Throop Church of God Podcast
Throop Church of God Podcast
Prison
Father, god, we thank you for tonight. We thank you for your love and your mercy and thank you for the lesson tonight and we pray God that it would resonate in our hearts and that God it would find a good place in our spirit. In Christ's name, amen. I'm reading a book Well, I read a lot of books, but I'm reading a book by a guy by the name of Can you get that door, fred? By the name of Bob Sorge, and I've read just about every book that Bob Sorge has written.
Speaker 1:And Bob Sorge used to be a worship leader and a pastor in upstate New York, here and shh in upstate New York, and for 20 years. And then he had a nodule on his vocal cords and they said that with laser surgery they could clear that up immediately. Well, he had laser surgery on his vocal cords and what happened was he lost his voice. He can only whisper. I've heard him speak. He can only whisper. I've heard him speak, he can only whisper. And it was a very dark moment for him because he was really a great leader. He was a very well-known and he still is a very well-known minister and writer and his whole world changed. His whole world went like crazy, and he had to resign from the church, of course, and so on, and he's written a ton of books, and so the book that I'm reading right now is called the Secrets of the Secret Place by Bob Sorge, and so I want to talk about this thing about confinement and about prison. So I want to talk about this thing about confinement and about prison, and I think it's an interesting observation what we're going to talk about here tonight.
Speaker 1:I want to read a few scriptures from first Acts 28, 17. It says Jewish leaders and he said to them brothers, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Roman government, even though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors. So here's Paul, arrested. He becomes a prisoner. In Ephesians 3.1, it says when I think of all this, I, paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the benefit of you, gentiles, get that door. Where are the kids going? Okay, thanks. In Ephesians 4.1, it says, therefore, I a prisoner for serving the Lord. Again, he uses the word prisoner. In Philemon 1.1, it says this letter is from Paul, a prisoner for preaching the good news. In Philemon, chapter 1, verse 9, it says this but because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you, consider this as a request from me Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner, for the sake of Christ Jesus. So in these verses, paul is either in prison or he calls himself a prisoner of Christ, a slave for the Lord.
Speaker 1:So I go to the book of Revelation, and I go to Revelation, chapter 1, and I want to read verses 9 through 11. It says I, john, this is John. This disciple, 96 years old, who was also your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos. It was an island for the word of God, for preaching and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. He said in verse 10, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia Ephesus, smyrna, pergamos, thyatira, sardis, philadelphia and Laodicea. Now, what did John receive on the Isle of Patmos?
Speaker 1:Well, it tells us in Revelation, chapter 1, verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ. So we get the book of Revelation from a man that's imprisoned on an island, and so you would say man, why would God allow this? Why does God allow what he allows in our life sometimes? Okay, and so this is what we want to talk about here tonight. So I want you to go to your notes and I don't usually like to really copy other people's works, but for the study tonight, let's look at this the secret of confinement Is confinement good or bad? Is being in prison, physically or emotionally, good or bad? And so it says, like John the prisoner, you may find yourself in a place of restriction, and I want to stop right there.
Speaker 1:A place of restriction, you know, solomon told us in the book of Ecclesiastes and some of you will be looking forward to this and maybe not looking forward to is not a good word he says when you get older, you'll lose your molars, your eyesight begins to dim, your body begins to lean and you don't sleep much. You won't have a lot of sleep when you go to bed at night. And this happens when you get older. Okay, people get their moles pulled out, their eyesight begins to dim, their body begins to lean, which means you have issues with your back and all that, and you don't sleep a lot. The Bible says Solomon said you hear the birds earlier than a lot of people in the morning. And so this is restriction, okay. And when you get older you can't do the things that you used to do when you were 20 or 30. You like to think you can, we all like to think that, but we can't, and so you have to use wisdom. So when Bob Sawyer used the word restriction, it really resonated with me. And it says and they be feeling the emotions that accompany imprisonment and confinement.
Speaker 1:Now we've all seen people who are either disabled, people who are confined to their homes, and they have a lot of emotion. I mean, you go visit some people in a nursing home. You know there's a lot of emotion. You know, because the one thing that older people do not want to lose is their independence. That's why people want to stay in their home. They don't want to go to a nursing facility, they don't want to go to a care facility, they want to be in their home with their family. It's very important to a person because once you lose your independence, you lose your identity. All of a sudden, someone else is taking care of you. All of a sudden you're at the beck and call of other people, and sometimes they're not very good at taking care of people. That's just the way it is. There's a lot less people working in the system.
Speaker 1:So feelings such as now we've all experienced this, okay Especially like we've all been sick. We've all either had COVID or we've had illnesses or things that have confined us to bed, okay, and so the one thing that we think of is well, why does God allow this? Why am I sick? Why doesn't God just heal me? Okay, because there's a purpose. God didn't send the sickness, but he allows it in our life and if we use it for the benefit of God, it can prosper us. So it says here that feelings of hopelessness, uselessness you ever feel that when you just, you don't have it. You're down, you're sick, you're in bed, you feel useless. Despair, abandonment, rejection, reproach, perplexity, loneliness, vulnerability and boredom. All of these emotions take place, a lot of them, when you're confined. When you're confined either physically, because of a physical illness, but I want you to also think of emotion. I want you to think of how many people are a prisoner of their own emotions.
Speaker 1:Emotional prisons is a very tough prison to get out of. It's very hard for people to escape that prison because they feel a lot of these adjectives hopelessness, uselessness, despair, abandonment, rejection. That's why people get on the ledge. That's why people are way out there sometimes and they're hard to rescue. And it's very, very disheartening to see a person lose hope and then decide, well, my life doesn't count. This is what these people are experiencing, and any of you have ever been to trainings for suicide training. The one thing that you always have to give a person that's on the ledge is hope. You got to give them hope. You can give them everything else in the whole world. You can say I'll give you a million dollars if you don't jump or hurt yourself or kill yourself, but what that person needs is hope because they're feeling these emotions. They're feeling this, and people feel this when they get physically ill. And people feel this when they're in an emotional prison. They don't know how to express themselves, okay, and so on. So look what it says next.
