The Journey

I want to turn to the 17th chapter of the Book of Luke, for a foundation. I want to tell you that I miss my wife today. She's still dealing with a great deal of pain from her knee surgery. And if you don't have anything else to pray for, i' appreciate if you'd put her on your prayer list. And I know many of you have already. Luke — I'm going to read just a few verses here, Verses 4, 51, 15 and 16. Says: even if they sin against you seven times in a day, and seven times come back to you saying, I Repent, you must forgive them. And the apostles said to the Lord: increase our faith. And then down to verse 15: and one of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in loud voice. And he threw himself at jesus' feet, and thanked him. And for just a little while today, I want to minister on this thought: the journey. The journey from forgiveness, to Faith, to Thanksgiving.

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week — week, maybe some of you have already set your sights on Christmas now. Maybe if that's not you that falls into that place, you most likely know somebody that is already in that mindset. Someone who just can't wait for Christmas music to start playing all the time. Or someone who can't wait to get home every night, to sit down on the couch andit watch another Hallmark Christmas m. I was that kid. I couldn't wait for September to get here every year. It meant labor day, which meant school was starting back. Then Pastor Michael leaned over to him, when they started showing that video of that guy trudging through the snow, says: that's what it was like when you used to walk to school, wasn't it? I said: yep, uphill both ways. But then early September was my birthday. But all of that pale in comparison to about the third week of September, when the Sears Robuck, JC Penney, mcgomery Ward — when the Christmas catalogs came in. And I knew I'd scarf that up. As I come running from school, I'd see that, and I'd grab the magic marker off the desk, and I'd run that up to my bedroom, and I'd shut the door, and I'd open that magic marker. And before I did anything else, I'd take a couple of sniffs on it, just to get me in the mood. Kids today, you don't know what you're missing. We've done away with magic markers and the mograph Machine. But there came a time in my life, about 40 years ago, where Christmas became a real drag to me. Because in a former life, I was in a retail management position in a national drugstore chain. And they got it in their head that they should start sending out all the Christmas stuff about the 1st of August. I didn't have a very big back room to store stuff in. So one year, I got a truckload of Christmas and Halloween all at the same time, in early August, and I had nowhere to put it. So we cleared out about half the center Island: on one side I put Halloween, and on the other side I put Christmas. August. Now, what I didn't tell you was: the CEO of our division lived real close to my store. And so one Monday morning — the next Monday morning that I was back in the, in the store — I got a phone call from my district manager. He said: hey, just want you to know, Mr Simmons was in your store over the weekend. He'd like an explanation as to why you thought it was good to put Christmas out in August. And I said: I'd like to know why he thinks there's not enough room in his big old Warehouse to keep that Christmas stuff until time to put it out. I don't have any place else to put it. That wasn't really the right response that they were looking for. But nonetheless, when it came time that Christmas was over, when we were boxing up all the returns, guess which store had the fewest returns to send back to the warehouse? Because I had sold most of what they sent, because I had it out way before anybody else did. But I like Christmas a lot more. Christmas means a lot more to me now. But I want to encourage somebody here today: don't miss Thanksgiving in the midst of the rush to Christmas. And by Thanksgiving, I'm not just simply necessarily meaning the holiday, but the heart filled with gratitude that we all should have as Christians.

Paul, talking to the church in Philippi, in Philippians 4:4, says: rejoice in the lord always. And again I will say, rejoice. See, the world that we live in today — it is very easy to forget the always in that admonition. It's easy for us to focus on all the problems and the pain, the divis miss us and the Despair, and miss the many blessings that we have received from God. But I want to motivate somebody here in this place today, in this season, to take some time, stop, and count your blessings. A woman named Barbara an Kiper gives us a good example of how to do that. When she was a teenager, she began listing some of her favorite things in The Notebook. She would add items to the list while she was riding the bus, when she was eating breakfast, or when she would awake in the middle of the night with a thought. It began as just a little simple list, like things like the sun shining, blueberry muffins, green peas. But it soon began to Encompass many random and sometimes abstract things. 20 years later, after filling several notebooks, she published in 1990 a best-selling book called 14,000 things to be happy about. In 2007, she updated the book with 1,500 new entries. And then in 2014, a 25th anniversary edition, with more than 4,000 new entries, was published. So over the course of some nearly 50 years — years, Barbara and Kiper has found more than 20,000 things to be happy about, even as her life, like all lives, saw its share of difficulties and problems. That works out to about 400 things a year, or a little over one a day. Now, as I was digging and looking on Amazon, I found that she's got one more thing to be think — thankful for, CU it says this book has sold over 950,000 copies. And I thought: 16 bucks a pop, you do the math. So if she decides in 2025 to put out a 35th Anniversary Edition with more updates, I think the first thing should be Nest Egg, because this book has certainly given her that. But Miss kipford doesn't make a public Proclamation about being a Christian. If she is, then she truly epitomizes Paul's idea of rejoicing in the lord always. But if not, her life's work should convict every one of us who calls ourselves a follower of Christ. See, we have been blessed in so many ways. We should be the most thank — thankful people on this planet. But sadly, the truth is that too often we seem to be the most discontented people around. Thanks — thankfulness is a sign of faith. And we're going to look here at a very familiar story in the Gospel of Luke, to hopefully help bring this point home today.

