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This will be an adventure. We'll
see how this works. This is gone. Am I too low? Okay. Then y'all too high. I will go ahead. I was gonna
save it to the end of the message, but I'll go ahead and tell you
now, because I actually kind of want to use it to lead in
to the, to the message. On Friday, I had a biopsy, and
the needle was about this long. I'm not lying. From what I saw,
no. But they go in, they go in through,
in between the ribs, and that's something I'm glad to give to
the doctor. But we are members over at Kaiser, and So went in
and you sign all these forms, if you die on the, it's not our
fault, stuff like that. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway,
so I got with the two nurses, these two guys from the Philippines,
they were great. You talk about funny. We had
a lot of fun. And the doctor, I'm not sure
where he's from, Dr. Vien, but apparently two of the
three were Christians. And we just had, we had a wonderful
time talking. This one nurse, especially, not
only was he Christian, but he was a biker. So we're talking
bikes, you know, and we're talking places, ride, you know, and all
that. And he's kind of a mountain bike guy and such. But, ah, You know, I don't know
how many of you have ever been through a procedure like that,
but before you go into surgery or before you go into something
like that, they got the needle in you and they start giving
you the happy stuff. So I got to telling these guys,
I got to telling these guys that, you know, I remember when I had
kidney cancer and I had the right kidney out, and some of you have
heard this story. where, you know, I mean, it really
hit me then. I mean, just as they're starting
to wheel me, you know, into the operating room, they turn the
knob, and man, all of a sudden it's rockets, red glare, bombs
bursting in air, that everything is good, and there's the pink
elephants, you know, and all that. And I got into that room,
And they're doing stuff, things are banging away, you hear metal
and stuff. And I remember a little bit of this. All of a sudden,
I shot my right arm up and I said, excuse me. And just look, I said,
can we have prayer? I said, okay. And on the happy juice, I'm leading
all these people in prayer. I don't know what I said, but
God blessed. It's just like, So as we're going
into the room, I got to teasing about that. And I said, I remember
the last time you guys gave me this stuff. And I told them the
story and one of the nurses said, hey, why don't we have prayer?
And we had a prayer time and it was awesome. I just, you know,
I just, the doctor and the two nurses, and I think there was
somebody else in there, Not sure, but it was just great. So, here's
the deal. I'll tell you, and then I have
a prayer request. Obviously, we haven't gotten
anything back from the hospital as far as the results of the
biopsy. But, number one, the doctor showed
me the MRI. And it's weird to see, you know,
you're going through your body, you know, and there's all that
stuff. And they know how to, you know, say this is what it
is. And so I saw the tumor in my liver. Apparently all I have
is one tumor. And that's a good thing. You
know, praise God. But here is the prayer request.
And again, some of you know this, but others of you don't. But
I would appreciate this. A few weeks ago, as I was studying
up, because you know, hey, if you're gonna be going through
something, you go to Dr. Google, you know, you go to YouTube,
and there's always somebody there, you know, they've talked, well,
So I'm looking at, you know, liver cancer stages, you know,
this and that. And all of a sudden, a couple
three weeks ago, there's a video that pops up from Hong Kong. And they said, you know, we have
developed this procedure. They map out a place, they get
into your body, they go into the vessels, And at first they
map out a way that they can go in with a tube that becomes smaller,
then smaller, then smaller. And they actually go right into
the tumor in the liver. Now they can do it for other
things as well, but they showed this thing, you know, for the
liver. And they literally launch hundreds and hundreds of these
microscopic things, one third the size of a human hair. They
launch all these things into the tumor that are radioactive,
hundreds of them, if not thousands, and they're there. And they start
literally, over the next several days, they start literally cooking
the tumor and killing it. Now, I've seen several, and you
know, wow, boy, this is really something they've developed in, In Hong Kong, boy, if that works,
that'd be something interesting. I'd love to see that, because
I don't want to go through chemo, anything like that. But again,
the Lord knows. So we came out of the biopsy. And again, I'm talking to this
guy. We kept talking, it was great. He goes, hey, have you
ever heard of Y90? Now that's the procedure where
they do that. And I said, yeah, I've watched
a couple of three videos on it. He said, we started doing it
late last year. We specialize in it now. So here's
my prayer request, that this is a situation where they can
do that. Now, right now, I'm doing things
right now that I believe are at least hurting the cancer.
