's liberty.
God wants to give us freedom toexpress ourselves.
He wants to give us a freedomto have relationship with each
other, to know each other,without feeling like well, if

(13:21):
you get to know me, maybe youwon't like me.
Well, if you look at me longenough, there's going to be some
things you're not going to like, because I'm a human being,
same with you.
If I look at you long enoughand I'm looking at the negative
all the time, I'm going to findsomething that probably I don't
like okay, and that's probablysomething in my own life that
I'm projecting on you, that Isee in you.
That's what happens a lot.

(13:41):
When we don't like something inanother person, it's usually a
projection of it's somethingthat you don't like about
yourself.
So you put it on the otherperson and say I don't like that
person because they're likethis.
But if you look at it this way,you're probably experiencing
that yourself and you project itout on some other human being.
So look what it says here whenyou're confined, bob Sword says
God is closer than you realize.
When you're confined, bob Swordsays God is closer than you

(14:04):
realize.
And this is what we have toremember.
We have to remember that God iswith us, okay?
So he says in the nextparagraph the Lord assures the
afflicted soul I will be withhim.
When you're troubled bycircumstances that twist and
squeeze your soul, that's whenthe Lord draws especially close
and stands with you.

(14:24):
Here's where a lot of peoplemiss out.
We don't really ask God to cometo us on our sickbed.
We don't ask God to come to uswhen we're in an emotional
standstill and we try to toughenit out.
We try to say, well, I'll getover this and I'll push through
this and I don't have to bevocal or verbal, I don't have to

(14:45):
give my heart to someone elseand share friendship, and this
is what the Lord's saying thatGod wants to come, okay, and
draw close to us, especially inthose moments and it's moments
of fear, it's moments of, youknow, trepidation, it's moments
of I don't know if I can eventalk in a group or whatever.
Okay, so he said.

(15:06):
David said of the Lord, he madedarkness his secret place.
I really like this.
Okay, because I look at Psalm91, 14 and 15, I just read to
you because his love is upon me.
He says in Psalm 18 and 11, hemade darkness his secret place.
I'm reading from the scripturesnow His canopy around him was

(15:30):
dark waters and thick clouds ofthe skies.
From the brightness before him,his thick clouds passed with
hailstones and coals of fire.
What does all this mean?
It means this the Lordthundered from heaven and the
Most High uttered his voicehailstones and coals of fire.
So to put that in perspective,which it sounds like a

(15:51):
conglomeration of words, in theeasy version, it says this he
made darkness his covering, hiscanopy around him thick clouds,
dark with water.
It means God is in thisdarkness, out of the brightness,

(16:14):
out of the brightness, hisbrightness.
Before him, hailstones andcoals of fire broke through his
clouds.
The Lord also thundered in theheavens and the Most High
uttered his voice, andhailstones and coals of fire.
What this is saying to me isthis.
This is what Bob Sorge writeswhen the lights go out and
you're plunged into emotionaldarkness and we've all been
there you're actually beinginvited into God's secret place.

(16:34):
He meets with his beloved electin the darkest places of life.
It's in those dark places thatGod wants to burst and I look at
the word that says hailstormsand coals of fire that he wants
to burst the enemy out of us.
He wants to burst those thingsthat are not in agreement with

(16:56):
him, whether it's from theoutside or the inside of us, and
he wants to shine hisbrightness upon us, even in our
dark moments.
And this is what people fail torealize, because that's when
people give up.
When they go through a darkperiod, depression, they go
through this moment where theythink nobody loves them.

(17:17):
They feel rejected, abandoned.
And these are real, experiencedemotions.
These are not made-up emotions.
People actually go through this.
We all go through this, okay,and we imagine that no one cares
, no one is interested, no onesees what I'm going through.
But God does, if no one elsedoes.
Okay, out of his darkness.

(17:39):
The Bible says he surroundedhimself in darkness.
Says he surrounded himself indarkness, he will send the
hailstones and the coals of fireto obliterate all those things
that are impeding our progressin him and shine his brightness
upon us.
To me, that's a wonderfulpromise that God has made to us.
Okay, you follow so far whatthe Lord is saying, so go to the

(18:02):
next paragraph.
The Lord's prison is generallycharacterized by social
isolation and loneliness, andthat's true.
When you're going through ahard time, there's not many
people knocking on your door.
When you're going throughmoments of depression, doubt,
unbelief, and we all go there,whether we like to admit it or
not.
When we all go through momentsof loneliness, okay, we say why

(18:25):
is God allowing this?
God does allow these moments ofconfinement for a reason to
show himself.
He allows it.
And people say well, why doesGod let me go through this?
I want to pray this away.
And God's saying don't pray itaway, invite me into it, invite
me into your darkness, invite meinto it, invite me into your
darkness, invite me into youremotional turmoil, invite me

(18:47):
into your life, where you haveno answers right now for the
things that are going on in yourlife.
This is what the Lord's saying.
And he said I'll shinebrightness upon you and I'll
send the hailstones and thecoals of fire and I'll
obliterate those things that aretrying to get in your way and
interfering with your life.
This is what the Lord's saying.
Okay, get in your way andinterfering with your life.
This is what the Lord's saying.
Okay.
So he says friends drift away.
We've all had that, haven't we?

(19:09):
How many could say at thistable I used to have a best
friend, but I don't see the bestfriend anymore.
What happened?
I didn't do anything, youdidn't do anything wrong.
I didn't do anything wrong.
What happened?
I became a Christian, I went tochurch, and I went to church
and I read my Bible, and that'san indictment for some people.
So friends drift away andrelationships that were once
strong and meaningful becomedistant or estranged.

(19:31):
You know what happens to uswhen that happens.
We give up.
We say, well, if my best friendditches me, who's to say that
this person's not going to ditchme?
How about this one?
I mean, we've been all inchurch and we've all had best
friends in church and they'veditched us at times.