Now we're going to, we're going to focus in Luke chapter 17, in the, in the middle, with where Jes heals the 10 lepers. But we need to step back a little bit, in order to lay the foundation and see the context of where we're at. That this miracle takes place in the, in the latter part of chapter 16. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees about self-righteousness, and about their unwillingness to accept the gospel of grace that he's been teaching. And then we get to the beginning of verse, of chapter 17, and he now turns his attention to the disciples. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 17: Jesus said to his disciples, things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea, with a millstone tied around their neck, than to cause one of those little ones to stumble. This is a warning to the disciples, and to us today, to people who — that we influence others. He's not just talking about to children or to little people. But if, if you pull in other parts of Jesus teaching, he talks about to the least of these. He's warning that, that influencing others into a place of sin — G, the Pharisees' great sin was unbelief — and so we see here that, that causing others to reject the gospel by our actions is a terrible sin. Now those of us who are following Christ, that we are living in faith, we've got a responsibility to live in such a way that the gospel does not come across as a negative. I don't want anyone to look at my life and say: if that's what being a Christian is all about, no thank you. The gospel, you see, is already offensive to the world. Because the gospel says there's nothing that you or I could ever do, that would ever make us good enough. There's no good thing within me that is good enough for me to ever think I could make Heaven my home. But it is only through the shed blood of a risen savior — Hallelujah — that gives me and you the hope and the opportunity of one day seeing him in peace, and hearing him say: Well done. And to the world, you see, that is offensive, because it says: I can't take care of this on my own, but I've got to rely on something else. We're called to be Salt and Light. But if we're not careful, we can pour on too much salt, and we can be too blinding with the light. So we've got to be cautious in how we bring the gospel to them. We're called not to offer offense in our words or our Deeds. But sadly today, too many seem to forget that, by getting caught up in all of the discussions of our day. We can do better. We must do better.