Speaker 1:With such a host of emotions assaulting the prisoner's equilibrium, it's challenging to maintain an unswerving confidence in the secret of this chapter. Listen to what he says now, when you're confined, now, this is hard for us to accept. Sometimes, when you're confined, god is closer than you realize. Think about that. Now you're saying to me well, man, I've been sick and I don't know. I didn't feel God real close to me and I've had, and we've all been through, traumatic experiences Everyone in this room, we've all been out there and accidents, different things that have happened to us and we weren't really thinking that well, god is really with me right now. All we were thinking about is survival. You know how am I going to crawl out of this hole? Okay, so he says the Lord assures the afflicted soul I will be with him in trouble. So what's that saying to me? This is what it's saying to me. It's saying that, no matter what I'm going through, physically or emotionally, okay, whether I'm stuck or moving forward or whatever.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in Psalm 91 and 15, okay, and I'm going to read verses 14 through 16. It says this Therefore, will I deliver him? I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him with long life. Will I satisfy him and show him my salvation? So what does God see when we read this verse here, when I read Psalm 91, 14,. It says this because he has set his love upon me, because we, as Christians, set our love upon God. He says, therefore, I will deliver him or deliver her, whatever the situation that you're in physically or emotionally, or spiritually, ok. And he says I will set him on high. Now, this is the hope that God wants to give us when we're down and out, when things aren't going the way we're expecting. And he says because he has known my name, we know his name. Okay, he shall call upon me, and that's what we do, and I will answer him. That's a promise. I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
Speaker 1:Being in prison is a confinement. And what is a confinement? It's a quarantine, it's an incarceration. If you're in a physical prison, like in Auburn, it's a detention, it's a captivity, it's a limitation, it's a restriction, it's a restraint or a boundary. So you're saying Pastor, wait a minute, try to bring this together for a minute. You're telling me, like when I'm sick, ok, I'm in quarantine, I'm incarcerated, I can't go to work, I can't do what I want to do, I can't take care of my family, I can't make a living, I can't drive my car, I'm too weak, I'm too tired, I'm too dizzy, I'm on medication, okay, and you're under restriction and restraint.
Speaker 1:A lot of people are experiencing this all the time. Emotionally, they're in confinement, and it's our job as Christians to help each other out of that confinement. I don't care who you are in this room. We all have emotional roadblocks. We all have things that keep us from going across the line, breaking the boundaries, talking to people, being transparent, being open or whatever you want to call it. We all have these limitations and they're confinements, and it's like we're in quarantine emotionally and God wants to break us out, because the Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.
Speaker 1:God wants to give us freedom to express ourselves. He wants to give us a freedom to have relationship with each other, to know each other, without feeling like well, if you get to know me, maybe you won't like me. Well, if you look at me long enough, there's going to be some things you're not going to like, because I'm a human being, same with you. If I look at you long enough and I'm looking at the negative all the time, I'm going to find something that probably I don't like okay, and that's probably something in my own life that I'm projecting on you, that I see in you. That's what happens a lot.
Speaker 1:When we don't like something in another person, it's usually a projection of it's something that you don't like about yourself. So you put it on the other person and say I don't like that person because they're like this. But if you look at it this way, you're probably experiencing that yourself and you project it out on some other human being. So look what it says here when you're confined, bob Sword says God is closer than you realize. When you're confined, bob Sword says God is closer than you realize. And this is what we have to remember. We have to remember that God is with us, okay? So he says in the next paragraph the Lord assures the afflicted soul I will be with him. When you're troubled by circumstances that twist and squeeze your soul, that's when the Lord draws especially close and stands with you.
Speaker 1:Here's where a lot of people miss out. We don't really ask God to come to us on our sickbed. We don't ask God to come to us when we're in an emotional standstill and we try to toughen it out. We try to say, well, I'll get over this and I'll push through this and I don't have to be vocal or verbal, I don't have to give my heart to someone else and share friendship, and this is what the Lord's saying that God wants to come, okay, and draw close to us, especially in those moments and it's moments of fear, it's moments of, you know, trepidation, it's moments of I don't know if I can even talk in a group or whatever. Okay, so he said.
Speaker 1:David said of the Lord, he made darkness his secret place. I really like this. Okay, because I look at Psalm 91, 14 and 15, I just read to you because his love is upon me. He says in Psalm 18 and 11, he made darkness his secret place. I'm reading from the scriptures now His canopy around him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before him, his thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire. What does all this mean? It means this the Lord thundered from heaven and the Most High uttered his voice hailstones and coals of fire. So to put that in perspective, which it sounds like a conglomeration of words, in the easy version, it says this he made darkness his covering, his canopy around him thick clouds, dark with water. It means God is in this darkness, out of the brightness, out of the brightness, his brightness. Before him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds. The Lord also thundered in the heavens and the Most High uttered his voice, and hailstones and coals of fire. What this is saying to me is this.
Speaker 1:This is what Bob Sorge writes when the lights go out and you're plunged into emotional darkness and we've all been there you're actually being invited into God's secret place. He meets with his beloved elect in the darkest places of life. It's in those dark places that God wants to burst and I look at the word that says hailstorms and coals of fire that he wants to burst the enemy out of us. He wants to burst those things that are not in agreement with him, whether it's from the outside or the inside of us, and he wants to shine his brightness upon us, even in our dark moments. And this is what people fail to realize, because that's when people give up. When they go through a dark period, depression, they go through this moment where they think nobody loves them. They feel rejected, abandoned. And these are real, experienced emotions. These are not made-up emotions. People actually go through this. We all go through this, okay, and we imagine that no one cares, no one is interested, no one sees what I'm going through. But God does, if no one else does. Okay, out of his darkness. The Bible says he surrounded himself in darkness. Says he surrounded himself in darkness, he will send the hailstones and the coals of fire to obliterate all those things that are impeding our progress in him and shine his brightness upon us. To me, that's a wonderful promise that God has made to us. Okay, you follow so far what the Lord is saying, so go to the next paragraph.