(19:52):
Okay, so what Bob Sorge issaying is that this is going to
happen.
Your ability to function iscurtailed.
Hey, once your best friend isnot your best friend anymore,
once that person that was yoursoulmate or that person that you
really confided in is not thereanymore, you're curtailed,
you're limited.
Now, okay, because you have noone to talk to, you have no one

(20:14):
to share your heart with, youhave no one to share your pain
with.
Okay.
So it says your ability tofunction is curtailed and you
find no joy in the small amountof movement your chains allow.
It's kind of like you're inprison.
You've got the shackles on yourfeet, okay, and you've got the
handcuffs and you're kind ofshuffling.
You ever see a prisoner go intoa police car and they're

(20:34):
shuffling.
And that's the way we getsometimes emotionally, okay,
when people ditch us or rejectus.
And that's the way we getsometimes physically, when we're
sick, because we got shackleson, we can't get out of bed and
go to the gym and we can't workout and we can't eat what we
want.
Food is not interesting to usNothing that is appealing to us,
and so on.

(20:55):
Okay, so then it says, eventhough you may feel abandoned,
however, this confinement listento what it says now has been
orchestrated by your lover, andthat's Christ.
Now, I know that this is hardto accept sometimes, and I'm
saying this as a pastor.
How is God orchestrating this?
There's meaning to all this.

(21:16):
I mean, my steps are reallyordered by the Lord.
Even when I'm looking at chaosin front of me, even when I'm
looking at confusion, even whenI'm looking at I have of me.
Even when I'm looking atconfusion, even when I'm looking
at, I have no clue what you'redoing.
Have you ever said that youever look up to heaven and say
I'm not fighting with you, but Ihave no clue what you're doing
at this moment.
I have no roadmap, I have noblueprint, I have no compass.

(21:41):
Spiritually, all I know is togo forward, and that's what
God's requiring at those moments, because there's not much you
can do.
Okay, but here's what happens toa lot of people they become
bitter and hard and blame Godfor the situation that they're
in, and they become having acontroversy with God and say you

(22:07):
could have prevented this, youcould have stopped this.
You could not have allowed thisin my life.
And God is saying you'remissing the whole point of
confinement, you're missing thewhole point of what I'm trying
to do.
I'm coming to you, I haven'tleft you, I'm here.
Okay, your heavenly husband,that's Christ, has allured you
into the wilderness.

(22:27):
Hosea 2.14,.
It says therefore, behold, Iwill allure her, I will bring
her into the wilderness andspeak comfort to her.
Now, wait a minute.
Don't you remember when Jesuswas tempted for 40 days and 40
nights?
The Bible says that the HolySpirit brought him into the
wilderness for 40 days and 40nights.
Why?
Because he had to experienceexactly what you experience at

(22:50):
times when you're physicallysick or emotionally ill, when
you can't function the way youwant to function.
So there's no excuse that.
Oh, jesus doesn't know how Ifeel.
He felt all of our infirmities,he felt all of our emotions,
but he didn't sin.
That's the big point.
But he was lured into thewilderness for 40 days and 40

(23:11):
nights and he fought the beast,the Bible says, and Satan who
was trying to tempt him to allthese different things.
Okay, and so it says here, yourheavenly father has lured you
into the wilderness.
He will comfort you with hispresence and renew your delight
in his goodness.
So I'm reading the easy versionand I want to read this to you.

(23:32):
So I want you to think the lasttime you were really out there
emotionally, physically, I meanyou were distraught, depressed.
I don't know what's going on.
God, I don't want to have anargument with you, but I'm
reading Hosea, chapter 2, verse14 through 16.
It says this but then I willwin her back once again.

(23:53):
That's us.
I will lead her into the desertand speak tenderly to her.
Lead us where?
Into the desert.
In verse 15, it says I'll returnher vineyards to her.
Wow, that means God wants tobless me and transform the
valley of trouble into a gatewayof hope.
Man, she will give herself tome there, as she did long ago

(24:16):
when she was young, when I freedher from captivity in Egypt.
When the day comes, says theLord, you will call me my
husband instead of my master.
What is the Lord saying here?
Through the prophet Hosea?
He's saying he lures us intothe wilderness on purpose.
You can't stop it, you can'tprevent it.

(24:36):
There's certain things thathave to happen to us.
Ok, because that's God's will,the circumstances that he brings
into our life, but it's not theend.
And that's where people missout.
They think, oh man, I'm done,I'm not going to serve God, I'm
not going to come to church, nomore, I'm mad at God, I hate the
pastor, I hate the people inthe church.
Prayers are not working andthey go through this big tantrum

(25:00):
and they bail and they bail andlittle by little they fail in
their faith.
And once you fail in your faith, it's hard for God to lure you
back because he has nothing towork with.
Okay, so when you look at thisverse here, god says listen,
though you're physically ill onyour bed and you can't move,

(25:20):
although you're in emotionalprison and you can't bust out
because of whatever the wayyou're feeling, god says I want
to come in your valley oftrouble and I want to comfort
you, I want to take care of you.
We have to look at the Lord asthe husband tending to the wife,
as the man tending to the woman.

(25:41):
This is what God is saying here.
We're the bride, we're the wife, he's the husband, he's the
bridegroom and he wants to takecare.
Any man who doesn't want totake care of his wife is not in
a good place spiritually withGod, his prayers will not get
answered.
I don't care.

(26:01):
You could look at this Bible,you could read this Bible.
I can show you scriptures.
God is not pleased with thatperson.
Okay, this is a commitment thatGod is making to us.
This is a marital commitment.
This is a lifetime commitmentthat God is saying I got you, I
have you.
And it's the same like inmarriage.

(26:23):
Sometimes we have difficultiesand people are tempted to part,
they're tempted to separate,they're tempted to go their
different ways Because they sayit's irreconcilable differences.
No, wait a minute.
It's your choices that make itirreconcilable differences.

(26:45):
If we're Christians, if we'reChristians and two Christians
are married, those twoChristians should be able to sit
down, either together or withproper counseling, and work out
their differences that they sayare irreconcilable.
When God says I want to comeinto your valley of trouble and

(27:06):
I want to comfort you and I wantto lure you back to what I put
together, this is the beauty ofthe Lord and this is what people
miss out in marriage.
They miss out.
We settle, we settle.
There's no reason to settle, wecan't settle.

