I got it. The way you laugh tell
me not so.
I was preaching several years ago in another
church in Portland. I brought this up and
wanted the brother in the back. That's alright,
brother. We'll leave at noon and we'll come
back at dinner time and here to do
the rest of the sermon. So they can
sneak out. They know I can't hear them.
Right? But to Rob, correct. We were living
together. Matter of fact, I need to thank
him for 1 year we're taking Greek one.
I'm having a hard time with English, let
alone Greek.
And we had 6 guys in the house
living together, all going to Bible College. And
about halfway, because it's a whole year program
for Greek one, I was struggling.
And so, I told the rest of the
guy, I said, I'm out.
I couldn't have it was just too much.
And Rob and doctor Kennedy
and Neil Fleet would have said, no.
So together, we studied together and helped me
survive the second half.
Without them, I could not make it. Matter
of fact,
several of those guys were dating till I
called the girl, don't call us on Monday
because we're setting green, we're busy.
And Tuesday, don't call us on Tuesday because
that's when the class is because don't bother
to call us on Tuesday because we're grumpy
after that.
But thank Rob for allowing me to survive
Greek 1 and went on to Greek 2.
I like to read a lot of books,
and I kind of calculate
probably between 4 or 5000 book after high
school. I just read 2 or 3 book
a week, and I just love reading history
and stuff,
and biblical stuff,
and novels, and
like to hear about the the war, and
especially the the president,
the history, the biography. And one of them
is
Dwight Eisenhower.
That guy is fascinating. When you look at
his life in the world war 2, he's
a great hero. And then he went on
to be a president
twice. Can you imagine
that you think that his life is flourishing?
I mean, look at it. I bet if
you look in his graph, his library, he
had ton of letter that appreciate him. Lots
of article and video. I mean, he has
so many writing that just really
encourage him. You know, kind of like we
get the kudos note. It just make us
feel great when somebody encouraged. Well, he had
so much,
but here's what's interesting.
After he
finished his term as the president,
he began melancholy or depressed.
Why? Here's what's interesting.
They stopped writing about him.
Even though they had grads, had libraries loaded
with tons of letters that honor him.
The point is,
you'll never be satisfied if you search the
world
hunger.
And maybe, you're after that, I want that
one more praise, and then I'll be satisfied.
No, you won't. You look at Eisenhower's ton
of material that he got.
They're satisfied.
I grew up in the Wawawaw County in
Washington, and I remember in Washington, during the
middle of 'seventy, they
launched the lotto gambling.
And the very first person that won it's
in Walla Walla, I live in a little
town called Wayford, about a 1,000, in a
small country farm community,
and we found out a couple in Walla
Walla won the first $1,000,000.
They were doing fine, they had a regular
job.
Well, 3 years later, they report and ask
them, How are you doing? They said,
Terrible.
We wish we never had that $1,000,000.
You got people coming out of Woodwood claiming
their relative.
Right?
And everywhere he'd go out to dinner, and
say, well, you got a $1,000,000, you can
pay for the whole family. I mean, it
was just miserable, and he wished he never
had that. As a matter of fact, when
you study, multitude of people who win a
lot of money, really, a curse, not a
blessing.
Maybe you heard a couple of months ago,
in Portland, somebody won over 1
$1,000,000,000
I'm going to tell you right now, they
may think they're blessed,
they may think they are going to be
satisfied, I think there can be a lot
of headache in that situation.
Same thing with
trophy.
I joined Toastmaster for many years, and I
knew when I got in Bible College, and
and I'm going to start speaking, I thought,
okay, I need to develop my speaking,
and I want a lot of Toastmaster
speech content.
So much so that I can fill up
the whole wall. Well, I got rid of
all that stuff, I only keep a couple
because they won't satisfy. It's nice to have,
but going after all the trophy
will not satisfy you. Tom Braly won, what,
7 Super Bowl?
And he said, this is all? That's it?
Even the 7 rings, it still did not
satisfy him.
And so you look at all the situation.
It doesn't matter what kind of car you
got. It doesn't matter what kind of clothes
you got. It doesn't matter who you hang
out. Whatever you go after,
you will not be satisfied.
But
how can we be satisfied?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Let's walk through Matthew, chapter 5. This is
from the new,
simple, international.
One day,
he saw the crowd
gathering. So Jesus went outside on a mountain
and sat down.