Speaker 1:The Lord's prison is generally characterized by social isolation and loneliness, and that's true. When you're going through a hard time, there's not many people knocking on your door. When you're going through moments of depression, doubt, unbelief, and we all go there, whether we like to admit it or not. When we all go through moments of loneliness, okay, we say why is God allowing this? God does allow these moments of confinement for a reason to show himself. He allows it. And people say well, why does God let me go through this? I want to pray this away. And God's saying don't pray it away, invite me into it, invite me into your darkness, invite me into it, invite me into your darkness, invite me into your emotional turmoil, invite me into your life, where you have no answers right now for the things that are going on in your life. This is what the Lord's saying. And he said I'll shine brightness upon you and I'll send the hailstones and the coals of fire and I'll obliterate those things that are trying to get in your way and interfering with your life. This is what the Lord's saying. Okay, get in your way and interfering with your life. This is what the Lord's saying. Okay.
Speaker 1:So he says friends drift away. We've all had that, haven't we? How many could say at this table I used to have a best friend, but I don't see the best friend anymore. What happened? I didn't do anything, you didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything wrong. What happened? I became a Christian, I went to church, and I went to church and I read my Bible, and that's an indictment for some people. So friends drift away and relationships that were once strong and meaningful become distant or estranged. You know what happens to us when that happens. We give up. We say, well, if my best friend ditches me, who's to say that this person's not going to ditch me? How about this one? I mean, we've been all in church and we've all had best friends in church and they've ditched us at times. Okay, so what Bob Sorge is saying is that this is going to happen.
Speaker 1:Your ability to function is curtailed. Hey, once your best friend is not your best friend anymore, once that person that was your soulmate or that person that you really confided in is not there anymore, you're curtailed, you're limited. Now, okay, because you have no one to talk to, you have no one to share your heart with, you have no one to share your pain with. Okay. So it says your ability to function is curtailed and you find no joy in the small amount of movement your chains allow. It's kind of like you're in prison. You've got the shackles on your feet, okay, and you've got the handcuffs and you're kind of shuffling. You ever see a prisoner go into a police car and they're shuffling. And that's the way we get sometimes emotionally, okay, when people ditch us or reject us. And that's the way we get sometimes physically, when we're sick, because we got shackles on, we can't get out of bed and go to the gym and we can't work out and we can't eat what we want. Food is not interesting to us Nothing that is appealing to us, and so on.
Speaker 1:Okay, so then it says, even though you may feel abandoned, however, this confinement listen to what it says now has been orchestrated by your lover, and that's Christ. Now, I know that this is hard to accept sometimes, and I'm saying this as a pastor. How is God orchestrating this? There's meaning to all this. I mean, my steps are really ordered by the Lord.
Speaker 1:Even when I'm looking at chaos in front of me, even when I'm looking at confusion, even when I'm looking at I have of me. Even when I'm looking at confusion, even when I'm looking at, I have no clue what you're doing. Have you ever said that you ever look up to heaven and say I'm not fighting with you, but I have no clue what you're doing at this moment. I have no roadmap, I have no blueprint, I have no compass. Spiritually, all I know is to go forward, and that's what God's requiring at those moments, because there's not much you can do.
Speaker 1:Okay, but here's what happens to a lot of people they become bitter and hard and blame God for the situation that they're in, and they become having a controversy with God and say you could have prevented this, you could have stopped this. You could not have allowed this in my life. And God is saying you're missing the whole point of confinement, you're missing the whole point of what I'm trying to do. I'm coming to you, I haven't left you, I'm here. Okay, your heavenly husband, that's Christ, has allured you into the wilderness. Hosea 2.14,. It says therefore, behold, I will allure her, I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. Now, wait a minute.
Speaker 1:Don't you remember when Jesus was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights? The Bible says that the Holy Spirit brought him into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Why? Because he had to experience exactly what you experience at times when you're physically sick or emotionally ill, when you can't function the way you want to function. So there's no excuse that. Oh, jesus doesn't know how I feel. He felt all of our infirmities, he felt all of our emotions, but he didn't sin. That's the big point. But he was lured into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and he fought the beast, the Bible says, and Satan who was trying to tempt him to all these different things. Okay, and so it says here, your heavenly father has lured you into the wilderness. He will comfort you with his presence and renew your delight in his goodness.
Speaker 1:So I'm reading the easy version and I want to read this to you. So I want you to think the last time you were really out there emotionally, physically, I mean you were distraught, depressed. I don't know what's going on. God, I don't want to have an argument with you, but I'm reading Hosea, chapter 2, verse 14 through 16. It says this but then I will win her back once again. That's us. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. Lead us where? Into the desert.
Speaker 1:In verse 15, it says I'll return her vineyards to her. Wow, that means God wants to bless me and transform the valley of trouble into a gateway of hope. Man, she will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from captivity in Egypt. When the day comes, says the Lord, you will call me my husband instead of my master. What is the Lord saying here? Through the prophet Hosea? He's saying he lures us into the wilderness on purpose.
Speaker 1:You can't stop it, you can't prevent it. There's certain things that have to happen to us. Ok, because that's God's will, the circumstances that he brings into our life, but it's not the end. And that's where people miss out. They think, oh man, I'm done, I'm not going to serve God, I'm not going to come to church, no more, I'm mad at God, I hate the pastor, I hate the people in the church. Prayers are not working and they go through this big tantrum and they bail and they bail and little by little they fail in their faith. And once you fail in your faith, it's hard for God to lure you back because he has nothing to work with.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when you look at this verse here, god says listen, though you're physically ill on your bed and you can't move, although you're in emotional prison and you can't bust out because of whatever the way you're feeling, god says I want to come in your valley of trouble and I want to comfort you, I want to take care of you. We have to look at the Lord as the husband tending to the wife, as the man tending to the woman. This is what God is saying here. We're the bride, we're the wife, he's the husband, he's the bridegroom and he wants to take care. Any man who doesn't want to take care of his wife is not in a good place spiritually with God, his prayers will not get answered. I don't care. You could look at this Bible, you could read this Bible. I can show you scriptures. God is not pleased with that person. Okay, this is a commitment that God is making to us. This is a marital commitment. This is a lifetime commitment that God is saying I got you, I have you. And it's the same like in marriage.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we have difficulties and people are tempted to part, they're tempted to separate, they're tempted to go their different ways Because they say it's irreconcilable differences. No, wait a minute. It's your choices that make it irreconcilable differences. If we're Christians, if we're Christians and two Christians are married, those two Christians should be able to sit down, either together or with proper counseling, and work out their differences that they say are irreconcilable. When God says I want to come into your valley of trouble and I want to comfort you and I want to lure you back to what I put together, this is the beauty of the Lord and this is what people miss out in marriage. They miss out. We settle, we settle. There's no reason to settle, we can't settle.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's either going to be what God says to do or we're going to be in the wilderness and he's not going to rescue us because we're telling him I don't want to be rescued because I don't want to go buy your book. And God has a legal document here. He has to go buy the book. He cannot abandon the word, he cannot go outside the legal scope of the word of God. So Bob Sword says look at the next paragraph.