Those of you that remember the way I changed my diet 14 years
ago for the kidney cancer, they told me the tumor was the size
of a softball. When they went in, it was the
size of a golf ball. I was literally with my diet
killing the cancer. Well, we're doing that again.
And not completely as we had been before, but I am on that
cancer protocol. And so I would appreciate your
prayers on that. I want to be around. There's
people that I love. There's people I want to reach.
There's people I want to irritate. So anyway, I do, and I appreciate
very much y'all being here. Y'all praying for us. By the
way, my wife was there, she was waiting at the hospital for me,
and Marty came, and Marty Reyes, and the two of them did what
two women do best, they talked. You ask them how much they talked,
but they talked, and I appreciate that, I really do. So we're gonna
be finishing this morning the message that I started last week. I want you to first turn where
we were before. This is in review. Go to Psalm
119. Psalm 119. And you'll see why I started with telling what was going on. By the way,
can I also make mention of this? You know, we've talked about
this before. And it's worth mentioning again. You know, you praise God
when people come in and they have something, you know, to
celebrate like the Gilberts, you know, praise God for that.
But you know, other people come in and you might not know it,
but they have burdens, their situations. You can be celebrating
something and have a burden at the same time. This is why we
pray. This is why we love one another.
This is why we do this. In the middle of October, I'm
asking you especially to pray about this. I love the ministry that Tim
Schmidt has. I love it. There were five of
us that gathered just before we went to the hospital. Several
other pastors and Tim and myself gathered here and they prayed
over me. And I'll tell you what, it was
such a comfort. But God is, like Roger said,
God is doing something. Too often we wind up getting
unbelief in the way. We're going to be having a Sunday
through Wednesday meeting two weeks before the two minute warning
with Tim Schmidt. I want us to be ready for that.
I want us to be in prayer. We need to do exactly what we're
going to be looking at. I don't know what all is going
on, you know, over in the Middle
East, but Bob and I were talking and something specific has happened
that might have been a step ahead of anything that has ever done.
And I'm telling you, this world is on shaky ground. On top of
that, it might not be the person that you're voting for, but twice
somebody has sought to murder a candidate for the presidency
of the United States. This is the United States. That
ought not happen. The wicked one is doing his worst. The people that can go to the
throne of grace, the people that can go to the throne of grace,
and find grace to help in time of need are God's people. That's all. The present administration
is not. The media will not, the entertainment
industry won't, and a lot of churches will not. We need to
recognize what our place is. We need to get right with God. Now, let me ask you, Not that
you're weaker than I am, nothing like that, but just let me ask
you, what if it was you that had liver cancer? What would
you be doing different? What would you be seeking? Remember
where we started this from this thing of facing yourself. Psalm 119, 59, I fought upon
my ways. Now I'm curious, I don't wanna
raise of hands, but I'm wondering, how many of us, as we were reading
our Bibles this last week, and I pray that you were reading
them, because everybody here needs God's word. You cannot
live this life without Christ. I thought upon my ways, but I
went beyond that. Now listen to me. And turned
my feet unto thy testimonies. What I saw in God's word made
a difference. What I saw affected me. Like the man said, mine eyes
affect my heart. There in the lamentations of
Jeremiah. So, in the next several weeks,
are we all willing to think on our ways and turn our feet to
his testimonies? I believe I've got this cancer
for a reason. Oh, by the way, let me tell you,
there's still a small window. There's still a window that it
might not be a cancer. It's something. Whatever it is,
this needs to be treated. We'll find out more this week.
But that's not my focus. God has my life. He is large
and in charge. But I'm looking at some people
that I love, and as far, by God's grace, I'm desiring that you
hear this. Now, having read that, let's
go back once again to James chapter one. James chapter one, if you hit
the book of Hebrews, turn right, you're there. I'm thankful that Brad let me
use this chair, but I hate this thing. So, where were we this last week? Well, first of all, listen up. Verse 19, wherefore my beloved
brethren, Let every man be, what's the next word? Swift. Swift to hear. Slow to speak. You know, we all have an opinion
on a lot of things. I get to looking on the news,
I watch a video, you know, when it comes to the news, and boy,
they're rapid fire. They're telling you everything
that's going on. You know, I don't wanna be swift to hear that.