His disciple gathered around and he began to
teach them.
God blessed those who are poor, for they
reckon they need him,
for the kingdom of God is there.
God bless those who are
mournful, for they will be comfort.
God bless those who are humble, for they
will inherit the whole earth.
God bless those who are hunger and thirst
for justice, for they will be
God bless those who are full and merciful
that they will be shown mercy.
God bless those whose
heart
is pure, for they will see God.
God bless those who work for peace, for
they will be called children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing
what's right,
for there the kingdom of God is there.
God blessed those who were persecuted for doing
right.
We went that road, didn't we?
God blessed those when people curse you,
mock you, persecute you,
say all kind of evil things against you
because you are my disciple.
Be
happy about it.
Be very
glad.
Why?
Because a great
reward awaits for you in heaven.
And remember,
the ancient prophets were persecuted
the same way.
So, the key ingredient is to search and
find God. Now, some translations,
this one it said,
justification, but this one is talking about
righteousness.
I looked up on Google to find out,
what is American
hunger and thirst for? So the number one
food that we desire, anyone want to take
a guess, what do you think the number
one American food is?
Hamburger.
And number 2, cheeseburger. I thought pizza would
be up there. I'm right.
And number 4 was grilled cheese sandwich.
I think pizza is somewhere down below. I
would put pizza right on top. Right?
Now, thirst, what do you think the number
now, you guys should get this right. The
number 1 thirst that we
like to drink is what? Water.
Water.
Come on, water. Yeah. And coffee is number
2.
And I was wrong on number 3, it's
tea, and soda finally came up with number
4.
While I was preaching
and unable to watch him on the Internet,
you know, I'm one of those guys that
listen to about 1 or 2 1000 sermons
a year, till I get some idea.
And Rob has done such a great job
that I plan to,
I wouldn't use the word seal his sermon,
but here, how I get away with it,
I'm not going to seal his sermon, I
like to, you know, take this and this
and this. We call that research.
So I get away. So he has some
good stuff, so I'm going to repeat it
elsewhere, so if he'd allow me to do
that. But he talked about in his first
sermon about a treasure. So, oh, I brought
my own treasure to kind of go along
with Rob talking about. This is one of
my treasure, and you're curious, what in the
world is your treasure?
Well,
potato chip.
It is my treasure. It is indeed. Now
matter of fact, some of you have been
around long enough where they had a commercial.
I don't know what they still do, but
they said, you can't just eat 1. You
can't remember that?
So I'm gonna do something I've never done
before, folks.
I'm gonna try just eat one.
Okay?
No, you can't have it.
Now, that's satisfactory.
So my goal is to see if I
can go the rest of the ceremony without
taking one more.
Can I do it?
Question.
Raise your right hand if you're like me
addicted to potato chip. I'm just just curious.
Raise your left hand and you're not, you
don't care for potato chip.
Final question.
Raise both hand, you just realized you raised
before a blind guy.
That's what I thought.
We'll get back to that potato a little
later.
So
where do we go to get satisfied? Could
I mention all the other stuff? Driving a
brand new car, don't get in, having a
new clothes and trophy. Now, all that stuff
is not wrong, people.
Making money is not wrong. Because the scripture
said it's not the money that's wrong, it's
the love of the money. Okay? So everything
I share or eating potato chips is not
wrong.
Not in my book.
Many years ago, I decided I did something
that I heard a friend did what they
call the
Daniel 10 day diet, that it's just strictly
vegetable and water.
I did it because we heard another friend
who
did that before he got married and got
sick of the dog. I go, Come on.
Really? So my wife got all that stuff
and they did it for 10 days.
Here's what the weird part is. After the
last day, which would end right after church,
guess what food that I would crave it?
Yeah. I would tell Nan about this, and
she'd guess it, and she'd know why I
crave for the potato chip?
Because after 10 days, I would crave for
my body's salt.
Yeah.
And Cindy was laughing because right after church,
I'm out of here. Where are you going?
Never mind. I gotta go. Where are you
going? Going into the car and over. I
grabbed a bag a big bag, and I
ate the whole thing.
It was great.
My wife said, you're a fool.
I was happy. It took me 10 days
to get there.
Yeah.
But that still doesn't satisfy satisfy me. Right?
So the scripture said, those who hunger and
thirst now we're talking about real hunger, like
me for 10 days. That hunger just got
stronger and stronger every day.
