Dr Charles Stanley - God's Way is the Best Way Part 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
In Touch with doctor Charles Stanley celebrating forty five years
of God's faithfulness. Next on in Touch, God's way is
the best way. Whenever you and I face a challenge
in life, we always respond in one of two ways,
and that is either our way or God's way. Now,

(00:40):
most of us know that doing things God's way is
always best, but in spite of that, sometimes we don't
always choose to do it that way. Somehow we have
the idea that in spite of the fact that we
know that God is absolutely omniscient and knows what is best,
the fact that he has a will and the purpose
and to plan for our life, that he loves unconditionally

(01:01):
and he would only do what's best for us, we
still choose to do things our way rather than God's way. Well,
that's what I want to talk about in this message entitle.
God's way is the best way. And sometimes these wonderful
principles of Scripture are best declared by illustrating them in
somebody's life. So I want you to turn, if you will,
to the Book of Exodus, and I want you to

(01:23):
turn to the second chapter. And in the Book of Exodus,
of course, we find the life of Moses, who stands
above all the other characters in the Old Testament. Six
hundred and ninety nine verses in the Old Testament have
his name in it, seven to nine verses in the
New Testament. And here is a man whose life is
certainly characterized by both success and failure. And throughout the

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scriptures you find those who refuse to do it God's way,
and the kind of trouble they caused and experienced those
who did it God's way. So the whole purpose of
this message is simply this, and that is to take
the life of Moses and simply to say, here's the
way it happens when you do it your way. This
is the way it happens when you do it God's way.

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And I think when you and I weigh the two,
we will come away knowing in our heart it's always
the wisest, always the best, always the most profitable, to
do things God's way. If you'll turn the second chapter
in the eleventh verse, it came about on those days
and Moses had grown up, that he went out to
his brethren and looked on their hard labors, and he

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saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew one of his brethren.
So he looked this way and that, and when he
saw that there was no one around, he struck down
the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. And he
went out the next day and behold two Hebrews were
fighting with each other. And he said to the offender,
why you strike in your companion? But he said, who
made you a prince or a judge over us? Are

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you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian.
Then Moses was afraid and said, surely the matter has
become known. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he tried
to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of
Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian. And he's
set down by will. Here is a perfect example of
doing it my way. First of all, he focused on

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an event rather than the big picture. The big picture
was and is, how do I free my nation of people,
my great family, these two million Hebrews, sons and daughters
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How do I free them?
Instead of focusing on that question, he focused on an incident,
one event, one Egyptian soldier not killing but beating on

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one Hebrew brother. So his first mistake was that he
focused on an event rather than the big picture, which
oftentimes we can do. The second thing he did was
this that he followed his reasoning listen. He followed his
reasoning rather than listening to God. Whenever you and I
begin to reason things out ourselves based on our ability

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to reason them out and ignore God, most of the
time we go to make a wrong decision because God
is so willing to show us what to do in
every instance in life if we'll listen. But human reason said,
deal with this. Human reasons said, I'm not going to
tolerate him beating on my brother. And so what he
is to do he kills him, buries him in the sand.

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So he made two mistakes. The third mistake he made
was this he acted on impulse. Acted on impulse rather
than backing off saying, God, what would you have me
to do? Now? Think about this. When you and I
respond to difficulties and hardships and challenges in life on
our natural impulses, most of the time we gonna make

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a mistake because that's not the way God operates. Because
He loves you unconditionally, because He has a will and
a purpose and a plan for you. Because He has
already determined and provided and prepared to give you his best.
If you want God's best, you have to do it
God's way. And God's weighs not always the simplest way.

