All right, Isaiah 55. I asked you to find it, and then here I find myself still turning to it. Kristen, that was the greatest solo we've ever heard from you. From what I understand, it was a piano number. I'm sorry, I didn't get to hear it and misintroduced it as a solo. But I'm glad that you were able to do that for us today as we conclude our school year. Isaiah chapter 55 is where I would like for us to be this morning. I'd like to give you some thoughts from two or three very familiar verses. Isaiah chapter 55, beginning in verse 7. The Bible says, "...let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Have you ever asked yourself the question, what is he thinking? Most of the time when we ask that question, we see somebody who has done something foolish or something that is just so unusual that we ask ourselves the question, what in the world is he thinking? What is he thinking? I'm sure my parents. At times when I was a kid, they looked at me and they said, What? What were you thinking? And of course, there's some of you, you're watching now and you're like, I know the answer to that. You weren't thinking. That's because you've heard the same question from your parents. But I think more often than not, it wasn't that they weren't thinking. It was just they were thinking the wrong way. They were thinking about the wrong things. Now I've chosen for a text this morning. One that many times is quoted out of context or is quoted with a lack of awareness of the context. Now I'm going to make an application this morning, but I want you to see the context of this passage. You know, there are times that people look at God and they might be inclined to think, what is He thinking? And God very clearly says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways. My ways saith the Lord. We look at what we've experienced over the last month and a half. People might ask the question, how could God allow such to happen? What is God thinking? Humanly speaking, that's what some people are inclined to ask. And so as we end the semester, I want you to be persuaded in your heart and your mind of this. Listen, His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts and His ways are higher than ours. And so, based in light of what God has done for us in the past, and what God is doing for us in the future, and what God will do for us in the future, this is not the time to doubt God's thinking, or His ways. And so I want to tell you three things this morning as I reflected, as I meditated on this passage, telling us that God's ways are higher than ours, that His thoughts are higher than ours. I want to tell you three conclusions I've come to. Number one, so often my thoughts are not His thoughts. So often my thoughts are not His thoughts." And let me tell you how this is most wonderfully illustrated. I love Isaiah 55 in the Bible. You know why? Because it's an Old Testament passage that I think deals with salvation. It deals with man turning to God. And we see that in verse 7 when it says, "...let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy unto him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." It's talking about the fact that a man can turn to God from his wicked ways, and instead of receiving judgment, he receives pardon. It's a very clear illustration that God's ways are not our ways. You know, in this matter of salvation, listen, think about human nature for a moment. When somebody does something to you that is bad, when somebody hurts you, when somebody defames you, when somebody disobeys you, does that endear them to you? No. As a matter of fact, human nature lets that drive away. Oh yeah, well you're just going to do that? Well I'll just walk off and don't let the door hit you on the way out. Just get out of my life. That's what the world preaches. That is what the world screams. But yet aren't you glad God's ways are higher than ours? You know, when I think of the fact that God looked down on this sin-cursed earth and listened to me, He saw people that used His name in vain. He saw people that delighted in breaking His law. He saw people that thought they could get along just fine without God, and yet God Almighty gives His Son Jesus to die on the cross. That's not our way, that's God's way. God's thinking is so different than ours. And it's evidenced in the matter of salvation. I'm so glad that God gave His Son to die for a young man that had used His name in vain, that had cheated and lied, and had all kinds of horrible thoughts and feelings of animosity in his heart. Why? God's ways are higher than ours. Our thoughts are not His thoughts. Now if that's true in the matter of salvation, and I thank God that it is, don't you think the same is probably true when it comes to our sanctification? Let me remind you. The world looks at what God did for us and says, that doesn't make any sense. You know, a few years ago, I don't know for some of you if you know this or not, but a few years ago down in Charleston, South Carolina, There was a white gentleman that entered into a church filled with blacks, and he killed several in a midweek prayer meeting right there. And as soon as he did it, he got in a car, he drove from Charleston. And did you know that that young man, I think his name was Dylan Ruth, was caught within three miles of our college campus right by the Circle K, where you can get a Polar Pop for 99 cents. A lady saw him coming through Kings Mountain, got in behind him, noticed the car description, called the police, and lo and behold, the law enforcement pulled him within three miles of the college, arrested him without incident, and he went to jail. He went to prison. And you know