Participants: Kathy Matthews, Richard O'Ffill
Series Code: TAH
Program Code: TAH000158
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00:32 Welcome to Thinking About Home,
00:33 I am Kathy Matthews and I thank you for 00:36 being with us again. Today, our guest is 00:39 Richard O'Ffill from the Florida Conference 00:41 of Seventh-day Adventists and we're going 00:43 to go over some of his life story again 00:45 today for those who've missed some of it. 00:48 And I know that Dick is gonna have the end 00:51 of the story today, aren't you? 00:53 Well, we've come to the, 00:55 you know some people say, 00:56 well stay with me till the bitter end. 00:58 Now, this is the, this is the sweetest, 01:00 sweetest. Sweetest good we're glad to 01:02 hear that. And you know Kathy I, I think 01:05 you and I when we began this series and, 01:07 and if, if we gave it a, the whole series a 01:09 name it would probably be Lord Keep Your 01:11 Mansions, Just Save our Children, 01:14 Just Save our Children. And we, we were 01:17 young and how old were you and you said, 01:19 you have got. Oh! I don't even like to tell 01:21 that. Well, I was, well I was 17 and lot of 01:25 people get at married 17, but I wouldn't 01:27 advise it. Oh! No, don't apologize I mean 01:29 it will make tell Tom sad. Oh! I don't know 01:30 anything. Well, oh! No he feels the same way. 01:33 Well, well you know, you would have it any 01:35 other way, come on. We both had to have 01:36 our papers signed, we didn't, 01:38 we had to have parents come and sign for us. 01:40 And sign for you anyway you've been. 01:41 He was on his way to Vietnam okay. 01:43 But he couldn't get married without being 01:45 signed. Well, anyway Betty and I were young, 01:48 I was 19 and I won't tell you how old she 01:52 was because she's a year older than I am, 01:54 oh don't tell. She gets mad when I tell. 01:56 Anyway you know, you don't know when you 02:00 start your life and maybe it's good, 02:03 it's maybe it's good you know as life goes 02:07 on and, and things began to really happen 02:10 maybe, if we didn't know we wouldn't have 02:12 been able to bear it and I thought to myself, 02:15 wow! Isn't it wonderful that we don't know 02:16 what the future holds? Yes, it is wonderful. 02:18 That God mercifully you know, 02:19 I personally say, well I just, you know I'd, 02:22 I'd like to know. He knows best though. 02:24 No, no, no, is that. You know, what I said 02:27 that there's a text in scripture that if, 02:31 if we practiced it, it wouldn't be so difficult, 02:36 what about that one word it says, 02:37 sufficient for the day as the evil of, 02:39 evil there, there is evil of. And you know, 02:42 that sounds rather negative you know, 02:43 but in plain language it, it means live one day 02:47 to time, that time yes. And I've thought to 02:49 myself Kathy that very few of us do that. 02:53 Yeah, that, you're right, though God is all 02:56 powerful, He is Omnipotent, 02:58 though there's you know the grace is in 03:00 heaven you know, there is any amount of grace. 03:03 More grace than there is. But I tell people, 03:06 I say there isn't enough grace. 03:09 What do you mean? In heaven for a person 03:11 who is trying to live yesterday, 03:14 today and tomorrow, but that there's, 03:17 there's nothing that can happen to us today, 03:20 that He will give us strength to get through 03:22 it see. For today. And, and, and for today 03:24 and so, and so mercifully I don't know 03:26 what tomorrow holds now I, I know what 03:28 yesterday was about and, and in a way 03:32 today is built on some yesterdays and, 03:34 and I think that that this is where we've 03:36 got to be, to be stood because today is 03:40 the product of yesterdays, I have to pull 03:42 out of yesterday that which is. 03:44 For tomorrow. Well, no pull out of, 03:46 payment for today. Not that either. 03:50 I've got to pull out from the past that which 03:53 does not give me affirm today. 03:57 You know where I'm coming from? 03:58 Alright. So, because you remember, 04:00 we've got to look back without going 04:02 backwards, so I don't want to perpetuate 04:05 my mistakes. By the way, in one of our 04:08 programs we talked about, about our parents 04:12 and how, how this of the culture of these 04:14 days wants to blame everything. 