Speaker 1:He says initially you won't understand why he's brought you into this lonely, aimless wilderness. Have we all been there? Haven't we all been in a lonely, aimless wilderness? We have. You know, haven't you ever got in your vehicle and just drove around? Just drove, thinking? Maybe if I take a drive in the country, maybe if I stop at the coffee shop and just sit there and just have coffee, and maybe this will blow over. Maybe if I go work out, maybe if I go work and do a job, maybe that'll help. But when you come back to yourself, it's still there and God is still saying I'm trying to lure you. And this is the beauty that people miss, because they get really disappointed in God. And how many people have you know? You've heard through the years I'm mad at God and he's not doing it. And why is this happening to me and all this other stuff, and they get beside themselves and they don't recover and it's sad. So he says initially you won't understand.
Speaker 1:Perplexity makes us desperate to understand when you're perplexed. What does it mean to be perplexed? You're confused, you don't have an answer. You may have asked three or four people for an answer and they came up short. It's like they don't have an answer for you. Okay, and sometimes God allows that. So we seek him. Okay, so it says here. In the next it says he'll use the perplexity to motivate you to seek him with wholehearted abandonment.
Speaker 1:Look, I can look back on my life and I'm not saying that I would like to relive those very, very difficult moments that happened to me. I don't, but I could tell you that it was those moments when we didn't give up, when we dug in my wife and I dug in and we sought the Lord and it was hard to see God in darkness. Sometimes it was hard when we didn't have the answer right before us. It was hard when the answer was months and months away or years away. It was hard, it was difficult. Okay, but we made a commitment. We made a commitment to one another to stick together spiritually. That's, our whole marriage is based on the Bible. Our whole marriage is based on a spiritual foundation.
Speaker 1:People say what's your success of being married almost 50 years? It's really simple. Based on that, you will not lose. I will tell you, you will not lose if you base your life and your relationship with a man or a woman on this book. You will not lose If both people agree to the covenant of marriage and the covenant of this book. You will not lose. It's impossible Because the Bible says that.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what happens? You know? I look back, but those were the moments that we prayed, we fasted, we sought God in tears, sometimes in terror, sometimes in fear, sometimes just trying to put one step in front of the other, and eventually, the brightness of the Lord, the darkness began to disappear and God lured us and we grew. We grew spiritually because the only source we had was the Word of God, and the Word of God was our lifeline. This was it. You know, this was the final answer that we could go to, that God would bring nourishment to us. Okay.
Speaker 1:So he says and what he wanted all along? That you run hard after him. He had to allure you into the wilderness to unlock your such eager love. He intends to use the loneliest time of your life. Listen to this now. He intends to use the loneliest time of your life to ignite a depth of intimacy you've never known before. I truly believe that's where God is trying to bring the church. I truly believe he's luring us and he's allowing us to feel loneliness. Okay, he allows us to feel abandonment. He allows us to feel like there's no answer, there's no way out. He allows us to feel that, but if we keep put one foot in front of the other, he will reveal Himself. Okay.
Speaker 1:So he goes into the next paragraph and he says before, you were too busy to find it. And that's the problem with people. Okay, they go through an emotional block. Okay, especially, or spiritual hindrance or or standstill, and what they do is they stay busy to try to get it out of their life. If I just stay busy and you hear people say that if I just stay busy, it'll go away, if I just stay busy, I'll be able to not think about it. If I just stay busy, it won't bother me as much. But you know when it bothers you. When you lay your head down on the pillow, that's when it starts to bother you Because you're not busy.
Speaker 1:Now God's got you confined for a number of hours because human bodies have to sleep. Sometimes you might not sleep a whole eight hours, but you got to go to bed. Sometimes you can't stay up, so God puts you in this confinement, on this bed. Okay, it's like a corpse, it's like a coffin. And he's got you there and you're not busy. Now You're not working, You're not doing, you're not trying to forget.
Speaker 1:And now you're thinking. And what's God saying to you? God's saying think about me, think about what I could do for you. Let me come into your life right now, on your bed. Let me come in when you're not busy. Listen to what he says. Before you were too busy to find it, before other fountains had nurtured your soul. What does that mean? Other fountains, oh, other things that you desire to do. Oh, if I do this, this will make me happy. If I go buy a car, this will make me happy. If I go shopping and buy a new dress, that'll make me happy. Only for a moment, only for a season, only for a split second. And then, when you walk out the store, you say wasn't such a big deal, I don't really care about the dress anymore. I'm probably going to return it. You know he just bought it out of to do something okay. And he says this he dries up every other fountain that has nurtured your soul.
Speaker 1:Sometimes he takes away things from us that make us busy, that take up our time, that make us not think about him, and he removes them. And we get mad when God removes those crutches, when God removes those things that we depend on. Why are you? Why? Why is my friend not coming around? Why is my wife not understanding me? Why is my husband not getting it? Why? And we look at sometimes the people that we love and we want to shake them. Because you don't get it, do you? And they get mad. But God puts them in that place for a reason Because he's trying to say I want your undivided attention. He can't help you right now. She can't help you right now. He can't help you right now. The church can't help you right now, and the only one that can help you right now, she can't help you right now. He can't help you right now. The church can't help you right now, and the only one that can help you right now is your husband, and that's Jesus.
