Bafc Rally — Kevin Turner

Well, thank you for having me. I have been equally excited about the opportunity ever since I heard that there would be an amalgamation or conglomeration, if you will, of churches coming together. Because as the scriptures tell us, how lovely it is when God's people dwell together.

There is a blessing there, isn't there? Because God commands a blessing upon that. It's interesting because that's a pretty straightforward verse. God commands a blessing where there's unity. And what I want to do is I have a message that I want to share, but what I want to do is I want to take a few steps back and introduce myself a little bit to you so that you understand where I'm coming from as I deliver the message.

And the reason I say that is not because I am anything. I know what I am. I'm a dirt bag. I was made from the dirt. God breathed his life into me. That's the only reason I'm here. And he has continually done that, which is the only reason I'm standing here.

And so once the man who discipled me, he had preached a message at a place and there was an amazing, just the spirit of God came down. There was a revival that had taken place in the hearts. In fact, there were many businessmen, very wealthy people across the board that were there, and they were just broken, humble.

These men in their thousands of dollar suits laying prostrate on the floor at an altar. And it was beautiful. But somebody afterwards asked him, they said, you know, how long did it take you to prepare that sermon?

And he said, 84 years. You see, the message comes from what God makes the man. And often, and I know myself, many times I've shared messages that was similar to, I would always equate it to wearing my father's suit.

It was just too big for me. It didn't fit. It covered me, but you could tell. And recently in my life, and this is the reason I want to just jump back, and I was here speaking, I shared a bit of this with the folks from the Baptist Church here, but I want to share it with the rest of you.

A Missionary's Valley of Darkness

I have just recently come through probably the most severe, intense, deep valley of my life. Now, I'm at a point where I am actually standing on the mountainside looking down at the valley. So I'm not just looking up at my mountains, but there was a point in my life where I despaired even of it.

And for about a little over seven months, I thought that I had been mortally wounded. I'd spent the last 18 years of my life working in war zones, disaster areas, going in and out. In fact, this is the longest time that I've spent in the United States in the last 18 years.

These past seven months, almost eight. Incidentally, I am getting ready. In fact, I was working on my tickets. I'm getting ready to head back into Pakistan. We had it all set and booked, and of course our agent called us and said that British Airways has indefinitely canceled all flights into Pakistan.

Now, if you haven't seen the news on that region, of course they just recently blew up an international hotel there. There were Americans that were killed. There were many people from around the world that were killed, as well as roughly about 240 injured.

And what they didn't report on because of that was there was a school in Quetta that was blown up, and just unbelievable violence and chaos there. Well, I'm heading back in there because we're going to follow up on...

I've been working in Pakistan for about 12 years. We go... Due to the earthquakes, we actually ended up heading way up into the Hindu Kush Mountains, the Kota Koram Highway. This goes all the way back into the Persian Empire.

Amazingly... This is where the Khyber Pass is, where Alexander the Great went through. It's north of that, right up along the border of Afghanistan. Now, in recorded history, there had not been a church north of a town called Abbottabad, in recorded history.

And after we went up there, responding from the earthquakes, we built... I think it was roughly 300 homes. We provided refugee kits for massive amounts of people and actually supported an entire refugee camp for two months, I believe it was, supplying all their meals, cooking fuel, whatever it was.

But through that, we got access to go into one of the most restricted Islamic places in the world. And I'm going back, and when I do, I will be meeting with three underground church plants of all what we call MBBs, or Muslim Background Believers.

Now, this is the crossroads of the Mujahideen there, in fact, in that city. To the north of that, of course, is where we see the Taliban operating continually. And it is a very, very dangerous area. Three underground church plants.

And what was just kind of the cream on top of the cake for me was our contact on the ground there. I recently received an email from him. And he then explained to me that they had 12 more seekers, what we call seekers, who basically, they've already decided to commit their lives to Christ.

And what we need to do is basically go in and seal the deal. And so, I am absolutely delighted that we will be able to do that. Recently, posted a video to the website of baptisms of these women from a women's conference, which you never have in Pakistan.

I mean, the women are so fourth class, it's unbelievable. But we purposely set up a women's conference for them. And then, the joy of joys was standing there with a video camera as the women from our team, one after another, with a swimming pool, we had erected on the flat roof of our house.