And the thirst is a real strong thirst.
That's what the scripture is talking about. So
what is it? So if you look into
your note, one of the first things that
help us to really be satisfied,
number 1, we're satisfied by
church attendant.
Okay?
I'm going to say something that might
offend some of you.
Since COVID hit, they shut down the building,
and, man, what should we do? So we
got this internet set up, so we can
keep preaching, and Zoom, great idea.
The problem is,
we've got people so comfortable staying home, they
don't come to church.
Okay?
You, online,
if you can't come, I understand,
but you are able,
you need to come.
Watching
from the dead end is like watching the
fireplace on a video, and there's no warrant.
Okay?
Well, you're not going to be satisfied, so
I really challenge all of you who are
behind there. And, you know, it's so easy
to be a p j and drink your
I don't drink coffee, but you guys drink
coffee.
And just enjoy. And just but if you
can't, it's a great idea. But I encourage
all of you, because the fellowship is great.
And sometimes, we only go, oh, we'll just
go once and 1. No. Go every Sunday
because that's where you really get satisfied.
So I encourage you to do that because
Hebrew 1025 said, do not what? Direct
the assembly, the worship. Don't do that.
The second way they help you to get
that satisfactory, I mean, do you want your
life to really flourish?
It's
start going to a small group during the
week, or have 1 on 1 discipleship.
I was converted back in 1983. It was
my brother, Nick.
I was just 22, and I was going
to art school,
and I was just hungry, and the one
other thing I love
is to do some study.
This is the one I picked up in
the track. And a lot of this stuff
is here in the back if you got
a lot of track. I was, just learning
what they can. This one said, 52 simulated
Bible study. Basically,
one study a week. Forget it. I got
this thing done in 30 days.
Could I I did not know the Bible.
And then, later, the summer, because I would
go to the art school, but I want
to stay for the summer, trying to graduate
back in 'eighty 4. If I take some
more classes, I'll graduate in 'eighty 5, to
be an artist.
And then, I decided to have not 1,
not 2, but 3, 1 on 1
bible study with another person, just type of
channel.
Dave Adam, who was one of them, who
just graduated bible college, and I'd go there
once a week with him, and I remember
when Rich Carper, who was a preacher, came
in to Spokane, I'd spend time with him,
and Patrick Gilbert,
who teach a whole bunch of 1 on
1 with a single, and I was single
at the time. I love it. So I
encourage you to get into a small group
or find someone to disciple and to study,
because there's so much in there, because in
this scripture, it helped you to conquer some
of the crazy things going on in the
world.
And if you focus on God, it allows
you to
flourish.
The third thing is that you want to
do with your bible study
and prayer.
I found a statistic just a year ago.
It's bad
that only 3 to 5 percent
of the people at church
Sunday Bible and pray every day.
Let me put that into perspective. If there's
a 100 of you, only 5 of you
are doing it every
day. If there are 200, only 10.
So I encourage you to stick with it
because in Psalm
1, it talked about if you're
a tree planted by the water,
you're going to flourish and grow, and we
can do that.
My phone went off, and I want to
share you something that my brother shared with
me, that this is a cool tool,
and the guy who'd connect the word like,
he'd regret it. Do you realize how many
teenagers
stride
the button? If they don't get 20 likes,
then life is miserable for that day?
Not
satisfied.
And they're told,
well, the phone can be a curse if
they're searching for because they desire for
being noted,
the desire for somebody to care about me,
and God does. Now, in my hand is
a flyer I hope I got it up
right. It's North West College Bible, where Rob
and I went. Now, we're doing everything online,
so we got some more back there, and
I encourage you to pick this up, Take
the class. You can do it at home.
You can do it for free, or you
can audit for $15 and work your way
under lots of subjects. So every year, we
change it for subject. Right now, I'm recruiting
people to take the Bible College Classic because,
sometimes, I help teach, and
I'm trying to recruit your preacher to be
one of the teacher.
I even corner Larry to do it, I'm
too old, I don't know anything about Zoom.
Hire somebody.
No excuse.
That guy can teach, so let's put this
on here so other people can benefit from
Larry and Rob. So I'm twisting their arm
a little bit. Okay? Rob, then we'll talk
about it. Yes.
I said, no, we're going to sign the
dotted line and get your arm.
When you're my side, you can get away
with that stuff. Right?
