Thank you. Perfect. Hello. Good afternoon. Hasn't it been nice? Could we have a round of applause for all the ladies that worked so hard? Great. This afternoon, I want to do some show and tell. I've learned that not only kindergartners love show and tell. So I have some of the clothes that I wore in the jungle. They were delivered to the American Embassy several days after my rescue. I don't even know how they knew they were mine, but here they are. When Martin and I were taken hostage, we had basically nothing. The clothes on our backs, there was a pounding on the door, you know, wrong place at the wrong time, and bad guys burst in and took us from our beds. I had on shorts and a t-shirt, Martin had on no shirt and shorts, and they took us to a waiting speedboat, and as we pulled away from the dock, they raised their weapons and yelled Allah Akbar and that's when we knew who had us. Everyone in the Philippines knows who the Abu Sayyaf are. Militant Muslims who declared Jihad in that area of the world. But their Jihad has really degenerated into a kidnap for ransom group and We knew we were in big trouble. The other thing I knew was if these guys were Muslims who'd burst into our room, I wasn't dressed properly. You know how Muslims keep their women totally covered? And I had on shorts and a t-shirt. So one of my first prayers was that I would have something decent to wear. They took us out on the speedboat and we transferred to a fishing vessel so we would have more room. As we got onto the fishing vessel, one of the guys threw a malong at me. A malong is a long piece of batik material that's been sewn up the middle to make a tube. And this became my skirt. If you were to go to the marketplace in the Philippines, you would see lots of women wearing these, not just Muslim women. You might even see a man or two. I never got used to seeing 18-year-old guys with M16s walking through the jungle with a skirt on. That didn't make any sense to me. This was my most prized possession. The first night on the boat, this was our blanket. This was my changing room when they would allow us to go to the river for a bath. You know, I told you how we took our baths, just got ourselves wet and soaped up under our clothes and dripped dry unless we had something to change into, and sometimes we would, but then we would lose everything in gun battles because we would drop our possessions and run. If we had something dry to put on after a bath, they weren't going to let us go find a private place to change. So I learned to just get in this and get this in my teeth. And, you know, just take off my wet stuff and put it in a pile and get my dry stuff and put it on. And sometimes it was awkward and you got stuck, but it worked okay. This was our towel at the river. This was my bathroom. I had the same problem every time I needed to use the bathroom, because they weren't going to let me go find a private place to change into. So I would just step off the trail and get in this and get this in my teeth. So I had to hurry and squat there and do what I needed to do. Well, I'd never done that before. And the first few times you try that, you don't hit where you're aiming. It would be a messy mall until we got to the next river where we could clean things up a bit. This was our suitcase. When we were first taken hostage, we didn't have a backpack or anything, and the guys who were out on duty would come running in, Sundalo, Sundalo, soldiers, soldiers, pack up. And we would grab everything we owned at the time. We would throw it into the middle of the malung. We would tie up the inside ends so things didn't fall out and just throw it over our shoulder. and run. This was our stretcher. Martin died in our 17th gun battle and in those gun battles we would have dead, we would have wounded that they needed to deal with till we could get to a Muslim village where they could handle the problem. So the first thing they would do after a gun battle is chop down a tree. I didn't have a tree so I borrowed pastor's paint pole at home. They would thread the mallung on to the tree that they had just chopped down. The wounded guy would get in the middle. One guy would get on this end, one guy would get on that end, and they would just carry him for days, for weeks, however long it took. This was my Kleenex when I sat around crying, which was every day, because I always felt sorry for myself. I always wished this weren't happening to me. I always missed my kids. You know, when you cry, your nose runs. This was a great big hanky. They saw that it was difficult to run through the jungle with a skirt on. Here's my bottle of water. That would have come in handy in the jungle. They started ordering what they called pontos. These are kind of like pajama bottoms. These would come into the camp and the guys would snatch up the dark green, the dark brown, the things that would camouflage well. They would give the light color clothes for the hostages so we would make a good target for the military. We were happy to have these. These are thin. They never kept the mosquitoes from biting right through them. I needed a long sleeve