I wanna be swift to hear him. And I wanna be slow to speak
and then slow to wrath. Why? Listen, the Bible gives
us what really matters in life. When it comes to God's word,
let's be swift to hear. Let's be slow to give excuse.
Let's be slow to form our own opinion. Let's be swift to hear. So, hey, guess what? The wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God. We get angry about what
God is telling us. That's not good. Listen up. And then he says, lay it down. Look at verse 21. Wherefore,
lay apart, again, remember, like stripping off your clothes, getting
rid of defilement. Lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness, with meekness,
the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. That superfluity of naughtiness,
again, an overflow of malice, of ill will desiring to injure
someone else. That's plain depravity. I mean,
I can't believe, it stuns me that 17% of people in the United
States are flippantly saying, yeah, the nation would be better
off if Trump had been killed. But you know something, at the
same time, God's people have been guilty of the same thing.
Every Wednesday, I pray for President Biden and Vice President Harris. You can't hate people you pray
for. You can't do it. And we ought
not to be hating. They're not the enemy. Listen,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. I can't wait
to hear the final shriek of the wicked one as he is cast into
the lake of fire. I hate the devil. But the devil was not He was
not made in the image of God. We are. That means any one of
us can be saved. I mean, mankind. So with meekness,
with humility, the engrafted word, it means inborn. Now, we've
seen, listen up, lay it down, look at verse 22. Work it out. But be ye doers of the word and
not hearers only. What's the next word? Can you
deceive yourself? Yeah. Have I ever deceived me? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Maybe you have too. We're getting
a warning here. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Now watch this.
For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened
to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth
himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner
of man he was. You know, I hope and pray that
if you see something in your life that you don't forget what
you saw, and instead you take care of it. He said, be ye, that's
in the tense that means a command that is to be done continually. That is what we're to do. Jesus
told the Jews, John 8 31, then said Jesus to those Jews, which
believed on him, if ye continue in my word, if, Then are you
my disciples indeed? Question, are we continuing in
God's word? It's a good question. Doers,
this is interesting. Doers carries the idea of not
just doing something. You're talking away to somebody
else, but you're doing something. You can do it without paying
attention. No, it involves everything, body, soul, and spirit. be doers,
and not just part-time doers, but full-time. It also conveys this idea. It
shows more of what we are. Did you get that? It shows more of what we are
than what we do. Now, what we do is important.
But we do what we do because we are what we are. And as believers, he owns us. We do, we live the Christian
walk, body, soul, spirit. 2 Peter 1.10, we'll be going to
this later on as we progress in facing yourself. Peter told us, wherefore the
rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, and
we're going to learn those things, you shall never fall. Conduct, excuse me. Conduct is the visible measure
of true discipleship. You've heard that old saying.
I've used it before. Your walk talks and your talk
talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. And you
know, we need to encourage each other in that. That's what the
love of the brethren is about. Let me ask you something. Is
there anybody here that you would love to see fall? I hope and pray not. I hope and
pray that doesn't happen. Now, please don't get your mind
going on this. I'm gonna mention something,
but don't, you know, I wonder if I knew the preacher. But there
was a major situation that happened in America just recently, where
there was a pastor that was highly looked up to by a lot of people.
Wasn't an independent Baptist, but that doesn't mean anything.
He was a good Bible preaching preacher. He fell. 73 years old,
but he fell. You know, folks, we need to be
praying for each other. Satan takes that kind of thing
and he loves it. I mean, he gets the people doing
this. Look, don't ever be that way
with somebody. Even if you don't get along with
them, don't ever wish someone else to fall. Ever. When we're hearers and not doers,
we deceive ourselves. That word has the idea of incorrect
reasoning, to cheat by false reckoning, miscalculate. We cheat
ourselves out of God's blessing. God's given us an incredible
amount. We've looked at these things
and we're going to continue to look. By the way, I have to tell
you, I get to thinking, okay, Lord, I mean, just getting ready
to turn 71, I know my time is limited here, but if the cancer
was stage four and it was just that much of a window, boy, Lord,
what do I need to share with these folks before you take me
home? I mean, you get to thinking stuff like that. There's a lot
of things in this book. want to share because there's
a lot of things that we need to be doing because we are surrounded
by people who need the gospel. Well, they don't respond. I understand
that. I had people talking to me this
last week about coming here. We're looking for another church.
