0:08 If you have your Bible, take it out. And I may have some question or two. So, if I have a question, you can shout out the answer. So, today I'm going to be um sharing on behalf 0:26 of someone. I was a disciple of John the Baptist first. And John the Baptist saw Jesus going past 0:46 him. And he said to me and another disciple, "There goes the Lamb of God." And you can turn with me to John 1:8. And this was the first question that Jesus had asked me. Jesus said to them, 1:08 "What do you seek?" I believe the Lord's asking that question to each one of us today. "What do you seek?" So, we went, we stayed with Jesus 1:28 for a day. And I looked at his life. I looked at Jesus' life. He spent time talking to his mother and his brothers. But there wasn't anything spectacular. But after spending a day with him, 1:47 we realized that he was the Messiah. He was all that I I was seeking for. Even though his life was so ordinary, I could see in his life that he was the Messiah. 2:06 The other other disciple, I don't know what ever happened to him, but I assume what he was seeking for in Jesus, he did not find. Maybe he was looking for Jesus who was going to do something miraculous. Or like John taught about fasting and 2:26 about religious activities. But when he saw Jesus so ordinary, he started to look for something somewhere else. But for me, I saw the Messiah there. I went and told my brother Simon Peter, 2:45 "Come, we found the Messiah." And I was sad that that other disciple um other disciple did not wait to see this Jesus. 3:04 There's a verse in Isaiah which says, "You are a God that hides yourself." And so for the other other disciple, he could not see God in the flesh. He thought Jesus was just another ordinary person. As time went on, I got to see a little 3:26 bit more of Jesus. The same one who would later say when they when they came to come and capture him, "Do you not know that I could call for 3:43 12 legions of angels and they will be here." The same one who could do all these miracles, yet was so ordinary. And as I looked at this I looked at 4:03 Jesus, one thing that really encouraged me was though he had he had power, angels adored him for all eternity, that when he was here on Earth, he was just like me. I'm Andrew, the brother of 4:23 of Peter, and I want to tell you my story. And with Jesus, the wonderful thing with with the way he interacted with us is after Jesus died and he rose again, 4:40 we were all scared. I remember there was a time where he would come he came into the house and he said, "It is me. Peace be to you." And we were wondering what to do and everything and do you know what the first question he 4:57 asked us was? He saw that we were frightened and we were scared. His first question was Turn with me to the Luke 24. And he said to them, 5:15 "Have you anything here to eat?" He just asked us what Is there anything to eat? And we're thinking, "Okay, he's come from risen from the dead. He's going to say something or do something miraculous." And no, he just asked, "What's there to 5:31 eat?" And he put us all at ease. And that was the beautiful thing with Jesus, he could put anybody at ease. You could see that Jesus often would get interrupted. In the middle of the night, Nicodemus 5:49 would come and knock on the door and have questions for him. He would be going to heal the synagogue official's daughter and then another woman would come in and stop him and say, "I'm having a bleeding. Can you heal me?" 6:06 Constantly interrupted. This was the Son of God. He shouldn't have any interruptions in his life. But he was just like one of us. He had the same interruptions that we all have. I remember when they came and asked 6:27 Jesus when they were coming to capture him they asked him, "Are you Jesus of Nazareth?" And he said, "I am he." And all the soldiers fell back. Even though he had so much power he let even the smallest of 6:46 interruptions come by. There was one time where Jesus was at was at a in his house in Capernaum. You read in Mark 2. It was his own home. He was owning it with sharing it with Peter the Apostle. And suddenly they started there was 7:08 something coming out from the roof. They were digging through the roof of Jesus' house. But that didn't bother Jesus. Even though his roof had to be fixed after the service it didn't bother him. Because he saw that there was a person 7:26 who needed help. He saw the faith of his friends. He forgave that man his sins and healed him. Jesus was always looking to seek and save that which was lost. 7:46 He was looking to find people who could not repay him back and lavish them with love. I was one of the recipients of that love and I'm so fortunate to be one of those who was able to walk with Jesus. There was another time when John the 8:03 Baptist was killed by Herod. And Jesus wanted to take some time off. He called us and said, "Hey, let's go and take have some time secluded time." Turn with me to Mark 6. In verse 29, it says, "When they the 8:27 disciples heard about this, they came and took away the body of John the Baptist and laid him into verse 30, the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to him all that they'd done and taught. And he had 8:38 said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." He just wanted to take some time. John the Baptist who had been his forerunner. He was just like us. He also felt the pain of loss. And he wanted to be by himself. 