Participants:
Series Code: TDYFW
Program Code: TDYFW018010A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:18 Removing pain 00:23 Lord, let my words 00:29 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:45 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:11 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Family Worship. 01:14 We welcome you to our sitting together, 01:16 whether you are watching this on a Friday evening, 01:18 and Sabbath is just about to begin for you, 01:21 or one of our rebroadcast, maybe you are heading 01:23 into the week, we welcome you to worship with us, 01:27 to enjoy the Sabbath together, Isaiah 58 says, 01:30 "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, 01:32 from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, 01:35 and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, 01:37 honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, 01:40 nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words," 01:43 Lord says, "Then thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, 01:47 and I will cause thee to ride upon 01:48 the high places of the earth, and feed thee 01:51 with the heritage of Jacob thy father, 01:52 for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 01:55 So if you are preparing for the Sabbath, 01:57 then you can expect a blessing from the Lord 02:00 because the Lord has promised a blessing to those 02:02 who keep the Sabbath day holy. 02:04 So we welcome you to this sort of all guys worship together. 02:10 Oh, all of us are married 02:12 but are wiser in various places, 02:14 doing various things at this time, 02:16 so we decided to get together anyway 02:18 and worship together as a bunch of guys 02:20 who love the Lord. 02:22 Love our wives but love the Lord even more. 02:23 All right, is that all right? Everybody accept that? 02:25 Praise the Lord. Amen. 02:26 Yes. To my far left, Gary Will. 02:29 Gary, good to have you here. 02:30 Thank you, it's good to be here. 02:32 Bryan Dickens, good to have you here, Bryan. 02:35 Yes, Pastor CA. 02:36 Mi estimado Jorge Jaque. 02:38 I'm blessed. Pleasure to be here. 02:41 English and Spanish is all the same. 02:43 Luis Capote. Luis, good to have you here. 02:45 Thank you, thank you for having us. 02:46 And Eric Durant, good to have you here, man. 02:48 Praise the Lord. 02:49 These are wonderful guys who love the Lord. 02:51 We want to talk about today and spend a little time 02:54 reminiscing over Christ, the good shepherd. 02:57 He is the shepherd, He is the lamb slain 03:00 for the foundation of the world, 03:01 He is the sheepfold, 03:03 He is the door of the sheepfold, 03:05 He is all of those things. 03:06 And Ellen White says this in council that 03:09 when you cannot see your way forward, gentlemen, 03:12 she says that sometimes it's good 03:13 to look back over your shoulder. 03:15 You know, just look back to see where you come from 03:17 when the windshield is a little foggy, 03:20 look in the rearview mirror, and get your bearings that way 03:23 and see where you've come from. 03:24 And in doing so, it will establish you 03:27 one of the things you will see is that God has been 03:29 with you all the time. 03:30 You've never really been alone. 03:32 You don't want to live in the past, 03:34 but it's good to just revisit the past, you know, 03:37 every now and again to see where you come from. 03:38 Someone said, "The only thing 03:40 worse than nostalgia is amnesia." 03:41 You know, you don't want to live in the past, 03:44 but you don't want to forget about the past 03:46 because she says that we have nothing to fear, 03:48 Luis, for the future. 03:50 That's right. 03:51 Lest we forget the way God has led us in the past. 03:53 So every now and again, it's good to just look over 03:55 your shoulder and see what God has done 03:57 and it gives you encouragement that the same God 03:59 that has gotten us this far will get us safely home 04:02 if we hold on to him. 04:03 So that's what we want to do today. 04:04 Before the day is out, I want each of these gentlemen 04:06 to take a little time and just tell us 04:09 how they came to the Lord, then we're going to look 04:11 at the Lord's keeping power as a good shepherd 04:14 because He does so many things for us, to us, 04:18 with us, and through us. 04:20 So we want to talk about all of those kinds of things 04:22 because it is encouraging to see 04:24 how God has led and blessed us over the years of our lives. 04:29 Eric, how long have you been in church? 04:31 I've been in church since 2002. 2002. 04:34 I was baptized straight out of the military. 04:38 Changed my life, changed my heart, 04:40 and I decided that I wanted to take a new track, 04:42 which was serving the Lord. 04:44 All right, Luis, how long? 04:45 I was born on a Thursday, and on Sabbath, 04:47 I was at church. 04:52 Truth be told. 04:53 Amen and amen. That's the way it is. 04:55 Amen. Jorge? 04:56 My whole life, my whole entire life 04:59 I've been blessed because 05:01 I was a part of a missionary family. 05:05 So being in the church, specifically all my life, 05:10 I'm not going to tell you how long though. 05:11 Okay. Long time, long enough. 05:13 Praise the Lord. 05:15 And we want to talk about that because it is, 05:16 as you gentlemen well know, it is one thing to be 05:18 in the church, another thing to be in the Lord. 05:21 One thing to be born in an Adventist home, 05:23 another thing to be born again in Christ Jesus. 05:26 So your church membership may not necessarily coincide 05:31 with your new birth experience. 05:32 They may be two different dates. 05:35 You're a little new, Bryan. Very new. 05:40 I started going back to the church two years ago 05:44 in the Lutheran Church. 05:46 And this past summer, of course, 05:49 I got introduced to you, 05:51 and you started me in Bible study. 05:53 And by December 2, this past year in 2017, 05:58 I got baptized. 06:00 Praise the Lord. Yeah, you know. 06:01 Praise the Lord. For rebirth. 06:03 Amen. 06:04 Gary, how long you're in a church? 06:06 I was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home, 06:07 so since my birth, yeah. 06:09 Okay, all right, very good. 06:11 We're going to have you guys 06:12 sort of fleshed out just a little bit. 06:14 I want to go to prayer, and I think, Jorge, 06:17 I'll ask you to pray for us and then we'll just, sort of, 06:18 launch out in what we want to talk about. 06:20 Let's pray. 06:22 Dear Heavenly Father, thank You, Lord Jesus, 06:23 for bringing us together here as brothers and friends 06:28 and your children. 06:30 Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to witness, 06:33 to express special way 06:39 that you have touched our hearts. 06:41 And thank You, Lord, for the opportunity 06:44 also to share this with our friends, 06:47 our dear viewers that are watching this program 06:52 in this Sabbath day. 06:54 Keep us, Lord, with You in our minds and hearts 07:00 centered in Your word, and thank You, Lord, 07:03 also for giving us that blessed hope 07:07 that You sooner coming to put together children 07:13 for all over the world and bring us together 07:17 to live with You forever. 07:19 Thank you, Lord Jesus, for many, many blessings. 07:21 And please be with us, be our special guest 07:26 during this program, in Jesus' name, amen. 07:28 Amen. 07:30 I've told the story once or twice before, 07:32 but I was the only Adventist in my family. 