Speaker 1:I mean, when you come, when you're reduced to that, you become humble. You say to yourself man, what does it say here? When he becomes the only fountain of your soul, you will whisper through your tears all my springs are in you. Now, what does that mean? Let me give you two different versions. It says in Psalm 87 and 7, okay, as well the singers as the players on the instruments shall be there. Okay, worship, all my springs are in there. What does that mean? It says this all my springs, which means my sources of life and joy, are in you, lord, all my springs, whatever hope that I have. When no one else understands me, when there's no seemingly solution to the problems, okay, you can always depend on Psalm 87 and 7. That says my sources of life and joy are in you.
Speaker 1:And that's where people miss it, because they discard God, they push him out, because they say you don't care, you don't care, you took this away from me. You took that fountain away from me. You took that away from me. You know, even David said even pleasant bread doesn't even please me. You ever get to that point where nothing you eat satisfies. You ever get to that point where nothing you eat satisfies. You ever get to that point you eat this, you eat that, you eat that, you try this, you try that. And here's what you say Nothing's making it, nothing's getting there, nothing's pleasing. God takes those things away from us for a moment of time because he's saying listen, forget about those fountains, forget about that snack, forget about that right now, forget about going and doing this and doing that and trying to evade the situation, trying to escape, because I am your source of life and joy. And that's what we miss out. We don't really respond to that. Okay, so look at the next, and I love this.
Speaker 1:I love Bob Sawyer's writings. He says you used to be energized by projects. This resonates especially with men. Now you're energized by a person. You know what gives people meaning. They think projects. You ever hear people I got to get another project, I got to get another project. I got to get another project. And what are you getting another project for? What are you trying to forget? I'm not saying that every time we want to get a project we want to forget, but a lot of times, it's true, we don't want to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Okay, listen, when you're in the house and the stress gets on you in the house. All you want to do in the summer is go out to your shop, go out to your barn, get on your tractor and go mow grass. For two hours, no phones, nobody telling you what to do, nobody giving you this or giving you that, blah, blah, blah. No responsibility. All I'm doing is I'm mowing grass, isn't it true? If you're a man, if you're a man, I've never wanted to mow the grass. Okay, what do women do? What do women do to try to deal with when you don't want to deal with stuff? I go take a shower Okay, a really long, hot shower. Okay, go read, go read Sometimes. Go to the coffee shop I do that. I'll sit in Dunkin' Donuts for half an hour or 45 minutes.
Speaker 1:People think you're crazy. I just watch the world go by. I have a cup of coffee and something to eat and I just watch the world go by, because I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to deal with problems my problems, your problems, anybody's problems. I don't want to deal with any of it Because today, right now, the office is closed for an hour. Okay, that's just the way you feel and it sounds crazy. Okay, so God says here George is saying this you used to be energized by projects and when you get older, you're not so up on diving into a project.
Speaker 1:You don't have the time, you don't have the energy, you may not have the talent, you may not have the physical capability, you just don't feel that good to start climbing on a roof or doing this or doing that. Okay. But when you get older and when you get between a rock and a hard place, you start to get energized by Christ and you say God, what do I really need? Am I using this for an escape? Am I using this as a stress reducer, which is okay? But when we start evading Christ, especially when it comes to our internal turmoil, we are now doing a project instead of being energized by a person who is Christ. Do you get that? This is a very important point. This sort of resonated with me. Okay. So he says this in the next paragraph.
Speaker 1:David spoke of the intimacy of the prison. Okay, he says you have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it Now. Psalm 139 is an interesting Psalm and these are interesting verses. Let me read a few different versions.
Speaker 1:David was held up, especially at the cave of Adullam. He was always running from Saul. For years Saul tried to kill him numerous times. The king and David always respected the office of the king and he never wanted to hurt King Saul. He could have killed him different times, king Saul. He could have killed him different times. But he says touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm. David knew his place in the Lord and David resigned himself to say God will take care of King Saul. I can't take care of King Saul. I cannot have revenge. Okay, but he spoke about the intimacy of prison. Okay, because he was always on the run or living in a cave.
Speaker 1:And in Psalm 139 and 5, it says You've hedged me behind and before and you laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? In the ESV version, verse 5 says this you hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. In the HCSB version it says you have encircled me, you have placed your hand on me. And in the NLT version it says you go before me and follow me, you place your hand of blessing on my head.
Speaker 1:So what was David saying? Even though I'm confined, even though I'm in a prison, so to speak, even though I'm living in a cave, and now I've got 400 guys coming toward me from Saul's army that are disgruntled, depressed, in debt, all of a sudden David's living in the cave, basically by himself, and now he's got 400 visitors from King Saul's army that are defecting and saying you need to take care of us and you need to help us, and you are now our general. And David was looking at him saying oh God, you got a sense of humor. It's like you, serious, I'm trying to take care of myself. Man, I'm in this cave by myself in a duel, and it's dark, it's dungy, it's damp. Dark, it's dungy, it's damp, it's like it's depressing. And now I got 400 people here at my door. And what are you expecting of me? God says this is for you, it's for your good.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, it's kind of like when that family comes that you weren't expecting at the last minute, and the house is not clean, and your wife is saying we got to get this house in order. You know, family's coming. It's like we got to get ready a month before because everything's got to be spick and span. But when those unexpected guests come and they're at your doorstep, it's Uncle Harry and it's Aunt Millie. What, where did you come from? We just decided to take a ride from Wisconsin to visit you. Really, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker 1:And you go in the back room and you say to your wife do you know who's here, uncle harry and aunt millie, who I don't even know who they are. Oh, they looked us up when they found where we live and they're now on our doorstep and they want to spend a couple of weeks with us because they want to see the area. Kind of reminds you of that film, christmas vacation. You know when the cousin comes and he says I'm going to spend a couple of few months with you, and then he pulls out the list for Christmas and he pulls out the, he goes to the store and puts all the dog food in the thing there and he says you got to be kidding me. And he goes to his wife and he says do you know who's here, my cousin? He's on a trail with these bratty little kids that look like they didn't take a bath for a year and they're at my doorstep. What do I do with these people? You know so. You know, and sometimes this happens to us.