shirt and I asked God for one. My first prayer wasn't very specific. And after one of our first gun battles, my guard, his name was Sakaki, came running up and said, ma'am, ma'am, over in that farmer's hut, I found this shirt for you. And he held up the ugliest shirt I'd ever seen. Psychedelic designs, loud colors, there was flowers all over it. I thought, oh yeah, I will be the target. I said, Sakaki, I think someone else needs that shirt. He said, no, it's for you. And I wore it a long time till one day Lokman gave me his shirt when he got a new one. I was so happy to have this. I liked it because the sleeves were long enough. They even covered my fingertips. I was trying to keep every inch of me covered. Hot for the tropics, right? I think the most important thing to them that I wore was my head covering. We called it a turong. This is not the one I wore in the jungle. This is when I went back for a visit and this was pretty, so I got it. The guys were always after me to stuff my hair up under my turon. You know, when you haven't had a bath in four weeks, your hair is going to be stringy and awful and hanging in your face. And the guys were always after me and I thought they didn't like my blonde hair. I found out later they believe for every hair that sticks out from under your head covering, that's how many thousands of years you will spend in hell. Well, I don't plan on going to hell. This is what the Abu Sayyaf told us they believe about the judgment. They believe that at the end of all time, everyone who's ever been born will stand in a long line beside each other waiting to be judged, and they'll stand in the posture that they begin their praying in, and they'll stand totally naked for 40,000 years they'll stand that way. When they can't bear it anymore, they'll start going to the prophets. They'll go to Adam and they'll say, Adam, go to Allah, ask him to judge us. We don't wanna do this anymore. And Adam will say, I can't go to Allah, I'm not worthy. So they'll find Abraham. Abraham, go to Allah. Ask him to judge us. We can't bear this anymore. And Abraham will say, I can't go to Allah. I'm not worthy. They'll go prophet to prophet. Moses, Elijah, David, Jesus. They'll all say, I can't go to Allah. I'm not worthy. And then they'll find Mohammed. And Muhammad will go to Allah and convince him that it's time to judge mankind. And Allah will take your good things, you're praying five times a day, you're wearing the right clothes, eating the right foods, giving alms to the poor. He'll weigh those good things against your sin. If your good outweighs your bad, you go to paradise. If your bad outweighs your good, you go to hell. Isn't that what a lot of Americans believe? Don't a lot of your friends and neighbors think that God has this cosmic scale up in heaven. He's putting all your good things on one side, all your bad things on another, and you hope that at the end of time, your good outweighs your bad. You know what scripture says, right? If there's one thing on your bad side, you can't enter heaven. God is holy, he cannot, he will not look on sin. And that was the point. When Jesus died, he took our sin on himself. But he didn't just take our sin, he traded us something for it. He gave back to us in return his righteousness. So now when God looks at us, there's nothing charged against us anymore. Our sin problem is taken care of because he sees us through what Jesus did. Isn't it good to know that your sin problem's taken care of? That is something a Muslim can never know, how it feels to be forgiven. And I'm just so grateful to know forgiveness, to know the Lord. Our topic today was being transformed by grace. Probably the most popular verses on being transformed, I read this morning, Romans 12, one and two. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don't copy the behavior of the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then, you'll learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Sometimes I like to read the scriptures that I'm familiar with from a different translation, because sometimes I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them as I'm reading if I don't. So those may not have sounded familiar to you. I learned the verse long ago from the King James Version. It just rolls off my mouth that way. But I had kids and started homeschooling, and I found the New Living Translation, a translation written on a sixth grade level. And I would read passages to the kids, and I realized, oh, I'm the sixth grade level. That's where I live, so I love reading that every once in a while. I love the scriptures, such beautiful words. I have a friend named Bob Fu. He's Chinese. His first real name isn't Bob, but I can't say his real first name. Back in 1989, he rallied and demonstrated with other Chinese student leaders in Tiananmen Square to call for freedom and democracy. And you know what happened, right? A bloodbath. where hundreds of young college students were massacred by the tanks of the Chinese government. And he was there. And he talks about the disillusionment he felt after so many of his friends died and he contemplated suicide and suicide bombing until someone gave him a copy of the scriptures and he began to read the wonderful words in here. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old life is gone, a new life has begun. Such beautiful words and as he contemplated them, he realized that true change, you know, they were wanting change in China, right? True change can only come from the heart. Transformation from the inside out. And he became a Christian and led a house church until he and his wife were arrested and imprisoned for illegal evangelism. They fled China in 1995 and started an organization called China Aid that advocates those whose human rights are violated. They've set up legal defense funds and food programs and for emergencies, helping families of prisoners. And they start prayer and letter writing campaigns for those imprisoned and who are persecuted in China. But what so caught him was the beautiful words of the scriptures. Cast your cares on God, because he cares for you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. When we hold these scriptures, we have a treasure. And they speak to our hearts, they're living and they're powerful. And God uses his word to change us. 2,000 languages in our world do not have this treasure, folks. Not one word in their language. It's unbelievable, isn't it? Do you know how you become a Muslim? You say these words, there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. You just announce that, and then you learn to pray like they pray, and then you start following all the rules. But nothing happens in your spirit, inside, no change of heart, no peace, just a lot of obligation and rule following. Let's talk about what Muslims believe every day when we turn on the TV. Muslims are brought to our attention, aren't they? So let's take about 10 minutes for Muslim school and learn a bit about what they believe. We'll look at some things that we have in common with Muslims, and we'll look at some differences. First of all, Islam is the religion of the Muslim. Muslims are the people, Islam is the religion. Don't want you to be confused by those terms. And before we go any further, I'm gonna make a disclaimer. I don't want you to think that I think that I'm an expert on Islam because I'm not. All I know is what I learned living with them for a year. When we were first taken hostage and transferred from that speedboat to the fishing vessel, it was dusk. The sun was just starting to set, so it was time for evening prayer. Muslims are required to pray five times a day facing Mecca, and that was one of our first problems. Which direction was Mecca? We were out on a boat on the ocean, and there was a lot of discussion and shoulder shrugging. They got it figured out, and they started their bowing down. And I asked Martin, are they praying to the same God we're praying to? And Martin said, I have no idea. So we started to listen to them and to talk to them to find out their ideas of God. And this is what they told us. They believe that Allah made everything. He is sovereign. He's almighty. He's knowing, all-knowing. He is the judge. He's the greatest. There's none greater. He hears and answers prayer. He is merciful. He's the provider. That sounded a whole lot like Jehovah to me, but then there were some things that didn't sound like Jehovah God. You can bribe Allah. He plays favorites. He changes his mind a lot. You can follow all his rules and he doesn't have to allow you into paradise on judgment day. Everyone is praying and hoping that he's in a good mood on judgment day. Well, we know who the true God is, don't we? We know who he is because we know him personally. His spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are his children. It's a special thing to know a personal God. We know him and his name is above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. They have 100 names for God. Each name denotes a character quality that God has. Now, mankind only knows 99 of those names. They pray a rosary around their necks that represent the names of God. So they have 99 beads and at the bottom there's a special bead for the 100th name of God, the name no one knows. Have you ever noticed that a camel is smiling? A camel has a big smile on his face. Have you ever wondered why? He knows the 100th name of God. And he's not telling. One day I asked one of the guys, is one of your names for Allah love? And he thought a minute and he said, no, Allah doesn't love us and we don't love him either. We just do what he tells us to do because he's God, he's Allah. And I thought, oh, I know the 100th name for God. God is love. The greatest weapon against Islam is love. Loving Muslims. There is no love in Islam. We have a lot of the same important people if we look at Islam and Christianity. Call them prophets. They know all about Adam and Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David. David, that's a freaky one. They think David was a great mujahid, a great holy warrior. What did David do when he killed Goliath? He chopped his head off. That's what those guys would do. When we would get to a village and they wanted to prove