07:36 We lived next door to some kids that we played with 07:39 during the week, and they lived behind a gate. 07:41 And we noticed that on Saturday, 07:43 we couldn't come inside the gate and play with them. 07:45 You know, as children you, 07:47 sort of, follow that in your mind, 07:48 but I think you're aware that this one day, 07:49 we couldn't play with them. 07:51 And then they would all pile into this car 07:53 and just disappear. 07:55 You know, everybody just get in a car 07:56 and just disappear, every Saturday, 07:57 they just disappear. 07:59 And we moved to another part of the city, 08:02 and wouldn't you know, we moved right across the street 08:05 from some people, with that same weird behavior. 08:08 You know, every Saturday, everybody piles in the car 08:10 and just disappears, you know. 08:11 And the boy was my age, 08:13 and the girl was my sister's age, 08:14 she is by a year and half older than I am. 08:17 And one day I asked him, I said, 08:18 "Where do you guys go on Saturday 08:20 when you all just disappear?" 08:21 'Cause, you know, they'd get in the car early in the morning 08:23 and gone whole day. 08:25 And he said, "We go to Sabbath school," 08:26 which meant nothing to me because my parents were, 08:29 kind of, like holiday Methodists, 08:31 you know, Easter, and New Years, 08:33 that kind of thing. 08:34 And so I said, "Okay, next week when you go and disappear, 08:37 I want to go with you, 08:38 and I want to disappear with you." 08:40 And so we went to Sabbath school. 08:44 We went into a Sabbath school class 08:45 and there was a teacher, her name was Mildred Willis, 08:48 she became Mildred Gil. 08:49 Sweetest thing, I was, I guess, 8 or 9, she may have been 18, 08:54 or 19, maybe 20. 08:56 But she was such a wonderful, 08:58 first of all, she was beautiful, 08:59 and she was such a sweet Sabbath school teacher. 09:01 And when you got the question right, 09:03 she would actually stroke your cheek and say, 09:04 "Very good. " 09:06 You know, and the kids would answer the questions, 09:08 and she says, "Very good. " 09:10 And I say, you know what, next week I'm getting 09:12 the very good, you know. 09:15 I'm going to get a very good. 09:17 So I got my little friend, you know, 09:18 the little one, that little... 09:19 and I studied, studied, studied, 09:21 and the first question she asked, you know, 09:22 my hand is up. 09:24 And she called at me, and I gave the right answer. 09:28 She came over she said, "Very good. " 09:30 I was, like, I like that. I like Sabbath school. 09:34 So I'm hooked, so I'm in Sabbath school, 09:36 you know, every Sabbath kind of thing. 09:38 And then about a year later, she got married. 09:41 And she married Pastor Conrad Gill, 09:43 and we hated Conrad. 09:45 You know, because he took away our Sabbath school teacher. 09:47 And everybody hated him. 09:48 And it's funny, when he was working at the seminary, 09:50 when I got to the seminary, 09:51 he was on faculty at the Andrews University. 09:54 And I said, "Man, I've been hating you for 27 years. 09:58 I was hating you since I was a child. " 10:01 And I talked with Mildred, just she is in Atlanta now, 10:05 they are retired, just a few weeks ago. 10:07 And I reminded her how a wonderful 10:09 Sabbath school teacher she was. 10:10 And it's interesting because how you interface 10:14 with a young person can make an impression very early. 10:16 Absolutely, yes. 10:17 Because from the very first Sabbath, I was hooked. 10:19 I'm coming to church. Yes. 10:20 A year and a half later, I'm baptized. 10:21 You know, I'm the only one in my family, my mother said, 10:23 "It's not for me, but if you want to do it 10:25 I will not stop you. " 10:26 And she trusted Adventists 'cause when we jumped in a car 10:28 and disappeared all day, my mother never questioned 10:32 because she knew I was with the Adventists, 10:34 so she never questioned. 10:36 Then, did a week of prayer, baptized my mom, 10:39 baptized my dad one month 10:40 before he had heart attack and died. 10:42 So you can see the continuum. 10:44 Had wilderness years, you know, and sometimes when I question 10:47 what I was doing, but the idea of not serving 10:50 the Lord never occurred to me. 10:51 You know, I'd complain, I got to go to church 10:54 and my mother said, "Don't go." 10:56 And I said, "No, I got to go. " 10:57 But it never occurred to me that I could just stop 10:59 because I told the Lord I would. 11:01 So all of those teenage years when I was kind of irritating 11:04 to me, I went in His way because God never told me 11:08 that I got a past, so I kept on going. 11:11 And now I see why. 11:13 We got my dad in, my mom in, my sister in, 11:16 and we praise the Lord for that by coming to the Lord at age 9, 11:20 baptized at age 10. 11:21 Back then they kept you in baptism, 11:22 I guess, a long time. 11:24 You know, you give your heart to the Lord, and for about six, 11:26 eight months, almost a year, they are making sure 11:29 you're Adventist, you know, before you keep baptizing. 11:32 I gave my heart at 9, didn't get in the water till 10 11:35 because they make sure before they get to it. 11:38 Gary? Anybody else? How did you come to the Lord? 11:41 Well, you know, when you asked me that question 11:43 I was kind of thinking about it 11:44 because I don't have like a moment 11:47 where it just happened or some people have that moment 11:48 where they really should, it just you know, 11:50 they just know the Lord is near on me and everything. 11:52 I don't always feel like I ever had that. 11:54 I grew up knowing about God and praying. 11:56 And we went to church every Sabbath, 11:58 I loved the songs at Sabbath school, 11:59 like you're talking about. 12:01 It is funny that I learned early on 12:05 that you could pray to God 12:07 and He would answer your prayers. 12:08 And we had this old car that you pray to get it start, 12:12 and the Lord always answered that prayer. 12:14 Whenever my sister and I prayed that this car we started, 12:16 so I knew that God answered prayers early on. 12:21 And I knew that He was calling me into follow Him, 12:26 but there was... 12:27 I wanted to be on my own as a young person, 12:30 so I always resisted that. 12:33 I wanted to be different, you know, 12:34 there's a thing that God's people 12:37 are His peculiar treasure, I didn't want to be peculiar. 12:39 I wanted to be like the world, and I want to do 12:40 what the world, my friends, I don't want to be peculiar. 12:43 And so for a long time, I resisted that. 12:45 But the Lord kept calling me back, 12:49 and I felt like my life was almost been like Jonah. 12:51 He would call me, I would come close, 12:54 and then I would get scared or I would be enticed 12:57 with something, say I want to try something, 12:59 so then I would walk away. 13:01 And so that my testimony, I feel like is for people 13:04 who feel like they have let God down 13:06 because He's called them to ministry 13:08 or He called them to do something 13:09 and they turn their back on Him. 13:11 God's still there, God's still calling you. 13:14 He's not going to turn away from His purpose for you. 13:17 You may turn away from His purpose for you, 13:19 but He's not going to. 13:20 He's going to keep calling you back. 13:22 So if, you know, you're feeling like, 13:23 "Well, you know, I can't, I can't come back to God. 13:27 I can't do anything for God, I made myself unworthy. " 13:30 God will keep calling you back. 13:33 And as you surrender, and you listen. 13:35 And that's the thing is John 10:27 says, 13:38 "My sheep hear My voice. " 13:40 Yes. 13:41 And that's something I've been learning my life 13:43 is to actually hear and listen, 13:45 and now I'm learning to obey the voice. 