(27:26):
Okay, it's either going to bewhat God says to do or we're
going to be in the wildernessand he's not going to rescue us
because we're telling him Idon't want to be rescued because
I don't want to go buy yourbook.
And God has a legal documenthere.
He has to go buy the book.
He cannot abandon the word, hecannot go outside the legal
scope of the word of God.

(27:47):
So Bob Sword says look at thenext paragraph.
He says initially you won'tunderstand why he's brought you
into this lonely, aimlesswilderness.
Have we all been there?
Haven't we all been in a lonely, aimless wilderness?
We have.

(28:08):
You know, haven't you ever gotin your vehicle and just drove
around?
Just drove, thinking?
Maybe if I take a drive in thecountry, maybe if I stop at the
coffee shop and just sit thereand just have coffee, and maybe
this will blow over.
Maybe if I go work out, maybeif I go work and do a job, maybe

(28:32):
that'll help.
But when you come back toyourself, it's still there and
God is still saying I'm tryingto lure you.
And this is the beauty thatpeople miss, because they get
really disappointed in God.
And how many people have youknow?
You've heard through the yearsI'm mad at God and he's not

(28:55):
doing it.
And why is this happening to meand all this other stuff, and
they get beside themselves andthey don't recover and it's sad.
So he says initially you won'tunderstand.
Perplexity makes us desperate tounderstand when you're
perplexed.
What does it mean to beperplexed?
You're confused, you don't havean answer.

(29:16):
You may have asked three orfour people for an answer and
they came up short.
It's like they don't have ananswer for you.
Okay, and sometimes God allowsthat.
So we seek him.
Okay, so it says here.
In the next it says he'll usethe perplexity to motivate you
to seek him with wholeheartedabandonment.

(29:37):
Look, I can look back on my lifeand I'm not saying that I would
like to relive those very, verydifficult moments that happened
to me.
I don't, but I could tell youthat it was those moments when
we didn't give up, when we dugin my wife and I dug in and we

(29:58):
sought the Lord and it was hardto see God in darkness.
Sometimes it was hard when wedidn't have the answer right
before us.
It was hard when the answer wasmonths and months away or years
away.
It was hard, it was difficult.
Okay, but we made a commitment.
We made a commitment to oneanother to stick together
spiritually.
That's, our whole marriage isbased on the Bible.

(30:20):
Our whole marriage is based ona spiritual foundation.
People say what's your successof being married almost 50 years
?
It's really simple.
Based on that, you will notlose.
I will tell you, you will notlose if you base your life and
your relationship with a man ora woman on this book.

(30:41):
You will not lose If bothpeople agree to the covenant of
marriage and the covenant ofthis book.
You will not lose.
It's impossible Because theBible says that.
Okay, and what happens?
You know?
I look back, but those were themoments that we prayed, we
fasted, we sought God in tears,sometimes in terror, sometimes

(31:03):
in fear, sometimes just tryingto put one step in front of the
other, and eventually, thebrightness of the Lord, the
darkness began to disappear andGod lured us and we grew.
We grew spiritually because theonly source we had was the Word
of God, and the Word of God wasour lifeline.

(31:26):
This was it.
You know, this was the finalanswer that we could go to, that
God would bring nourishment tous.
Okay.
So he says and what he wantedall along?
That you run hard after him.
He had to allure you into thewilderness to unlock your such
eager love.
He intends to use the loneliesttime of your life.

(31:47):
Listen to this now.
He intends to use the loneliesttime of your life to ignite a
depth of intimacy you've neverknown before.
I truly believe that's whereGod is trying to bring the
church.
I truly believe he's luring usand he's allowing us to feel
loneliness.
Okay, he allows us to feelabandonment.

(32:10):
He allows us to feel likethere's no answer, there's no
way out.
He allows us to feel that, butif we keep put one foot in front
of the other, he will revealHimself.
Okay.
So he goes into the nextparagraph and he says before,
you were too busy to find it.
And that's the problem withpeople.
Okay, they go through anemotional block.

(32:34):
Okay, especially, or spiritualhindrance or or standstill, and
what they do is they stay busyto try to get it out of their
life.
If I just stay busy and youhear people say that if I just
stay busy, it'll go away, if Ijust stay busy, I'll be able to

(32:58):
not think about it.
If I just stay busy, it won'tbother me as much.
But you know when it bothersyou.
When you lay your head down onthe pillow, that's when it
starts to bother you Becauseyou're not busy.
Now God's got you confined for anumber of hours because human
bodies have to sleep.

(33:19):
Sometimes you might not sleep awhole eight hours, but you got
to go to bed.
Sometimes you can't stay up, soGod puts you in this
confinement, on this bed.
Okay, it's like a corpse, it'slike a coffin.
And he's got you there andyou're not busy.
Now You're not working, You'renot doing, you're not trying to
forget.
And now you're thinking.
And what's God saying to you?

(33:40):
God's saying think about me,think about what I could do for
you.
Let me come into your liferight now, on your bed.
Let me come in when you're notbusy.
Listen to what he says.
Before you were too busy tofind it, before other fountains
had nurtured your soul.
What does that mean?
Other fountains, oh, otherthings that you desire to do.

(34:00):
Oh, if I do this, this willmake me happy.
If I go buy a car, this willmake me happy.
If I go shopping and buy a newdress, that'll make me happy.
Only for a moment, only for aseason, only for a split second.
And then, when you walk out thestore, you say wasn't such a

(34:20):
big deal, I don't really careabout the dress anymore.
I'm probably going to return it.
You know he just bought it outof to do something okay.
And he says this he dries upevery other fountain that has
nurtured your soul.
Sometimes he takes away thingsfrom us that make us busy, that

(34:41):
take up our time, that make usnot think about him, and he
removes them.
And we get mad when God removesthose crutches, when God
removes those things that wedepend on.
Why are you?
Why?
Why is my friend not comingaround?
Why is my wife notunderstanding me?
Why is my husband not gettingit?