a point or gain control, they would separate a few guys off to the side and chop their heads off. David was a great holy warrior. Jesus, they know all about Jesus. They believe that at the end of time Jesus will come to earth riding a white horse. Have you ever heard that? That's in our scripture. There will be a battle called Armageddon and Jesus will judge the world. That's in our scripture as well, isn't it? But do you know who Jesus is coming to judge? He's gonna judge those of us who believe that he was God, because they say he wasn't God, he was just a mighty prophet. And after Jesus came the final, the mightiest prophet, his name was Mohammed. Here's a big difference. Islam they told us is all about justice We want justice for every bad thing that has happened to Muslims and they go really far back in history Because they say Allah is a god of justice and we need to help him get justice Martin would tell them I guess the gospel what we believe is all about mercy we need someone to have mercy on us because if we get justice, we're all in big trouble and Martin quoted some verses one day to Saliman one of the leaders of the group because of his mercies were not consumed Because of his great mercy he saved us and Saliman said with a sneer. Well, where's the justice in a religion like that? I said, you know, Saliman, we've all agreed that we're all sinners and God's going to judge our sin. We believe that God provided someone to pay for our sin. Jesus came to pay for our sins so we don't have to. And Saliman said, I'll pay for my own sin. Several years ago, on my birthday, the phone rang early in the morning. I thought it was one of my sisters in a different time zone calling to wish me happy birthday, but it was the Associated Press. They wanted a statement from me. It seems like that very morning, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf had been killed in a gun battle with the military. His name, they said, Saliman. Well, first of all, what are the chances of that happening on my birthday? It's like God tapped me on the shoulder and said, Gratia, I have not forgotten you. And then the next thing I thought was, so Simon's words, I'll pay for my own sin. And that's what's happening to Saliman today. He's paying for his own sin. And that was my statement to the Associated Press, that I was so sad that Saliman began paying for his sin that day and the importance of having a sin bearer. Aren't you glad we have Jesus, the perfect sin bearer? Here's something that is the same when you compare Islam and Christianity. Muslims believe that everyone has sinned and that God will judge everyone, and I talked about the judgment. And if God says so, you'll go to heaven. If God says so, you'll go to hell. And everyone agrees, no one wants to go to hell. And that's why there are so many terrorists. The only way for a Muslim to be absolutely sure of going to paradise when he dies is if he dies in jihad, holy war, because holy warriors bypass that iffy judgment of God. They go straight to heaven. And that's what makes them willing to strap explosives on their backs or blow up buildings and themselves, because that way they're sure of heaven. It's heartbreaking. Islam is the largest unreached people group in the world 1.6 billion people and we can't ignore it Did you know that you can have a worldwide Muslim ministry without ever leaving your living room? You can pray because when we pray God works and Pray, pray, pray. You've heard that Muslims are coming to Jesus like never before. Have you heard that? My friend from Iran says it's like God is running a special on Muslims right now. The fastest growing Christian church in the world right now is in Iran. Does that surprise you? It surprised me. A sweet Mennonite lady was talking with me one day after I spoke at their church. She was waiting to get her book signed and when it was her turn she said, Gracia, you know what I do at night when I can't sleep anymore? I don't count sheep, I count Muslims. One Muslim comes to Jesus. Two Muslims come to Jesus. Three Muslims come to Jesus. Oh Lord, may it be so for your honor and for your glory. Four Muslims come to Jesus. And I have to wonder if what's happening in the Muslim world is a direct answer to prayer to this sweet Mennonite lady's prayer when she can't sleep. Let God use you in the world. Pray, he will do something. Well that's the end of Muslim school except to say one thing. Please don't be afraid of Muslims because when you're afraid of something you stay as far away from it as you can don't you. The normal Muslim and you have a lot in common. Mostly they want the same thing you want. They want a good home, a peaceful place to live, a place where their children can thrive, and who knows, but God might be working in their hearts to make them wish there was something that could give them peace in their hearts. And if we don't reach out to Muslims and befriend them, how are they ever gonna hear the gospel? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. The power, the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone, for Muslims as well. But it's not likely that we're gonna ever share with them unless we come to know them. God is bringing the nations to our doorsteps. The church needs to be the one who welcomes refugees and shows them around and loves on them. show them hospitality invite them to church don't buy into the lie that they'll never come this might be the first time in their whole lives that they have the freedom to go to church just to check it out but if we look at muslims with fear and shy away from them we'll never be a witness to them so i would encourage you to get involved in loving muslims as you can Well, I told you I was going to tell you about a trip back to the Philippines that we made. Several years ago, while my children were in high school, several people have asked, tell us about your children. I didn't this morning, I was kind of running out of time. The kids did fine here in the United States. It was a trial for them too, but I heard my daughter, Mindy, when it was all said and done, that someone was interviewing her for a program, and she said, you know, I just feel like maybe God needed me to go through a hard time. so I can help someone on down the road. All my kids love the Lord by God's grace. They've been very involved in missions and God's been really good to them. But my kids started begging at one point to go back to the Philippines. I had been told that the kids needed to go back for closure, they said. I didn't know what closure was. I had been back just briefly a few months before to testify against eight members of the Abu Sayyaf being held in a Manila prison. I traveled with the FBI. I wore bulletproof vests. I traveled in bulletproof cars, lived in a secure compound. There was the media frenzy. The Philippine paparazzi were everywhere the whole time. You would have thought I was Jessica Simpson. After that trip, I thought, can I ever go back and take the kids and just be me? Can I go back for a visit? Would we be hounded by the press? We decided as a family that we would sneak back. We wouldn't tell anyone in America that we were going. We wouldn't tell anyone in the Philippines that we were coming, and word wouldn't get out to the press. So a few days before Christmas, several years ago, we left. Our first stop was Chicago. And there, I made Jeff, my oldest, change his FCA t-shirt that had Burnham on the back. How had I missed that? We were sneaking, right? It was also in Chicago that I went into the restroom and put on this crazy-looking wig. Because it's in Chicago that Filipinos get on the flight, right? And I didn't want to be recognized. I came out of the bathroom and I stood by the kids and they were just standing there and I said, so are we ready to go to our gate? And they said, mother! It was a good thing I wore this. The leg from Japan to Manila. I sat by a very talkative Filipino man. The kids and I, for some reason, had gotten scattered all over the plane, so we weren't sitting together. And this guy asked me my family name, and I didn't have a good lie planned. I'd gone to all this trouble. And I didn't know what to say, so I hemmed and I hawed and I finally said, well, it's Burnham. Burnham, he said. I remember a few years ago, a couple named the Burnhams were taken hostage by the Abu Sayyaf. I think they were with the Peace Corps. And he told me our sad story. He said, yeah, Gratia Burnham. I said, you know, I've heard of her. And I grabbed my pillow and told him I was really tired and I slept the rest of the way to Manila so I didn't have to answer any more of his questions. And once we got to Manila, I was worrying because I didn't look anything like my passport photo anymore. And Jeff said, Mom, don't worry. If I were an immigration officer and I saw you, I would think I need to stamp her passport really quick because her biker husband is right behind her. He might hurt me. Well, we got out of the airport okay and we hired a driver and a van and drove all the way right up where we used to live up north and I ditched the wig. And we remembered why we loved it. All our friends and neighbors were there. We played soccer and rugby. We hiked mountains. We sang around the campfire at night. I watched the kids get closure. I still don't know what it is, but I saw it happen. I saw them relax like I'd never seen them before. Just a few weeks before we arrived, a typhoon had hit the Philippines and caused a lot of flash flooding and mudslides. So on Sunday morning after we got there, I went to town and I bought food, gobs of food. canned goods, milk powder packets, coffee, sugar, dried fish. And we put them in these big, huge, round tubs that Filipinos do their laundry in, plastic tubs. And that afternoon, we went down to the area of devastation, just a few kilometers down the road, and gave them out to the flood victims. These were people who had almost nothing before the flood, and now they had even less. In each house, we heard stories of loss. One man had lost his wife and two sons. He had found her body two days down river. He never found the boys. And as he walked away that day towards the little shack that he had rebuilt, I realized that he was going home to