Speaker 1:But here's what the Lord's saying. He's saying listen, david was saying man, I'm between a rock and a hard place. And, god, this is what the Lord had him write. You have encircled me with all these guys. Okay, you're behind me and before me and you want to place your hand of blessing on my head and listen, the blessing did come to David. He did become king eventually, and he made those 400 men into warriors. They become some of the greatest soldiers in the word of God. They became some of the fiercest conquerors for the Lord. Okay, because they were trained by the best. David was the best general we have in the Old Testament. He was the man. He knew how to fight. He fought the bear, he fought the lion, he fought Goliath. This guy had a resume, okay, and then he becomes king. Before he becomes king, he's training all these people. He knows how to fight, he knows how to go to war, he knows how to defeat the enemy, he knows how to do all this, okay, and so he does that, okay. So look what it says here.
Speaker 1:Another image for this kind of closeness is found with the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon. She said it this way His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me. Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 3. She viewed the confinement as his loving embrace. Now I want to just say this about the Song of Solomon.
Speaker 1:You know, some people say that the Bible is dull. If you know how to read the Song of Solomon, it's about marriage and it's about sex and a lot of people never say that in church. Ok, the position of a man. Ok, god is saying when you go to bed Now, I'm talking about marriage right now. Ok, he says. She said his left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me. So where is the man lying? To the right of her, to the right of her? He's on the, he's here and she's there Because his left hand is under her head and his right hand is embracing her. That's the position of marriage in bed according to the book of Solomon. Song of Solomon. That's what it says. I'm not saying you have to do that, I'm just saying that's what I do. I go by the book, okay, and if you go by the book. It's a very interesting book to read because it really blows people's minds. Okay, when you have an open spirit to what God is saying. I'm not going to go into that teaching tonight, but it's beautiful. It's very, very beautiful and tender.
Speaker 1:This is the only woman that Solomon really loved. He had all these concubines by the hundreds. Okay, this was the only woman that he truly, truly loved and she loved him. This is the only one. All the others were sexual whatever's. You know notches on some guy's gun belt, on his gun belt, so to speak. You know well, I slept with her, slept with her, slept with her. Had all these women and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. There was only one woman in the Bible Song of Solomon was a Shulmite woman that he really loved. There was something about her. There was something about him that there was an attraction. Okay, listen to what it says here.
Speaker 1:Confinement positions us for an awakening. That is important, folks. When you're confined, okay, when you are down and out, when you have nowhere to turn, this is the position that God places you in for a spiritual awakening. This is when God wants to speak to us. This is when God wants to speak to us. This is when God wants to communicate to us. This is when God wants to get you on the top of your bed, when you put your head on the pillow and say now listen to me. You know, try this experiment. Sometimes you really.
Speaker 1:Let me just tell you from experience have you ever gone to bed and you might have been weary? You probably were Worked all day, maybe you were going through a hard time, Maybe you were in one of these wilderness experiences. Have you ever laid on top of your bed and said these words to God? God, what are you saying to me? And then stop talking and then listen in your spirit to a reply. What's God saying back to you?
Speaker 1:So you're going to ask the question okay, what are you saying? What do you want me to do? How do I maneuver out of this maze? And you just lay there quietly, because now God's got your attention. If you're focused, he's got you confined, he's got you in that spot. Now listen to what he's saying in your spirit. What's God really saying to you? Listen, I want to tell you, god knows. Now listen to what he's saying in your spirit. What's God really saying to you? Listen, I want to tell you, god knows how to speak to us on our bed. The Lord knows how to speak. I have been blessed so many times that way that God has spoke to me in what we call night visions. Okay, god has spoke words to me at night. Okay, just the other night.
Speaker 1:You know, every, every time Sunday is over, I have to think and start to meditate on oh, what am I going to preach next week? And here's my thought. And honestly, I'll tell you this I have no idea. I start from a blank page and it's really sort of frightening at times when you don't know where God wants you to go, because you want to give to the church what you believe God is saying to the church. I could preach many places in the Bible. I could open up the book and preach a lot of places. I preached thousands of sermons in my lifetime. I don't want to do that, okay.
Speaker 1:So my wife usually says to me, cause she knows me so did you get any words last night? Cause she knows that's how the Lord speaks to me when I'm on my bed, I'm not doing nothing. She knows that's how the Lord speaks to me when I'm on my bed, I'm not doing nothing, I'm in my sleep it's what we call a night vision or a dream and I said yes, I did. I said you know how I always fret about.
Speaker 1:One day comes and what am I going to preach? Because I have no idea. What are you going to do, lord? Am I going to get another sermon here? Is there going to be another sermon here? Is there going to be another sermon?
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden, my wife says to me so did you get a word? I said yes, I did, and I said what was the word? She said what was the word? And I said here's the word. We are waiting. Oh, she says that sounds exciting, and I don't try to tell my wife too much about what I'm preaching because I don't like to verbalize it out loud. Okay, I don't want to try to influence her songs that she's going to use. She really seeks God for that. But God's given me a message. If he wants me to speak it on Sunday, we are waiting. Three words, that's it.
Speaker 1:I went downstairs, got on my computer and said okay, where do we start? And the Lord showed me where to start. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I said thank you, that's a great start. Now I have to figure out in him. Okay, because I'm in confinement. I don't know which way I'm supposed to go from there, but I have a foundation. I know basically what the Lord is saying. I know basically the platform that he's given me, and this happens quite often. When you go to sleep, he'll give you a dream, he'll give you a word, okay, and so on and so forth. Okay. So prison look at the last paragraph on the first page.
Speaker 1:Prison isn't just about deepened intimacy, it's also about increased revelation. Don't you remember John on the Isle of Patmos? He said I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He was intimate with Christ, he had a relationship with the Lord. But what did he receive? Revelation. And this is what God wants to give us and this is what the church is missing. Okay, he wants to speak to us, not just to speak to us, but he wants to give us revelation. Haven't you ever get a word from the Lord? And you know that. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know that. You know that's God. I got to share it. How did you get it? It came into your spirit. It was revelation. He revealed it to you. That's what he did with John on the Isle of Patmos. He said John says I am on the Isle of Patmos, you're a brother in tribulation. He says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me the sound of a trumpet. The Lord was there. But what did the Lord give him?