The final thing you want to do that
helped you to be satisfied
is be involved
in the ministry.
Start serving.
In first
Corinthian 10:31, it said, whatever you do, do
it all for the glory of God.
Not everyone is called to be a preacher,
or worship,
but there are so many different
ministries,
and the goal here, guys,
is
whatever calling that you're in, give it all.
I've seen too many preachers wait until their
last night to do their sermon, and when
you guys come here, you know this.
Yeah.
And if you're teaching Sunday School, then you've
been an adequate time. Then, no matter what
you
do, give it all.
And when you do that, oh, that's satisfactory.
It's just
such rewarding
and so great. Now,
Paul,
in the Philippians, said,
rejoice again, I say rejoice, regardless of your
circumstances. Now, let me show you something.
When Paul said this,
you know what he was in?
He was chained, he was in jail,
and yet he said,
rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. Now, Rob talked
about that. The joy is not about circumstances,
it's about seeing the big picture. The joy
did not come regardless of the good or
bad because of what we have in Christ.
And so what's so good about Paul writing
this letter? See, he also wrote Roman 828,
which I first became a Christian. Didn't I
like that verse?
You know what it said? It said, God
causes all. Now, now I took Greek so
I can qualify the state. The word awe
mean
can you guess it?
Awe.
Is that hard or what? I got that
one. Woo hoo.
But then you look on, it says, god
caused all things to work out for what?
Yes. Is that true?
Yes. Sometimes, we challenge that because those who
are called according to His purpose, they love
Him, and and so I was challenged by
that because once I came out of the
water to the grave
you see, at age 16,
I were told from the doctor that I'm
going
blind. At 8:16, I had 40% hearing loss.
So I'm wearing hearing aid and I'm alluding
Now, the vision is fine. They told me
at 8:30, I'm going to go totally blind.
I have 3 brothers.
All 4 of us are going to be
blind and deaf.
And so, here I am at 8:22,
with the tunnel vision, started working way down,
and I'm supposed to understand, okay, God, how
are you going to cause this
to work out for the glory?
Well, if you look at Paul, because of
his chain,
you and I are blessed to read some
of his letter.
Aren't you glad that he was under this
circumstance? Because that situation, God cut it all
good that you and I, 2000 years later,
can benefit and reap the benefit from what
Paul wrote to us, to encourage us to
live our life, to make our life flourish
because of his word.
If it wasn't for this, we would not
have it.
So here's the question that I have to
ask God.
You see,
at age 15,
until I was
22, I was driving truck.
For real.
A truck, p truck,
bean truck. And later, I drove a county
truck, Caring Rock. I love what I'm doing
and and later, I learned how to use
the backhoe. I had so much fun doing
the backhoe.
I would have so much fun, the guy
took the key away, he could've worked right
through the brake. No, no, no, no, no.
It didn't matter. Let me play with my
toy.
Government job don't do that. Uh-uh.
But god took that away because my eyesight
got worse,
and I thought, okay. Now what? Now,
if my eyesight was fine, I could be
content staying in that hometown and have a
lifetime job, and get to play with all
the equipment, the toy, and work my way
up, but he closed that door.
What's good out of that? Well, it allowed
me to go to Spokane because I was
looking for a church, and I went to
art school. Now you might say, woah. Wait.
Wait. Why do you wanna go to art
school? You knew you're gonna go
blind. Well, here's why I decided to go
to it. It's my compassion. It's what I
love to do. And besides, doctor's not God,
they're just guessing.
And maybe my eyesight will come back or
maybe they might have something to heal or
maybe it won't be 30.
When I graduated from art school,
I was blessed.
Yes. He's back here.
Yes. Get the job that I get to
do.
Anybody recognize this?
View Master. I was a graphic artist for
a View Master company. See, my wife said
I go to work to play.
K. I get to paint, and that's what
I did for a while. And I get
the chance to do that for almost 16
years because I didn't go totally blind till
about 20 years ago, about 2,003,
2,004.
Then, when I came down to go through
work,
I had 5 years of school, and then,
all of a sudden, when I came down
here, the NCB invited me to check out
the school. People said, Oh, you should go
to Bible College. I said, No. Because I
had 5 years to call. I I want
to work. I still want to grow,
but I don't wanna go to bible college.