(35:03):
Why?
And we look at sometimes thepeople that we love and we want
to shake them.
Because you don't get it, doyou?
And they get mad.
But God puts them in that placefor a reason Because he's
trying to say I want yourundivided attention.
He can't help you right now.
She can't help you right now.
He can't help you right now.

(35:23):
The church can't help you rightnow, and the only one that can
help you right now, she can'thelp you right now.
He can't help you right now.
The church can't help you rightnow, and the only one that can
help you right now is yourhusband, and that's Jesus.
I mean, when you come, whenyou're reduced to that, you
become humble.
You say to yourself man, whatdoes it say here?
When he becomes the onlyfountain of your soul, you will

(35:48):
whisper through your tears allmy springs are in you.
Now, what does that mean?
Let me give you two differentversions.
It says in Psalm 87 and 7, okay, as well the singers as the
players on the instruments shallbe there.
Okay, worship, all my springsare in there.

(36:10):
What does that mean?
It says this all my springs,which means my sources of life
and joy, are in you, lord, allmy springs, whatever hope that I
have.
When no one else understands me, when there's no seemingly
solution to the problems, okay,you can always depend on Psalm

(36:34):
87 and 7.
That says my sources of lifeand joy are in you.
And that's where people miss it,because they discard God, they
push him out, because they sayyou don't care, you don't care,
you took this away from me.
You took that fountain awayfrom me.
You took that away from me.
You know, even David said evenpleasant bread doesn't even

(36:56):
please me.
You ever get to that pointwhere nothing you eat satisfies.
You ever get to that pointwhere nothing you eat satisfies.
You ever get to that point youeat this, you eat that, you eat
that, you try this, you try that.
And here's what you sayNothing's making it, nothing's

(37:17):
getting there, nothing'spleasing.
God takes those things awayfrom us for a moment of time
because he's saying listen,forget about those fountains,
forget about that snack, forgetabout that right now, forget
about going and doing this anddoing that and trying to evade
the situation, trying to escape,because I am your source of

(37:39):
life and joy.
And that's what we miss out.
We don't really respond to that.
Okay, so look at the next, andI love this.
I love Bob Sawyer's writings.
He says you used to beenergized by projects.
This resonates especially withmen.

(38:00):
Now you're energized by aperson.
You know what gives peoplemeaning.
They think projects.
You ever hear people I got toget another project, I got to
get another project.
I got to get another project.
And what are you gettinganother project for?
What are you trying to forget?
I'm not saying that every timewe want to get a project we want

(38:23):
to forget, but a lot of times,it's true, we don't want to deal
with it.
Okay, listen, when you're in thehouse and the stress gets on
you in the house.
All you want to do in thesummer is go out to your shop,
go out to your barn, get on yourtractor and go mow grass.
For two hours, no phones,nobody telling you what to do,

(38:45):
nobody giving you this or givingyou that, blah, blah, blah.
No responsibility.
All I'm doing is I'm mowinggrass, isn't it true?
If you're a man, if you're aman, I've never wanted to mow
the grass.
Okay, what do women do?
What do women do to try to dealwith when you don't want to

(39:05):
deal with stuff?
I go take a shower Okay, areally long, hot shower.
Okay, go read, go readSometimes.
Go to the coffee shop I do that.
I'll sit in Dunkin' Donuts forhalf an hour or 45 minutes.
People think you're crazy.
I just watch the world go by.
I have a cup of coffee andsomething to eat and I just
watch the world go by, because Idon't want to deal with it.
I don't want to deal withproblems my problems, your

(39:27):
problems, anybody's problems.
I don't want to deal with anyof it Because today, right now,
the office is closed for an hour.
Okay, that's just the way youfeel and it sounds crazy.
Okay, so God says here Georgeis saying this you used to be
energized by projects and whenyou get older, you're not so up
on diving into a project.

(39:48):
You don't have the time, youdon't have the energy, you may
not have the talent, you may nothave the physical capability,
you just don't feel that good tostart climbing on a roof or
doing this or doing that.
Okay.
But when you get older and whenyou get between a rock and a
hard place, you start to getenergized by Christ and you say
God, what do I really need?

(40:09):
Am I using this for an escape?
Am I using this as a stressreducer, which is okay?
But when we start evadingChrist, especially when it comes
to our internal turmoil, we arenow doing a project instead of
being energized by a person whois Christ.

(40:30):
Do you get that?
This is a very important point.
This sort of resonated with me.
Okay.
So he says this in the nextparagraph.
David spoke of the intimacy ofthe prison.
Okay, he says you have hedgedme behind and before and laid
your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderfulfor me.

(40:51):
It is high.
I cannot attain it Now.
Psalm 139 is an interestingPsalm and these are interesting
verses.
Let me read a few differentversions.
David was held up, especially atthe cave of Adullam.
He was always running from Saul.
For years Saul tried to killhim numerous times.
The king and David alwaysrespected the office of the king

(41:15):
and he never wanted to hurtKing Saul.
He could have killed himdifferent times, king Saul.
He could have killed himdifferent times.
But he says touch not myanointed, do my prophets no harm
.
David knew his place in theLord and David resigned himself
to say God will take care ofKing Saul.
I can't take care of King Saul.
I cannot have revenge.
Okay, but he spoke about theintimacy of prison.

(41:39):
Okay, because he was always onthe run or living in a cave.
And in Psalm 139 and 5, it saysYou've hedged me behind and
before and you laid your handupon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderfulfor me.
It is high.
I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spiritor where can I flee from your

(41:59):
presence?
In the ESV version, verse 5says this you hem me in behind
and before and lay your handupon me.
In the HCSB version it says youhave encircled me, you have
placed your hand on me.
And in the NLT version it saysyou go before me and follow me,

(42:24):
you place your hand of blessingon my head.
So what was David saying?
Even though I'm confined, eventhough I'm in a prison, so to
speak, even though I'm living ina cave, and now I've got 400
guys coming toward me fromSaul's army that are disgruntled
, depressed, in debt, all of asudden David's living in the
cave, basically by himself, andnow he's got 400 visitors from
King Saul's army that aredefecting and saying you need to

(42:46):
take care of us and you need tohelp us, and you are now our
general.
And David was looking at himsaying oh God, you got a sense
of humor.
It's like you, serious, I'mtrying to take care of myself.
Man, I'm in this cave by myselfin a duel, and it's dark, it's
dungy, it's damp.
Dark, it's dungy, it's damp,it's like it's depressing.