And while four mosques surrounding us are screaming, Allah, Bismillah, Muhammad Rasool, and the call to prayer is going off, they are there and they're just baptizing. Baptizing these amazing, amazing women.

Some of the women were in their 60s, some of them were under 16. But Jesus had come to town. And while the call to prayer was going off, King Jesus was invading people's hearts. And that is amazing. That's what the church is about!

The church triumphant and universal. It's the church that plunders hell to populate heaven, goes into no man's land, and says, this one thing I do. And so, I've spent the last 18 years of my life doing that.

Suffering, Paul's Apostolic Example, and Christ Alone

And you think, wow, that's pretty glorious. Well, there's also a dark side to that because we've seen a lot of death, we've seen a lot of destruction. And real quickly, I mean, on various occasions we've been attacked, we've had to flee for our lives.

My wife, myself, my daughter were attacked by a mob. One time I was in a mob where they actually were ripping my clothes off of me. Yeah, so there's the other side. Paul said, I fill up on the sufferings which are lacking.

And seriously, I could probably go on for many hours. And the Apostle Paul one time, I love it because I think he had to have said it with a sneer. But he had these troublers who kept picking at him about his authenticity as an Apostle.

And finally, I love it because Paul with a thunderous voice says, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Henceforth, let no man trouble me. And I still believe that one of the greatest sermons we could ever see was to simply see this ugly Jew, and as history says, he was probably a little bit over five foot nothing.

Colossal intellect, but a heart like a volcano. Can you imagine how ugly that man must have been? Now think about it, he had been stoned, beaten. Now they didn't throw pebbles at you, they crushed your head with huge boulders.

He was left for dead outside of a city. I believe he was, and he was actually risen from the dead. Can you imagine what he must have looked like? His back, a plowed field. And then to hear that Jew of Jews stand up and say, all those things that were once something to me, I consider them now all dung.

And he lays down in dust, life's glory dead, as the old hymn says. And it's amazing when you see the relinquishment of accomplishment that all is left for the attainment of Christ and Christ alone. And when Christ invades our hearts, denominational lines begin to blur.

Because the Bible says when you turn your eyes upon Jesus and you look full in His wonderful face, the things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. And I'm not saying that we throw away the truth and surrender to the lowest common denominator.

We can flip a coin on. 10 ,000 times no. But what I am saying is that unity is never forged. Unity is because we become one when we are in Christ. It is not something we have to drum up. Remember folks, we are not left in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel where bricks had we and slime had we from mortar.

We are not left to our own devices trying to build some unified tower to reach God. Instead, we have the thunderous declaration of Acts 1 -2 where the Holy Spirit was given because Christ was crucified and now He has become the chief cornerstone and all who put their faith and trust in Him shall never, never, never be put to shame.

And so I stand upon that cornerstone and that rock and in the midst of that, myself having been attacked and shot at and various other things, I went through seven months where I came home from a trip into Africa.

We were heading into Darfur, Sudan where of course there is a genocide taking place. And in the midst of that, we ended up in Kenya. Middle of the election violence. People are being slaughtered. Outside of the gate we were working.

Nine children hacked into pieces with machetes. I had to take my team and get out of there and leave because they were worried about this massive violence erupting. And I came home from there, locked myself in the bedroom for four days and four nights and couldn't verbalize a thought.

And for the last seven months, I went through the darkest valley of my life where I have questioned God's judgment, His justice and His love. And I will tell you, many times I thought, obviously I could improve upon God's love system because in the world that I had seen, in the places I had been, in the situations I had lived in, it seemed like the man with the gun got what he wanted.

It seemed like hate overcame good. It didn't seem like love was overcoming evil. And I had to do some serious evaluation. And my mind, I plumbed the depths of insanity, brokenheartedness, and utter despair.

It's interesting, this is now the third time, it was the first time before that I had preached in this pulpit. I've recently come back from Florida, I was at a church there preaching. This is the third time I've been preaching publicly behind a pulpit.

And it's here. And I thank God for that. And I've seen that God is a resurrecting God. And I have come away, and here's the point I want to make before I launch into what I would like to share with you, is that in my life you go about studying the Word of God, acquiring knowledge, and getting facts and figures, so that you can impress people, have great sermons, and all that vanity.

And it is vanity. Because God forbid that I would ever come to stand behind this pulpit with an intention being that I want you to think highly of me because of the words that I have spoken. I will not be a people pleaser.