04:16 Yeah, on our parents, you know as I get 04:19 older I find myself getting to be 04:22 more-and-more like my dad. I do, I, have 04:25 you noticed. Yes, yes, even, even the, 04:26 in the way I look. Even the looked expressions. 04:28 Yes. And sometimes I see myself and I say, 04:30 oh! That looks just like dad, now I, I think 04:33 the point of this is, is that using computer 04:38 language, is that we default to our parents. 04:43 Now default in computer language means it's 04:45 gonna be that way unless you open 04:47 preferences and click other buttons, 04:50 in other words we're going to probably be 04:52 like our parents unless we decide we're not 04:55 going to be, and so now. I'm sure you're 04:58 talking about now in the character or choices. 05:03 Just character well, in other words these 05:05 peoples were our models. Now, now this 05:07 doesn't mean that I have to denounce my 05:09 daddy and say, well you know I, I hate 05:11 my dad and you know, but it does mean 05:14 that I, I look at my parents and, and I have 05:16 to decide which of their characteristics I 05:19 don't wanna perpetuate. Well, yes okay 05:22 that's where I was going. Well, I should have 05:25 waited for you to get there. No, no, I just 05:27 can't say it as well as you do. 05:28 So, so anyway we, we're gonna default to 05:32 our parents unless we decide that there's 05:35 gonna be another way and, and, and I 05:37 think of, of so many good things, you know 05:39 about my dad, I wanna be like my dad in 05:41 so many ways, but then there is probably 05:43 other ways that I wanna you know move on 05:46 down the line, but loving him in every step 05:49 of the way. By the way, I'm reminded of 05:53 a story speaking of being like our parents, 05:56 you see unless we can kind of even detach, 05:59 remember we talk about detachment. Yes. 06:01 You see, we've got to kind of be free standing 06:04 and, and, asking the Lord. And, and if we're 06:07 going to look at our parents with bitterness 06:10 and resentment, we're gonna you know, 06:13 I personally. I beholding. We're gonna be just 06:14 like them, yes, and that's what I'm leading 06:16 up to, because I heard a story about young 06:20 man and, and his father was a, 06:21 excuse expression, kind of a no good alcoholic, 06:23 and this young man was a Christian and as 06:26 time went by, his friends said to him you know, 06:31 you're getting to be more, more like your dad. 06:33 Well that's the opposite that he wanted to 06:35 be, but because he was hung up on his dad 06:38 he was becoming more -and-more like his dad. 06:40 And so, this is why in, in the Christian life 06:43 you know this text: Live one day at a time, 06:47 but the other text: Forgive us our debts, 06:49 as we forgive our debtors. In other words, 06:52 if I'm gonna be able to be free standing today 06:56 I've got to just live today, learning from 06:58 yesterday, forgiving those in the past who 07:01 wronged me from yesterday because like 07:03 you said, what I look at is what I hear, 07:06 so if I'm hung up on the way my father and 07:08 mother treated me I'm, I'll just be like them. 07:12 Now, I maybe with another, another color, 07:14 it maybe with another, but it will be 07:16 intrinsically all about that. I think I've done 07:18 another way since I like to study something 07:20 about the brain and pathways and, and our 07:22 thought patterns that if we think about it, 07:25 if we're dwelling on that then the deeper 07:28 the thought pattern becomes the more 07:30 difficult that is to get away from that thought. 07:33 Well, anyway in this series and, and you 07:37 remember I explained to you that and not 07:39 trying to be irreverent that day that I prayed 07:44 Lord Keep Your Mansions, what I was 07:47 really saying, Lord I've got to understand 07:49 in my life that the most important thing to 07:51 me, is, is my, is my family and is my children. 