We'll be praying for you tomorrow, absolutely.
Are you guys awake?
Good deal, grab your Bibles tonight and turn
to two places as usual, Matthew chapter 28
and Philippians chapter one.
You can probably tell my normally bizarre voice
is bizarre tonight, I'm fighting something, but I
sound worse than what I feel, I think.
I certainly look worse than what I feel,
but listen, somebody said, man, you didn't shave.
Can you see that from where you're at?
Can you, really?
Let's just make something real clear right here,
right now.
I don't tell you what to do with
your face, this is my face.
And this is my, Lisa says it's fine,
it's my act of rebellion, it's as far
as I go.
So it'd be off by Sunday, so you
don't have to worry about it, okay, those
of you who are like all concerned about
it, it's okay, I'm not gonna call you
up tomorrow morning and look at your face
and see how you're doing, so.
Well, listen, Matthew chapter 28 beginning to verse
18 tonight, and it's those amazing words that
Jesus said, and they are the foundation of
this series, of the Disciplines of Life series
and tonight, the Discipline of Disability.
And we're not necessarily talking about a physical
disability, though we may touch on that for
a moment, but Matthew chapter 28, verse 18,
Jesus came and he spoke to his disciples,
and he said to them, all authority has
been given to me in heaven and on
earth, go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, verse 20, teaching them to observe all
things, that is Bible teaching.
What is it?
That I've commanded you and behold, I am
with you always, even to the end of
the world.
Now quickly, turn to the right, to Philippians
chapter one, verses 12 to 14 tonight.
Philippians one, verses 12 to 14.
Paul said to the church of Philippi, but
I want you to know, brethren, that the
things which happen to me have actually turned
out for the furtherance of the gospel.
So that it has become evident to the
whole palace guard and all the rest, that
my chains, Paul was in jail, are in
Christ, and most of the brethren in the
Lord, having become confident by my chains, are
much more bold to speak the word without
fear.
We're talking about the discipline of disability tonight.
Now when we see that word, we often
think that it's a limp, or it's an
ailment that we're going through, it is a
deformity, it's something external, and it may very
well be.
In Paul's case, it was much more than
that.
Yes, he was chained to a Roman guard,
but the man was absolutely free on the
inside.
But we know from church history that Paul
battled a lot of severe health issues.
We know that church history makes mention in
extra biblical writings that came later, that Paul
was a man that had been stricken with
malaria, he was a man that didn't appear
to be very physically fit, and that kind
of goes with the territory.
He was a Pharisee, that is that he
would have been a full-time student most
of his life.
He spent a lot of time by candlelight
and books.
He was a nerd, we would say today.
And for him to come and preach and
teach when he showed up, people didn't easily
recognize him, he was not some big prominent
figure.
He easily blended into a crowd.
But Paul was also a man that was
keenly aware of the demonic activity that he
fought against.
He was a man that loved God and
loved God's people.
We know that he was very passionate about
what he believed.
We know that in the book of Acts,
for example, chapter nine, before he was a
Christian, he was one who presided over Christians
being arrested and killed for their faith.
Paul would be today kind of like, I
don't know, Osama bin Laden getting converted, something
like that, something so profound, because you know
from the Bible that when Paul did get
converted to Christianity, none of the Christians wanted
to talk to him.
They wouldn't let him in their churches.
Remember that?
He actually wound up, you read the book
of Galatians and the book of Acts, he
wound up actually staying or having been barred
from churches from what appears to be years.
And in the book of Galatians chapter one,
it tells us that Paul was in the
wilderness of Arabia being instructed in the spirit
by God himself.
No wonder why he's a apostle of such
profound teaching.
But tonight we'll be looking at disabilities and
how they come to us, how we deal
with them.
There's obvious forms.
There's not so obvious forms.
Some of them, maybe for pride's sake, we
would hide them.
We would seek to do anything and everything
possible to make sure nobody knows what our
problem is in life, what our disability is
in life.
And some of them are just flat out
out there and they're in your face, we
would say.
So number one in our study tonight, look
at this, jot it down if you would,
and by all means, make this applicable to
your own heart, is that disabilities are anything
but common to us.
And let me explain what I mean by
that.
Disabilities are anything but common to us.
You say, why do you say that?
Because you and I, all of us have
disabilities and we think for a moment that
what is going on in our lives is
something that is so uniquely us and with
that, there's a stigma.
But disabilities are anything but common in the
sense that when it's your issue, it is
paramount.
You can look at someone else and you
can see, oh, isn't that sad?
Or, oh, you know, look at that.
I wonder how they get by.
But in reality, is not your situation very,
very painful itself, very keen?
And honestly, I've lived a little bit long
enough to realize that I don't think there's
anyone that's exempt from having some form of
disability, be it physical and or emotional or
mental or maybe spiritual.
I was talking to a friend last night
and when I came to know Jesus Christ,
it was so wonderful for me.
The first year of being a Christian was
awesome.
And then I started reading some really legalistic
books.
I got into some really heavy legalistic books.
And when I say legalistic, Pastor Romain at
Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa years ago, he said,
listen, Jack, you need to put those books
down and pick them up again in about
20 years when you're rooted and grounded in
the grace of God because these books are
not normal.
These books are for different kinds of people.
Well, these kinds of books that I was
reading were from great theologians, but they said
things like this.