Well, I hope and pray they're watching up there. And they just
might be. I'd be glad for that. There are
people that watch this. We don't know who they are, but
I pray that the Lord reaches them. I'd rather they be here. But this is circa 2024. How do
we deceive ourselves? Well, we rationalize about disobedience. You know, it's okay if I don't. serve the Lord. It's okay if
I don't do what he just told me to do. We rationalize, we
excuse, we blame other people. That's what we do. I like what
Martin Luther said. The world does not need a definition
of religion as much as it needs a demonstration. Let your light
so shine before men, Jesus said. Why? That they may glorify your
Father, which is in heaven. Let's do that. So work it out,
but then work it in. Verse 25. But whoso looketh into
the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, He being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deeds. Note the word of God is called
the perfect law of liberty. This is true freedom. This gives
freedom that even the constitution of the United States doesn't
give. Hey, that can be changed. This never changes. Praise God for that. So we get
into the word, we work it out, but then we work it in. We let the word of Christ dwell
in us abundantly. There was a missionary, not really
all that long ago, there was a missionary that went to New
Guinea. And what he found was incredible. Several years later,
he came back and there was a man that he knew that met him. And
the guy asked him, you know, what did you find? You know,
we understand it was rough. It was quite the thing. What
did you find? He said, it was awful. It was
horrible. He said, I found situations where
mothers would be carrying a baby. And if the baby would not quit
crying, they'd throw it in a ditch and keep walking. A man would
be walking with his elderly father. And if the elderly father broke
his leg and couldn't walk anymore, the son would just leave him
behind and let him die on the road. Wow, that must have been incredible. I know what you did. Boy, you
just preached the gospel to them, didn't you? He said, no. He said, when a woman cast her
baby aside, I picked it up. I loved it. I helped it. I fed it. When an old man was
left on the side of the road, I took him to my home. I mended
his leg. I did things. I wanted to show
the love of Christ. Then the people started coming
to me and they said, why did you do all these things? Why are you doing this in front
of us? What is so different about you? He said, then I started
preaching the gospel. He says, wow, what happened when
you left? And he said, when I left, I left
a church. The perfect law of liberty. Work it out. Don't quit. Then work it in. assimilate it,
pray over it, meditate on it. And as it becomes our character,
we can't help but be bearers of the light, bearers of his
cross, bearers of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs
4. Ponder the path of thy feet.
This is verse 26. Ponder the path of thy feet. This is another one of those
challenges. Stop and think, where have my
feet been taking me? Ponder the path of thy feet.
and let all thy ways be established. Well, we know what Solomon meant
when he said that. Established here. In closing, I love the book of
Jude. I just finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd
John this morning, and I'm gonna be reading the book of Jude tomorrow
morning for my devotions. Verses 24 and 25 are, I just,
I love them to death. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. Now we talked about that when
we talked about the armor of God. When we go to 2 Peter 1,
we're going to recognize that we are instructed again to assimilate
some things. And when we do it, Peter said,
you shall never fall. It's actually in Christ, now
unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and ever. Amen. There's every possibility
that I have something inside of me that's killing me. There's
every possibility you have the same thing. In fact, you do.
None of us are going to live forever in this body. One day, one day, either through
death or through the rapture if we're saved, We're going to
stand before Him. This is just reminding me again
of what God has called me and others in here to preach and
teach and encourage people because it is the greatest encouragement. Christ in you. the hope of glory,
Paul said to the church at Colossae. So let me ask you something.
Are you willing to take God's word and work it out and then
work it in your life?
Facing Your "Self" Part 2
Series Facing Your Future
| Sermon ID | 92224176514362 |
| Duration | 34:21 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | James 1:19-25; Psalm 119:59 |
| Language | English |
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