(43:07):
And now I got 400 people hereat my door.
And what are you expecting ofme?
God says this is for you, it'sfor your good.
Oh, my God, it's kind of likewhen that family comes that you
weren't expecting at the lastminute, and the house is not
clean, and your wife is sayingwe got to get this house in
order.
You know, family's coming.
It's like we got to get ready amonth before because

(43:30):
everything's got to be spick andspan.
But when those unexpectedguests come and they're at your
doorstep, it's Uncle Harry andit's Aunt Millie.
What, where did you come from?
We just decided to take a ridefrom Wisconsin to visit you.
Really, you got to be kiddingme.
And you go in the back room andyou say to your wife do you know
who's here, uncle harry andaunt millie, who I don't even
know who they are.
Oh, they looked us up when theyfound where we live and they're

(43:52):
now on our doorstep and theywant to spend a couple of weeks
with us because they want to seethe area.
Kind of reminds you of thatfilm, christmas vacation.
You know when the cousin comesand he says I'm going to spend a
couple of few months with you,and then he pulls out the list
for Christmas and he pulls outthe, he goes to the store and

(44:14):
puts all the dog food in thething there and he says you got
to be kidding me.
And he goes to his wife and hesays do you know who's here, my
cousin?
He's on a trail with thesebratty little kids that look
like they didn't take a bath fora year and they're at my
doorstep.
What do I do with these people?
You know so.
You know, and sometimes thishappens to us.

(44:35):
But here's what the Lord'ssaying.
He's saying listen, david wassaying man, I'm between a rock
and a hard place.
And, god, this is what the Lordhad him write.
You have encircled me with allthese guys.
Okay, you're behind me andbefore me and you want to place
your hand of blessing on my headand listen, the blessing did
come to David.
He did become king eventually,and he made those 400 men into

(44:59):
warriors.
They become some of thegreatest soldiers in the word of
God.
They became some of thefiercest conquerors for the Lord
.
Okay, because they were trainedby the best.
David was the best general wehave in the Old Testament.
He was the man.
He knew how to fight.
He fought the bear, he foughtthe lion, he fought Goliath.

(45:19):
This guy had a resume, okay,and then he becomes king.
Before he becomes king, he'straining all these people.
He knows how to fight, he knowshow to go to war, he knows how
to defeat the enemy, he knowshow to do all this, okay, and so
he does that, okay.
So look what it says here.
Another image for this kind ofcloseness is found with the
Shulamite in the Song of Solomon.

(45:40):
She said it this way His lefthand is under my head and his
right hand embraces me.
Song of Solomon, chapter 8,verse 3.
She viewed the confinement ashis loving embrace.
Now I want to just say thisabout the Song of Solomon.
You know, some people say thatthe Bible is dull.
If you know how to read theSong of Solomon, it's about

(46:02):
marriage and it's about sex anda lot of people never say that
in church.
Ok, the position of a man.
Ok, god is saying when you goto bed Now, I'm talking about
marriage right now.
Ok, he says.
She said his left hand is undermy head and his right hand

(46:25):
embraces me.
So where is the man lying?
To the right of her, to theright of her?
He's on the, he's here andshe's there Because his left
hand is under her head and hisright hand is embracing her.
That's the position of marriagein bed according to the book of

(46:48):
Solomon.
Song of Solomon.
That's what it says.
I'm not saying you have to dothat, I'm just saying that's
what I do.
I go by the book, okay, and ifyou go by the book.
It's a very interesting book toread because it really blows
people's minds.
Okay, when you have an openspirit to what God is saying.

(47:09):
I'm not going to go into thatteaching tonight, but it's
beautiful.
It's very, very beautiful andtender.
This is the only woman thatSolomon really loved.
He had all these concubines bythe hundreds.
Okay, this was the only womanthat he truly, truly loved and

(47:31):
she loved him.
This is the only one.
All the others were sexualwhatever's.
You know notches on some guy'sgun belt, on his gun belt, so to
speak.
You know well, I slept with her, slept with her, slept with her
.
Had all these women and blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah.
There was only one woman in theBible Song of Solomon was a

(47:52):
Shulmite woman that he reallyloved.
There was something about her.
There was something about himthat there was an attraction.
Okay, listen to what it sayshere.
Confinement positions us for anawakening.
That is important, folks.
When you're confined, okay,when you are down and out, when

(48:17):
you have nowhere to turn, thisis the position that God places
you in for a spiritual awakening.
This is when God wants to speakto us.
This is when God wants to speakto us.
This is when God wants tocommunicate to us.
This is when God wants to getyou on the top of your bed, when
you put your head on the pillowand say now listen to me.
You know, try this experiment.

(48:39):
Sometimes you really.
Let me just tell you fromexperience have you ever gone to
bed and you might have beenweary?
You probably were Worked allday, maybe you were going
through a hard time, Maybe youwere in one of these wilderness
experiences.
Have you ever laid on top ofyour bed and said these words to

(49:01):
God?
God, what are you saying to me?
And then stop talking and thenlisten in your spirit to a reply
.
What's God saying back to you?
So you're going to ask thequestion okay, what are you

(49:23):
saying?
What do you want me to do?
How do I maneuver out of thismaze?
And you just lay there quietly,because now God's got your
attention.
If you're focused, he's got youconfined, he's got you in that
spot.
Now listen to what he's sayingin your spirit.

(49:44):
What's God really saying to you?
Listen, I want to tell you, godknows.
Now listen to what he's sayingin your spirit.
What's God really saying to you?
Listen, I want to tell you, godknows how to speak to us on our
bed.
The Lord knows how to speak.
I have been blessed so manytimes that way that God has
spoke to me in what we callnight visions.
Okay, god has spoke words to meat night.
Okay, just the other night.