8:58 Verse 33, "But the people saw them going and many recognized them and ran there together from foot from all the cities and got there ahead of them. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd. He felt compassion for they were 9:13 because they were like a sheep without a shepherd. And so he saw these crowds and even though he wanted to take some time away, when he saw the need there and he had compassion, he he put his his his agenda aside and went out 9:33 to meet that need. And as I think about that, I think about this day where we went to Tyre. Earlier in the day, Jesus had met with 9:50 the Pharisees. The Pharisees had come and we were all eating. And you find this in Matthew 15. We're all eating. And the Pharisees came all the way from Jerusalem and they were complaining that we didn't wash our hands before we ate. 10:12 Jesus stood up for us. He went and told them, "It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out. All these evil wicked thoughts and slander and all of that, all that evil stuff that you have inside you. 10:26 That's what defiles a man, not what when he doesn't have a ceremonially washed hands." And it says in Matthew 15 that the Pharisees got offended. They got offended. 10:46 But Jesus said, "Leave them alone." And Jesus came back later and explained to us what he meant by what comes out of the heart of men defiles them. And he took up all of that. He shared with us. And then he says, "We're going to go on 11:04 a journey." And I was hoping it was something close by, but no. It was 40 miles, nearly 40 around 40 miles away. About 100,000 steps to get there. 11:22 And I was thinking to myself, if we were going to go that far, we should have started earlier. We shouldn't have had such a long meal and explanation to the Pharisees. We should have started earlier, but again, Jesus allowed for the Father to 11:38 change his plans, put in inconveniences. And he walked along with us. We walked 40 miles. And as I walked there, I was thinking to myself, why Tyre? Why do we want to go to Tyre? 11:56 Tyre was just like Sodom and Gomorrah, just as wicked. But unlike Sodom and Gomorrah, which was completely destroyed, Tyre still had people there living there. And as we were walking there, I was thinking to myself, this 12:16 in the book of Ezekiel chapters 26, 27, and 28, God pronounces judgment on Tyre. Because when the Israelites went into captivity, Tyre was happy. They were happy when Jerusalem was captured. 12:34 And so God says, "You know what? I'm punishing my people, but you shouldn't be rejoicing over that. You shouldn't be happy when my people are punished. And so you're also going to be punished as well." So I'm going up and again, 12:48 us Jews, we don't have dealings with non-Jews, and Tyre was not one of our favorite places to go. We have all had a long history of things that they've done to our nation. As we go there, there's a home that's there, which we silently went there. 13:08 And Jesus didn't want anybody to know about it, but somehow they found word that Jesus was there. And this lady came and she wanted to meet with Jesus. She said, "Son of David, have mercy. My daughter is demon-possessed." You can 13:27 turn with me to Matthew 15. Verse 22, and a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 13:46 But he did not answer her a word. And as his disciples came and implored him saying, "Send her away." And I was one of them who asked the Lord to send her away. And usually when we did that, we got rebuked when we asked the kids to go 14:04 away from Jesus. He says, "Let the little children come to me." But this time was different. Jesus actually was on our side. He didn't answer her. And then when he did, he said in verse 24, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of 14:19 Israel." I was not sent to Tyre. I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. And we were happy that Jesus was supporting us. Verse 25, but she came down and bowed down 14:36 fell fell to the ground and said, "Lord, help me." And Jesus said, verse 26, "And he answered and said, 'It is not good for to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.'" This woman was in such need and 14:57 desperation. And she cared for her daughter greatly that she came and begged the Lord and said, verse 27, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table." And that woman would have never expected 15:20 to hear these words. Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great. It shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once. Jesus had a great compassion towards those who could not do any who could not 15:39 do anything in return. Jesus would never go back to Tyre again. That woman could not repay what Jesus did for her in any way. And God found people to go and bless that could not bless in return. And as I was coming we were coming back, 15:58 it gave me time to reflect on what Jesus had done. 40 miles is a long way and gives plenty of time for thinking. And as I was reflecting on what Jesus had done, Jesus took the time to meet with that woman. He took He 16:18 decided to go 40 miles being prompted by the Father to go 40 miles to meet with this woman. Cared for her. I had seen in demon-possessed people. One man 16:36 has had so many demons that when the demons came out of him, it took 2,000 pigs and it all the 2,000 pigs dropped off a cliff. Those 2,000 demons that were that the demons which 16:56 were there could which could throw off 2,000 pigs was inside that one person tormented day and night running through the graves. Nobody cared for that man. But Jesus did. Jesus cared for that man. That man 17:14 how much of torment that he had day in and day out thinking that nothing would ever change in his life, that that would be his condition till the end of the life until he met Jesus. And Jesus brought hope. There was another demon-possessed boy. 17:31 Constantly the demon would throw him into the fire or throw him into the water. And as I was going back to Galilee, I thought about this woman what she would have suffered every day for years with this daughter being tormented day 17:48 in and day out by this demon. And I saw the hardness of my heart that I would not have compassion. I was one of those who was pushing her away from Jesus and didn't have compassion on her. How hard can a man be? God had so much care for that woman and 18:10 her child. Jesus spoke about Tyre and he said Tyre would be in a better place on the day of 18:27 judgment than Bethsaida. Now Bethsaida was the city from which myself and Simon Peter were from. And so he was comparing our city with the city of of Tyre. And he said it would be better for the city of Tyre if I was there because they would have 18:45 repented. And you who live in Bethsaida have seen all these miracles and yet have not repented. So turn with me to Matthew 11 verse 21. Woe to you to Tyre and and woe to you Bethsaida, for if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon 19:04 which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, verse 22, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And as I was thinking about these two 19:24 cities, Tyre and Sidon, and compared them with my city, Jesus was speaking to me. He was speaking to a person who lived in in in Bethsaida and saying it will be easier for the person in Tyre that we just met. It would be easier for them to repent 19:44 than for us. Why? And as I was going down, I was thinking back of two people that the Lord had anointed. Two people that the Lord had anointed, but two different results when they were 20:02 confronted with their sin. One of them was Saul, and if you turn with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel. Israel wanted a king, 20:23 and so Israel got a king. And God gives uh God gives Samuel as their first king. And it says in 1 Samuel chapter 10 verse 22, "Therefore, they inquired further to the Lord, has this man yet come?" They're looking for Samuel, I mean Saul. 20:42 So, the Lord said, "Behold, he's hiding himself behind the baggage by the baggage." And so, they had to go and find him because he was so humble that he would go and hide himself. This king started off so well. He was a humble man. 20:59 God even said that, that he was humble in his eyes when he started off. But then God had asked him through Samuel to wait 7 days. 7 days to wait for him to come before 21:19 the sacrifice. It was a small instruction, 7 days. Wait there. After the 7 days is over, I Samuel will come and sacrifice. But when Saul saw all the people rushing away and he wanted to keep them he he said, 21:38 "Okay, Samuel hasn't shown up yet. I'm going to take the sacrifice. I'm going to sacrifice it." God directed him through Samuel. It says in verse 14. Or verse 13. Samuel 13:13. Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the 21:56 commandment of the Lord your God, which he had commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for himself a man after his own heart." 22:18 The thing that Saul should have done What should have Saul done at this point in time when God had confronted him with this sin? He should have repented. He should have said, "God, I'm sorry. What Samuel is saying is true." 22:35 And should have repented. The next thing The next verse it says that verse 15 it says, "Samuel arose and went." And Saul also went. There was no repentance. No, nothing. Okay, Samuel. That's nice nice to know that the kingdom's going to be taken away 22:52 from me. And I disobeyed, but that's that's not that important, is it? It all started off this way. He started off really well, a humble man. And then a time came where he needed to hear from God. Should we go 23:11 or not? And it says here, verse 37, Samuel 1 Samuel 14:37. Saul inquired of God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?" And this is one of the saddest verses. 23:29 But, he did not answer him on that day. And God was tell It was almost like God was saying, "Saul, when I spoke to you, you didn't want to listen. Now, you want me to listen, but I'm not going to listen to you what you have to 23:48 say." But, I see the compassion of God that God gave Saul another chance. In verse 15 in 1 Samuel 15, then Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent The Lord sent me to anoint you as king 24:08 over his people, over all Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord." And he tells him, "Go and destroy the Amalekites." He gave him a command and he says, "You know what? I'm giving you one more chance to obey." 24:26 It's not very often that people get another chance, but he got another chance. But, he doesn't go and do what he does. He He goes and he sees the spoil. He sees all the sheep and all of that stuff that is worth something. 