Now the job I took at the VMAs
is freelance, so I'm allowed to come and
go. And finally, we had a guy, a
bible director, came to our church and said,
you need to go. I thought, like, God
was tugging my heart. Yeah. I was arguing
with him. Kinda like Moses.
Go. I was Moses. God, I'm going blind.
I'm deaf. I can't speak. You want a
guy like Rob, not me.
Grab the Hawaiian kid. Leave me alone.
He would not leave me alone.
Leave me alone. I said, oh my god.
I'll grow up but only 1 year, and
I'm not going to be a preacher.
You see, you gotta understand, when I was
in high school, I was terrified of public
speaking. There's no way you can get me
up front.
You got the wrong man.
Well,
6 years later,
graduate 91,
I'm preaching.
Before that, I was in Bible college for
3 years, and they didn't do any sermon,
and I'd never gone to the camp, and
I got a call from people, hey, man,
when you want to come and speak. Now,
just before that,
I got a chance to do my very
first sermon.
It was a small country church somewhere in
Oregon, so I said, okay. And I did
my sermon. I went to the elder, hadn't
looked at it because, you know, I've never
done this before. I've been training. I've been
going Toastmaster, and I've been learning all this
stuff. And I wanna make sure it looked
good. He did. And so my friend and
I went down to the church, and they're
small congregation. The first two point, they were
falling asleep.
Lord, I told you I shouldn't be a
preacher.
Look at them. They're sleeping.
Man, point 3.
Point 3, I talk about me going blind.
It woke him up, and I shared with
him, no matter
what happened, God still can use a blind
guy and a deaf guy.
They took me out for lunch before I
came home, and I wanted to open them
and said, you
know,
if you did your whole sermon based on
0.3, I think you got a dynamic sermon,
young man.
I took note.
And a week later, they asked me to
come and speak at the
camp, the fireside, and guess what subject I
decided to talk about.
My story.
And when I did my story, right after
the Bible director, Myron Welch, said, you need
to take this down the road. I go,
b b b b b b b what?
I went there to sermon people, and he
want me to go on the road.
I know nothing about this.
Go.
So I'm thinking, on the road again.
Yeah, I'm the country man.
So I went to the preacher in Vancouver,
and then Charles Daly did a lot of
traveling. He got me set up, and we
got to church in Gretchen. I did my
first presentation, and I've been on it ever
since, since 1980. I started out called Handy
Capable Ministry. My wife said, you need to
change that title. So now we call it
living on a blind side ministry.
Isn't that cool?
Because I'm not at churches, but I'm at
camps, and school, and then club. Matter of
fact, one of the reasons why I'm here
is I'm going to camp right afterward.
Why?
A year ago, when my friend named Christie
Johnson called, and she said, Matt,
Camp Grove needs your help. They're short on
male counselor.
But what date? Well, the last week of
June.
Who rents the car? Nan.
So I went to my wife. Did that
date open? Yeah. What do you think? Well,
I think you should go for it, honey.
Okay.
I'm already committed going to camp in Washington,
and, you know, that's later in August. So
I called in, and I explained who I
was,
my background, and said, I'll take you. And
I said, I have one more question
before I committed.
I said, I'm totally blind. Are you okay
with that?
You know what she said?
No way.
We can't allow blind men on a campground
to mold down our tree.
You know that's not what it says. She
said absolutely. Come she had no idea what
she's getting into.
So I went, and here's what's interesting. When
I got there on Sunday afternoon, the only
person who knew me, Doug, he's the 1st
hillbilly Christian that I met 40 years ago.
Great guy. You guys probably know Doug. And
we've been and he's the only one I
know. Everybody else is all brand new, and
they saw me at the white cane, and
I know what's going on. They're going,
is he gonna be okay?
I mean, they're concerned. I'm probably the first
blind
commissioner or counselor on that premise.
After one day, it's, oh, no. He's fine.
See, my goal, not only to teach the
word of God and encourage people, is to
go through the whole week without hugging a
tree. That's a good week for me.
You guys ever hug a tree, they're rough,
and they're set for the
board?
We discussed that Nan and I did met
33 years ago, and they're at a camp
called Tapowingo,
and I did something to call,
well, not a prank, but I call it
tall tale.
I'll have Nan and Rob. Rob, remember
JB's missing?
Yeah.
Made Nangirl cry, but let her explain that.
So it was fun. I I find a
way to get in trouble when I go
at camp.