07:56 Did you ever hear that that crazy story about 08:02 this man who would spend all his life trying 08:03 to get rich? Can you sit still for this one a 08:07 little bit? Yes, I could. And 'cause I know 08:09 you'll get very excited one that, 08:12 anyway all his life he's trying to get rich and 08:15 he was successful. And so, down toward 08:17 the end of the line he, he converts it all 08:20 to gold, so he's got this big, big suitcase 08:23 for the gold, and remembers Jesus told the 08:26 story about the rich man Lazarus, 08:27 so this a little bit like that. So, he gets all 08:29 his gold that he saved all his life and he dies. 08:33 And so, there he is trying to get into 08:35 heaven say and he's got this suitcase full 08:37 of gold. Yes, I've heard this. And so, 08:39 Saint Peters there to meet him and said, 08:42 I'm sorry, you can't bring anything in here 08:45 you just got to come in. The man says, 08:47 you got thing, are you? I got to be able 08:49 to bring this all my life, all my life I've, 08:52 you know I've, I've saved you know, 08:54 to get this gold together and, and I just 08:56 wouldn't be happy in heaven without it. 08:59 And so, he puts on such a scene that Peter 09:00 says, I'll check and see what I can do? 09:03 You know, this is just a story. 09:04 Of course it's a story and, but got a little 09:07 lesson to it. And so, Peter goes back and, 09:10 and he goes to one of the big commanding 09:11 angels and he says, there's a guy out, 09:13 out there at the gate, and he wants to come 09:15 in and he wants to bring something with him. 09:17 Angel said, what's he got? And Peter says, 09:20 pavement. Yes. Pavement and, 09:24 and you know I think the lesson is that that 09:27 really so much that we do in life is just 09:31 pavement, that we get our money, and we 09:34 get our power. We haven't really gotten 09:36 our priorities straight in heaven. 09:37 We haven't and, and that really when I 09:38 pray Keep Your Mansions what I'm, 09:42 I'm prioritizing, I'm saying, Lord the most 09:45 important thing to me when I think of going 09:47 to heaven is that you would save my children. 09:52 And, and of course this comes because in 09:55 so many of our homes and probably the 09:56 majority of our homes we have a prodigal 10:00 and I know what that's like even worse than 10:04 that is not just a prodigal I have an 10:06 alcoholic boy, I had, I had an alcoholic boy. 10:09 Praise the Lord for that. And, and then 10:12 I had this, this I have this phenomena of, 10:16 of divorce, my children getting a divorce and, 10:19 and I'll tell you, you know anybody who says, 10:22 well you know God wants me to be happy 10:24 and I'm gonna start my new life you know 10:26 this could be the husband and wife, 10:27 I'm gonna start my new life and God wants 10:28 me to be happy, guess who never gets to 10:30 start their lives again, the kids. Yes. 10:33 To me, to me Kathy, divorce is so sad 10:36 because of what it does to children. 10:39 And, and if we could just be sensitive to 10:41 that, I think we would try to hit it off, 10:44 we would try to hit it off because, 10:45 more selfless. Oh! We've got to, we've got, 10:48 but, but, but back in the old days, 10:50 listen to me, back in the old days, 10:52 we thought of our, of our families maybe 10:55 first, we made scarifies, and these days 10:58 you know, they're even teaching, 10:59 they're teaching women oh! You got look 11:01 out yourself and you know, pregnancy is 11:03 maybe a disease and you don't want to have 11:05 kids. Did I ever tell you that story of when 11:08 I was overseas, some place in Africa I think 11:11 there was a mission family and, and the wife 11:15 was telling me, and they had several children 11:18 and the wife is telling me that her sister had 11:20 just gotten married you know sometime before 11:23 they'd come overseas. Oh! Yes, remember that 11:25 story, yes, yes, yes. And so, you know she 11:27 was friendly with her sister, it's the wedding 11:29 and so, she walks up to her sister and she 11:31 said, I'm making up this name Judy. 11:33 How many kids are you and John gonna have? 11:35 And, and she said. Yeah, I was surprised 11:37 with the answer. And she says, oh! John 11:40 and I not gonna reproduce ourselves, 11:43 and but that's alright, you know, 11:46 well having a family is expensive you know, 11:48 I can't afford the education or I can't 11:50 afford Mercedes -Benz you know, 11:52 which soon or later ends up in the dump. 11:54 Right, right, now really you know soon or 11:55 later and so, so why is it that that a house 12:00 you know a quarter of a million dollar house 12:02 is a good buy. But to spend a lot of money 12:04 on an education which is for eternity is a rip 12:08 off. Yeah. And so, how can we privatize 12:12 ourselves? So, that you know they go ahead. 