If you were not praying four hours a
day, you are probably not a Christian.
So I spent three years getting up at
four o'clock in the morning and praying
to seven to eight o'clock in the
morning.
Then I coerced a couple of friends to
do that with me for a manner of
years.
And it's bizarre, all three of them now
are pastors, pastoring churches.
But I tell you what, we were the
four horsemen of the apocalypse back in those
days of legalism.
And we looked like super saints on the
outside, but let me tell you, on the
inside, we were withering away.
We knew Jesus, we were saved, but we
didn't know his peace.
And there's a big difference.
Whatever the situation is in your life, mark
this down, experience.
We learned this in verse 12.
There's something to be said and that's regarding
the experience of a disability and walking with
God.
Paul says to the church, but I want
you to know, brethren.
He's talking to fellow Christians.
And this is a mandate.
The word know right here is the Greek
word ginosko.
It means this, I have this announcement.
Or we've heard the old English term resolved.
Patrick Henry was big on that.
Resolved, we make these declarations, resolved.
It means I'm making a statement and it's
a big one.
That's exactly the word that Paul used here.
Resolved, know this, I'm making an announcement.
It means to make someone completely aware of
what you're about to say.
This is a tremendous thought.
He says, I want you to absolutely not
miss my fellow Christian brothers and sisters that
I've got something to say.
He's talking about an experience.
He says, I'm gonna share with you from
prison an experience that will affect you for
the rest of your life.
And so everybody would have perked up.
They would have listened carefully to this.
That's a testimony, my friend, that's a witness.
And your witness as a Christian tonight is
a very powerful thing, a testimony.
We don't hear so much about testimonies.
Now, I know that some churches, they might
get away from teaching the Bible and everybody's
got a testimony.
And then maybe like our church, we wind
up trying to cram so much Bible into
such a short period of time, we don't
get to hear any testimonies.
But if you have a friend or a
friendship with people or in a small group
setting, you ought to share your testimony.
You say, Jack, what are you talking about?
Your testimony is your story as to how
you met Jesus Christ.
And if you don't have a testimony, I
want to ask you, why not?
Why not?
All of our testimonies are different.
My wife grew up in a Christian home.
She cannot tell you the day that she
accepted Christ.
I mean, she knows that there's a day
that she prayed to accept the Lord, but
she's always believed in him.
So she can't nail that day down.
Maybe some of you are like that.
You just don't know the day that you
came to believe.
You've always believed.
My wife has that testimony.
She says, I've never lived not knowing Jesus.
Well, I lived not knowing Jesus.
And between the two of us, we have
two different testimonies.
But both are valid.
Both are equal.
Now I know the culture we live in.
In fact, this is wrong.
Oh man, have you heard that guy's testimony?
It's awesome.
Well, why?
Oh man, he was a murderer and he
bit cats in half and he outran cars
and he jumped over.
What?
And then when people hear stuff like that
and probably who knows, most of those kinds
of testimonies may not even be true.
I don't know.
How are you gonna prove that?
And then you see someone sitting in the
church and they're going, man, I'm a loser.
I don't have some wicked, horrible story.
You know what I'm talking about?
You know, if that's you tonight and you're
saying, well, my life wasn't, you know, I
mean, I came to Jesus, but it wasn't
all that, you know, humongously wicked.
I mean, I didn't like rob any banks
or anything.
And you start to feel like you're some
sort of a sub-Christian.
Well, Jesus kind of saved me because I
wasn't all that bad like that guy.
Listen, your testimony is amazing.
Your testimony, if you tonight can say, gosh,
you know what?
The Lord pretty much kept me out of
a lot of trouble and I've been a
Christian and here I am.
You are an amazing testimony, which is pretty
rare.
And that is the testimony of the keeping
power of God in your life.
That's a big deal.
Anybody can say what God has delivered them
from.
It's pretty common actually.
But the truth of the matter is, if
tonight you can say, well, you know what?
The Lord has just done this thing in
my life and this is my experience.
Paul is saying to the church at Philippi,
this is my experience.
It's your life's experience that you would say
tonight, you know what?
It is and it has been a disability,
Jack, my life.
That's not what God says.
It's anything but common.
And this is very important because in your
experience, you have the literal calling from God
to take your life's story.
And some of you are young in here
tonight and your story is being built right
now.
And God will use you.
You say, well, what do I do?
Go look for trouble so I can have
some big...
No, trouble will come and find you.
But be strong, have that testimony.
In Luke chapter 21, verse 12, Jesus said,
but before all these things, they will lay
their hands on you and persecute you and
deliver you from synagogue and prisons.
And you will be brought before kings and
rulers for my name's sake.
But it will turn out for you as
an occasion for testimony, to give a witness
for Jesus.
Your life's experience, the hardships, the difficulties, the
joys.
There is nothing common in your life as
a Christian, absolutely.
As a non-Christian, absolutely.
God is at work in your life.
Secondly, under this point, there's something to be
learned and that is the situation.
Look at verse 12.
He says that the things which happened to
me, this is a tremendous statement.
He's talking about challenges and urgencies that have
come upon his life.
This is the apostle Paul and he's in
jail.
The guy is in a place where nobody
wants to be.
And he's in a first century jail.
It's not like, you know, jails today or
jails in California.
This is horrible stuff.
And he's in jail and you know what
he's in jail for?