But I'm back here, and I loved spending
time, because a lot of these kids never
see blind people before.
And so, God allowed me to be in
camp, and then, I graduated,
and also, a couple later, become a certified
behavior consultant. You see what God's doing? He
took away the job I love to drive
and then he opened this door doing the
other thing God called what's good for me.
And not only that, in 91,
I was a drama director.
Some of you guys know Norman Fox? Yes.
I was part of his dad production in
Spokane in Portland. I was in that drama
production.
Love it. And in 91, I became a
drama director, and where I produced
production for kids and adults, Easter and Christmas.
I loved that.
We know that God causes all things to
turn out for good. Even though I'm blind
and hearing impaired,
look what God did with me.
I tried to say no, and then, Look
where I got. Do I miss driving? A
little bit.
I mean, I still think I can drive,
but nobody will give me a car key.
Can you believe that?
I'm still working. Kenneth Kelly's here, I met
him yesterday, he said, You can take my
truck. Yes!
But I'm still waiting for the keys.
And not only that,
in 2,030,004,
I went totally blind, and I had a
crossroad.
See, my hearing loss went 40% to 85.
I only have 15%
of hearing loss.
Thank God for a powerful hearing aid I
can hear. My wife still snored once
in a while. But if I take my
hearing aid out, I can't hear anything, I
love it!
She hears everything.
But the crossroad is, Can I still teach
Sunday School?
Can I still
preach?
Can I still do drama? Can I still
come into camp?
I didn't know, and guess what?
Yes! I'm still doing all that.
God's still using me.
Me. Now, I've got one more thing that
God allowed me to do, and this one,
you guys are going to have a hard
time believing, so I'm going to need some
help.
Michaela Brooks, are you in the house?
Is she here today?
Nan?
You see Michaela?
She's not here. Okay.
But I'm gonna get her later.
What You're not gonna believe that God gave
me a special thing. I'm using that to
give, you know, and whatever talent God just
used for God's glory, in one area
that I do at home,
when I'm not preaching or working or doing
chores around there, I run my own
Are you ready?
Table stall.
Yeah, I still have all my finger.
Oh, there they are.
But because you guys have a hard time
believing that I run the table saw, I
had the guy run the slide and go
ahead and run it. And these are some
of the samples that I made
through the table saw.
Are you seeing some of them?
And one of my favorite projects when the
COVID
2020 hit, I made a 9 foot tall
T Rack. You probably see me standing by
it, and I made a whole bunch. Now
the reason why I'm picking on Mikaela,
could I talk to
the husband,
Jace? He was at camp last month, and
he shared with me that
a little bit of background of her wife
she liked to sing. I go, Well, what
other things that she liked? Did she like
dogs and cats? Did you know she collected
bugs?
I go, really?
So I thought, well, I want to make
something for her.
Is she here? I'm here. Come on forward.
Is Maketa here? I'm here. Stand right here,
please. Okay.
I just got here.
Good.
And you bring your husband too? I did.
He's Okay. Now I don't know if you
saw, but I explained to people that
that do table saw. Now, I talked to
your husband. He he he shares something that
you like to do.
You like click bug. Why? I like
How long?
Since I was really little.
So
because I heard that, I went into my
shop, and I found this. I thought maybe
you can add it to your
bug collection. Okay. Are you ready for it?
I'm ready. Alright. Now I won't bite you.
What do you see? That's so cute. Take
it out and show it to people.
Wow. The caterpillar
is yours. Thank you for talking to the
thing. Yeah. All yours.
When I had a talk with her husband,
and before I got home, this image, it's
in my head, like, Cool. So when I
got it all done, see, nothing to leave
and shop till my wife said, yeah.
Yeah. There a couple
2 months ago, on perfect, I made one
that looked like an ugly pig head, on
perfect, with a horn and eye bug. I
mean, it's just ugly can get brought in,
and my daughter said,
burn it.
But I did.
But when she saw the bug critter, they
said, Oh, this is great. So I hope
Makeda
enjoyed that. I loved that. Let me close
with
a question and a story.
Are you
hungering and thirst for God?
How'd that work in your life?
Are you?
A couple,
mom and dad, are frustrated
because Joey came home for the second time,
they had a report card, all
f's.
They did everything. They took away his phone,
they took away the toy, they took away
the free time, they gave him more chores,
I mean, they did everything, but to kill
him, try to get the grade, what shall
we do? They were at their end. We
don't know.