12:14 I like the answer that the African woman 12:16 gave though there was another woman in 12:19 that story, you remember? No. Well, 12:23 when backs, backs are full. Oh! Yes, yes, yes, 12:26 yes, yes, I know that that's another story 12:28 yeah, yeah, yeah because I was over in 12:30 one of those countries and thanks for 12:32 reminding me, and all these women are working 12:35 with babies on their backs and they've kind 12:37 of got them wrapped in her goat skin. 12:39 Whole different idea. Whole different idea, 12:40 and I'm saying, what's this you're doing? 12:42 And she says backs are for babies. 12:44 Yes, I like that answer. And, and I really 12:46 think, I really think that that could possible, 12:50 now we know there are families that can't 12:53 have children for some reason or another. 12:56 There's some that choose not to have, right, 12:58 children, for some reason or another and, 13:01 but I think Kathy that I'm so thankful. 13:04 For children. For children. I didn't even began 13:07 to understand the love of God until I had 13:09 children, the idea that God gave His only Son 13:14 and how He must have felt I really didn't 13:17 even have concept until I began to take care 13:20 of my own child and the things that would 13:22 happen between us that's when we learn to 13:26 begin to be unselfish. Well, it's risky to have 13:30 children; I have a friend, maybe that's why 13:33 because we don't want to be unselfish. 13:35 Well, unselfishness now of course you know, 13:38 if you, you know, you just come out and tell 13:39 somebody and say, the reason you don't 13:40 have, don't have children is because you're 13:42 selfish you know, they can punch you on the 13:43 nose or something or you know, 13:46 what are you doing judging me? 13:47 I have a friend and, I said maybe that's why. 13:51 I have a friend who he and his wife had no 13:54 children, they have cats and, and they can't 13:57 have children I didn't, I've never asked him 13:59 all the details and, and but I tease him 14:02 sometimes I'll say you know, all your children 14:04 have these sharp teeth and claws, yes, 14:06 yes, and they're hairy and everything. 14:08 And, and the biggest problem you have 14:10 hairballs and, and fleas or whatever, 14:12 you know, right, but they love their, they love 14:14 their cats, and I'm glad that God has given 14:16 us pets. But the, but the greatest joy of 14:18 all and the greatest sadness. 14:21 Yes, was in their relationship with your 14:22 children. Yeah, the greatest sadness. 14:25 A lot of heartache sometimes. 14:27 Well, and, and that's why we've been talking 14:30 about we've been talking about, 14:33 we can't change our children, you know now, 14:35 you know we might be under the illusion that 14:37 we can but, but as long as, 14:39 is God gives us the free will, 14:43 then He's gonna give them the free will. 14:46 And, and when He, He created man and gave him a 14:49 free will man turned the, the wrong way. 14:53 And so, you know maybe I ought to disabuse myself 14:56 for the fact that that, if I do everything right 14:59 it's gonna end up, right? 15:00 God did everything right. And at least in the 15:04 short term. And sure people have a choice. 15:05 It ended up wrong, and you hate to say it this 15:09 way and of course I don't, I can't count, 15:12 but if I read scripture right, there will be more 15:16 people lost then were saved. 15:19 Straight is the way and narrow is the gate, 15:21 that's true, and broad. And, and so Jesus died 15:24 for everybody, He is not willing 15:26 that any should perish, but that the all should 15:28 come to repentance, but the scripture clearly 15:30 teaches that that won't be the case. 15:32 Alright. Now, I'm not talking this way so that 15:35 we can say, well I had four kids and two turned 15:37 out good and two turned out bad and so, 15:40 that that's the odds. So, I'm giving up hope. 15:43 Exactly, and so just, we don't want to do that, 15:45 you know I'm gonna get satisfied with that 15:46 I just, I just got to get used to it. 15:48 Listen, I was at a meeting they were training a 15:52 lay evangelist and to be, to give evangelistic 15:55 meetings and a man walked up to me and he said, 16:01 are you Richard O'Ffill? And I said, yes. 16:04 He said, I thought so, he said I haven't seen 16:08 you since you did the funeral of my mother. 