You deserve better. And God certainly shall get His glory. So in the midst of all of that, I set out on this healing process, and I ended up pulling most of the theological plays out of my playbook and throwing them in the trash where they belonged.

I now have about five different plays in my theological playbook. But I tell you now, I will live and die by those simple truths. And number one is this, Romans 5 -8, and God demonstrated His love for us.

And while we were yet sinners, Christ died. And it was the grace that found me, is the grace that keeps me, it's the grace that sustains me, and it's the grace that will bring me home. And there is no intermediate there.

It is all God's grace. It is all the hand of His favor. And how quickly in our own vanity and pride, we are tempted to lift up or exalt the exaltation of the flesh because we say, but I do this, or don't do that.

And we set up rules and we become Pharisees that were condemned, like in the Scriptures. But of course, we never see ourselves as the Pharisees. We always see ourselves as the thundering prophet or the glorified Savior, right?

We always read ourselves in as, we're Jesus in that passage. Boy, those poor swine. Were they dumb. You know, we never say, that was me. We have begun in grace, and we will continue that way if we are to be the true church of God.

And I have seen it over and over, and I tell you that through the deepest, darkest pit of my life, I was on the phone talking with somebody from Idaho just the other night, and they said, but, you know, I mean, did you just cling to His promises?

I mean, were you praying? Were you hanging? Nope. Nope, I wasn't. I was dead. And I thought I was done and gone. No, I didn't cling to anything. He clung to me. And that's the beauty of the Gospel. He clung to me.

As Dottie Rambo said, He looked beyond my fault, and He saw my need. And so that's what I come to deliver to you tonight. Christ and Him crucified. There's no other hope. There's no other hope for three underground churches in Pakistan.

There's no other hope for twelve Muslim seekers that want to meet with us. And there's no other hope for Barnsdall, Oklahoma. And so, as I've dipped into the past, now let's purvey the future. Interesting thing, this Bible.

I love it because it doesn't pull any punches. It says it for what it is. You know, Noah builds an ark, and the next thing you know, he's drunk, and you see some things going on. You know, David slays Goliath.

The next thing you know, Delilah slays him. Samson has the jawbone of an ass, and soon his eyeballs are plucked out. If there's one of the many reasons that I believe this Bible is divine, it's because if it weren't, we would never have those pictures.

We would have glorified characters that were too real to be true. And we would have a book that had been fabricated, and we would become, this would be the untouchable book. Folks, let me just say this.

At Bethlehem, the Most High became the Most Nigh. He came and dwelt among us so that we could see him, and touch him, and feel him, and sup with him, and as I think it's John 11, 35 says, and Jesus wept.

Every bit of humanity. I was reading that today, and I was like almost in awe, and I thought, wonder of wonders, what did that sound like? We have the Sermon on the Mount, but what did it sound like when Jesus wept?

Did he silently sob off in the corner, or was he orchestrated as the Jewish custom was at that time, and did he wail? Either way, we cannot get past it. Our Bible says, and Jesus wept. And through this, through these events, these fraty cats, disciples who became apostles, were touched by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they were transformed.

And I hear often, I travel, I speak in churches, various things, I meet many pastors, and I'm not saying that it's ill-intentioned, but often one of the things that comes up is they're quick to talk about their size.

They're quick to talk about how many members they have. Well, if I look through the Scriptures, what I see is that God never calls a mechanism, he's never called a machine, he's never called a method.

He calls a man. And there's no pun here, but the only purpose drive that you should have in your life is as John Baptist so decreed, he must increase, and I must decrease. If you want purpose for your life, there's a good motto, that he would increase, that I would decrease.

And so in the midst of this, you see these disciples being transformed, the Bible once again pulls no punches, Peter stands up and he moved from the profound to the profane. I identify with Peter a lot.

All my friends tell me that anyway. One of my best friends, he's traveled with me all over the world into war zones, hellish places. He said, Kevin, he says, I've never met anybody like you. He said, you are so much like Peter.

He said, you so flow from the profound to the profane. You know, okay, so do you, by the way, okay? You just got to get up and look in the mirror. We had an incredible move of God in Florida the other day.

I mean, it was just amazing to see how God touched people's hearts, right? And somebody came up to me afterwards and said, you know what, I just heard the elder said that that was the most powerful meeting they've ever had, or for sure within the last 20 years in this church.