24:42 And he wants to take that back with him. And so, he doesn't carry out the word what the Lord asked him to do. And Samuel the prophet, God speaks to Samuel the prophet and tells him, even before he meets Saul, God meets with Samuel and tells him 24:56 this. First Samuel 15:10. The word of the Lord came to Samuel and saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he's turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands." And listen to this. This is what a godly 25:13 man like Samuel does. And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. Do you know why he cried out all night for Saul? Because Samuel understood what the 25:30 consequences of Saul's actions were. Saul didn't see the seriousness of his sin, but Samuel could. Samuel knew what the consequences of his sin was. And he cared tremendously for Saul. And so he cried all night. All night. 25:52 And then he goes, he gets up early and he's like, "I hope Saul is going to receive these words that I tell him. He doesn't realize the seriousness of his sin, and I hope by some way me pleading with him, he's going to repent." 26:12 And then he goes and tells verse 4 verse verse 13. First Samuel 15:13. Samuel came to Saul and Saul said, "Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord." 26:29 Samuel already knew that he hadn't. Verse 16, he says, "Samuel said to Saul, wait and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak." Samuel said, "Is it not true when you were little, though you were 26:46 little in your own eyes, you were made the king of Israel? Verse 19, why did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed to get to the spoil?" And see the pride of Saul, verse 20. Then Saul said to Samuel, 27:06 what did he say? "I did obey the voice of the Lord." Even when confronted with a godly man, he's like, "I did what God told me to do." And then he pleads, you can see Samuel 27:26 pleading with him, verse 22. "Has the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" Verse 24, Saul says, "I have sinned. Indeed, I've transgressed the transgressed the command of the Lord 27:44 and feared the people and listened to their voice instead of the voice of God. Pardon me now and return with me and worship so that I may worship the Lord." And Samuel says to Saul, "I'm not going to come and worship with you. 28:00 You go and worship if you want, but I'm not coming with you." But Saul did not want to go alone. You know why? Because if he went alone to worship God, they'll ask him, "Where's Samuel?" And then he would have to be confronted 28:15 with his sin. But he didn't want to be confronted with his sin. Read with me, verse 30. Again, he says, "I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and go back with me that I may worship 28:33 the Lord, your God." And so even at this time, he's not interested in repenting of his sin. He just wants to make sure nobody else finds out about this sin. He wants to make sure everybody else is okay and that he seems good on the outside, 28:49 even though there's sin in the inside. It's a very dangerous place to be. You read in 1 Samuel towards the end of chapter 19 that Samuel prophesies. 29:09 The spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he prophesies. And they say, "Is Saul among the prophets?" Meaning he has such a good testimony. He has gifts. He has a lot of things that outwardly everybody saw that he was a godly king. 29:25 But there is only two people who know knew his true condition and cared for him. One was God. And the other was Samuel. And sad so the sad thing about Sa- Saul was he never repented till the end. It goes to such a state where he goes 29:46 and tries to pull up Samuel from the dead and says, "Samuel, God's not speaking to me through the prophets or through the dreams. Nobody's speaking to me. That's why I had to bring you up from the dead." 30:04 Read with me 1 Samuel 28. Verse 15. Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me from by bringing me up from the dead?" And Saul answered, "I am greatly distressed for the Philistines are waging war against me and God has departed from me and no 30:21 longer answers me either through prophets or through dreams. Therefore, I've called you to make make me known what to do." Samuel says, verse 16, "Why then do you ask me? Since the Lord has departed from you and made an made an adversary." 30:40 Even now he's not repenting. There's a verse in Proverbs 1. Proverbs 1 where it says, "Wisdom calls out in the streets." Verse Verse 20. "Wisdom shouts at the streets, lift up your voice in the square." She cries out. 31:00 She's calling, calling, and Saul heard the voice of God for all those years. And he should have come to his senses and said, "You know what? Samuel is telling me this. A man that has heard God's voice from a very young age, 31:17 where it says that the words of his the words that came out of his mouth would not even drop to the floor. That's how much God honored him. And if he took the time to say something to me, why have I not listened?" He should have said, "You know what? 31:36 Sorry, Lord. I I've I I'm I'm going to repent right now. Doesn't matter who knows about my sin or not. I want to repent before you. I'm going to go and destroy all the sheep and all of that, and I'm going to set things right." 