And for warning against leading others into sin, Jesus now turns his attention to talk about how we should respond when others maybe sin against us, or offend us, or hurt us. And Lord knows, in the world that we live in today, there's plenty of that going around. There's plenty of that. So we look at verses three and four, and he says: so watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them. And if they repent, can't forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day, and seven times come back to you saying, I Repent, you must forgive them. Yeah, wow. There's — you know, there's, there's, there's so much in this, in this word, that, that we can Embrace and enjoy. And then every once in a while, he throws in a little something like that: that if they come back and say, I'm sorry, you must forgive them. Now I, I've got to believe, based on experience and upon my knowledge, limited as it is — and a crowd this size — that there are people in here that have been offended, that have been hurt, that someone has done something to you, and just to forgive them was not an easy decision. That, that you struggled with. That, that you — when, when they come back and said: you know what I did, I shouldn't have done. I'm sorry. And you're kind of sitting there like: you really didn't need to do that, because now I've — you know, it puts us down. But God doesn't give us any, any alternative. He doesn't give us any, any choice in this matters. You know, he put it like this: it, when he, when he was giv us the Lord's Prayer, in Matthew 6:12: and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Wow. You know, I am so thankful when I look at my life, and I, when I look at the number of times that I've had to put myself back on that altar, at the feet of Christ, and I've had to ask his forgiveness for the dumb things in life that I've done. And then he comes out and says something like this, like: I forgive you, forgive others. Wow. Did, did, did we really have to go there? Did, did we really have to get — is there not another way that we could have, we could have phrased this, that — but forgiving is not easy. But Jesus is telling us that, that we're not to keep score. Forgiving seven times here really means forgiving always. You know, let's, let's take a little bit further. Let's, let's go down a few more chapters. In Matthew chapter 18: then Peter came to him and asked: Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times? No, not seven times, Jesus replied, but 70 times 7. Wow. You know, that seven times was difficult enough. You know, it made me feel like I was a doormat there. But now you have, you have multiplied it exponentially. How in the world am I supposed to — but you know, this is not God telling us to keep track, and when we get to 485 and 486 and 487 and 488, say: you can only do this to me two more times, and then boom, we're done. Now, he's not saying keep track of the number. He's just saying that as long as offenses come, and as long as they come back to you and say: will you please forgive me, then you forgive them. Cuz it's not up to me, it's not up to you, as to how we deal. But we got to give it over to God. Writer Trent C Butler says it like this: you may have to forgive beyond your tolerance level. Just think how much God has forgiven you for. Even if the brother sins against you a ridiculous number of times in one day, forgive him. Keep on forgiving. Don't stop to test the genuiness of the other person's request. Just forgive. Thus, you help the other person to grow, and do not tempt him to sin. See, forgiveness comes at a price. Forgiveness means that I give up the right to retaliate. Forgiveness means that you forgo the right to condemn the person who wronged you. And I think the disciples recognized just how hard it was going to be to keep this command, because we see in verse five, they asked the Lord to increase our faith. Now, had we been writing out this story, that's most likely not the, not the response we would have expected the disciples to give. We probably would have written something like: Lord, increase our love, so we can be forgiving. You know, that would, that would seem to make more sense. But no, they realize the difficulty of what Jesus has just told them. And so they say: God, you've got to increase our faith. So we see here from this question, question, that there, that, that, that forgiveness is directly tied to Faith. That my being able to forgive is connected to my ability to connect to my faith. Forgiveness is getting — is giving retribution and condemnation back to God.

Well, I, I'll just be honest with you. There have been times that things have happened in my life, that, that, that, that the flesh has risen up. And you know, I begun thinking: you know, I could, I could, I could even up the scales here by doing this. Or, you know, I could — boy, I could. And then that still Small Voice — I am so thankful for that still Small Voice, and I am thankful that every once in a while I can shut myself up enough to hear that still small voice — but that still small voice says: 70 time 7. And I said: you're right, God. So I'm just going to give this back to you, Lord. You see, you see what's happened, Lord. I'm just going to put it in your hands. And see, when we, when we do this, we give retribution and condemnation back to him. Forgiveness is recognizing that God Alone judges justly, and trusting that he will do just that.

But it's interesting to note here, Jesus's response. Because he doesn't just respond by giving them what they've asked for. He doesn't just say: you know, hey, I understand, guys. I know what you're dealing with. So, so I'm going to give you a double portion of Faith, to help you deal with this. But instead, it, he kind of ad — admonishes them a little bit. Let's look at verse six. He replied: if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this malberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. In other words, he's telling them: hey, you already have all the faith that you need to be people who will forgive, the way he has called you to forgive. I mean, Jesus was just so plain in his speaking. He just, he took all the guesswork out of things so often. See, it, it's about — it's, it's not about needing fa. You know, so often times we get into the position where we're facing a situation, where we're facing a need in our life, and we be — we get down on our face, and we take that need to God, and we say: God, I don't — I need Faith to get through this. Or we say: God, I need more faith to get through this. But I want to, I want to tell somebody here today, in this place, that, that that's the enemy trying to mess with you, when you get into that mindset. You see, in Romans 12:3, we find out that, that it says here, that God has dealt to each one of us a Measure of Faith. Now see, he didn't, he didn't Define measure here. He didn't Define how much Faith he had given. All he says here is that every one of us had been given Faith. Every one of us have a Measure of Faith. But you say: well, you know, I may have enough Faith to move the mulberry tree. But remember, another time Jesus said: if you got Faith as a mustard seed, you can say to that mountain: be thou removed, and you can cast that into the sea. You know, I may have enough faith for a mulberry tree, but there ain't no way I've got the faith for a mountain. If, if the writer here in Romans would have just said: unto everyone he has given you a cup of faith. If he has said, if every one of you, he's given a five gallon bucket of faith. If to everyone he said, he gave you a 55 gallon barrel of faith, or a thimble of Faith — at least that's something tangible that we can wrap our mind around, and know exactly how much faith we have. But he just simply said: a Measure of Faith. And so because of that, I've got to have enough faith that God's never going to put me, or allow me into a situation, that I've not got enough Faith within me to deal with. But too many times, Jesus regards our faith and relates it to a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds. A mustard seed — I mean, if, if he' said a five gallon bucket of faith, I could have stood up here and held my five gallon bucket of faith, and every one of you across here could have seen how much faith God has given us. But he said: if you've got faith as a mustard seed — the size of faith that if I was to hold it between my finger and my fat little thumb, there ain't no one of you in this place could see my faith. I can't even see my faith. But God says: that's enough faith, that if you'll say to that malberry tree, if you'll say to that mountain, be moved, then it's going to be moved into the sea. So I want to tell somebody here today, that you don't need Faith. You don't need more faith. You just simply need to put the faith that God has already given you into practice, and say: Lord, Lord, you see my malberry tree. Lord, you see my Mountain. Lord, you see my sickness. Lord, you see my bank account. Lord, you see my family situation. Lord, you see what I'm dealing with. And God, I am trusting in you today to give me the answer that I need. You've got enough faith. We don't need great faith. We just need to put our faith in a great God. So see, what the first — what, what we see here in the first part of the, this chapter, is that Faith manifests itself in forgiveness.