And then he said to me, he goes, how do you keep from getting prideful? You know what I said to him? I look in the mirror. I look in the mirror. I cannot forget the last seven and a half months of my doubting and questioning and accusing God.

I'm being honest with you, because the Bible doesn't pull any punches, so why should I, in an effort to be transparent, pull punches? I am not a super saint, and the good news is none of the epistles were ever addressed to them.

They're just simply addressed to the saints. The saints in Christ Jesus. None of them were written to the super saints. The good news is every one of you are included. The message is for you. And in faith, you can step out, and the Bible says in Daniel chapter 11, verse 32, and they who know their God shall be strong and do great exploits.

The Spirit's Power and the Church's Mission

Now, proof is in the pudding, folks. I've been in many churches, all claiming from Baptist to Assembly of God, whatever, evangelical, Pentecostal, independent, free churches, you name it. Every one of them professes to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

They raise holy hands. They sing songs. I can tell you right now, hell has not trembled once because a bunch of people sang a hymn. They tremble. So, when you come to the place where you say, this life I live, it's not my own.

I've been bought with a price. Therefore, I will glorify God in my body. That is when, as the book of Acts says, and I'm headed there, when it says, and these men who have turned the world upside down, oh my goodness, they're here.

Can you imagine someone saying that about your arrival into a town? So then I have to ask, is the Bible a relegated, outdated book of historical facts, or is it relevant to today, and is it the instructional book for our lives?

Is the Spirit still active, operating, living, part of the Trinity today, or has He resigned and I didn't get the memo? Because if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead as Scripture says, is in you, then what?

See, I do believe that. I do believe that the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in you. You know what I often believe? It's because we do not actively seek an outflow. I love John 7, 37, when Jesus stood and cried on the last day, the great day of the feast.

If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink, and then drink, and then drink. No, that's not what He said. He said, and out of his belly shall flow. Out of his belly shall flow. You know the amazing analogy there, right?

We see the beautiful Sea of Galilee. Jesus rode across it one time. Set a guy free just like me, you know, the Gadarene, crazy, naked, hanging out with dead people. He rode across that sea. Later, He told Peter, throw down your net, get the fishes.

Later, we see John here. Earlier, John was baptizing in the Jordan. Jesus Himself was there. Well, keep following that river down. Where does it end? Oh, the Dead Sea. What's amazing is that, and this is factual, the Sea of Galilee has a larger outlet than inlet.

The Dead Sea only has an inlet. You see, even the Dead Sea cannot continually receive life-giving water and without an outlet stay alive. And no more can you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit day in and day out and not seek to have an outlet.

And in effect, you are stifling up the very life of God. Now, real quickly, I just want to make a note on that. John 7, the Feast of Booths, this incredible feast. All the Jews would come in from out of the towns or whatever, go up to Jerusalem, and what was so amazing on the last day, the great day of the feast, what would happen is the priest would come by with a bronze laver or a bronze water jug, for lack of a better word.

And when that priest came by, he would come and make that possession, and you know where he was going with it? To the altar! And he would take that bronze jug of water and go to the altar and he would upend it and dump it upon the altar and it was to symbolize the revival and the cleansing and the purity when the Spirit of God would come.

And can you imagine, and I have to think, that he may have even done it while the priest was walking by. But it says, Jesus, on the last day, the great day of the feast, stood up, rabbis sat when they taught, Jesus stood and he cried with a loud voice and said, if any man thirsts, could you imagine if that was said while that priest was walking by with that bronze laver?

Do you know why? That's why one minute they were in love with Jesus, the next minute they said, let's throw him off a cliff. Do you know why? Because he said, I'm God. That's what he said. John 7, 37, he said, I'm God.

The Jerusalem Council and Salvation by Grace

So the Bible doesn't pull any punches, we're going to quickly move because I don't want to take up too much of your time, we're going to quickly move into the first church fight, I mean first church council.

Okay, both were right. Acts chapter 15. If you have your Bibles, why don't you turn there with me. Acts chapter 15, verses 8 and 9. I'm going to read, and I printed off a couple different versions of this because I think it's so profoundly simple and simply profound.