16:12 Oh! And he said, my name is Bill, 16:14 he gave his last name, and my mother and, 16:17 and she was my secretary. And Kathy she died of 16:23 Lou Gehrig's disease, the woman was a saint, 16:26 she was a saint. In fact, if you can say such a 16:31 thing I never forget it at her funeral it was as 16:36 if she had a little smile on her face because she 16:38 loved Jesus so much, but her son Bill was there, 16:42 he said Pastor O'Ffill I was at the funeral, 16:44 but I was drunk, I was drunk and I 16:51 thought to myself you know, 16:52 if I had asked Sybil in those last hours, Sybil, 16:58 how's it with the kids. What did she said? 17:02 She just said, Pastor O'Ffill, 17:03 I got a boy he's lost, and I've prayed for him 17:09 all my life, now she couldn't and she wouldn't 17:12 have, but she could have said, 17:13 and I have done any good. And here I'm dying, 17:16 and the Lord hasn't answered my prayer, 17:20 but here Bill is, and you did the, 17:23 totally changed, totally changed Kathy 17:26 he's become a lay preacher, 17:28 he's an elder in the Church. 17:30 And, and we both we're gonna do, we've been 17:32 embraced. Amen. And, and that gave me so 17:35 much hope. And you knew. 17:37 Because I thought to myself Sybil never 17:40 learned, never lived, to see the, 17:43 to see the answer of her prayer but, 17:45 but even when she, neither did Abraham? 17:47 And when she died God kept working to save Bill 17:51 and in the resurrection he's gonna be there and, 17:54 the angels will bring them together, and Bill, 17:57 is it you? Mom, isn't that gonna be one? 18:00 Yes, everyone. And, and so I think this is the 18:02 temptation that we have, the same temptation 18:04 to get hope. Yeah. And I've prayed you know I, 18:07 I was holding some meetings one time and 18:10 there were two women there, and can I use the 18:13 word old women? Kind of oldish women? 18:15 I guess, we might as well do that, 18:16 we might as well get real, and these women told 18:20 how they had lived with unbelieving husbands for 18:24 40 years and you know, to live with an unbeliever 18:27 we don't know what that story because he could 18:29 have been mean, he could have been cynical, 18:31 he could have you know insulted her, 18:33 she could have divorced him and hit the road. 18:35 But she didn't. She didn't, and both of 18:38 those women said that 40 years later their 18:42 husbands gave their hearts to Jesus, 18:44 and I'll never forget their husband said, 18:47 thank you for not giving up on me. Amen, 18:50 yes I can see that that would be rejoicing like 18:54 the, the Shepard who found lamb, 18:56 it's something like at a time like that, 18:58 so we would be rejoice. Well, you see, 18:59 but the temptation is, there is so long, 19:01 we want to give up, we want to give up 19:03 because we get tired, well it's not working, 19:05 well I pray for 10 years it's not working. 19:07 Now, in my case it took 10 years until my boy 19:10 was healed. I'm sure you were tempted during 19:13 those 10 years to give up. Well, well it wasn't 19:14 doing any good and, and, and you didn't think 19:18 it was. Well, see that was the point, 19:20 but God was working and, and, 19:22 and readily I think we need to remember that no 19:25 one is gonna change until they hit bottom, 19:28 and see this why in our, in our prayers you know 19:32 we could even prayer and, 19:33 and I've done this Kathy, I've said Lord, 19:35 do whatever it takes see. 19:36 Yes. In other words we can't have both ways. 19:39 We can say and Lord help him to prospered and get 19:42 rich and, and have all the good things and all 19:44 that. Right, right. And then out of the 19:45 other corner of our mouths say, 19:47 oh! Lord save my children, we've got say, 19:50 Lord now, I'm willing to give you the reign 19:53 on whatever it is that's gonna happen to them, 19:55 but just save them. Just do whatever it takes, 19:58 just do what it takes. But I do pray Lord, 20:00 don't let the devil take them. 20:01 Yes. And don't let the devil take them, 20:03 where there is life you know, there is hope, 20:06 there is hope. And so, I think we're gonna 20:10 be careful about that we, remember in one of our 20:12 programs we said, remember I told you how, 20:15 how Dan said to me? 20:16 Why don't you just accept me the way I am and, 20:18 and, and how I said with tears in my eyes? 20:20 Honey, I'll never be happy until you've accepted 20:24 Jesus as your Savior until you come back. 20:27 Right. And how he got tears in his eyes? 20:28 Now, now certain people would say, 20:30 well you just got to accept them. 20:31 No, no, no I did accept him but, 20:35 but now what he was doing? 