31:51 How different it would have been, but he did not see the seriousness of it, and he did not see what Samuel saw. But on the other hand, you had David, who had failed so terribly. We read about that, how he's failed in the area with Bathsheba. 32:11 And there were so many consequences because of his sin. But the way David received correction was so totally different from the way Saul did. So, turn with me to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel. 32:35 Verse uh Chapter 12. Verse 10, it says, "Now, therefore the sword shall never depart from your house before you've despised me." And so he's he's he knows that there's going to be consequences of his sins and you see that in his the lives of his children 32:53 and all of that you see all of this death coming in because of his sin. But instead of saying "Oh, it was it was just a mistake. I gave in to the pressure. I just to fight himself. Listen to him. He said the same thing that Saul said, but it was a different 33:10 spirit. Second Samuel 12:13. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You shall not die." David, you're not going to die, but there's going to be a lot of 33:28 consequences because of your sin. But turn with me to Psalm 51. The way he received that correction. 50 Psalm 51 verse 4. Against you 33:49 you only I have sinned and I've done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified when you speak and are blameless when you judge. Lord, I'm not going to justify myself and give an excuse of why I did what I did. 34:04 Lord, I'm going to say I'm wrong, completely wrong, completely. Whatever I did was wrong. I sinned against you. Anything that you punished me is less than what I deserve. You be justified. I'm not going to justify myself. You be justified. 34:21 Verse 10 he says, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit. Verse 11. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take away your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Saul when he Saul did not hear from God, 34:41 it didn't bother him. But for David it did bother him. When God departed from him, when God was not speaking to him, that bothered David. And that's where you see the difference between Saul and David. Saul cared for the 34:57 opinion of men, whether he had a good reputation before others. David did not care for the reputation of man. He did not care for the kingdom. Later on he'd lose the kingdom to his son for a while, but that didn't bother him. The thing 35:09 that he sought most was, I want to know that the Lord has accepted me. I want to hear his voice. And Lord, if you do not speak to me, if you don't reveal yourself to me, if your presence go away from me, that bothers me than anything else, 35:24 Lord. I'll take the punishment for my sin, Lord. I sowed that, I'm going to reap it, Lord. But don't take your presence away from me. It was a different type of repentance. And the hope that we all have, the hope that I have, 35:39 even though Jesus said, you know, all of you will leave me on that day when I'm when they come to capture me. And we all disciples said, but Lord, I won't I'm going to stay with you. But I also 35:59 left when Jesus was being captured. When the disciples used to argue about who's the greatest, I used to argue about being the greatest. I see that there's sin in each one of us. But what's our attitude to that sin? Is it, 36:19 Lord, I don't want this sin to hold me from your presence. I don't want a day to go by where you can't speak to me, you can't show me my sin and I can receive it. Be it through you directly or through a godly man like Samuel. I want to be able 36:36 to see it, Lord. I want to see my sin, Lord. And I want to repent to it genuinely. And I want you to not depart from me. I want your presence to be with me always. Turn with me to Psalm 27. This is what 36:56 what David desired the most. One thing I have asked, Psalm 27:4. One thing I've asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to be all the beauty of the Lord to 37:12 meditate in his temple. I want the Lord. That's the most important thing. I want to hear his voice. It says here verse 28 verse 8. When you said, "Seek my face." My heart said to you, "Your face, oh Lord, I shall seek." 37:32 And then it goes on in chapter 20 in Psalm 28. If you are silent to me I will become like those who go down to the pit. Lord, just whatever you do, Lord, do not stop speaking to me. Do not be silent to 37:50 me. And so, even though Saul had David had failed so badly, this verse I wanted to share this verse about David. And I want each one of us to remember this verse. Even though he's he failed so bad 38:14 it says here one of the last things that he said 2 Samuel 23. I'm sorry. Second Samuel 21. Second Samuel 21 verse 1, it says he's noticed that there was a famine for 3 years 38:33 and then listen to this. Even though he had failed, he had sinned, he had done so much evil, he had been forgiven by the Lord. And he had the courage to go to the