He's been found guilty of being a Christian,
convicted of being a witness for Jesus Christ.
How cool is that?
Man, what are you in here for?
Can you imagine?
He's Paul.
He's just this little nerd of a guy
student.
All these big Burley Roman empire strikes back
gladiator of Jedis.
What are you in here for?
Preaching the gospel.
Preaching the what?
Can you imagine?
He says, these things they've happened to me.
And it almost like, oh Paul, golly, somebody
sent us some chocolates.
This is horrible.
Look what happened to him.
Can you believe it?
No, Paul was saying, wait a minute.
Wait, you guys need to know something.
These things that have happened to me, he's
talking about his situation.
Every one of us have got a situation
right now.
Do we not?
Man, if you don't have a situation, what
are you doing?
Or what are you not doing to not
have a situation?
And whatever your situation is, the Lord wants
to be right in the middle of it.
And if you just say, Lord, yes, I
want you in the middle of it.
Oh, he loves that stuff.
He comes in, starts moving things around.
He starts doing things.
And Paul announces that his thing had not
just happened to him.
He said, oh, Pastor, life's been so difficult
to me and it's been such a hard
thing.
And I just feel so defeated.
I feel so down.
I feel so alone.
Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What book are you reading?
He's with you.
He's working and Paul's, he's chained to these
incredible centurion guards.
And we know that from the book of
Ephesians, he begins to state the armament of
what it takes to be a believer.
Because he saw what it took and what
the Roman empire wanted out of a soldier.
And Paul is saying, you know what?
In your situation, here's the deal.
And he can say it with power.
He's coming up to us right now and
he's speaking to us from the word of
God.
The Holy Spirit is using his words.
And he's saying, I'm in jail.
I know what it's like.
And here's the deal.
This just didn't happen to me.
This has been a plan of God.
God's at work in my life.
You can't stop somebody like this.
In Philippians 4.11, the Bible says, for
I have learned in whatever state that I'm
in to be content.
You can insert California right there.
For whatever I've learned, he says, I've learned
this, that I can be content in whatever
situation, whatever condition, whatever's going on in my
life.
And what has happened in your life?
What's going on right now?
Is it pressure from within?
Is it pressure from without?
Is it evil?
Is it danger?
Is it threats?
Are you being misrepresented?
Is it a financial thing?
What is it?
He's there.
He's with you.
Is it a relationship thing?
Not knowing who likes you, who loves you?
Does anybody?
He's there.
He's in the moment.
Tonight, I just pray, man, if you're not
a Christian tonight.
In fact, right before I came tonight, I
was putting on my clothes, getting ready to
come.
I was watching the news and there was
a commercial.
There's a commercial out there.
And it's the humanist.
Have you seen it?
Yeah, it's the human, join the humanist movement
or whatever it is.
The humanist, the humanist atheist of America, whatever.
And they have a commercial and you can
join.
And I'm watching it.
And by the way, they just don't say
join.
They make fun of the Bible and they're
quoting the Bible out of context in their
commercial.
You know what they're doing.
By the way, if they, hey, if there's
anybody watching from the humanist atheist movement, you
guys are the most jumbo cowards in the
world.
Here's the reason why you wimp.
Here's the deal.
No, here's the deal.
You pick on Christians because you know they
love Jesus.
And if they ever met you on the
street, they would buy you a Coke.
Why don't you do it to Islam?
Make fun of Muhammad.
See how that goes.
You atheist hypocrite, right?
Think of that.
Yeah, we're the atheist of America.
And Muhammad is this or Islam is that.
They'll never do that.
They'll pick on the Christian because they know
that your God's real and we worship him.
And our God says, love boneheads like that.
It just cracks me up.
Everybody wants to pick on the Christian.
They think we're weak.
Man, listen, we're trying to love you.
Because in a moment of weakness, we'd love
to lay hands on you.
But we're walking with Jesus right now.
I mean, think about that.
Think about it, man.
If Jesus wasn't real, think about how many
murders there'd be in the world.
You know what I mean?
You know exactly.
I'm hearing a lot of amens out there.
I can feel it.
They can get away with making fun of
Christians.
Our situation transcends this world.
A lot of bad stuff happening.
A lot of bad stuff.
Listen, it could be worse.
And what if it gets worse?
So what if it gets worse?
We're gonna retire someday, okay?
And Wall Street won't have a thing to
do with it.
It'd be Golden Street with God, retirement with
Jesus.
This world's not our home.
And it's a good thing.
There's something to be learned in this situation
that you're living through right now.
The Lord loves you.
Maybe somebody's telling you they love you.
If you love me, you'll do this.
If you love me, that or the other.
Jesus says this, I love you.
And the whole thing is, the Bible says,
it's the goodness of God that leads a
man to repentance.
Isn't that amazing?
You might be sitting here tonight saying, I
don't need God.
My life's been so good.
I'm doing great without God.
You funny guy.
The Bible says, it's the goodness of God
that's leading you to repentance.
You look around at your empire and you
go, wow, God's been good to me.
You say, well, what if somebody doesn't come
to Christ by goodness?
Well, he has other means.
He's got a lot of tools in his
toolbox.
Many a time, seems like it's happening more
and more.
A woman will say, pastor, will you pray
for me?
Because my husband has left the home.
And I always feel a deep sense of
satisfaction coming from them when I pray for
them, because this is how I pray.