13:47 Amen. 13:49 Here's what I found also, Gary, God is not thin-skinned. 13:52 You know, He's not so easily offended. 13:54 God is really tough, you know. That's right. 13:56 And just because you rebuff Him one time, 13:59 He's not done with you. 14:00 No. Praise God. 14:01 He's not done, He's coming back. 14:03 And He's coming back. 14:04 Now the thing is we never know when that last call will be. 14:07 And you can, kind of, harden your heart, you know, 14:09 but He's not that thin-skinned so just you say because 14:12 "No, I don't want You, today. " 14:13 Doesn't mean He's not going be there tomorrow knocking again 14:15 because He loves us just that much. 14:17 Anybody else? 14:19 Well, I was listening to Gary and, you know, 14:25 there are some times I've been thinking, 14:28 "When was the time, when was that moment, 14:31 when was those... 14:33 Some people describe certain special event that happens 14:37 and all of the sudden their life has changed?" 14:41 I was born in a family my... 14:44 That was Adventist family. My father was a pastor. 14:49 He passed away not too long ago. 14:51 And so I was exposed, if you will, 14:55 to the teachings of the Adventist church from 14:59 since I remember. 15:02 But some time in my life, I decided to forget about it 15:08 to not to just follow those teachings anymore. 15:14 And it was quite a few years for a long time. 15:18 I didn't go... 15:19 If I go to church, I will go probably for the sermon 15:24 after a long Friday night having fun with my friends. 15:28 And it was the saddest state of things in my life. 15:33 I had a lot of loneliness, and then I remember 15:38 one time going back with my wife, 15:43 we're going back to just looking for a place 15:46 to fellowship and go to church, it was in Basque Washington. 15:52 And I injured my Achilles tendon, 15:57 so I went to this physical therapist. 16:01 The guy happened to be an Adventist. 16:03 So we started talking. 16:04 And said, "Yeah, I will... " 16:06 I'm kind of, but in between, I guess. 16:09 He said, "Come to our church, come next Sabbath. " 16:14 "Okay," I told, "Lynette, let's go. 16:16 Let's go to this church. " Okay, he's a very nice guy. 16:21 Okay, this is what changed my life. 16:24 From then on, I never... 16:28 I always think that that was the moment 16:30 that really God touched my heart. 16:34 We go to the church, we are going to the foyer, 16:38 and this lady comes kind of running to us. 16:42 And she said, "Are you a friend of so and so?" 16:45 "Yes. " 16:47 I wasn't aware, we were not even friends, but to say, 16:48 "Yes, we are friends. " 16:49 And she gave us Lynette and me a big hug, and she said, 16:53 "You're mine. " 16:58 That is even... 17:00 I feel emotional, even now when I remember that 17:01 because Jan is going to hear this story forever 17:05 because to world, we tell the story 17:07 because it seems such a change, 17:09 life-changing experience for us. 17:10 But somebody to come to you, sent by God, 17:14 there's no doubt about it. 17:16 Give us a hug and she says, "You are mine. " 17:20 And so I said, "Oh," that is Jesus telling me that I'm His. 17:25 Even so, like you said, and you said it so well. 17:28 He has a thick skin. 17:30 He doesn't, you know, take it... 17:33 He doesn't take no for answer either. 17:35 No, no, very true. 17:37 If there's a moment that I can tell, 17:39 that I can say that I gave my heart to God, 17:42 to Jesus was then because the rest of my life 17:45 was a vanilla. 17:46 You know, always enjoying the little meetings, 17:50 the friends... 17:55 the go away parties 17:58 at the end of the year with friends, 18:00 and camping, and all this things 18:02 that a church does, and you just spend 18:04 through life enjoying those things, it's okay. 18:08 But the real close encounter was... 18:11 was that day, that's how. 18:14 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 18:17 Well, I was born into the Baptist Church 18:21 in Brooklyn, New York. 18:23 And my mother, she saw the track that I was going on, 18:28 I was partying in, and hanging out with friends, 18:30 and she gave me this little blue Bible. 18:32 And I still have it to this day, 18:33 but the words are too small now, 18:35 I can't read them. 18:37 But it's more of a sentimental item now 18:40 because of what it did for me. 18:43 I've always been very, very curious. 18:45 Things just have to make sense for me. 18:48 And I would read the Bible, and the Bible would say 18:51 certain things, and the church wouldn't follow 18:54 those things like, "Why are we going to church 18:56 on Sundays instead of Saturday?" 18:57 Things along that line and it just didn't make sense. 19:01 So because of that, I sort of lost interest and, 19:03 of course, the friends and the parties, 19:05 you just kind of get distracted by those things, 19:07 and you're often running. 19:10 But when I look back, I see the way the Lord 19:12 protected me because growing up in New York City, 19:16 as a young black man is dangerous, lots of violence, 19:21 lots of problems, lots of gang shootings, 19:24 lots of things like that. 19:25 And through it all, I was untouched. 19:27 Never broke a bone in my life, never got hurt, stabbed, 19:31 shot, anything like that. 19:33 And some of the places I went to, some of the parties, 19:35 there were bullets flying, 19:36 and we just had to get out of there. 19:39 At my mother's funeral, just about everyone 19:43 that came up to me said, "Eric, you have no idea 19:46 how much your mother prayed for you. " 19:48 And even to this day, people still keep saying, 19:52 the same person, "Your mother prayed for you. 19:54 You have no idea how much she prayed for you. " 19:57 And every time they say that, it reinforces in my mind 20:00 that there is no prayer, in my opinion, 20:04 in the universe that's stronger than a mother's prayer. 20:10 And it led me to the church. 20:13 I was in the military, 20:15 living typical military lifestyle. 20:17 And I was in Bossier City, Louisiana. 20:22 And I saw this radio station, this television station 20:25 come on the air, but I couldn't read it. 20:27 I couldn't, I could barely hear it, 20:30 and I couldn't see it 'cause it was hazy, 20:32 but it was 3ABN. 20:34 And as soon as I heard it, I said, "That's it. 20:38 That's what I've been waiting for. " 20:39 They talked about the Sabbath truth, 20:40 the state of the dead, 20:42 and the Antichrist, things like that. 20:43 And it was all making sense, and I was flipping 20:45 through my Bible, I'm like, "I've been looking for this, 20:46 I've been looking for this, I've been looking for this. " 20:50 All along the way, prior to that, 20:52 I was at the post office. 20:54 And this was a couple years before that, 20:57 and a man came up to me and he said, a really tall man, 21:00 and he said, "You need this. " 21:03 And I'm like, "Okay" You know, you take it from him, 21:06 you say okay, he's just some guy. 21:08 And I kind of flipped through it all, 21:10 it was that religious stuff, and I threw it in 21:11 what I call the junk drawer. 21:13 And it's spent three years there, 21:15 just kind of cycling in the junk drawer. 21:16 You clean it out, and clump to the top, and, you know, 21:19 you throw it back in there, 21:20 and it's amazing I never threw it out. 21:22 And one day, I read it. 21:23 And it talked about the same thing. 21:25 So all along the way, 21:26 God was leading me towards the truth. 21:29 And right after 9/11, I told my pastor, 21:34 "I don't know if I'm getting sent off to the Middle East. 21:36 I don't know if I'm coming back because of the assignment 21:40 that they had me on, and I want to be baptized. " 21:44 And he had a special baptism for me doing a crusade. 