I'm going to start with verse 8. Now I'm going to be reading from a version you may not have, but just, you know, be a good Berean. Listen to this, it says, And God, this is Acts chapter 15, verse 8, starting at verse 8, it says,.

And God, who can't be fooled by any pretense on our part, but always knows a person's thoughts, gave them, the Holy Spirit, exactly as He gave Him, by the way it doesn't say it, Him, to us. He treated the outsiders, Gentiles, exactly as He treated us, the insiders, the Jews, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed in Him.

So why are you now trying to out-God God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us too? Don't we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus, amazingly and out of sheer generosity, moved to save us, just as He did those from beyond our nations.

So what are we arguing about? There was dead silence, no one said a word. With the room quiet, Barnabas and Paul reported matter-of-factly on the miracles and the wonders God had done among other nations.

So what are we arguing about? It was with purpose that I came to you first to testify about what God was doing among the nations. It's because of these verses that first I said, I will speak to you about what God has done among the Gentiles of Pakistan and about, and I didn't share with you, and frankly, whether you believe in miracles or not, that's your loss or whatever, but all I know is that we went and laid hands on a paralyzed girl who could not move her arms or legs, and when we went back four months later, her mother came to us, threw her down on the ground, and she was completely healed.

Now, I take no credit for that, other than that I tripped, stumbled, and got used. That's it. This hand putting on... You might get germs. That's it. This is amazing. There was dead silence. No one said a word with the room quiet.

Barnabas and Paul reported matter-of-factly on the miracles and wonders God had done among the other nations through their ministry. The silence deepened. You could hear a pin drop. James broke the silence.

Friends! Listen! Friends, I beg you to listen. Simon has told us a story of how God at the very outset made sure that the racial outsiders would be included. This is the first church council. Now, before that, there was the argument, there was the contention.

Some Pharisees, some believing Jews, had been saved, and they had come down, just as Paul warned in Galatians, they had come to spy out their freedom. And what they were doing is they were laying all kinds of impositions upon these new believers, saying, okay, that's great.

You've heard the Gospel, you've responded, but now, let me tell you what you really need to add to that. Folks, let me just say this. Jesus plus nothing. Can we agree on that? Jesus plus nothing. Do you know why?

Because when you add something, that will end up being the thing that we will cling to, and it is destined to fail. And the end will be destruction. It's Jesus plus nothing. And so they'd come down, and there was a heated argument.

I love that. Do you know what that tells me? They were truly contending for the faith. They really wanted to know, what's true here? What do we do here? They weren't just succumbing to the Pope in Jerusalem, saying, you know, I'm the bachelor from Rome, I alone have the keys.

They weren't doing that. In fact, what were they doing? They were earnestly contending over the truth to see, what will the foundations of the church be? How will we work in such a way that she will not be moved?

And we see the brilliance of this. They gave ear to the defense, these Jews said, look, circumcision, other rules and laws. If they're gonna be Christians, they gotta follow them. What's so amazing is all through scripture, we were taught over and over again from the Jews.

Do you know that if you go to Israel right now, and you're there on Shabbat, on the Sabbath, and you go into a hotel that maybe has four, five, six floors with an elevator, right? Well, if you're gonna take the elevator on Shabbat, what is so interesting about that elevator on the day of Shabbat?

It stops on every floor and opens and then closes, goes to the next floor, opens and closes. You know why? Because it would be work to push the button on the Sabbath. By the way, that wasn't from Jesus' day.

They didn't have Otis elevators then. That's like 2008 Newsflash. Amazing how we'll cling to things, huh? And you know what I love? I was sharing about this in Florida. I titled my sermon When Love Comes to Town.

Love, Revival, and the Church's Witness

Because it was so beautiful. You see, when love came to town, people ripped off a roof to get to Jesus. When love came to town, even though people stood up and said, who do you think you are to set this woman free?

And love says, this daughter of Sarah, whom Satan hath bound these many years, which one of you having an oxen? Which one of you having a sheep or a goat that would fall down into a hole would not pick it up?

Then how much more this daughter of Sarah? You know what's so beautiful when you preach Christ in the Islamic contextualization? Hands down, women go for it, man. That's where women are finally elevated.

They become somebody, not something. When love comes to town, it is amazing. Hard hearts are melted. Old grievances are laid down. Reconciliation becomes the order of the day. And then what? Well, then revival comes.