So I'll say, where's your husband?
I don't know.
He left with some lady and he's, I
don't know.
So I said, well, let's pray.
What's his name?
Billy Bop.
Okay, let's pray for Billy Bop.
If your name is Billy Bop, you're in
trouble.
Here you go.
And I'll pray with her and I'll say,
Lord, wherever Billy Bop is right now, in
his waywardness from you and his waywardness from
his family, I'm asking you, Father, right now
in Jesus' name, that you would do whatever
severe mercy is needed.
You say, what is that?
What is that severe mercy?
That means, Lord, I'm asking you, Father, to
use whatever leverage you would like, you need
to, to get that guy to bow his
knee.
So what does that mean?
I have no idea.
I don't need to know.
Why are you asking God like to break
his leg?
Could be.
It could be, it could be, you know,
broken nose.
Could be a thought.
I'm going home, I'm going back home.
I just, Lord, get him.
And then we pray, well, you know, he
ran off with his, he ran off with
his secretary.
Then we pray, Lord, the next time they
even try to get together, and I'm not
joking, I'm telling you right now, Lord, just
cause him to throw up violently.
Just get sicker than a dog.
I'm dead serious about that.
She said, Jack, you don't mean it.
I do, and it's biblical prayer, by the
way.
David prayed prayers like that.
David, David said, Lord, save my enemies.
If you're not going to save them, break
their teeth off in their mouth.
David prayed prayer like that.
Okay, next, purpose.
Disabilities are anything but common, you guys, in
our lives because God is so in them.
They're not something routine.
They happen a lot, but you know what?
We start thinking, well, man, it's just, this
happens to everybody.
This is life, but you're just not anybody.
God is God, and he's working in your
life, which leads us to, this was a
purpose.
There's something to be known in the purpose
of what God is doing in our lives.
God has a timetable, and his timetable drives
me crazy.
I'll prove it to you.
2 Peter 3.8 says, beloved, do not
forget this one thing, that with the Lord,
one day is as 1,000 years, and
1,000 years is as one day.
What does that mean?
It means he lives in eternity.
That's all it means.
Does that mean you count, and then you
can figure out how many days in the
1,000 years, and then it's gonna be
one?
No, it means he is eternal.
He's not, look, God's not going like this.
We should hurry up down there.
There's no time where he lives.
How freaky is that?
You know, we've kind of had little hints
of that stuff in life.
Have you ever had that deja vu thing
they call it?
I don't know why they call that, but
have you ever had that happen in your
head?
And you know, doctors will tell you that
they don't quite understand it, but they think
it's like a mini stroke.
They've talked about mini strokes.
They've talked about other things as to why
this happens.
They don't know why it happens.
But it's like, hey, this is freaky weird.
A red car is gonna go down the
street in about three seconds.
There it goes.
You know what I'm talking about?
You ever been in a really bad accident?
Anybody, car accident?
I have.
Have you noticed?
What happens to time when you're in a
car accident?
Listen to this.
Did you hear that?
It's wild.
We got broadsided on PCH and Beach Boulevard.
Boom.
Some guy stoned on marijuana, had three pounds
of marijuana in the car, stolen car, blows
the intersection and T-bones us in the
intersection.
Here's the freaky thing.
We're going across and we see the guy
coming and he is flying.
And we're like, man, you know, okay.
It's gonna be a great day, man.
Look at the beach.
It's awesome.
Oh my God.
You know what I'm talking about?
And the car's coming and it feels like
an eternity.
And the car hits in the glass and
everything's flying.
It seems like it takes forever.
Does anybody remember when that's taking place?
How fast your brain is processing everything?
Super fast.
I think that's God's mercy.
I think in an accident like that, you
could have easily accepted Jesus Christ seriously in
nanoseconds of time.
I think that's a flirtation with eternity.
I really do.
The purpose.
There's something to be known about that.
God is the governor of time and he
may not be answering and coming to the
rescue the way that you want him to
in your disability.
God just fixes in my life.
Why is Jeff gonna have brain surgery tomorrow?
We will find out later as to why.
God does these things.
He uses these things in a broken world.
400 plus years, Israel was enslaved in Egypt
for having disobeyed God.
400 years, 400 years.
God wasn't waiting.
I don't understand how he does that.
And you don't either.
But there's one thing, it's always now with
God.
He's never late.
He's never early.
He's always on it.
Well, why doesn't he do this?
You know, when we say that, those are,
we say things like that because we're upset.
We say things like that because we're upset
because we're upset with the timing of it.
We get tired quickly.
We get frustrated quickly.
Why doesn't he do something about this?
He's got a plan.
Will we trust him with what he's doing?
Well, I want a man.
And then you get a man and then
you don't want the man.
Well, if I just had a woman in
my life, I'd be fine.
It's hilarious.
Wait on God.
Never makes a mistake.
Exodus 13, 16 says, for by strength of
hand, the Lord brought us forth out of
Egypt.
I love that.
At the right time, he called his people
out of Egypt.
That's powerful.
Number two is this, the discipline of disability
is this, that disabilities become power tools to
God.
They really do.
I don't understand it.
In Philippians 1, 13, our text this evening
is this, so that it has become evident,
circle the word evident, to the whole palace
guard.
Those are a bunch of Romans.
And to all the rest, that my chains
are in Christ.