21:48 And the strangest thing happened 21:50 after I got baptized about a month or two later, 21:53 the military just released me. 21:55 They said, "You can go. Your time's up. " 21:58 Prior to that, I was on the extension 22:00 because of the war, and they just let me go. 22:03 And after that, I got a job at Maryland, 22:06 and the Lord just blessed me ever since. 22:09 Yeah. Amen. 22:10 Amen. Praise the God, praise the God. 22:12 I'm just thinking here, I was trying to... 22:15 Being born in a communist country, 22:16 you have to make a decision for God early. 22:19 In Cuba. 22:20 Yeah, being born in Cuba, you have to. 22:22 There's no in between. 22:24 You're either an Adventist or you're not. 22:27 You're either a Christian or you're not. 22:29 So from childhood, I saw victory over victory 22:32 over victory of how powerful God is 22:35 and what He was able to do for our church, 22:37 what He was able to do for our members, 22:39 how He was able to help individuals 22:42 that were in desperate situations. 22:44 So I fell in love with God at an early, early age. 22:47 I remember when I was baptized, I was 11 years old. 22:50 And I told this story before, but the day I was baptized, 22:54 some guys had left the prison because when you hit 16, 22:59 you have to go to the army. 23:02 You have to serve for from 16 to 20, 23:06 you have no choice. 23:08 And they had slipped because they didn't want 23:09 to work on the Sabbath. 23:11 So my mom and my dad, 23:12 my grandparents weren't there for my baptism. 23:15 And it was like if it was yesterday 23:17 I'm looking over. 23:18 And when I got home, I was kind of teary eyed, and said, 23:21 "You guys weren't there. " 23:23 And they said, "Son, God send us 23:25 another son that needed to take care of at that moment. " 23:27 and I understood, understood right away that ministry 23:32 comes before anything else. 23:36 But at that moment, that's when I realized 23:39 my earthly parents weren't there, 23:42 but my Heavenly Father saw me baptized. 23:44 You know, and from that moment on, 23:46 I have never, never had a moment where I deviated. 23:51 I've always had issues. 23:53 There's always, you know, how your mind goes 23:55 and you feel that that God is fading away 23:58 or you were in a path or you're doing your own live 24:03 and you're not really spending time with Him, 24:06 but now that I see, now, you know, 24:08 I'm involved with prison ministries 24:09 and all, at all the time. 24:11 You get them raise your hands, 24:12 "I was saved at 1972 at 12:00 at night. " 24:17 You know, you hear those stories, 24:19 but then when you see the victories, 24:21 and you see the power of God, how could you ever fall out 24:25 of love from Him? 24:26 Amen. You just can't. 24:28 Yeah, praise the Lord, praise God. 24:30 Bryan, I guess. 24:31 Yeah, well, as a child growing up, you know, 24:36 I went to many different churches. 24:38 I went to everything from a Baptist church 24:40 to a Methodist church. 24:42 And then I started going to Lutheran Church 24:44 my early teen years. 24:45 And whenever I was around 13 years of age, 24:49 I was baptized and confirmed Lutheran. 24:52 Unfortunately, during my later teenage years, 24:55 I started falling out of the church. 24:56 I lost a friend and a pretty dear friend, 25:01 and it was kind of bad for a lot of us, 25:04 and so I kind of started falling out 25:07 of the church a little bit. 25:08 And then again in my 20s, I lost another friend. 25:13 So I, kind of, started leading the party lifestyle too. 25:17 You know, a lot of drinking, smoking, 25:19 and going to parties all the time. 25:24 And I went through a marriage and got divorced from that. 25:28 But, you know, about nine years ago, 25:30 I was finally to like the lowest part of my life. 25:34 And, you know, I kept saying, you know, 25:38 "What I'm going to do? 25:39 I feel so bad about the things that have happened, 25:42 I don't know how to feel good anymore. " 25:44 You know, and I knew I needed to stop smoking, 25:46 I knew I needed to do all of that. 25:48 I was, like, "God, how am I going to stop smoking?" 25:51 You know, and it's like... 25:52 And, you know, I kept praying about it, and He's, like, 25:54 "Oh, first, you got to stop drinking. " 25:56 I was like, "Okay. " 25:57 So i stopped drinking. 25:59 Then two months later after I stop drinking, 26:01 I stopped smoking, you know, and then I started going 26:04 to gyms and started working out better. 26:06 But I still wasn't feeling great. 26:08 You know, it's like, "Well, what do I need 26:10 to do from here?" 26:11 You know, I'm doing all this working out, 26:13 and, you know, it's just... 26:14 But I'm still not feeling good. 26:16 You know, I work out but I still feel lethargic, 26:19 you know, and finally I sat down 26:22 and watched a movie, you know, one of those documentaries 26:27 about what you should eat and stuff like that. 26:30 So Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, 26:32 if anybody's ever actually seen that. 26:34 And I was like, "Hey, let's get a juicer." 26:37 So I started juicing, and started eating right, 26:39 and then I started, you know, researching different ways 26:43 of eating, well, that was brought about 26:46 about the first time that I heard of 26:47 Seventh-day Adventist was about 26:49 how they eat and how their lives styles are. 26:52 And it was like, "Oh, that's pretty interesting. " 26:53 You know, I didn't dab into it any further than that. 26:56 But after a few years of that, 26:59 then I started going to church again. 27:01 And I started going back to the Lutheran church. 27:04 And as I was there in the church, you know, 27:05 it's like I felt good for about an hour, 27:09 while I was there and after I left. 27:12 But I started noticing that I wasn't really looking 27:15 into the Bible and what it says anymore. 27:18 I was just, you know, going there and, you know, 27:21 taking communion, you know, getting blessed, 27:24 but an hour later after I'm gone, 27:27 "What actually happened?" 27:28 And the feeling wasn't quite there. 27:32 And then, you know, last year, I got introduced to, 27:36 who is now my wife. 27:38 And she started, you know, 27:40 showing me the truth from what the Bible says. 27:44 And then she introduced me to Pastor CA, 27:47 and he started me on the Bible study. 27:51 And then I just couldn't stop once I got into that. 27:54 It was... I just kept going, you know, 27:57 and I just kept consuming 27:59 the Word of God and reading what the Bible actually says. 28:04 And it was starting to make sense, like you said, 28:07 the things were starting to make sense. 28:10 And, you know, from that point, you know, 28:12 I got baptized in December. 28:15 And, you know, me and my wife just recently got married. 28:19 And right now, life has been such a blessing to me, and, 28:23 you know, God has finally brought me back to Him. 28:27 You know, and as Hebrews 13:8 says, you know, 28:30 "Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. " 28:35 And even though my thoughts about Him 28:37 had changed throughout the years in my teens, 28:41 20s, 30s, you know, He's still the same. 28:44 He was still there for me 28:46 whenever I decided to come back. 28:48 And thank God I did. Yeah. 28:50 You know what's wonderful to me? 28:52 Every time I hear a different testimony, 28:54 it's always similar in the sense, 28:57 the Lord cleaned me up. 29:00 And when I tell my... 29:01 When I talk to Marilyn, my wife, 29:03 and we talk about some of the things 29:04 I used to do, she says, 29:06 "Eric, I just don't see that in you. 29:07 I don't see that at all. " 29:09 And to me, that's the best feeling in the world. 