Speaker 1:Two things intimacy, relationship and revelation. Because when you look at Revelation, chapter 1, verse 1, it says the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him. What did John receive on the Isle of Patmos? The book of Revelation. He saw the future of all those chapters. Why? Because he was intimate with God. He was confined, he was in prison, he was on an island to die. He was 96 years old. They tried to kill him before him boiling oil and it didn't work and they confined him to this isle to die. And they thought we're done with John. Now, no, no, you're not done with John, because the Lord visited him and the Lord gave him that revelation to share with the churches and to this day, share with us. And people are intrigued with the book of Revelation. Everybody wants to know the future, everybody wants to know what's going to happen. What's going to happen, and so on and so forth. So it says here prison isn't just about deepened intimacy, it's also about increased revelation.
Speaker 1:Jesus said whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. I love that. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What does that mean? Okay, it says this in the easy version what I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear. That resonates with me when God gives me a word, you know in my sleep. Okay, to preach a certain sermon. Okay, what God is saying, I'm whispering this in your ear. And now I want you to shout it from the housetops in the house of God and so on and so forth. And of course, we're blessed because electronically it goes out on YouTube, it goes out on podcasts and so on and so forth. So we're blessed in different ways to get the gospel out. So God is shouting it from the housetop. How does it start? With a whisper in your ear? And that's what people aren't waiting for.
Speaker 1:We're so busy doing projects, doing this, doing that. We're trying to drown ourselves out from the things that God is trying to speak to us about. We're trying to say I don't want to think about it. When you talk to people about their issues, I don't want to talk about it. Famous saying Men say that so much I don't want to talk about it. What they're really saying is I don't want to deal with it and I don't want God telling me what to do about it. That's a very dangerous place to be in. We have to allow God to speak to us. Okay.
Speaker 1:So he says in a dark prison you may be distracted because you can't see anything. Okay, but then you'll realize he turned out the lights so he could speak to you. Boy, that really resonates. He turned out the lights. You see, you can't work when it gets dark, so you close your doors, you shut the lights, you go to bed. Okay, but he turns out the lights so we can speak to you. Okay, in times of darkness you may hear God like never before. This is the time that God allures you out from the wilderness and he says just sit with me. He says in the Bible come and let us reason together.
Speaker 1:And people don't want to do that because people are afraid of God. People are afraid to approach God. People. They have this mysterious idea that, oh, I don't know if I could even talk to God, because you know he's God. Well, you're a child. Do you talk to your parent? Don't you talk to your dad or to your mom? Don't you want your children to talk to you as a parent? Absolutely Well, is it any different? God is our parent, he's Abba, father, it means Daddy. He wants us to come to Him and say hey, even if you say this, I don't really like what I'm going through. God's okay with that, believe it or not. I know you might look at me mysteriously If you read the Psalms.
Speaker 1:All through the Psalms, that's what David was saying. This stinks, this really stinks. I don't like it. God says that's okay, we can talk. He let him talk. And if you read the Psalms, his tears are in the Psalms, his emotions, his like. Why, why? Why are my enemies surrounding me? Why don't you cut them off? Why don't you get rid of these people? Why are my enemies surrounding me? Why don't you cut them off? Why don't you get rid of these people? Why are they bothering me and bugging me? All through the Psalms, it's David just crying out to God. Okay, and he's saying I want to just tell you how I feel, and that's what people are afraid to do. People are afraid to do that with each other. It's like if I tell you how I feel, maybe you won't like me. You know, sometimes, if you want to tell someone a problem that you're having, okay, people are embarrassed because, well, I won't tell them that, because they think that you never experienced that problem. But I want to tell you something. Problems are seasonal, problems are universal. Teenagers have acne For the most part. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:In your 20s, you go through a season You're a cowboy. In your 30s, in your 40s, you have these dreams. In your 30s, in your 40s, you start to pull back and sit in your chair and you say this to yourself as a man, especially as a man, I can talk as a man. I'm 43 years old. What have I accomplished? What am I doing? Look at all these other people. He's famous, he's rich, he's got a big house. This guy owns a business. Look at me. I go to work every day. I'm a common guy. Who am I? And we go through these things in our 40s and then in your 50s, in your 60s, in your 70s.
Speaker 1:There's all different seasons and we don't adapt to the season, because we don't allow God to allure us from that wilderness of that season that we're in and we stay stuck and we get mad and we stay busy because we're going to obliterate this and we're going to do this on our own because we got power. No, you don't. God is saying calm down, man. You just got to go through some stuff. You're not going to avoid it. It's going to happen to you. Women go through menopause. You're going to stop it. Are you going to stop it? Men go through menopause. You're going to stop it. Are you going to stop it? Men go through midlife crisis. Believe it or not, you think you're going to stop it. I'm going to hold on here and I'm not going to experience that. Oh, yes, you are going to experience that.
Speaker 1:Listen, I've talked to thousands of people. I've been in the trenches, in the counseling room, in the war room, with people and I've looked at people and they said to me have you known me? Has my wife talked to you? I said no, I just know the season that you're in, because I ask people their age that's what I do. I say well, how old are you? And I know when, I know an age of people. I know there's a spectrum, I know there's a continuous line. I know a lot of things that people go through in those ages and so I look at them and men have accused me of my wife talked to you, didn't she? I said God honest, my, your wife. I don't even have a conversation with your wife. I know she pushed you to come here. I know you. She had to drag you with a rope around your neck to come and talk to me, but that's okay, I'm glad we're talking. And then the guy turns around to me and he says it's like you know me. Yeah, I know you because I live that.
Speaker 1:I understand that it's like women who go through their issues. Men don't understand that. We try to. We try to get into that world. We try to. We try to get into that world. We try to get into their heads. You can't, it's impossible. But another woman, you put her with another woman and a cup of coffee, a pot of coffee, and I'm telling you they can solve the problems of the world. Why? Because women understand women, because they're women. They're women in a woman's body. Men are supposed to understand men, but the problem with men is we don't talk, we hide, we hide.
Speaker 1:I know this can't be happening to him. I know this can't be happening to him. Are you serious? I mean, look at the studies, man. I go by this stuff and I say I know what you're going through, man. And then, when you're explaining to them, how did you know? I know what you're going through, man, and then, when you're explaining to them, how did you know, buddy, I've been there and done that. I'm going to be 77 years old. I've been around the world here. What are you talking about? You think I don't know what's going on here. I've met thousands of people. I've talked to thousands of people, thousands of hours of counseling. I've been there. I've heard your story. Just a different face, that's all. It's just a different face and a different body. But I've seen you before. You have, yeah, in a different form, on a different person.