what? Whenever he went before the family, Whenever they were having a sentencing or they were having something where he was put face to face with family members. Do you know what those family members did? There were many of them. Their family members were killed, several I should say. They stood before that young man and with tears they offered forgiveness. Now, that's not man's way. That's God's way. And so the world sees God's way without any understanding. You know what? The same is true for us as saved people. Listen, I didn't understand everything of why God did what He did to take my feet out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock. And you know what else? I don't always know. I don't always understand everything that He's doing in my life now. Now why is it that we can deal with that in salvation, but then we fall to pieces in sanctification? We gladly acknowledge, I am so glad that God's ways are higher than ours, and then when our world is turned upside down and saved people, all of a sudden we're bent out of shape. I myself being included in that number. I'm just here to tell you, I've even learned after being saved so often, my thoughts are not His thoughts, my ways are not His ways, but I've made up my mind. I've made up my mind that when I look back at my salvation and I see what God did for me, even though that was not my way, I was going to accept it and I was going to trust in it. I've made up my mind that as I walk through this pilgrim journey, as I walk through this life, I need to do the same exact thing. So, you're like, I have no clue what God is thinking. You may not have a clue of what God is thinking. You may not have a clue of what God is doing and orchestrating in your life. Right now, you've spelled out your life one way, and God spells it out another. Listen to me. Just as His ways are higher in salvation, right now where you're at, His ways are higher. His thoughts are higher. The Bible says, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, That's a pretty big distance, isn't it? Several years ago, I remember reading an article, or actually watching, I'm sorry, a YouTube clip. A man was sponsored by the energy drink Red Bull. And they sponsored this man to be taken up into a certain craft and taken to the verge of space. And then this gentleman would step out in a space suit and he would leap out of the craft. And I mean, it was probably 60 or 90,000 feet. I can't tell you. It was a long ways. But I remember watching video footage. I'm sure many of us, we were crowding around there. We were looking at it like, wow, is this guy going to live? Is he going to die? And I'm thinking, they're showing this live. I hope he lives or it's going to be a nightmare for all of us. And sure enough, I remember when that gentleman, right on the verge of space, thin air, hardly any, and he jumps out and he begins his descent, which took a number of minutes for him to make. The end of the story is he landed safely. It was like the largest jump anybody could have. That's the difference between the heavens and the earth. And God said, you want to know how different our ways are this far? as the heaven and the earth. But I've made up my mind, so often my thoughts are not His thoughts. But number two, I've also come to the conclusion in light of what we lived through today, is that I need God's ways and thoughts more than my own. There's some of you. You hate it. You talk about know-it-alls. Have you ever heard somebody, sometimes they talk about people, and the whole time they're talking about people, you want to say, well, you're exactly like that. Believe it or not, I've had instances like that in my life. Somebody come to me and they say, man, I hate know-it-alls. I'll tell you, you can't tell them a thing. And the person who's talking to me, they sort of come off that way. And I just sit there and I just sort of snicker under my breath and I'm like, well, boy, should I or should I not? Is this edifying? Is this the right time? Most of the time I probably do hold off. But if you have a person who's a know-it-all, they can't be taught. Why? Because their way is always right. Their thoughts are always right. You can't be a know-it-all Christian and be a good Christian. Can't do it. Why? Because you need God's ways and you need God's thoughts. You need to follow those things. There's a lot of things. The older I get, the more I realize that I don't know a lot of things. You know, when my kids were younger, when I would come home, or we were out in a meeting, and I would come back from the pastor, and the kids were doing homeschool, I could sometimes sit down and say, Hey, Jared or Andrew, tell me about your day. Tell me what all you did. You know, it's the typical parental interrogation. and would ask us, oh, we did this, this subject was hard, we ate this for lunch, you know, and you hear all kinds of things. Well, when your kids grow up, the interrogation changes. It's no longer, did you do your schoolwork? Did you see your teacher today? Those questions are mostly long gone, but the questions do change. In my household now, instead of asking Jared maybe what he ate for lunch, he comes back from a fire and I give him the parental investigation. I say, tell me about that. And at first he might be like, well, we put it out. I'm like, well, that's pretty obvious. You're home. I understand that. How did you put it out? And it amazes me. Sometimes he goes through the detail. It is a line of thinking that I am foreign to. Listen, in putting out a fire, I would never think about taking a chainsaw up a ladder on a burning house and cutting a hole in the roof. No, I never would have thought