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It's sometimes it's a painful way. Sometimes it just runs
against the grain. That's not the way we think, that's
not the way we want to do it. We want
to get on with it. It isn't always God's way,
but his way is always the best way. And I
believe if you and I could just have time to
give testimony today, all of us could stand up and say, yes,

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God's weighs the best way. And here's the way I
blew it. I did this, and I had a sneaking
suspicion that wasn't God's way, or I knew when I
did it wasn't God's way. And here the consequences I've
suffered in my life, some consequences going for a lifetime,
some consequences are short lived. But to do it our
way instead of God's way is always unwise. And listen,

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there are always consequences. There's always a penalty depending upon
the nature and the size of that decision or that
action depends upon will determine what the consequence is and
how long the consequence goes on. Always best to do
God's way. Now forty years on the backside of the desert,
he's over the shepherding sheep, and now we're going to

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do it God's way. So I want you to think
about something, to get your pencil ready. Now, once you
think about something, what is the first prerequisite in doing
anything God's way? The first pre record is this, and
that is to have an encounter with God through his
son Jesus Christ, whereby you confess your sins to him
and acknowledge that his death at Calvary made it possible

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for God the Father to place your sins upon him.
When he died. He died an atoning death, a sacrificial death,
a substitution their death. He died a death that made
it possible for God the Father to accept you and
me with our sins, forgiving us of our sins, because
Jesus Christ paid that sin dead in full at the cross.

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Thereby we become the sons and daughters of God. First listen, First,
foremost prerequisite for walking in the way of God. First
prerequisite for doing things God's way is to have a
personal relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ, and
to be dwelt by the Holy Spirit, who is the
one who gives us direction as to what is God's
way and how do we do it in God's power? Now,

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so with that in mind, let's think about what happens
when you and I do things God's way? Well, Number one,
we act on divine command, not impulse. Now words, God,
what would you have me to do? When we do
things God's way, We're going to ask him God, what
would you have me to do? We're going to do
what God tells us to do. And this is why

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I've said over and over and over again, have very
importantness to learn how to listen to God. That's a
basic lesson the Christian life. If I don't know how
to listen to him, how will I know when he's spoken?
How will I know when he's spoken? Now, what happens.
He's on the back side of the desert walking along
one day, and all of a sudden he sees something
he had never seen before in his life, and he

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got his attention. Turn to the third chapter, if you
will for a moment, and let's look at beginning in
verse one Now, Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro,
his father in law, the priest of Midian, And he
led the flock to the west side of the wilderness
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, which we
know is Mount Sinai. And the Angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst

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of a bush. And he looked in Behold, the bush
was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
So Moses said, I must turn aside now and see
this marvelous sight, while the bush is not burned up.
When the Lord saw that, he turned aside to look.
God called to him from the midst of the bush
and said Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am.

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Then he said, do not come near here. Remove your
sandals from your feet, for the place in which you're
standing is holy ground. He said, also, I am the
God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses hid
his face, but he was afraid to look at God.

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Now it was this encounter with God. After forty years isolated, hopelessly, helplessly,
could do nothing to liberate his nation. Forty years on
the backside of the desert, and now God comes to him.
Why does God wait so long? You have asked that question, God,
Let's get with the plan. God, according to my watch,

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my calendar, my clock, my feelings, my wants, my desires,
my this, my that. Let's get with it. God. Do
you know how many times I've been able to persuade
God to move ahead? The same number of times you have,
not one single time. You can't hurry him, you can't
rush him, you can't irritate him, you can't get him

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frustrated because he already has his schedule and he knew that. Listen,
it took forty years. The strip Moses of all of
this manly confidence, this I can do it. I'm gonna
handle it. I'll take care of it. Forty years on
the backside of the desert. Now he's eighty years of age,

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and God comes to him, and what happens. I love
this passage of scripture because I think there's so many
truths wrapped up in simple verses. Look, if you will
for a moment back that third chapter. Now he says
he saw this, he saw this blazing fire in the
Lord Angel, the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to him.
He looked in to hold the bush was burning. Listen

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what he said. So Moses said, I must turn aside
now and see this marvelous sight while the bush hasn't
burned up. Are you listening? How many times has God
wanted to say something to you and me and we
didn't turn aside? And we just kept going. Our schedule
was busy, we had something we wanted to do, something

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we wanted to accomplish, and so instead of turning aside
and letting God speak to us, we just keep moving
on doing our own thing. Look at this next verse,
so Moses said, I almost turn aside now and see
the marvelous sight while the bush is not burned up.
Look at this. When the Lord saw that, he turned
aside to look. Then God called to him from the