20:36 Not what he was doing. Right. I mean, 20:38 am I gonna say, well I've got an alcoholic 20:40 drug addict and I guess I'll just have to get 20:42 used to it, oh! No Jesus, 20:43 I'm not gonna get used to it. 20:45 Yeah, I refuse. Yeah, I'm not gonna let 20:46 you go unless you bless me, 20:50 I don't know now, now maybe there are stories, 20:53 I'm sure there are that don't have happy endings 20:56 though, though my son and you know, 20:58 I'll tell you just how it worked though he was 21:01 healed this divorce thing you know that just 21:06 rolled on, that just rolled on. 21:08 And now I've got teenage grandchildren and you 21:12 know, you know what you do when you're living 21:15 with dad, spend the weekends with mom 21:16 and how do you cope as grandpa with that kind of 21:19 a pressure, and all that they're gonna go 21:21 through. I don't know, I don't know, 21:23 but I'm gonna trust the God. 21:25 And keep working with Him, with Him, 21:27 along with Him. One night I got a telephone 21:31 call from my, from my oldest daughter and she 21:35 was near hysterical, and she said dad, 21:37 he's gonna hate me, dad he's gonna hate me, 21:39 I promised that I wouldn't tell and what she had 21:43 discovered, what I didn't know and now I knew he 21:46 was drinking and that he was away from the Lord, 21:49 but I didn't know he was a dope addict, 21:52 I didn't know that. So, this is coming to the 21:55 rest of the story. This is the rest of 21:56 the story and so, and so she had discovered 22:00 this you know, how the sibling would talk to 22:02 each other? She had discovered 22:04 this when she called him up to wish him happy 22:05 birthday, but he had it, as they often do, 22:08 oh! Just everything gonna be alright, 22:11 I'm gonna quit, I'm gonna quit, 22:12 don't worry I've, I've quit, I've quit you know, 22:14 they quit a thousand of times, but she can't 22:17 stayed with us see, and here it was two 22:19 weeks later and he had and so, she forget hey, 22:22 I'm not gonna go on with this, 22:24 this boy is killing himself, 22:25 I'm gonna tell dad. Well, Betty and I decided 22:30 right then that we were gonna confront him the 22:31 next day, now we weren't gonna, 22:33 hey this is gonna have to stop because he has, 22:34 he has babies, he has a wife and 22:37 now it's going from dad to worse and so, 22:39 we began to think well, you know what hospital 22:41 can we put him in, what about the, 22:43 the treatment center, that the treatment centers 22:45 and all that. And so, 22:46 I went to work that morning and began to call, 22:49 I began to work on it 8:30 in the morning at 22:51 9 O'clock I get a call from my boy and he said, 22:55 dad I need help. And I'll never forget 23:01 going over to the hospital where he 23:03 worked and my big son, my big son, 23:06 big muscle man son, he gets in the car and, 23:10 and we're gonna take him to the emergency room 23:12 to check himself in, and now as we, 23:16 now as we ride down the road he puts his hand 23:19 over mine and he says, dad what a fool I've been, 23:22 I've ruined my life, I've ruined my life. 23:24 And you know it's a, it's a, 23:26 it's a special feeling, it's an incredible 23:29 feeling to, to be sitting next to your boy and 23:31 you're going to check him in for, 23:34 for drug addiction. And the next, 23:38 next few weeks you know they, 23:39 they put him in the, in the psych ward, 23:41 that's the way they treat him there 23:42 and they began to you know do whatever they do 23:45 and giving me other you know, 23:47 methadone's and everything, 23:49 and making real accountable, 23:51 real accountable. And put him in these groups, 23:54 where he's accountable. And even those groups 23:57 make us accountable, so I can God. 23:59 We need to be accountable and they 24:01 also put him in, in this, these testing urine 24:04 testing things to keeping him accountable, 24:07 but you know I praise Jesus I can say, 24:11 my boy was healed. Amen. He was healed and, 24:16 and I can almost, I can almost say, 24:19 my boy you know, like the prodigal son's 24:21 father who was dead is alive. 