Boy, are you here, Paul?
Jesus wants me here.
I'm in jail for being a Christian.
And how in the world, think about this.
How does this make sense?
Church, listen, was Paul a public preacher?
Yep.
Was he an evangelist?
Yep.
Was he a church planter?
Yep.
Was he an apostle?
Yep.
Did he travel more than most of us?
Yep.
On a donkey and camel and all that
stuff.
Crazy, huh?
2,000 years ago, that guy covered more
ground.
Look at that.
You gotta look at a map of the
missionary journeys of Paul.
Amazing.
What's he doing in prison?
If I would have been God's counselor, excuse
me, Lord, you got a good man locked
up there.
Why don't you put some bum in prison
that doesn't get around?
Let Paul go.
He gets everywhere.
And if you ask me, this is a
bad use of resources.
God is so brilliant.
Why would he take a man who is
a public man like Paul and put him
in prison for a season?
Did you see that in the Bible?
It has become evident.
The word evident is the word to shine.
Can you write that down?
To shine, to blaze.
The word means to be ablaze, to spread
around or to move quickly like a Southern
California brush fire.
You can't outrun them.
Look what he says.
He said, it's become evident.
The news that I'm in jail has spread
like wildfire.
It's taken off.
The Lord uses strange things, you guys.
And they become power tools in the hands
of God.
Accidents, injury, imprisonments.
I don't understand it.
I don't need to understand it.
But the news of Paul's imprisonment spread like
wildfire that he was found guilty and in
prison for being a Christian.
What an honor.
Jesus was using Paul's arrest to advance the
kingdom of God.
You say, how can that happen?
How can anything good come out of this
thing?
I feel like I'm shut down.
I feel like I'm sequestered, like I'm in
a box.
You ever feel like that in life?
You can be standing on a mountaintop and
feel like you're in prison.
Maybe tonight you're saying, how does my life
matter?
There's nothing coming out of my life.
How do you know?
Who's watching you?
You don't know.
So I only know three people in my
life.
Hey, what if one of those people turn
out to be the next Billy Graham and
they're watching your life?
Oh man, that's just so out there freaky.
You know what?
My God is out there freaky.
He does amazing stuff that you'll never figure
out.
Can you imagine Noah?
He tells everybody, it's gonna rain.
What's rain?
The Bible says up until then, water came
up from the ground.
At night, dew watered the earth.
Gonna rain.
What a dope, building a boat.
In God's time, in fact, not only in
God's time does he make things right, isn't
it amazing, you guys?
You've lived long enough to realize.
And what are we now?
What century is this?
The 21st century?
All this debate about God.
Listen, it's never gonna end until he comes
back because man's heart's that way.
But here's the cool thing.
As time goes on, if you're gonna be
a non-believer, have you noticed it's getting
really hard to be a non-believer?
I'm gonna tell you, you know it's true
because whenever there's an event in the world,
every news channel in the universe turns to
the Bible.
They call in all the theologians.
What's going on?
What do you wanna know for?
That's what I wanna do.
What's happening?
Why should you ask?
You don't care about me 364 days out
of the year.
All of a sudden, you know, there's a
big earthquake or some attack in the Middle
East and CNN calls.
What's happening?
I'll tell you what's happening.
Jesus, I'm dying on the cross for your
sins.
No, no, we wanna talk about the end
of the world.
No, you don't wanna talk about the end
of the world because you ain't ready to
meet the end of the world.
I don't wanna get into that religious stuff.
We just wanna know what the Bible prophecy
says.
Isn't that funny?
Bible prophecy is salvation, dude.
It's getting saved.
Well, we wanna know about the meaning of
the 10 toes on Daniel's statue.
You need to know about the purpose of
your life.
It's funny, it's amazing.
God uses stuff.
And when God goes to work, people will
know it.
Verse 13 says, so that it has become
evident, it's spread like wildfire.
Galatians 6, 17 says, for now on, let
no man trouble me, Paul speaks, for I
bear in my body the marks of the
Lord Jesus.
You know what that means?
You ever seen people getting tattoos?
I mean, I haven't seen people get tattoos,
but I've seen tattoo places.
I don't know why you do that.
You put ink in your skin, in a
needle.
It's a needle, isn't it?
What's wrong with you?
I see a needle, man, I run the
other way.
As soon as you get a tattoo.
It's a man.
So what was it?
And it says like mom on there or
whatever.
I've been to prison to preach the gospel.
Thank God I've never been to prison.
I spoke to a bunch of guys condemned
out in Ironwood prison in the desert.
Like when it, Blythe area, you know, like
it's like a hundred in the winter.
And I was terrified.
I was terrified because they took my clothes
away.
I had to wear a suit, like a
jumpsuit, like everybody else is wearing.
So wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
They have my, the guards have my wallet.
They have all my ID.
I'm wearing an orange suit.
Here's your Bible.
And man, you walk out there and it's,
I can't talk about some of the stuff
that's going on.
It's, let me tell you, you do not
want to go to prison.
And everybody looked at me and I said,
it was a God moment.
I said, let's get something straight right now.
Dear Jesus, God of heaven and earth, help
me.
Let's just get something straight right here, right
now.
The only difference between me and you is
that I have not been caught.
Right?
See, what do you mean?
You guys, I actually was going a hundred
miles an hour once in a 45.
Any police officers in here tonight?