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midst of the bush and said Moses, Moses, and he said, here,
I am. How many times has God wanted to speak
to us, couldn't get our attention? Isn't this the most
ridiculous thing you ever heard? Too busy to listen to God,
Too busy to listen to God. My schedule, my plans,

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things I want to accomplish, things I want to achieve.
Too busy to listen to God? How foolish, Absolutely the
foolish to be so busy we can't listen to God.
How many times has God wanted to say something, but
is not going to speak to the air. He's going
to speak to our heart. And when we don't want
to listen and we don't want to give him our attention,

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then God isn't going to force his way most of
the time. Once in a while, he will most of
the time he wanted. So now watch what happens. You
think about this. He acted first of all, on the
basis of a divine command, not his impulse. The second
thing is this, he proceeded, listened, He proceeded on God's
timing and not his own. This was God's timing. God

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had it all worked out. Now, once in a while, somebody,
you hear, some theologian or some liberals say, well, you know,
the Red Sea experience, that was not a miracle of God.
It just so happened that when they got down there,
this wind began to blow, and all these things happened,
and therefore that's how they marched across. Well, you know what,
when I think about it, I think about poor soul.
It doesn't make any difference whether the wind blew or

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God put a liberal hand down and held the water back.
Isn't it strange that it happened perfectly on time? Perfectly
on time is a miracle of God? So what was
going on? Listen? This time? He was doing it on
God's time, not his own time. So here's what I
want you to see now as we go through these
When we do it God's way, When we do it

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God's way, what happens. We're gonna act on command, not
by impulse. We're gonna wait for God's timing and not
do it on our timing. Or does he say, wait
upon the Lord, be a good strength. He says, be
of good courage. He waited upon the Lord. Why because
it takes a whole lot of courage oftentimes to sit
and wait for God's timing. It takes a lot of
strength sometimes to do nothing until God says it's time

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to operate. The third thing is this, God will provide
everything we need when we're doing it his way. He'll
provide everything you and I need we are doing it
his way. What did he need? He needed somebody who
could talk better than he could. And so what did
God do. He said, I'll send your brother with you.
He'll do the talking, and you just do what I

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tell you to do. God listen, It would be absolutely
incompatible with the nature of God, the attributes of God
to ask you and me to do something that he
did not provide everything we needed to get it done.
And so, as we've said over and over again, that
is God takes full responsibility for the life fully committed
to him. God is responsible for the consequences of our obedience.

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And therefore, if we say, all right, I'm gonna do
what you say, God, God assumes responsibility in that moment
to provide every single thing we need to get the
job done. And so therefore God somedingly provided that. He
did not only provide a brother, but he provided the
most awesome This is the most awesome array of natural phenomenon.
All the things that happened naturally from the river turn

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into blood, and as if firing brimstone came down from heaven.
God listen, he provided everything necessary to accomplish His purpose
and his will. When you and I hesitate to do
what God tells us to do because we can't see
the ultimate results, will suppose this and suppose that. Remember this,
if you listen, A listen, Samen, if you listen, if

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you are obeying God, if you're obeying God, you don't
have to worry about the consequences. He's already thought through
the end result of what's going to happen. He has already,
he has already declared, and by his own omnipotence, he
has already fore done in his mind the end result
of our action. When we obey him, we don't have

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to worry about what's going to happen. He's aren't taking
care of that. And so what we see here when
he does it God's way. Waiting upon the Lord, trusting
in his clear direction and waiting for God and believing
in God that he is going to be able to
provide everything he needs. He doesn't have to worry about that.
You see what we do is we think, well, Lord,
suppose this. There are no supposings with God. God has

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never made this statement. Oh, I thought, God doesn't. I thought.
There's no after thinking with God. It's always forethinking for ordination,
a predestination or whatever. It's all forehand of God. He
knows what's going to happen. Fourth thing of what you
notice is this, then when we do it God's way,
he banishes the fear in our life. Now, sometimes we