an empty house. He didn't even have anyone to share the food with him. And my heart just went out to those people. And we stood and sang Christmas carols, and of course they were surprised to see me. And we told them that we loved them. But more importantly, that God loves you, and He has not forgotten you. And He sent Jesus to take care of your biggest problem, your sin problem. Jesus is your Savior. And as we drove back home that day, I couldn't get that man, who'd lost his wife, off my mind. And I started to pray for him, and ask God to comfort his heart. During our time there, our New Tribes Mission field conference rolled around. Field conference is when all the missionaries of their tribal villages and everyone meets together for a week of encouragement and fun. So we traveled to conference as well. It was being held at the Word of Life camp that year. And what we hadn't realized was our co-workers needed closure too. They needed to see me and the children doing well, laughing and talking, and hear the story of God's goodness to us, and see that we had moved on in life. One afternoon we had some free time, so I decided to sit down on the bed in our little cabin and read my Bible. I began reading Isaiah 40. It begins with the words, comfort my people. Well, I'd just been asking God to comfort those flood victims, so my ears perked up to see how God planned to comfort his people. The chapter speaks of God's greatness. Who else has held the ocean in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed out the mountains and the hills? We had just been on a 14-hour flight from Chicago to Narita, Tokyo. We had traveled at 37,000 feet. According to the flight map that you can watch to show your progress, the outside temperature was negative 77 degrees Fahrenheit. I had to think, man has done a pretty good job. Here we are crossing the Pacific Ocean in this huge plane with over 300 people and all their stuff aboard, watching movies, eating hot meals, having a pleasant time. Man has really used his brain to accomplish something, but look at what God did. He made the ocean that it took us 14 hours to fly across. Let's say that we empty the ocean. Do I have some volunteers? One bucket at a time. We're gonna empty the ocean. It can't be done, can it? Let's take that ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic, and the South China Sea, and the Black Sea, and all the oceans in the seas. Let's put them all together, and in God's hands, they're a little droplet that he can hold or drop out if he wishes. Who else has held the ocean in his hands? God's greatness. And then it talks about God's wisdom. Who is able to advise the spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to be his teacher or counselor? Has the Lord ever needed anyone's advice? Does he need instruction about what is good and what is best? No. For all the nations of the world are nothing in comparison to him. They are but a drop in the bucket, dust on the scales. He picks up the islands as though they had no weight at all. The nations of the world are as nothing to him. In his eyes, they are less than nothing." More of God's wisdom. Have you never heard or understood? Are you deaf to the words of God, the words he gave before the world began? It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. The people below must seem to him like grasshoppers. He's the one who spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. We can't question the greatness or the wisdom of God. God does what God wants because he's God. And so many of us here prayed that Martin would come home from his ordeal with Muslim terrorists. You prayed fervently. You prayed in faith believing that God would answer in the affirmative. Could God have gotten Martin home alive? Certainly, we've seen his power. You mean he chose for Martin to lose his life? Certainly, or it wouldn't have happened. Is anything wrong with that? Certainly not. God is God. And we bow down and we worship him when we see who he truly is. Then I started thinking about problems. People say to me, well, here's my problem. It's nothing compared to your problem. I hear that all the time. Since when do we categorize problems? You know, this one's small, this one's big. A trial is a trial is a trial. And your trial is every bit as significant as mine because it's yours. It's what you're walking through right now. And it was right about then that a fight broke out in the barrio just a few yards from our cabin. It was fiesta time, which means everybody drinks too much. At the Word of Life camp, the cabins are in a big semi-circle, and all around the outside of the circle, just outside the fence that borders the property, a barrio has grown up. A barrio is a community, or sort of a subdivision. The houses were built up right against the fence and it isn't much of a fence rickety. bamboo stick fence that was about to fall down. Anyway, at least two guys were drunk and began fighting in the barrio not very far away. It went on and on and there was yelling and screaming and bottles breaking and soon I could tell by the noise the whole barrio was joining in. The