Speaker 1:Okay, don't be alarmed, don't be afraid. Okay, I used to have to tell people hey, you see that door there it's closed, it's just me, you and God. It's okay, it's not a big deal, don't be afraid, I'm not going to bite your head off. I'm here to help. I want to be a servant of the Lord, and so on. So let me finish here.
Speaker 1:Okay, it says this he may not talk about you what you want, see, we want God to say certain things to us, okay, but he'll talk about the things on his heart, okay, what he wants to communicate to you. If you'll listen in the darkness, you have something to say to your generation when the lights come back on. This is my hope. You know, I don't know how long God's got me on this earth. I have no idea if I'm gonna go by the grave or by rapture, I have no idea. Okay, but my goal is to leave something with other people. Okay, to leave something to my posterity, especially my grandchildren and the children of this church. Okay, so that they can remember that they heard the word of God here, that they were in a church that worshiped the Lord and loved God. They were in a church where people came together and got along and worked out their differences. This is what our posterity is about. Okay, it's not like in the world there where we're gonna hurt each other and shoot each other and go crazy.
Speaker 1:You know this kid that killed those children in the children's in a Christian school. Listen, she was a disturbed person. Came from a divorced family. Parents were married numerous times. I almost guarantee you that the child was probably on psychotropic meds. Okay, most of the school shootings 99.9% of them, these kids are on psychotropic meds.
Speaker 1:The child was in therapy, okay, and this anger, this block, this confinement, this prison that she found herself in. One day she woke up and exploded. One day she decided I'm going to do this and killed herself, okay, and killed other people, right, but it was in here. She was in a dark place, a very dark place, and she allowed that darkness to overtake her To the point where she decided I'm going to go kill people. And that was sort of like a spiritual orgasm. She got it out. She got it out. It was a release, but it was a bad release. It was a bad, bad experience for the children, for the teacher, for the families, for that school that will always be there every time they walk through the doors of that school, and for herself, because she took her life. What happened? She was in a place of confinement but was never allowed to come out of it, didn't know Jesus obviously I wouldn't think Was in therapy, wasn't able to get help.
Speaker 1:Her parents disappointed her, whatever her background. The little bit. We know about her. It's a sad story. But how many people do go postal? There's been almost 100 school shootings, okay, in America. Why? Children need help. Children need help.
Speaker 1:You got to listen. You got to listen to the cry of the human heart, especially a child. You've got to look at patterns. You've got to look at when patterns change. I try to tell this to parents. They say, hey, when my kid became 13 or 14, they changed. I say what kind of music are they listening to? What's got to do with it? What's being piped into their spirit Every day, every day, every day, every day. Listen, we used to listen to that stuff. Remember, we used to listen to that stuff. It's piped into our ears. I can remember. Okay, I can remember it's not good. We've got to get children on a different train. I want to close the Bible.
Speaker 1:The sword says are you in a prison of sorts? Just love him. Solomon said a friend loves at all times. Even when they don't understand his mysterious ways, his friends still love him. They love him through anything. In the quietness of your prison, your friendship with Jesus will grow.
Speaker 1:You'll agree that faithful are the wounds of a friend. Your friend loved you enough to wound you so he would woo you into an abiding relationship with him. Sometimes we have to get a wound from a friend. Okay, wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy. And sometimes, when people tell you the truth and you don't want to hear it, it's a wound but it's for your good and you can't. You can run away from it. You can ignore it. You can say I'm not going to accept that. Listen, I try to preach here every week. Okay, you can walk out that door and say I'm not going to do that, I'm not listening to that. You can let the unclean birds of Babylon, as soon as you walk out the door, pluck the word that you heard in this church for an hour and take it away from you. That's your choice. Okay, I've delivered what God wants me to deliver. It's up to you. Okay, god wants to woo us. He says here here's one of the secrets of darkness. He imprisons those he loves in order to awaken and mature their affections for him. Your wilderness is a secret place. Don't despise your chains. They're binding you to the heart of the one you love. Never waste a good prison sentence. Use the confinement to go deeper in God. And I want to close with this, and I told you the story before but I just want to get it on the recording A pastor in Rochester had a son that was a drug addict.
Speaker 1:There was other children in the home, three or four children. He told his son. He said listen, if you keep doing drugs, you're going to influence your siblings and I'm not going to allow that to happen. So I'm going to tell you, if you continue to take drugs, I will call the police, as your father and I will have you arrested and taken out of this home. Do you understand that? Well, he didn't understand it because he didn't think his dad would do it. His dad arrested, got him arrested. Listen carefully, I want to close.
Speaker 1:He went to Auburn Correctional Facility. He was there for a while. He went through the whole you know Jeff works there the process. A few months down the line his dad visits him Sitting in the visit room of Auburn Correctional Facility. He's looking across the table from his dad as a pastor of the church. He says, dad, that was the best thing you ever did for me for my life. And his dad said why, son? He said, dad, I really gave my life to the Lord and I'm teaching Bible study here. And he said what you did for me saved my life. Think about that and others. And that's the hardest thing that the father had to do. He was a pastor of a church, but he says I can't let you infect these other kids, it's not going to happen. I'm warning you, I'm telling you please stop. We'll get you help. I know where to get you help. I'm influential here in the city.
Speaker 1:He refused, but that turned out to be a good story because he used that prison confinement. God used it for his good to bring him back to the Lord. He wooed him in the wilderness, he lured him and he said son, I want to bless you. And, as Jen said, not only was he blessed, but he blessed other prisoners. So, father, we thank you. It's a good lesson tonight. I really enjoyed reading what we've read tonight and teaching, and I just pray God that others that will listen would get something out of it. And we're not alone. That's the whole message tonight. We're not alone and even in our dark moments, god lures us out of that wilderness to speak to our hearts. So, father, we thank you for this night and for the people that are here for the children for the play on Sunday. We ask your blessings upon it In Jesus' name. Amen, praise the Lord, hope you enjoyed.