29:11 You know, the Lord cleans you up, 29:12 the things that you used to love you hate, 29:14 the things that you used to hate you love. 29:17 The things that you love are good, 29:18 and righteous, and true. 29:21 I think that may be the greatest testament 29:24 in John 1, it says, "To as many as believed him, 29:27 to them gave He the power to become sons of God. " 29:30 I'll stop it at power to become. 29:32 I think that's one of the greatest gifts 29:33 that Christ gives you the power to become, you know, 29:38 to move from what you were to what you are now. 29:41 And so many times I was talking to somebody other day, he said, 29:43 "I was a drunkard, I was a mean drunkard. " 29:45 You know, some people are happy drunks 29:47 and there are mean drunks, some people, you know, 29:48 they drink, they get, "Hey, everything is funny. " 29:50 Others get really crass and mean. 29:53 He said, "I was a mean drunk" and I said, "I don't see that. 29:55 I just don't see that in you. " 29:57 But that is how far Christ can take you from 29:59 what you were to what he wants you to. 30:01 He's given us the power to become. 30:03 So I want to get into this good shepherd reading. 30:05 And as I read, if anything pops out at you, just stop me, 30:07 and just and then kind of weigh in on this. 30:12 The Bible passage, excuse me, that this is drawn from 30:16 is John 10, where Jesus talks about himself 30:19 as the true shepherd. 30:22 Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. 30:23 I lay down my life for my sheep." 30:27 Jesus always used illustrations from life 30:31 that the people were familiar with. 30:33 So He spoke about sheep and how caring and protective 30:39 a shepherd is representing Himself 30:41 and His hearers. 30:45 Also, He compared himself to the gate that opens 30:49 and closes the sheep-pen. 30:51 He said anyone who climbs over the fence 30:54 to get into the pen is a thief or robber. 30:58 The true shepherd goes in through the door. 31:01 I am the door, if anyone wants to get into heaven 31:05 and comes through Me, He will have spiritual life 31:09 more abundantly and will be saved. 31:13 The only door to heaven is Christ, 31:15 and all who have placed something else 31:17 in the place of Christ are like thieves and robbers 31:21 taking away people's eternal life. 31:23 You know, when Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, 31:25 and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. " 31:28 I have been studying that over the last year. 31:30 I have thought that that was restrictive, 31:34 that if you get in, you got to come through Christ. 31:38 And the question that I had in my own study is, 31:40 "What about the people who never knew about Christ 31:43 the people who lived in places, in lands 31:45 where they had no knowledge of Christ?" 31:47 And I've had to reevaluate what that means. 31:51 It is not only restrictive, it is inclusive. 31:55 Christ is saying, in my mind, 31:57 I see it like this, Christ says, 31:59 "I am the way," He is the mechanism 32:02 by which we come to God. 32:04 If anyone gets to God, it is because Christ has paved 32:09 that way, and that includes those 32:12 who never knew who Christ was. 32:15 You have some guy out in a jungle somewhere 32:19 who has not heard the name of Jesus. 32:21 But in his heart, when he looks up, 32:22 he knows there's something bigger than you and I. 32:25 There's something out there that's so... 32:27 What he knows is, "I need to live a good life, 32:30 I need to live a moral life, I need to take care 32:32 of my wife and children, I need to know the best I can. 32:34 I don't know the Jesus story. 32:37 What I do know is that there is someone out there 32:39 that loves me and I must give an account to that someone." 32:44 Well, Christ has already prepared the way that 32:47 that person gets credit for the life the light 32:51 that he has. 32:53 So he has an opportunity for eternal life 32:57 because Christ is the way. 32:59 So he has come to the Father through Jesus, 33:02 even though he may not even know the whole Gospel story, 33:05 but Christ has died to prepare a way for that guy also 33:09 to make it to the kingdom along with us. 33:11 So it's not narrow, He's actually broadened it 33:15 for everyone to have an opportunity 33:16 to get into the kingdom of God. 33:18 That's right. 33:19 So you're saying that Jesus is pleading for him also. 33:21 Yes, sir. 33:22 He is the way, yeah, the way, so we all come through Jesus 33:25 'cause Jesus has opened the way for everyone 33:28 to make it through. 33:30 You know, the part that hits me while you were reading is, 33:33 "Those who comes through the side, 33:34 they are robbers." 33:35 You know, "They're thieves." 33:37 And as we go, and I know when you do Bible studies 33:40 and things like that to an individual 33:41 that haven't really accepted 33:43 the whole Bible teaching though, 33:45 everything that the God is asking of you 33:48 to surrender fully then you start understanding 33:51 how they're being robbed off the relationship, 33:55 you know, those who are wanting... 33:59 All I need I've been saved by grace, 34:02 that's leave me there, 34:03 I don't want to move anywhere else, 34:05 I am thankful continuing my lifestyle the way it is. 34:09 You know, you can see how the blessings 34:11 that we all have felt, that we have said here 34:13 is being robbed from them because they don't have 34:16 that full connection to the shepherd. 34:20 You know, and it opened my eyes as soon as you read it, 34:23 as soon as we were reading, and it's like, 34:24 "Wow, that is what is it about," 34:26 because once we come through the front door, 34:30 once we connect with Jesus, 34:32 once we have that full one-on-one with Him, 34:36 then we can do what Matthew 16:24 that He says, 34:41 "If any man will come after Me," 34:44 So first thing we need to do is we go after Him. 34:46 Now and the shepherd, He goes after us, 34:49 He continued to go after us, but now He's saying, 34:51 "Hey, if you come after Me," then what does it say, 34:55 you need to what? 34:56 "Deny self. " 34:57 If you deny self, then you're going to understand. 35:01 And then it continues and this says, 35:03 "Let him deny himself and take up," what? 35:05 His cross. "His cross. " 35:08 You know, and that's where we truly start 35:12 following the Good Shepherd. 35:14 And that just bring so much joy to my life 35:17 because we our so responsible for those who are around us, 35:23 and like you were talking, CA, when you were converted, 35:26 there were two families that got sent your way. 35:29 Had they not said that example for you, 35:31 you may not be sitting here today. 35:33 So each one of us need to understand 35:35 when we are following, we have to do deny self 35:38 because others are expecting that of us. 35:42 And there are many who only see Jesus in you. 35:44 At least the beginning of what they see as Jesus, 35:47 they will see in you. 35:48 And we're missing it... 35:49 The truth is, the earlier you get to Christ, 35:51 the less regrets you have, you know. 35:56 The earlier you get in there and stay with Him, 35:58 and you look back, you can see 36:00 where God has guided you along the way. 36:01 Now God is so kind that those will come at 9am get heaven, 36:07 those who come at noon, get heaven, 36:09 those who come at 3 o'clock get heaven, 36:10 those who come just before quitting time, 36:12 get the same heaven. 