Lord and say, it says David sought the presence of the Lord. 38:52 And the Lord said to him, he sought God's presence even though he had failed so much and each one of us may have failed in so many different ways. But today is a day where we can go to the Lord and say, "Lord, I failed so 39:06 much, but I want to come to your presence, Lord, today. And I want to hear your voice, Lord. I want to hear your voice. No matter how I failed in the past, Lord, I want to come to you today. I want to meet with you." I did want to say I have a story 39:26 a story about a daisy. A man had a garden and the garden had many trees. And each One day he came to the garden all the trees were sad. They were crying and whining. The first tree he went to was an oak and 39:46 he asked the oak, "Hey, why are you so sad?" And he said, "I'm not like the pine. The pine is so tall and everybody can look up to it. I'm kind of short and strong, but I want to be like that 40:03 pine tree." And then the gardener went to the pine tree. Said to the pine tree, "Hey, pine tree, why are you sad?" And the pine tree said, "You know what? I don't produce any fruit. 40:22 I just have pine cones. I want to I want to produce fruit like the vine. The vine has grapes and all of that. I want to be like the vine. Now, as the gardener is going through all of these different plants, he goes and finds this daisy. 40:39 And he asked the daisy, "Hey daisy, all of the other trees and plants are crying. What about you? Why are you so happy?" And the daisy said, "Gardener, I know if you wanted an oak to be planted here or a pine to be 40:58 planted here or a vine to be planted here, you would have done that. But because you planted a daisy here, I know that the gardener, you the gardener, wanted a daisy here. You didn't want an oak here, you didn't want a pine here, you didn't want a vine 41:16 here. You wanted a daisy. And even though I'm small, I'm going to I was determined to be the best daisy I can be. Why do I tell that story? Because the daisy knew that God had a 41:34 plan for that daisy. Each of you, each of us, has a plan. In God's In God's purpose, he has a plan for us. Whether it's an oak or a vine or In his garden, he has a plan for each one of us. And whatever he's planted us as, whether 41:51 it's a daisy or a vine, he's pleased with us. He's pleased to make us a daisy or a vine. And he wants us to be content in how he's made us and to fulfill that purpose for which he made us. And it says in in in 42:10 1 Corinthians 2 12, it says When God put together this body his church and gave gifts to each one he decided what gifts to give them, whether it's a daisy or whether it's a vine or whether it's a pine 42:29 you can turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12 Verse 11, but one and the same spirit works 1 Corinthians 12:11, but one and 42:49 the same spirit works all things distributing to each one individually just as he wills. Whatever he wants each person to have a gift in the church he does that. And so I wanted to share just that final question, the question that 43:06 Jesus asked me, what do you seek? For me I found what I sought in Jesus. Even though I didn't go to the Mount of Transfiguration, even though I didn't see Jairus' daughter be raised from the dead, even though that that was 43:22 not the plan he had for me that was for my brother James and and John and I was content. I learned to be content in who God made me. And my longing is just like we heard 43:40 to seek his face. Jesus asked what do you seek? Lord, I want to just seek your face. I had the privilege of seeing Jesus and hearing Jesus first hand. But Jesus said, blessed are you who have not seen and yet believe. So 43:55 each one of you are more blessed because even though you can't hear him audibly like I did you can hear him speak to your conscience, show you when something you're doing is wrong. Speak to you through his word. Speak to 44:11 you through a prophetic word. Long for that. Long for that. And if there's anything that's hindering you from hearing his voice, repent of it. Repent of it. Set it right. There's nothing worth coming between you and his voice. Nothing worth 44:27 coming between you and seeing his face. And understand the immense love he has for you. When I pondered about that walk of 40 miles to go and meet with that one lady, Jesus has done so much more for us. 44:45 Who he's died on the cross. On that day on the garden of Gethsemane, he sweat drops of blood in great agony. For who? For me and you. Each one of us, he sweat 45:03 great great drops of blood. Why? He could have easily asked that legion of angels come, but he didn't. He was forsaken by the Father so that we would never have to be forsaken by the Father. For 3 hours on the cross, he was 45:20 completely separated. He was completely forsaken of the Father. So that we, each one of us, would never have to face that for ourselves. And so, even today I say, "What do you seek for?" Do you seek for a reputation? Do you 45:36 seek for something? Or do you seek for this one who's done so much and lavished so much love on us? I pray that the Lord will help us to seek that one thing. Seek him alone. 45:55 You have made known to me the path of life. And in your presence is fullness of joy. May the Lord help us. Amen.