(50:06):
You know, every, every timeSunday is over, I have to think
and start to meditate on oh,what am I going to preach next
week?
And here's my thought.
And honestly, I'll tell youthis I have no idea.
I start from a blank page andit's really sort of frightening

(50:30):
at times when you don't knowwhere God wants you to go,
because you want to give to thechurch what you believe God is
saying to the church.
I could preach many places inthe Bible.
I could open up the book andpreach a lot of places.
I preached thousands of sermonsin my lifetime.
I don't want to do that, okay.

(50:52):
So my wife usually says to me,cause she knows me so did you
get any words last night?
Cause she knows that's how theLord speaks to me when I'm on my
bed, I'm not doing nothing.
She knows that's how the Lordspeaks to me when I'm on my bed,
I'm not doing nothing, I'm inmy sleep it's what we call a
night vision or a dream and Isaid yes, I did.
I said you know how I alwaysfret about.

(51:16):
One day comes and what am Igoing to preach?
Because I have no idea.
What are you going to do, lord?
Am I going to get anothersermon here?
Is there going to be anothersermon here?
Is there going to be anothersermon?
And all of a sudden, my wifesays to me so did you get a word
?
I said yes, I did, and I saidwhat was the word?
She said what was the word?
And I said here's the word.
We are waiting.

(51:38):
Oh, she says that soundsexciting, and I don't try to
tell my wife too much about whatI'm preaching because I don't
like to verbalize it out loud.
Okay, I don't want to try toinfluence her songs that she's
going to use.
She really seeks God for that.
But God's given me a message.

(51:59):
If he wants me to speak it onSunday, we are waiting.
Three words, that's it.
I went downstairs, got on mycomputer and said okay, where do
we start?
And the Lord showed me where tostart.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
I said thank you, that's agreat start.

(52:20):
Now I have to figure out in him.
Okay, because I'm inconfinement.
I don't know which way I'msupposed to go from there, but I
have a foundation.
I know basically what the Lordis saying.
I know basically the platformthat he's given me, and this
happens quite often.
When you go to sleep, he'llgive you a dream, he'll give you

(52:42):
a word, okay, and so on and soforth.
Okay.
So prison look at the lastparagraph on the first page.
Prison isn't just about deepenedintimacy, it's also about
increased revelation.
Don't you remember John on theIsle of Patmos?
He said I was in the spirit onthe Lord's day.
He was intimate with Christ, hehad a relationship with the

(53:05):
Lord.
But what did he receive?
Revelation.
And this is what God wants togive us and this is what the
church is missing.
Okay, he wants to speak to us,not just to speak to us, but he
wants to give us revelation.
Haven't you ever get a wordfrom the Lord?
And you know that.
You know that.
You know that.
You know that.
You know that.
You know that.
You know that.
You know that's God.
I got to share it.
How did you get it?

(53:25):
It came into your spirit.
It was revelation.
He revealed it to you.
That's what he did with John onthe Isle of Patmos.
He said John says I am on theIsle of Patmos, you're a brother
in tribulation.
He says I was in the spirit onthe Lord's day and I heard
behind me the sound of a trumpet.
The Lord was there.
But what did the Lord give him?

(53:46):
Two things intimacy,relationship and revelation.
Because when you look atRevelation, chapter 1, verse 1,
it says the revelation of JesusChrist which God gave unto him.
What did John receive on theIsle of Patmos?
The book of Revelation.
He saw the future of all thosechapters.

(54:09):
Why?
Because he was intimate withGod.
He was confined, he was inprison, he was on an island to
die.
He was 96 years old.
They tried to kill him beforehim boiling oil and it didn't
work and they confined him tothis isle to die.
And they thought we're donewith John.
Now, no, no, you're not donewith John, because the Lord
visited him and the Lord gavehim that revelation to share

(54:32):
with the churches and to thisday, share with us.
And people are intrigued withthe book of Revelation.
Everybody wants to know thefuture, everybody wants to know
what's going to happen.
What's going to happen, and soon and so forth.
So it says here prison isn'tjust about deepened intimacy,
it's also about increasedrevelation.
Jesus said whatever I tell youin the dark, speak in the light.

(54:53):
I love that.
Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light.
What does that mean?
Okay, it says this in the easyversion what I tell you now in
the darkness, shout abroad whendaybreak comes.
What I whisper in your ear,shout from the housetops for all
to hear.
That resonates with me when Godgives me a word, you know in my

(55:16):
sleep.
Okay, to preach a certainsermon.
Okay, what God is saying, I'mwhispering this in your ear.
And now I want you to shout itfrom the housetops in the house
of God and so on and so forth.
And of course, we're blessedbecause electronically it goes
out on YouTube, it goes out onpodcasts and so on and so forth.
So we're blessed in differentways to get the gospel out.

(55:38):
So God is shouting it from thehousetop.
How does it start?
With a whisper in your ear?
And that's what people aren'twaiting for.
We're so busy doing projects,doing this, doing that.
We're trying to drown ourselvesout from the things that God is
trying to speak to us about.

(55:59):
We're trying to say I don'twant to think about it.
When you talk to people abouttheir issues, I don't want to
talk about it.
Famous saying Men say that somuch I don't want to talk about
it.
What they're really saying is Idon't want to deal with it and
I don't want God telling me whatto do about it.
That's a very dangerous placeto be in.

(56:20):
We have to allow God to speakto us.
Okay.
So he says in a dark prison youmay be distracted because you
can't see anything.
Okay, but then you'll realizehe turned out the lights so he
could speak to you.
Boy, that really resonates.
He turned out the lights.
You see, you can't work when itgets dark, so you close your

(56:43):
doors, you shut the lights, yougo to bed.
Okay, but he turns out thelights so we can speak to you.
Okay, in times of darkness youmay hear God like never before.
This is the time that Godallures you out from the
wilderness and he says just sitwith me.