So we move to the story of the 10 lepers. We'll see how our faith is tied to our attitude of Thanksgiving. In verse 11, says: now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. He was going into a village. 10 men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, and called out in a loud voice: Jes, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said: go, show yourselves to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at jesus' feet, and thanked him, and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked: were not all 10 cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God, except this four corner? And then he said to him: rise and go. Your faith has made you well.

Now, the first thing I want us to notice here is the faith of these 10 lepers. See, they called out on Jesus — to Jesus — to have mercy upon them. So clearly, these, these men had already heard of the great exploits of Christ, and the Miracles that he had performed — formed. And they were praying that he would, would help deliver them out of their dire situation. Now, lepers in Israel were considered unclean. Lepers could not worship in the temple. They couldn't even live within the city. They were expected to keep a distance of 50 Paces between themselves and others, in case their leprosy was contagious. I know it's been four years and we've all forgotten, but kind of makes social distancing seem pretty, pretty lame. 50 Paces, you know. See, truly, these people were Outcast from society. But we see these 10 men were hoping that today would be their day for healing, that today their life would be turned around. So Christ responds, when he says: go, show yourselves to the priest. So even in their leprous condition, and the law saying that they had to stay separated from society, these lepos men still had enough Faith within them to get up, up, and to start walking to the priest. Reality said they were still lepers. Looking at their hands and their feet, they saw that they were still lepers. I mean, I'm sure they were expecting and anticipating for Christ just to speak a word, and their flesh to immediately be clean. But it wasn't. And so here, going against everything the law said, it said the 10 of them got up and started to make their way to the priest. And as they began to walk, it says they were cleansed. You see, too many times, when I've got a need, too many times when we've got a need, we bring it to God, and we've got in our mind a preconceived idea of how we want this to all play out. But sometimes God just wants us to begin walking toward our miracle, before he ever begins to show how that Miracle is going to take place and be transpired. I don't want to miss my miracle today, because I put God in a box and tell him: God, I need this, and this is how I want you to do it. But I just simply want to give him the need. I just want to put my position in front of him and say: God, here it is, Lord. And I've got enough faith, and I've got enough trust, and I've got enough confidence in you, that you're going to supply the need how you see fit.

So now, as they're cleansed, they could go to the priest, and they could be pronounced healed of their leprosy, and then make offerings that were commanded under the law. But the Bible says that when one of them saw he had been healed, he returned. And he said — he fell on his face before God, and he began to cry out with a loud voice, thanking him for what he had done. Now, every one of us here today would probably like to think that we would have been that one leper, that turn back to give praise to God and Thanksgiving before Jesus. But truth is, most of us are less than faithful in our thankfulness. We're quick, we're quick to come to God In Prayer, in supplication. We're quick, quick to come before him with our need. We're quick to cry out to him when, when, when, when the bills are a lot bigger than the balance in the checkbook. We're quick to come to him when the doctor gives us a bad report. We're quick to come to him when, when problems are arising. But when God provides the answer, sometimes we're slow to Thanksgiving. We shout our needs from the h, from the hilltop, but then we hide our blessings under the basket. We pray for God's provision in the moment of need, but then we hold our prayers of Thanksgiving until bedtime. And then sadly, too often, the cares and the hecticness of the day cause us to completely forget what God has done throughout that day. We don't do it on purpose. It's just the way life has become. So many times, it seems, if only we could be more like this one leper. If only we could find oursel more like the one that says: you know, getting my Place restored in society, let everybody else know Lo — what happened to me — that those aren't the important things. The important thing is: I know where my Miracle came from. The important thing is: I know how my healing came about. The important thing is: I'm going to go back to the source of my miracle, and I'm going to put myself at his feet, and I'm going to say: God, I thank you for the blessing that you supplied in my life. God, I thank you for the miracle that you have provided. God, I thank you for the provision that you have given. God, I thank you for the answer to my prayer that you've given me. That's what the leopard did. And that's what I want to be able to do.