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may have a slight little trepidation about something if we
if we are not in the words just our own
we know in our heart it's going to work out.
We know God's going to do it. But because it's
a new experience for us, we may have a little
bit of fear. But the truth is it's not real fear.
It's just that little emotional stuff. It runs through and
back and forth. But God will banish the fear. And
here's what happens. Remember this. When you take the first

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couple of steps in the will of God that seem
to be challenging, you may feel some fear. But here's
what you'll discover. As you keep moving in the direction
that God has told you to go, the longer you walk,
the less fear you're going to have. Until the fear
is absolutely banished, and you're going to know that you're
walking in the will of God and the protection of
godless and the resources God, the power of God, the
love of God, the purpose of God, the will of God,

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the plan of God. You can't lose doing it God's way.
He says, I've not given you the spirit of fear,
but a power and of love and of a sound mind.
And I probably my favorite passion of scripture in all
the Bible when it comes to this whole idea of
fear is found in Isaiah forty one. Listen to this.
I love this. Do not fear, for I am with you.

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That's settles it right there. But that's not all. Look
at this. Do not anxiously look about you, for I'm
your God. I will strengthen you. Surely, I will help you. Surely,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That is,
he says, do not be afraid. I'm with you. Well, listen,
if you got omnipotence with you, didn't need anything else.
Not really. I love this phrase, he says. Don't anxiously

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look about you. That's what gets our mind off God.
In other words, when we anxiously look about us, we
forget what he says. When he says I'll be with you.
God wants us to focus on Him in the midst
of difficulties and trials and big challenges in our life.
We have to focus our attention upon Almighty God on him.
I'm not going to be looking at the circumstances. That's

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why he's said in that passage, don't don't look about,
don't anxiously look about. You keep your focus on Almighty God.
And this is exactly what's beginning to happen here in
his life. And so all of a sudden, that fear
of facing Pharaoh is gone. He marches in with his
stick and his brother and says, here's what I am, says,

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and we're trusting God to free the nation of Israel. Well, then,
what I want you to notice is this that God
gives specific directions when we do it his way. He
gives specific directions. God does not speak in terms of generalities.
As we've said. He doesn't say be good. He doesn't say, well,
just go to school. If you ask God to show
you what to do, he'll show you what school to go to.

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He'll show you how to settle that financial situation. He'll
tell you what to do as an employer about employees.
He'll tell you how to do whatever you need to
do in the family. God is specific. God doesn't throw
out a bunch of general directions. When you and I
will walking in his will in his way, and we're
doing it his way. We're going to have very clear direction.
What does he say, Trust in the Lord of all

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your heart, lean out to your own understanding and all
your ways. Acknowledge him, and he'll do what directs your path.
He said, I will teach you in the way you
should go. I will guide you with my eye. That is,
we can trust God to give us very clear direction. Now,
if we're in too big a hurt to get the direction,
we get in trouble, that's our way. We do it
God's way. We wait until God tells us what's the

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next step. And remember we said the first step or
two may seem to be very fearful, or the third
step of the fourth step, or we get out here
trusting God, and then God may say, now I wants
take a left turn, take a right turn. God doesn't
send us out to do his will and leave the
decision making process to us. Don't forget that he says,
I will teach you in the way which you should go.

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I will direct you with my eye. What is he saying,
I have my eye on you. What he said, Isaiah,
He said, you don't need to be afraid. I am
with you don't be anxious looking about you. Keep your
focus on me. Not only that. One of the things
that happens is we begin to learn God's ways. What
did he know about God? Not much? But then he
began to see how God could use Listen, watch this.

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Now he had to face up to the fact that
forty years ago, tried to do it his way didn't work.
And now look at this. God, you mean to tell
me you're going to give me another chance. How many
of you have had a second chance. If you're saved,

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you better put him up, because you've you've had more
than one chance. We've all had a second chance, haven't.
We all failed at things in our life, and God,
in his grace and mercy and love, has given us
a second chance. God's goodness and listen, God's goodness and
love and mercy. We learned the ways of God. He
learned that God could use him a second time. He

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learned that God could take simple things and make a difference.
He learned what would happened when God got into us stick.
He learned what would happened when God reigned down fire
and judgment. He learned what God would do. He learned
the ways of God. How many times have I said
this to you? The one thing I want to learn
in life above everything else. What are the ways of God?