You should have taken me straight to jail.
It was a CHP officer.
He found me, he caught me.
I was working three jobs.
I was a young idiot.
And I was racing from one job to
the next job, trying to sleep in between
stoplights.
And I got busted.
And according, I guess, according to the law,
I don't know this stuff, but I was
told by that guy, I can take you
in right now.
You are absolutely insane.
Think about it.
In God's court, we all got caught.
God knows everything.
You say, yeah, but what about the tattoo
and the mark and Jesus?
Listen, Paul says, I bear the marks of
Jesus in my body.
You know what he's talking about?
Exactly.
The beatings, the scars, his back had been
ripped open.
The Bible says that Paul was stoned by
his adversaries and left for dead.
I think he died.
I actually think, I think God brought him
back.
Can you imagine?
You can go online and watch people being
stoned to death.
Oh, you should.
I'm not joking.
You want to get your eyes and your
brain clear about Islam?
Go look at Islamic countries and what they
do.
You should see it.
Wake up, America.
Paul had been stoned and whipped and laid
open and his body was scarred.
Probably a little bit deformed from all the
stuff he had gone through.
Paul says, I bear, I don't, Paul says,
I am not worrying about how this all
turns out in the end, because you know
what?
I bear the scars of Christ in my
own body.
Think of that for a minute.
How committed, how committed are we to what
Jesus wants to do, to what Jesus is
doing?
Man, when we get this down, you know
what?
All of a sudden, all of my weaknesses,
all of my frailties, it becomes a power
tool in the hands of God because Paul
the apostle had weaknesses.
He had frailties and God grabbed him like
a plane.
Think about it.
Grabbed him in the head, grabbed him maybe
like in the rump and went like this.
Come on, Paul.
I'm going to build my church.
Imagine if every Christian had a handle sticking
out of their back wherever we went.
God just says, I need something done right
now.
We should look at each other like that
with handles sticking out of our back.
God can grab us anytime and use us.
In Philippians 1 20, he says, for I
live in eager expectation, verse 20, Philippians 1,
and hope that I will never do anything
that causes me shame, but that I will
always be bold for Christ as I have
been in the past and that my life
will also honor Christ, whether I live or
die, for to me to live as Christ
and dying is even better.
Wow.
You say, man, isn't that kind of fatalistic?
No way.
It's impossible to be fatalistic when heaven's your
target and you have a purpose to live
now.
Also this, when God goes to work, people
will be affected.
The whole palace guard, look at verse 13.
The whole palace guard.
How in the world?
Can you imagine?
What if you had a burden of witness
to the secret service right now?
Say, man, I wanna reach out to the
US secret service.
What are you gonna do, knock on their
door?
Hey, can you let me in?
I wanna tell you about Jesus.
They wouldn't even open the door.
Can you imagine going to Langley and knocking
on the door of the CIA?
Hey, can I come on in and tell
you about Jesus?
So how do you do that?
How do you get to share with people
like that?
You get yourself arrested.
Paul's preaching Christ.
God in his infinite wisdom winds up having
the situation be so that Paul was taken
away and he shares Jesus with the palace
guards.
You guys, I really, truly...
Have you ever watched the White House when
the helicopter lands?
That's called Marine One, HMX One.
I got to be on that thing three
times.
I got to sit in the president's chair.
You know the phone like in a movie
and you pick it up and it says
Moscow, Tel Aviv, Cairo.
It's really there.
I picked it up.
I'm not kidding.
I have stuff in my office from that
helicopter.
They gave it to me.
I didn't take it.
And I sat in that chair, had the
presidential seal on it, prayed for the president.
Pretty awesome.
I didn't get to see the president.
So how would I have gotten to see
the president?
Probably would not have gotten a chance to
see the president on that helicopter.
Unless I'd maybe done something illegal, I don't
know what.
But how do I get to Leavenworth or
wherever they take people?
You would be carted away under that entourage
to that location for that punishment or for
that jurisdiction.
Paul was taken to the Roman palace guard
and he preaches Christ.
And guess what?
We know from other portions of scripture that
even those of Caesar's household had gotten saved.
My friends, you may not know what's going
on.
Jeff may not understand.
And maybe his family's saying, Lord, why?
Maybe someone in the hospital tomorrow will hear
about Jesus.
And at Christmas will share with his mother
-in-law and she's got a neighbor who
doesn't believe in Jesus.
And that neighbor knows the trash man who,
and I'm serious.
That's how it works.
Can't he make it easier?
It's what he does.
But you become a power tool in God's
hands in all of our weaknesses.
He's amazing.
Philippians 4.11. Now that I speak in
regards to need, he says, for I've learned
in whatever state to be and there were
to be content.
I know that, listen, to be a based,
Paul knew how to be absolutely poor and
he knew how to handle himself when he
had stuff.
Everywhere and in all things I've learned both
to be full and to be hungry, both
to abound and to suffer need.
What's he saying?
Verse 13, Philippians 4.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
That's a great verse.
That's an awesome verse.
And then also this, when God goes to
work, people will be encouraged.
Look what it says there.
He says that everybody's now found out that
my chains are in Christ.
You know what they began to say?
That word means people began to talk.
Hey man, the Lord put Paul in jail.
The Lord put Paul in jail.
He stood for righteousness.
He got put in jail.
He wasn't speeding with his donkey.