Jesus, though, didn't miss the irony of what was taking place here. Because you see — in, and Luke is quick to be explicit and spell it out — that, that one leper that returned with the Thanksgiving was a Samaritan. He was a double Outcast. He wasn't just a leper. He wasn't just unclean. He wasn't just to be separated from society because of that. But he was a Samaritan. He was an outcast. He was a dog. He — nobody wanted to be around him, whether he had leprosy or not. Among the 10 lepers, he was the one who was least likely to know anything about God, much less to know and realize the right response to his healing and his Miracle should be to go back and give God praise and thanksgiving. Now see, if the story ended there, it would be one thing. But it doesn't. Because Jesus looks at him and says: get up, rise, go. Your faith has made you well. Literally, what, what Jesus is saying here: stand up and go. Your faith has saved you. Now we — Jesus, pay attention here. Jesus healed 10, but he didn't say that to the other nine. The other nine had enough faith for their physical healing. But the other nine missed out on the, on the additional blessing that God had, because they never returned. They never gave thanks. But this one — the one who should never have been returned, the one who should never have had enough knowledge or understanding to go back to him and thank him — it was the one that did. And he said here, that, that, that you are cleansed because of your faith, and because of your Thanksgiving. It was a different kind of faith that he was showing than the other nine had. The others all believed that Jesus could heal their body. They all believed that Jesus could cleanse their skin and give them their place back in society. But this one believed that Jesus could heal more than his body. This one believed that Jesus could go beyond just the physical touch, that he was there seeking. This one believed, he had faith enough to believe, that Jesus could make a lifechanging difference in him that day. And he came back and displayed that faith. And what was the evidence of that Faith? Thanksgiving. What demonstrated that Faith to God that day? A thankful heart. A man who had received a miracle, that couldn't have come back, or couldn't have come about any other way, but he came in contact with the loving God. A merciful god. A God that wanted to touch him. And he asked for healing in his body. And because of his response to what God did, God did the greater.