36:13 But that's just the goodness of God, 36:15 but the truth is if you come at 11... 36:19 10:59:50, you get heaven, you know. 36:24 But think of all the time you wasted during the day. 36:26 There were a whole lot of blessings 36:28 that you could have gotten, a lot of things 36:29 God wanted to do for you, with you, to you, through you, 36:32 that He couldn't do 36:33 because you weren't walking with Him. 36:35 Now He's so loving, 36:36 He doesn't shut you out of heaven, 36:38 but you shut yourself off from alas, good stuff 36:41 that you could have gotten had you come 36:42 at 9o'clock in the morning, instead of 10 o'clock at night. 36:45 And you just hit a point so important, 36:48 when you were asking us about our story, 36:50 our conversion story, most of us that were born 36:53 in the church, we're like, "Oh, man, we don't have... 36:55 I don't have anything, I mean, come on, 36:57 I've been at the church." 36:58 But we don't understand that as we're listening 37:00 to the other stories, we can be rejoiced 37:03 that God has given us the opportunity to be able 37:06 to have a walk with Him through our whole life. 37:09 We haven't had to go through the trials 37:11 and the tribulations, and on all the times, 37:13 God's been knocking, and slapping us, 37:15 and getting us through to follow the way. 37:19 So both stories are wonderful. 37:21 To me, it's great to be able to see 37:23 how powerful my God is that can take somebody 37:25 that was going totally out of the way, 37:27 and bring him now in the path. 37:29 And for me, I'm rejoicing, "God, Thank You. 37:32 Thank You that You have shown me such mercy, 37:36 such love that You have continued to walk, 37:39 Allowed me to continue to walk with You 37:41 through my whole life." 37:42 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 37:44 And everybody here has had some wilderness time. 37:45 Amen. 37:47 You know, while we've had, you know, we knew, 37:48 and I broke my ankle twice playing basketball on fun fact, 37:52 I've always tried my shoe on a left shoe first 37:54 'cause that leg is still bigger, that ankle 37:57 because I broke it not once, twice on Sabbath 38:00 'cause I was on basketball scholarship. 38:01 The second time, the pastor said, 38:03 "He let you break your ankle to keep you 38:04 from breaking your neck." 38:05 I got the message, you know, that kind of thing. 38:08 But just because we were running from Him, 38:10 He didn't run from us. 38:11 He stayed on your case, 38:13 and when you finally stopped running, 38:14 He was right there, 38:16 still knocking on the door of your heart. 38:17 One of the small blessings, for me, 38:20 coming to the Lord has been the health message. 38:22 You know, I used to eat pork, and the shrimp, 38:24 and the lobster, and all these things. 38:27 And I watched how my family suffered 38:28 because of it physically. 38:30 And by coming to the health message, 38:32 coming to the Lord earlier than I could've I mean, 38:35 I could have come to the Lord at 65 or 70 years old 38:37 and suffered for the last 30 years. 38:39 By coming to the Lord earlier, my health has been way better. 38:42 So the health message is one small example of 38:44 how the Lord blesses you if you come to Him 38:47 rather than wait to the last exact moment of your life. 38:51 Yeah. Yeah. 38:52 I think it's... Jorge? 38:54 No, it's one thing that touch my heart always 38:58 is the realization that God 39:02 is always lovingly looking for you, 39:05 and you read this passage in Matthew 7:7 says, 39:12 "Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, 39:15 and ye shall find, knock, and it shall open to you." 39:19 Somebody talking about this very influential writer 39:25 and motivational speaker, Earl Nightingale, 39:30 took this passage and created what he called 39:34 The Strangest Secret because it's a secret 39:39 but it's a secret that is open to us, 39:41 and just because we don't sometimes read this 39:45 and realize that God is willing to pick you up 39:49 wherever you are. 39:50 And this passage has something that touch my heart 39:54 every time that I read it. 39:55 It says, " For every one that asketh receiveth, 39:59 and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it 40:04 shall be opened." 40:05 And it continue saying that God is always 40:12 willing to give it to you. 40:14 Now the comparison also is with a father. 40:20 If a father, a person, a father, 40:23 a man has a son that is hungry, 40:28 and this child asked for a piece of bread, 40:33 he's not going to give a rock, right? 40:38 So the same, even if a father or a person 40:42 that is a creation of God thinks that way, 40:45 how much more God that is willing 40:47 to give you eternal life. 40:48 So it always touches my heart to see that 40:51 what we need to do is just to ask. 40:54 Ask and you shall receive. 40:56 And how hard is that? 40:58 But for whatever reason, sometimes it's easy, things 41:03 are harder sometimes too... 41:06 Pastor, one thing that I want to go back to, 41:08 what you've read in the beginning, 41:10 "I lay down my life for the sheep." 41:12 Couple weeks ago, I was music at a conference with my kids. 41:16 And one of the pastors told us a story 41:18 'cause it says Jesus used parables to reach us. 41:21 And so one of the pastors is reading a book, 41:22 he read a parable, and I don't know 41:24 if anybody's heard it, but basically, 41:26 it's a story of a man who's offered a trip to heaven 41:31 that's a long way away, and it's going to take forever 41:33 to take or there's a trip to paradise, 41:35 it's only four hours away in paradise 41:36 since it being in Los Vegas. 41:38 And so he goes to Los Vegas, he's there for a month, 41:41 and finally the pleasures of sin getting old. 41:44 And so he want something else, while this friend, 41:45 who gave him the offer to heaven shows back up, 41:48 and they're going down the road together. 41:50 And as they're going on the road, 41:52 it's a big highway, and all the traffic 41:54 is coming towards them, 41:55 and there's big trucks and stuff. 41:57 And so he's sitting in the passenger seat 41:59 just squeamish because he's ended up 42:02 in the ditch several times himself, 42:03 and now he's got this driver that's going to drive him. 42:06 Well, when there was one truck is heading towards him, 42:08 he grabs the wheel and he pulls it 42:11 to move out of the way. 42:12 And at that time, the driver puts himself between him 42:16 and the truck and takes the brunt of the wreck. 42:20 And is just mingled and maimed and stuff. 42:23 But then he gets himself up, and he says, 42:25 "Do you want me to drive?" 42:26 he asked him, "Do you want me to drive?" 42:28 And that's Jesus, you know, when we take the wheel out 42:31 of His hand, we head towards those things that are going 42:34 to cause us harm, He puts Himself, He said, 42:37 "He laid down His life for the sheep." 42:39 He got in the way of the harm for us, to save us, 42:44 and then not only that, but then He says, 42:46 "Do you want me to drive?" 42:47 Do you want me to get back in 42:48 and lead you to where you really want to go?" 42:51 And, you know, that really touched me, 42:53 that parable, of how Jesus is in our lives, 42:55 how He is the great shepherd that cares for us, 42:58 lays down His life for us. 43:00 It's powerful. 