So,
they decided to take him to the summer
school, the Catholic school. So they took him
on and dropped him off
and see any improvement.
At the end of the summer, they came
back and picked him up, and the teacher
said, your son was terrific.
All age.
What?
Yeah. And he said, this is the first
time in our history that we have any
kid that come in with all f end
up from being all a's.
And then dad go,
mhmm, grabbed his son, then went to the
hallway, and said, what did they do to
you?
And Joey said, Nothing, dad.
You see, when you drop me off and
I walk into the hallway and looked up,
they had a man nailed to the cross.
So I knew they knew business.
Is that what it's gonna take to motivate
you guys?
I hope not.
God loves you. That's why you die. He
wants you guys to be satisfied. You are
not going to be satisfied in the world
itself. See,
the world tells me
that I'm blind and deaf,
you won't have good life, you won't flourish.
I mean, Proverbs 21/21,
it said, Those who pursue, that's another word
for hunger, for thirst and rights,
after righteousness
and love,
you will find
life,
prosperity,
and honor.
Folks, I don't worry about being blind. See,
as I mentioned last month at the camp,
my blindness
and my deafness did not define me.
Okay?
God defined me as a chosen god.
I don't look for
extra help in the world because they're gonna
pull me. The Bible encourages me every time
I read. He tells me, oh, yeah. There's
some stuff that's tough.
I mean, do I have to forgive that
guy that kicked my dog? I want to
kill his cat.
No. You've got to learn to love other
people. Could God teach you? Because he made
it, he wanted to
be satisfying. It's only going to happen if
you find it through God.
If you're not a Christian
and
you finally realize you're no matter what you
try,
you're not satisfied.
Come to Christ. All you need to believe
that Jesus is the Lord,
and then you need to repent, and then
you need to do a u-turn and follow
his way,
and then
you need to confess to Jesus' Lord, and
then you need to quit driving and let
the Lord drive,
or you could let me drive and see
how far we get.
It's better that Jesus drives and guides you.
And then, we talked about in the community,
that you need to be baptized so you
can come out of the water grave, they
take away all of your sin from the
day you're born to
born again, and you got the Holy Spirit
to help you to grow. You see, guys,
it's all about attitude.
This morning, you woke up two way. Either
you say, Good morning, Lord!
Or, Good Lord, it's morning.
How did you wake up this morning?
I don't get up every morning and say,
man, I'm blind again. Where'd that wall come
from?
If you look closely, I've got so many
scars, I don't think Peter is going to
recognize me when I showed
up. But I don't. I'm so busy doing
woodworking, honoring and blessing people, doing Bible study,
going to camp,
and just enjoying life. And, see, I did
a sermon many years ago called, either circumstance
will make you better or bitter.
I chose to let it make me better.
I couldn't be bitter.
If I was, I wouldn't be here.
So I hope you hunger and thirst.
Now, before Rod come up, I got an
issue here.
Yeah.
My question is, what should I do with
this?
You thought I forgot it, didn't you?
Some of you didn't even pay attention to
my sermon, you were eyeballing that thing.
Oh, yes.
Who give me $2? There, $2, $4, $4,
$4, $4 back there, $6 over there laying
the red $6. Do I hear 8? 8?
Good. 10. 10 sold. Sold to Rob Kearney.
Brother, brother Rob.
I'll pay you later, Matt.
I've been checking the mail.
I
when I think of my my brother, Matt,
I think of the word
enthusiasm,
and the word
enthusiasm,
we'll go back to our Greek,
Matt, theos, god,
n within,
god within.
Are you enthusiastic
about life no matter what your circumstances are?
My brother is, and I hope you are
too. And if you don't know the enthusiasm
of having God within, then today could be
your day. Our elders are gonna be available
to pray,
with you if you have questions or
concerns that you'd like them to pray for.
In the back corner, in the left, I
see that, brother Peter Wolf is already there
to pray with you. So we hope that
today,
God will bring enthusiasm
for life to you. Let's stand together
as we have our closing song. Following the
closing song, we invite you to come across
to the gym for our welcome in, some
coffee and refreshments.
Be a time to meet Matt and Cindy,
say hello to them, so we hope you
can stick around for a while. God bless
you this week as you seek the enthusiasm
of the Lord. Kathy.