And today, I don't want to Short Change God on what he's done in my life. Today, I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to go back and thank him. If you're here — a couple of weeks ago, Wednesday, I shared: five, I'm a fifth generation Apostolic. But that, that means nothing. That's going to get me nowhere. That's, that's going to do nothing for me. It's not my pedigree. It's not my name. It's, it's not anything like that that's going to get me to heaven. It's my personal relationship, my personal walk, my personal encounter with God, is going to be the only thing that gives me hope of eternal life. And today, I don't want to depend on somebody else. I don't want to depend on the other nine. I don't want to stay a part of the crowd, just to be a part of the crowd. But I want to do what the word of God instructs me to do. I want to be what God desires for me to be. I want to, I want to stand in the place that God wants me to stand. I want to put my faith and my confidence and I trust in him, knowing and believing that he's able to do more than I could ever think or ask. Faith isn't just simply a feeling that we have in our hearts. Biblical faith is like biblical love and biblical gratitude. None of these things are simply a feeling that we are, that we experience within ourselves. But each of them manifest themselves in some sort of action. Jesus said: if you love me, you will keep my Commandments. It's another one of those, another one of those things, you know. He could have said: if you love me, just tell me. You know, works for us. He said: no, if you love me, keep my Commandments. All of them. How many can I pick and choose? No, I don't — I don't see anywhere that he's given us that, that alternative. This, this verse of scripture is not down at the schoras board, where he puts acrosser and says: here, you pick the Commandments that you want to keep, and we'll be okay. A dozen, just a dozen of them will — no. He said: if you love me, keep my Commandments. I', I've got to believe today, in this place, that you're here because you have love for God. Otherwise, there's a myriad of other places you could be. But you're here. See, love for him is demonstrated by obedience to him. The psalmist says: what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Says: I shall lift up the cup of Salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. In other words, I will demonstrate my gratitude to God by proclaiming his name, and by praising him publicly. See, the Bible — the Bible tells us to wait upon the Lord. You see, too many times we read that as sitting down in a chair sometime, and just occupying time, biing time, until — but that's not what that means. See, I'm, I'm old enough to remember when you go to a restaurant — before we changed all of the English language — and it would be a waiter or a waitress that would come to the table, take your order, bring your food, refill your drink, bring the check. And see what they were doing: they were waiting tables. They were serving. So when I look at this word that says to, that, that we need to wait on the Lord, that doesn't tell me to sit down in a chair somewhere and play saduko, until, until he comes. But it says: you know, I, there are things I need to be doing. There are things that I need to be active in. There are things that I need to do, in order to be serving the lord, to show him my love, to show him my gratitude, to show him my appreci — apption, for all that he's done in my life. That, that, that serving sometimes takes on the form of being willing and able to go to someone, where, where maybe you've not talked to them for a while. Maybe something came up, and it's, it's caused a rift or a division. Well, maybe that's — serving God today will take on the form of saying: you know what, this, we need to do away with this. We need to, we need to stop this now. And I'm going to, I'm going to go, and I, I'm going to fix this, this Rift. I'm going to fix this division. I'm going to fix this problem, Maybe by asking forgiveness, or by giving forgiveness — that we will show that we're waiting, that we're serving the lord in these days. And see, here in Luke, we see Jesus making same points about faith. Saving faith is demonstrated in forgiveness. Saving faith is demonstrated in obedience. Saving faith is demonstrated in Thanksgiving. We've got so much today to be thankful for. We've got a gracious God and a risen savior, who deserves our public praise and our out loud Thanksgiving. Each of us today can make a commitment, before we leave here, that I am going to be that, that tenth leper. We can glorify God with a loud voice. We can fall on our faces before Jesus, and give thanks to him for all that he's done for us, and for all he does for us each day. There's still time. There's still time in 2024 to make this a year of great Thanksgiving. So my challenge today to you is: go out, glorify God.