43:01 You know, that verse that Jorge just read, 43:03 when you were in prison ministry 43:05 that really opens your eyes because you got individuals 43:09 and they tell you the stories of what they've done. 43:11 I mean, some of these guys, they've done some cool things, 43:14 but yet at the same time, they talk so fondly 43:17 about their mom and their dad, they say, 43:19 "Well, and they called me and they still with me." 43:21 So it's like if a human can continue to love a child 43:26 that has gone so far where he ends up 43:29 in a penitentiary. 43:31 And they talk fondly of them, and they still show them 43:34 the love and the kindness, how much more the creator 43:38 who created you, who knew you from before you were, 43:45 He knew who you were going to be, 43:46 what's going to happen to your life. 43:48 So it's like that verse now opens my eyes a lot more 43:52 because of what I'm involved with. 43:54 The prison ministry, there are prisoners, 43:56 the individuals because the enemy 43:58 wants to let you know. 44:00 There is no worth in your life, but when you look at 44:05 what you were talking about, the cross. 44:08 And you look at that creator of the universe 44:12 was willing to send His Son for nothing like you. 44:17 And then you look at what your earthly father 44:20 is able to do for you, how much more a God, 44:24 who is love, not that hast love, 44:27 a God who is love is going to be able to take care of you? 44:30 And that's the only time that you'll be able to... 44:32 Once you feel that, 44:34 you'll be able to tell the enemy, 44:35 "Enough is enough, I've heard the last of you, 44:38 I'm going to follow the Good Shepherd." 44:39 And to me, that's one of the most stunning things 44:41 about Christianity. 44:43 I can't find any other faith where God came down, suffered, 44:49 and was tortured for His children. 44:53 I've looked, go through the phase, you can't find, 44:55 it's almost, like, the Lord put a patent on that. 44:59 He said you can come up whatever religion you want 45:02 to come up with to the enemy, but you can't touch this 45:05 because My Son did this for Me, and He did this for humanity. 45:11 And that touches me. 45:12 So even if all the other faiths were real, 45:14 and we know that they're not, even if they all had validity, 45:19 I would still follow this faith because God sacrificed His life 45:25 so that I might live. 45:27 And that makes all the difference in the world. 45:28 It's a religion of love. And it's a powerful reality. 45:32 Ellen White makes a statement that at the heart 45:34 of all pagan religions is this idea that, 45:37 "I got to do something to please God. 45:38 I got to work myself into some kind of situation 45:42 where I'm acceptable." 45:43 Christianity, there's nothing you can do, 45:45 but accept what has already been done. 45:47 You know what Christ has done. 45:48 You just accept it through faith. 45:52 The second paragraph, "A Shepherd's life 45:53 becomes one with the sheep, and a strong attachment, 45:57 a strong and tender attachment unites him to the sheep." 46:00 Well, that's Christ. 46:03 He is our forever friend, you know, 46:06 whether you acknowledge it or not, 46:07 He died for the ungodly, 46:10 and that provision is made for all. 46:15 "However large the flock, the Shepherd knows each sheep 46:18 and the name He has given to it, 46:20 to which it responds when He calls." 46:23 I like that. 46:24 You know, that the idea that he knows everybody's name. 46:26 He knows Gary, He knows Bryan, He knows Jorge, He knows Luis, 46:29 He knows Eric, He knows all, He knows CA, 46:32 He knows all our names. 46:33 You know, He knows, He knows... 46:35 And Ellen White has this little thing 46:36 if I have time, I'll read it. 46:37 She says He knows your exact house, 46:39 He knows all the occupants in your house, 46:41 He knows where your bed is, He knows where you're sleeping, 46:42 you know, there's never a time when you're out of His sight, 46:45 when you're out of His notice, 46:46 when you are beyond the reach of God. 46:50 And if any one strays, if any... 46:53 "And if one sheep strays is lost 46:56 and can't find its way back, the shepherd goes after it 47:00 until he finds it takes it in his arms 47:03 and brings it back." 47:05 So when you're out there running, 47:07 He's running right behind you. 47:08 You know, you can't outrun Him. 47:09 When we were in school, we had this Dean and boys, 47:14 I know some guys who used to like to sneak out, 47:16 you know, at the door. 47:18 And He would prop himself up all night in the chair. 47:21 And when they'd come sneaking back in, 47:24 he'd be sneaking right in behind them. 47:25 You know, he knew who they were. 47:29 You know, they look over the shoulder 47:30 and there's the dean, he's right there, you know. 47:32 And that's how the Lord is, you can't run too far, 47:34 you cannot run too fast, you cannot outrun Him, 47:37 you cannot outlast Him, when you're ready to come, 47:41 He is ready to receive you, 47:42 and that's a powerful thing, you know. 47:44 Amen. Yeah. 47:46 Just a couple more lines, "Jesus is the Divine Shepherd. 47:53 He knows His sheep scattered throughout the world. 47:56 He says you are My flock. 47:58 I have called you by your name, you're Mine. 48:01 I have carved you on the palms of my hands. 48:04 Jesus knows us individually. 48:08 He knows where we live, He knows each member 48:11 of our family, every soul is as fully known to Jesus 48:16 as if He were the only one for whom the Savior died." 48:19 Powerful. 48:21 You know, as it was only one He knows you that way. 48:23 Jesus cares for each one 48:25 as if there were not another on earth. 48:30 Amen. 48:31 He knows our sorrows, He sees our tears, you know, 48:34 when you're alone by yourself, and, you know, 48:36 we try to be macho, men don't cry. 48:37 Oh, yeah, men do cry. 48:39 You know, and Christ knows that. 48:41 He's the one who understands that. 48:42 "He also wept and knows what sadness is." 48:46 He said, "My Father loves Me and I'm endeared to Him, 48:51 even more for giving My life for you." 48:55 So there's nothing that we ever go through 48:57 that is Jesus is a strange from, 49:00 He knows every part of our being. 49:04 It is interesting because God is in the business 49:07 of healing us, not making us sick. 49:12 In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, 49:15 we find many times that people were confused thinking, 49:19 especially in the time of Jesus. 49:20 They say, "Why this person is sick or why this person 49:23 is under this type of disease or illness? 49:27 What did he do to deserve that?" 49:29 And Jesus was very, very emphatic saying in... 49:34 I'm remembering the story of the blind man. 49:39 The disciples asked Jesus, yeah, "Whose sin? 49:44 Him or his parents'? 49:45 He says, "No, this is to show how much I loved him." 49:50 And He proceeds to restore his eyesight. 49:54 And now the guy starts seeing, right? 49:56 And then he started jumping up and down, 49:59 and telling everybody and goes to the Pharisees 50:03 and the synagogue, and tell them. 50:05 And they said, "But this is not possible. 50:08 You were blind." 50:10 And then he started trying to explain them that, you know, 50:14 Jesus did it, and if they don't trust him, 50:17 they need to go and see him. 50:19 And then he says something 50:22 that really, really impacted all the times when I read it. 50:26 It says, "I don't know you, I was blind, but now I see, 50:32 that's all that I know." 50:33 I don't know your theology maybe, 50:35 you know much more than I do. 50:38 I don't know if he is a saint, or if he is... 50:44 I don't know who He is. 50:46 The only thing I know is that now I can see." 50:49 That's my life. 50:50 I don't know a lot of things about God 50:53 because I like theology, 50:55 I like to study the Bible and everything, 50:57 but what I really know is 51:00 that He loves me regardless, you know. 51:03 And that you were blind... 