24:27 And, and so when he comes and he talks to me that 24:29 was not like before when he'd hugged me and, 24:31 and I want to say, don't touch me because 24:33 you know the little boy that I know is, is gone. 24:36 Now, you're throwing around, around the, 24:38 it's a big boy, its big boy. 24:40 And you're ready to throw the coat on him and 24:41 give him the ring and, and killed the fattened 24:43 calf. He's back again and, and, 24:45 and how thankful I am and you know once in a 24:47 while he goes to a, to AA, its kind of, of, 24:52 of a mission you know, to kind of share his 24:54 faith. Really, really. Yeah, 24:55 he doesn't go there 'cause he needs and he says, 24:57 he said dad and he said, you know to see these 24:59 men falling out again, falling out again he 25:02 said, he said, but there is one thing and I'll 25:04 share this with you I have so much appreciation 25:06 for AA, alcoholics anonymous, but, 25:09 but you know they have this thing, 25:14 give yourself to God as you're understanding. 25:16 Yes, yes. And at least you know, 25:18 where he was he said, I want to talk about Jesus 25:20 and you know they don't want to be that specific, 25:23 right, little bit generic, right. 25:25 And he knows that it was Jesus who, amen. 25:28 Who healed him and who saved him. 25:31 Anyway speaking of AA a little prayer the concept 25:36 of it, not that we have to prayed, 25:37 but the concept is so deep. And, and you've 25:40 heard of it before it's the serenity prayer. 25:42 Yes, yes. And, and I think we parents who have 25:46 children that are that are outside, 25:48 who've gone away, we do well to, to pray 25:52 this prayer. To pray that prayer. 25:53 And have you, have you heard it before. 25:55 Yes, I've heard it before. 25:56 And, and it goes something like God 25:57 grant me the sovereignty to accept the things I 26:01 cannot change, give me the courage to change 26:05 the things I can and give me the wisdom to know 26:10 the difference. Yes, I need that. 26:12 I think that's powerful. 26:13 Yes, it is, if you think about it. 26:15 Oh! I, in fact I don't think you can do better 26:17 than that, God give me the strength, 26:19 give me peace that in this storm that that I 26:23 can accept reality because I really can't do much 26:26 about it, but in my own life I want to change, 26:30 I want to be right myself and help to get it a, 26:33 to get it, to get it untangled, 26:35 to get it untangled because if we can 26:38 untangle ourselves from, from what our children 26:40 are going through I think God that give us, 26:43 you know how can I pray that, 26:45 that God will save my children unless He uses 26:47 me along the way. Right, right and you 26:49 didn't give up. No, and I, 26:51 you attempted to give up. 26:52 Oh! Along the way, but that's the title 26:53 of this one never give up. 26:54 Never give up and, and we would say to those who, 26:57 who are out there watching and who are 26:59 going through these kinds of things don't give 27:02 up, don't give up hope. Now, we need to pray for 27:06 them and we would want them to keep praying 27:08 for us. Oh! Yes, because it's an ongoing battle. 27:10 Absolutely, if you know, I'm not stick up my head 27:13 up and say, the war is over, 27:15 now that battle might be over, 27:16 but we're still in it, we're in it with the flesh 27:18 and the devil in that, and he goes round like 27:20 a roaring lion, seeking whom he might, 27:22 but we didn't know and who maybe we have believe. 27:24 Amen. And have confidence that He's able 27:26 to keep us. Amen. And to keep our children, 27:28 this is my faith and it's my hope and I 27:31 praise Him for that. Yes, we want to give the 27:33 people hope, we want to give you hope, 27:35 we want to claim the promises of the Lord, 27:37 so that we can have hope. 27:38 Absolutely, and we're going to pray now, 27:40 pray for us while we pray for you. 27:42 Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that 27:45 you're always working through us and, and 27:49 with us. We're thankful for the victories, 27:51 but Lord we wouldn't relax, 27:53 we prayed that as the struggle continues, 27:56 that we will keep our eyes on you. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17