(57:03):
He says in the Bible come andlet us reason together.
And people don't want to do thatbecause people are afraid of
God.
People are afraid to approachGod.
People.
They have this mysterious ideathat, oh, I don't know if I
could even talk to God, becauseyou know he's God.
Well, you're a child.

(57:26):
Do you talk to your parent?
Don't you talk to your dad orto your mom?
Don't you want your children totalk to you as a parent?
Absolutely Well, is it anydifferent?
God is our parent, he's Abba,father, it means Daddy.
He wants us to come to Him andsay hey, even if you say this, I
don't really like what I'mgoing through.
God's okay with that, believeit or not.

(57:48):
I know you might look at memysteriously If you read the
Psalms.
All through the Psalms, that'swhat David was saying.
This stinks, this really stinks.
I don't like it.
God says that's okay, we cantalk.
He let him talk.
And if you read the Psalms, histears are in the Psalms, his
emotions, his like.

(58:10):
Why, why?
Why are my enemies surroundingme?
Why don't you cut them off?
Why don't you get rid of thesepeople?
Why are my enemies surroundingme?
Why don't you cut them off?
Why don't you get rid of thesepeople?
Why are they bothering me andbugging me?
All through the Psalms, it'sDavid just crying out to God.
Okay, and he's saying I want tojust tell you how I feel, and

(58:31):
that's what people are afraid todo.
People are afraid to do thatwith each other.
It's like if I tell you how Ifeel, maybe you won't like me.
You know, sometimes, if youwant to tell someone a problem
that you're having, okay, peopleare embarrassed because, well,
I won't tell them that, becausethey think that you never
experienced that problem.
But I want to tell yousomething.

(58:52):
Problems are seasonal, problemsare universal.
Teenagers have acne For themost part.
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
In your 20s, you go through aseason You're a cowboy.
In your 30s, in your 40s, youhave these dreams.
In your 30s, in your 40s, youstart to pull back and sit in

(59:13):
your chair and you say this toyourself as a man, especially as
a man, I can talk as a man.
I'm 43 years old.
What have I accomplished?
What am I doing?
Look at all these other people.
He's famous, he's rich, he'sgot a big house.
This guy owns a business.
Look at me.
I go to work every day.
I'm a common guy.

(59:35):
Who am I?
And we go through these thingsin our 40s and then in your 50s,
in your 60s, in your 70s.
There's all different seasonsand we don't adapt to the season
, because we don't allow God toallure us from that wilderness
of that season that we're in andwe stay stuck and we get mad
and we stay busy because we'regoing to obliterate this and

(59:57):
we're going to do this on ourown because we got power.
No, you don't.
God is saying calm down, man.
You just got to go through somestuff.
You're not going to avoid it.
It's going to happen to you.
Women go through menopause.
You're going to stop it.
Are you going to stop it?

(01:00:17):
Men go through menopause.
You're going to stop it.
Are you going to stop it?
Men go through midlife crisis.
Believe it or not, you thinkyou're going to stop it.
I'm going to hold on here andI'm not going to experience that
.
Oh, yes, you are going toexperience that.
Listen, I've talked to thousandsof people.
I've been in the trenches, inthe counseling room, in the war

(01:00:37):
room, with people and I'velooked at people and they said
to me have you known me?
Has my wife talked to you?
I said no, I just know theseason that you're in, because I
ask people their age that'swhat I do.
I say well, how old are you?
And I know when, I know an ageof people.
I know there's a spectrum, Iknow there's a continuous line.

(01:00:58):
I know a lot of things thatpeople go through in those ages
and so I look at them and menhave accused me of my wife
talked to you, didn't she?
I said God honest, my, yourwife.
I don't even have aconversation with your wife.
I know she pushed you to comehere.
I know you.
She had to drag you with a ropearound your neck to come and
talk to me, but that's okay, I'mglad we're talking.

(01:01:19):
And then the guy turns aroundto me and he says it's like you
know me.
Yeah, I know you because I livethat.
I understand that it's likewomen who go through their
issues.
Men don't understand that.
We try to.
We try to get into that world.
We try to.
We try to get into that world.
We try to get into their heads.
You can't, it's impossible.

(01:01:40):
But another woman, you put herwith another woman and a cup of
coffee, a pot of coffee, and I'mtelling you they can solve the
problems of the world.
Why?
Because women understand women,because they're women.
They're women in a woman's body.
Men are supposed to understandmen, but the problem with men is
we don't talk, we hide, we hide.

(01:02:00):
I know this can't be happeningto him.
I know this can't be happeningto him.
Are you serious?
I mean, look at the studies,man.
I go by this stuff and I say Iknow what you're going through,
man.
And then, when you'reexplaining to them, how did you
know?
I know what you're goingthrough, man, and then, when
you're explaining to them, howdid you know, buddy, I've been
there and done that.
I'm going to be 77 years old.

(01:02:21):
I've been around the world here.
What are you talking about?
You think I don't know what'sgoing on here.
I've met thousands of people.
I've talked to thousands ofpeople, thousands of hours of
counseling.
I've been there.
I've heard your story.
Just a different face, that'sall.
It's just a different face anda different body.
But I've seen you before.
You have, yeah, in a differentform, on a different person.

(01:02:44):
Okay, don't be alarmed, don't beafraid.
Okay, I used to have to tellpeople hey, you see that door
there it's closed, it's just me,you and God.
It's okay, it's not a big deal,don't be afraid, I'm not going
to bite your head off.
I'm here to help.
I want to be a servant of theLord, and so on.
So let me finish here.
Okay, it says this he may nottalk about you what you want,

(01:03:07):
see, we want God to say certainthings to us, okay, but he'll
talk about the things on hisheart, okay, what he wants to
communicate to you.
If you'll listen in thedarkness, you have something to
say to your generation when thelights come back on.
This is my hope.
You know, I don't know how longGod's got me on this earth.