51:04 And now I see. And now you see. 51:08 I think the story... Oh, sorry. Go ahead. 51:10 I was about to say whenever I was reading through John 10 51:13 and, you know, researching the Good Shepherd, 51:16 and everything about Jesus, and how we are His flock, 51:19 and He loves us so much that He brings us back to it, 51:22 you know, discussing the hirelings in John 10 also, 51:27 as that much, you know, that is like part of the enemy 51:31 that lets you stray away from the flock 51:34 in the way that it does, you know, 51:37 and that is basically Satan that lets you fall away 51:41 from the flock, and come away from the flock. 51:43 And once you're so far away from the flock 51:45 and you have nowhere else to go, 51:47 there is no shepherd there for you. 51:50 And Jesus Christ, being the Good Shepherd He is, 51:54 has the love to bring you back, and comes, and chases you down, 51:57 grabs you, and brings you back to the flock. 51:59 Amen. Amen. 52:02 That's powerful. That's powerful. 52:05 The truth is that He will never let us go without a struggle. 52:10 And once you're in His hands, the only person 52:12 that can take you out of His hands is you. 52:14 Right, that's right, that's right. 52:16 Yeah. 52:17 That's so hard to understand sometimes. 52:20 You know, especially as you go closer 52:24 and you start your sharing and you do what the commission 52:27 the God is asking us to go and take the message 52:30 to the world, the enemy, the first thing he's going 52:32 to attack is your relationship with God. 52:35 It says, you know, "Look at this that you do, 52:37 look at that that you do. 52:38 How could a loving God accept you? 52:41 How could you be sharing with others the way you are?" 52:43 And it's so hard to understand, the only one that can make 52:46 the decision to be lost is you. 52:49 It doesn't matter where you are and your walk with God, 52:54 it doesn't matter how you're feeling, 52:56 it doesn't matter what the thoughts 52:58 that the enemy put in your mind, 53:00 it doesn't matter the action 53:01 that you may take here and there, 53:03 the only one that can reject God is you. 53:07 As long as you're in walking towards Christ, 53:10 as long as your eyes is fixed on Christ, 53:15 Christ will always accept you no mater where 53:20 and how you are feeling. 53:23 You know, and that is so difficult 53:25 to truly comprehend because you need 53:27 to get to the bottom of it to say, 53:29 "Wait a minute, if God is love 53:33 and He has the perfect relationship, 53:39 then there isn't anything that the enemy can bring 53:43 or tempt me or say to sever that relationship. 53:47 The only one that's going to sever it is you giving up 53:52 because you're listening to the wrong instructions, 53:56 instead of listening to the power 53:58 that God has given you. 53:59 Yeah. 54:01 You know, I've always imagined that there's a path 54:03 to the Lord, and you're either far back on the path 54:07 or you're closer, and someone might be a lot further ahead 54:11 than you are, and there's obviously people 54:12 behind you on this road, but it's a long road. 54:15 And off to the side of these roads are temptations, 54:18 you know, you got trees made of gold, diamonds to the left, 54:22 the devil just want you to wander off this road 54:25 and go snatch a diamond or something like that. 54:27 And then once you snatch a diamond, 54:29 you see a lake further of, you know, made out of platinum, 54:33 and you go a little bit further, 54:35 and you go a little bit further, 54:36 and before you know that you can't find your way 54:38 back to the road. 54:39 So Satan just wants us to wander from that road, 54:41 and he poses whatever your particular issue, 54:44 temptation is, he has it off the road, 54:46 and Christ is saying stay on this road, 54:48 keep your eyes on Me, walk forward, and by the way, 54:51 while you're doing it, grab a couple of your brothers 54:54 and drag them along the road with you. 54:57 That's why it's the perfect illustration 54:58 is the pilot flying through the clouds. 55:02 It's so easy to become disoriented. 55:03 You have to look at your instruments. 55:06 You can't trust your fears 'cause Satan is going 55:08 to disorient you so that your feelings 55:10 are going to lie to you. 55:11 You're not going to know which way is up, 55:13 which way is down. 55:14 It's called Vertical... Exactly. 55:15 And Satan actually creates that around you, 55:18 that distortion field, and you have to go to the Word, 55:20 you have to keep your eyes in Christ just like the pilot 55:23 has to keep their eyes on the instruments. 55:24 Yes, very powerful. 55:26 You know, in Mark, and we're getting down 55:28 to the end of our time together, 55:29 in Mark chapter 8, 55:31 there's this very interesting story, 55:32 I'm going to try to get there very fast. 55:34 Three verses I'm in Mark 8:23. 55:38 So He took the blind man, and, of course, 55:42 Mark is the book of miracles. 55:44 And I think this is the only place 55:46 where this one appears, 55:47 "He took the blind man by the hand, 55:48 and led him out of the town, and when He had spit 55:51 on his eyes, He put His hands on him, 55:53 He asked him if he saw anything." 55:55 First He asked him, "Do you see anything?" 55:57 This is first miracle. Do you see anything? 55:59 "And he looked up and said, 56:00 'I see men like trees walking.'" 56:02 So the miracle wasn't complete. He was still semi blind. 56:09 "Then He put His hands on his eyes again, 56:12 and made him look up. 56:14 And he was restored and saw everyone clearly." 56:18 I don't think every time you get this kind of duo 56:20 kind of kind of thing going on. 56:21 You're doing... Christ hears you the first time, 56:23 it's one and done. 56:24 But here, He healed him, and He said, "What do you say?" 56:28 "Well, I see some, you know, like trees but it's not clear." 56:32 So Christ did it again that shows to me the love of Christ. 56:37 If you need a second touch, 56:38 you're going get the second time. 56:40 You know, if you need a little bit more, 56:41 you're going to get a little bit more. 56:42 It's like Mary and Martha, two different girls, 56:44 both of them Christian, both of them love the Lord, 56:47 but Mary was soft and docile, Martha a little more hardcore. 56:50 So Christ each gave them what they needed at that time, 56:54 that shows to me the love of Christ 56:56 as a Good Shepherd. 56:57 He knows each sheep individually. 57:00 Gary, if you need a little bit more, 57:02 He has no problem giving you a little bit more, 57:04 and it's no commentary. 57:06 We are all different, we all need different things, 57:07 we all respond, as you said, Eric, to different things. 57:10 So Christ will give you what you need, 57:12 when you need it because His thing 57:15 is to get you saved in the kingdom. 57:16 If you need a little something more, 57:18 He'll give you a little more, 57:19 if you need a little something more, 57:21 you get a little something more. 57:22 We get what we need because ultimately, 57:24 Christ wants us to be with Him. 57:26 I go to prepare a place for you. 57:28 Oh, our time is fast slipped away from us. 57:30 Gentlemen, thank you so very much. 57:32 Eric and Luis, and Jorge, and Bryan, and Gary, thank you. 57:36 God bless you, will see again soon 57:38 for another 3ABN Family Worship. 57:40 Happy Sabbath. |
Revised 2018-04-26