He didn't like cut some camel off.
He's in jail for preaching Christ.
And people began to talk about what's he
in jail for?
Preaching Jesus.
His chains are in Christ.
What a great thing.
Think of that.
What's he doing?
Oh, he's doing time.
For what?
He was preaching Christ.
He witnessed a Nancy Pelosi or somebody, I
don't know, got arrested.
That's an honor.
That's amazing.
It'd be encouraging.
The very reason, the explanation, it was about
Jesus.
And Paul said in second Corinthians that in
all of his weaknesses, the Lord had used
them.
That God had become more grand.
Listen, church, we're almost done.
God had become more grand and more glorious
in the minds of people because of weakness.
It's amazing.
So that the power of Christ would rest
upon him, says the scriptures.
In second Timothy four, it's one of the
most moving chapters, in my opinion, of the
entire Bible.
Second Timothy chapter four, I remember when we
did our study in the book of second
Timothy, that part, that chapter moved me to
the core because Paul now is older.
He's in prison for the last time he's
in Rome.
We've been to that prison.
And the next morning, his head was gonna
get cut off.
And Paul says in second Timothy four, six,
he says, for I am already being poured
out as a drink offering.
Listen, if you're Jewish, you get it.
Paul is saying, I'm a dead man.
I'm not getting out of this one alive.
I'm checking all my bases.
I got everything settled.
Tomorrow I die.
I'm being poured out.
When that drink offerings poured out, it hits
the coals of the altar, the steam rises.
And what was you goes up.
And he goes, that's me.
He says, for my departure's at hand.
I have fought the good fight.
I finished the race.
I've kept the faith.
And finally, there's laid up for me a
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, will give me on that day.
And not only me also, but to all
those who have loved his appearing.
That's a great statement.
And in Romans 8, 26, the same man,
Paul wrote to the Italians in Romans 8,
26.
And he says, likewise, the spirit also helps
our weaknesses.
Did you guys know this?
Did you know that the Holy Spirit prays
for you?
I don't understand that.
But the Bible says that the Holy, in
fact, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit
prays for us.
That's weird.
I don't think about that.
The Holy Spirit talks to God the Father
for us.
And the Bible also says Jesus intercedes for
us.
Though, are you with me?
The Holy Spirit and Jesus talk to the
Father for us.
The Bible says wherever two or more are
gathered.
How about this?
In the hearing of two witnesses, the truth
shall be established.
The Holy Spirit and the Son is talking
to the Father about you.
Not about you.
I'm just like, oh man.
For you.
Romans 8, 26, likewise, the Holy Spirit, capital
S, also helps our weaknesses for we do
not know what we should pray for as
we ought.
But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us
with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now he who searches the hearts knows what
the mind of the Spirit is because he
makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God.
And we know that all things work together
for good to those who love God, to
those who are the called according to his
purposes.
Final point.
Disabilities will cause us to become dependent.
That's a very good thing.
To be dependent.
Number one, this way, we are unable, church,
to provide for ourselves.
Did you know that?
We're unable.
It says in verse 14, now for most
of the brethren in the Lord, having become
confident by my chains, are much more bold
to speak the word without fear.
Very quickly, we're unable to provide for ourselves
truly.
God has promised to take care of us.
And Paul says, guess what?
Not only is God using these chains, but
he's using it in the lives of other
people.
Are you willing tonight, church, listen, are you
willing tonight to say to the Lord, Lord,
use my life so that whatever you wanna
do, your will be done?
Are you listening?
Your will be done, Father, that in my
life you would infuse into others that they
might be confident.
Are you willing to pray that prayer?
Now you need to say, Jack, I'm scared
to pray that prayer.
No, no, listen.
I don't understand it.
But when you pray that and you say,
Lord, I wanna be used by you.
You cannot live a more blessed life.
And I can't explain it.
See, but what if it's like Joseph who
gets sold out by his brothers and thrown
into a pit?
And he gets carted off to Egypt.
Yeah, you know what, Joseph, that's a big
deal.
I can't think of anybody who had, outside
of Jesus, Joseph, I mean, his life, he
was constantly misrepresented, lied about, forgotten about, ripped
off, cheated by his family, by the Egyptians,
by the caravan of Ishmaelites.
It was horrible for him.
You wanna have, anyone have the right to
complain?
It's Joseph.
And you never see him complaining.
And the poor guy, he was born an
absolute physical stud, incredibly handsome.
And Potiphar's wife keeps hitting on him.
And he, and a man of integrity.
And what happened?
You think, oh man, surely God's gonna really
totally defend him because he's a man of
integrity.
God did defend him in God's time and
in God's way.
But he wound up going to jail because
this total jaguar or cougar woman kept coming
on to him.
Lying with me, lying with me every day.
It said that she cast longing eyes at
him.
You know, what does that mean?
Take me, take me, get me, get me.
What is that?
And he kept running from her.
So then she ripped him off, had him
thrown in jail because he wouldn't go for
it.
Joseph.
Joseph grew up in that horrible time being
radically dependent upon God.
What about Job?
Joseph did nothing wrong.
Job, Job was minding his own business.
Satan says, you know what?
God, you've blessed that guy so much, makes
me sick.
And God says, I know that guy.
There's nobody on the earth like him.
And Satan says to God, you know what?