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How does he think? What motivates him? What makes him tick?
Why does God do the things that he does? Why
does he allow the things of gods? We want to
learn the ways of God. The greatest wisdom there is
is the wisdom to know the ways of God. And
he was learning the ways of God. And when you
now obey him, we do it his way. We're gonna
learn his ways. The next thing I want you to notice

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is this. We learn that God can use us in
our weakness and in our frailties. He can do it
mighty things through weakness and frailty. Now I've said that
in a different way before, but I want to make
that point. He can use us and our frailties in

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our weakness. We don't have to be strong, we don't
have to be educated, we don't have to be this,
We don't have to be that. He uses this in
our weaknesses and our frailties. Listen, he went before Pharaoh,
a very weak man, couldn't talk, stick in his hand
and requiring demanding of the strongest man. On the planet

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at that time, no doubt, and the most advanced civilization
of the world. And he's saying, here's what you must do.
Notice this, if you will next thing, God can accomplish
more in a brief period of time than you and
I can in a lifetime when we do it our way.
Think about what happened. How long would it have taken.

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How long would it have taken Moses to liberate the
nation of Israel, the Hebrew children if he did it
his way? If he just started a revolution, for example,
among the Hebrews. First of all, they weren't skilled in warfare,
they had no weapons. But let's just say they had
a big revolution. So they all had a stick. And
you've got got javelins, swords, spears, shields, charioteers, cut up,

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just cut them asunder. Do it God's way. Don't even
have to have a sword. Do it God's way. Don't
even have to lift the hand. Do it God's way.
Watch God do it. Remember what we said, He assumes
full responsibility when you and I surrender our life to Him.
And so what we see happening here, we see God
blessing them more than make it. Ever. Assume to be blessed.

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We see God doing it his way, accomplishing things that
they would never have been able to accomplish. And what
we see is this, when we do it God's way,
God gets maximum honor and glory. Can take no credit,
no glory. When we do it God's way, he gets
the credit and the glory for it. Now, let's think
about it. Since God has a will for your life,

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and a plan for your life, and the purpose for
your life, and since he has the best that even
he God could store up for you, and since he
desires the very best for you and has planned it,
are you willing to surrender your life to the Lord

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Jesus Christ and let him have his way in your
life so that you can live your life God's way.
It's just that simple. It doesn't make any us who
you are, how much you've sin in the past. It
doesn't make any us. What's going on in your life,
what's your circumstance, what you have to face. The ultimate
question is this, Am I gonna be wise enough to

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do it God's way? I'm gonna listen to him, I'm
gonna wait upon him, I'm gonna trust him, I'm gonna
follow him. I'm gonna believe he has the best for me.
I know he'll provide every single thing I need. They're
blessings out there beyond my fondest dreams. I'm gonna trust

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in his power to work these things out. I know
he'll be honored and glorified when I walk in obedience him.
My friend, Here's what you and I will never be
able to see in this life. How many times we,
in very simple little things obey God for which He
is reserving in heaven for us a reward of the

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things that we never even thought about, but they were
the will of the Father. It's something God wanted us
to do. He led us, and we did it because
it's our lifestyle. Didn't even think about it. There is
no way to lose, listen, no way to lose doing
it God's way. There's no way to win doing it

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our way. I trust that you'll be wise enough to
trust Jesus Christ as your savior, ask him to forgive
you of your sins, to receive him into your life.
Surrender your life to Him, and, beginning from this moment on,
say God, by your power the power of the Holy Spirit,
I choose to do it your way. Father, how grateful

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we are. Oh, you're so patient, so forgiving, so loving,
so kind. Just etch the truth of this simple message
into every one of our hearts. Let it ring and
echo in our soul, Let it ricochet in our spirit,
so that we're ever conscious of the fact we have
a choice, and we've chosen to do it God's way

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in Jesus' name, Amen,