And because I got the microphone, I'm going to start. The word of God says in Jeremiah 1 verse5: before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. My wife and I prayed for years for grandkids. We were old enough — we started young — we wanted grandkids while we were young enough to enjoy them. Two of our boys thought it would be fun to just wait until, you know, they were middle-aged themselves to get married. But one got married fairly young, 20, and we just knew: man, we're going to have grandkids in about 5 years. But it didn't happen. And it didn't happen. And it didn't happen. Finally, Chris, our middle son, bought an English bulldog. We decided that very well, maybe at the rate things were going, that was probably going to be our grand—. So we doed on eisy Quinn. She was the epitome of the grand dog. But then God gave us a miracle. Little nor Jane brought so much joy into our life. Then a year later, Corey gets married, and we inherit a little granddaughter that we love. And then for the next two thanksgivings, they gave us another grandchild each Thanksgiving. Oh, all of a sudden we went from nothing to poor. Wisely Quinn was kind of shoved in the back corner. And then Chris for, finally found someone that could put up with him. They had a little baby boy after covid, and the next year they had another little baby boy. And then they called us, and they texted, I think — or they may called my wife, and she sent me, in the late summer of last year, said: guess what, we're pregnant. And we're like: you got two IND diapers right now, what are you thinking? And then my wife sent me the picture of the, of the ultrasound. And I looked at it. And I looked. And I wrote back, and I said: what's the problem with that ultrasound? Cuz it sure looks like there's two. And she says: there's no problem with the ultr sound. There's two. Man, were we pumped and excited. Cuz we knew, knew that God was going to wrap this thing up with eight. But he was going to do it with a double Banger. And Chris was our most challenging son, and I thought: there's nobody better that deserves to have three kids, or four kids under the age of three, all in diapers. I've had to apologize to London for praying those prayers. I said: you probably should have consulted us before you said I do, I will. We were pumped. We were excited. We were ecstatic. Until about 2 months later, when they called and said: the ultrasounds are abnormal. Little baby — the fluid's not draining off of his brain the way it should. And his brain is swelling. And they've told us that our best option is to abort this baby. But they said the problem is, there's Twins. And the other baby is perfectly healthy. But to abort one means to abort both. There was not even a moment of hesitation, as they said: that is not an option. If God's going to bless us with these two kids, then we're going to trust God. And so prayers begin to go up. Man, I know, when I look across this congregation, that many of you prayed — began to pray prayers for those little babies. And every ultrasound that they'd go — thank God for Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, a world-renowned children's hospital. And they brought a team of Specialists together to work on this project. And when they began to look at the ultrasounds and the scans, they were astounded, because they had never seen a case this severe, and they had no idea how they were going to deal. The last month or two before birth, they began to tell Chris and London: you just need to prepare yourselves for the worst, because the likelihood of this baby being born alive is Slim, and the likelihood of it surviving outside the womb for long is none. But we just kept praying. And we just kept believing. And we just kept trusting in a God that has never failed us. So they decided a month before those babies were due, that because of the size of Simon's head expanding, because of all that fluid that had nowhere to go, that they were going to go in and take those two babies. So the 1st of March, that's EX — exactly what they did. And I want to show you: they did a scan when Simon was about two weeks old. This is a CT of his skull. What you're seeing all there in the middle, the light gray, is fluid. The little band around the outer edge is brain matter. That should not look like that. So time kept going, and Simon kept surprising everybody. CU he's — he made it a week. He made it two weeks. He made it a month. He made it two months. In August, they took another skan. This is what, this is what his brain looked like in August. They went back a week ago, and they've done another scan. They were concerned, because they thought: when that fluid starts coming out of here, there's no guarantee that there's going to be any brain matter there to expand and fill his head. But I want you to see, that his — every Scan they take, the, that pocket of fluid gets smaller, and his brain expands more and more each time. You have come too late today to tell me that our God is not a miracle worker. You have come too late to this place today to tell me that God doesn't care about you and me, and our needs and our situations. So little Simon, when he was born, he was the most precious thing — you can stay standing, cuz I'm done — he was the most precious thing that we ever in our life laid our eyes on. And today, this is Simon. He's doing what the doctor said he could never do. They said he would never hold his head up. He would never be able to respond. He would never be able to do anything that a normal little boy will do. And we can't forget about his twin brother, James. And I can't wait for the day that these two boys are big enough to play ball. That these two boys are big enough to be running across the yard, after whatever it is they want to chased after. These two boys are big enough to sing, and to talk, and to praise God, Hallelujah, in their own little way. Because we serve a God today that is able.

So I come here today asking you: have you got a mberry tree that you need God to move? I want you to know, you've got enough Faith within you right now for God to move that mberry tree. Maybe you've got a mountain in your life that you need moved. I want you to know right now, that you've got enough faith in you, that God can move that mountain. You don't need more faith. You just need to exercise your faith. You don't need God to give you Faith. You just need to put your faith in a great God, and trust him, and say: God, whatever it is you want to do in my life, here I am. If you're here today, and you need sin forgiven, I pray that you'd have enough Faith to step out from where you are, come down at this Altar, and say: God, forgive me of my sin. If you're in this place today, and you need healing, I just pray that you would exercise your faith here today.

Man, I couldn't believe last Sunday — Pastor started preaching all over my message. And I'm like: God, I know you gave me a direction. And so this week, when I went back to him, trying to finish this off, I said: God, I don't understand. We had faith, and we had Miracles. We had things take place here last week that, that are astounding. But God said: I know what I'm doing. I know, I know why I gave you what I gave you. I know why I gave Pastor what I gave Pastor. Because there are new needs that are here in this place today. There are new situations in this place today, that God wants to show up and show out, as to what he can do in your life. So I'm telling you, I'm asking you today, I'm begging you, I'm imploring you: whatever it is that you brought into this place — I know we're dealing with Thanksgiving, I know Christmas is coming up — but God wants to do a work in this place. But you and I have got to be willing and faithful enough to let him do it. So what are your needs, Center Point? What are your needs, friend? What are your needs today, that you brought into this place? Our God's here, right now, and he wants to meet those needs. Would you come? Would you just step out from where you are, walk down here to this Altar, and begin to pour it out to God? He's here, and he wants to do this work. He's here, right now, and he wants to do the miraculous. He's here, right now. He's not bound by the clock or the calendar, but he's here today to do amazing things in your life, if you'll just trust him. If you'll just trust him. If you'll just put your faith in, right now.