about that. All I would think about is, get me water, lots of it. Five-gallon buckets, hoses, and let's douse the whole thing. But I'm going to tell you, I've learned his thinking is a lot different than mine. I listened to him and I'm like, wow, I would kill people probably. I would die in the process because my thinking is not good on this. And I've learned a lot from a 19-year-old firefighter. And just like I've had to learn a whole lot from a 19-year-old firefighter when it comes to putting out fires, hey, there's no better person than you and I can learn from about life than God. A man might be an expert in a certain field, but there's nobody who's an expert like God when it comes to life. And what do you need? You need His thoughts. You need His way. Now young people, listen. When you read the Bible, you're going to find something. There's a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. There is a way that we follow. There is a way that we seek. And listen to me, there is a way that sometimes self-willed Christian Bible college students determine, I am going to take my way, listen, just like I would perish in a fire without Jared's knowledge. Listen to me, you'll perish or you'll be destroyed in life without God's knowledge, without God's way. God said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." You know, I had this year planned out. Right now, we would be ending chapel and getting ready for graduation. Graduation rehearsal. Brother Hankey having to tell everybody where they're going to have to be. I had this thing planned out a lot, lot differently. But I'm still learning that His thoughts, His ways are higher than mine. Just like they were in my salvation, His ways continue to amaze me as a saved individual. So number one, so often my thoughts are not His thoughts. Number two, I need God's ways and His thoughts. But then number three, I can know His thoughts through His Word. How did I learn about God's thoughts and salvation? But God commendeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How did I learn that? I'll tell you how I learned it. I learned it from the Bible. Hey, those of you that are listening, you know how you got saved? You got saved because the good news of the Word of God came your way. I'm afraid there's a lot of Christians, and there's even Bible college students, they want to know about God's way for salvation, but then they set the book down. and they're not interested in seeing much beyond that. Listen, there's only one way you're going to get to know God's thoughts, and you're going to get to know God's ways, and that's going to be by being in His Word. Truth be told, for some of you over the last few weeks, and really maybe for a lot of us, all of us, I guess I could say this is true, it showed us what we're made of. You know, the last day of school ought to be a happy day in your life, but I'm going to tell you, if you've been a week without the Bible, that's a sad day. We say, boy, I want to know God's way and His word about salvation. Listen to me. God continues to guide me through this book. Psalm 119 verse 105, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I'm going to be the first one to tell you folks, I don't have all the answers, but listen to me, when it comes to how to walk and how to conduct yourself, and how to be in the days to come, whether it's a coronavirus, whether it's an executive order, or ministering in your neighborhood, hey, I don't have all the answers, but listen, this Word is a flashlight, it'll help you. Some of you fellas lived in the dorms, I would hear how sometimes you'd say you wanted to eat more in the cafeteria. You wish the portions were bigger. You could hardly go a day without your rightful stake to room board and tuition. You know, room and board. You're like, boy, I've got to eat. And yet you have such a great physical appetite and over in recent days, listen, you have virtually no spiritual appetite. Listen to me. You're going to head for a fall this summer. You can't get to know God's ways and thoughts unless you spend time with Him. Unless you listen to Him, you can't do it. My wife and I have been married for 25 years. 1995 we got married. And you know what? We can know a lot about what we're thinking just by looking at each other. You know how that comes? It comes by listening. It comes by spending time together. I want to ask you, are you willing to learn His thoughts and His ways through His Word? I'm going to tell you what we learned about salvation. Listen to me, every last one of us would be in hell this very moment if we shunned the Word of God and lived our own way and died apart from the Gospel. That's where we'd be. We'd be in a mess! But the same is true in your life. You disregard God's thoughts, you disregard God's ways. Listen, I'm not a prophet or son of the prophet, but I'll tell you this, you'll be in a mess. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It was more than ten years ago we built the house that we live in. And I remember the early days when we had cleared off the property, and we had dug the foundation, we had dug the footers, and we had not poured in the concrete yet. It was about dusk that night, and typically what would happen, and as soon as I was done at school, I would immediately go home change, and then I would go there and work until 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. And one day my wife and kids, they came down to see me. It was about supper time, and we ate supper, and it was getting to be dark outside, and we were wrapping up things. And I'll never forget, my oldest son Andrew, he was on the other side of the property, and it was time to go. And so I just called out to him. I said, hey son, come on, it's time to go. And the little blonde headed boy, he began to run down the back part of the property. And as I turned around and walked to the truck that hit me, I thought to myself, you know what? We have dug those trenches out there. And when I turned around to warn him, no sooner than I could open my mouth, all of a sudden I heard a, and it was too late. I looked and that little boy had been running and sure enough he landed in one of those ditches that deep and it knocked the wind clear out of it. You know why? Because he couldn't see. Didn't have any light. Maybe for some of you over the last few weeks you've really dealt with Being out of sorts, maybe a little bit depressed, maybe you've had so much anxiety that you know what you've done? You have turned off the light of God's Word. Listen, just like a little boy can't afford to run through a small parcel without a flashlight, my friend, you've got to have the light of God's Word. God's ways are higher than ours, therefore we better learn them in His Word. You know, as we close chapel today, I want to ask you to do something that's absolutely crazy. What if after chapel I told you, listen, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go to your car. I want you to crank it up. Without a cell phone, without a map, without anything, right now from wherever you're at, I want you to drive to Yuma, Arizona. You say, where is Yuma, Arizona? It's in Arizona. You know, Brother Comfort, I'd heard him say years ago, he said, you know, some people say that Yuma, Arizona is the end of the world. Well, it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there. It must be in a very far off place. But let's say right now I said, get in your car. I want you to go to Yuma, Arizona. No Google Maps, no Apple Maps, which in disclosure purposes, Apple Maps has gotten me lost on a number of occasions. No maps, no nothing. Get in your car right now and drive to Yuma, Arizona. You'd say, Brother Bill, you are crazy. I'm not going to get out of the state of Michigan. I'm not going to get out of the state of Illinois. You probably wouldn't anyway with Google Maps, all right? You'd say, there's no way. I don't even know where to start. I can't even tell you what is north, south, east, and west. And there are some of you, you're like, oh yeah, I think I could do it. Listen, I don't care who you are. The best of you fellas, you'd get lost. You'd say, how in the world do you expect me to get from start to finish without any help? You know what? You're exactly right. And the same is true with your life. How can you go from the cradle to the grave with everything in between? A vocation? A calling? A wife? Children? and every other major thing that comes your way, how can you do it without God's way and without God's thoughts? You can't. So as we close this year, I want to encourage you, instead of thinking in your mind, what in the world is God thinking? That's not the right question. The right thing to do is say, you know what, I need to change my thinking, and I want to think about God's ways, and I want to be on the same page as God's thoughts, and that's how you make it through the summer, and that's how you get here to Ambassador back in the fall, or for you graduating seniors, that's how you get to the next step. Instead of wondering what in the world is God thinking, you just seek out His thoughts and His ways, and let God make the difference in your life. Students, I want you to know we miss you. We are grateful that we were at least able to end our time with you this way, even if it is virtually. I want you to serve God this summer. I want you to draw closer to Him. That's the only hope for all of us, is to draw closer to Him. Let's come back in the fall. And you know, by then maybe we know a little bit more about God's ways and His thoughts and His ways and knowing that they're higher than ours and we desperately need them. And then we can talk about how God has guided our paths. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, as we close this semester, as we close this year, again we thank You for Your provision, Your help. And Lord, as we close this chapel today, my heart is heavy that our students would have a thirst and a hunger for your way and for your thoughts. Lord, I'm so grateful your ways are different than ours. Lord, when we think of vengeance, you think of love. Lord, when we think of hate, you think of mercy. And Father, just as You've been so merciful to us in our salvation, Father, as we continue to walk with You, may we be mindful of Your way and Your thoughts. Lord, I pray for those that have become despondent and discouraged in recent days. Lord, their hearts just paralyzed. Lord, may they rest in seeing Your way and Your thoughts and the superiority of them. Father, I pray for those that are about to enter a summer with no direction in the Word. God, would you help them to see that just like it is impossible to get to Yuma, Arizona in a timely fashion without help. God, we can't go through this life without help. And I pray that you'd give our students a great summer of service and life for you. And that, Father, You'd bring them back safely in the fall for our graduates that You would lead in their lives. And, Father, open up doors of ministry for them in what is seemingly an improbable time. And, Father, that Your hand of blessing and power would be upon them. We thank You for the class of 2020. And so, Lord, we conclude this semester thanking You. Lord, we conclude this year praising Your name for how You've helped us. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.