shouting was in Tagalog and I don't speak Tagalog so I got very uneasy. So much so that I finally went to the only window in the cabin that opens up to the barrio And I stepped up on the toilet and I peered out to see what was going on. And my uneasy feeling got even stronger as I watched people trying to restrain these two guys who looked like they were gonna kill each other. I was waiting for the shooting to start any minute. And I went back in the other room where Martin's sister, Cheryl, was sitting on her bed reading. Cheryl and her husband, Walt, are missionaries in the Philippines as well. Walt teaches at Faith Academy, the largest, I think, missionary kids school in the world. And I said, Cheryl, can I call 911 in the Philippines? She looked at me and just very nonchalant said, only if you want to order pizza. I said, you're kidding, right? She said, no, the number to order pizza is 9-1-1, 1-1-1-1. And I decided I was being very American about this fight and went back to studying. To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal, asks the Holy One. Look up into the mountains. Who created all the stars? He brings them out one after another, calling each by his name. And he counts them to see that none are lost or have strayed away. O Israel, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? We think about our problems and do we doubt that God will answer our prayers? Do you think he's too concerned to be, too busy to be concerned about the smallest detail of your life? Do you think he's forgotten that man in Bambang who lost his family in the flood? Do you think he truly has concern for your situation in life? Remember the whole chapter begins with the Lord saying, comfort my people. You know the times when we fail to be comforted are the times when we turn and we look at our problems with our backs to God, and as we stare at our problem, it becomes bigger and bigger and bigger, and God gets very small behind us. Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out. He offers strength to the weak. As we make an about face and we look at God's greatness and worship Him for what He is, God becomes very, very big in our lives and we turn around and we look at that problem and it's suddenly not the mountain it was. The end of chapter 40. Even youths will become exhausted and young men will give up. But those that wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Notice there's a weight here. We want to soar without the weight, don't we? The weight says we hang in there and we rest in God. I know that God is strong, and He knows all. And God is concerned for us, and He loves us. And God is for us, not against us. And we can rest in Him, and we can hang in there and find His grace sufficient. In the midst of the mess, God comforts us. My favorite verses on comfort from Isaiah 40 is verse 11. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. I hope that you return to your homes after this event comforted saying again it is well with my soul comforted that your iniquity is pardoned and that our great and wise God promises to strengthen us and transform us by his grace the glory goes to him doesn't it. So many of you prayed for me and I just think it would be appropriate for me to pray for you as we close today. Can I do that? Let's bow our heads. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to approach you. We don't have to get clean before we come to you. We don't have to pray in a certain posture, facing a certain direction. We don't have to use certain words. Any moment we can come to you and the Holy Spirit prays those words before you somehow. And what a wonderful gift of prayer you've given us. I want to thank you for this group of ladies. I owe them a great debt of gratitude for holding us up when we were at our lowest and I pray that you would bless them for blessing me. Thank you that you've given us this day to encourage each other. Thank you for your word and how it teaches us and changes us and soothes our souls when we're weary. I pray, Lord, that you would remind us of a few things in these coming days. Help us to run for you when we face hard times, as that may be the very reason the trials come. Help us to see those as from your hand and remind us in the midst of them that you are good, you're always good. And these ladies represent some needs, dear Lord. Some are caregivers and they are weary. Some are young mothers and they are weary. Some, for all practical purposes, are single parents and they wonder if they have what it takes. Some are students and they're overwhelmed with school bills and have decisions to make. Some are lonely. Some are grieving a loss. And we just take these problems today and we lay them at your feet, Lord. We just give them to you again like we've done so many times before. And we pray that you would be merciful to us, Lord. Please continue to transform us into your image. Thank you for the chance I've had of meeting these dear sisters. We look forward to the day when we'll spend eternity with you. We love you, Lord. We surely do. And we pray this prayer in your name. You're worthy. Amen. Thank you.