Precious move of God's spirit overflowing. Listen, folks, I've read so many books on revivals, starting, of course, with Acts, what I'm talking about. And all the way through, I remember Duncan Campbell and Evan Roberts and the Welsh revival, and it was so amazing because just uneducated coal miners from Wales, and they would literally be on their way to work in the morning, and Evan Roberts would already be up on his knees for some hours, and they were literally sucked in like a vacuum cleaner to that church, and they couldn't even explain why, but they fell on their knees, and they met the holy God.

And before they left, they were new creatures in Christ Jesus because there was a sovereign, omnipotent move of the spirit. The men like Adoniram Judson who left his native Scotland and set off across the seas, and this man of God going off with his bride and his fellow mates, and he's, after three months' voyage, you know, he had led the captain of the ship to Christ, and in those days, they had reputations.

Think John Newton, you know? They had reputations. After three months, he was convinced that Christ was real because what he had saw in John Patton. I'm sorry. That was John Patton. I said Adoniram Judson.

Adoniram Judson was the first American missionary who went to Burma in 1812, but I'm talking about John Patton who left from Scotland, but John Patton there, as he went off, he was heading to an island.

They call it now, I think it was then New Caledonia, but Vanuatu. It was in those Tahitian chains, and so when they got near, he finally told the captain, he said, that's it. That's the island. That's where I want to go, and do you know what the captain said to him?

He said, dear sir, with a good conscience, there's no way I can drop you off on that island. He said, sir, that island is full of head-hunting cannibals, and you will be dead within minutes, and to that John Patton said, sir, with all due respect, I died before I came.

When John went to Tanna, there was not one believer. When John left, there was not one unbeliever. He said, I care not how my body is disposed of, even if it be eaten by cannibals. You see, when love comes to town, it changes everything.

You end up operating in a new economy, new purpose, new vision. Acts chapter 15, eight and nine, they're settling a dispute amongst the believers of the church. Some say, no, we have to add this, this, and this, and then the truth prevails, and they say it's Jesus plus nothing, and in the end, what happens?

They are empowered again. The church rises up and sends them out as one again, and Paul went back to Antioch, and then they said, oh, no. These men have turned the world upside down. They're here. Do you know what's so amazing?

Maybe you've heard this before, but there was a point where one of the spirits that was harassing Paul through a girl said, you know, cried out. Remember? There was somebody who was trying to cast demons out.

What are they saying? Jesus, I know. Paul, I know. Who are you? Can you imagine being known in hell? We're all worried about getting our name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. How about being known in hell?

So the division of the church as they stood and contended for truth, it was amazing to see, but they came away with a very Paulinian stance. Peter himself as well. He had failed at one time. Do you remember he wouldn't sup with certain people because of the mixed company?

And now we see, as the Spirit of God has moved, just like amongst the churches, when humility and love reign, we end up all in one accord. Folks, the unity of the church will never be fabricated. It is.

It simply is. So my great hope tonight as I look out upon all of you believers, the saints in Christ Jesus, is that you will seize your birthright and that as our brother prayed, that people in Barnsdall would not have a chance to go to hell without hearing the gospel.

I want to add something to that, that they would not have a chance to go to hell without seeing it. Because the Bible says they will know us by our love. Well, because I'm a preacher at heart, I'd like to keep going for another hour.

But I'm going to spare you that and I'm going to close. But before I do, I want to pray with you. And I want to thank God for the cooperation and the spirit that I feel. I thank God for it. I pray by God's grace that we will become Jesus with skin on to this community, to this state, to this shaky, shaky country.

Trusting God Beyond Earthly Economies

And by the way, I just have to ad lib now. You know what the beautiful thing about being a believer is? You are not on the United States mint economy. Isn't that beautiful? You are on Christ's economy.

And guess what? If the treasury fails, look in the sky for the ravens. And as Martin Luther said, when it comes to trusting God, let the sparrow be your theologian. Think of that. For are not two sparrows sold for a filing?

And yet, not one of them falls to the ground without your heavenly father knowing. You see, when you're in Christ, you transcend economies and you can ascend on nations. Because God is able to work in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure.

So folks, I leave you with this. Jesus plus Jesus plus nothing. Let's say it one more time because it's got to sink in. Jesus plus nothing. Isn't that liberating? Don't you feel like you just took a breath of fresh air?