You let me take him to an inch
of his life and he'll curse you to
your face.
His faith in you is all because he's
rich.
You've blessed him.
He's got kids galore.
He's got all kinds of donkeys and stuff.
I'll kill them all.
God, who knows all things, says, you can
touch him, but you can't take his life.
You say, man, that's mean, that's mean.
Look, the Bible says in Genesis, or book
of Job, excuse me, chapter 42, that in
the end, Job is restored with wealth and
children more.
And his life was more blessed in the
end than it was in the beginning.
I can't explain it.
Just like you can't explain the things going
on in your life.
But my friend, you'll either hang on to
Jesus or you'll bail like a lunatic and
jump in jail.
Or you'll jump out of the boat into
the raging sea.
And you're gonna make that choice.
And I highly recommend that you stay with
Jesus all the way through.
You know what, real quickly?
Jonah, Jonah goofed up and brought almost everything
upon himself.
He said, Jonah ran from God.
Jonah knew the will of God and ran
from God.
Maybe you're a Jonah tonight.
You know exactly what God's telling you to
do.
And you're running from God.
Yeah, it's funny because I see you running
down the street and you're like this big
and behind, there's these giant feet coming behind
you, it's God.
Hey, where are you going?
And you're running.
We were talking before service and Lisa and
I remember Ashley.
She's really little.
We're at Mervin's.
She's so tiny and a little stinker.
She would go hide.
And we're shopping.
I thought you had Ashley.
Where have you been?
I was in that area of the store.
Where were you?
I was in that area of the store.
When's the last time you saw her?
Like a half hour ago.
You ever had that feeling?
You ever had that happen?
Instantly, instantly, I ran to the front of
the doors of the Mervin's and stood there
and I would have killed anyone coming out
of the building because my daughter's lost.
And the worst thoughts enter your mind as
a parent.
You ever been there as a parent?
And man, get on the announcement.
You announce shut down this store.
Her name's Ashley.
She looks like this.
She's about that big.
It's a horrible feeling.
Where are you?
She's inside of the rack hiding the whole
time.
Hang on, I thought it was great.
Can you imagine the gut feel?
Can you imagine the gut feel when God
said, where are you, Adam?
Eve, where are you?
Can you imagine the gut feel of God
when two of his kids had run away?
Where are you?
Think about that as a parent.
He's calling you back.
We're unable to protect ourselves.
We need to come to him.
The Bible says in Psalm 103, verse 14,
for he knows our frame and he knows
that we're just dust.
Isn't he kind?
And then we end with this, we're unable
to promote ourselves.
You say, what does that mean?
When I say promote, it says in verse
14, and we end with this, that they
were much more bold to speak the word
without fear.
That word without fear means this.
They were much more bold because Paul's imprisonment.
Here's what, watch, here's what happened.
Wake up, we're ending.
It's time to wake up and go home.
Here it is.
They looked at Paul and they kind of
like, imagine they poked him.
How you doing?
I'm fine.
But you're chained and you're in jail.
Yeah.
And you know, everyone's talking about you being
in here.
And even some of the guards, man, we
got the guards over there now, they're singing
little Jesus songs.
Yeah, I know.
It's been amazing.
I've been sharing with everybody.
Wow, well, you know what?
People outside started thinking, if you can preach
the gospel chained in prison, then we ought
to be able to preach it free outside.
Right?
And that's what's been going on.
And we've seen your faithfulness, Paul.
And it's made us, here's what the word
means.
It's made us fearless in the face of
men.
How cool is that?
By your witness, we're not afraid of anybody
anymore.
You guys, that is the answer to any
disabilities we might have.
Lord, whatever I am, what I have and
what I don't have, it's yours.
Use it.
And he will.
And in this case, the witnesses became fearless
in the face of men.
That's what we need in this day and
age.
The church needs men and women fearless.
The Bible says that the fear of man
is a snare, but the righteous are as
bold as a lion.
That's cool.
Luckily for you, my voice is done.
Father, we pray tonight, oh Lord, our God.
Blessed are you, Lord, who brings forth everything
that we need.
Father, we pray tonight that as your people,
we would revel in your presence that you've
made possible through Jesus to simply speak, talk,
commune with you, to talk with you.
And Father, that tonight, if there's a man
or a woman, a boy or a girl,
that they don't have that.
They don't know that.
Very religious maybe, but no personal moment-by
-moment interaction, no keen awareness that you're ever
before them, that that would change.
And my friend, maybe that's you tonight.
And I highly, highly beg and plead with
you to say yes to Jesus right now,
right where you're at.
Ask him to forgive you of your sins.
He can't wait to do that.
He's so excited to do that.
He died on the cross for you, for
us.
And to join the family of God, not
this church, but by faith right now to
say, Lord, I wanna be in this forgiven
family.
I wanna be in this saved house of
people.
And you would tell them right now, Lord
Jesus, thank you for dying for me on
the cross and being risen from the dead
to shatter the grip of the grave, to
blow the lid off the ground, to roll
the stone away.
Lord, will you do that for me in
my life?
Will you fix my life?
Will you fix my home?
My friend, please do that right now, right
where you're at, while you have the time.
This world is so, so precarious right now.
You don't even know if you have tomorrow.
Say yes to Jesus now.
Father, we thank you in Jesus' name, all
God's people said.
Amen.
Church, let's stand as we close in this
song.