(01:03:30):
I have no idea if I'm gonna goby the grave or by rapture, I
have no idea.
Okay, but my goal is to leavesomething with other people.
Okay, to leave something to myposterity, especially my
grandchildren and the childrenof this church.
Okay, so that they can rememberthat they heard the word of God

(01:03:50):
here, that they were in achurch that worshiped the Lord
and loved God.
They were in a church wherepeople came together and got
along and worked out theirdifferences.
This is what our posterity isabout.
Okay, it's not like in theworld there where we're gonna
hurt each other and shoot eachother and go crazy.
You know this kid that killedthose children in the children's

(01:04:10):
in a Christian school.
Listen, she was a disturbedperson.
Came from a divorced family.
Parents were married numeroustimes.
I almost guarantee you that thechild was probably on
psychotropic meds.
Okay, most of the schoolshootings 99.9% of them, these

(01:04:34):
kids are on psychotropic meds.
The child was in therapy, okay,and this anger, this block, this
confinement, this prison thatshe found herself in.
One day she woke up andexploded.
One day she decided I'm goingto do this and killed herself,

(01:04:54):
okay, and killed other people,right, but it was in here.
She was in a dark place, a verydark place, and she allowed
that darkness to overtake her Tothe point where she decided I'm
going to go kill people.
And that was sort of like aspiritual orgasm.

(01:05:17):
She got it out.
She got it out.
It was a release, but it was abad release.
It was a bad, bad experiencefor the children, for the
teacher, for the families, forthat school that will always be
there every time they walkthrough the doors of that school
, and for herself, because shetook her life.

(01:05:39):
What happened?
She was in a place ofconfinement but was never
allowed to come out of it,didn't know Jesus obviously I
wouldn't think Was in therapy,wasn't able to get help.
Her parents disappointed her,whatever her background.
The little bit.

(01:05:59):
We know about her.
It's a sad story.
But how many people do gopostal?
There's been almost 100 schoolshootings, okay, in America.
Why?
Children need help.
Children need help.
You got to listen.
You got to listen to the cry ofthe human heart, especially a
child.
You've got to look at patterns.

(01:06:19):
You've got to look at whenpatterns change.
I try to tell this to parents.
They say, hey, when my kidbecame 13 or 14, they changed.
I say what kind of music arethey listening to?
What's got to do with it?
What's being piped into theirspirit Every day, every day,
every day, every day.
Listen, we used to listen tothat stuff.
Remember, we used to listen tothat stuff.

(01:06:42):
It's piped into our ears.
I can remember.
Okay, I can remember it's notgood.
We've got to get children on adifferent train.
I want to close the Bible.
The sword says are you in aprison of sorts?
Just love him.
Solomon said a friend loves atall times.
Even when they don't understandhis mysterious ways, his

(01:07:04):
friends still love him.
They love him through anything.
In the quietness of your prison, your friendship with Jesus
will grow.
You'll agree that faithful arethe wounds of a friend.
Your friend loved you enough towound you so he would woo you
into an abiding relationshipwith him.
Sometimes we have to get awound from a friend.
Okay, wounds from a sincerefriend are better than many

(01:07:25):
kisses from an enemy.
And sometimes, when people tellyou the truth and you don't
want to hear it, it's a woundbut it's for your good and you
can't.
You can run away from it.
You can ignore it.
You can say I'm not going toaccept that.
Listen, I try to preach hereevery week.
Okay, you can walk out thatdoor and say I'm not going to do

(01:07:45):
that, I'm not listening to that.
You can let the unclean birdsof Babylon, as soon as you walk
out the door, pluck the wordthat you heard in this church
for an hour and take it awayfrom you.
That's your choice.
Okay, I've delivered what Godwants me to deliver.

(01:08:06):
It's up to you.
Okay, god wants to woo us.
He says here here's one of thesecrets of darkness.
He imprisons those he loves inorder to awaken and mature their
affections for him.
Your wilderness is a secretplace.
Don't despise your chains.
They're binding you to theheart of the one you love.
Never waste a good prisonsentence.
Use the confinement to godeeper in God.
And I want to close with this,and I told you the story before

(01:08:29):
but I just want to get it on therecording A pastor in Rochester
had a son that was a drugaddict.
There was other children in thehome, three or four children.
He told his son.
He said listen, if you keepdoing drugs, you're going to
influence your siblings and I'mnot going to allow that to
happen.

(01:08:49):
So I'm going to tell you, ifyou continue to take drugs, I
will call the police, as yourfather and I will have you
arrested and taken out of thishome.
Do you understand that?
Well, he didn't understand itbecause he didn't think his dad
would do it.
His dad arrested, got himarrested.

(01:09:09):
Listen carefully, I want toclose.
He went to Auburn CorrectionalFacility.
He was there for a while.
He went through the whole youknow Jeff works there the
process.
A few months down the line hisdad visits him Sitting in the
visit room of AuburnCorrectional Facility.

(01:09:31):
He's looking across the tablefrom his dad as a pastor of the
church.
He says, dad, that was the bestthing you ever did for me for
my life.
And his dad said why, son?
He said, dad, I really gave mylife to the Lord and I'm
teaching Bible study here.
And he said what you did for mesaved my life.
Think about that and others.

(01:09:54):
And that's the hardest thingthat the father had to do.
He was a pastor of a church,but he says I can't let you
infect these other kids, it'snot going to happen.
I'm warning you, I'm tellingyou please stop.
We'll get you help.
I know where to get you help.
I'm influential here in thecity.
He refused, but that turned outto be a good story because he

(01:10:14):
used that prison confinement.
God used it for his good tobring him back to the Lord.
He wooed him in the wilderness,he lured him and he said son, I
want to bless you.
And, as Jen said, not only washe blessed, but he blessed other
prisoners.
So, father, we thank you.
It's a good lesson tonight.
I really enjoyed reading whatwe've read tonight and teaching,

(01:10:39):
and I just pray God that othersthat will listen would get
something out of it.
And we're not alone.
That's the whole messagetonight.
We're not alone and even in ourdark moments, god lures us out
of that wilderness to speak toour hearts.
So, father, we thank you forthis night and for the people
that are here for the childrenfor the play on Sunday.

(01:11:00):
We ask your blessings upon itIn Jesus' name.
Amen, praise the Lord, hope youenjoyed.