One Lord One Church One Task — George Verwer

Jesus Appears to His Disciples and Opens Their Minds to Scripture

Thank you, that's very kind. Luke chapter 24 verse 36. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

He said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

And while they still did not believe it, because of joy and amazement, he asked them, do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He said to them, this is what I told you while I was with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.

He told them, this is what is written. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. I'm going to send you what my father has promised. But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed continually at the.

Temple praising God. We've really enjoyed having George Boer with us this year. His infectious enthusiasm for the gospel, for the cause of mission, his love for the gospel, his love for people, his global experience make him a wonderful contributor to our event this year.

So let's welcome our brother as he comes to speak to us now. I'd like to just have a few moments together.

In prayer. I remember when a spiritual tornado blew through Britain 20 or 30 years ago named Juan Carlos Ortiz and told everybody that they didn't have to close their eyes when they prayed. And I think it was probably right, but I still close mine because I tend to get distracted by pretty women.

So praise God you can close your eyes or you can open your eyes. But as I pray, I'm gonna keep my eyes open because I want to just put my hand on the place that I'm praying for. I want to assure you this is not some kind of performance.

I know that when we have audiovisual things, people can think, you know, is this some kind of a little performance? But if you want, you can ask my wife. This is the way I am. I've never moved from the commitment I made at 17 to make prayer the number one goal and practice of my life, which of course is combined with knowing God.

So I often pray with globes and maps. I hang my jacket on the front of the seat in front of me on the airplane. I'll be 24 hours getting to Australia in a couple of weeks. And it's just helpful for a character like me whose mind tends to wander to have audiovisuals.

I pray my way through the whole computer list that my wife has so wonderfully put together. And I pray through thousands and thousands of prayer letters. I especially love the photographs. And if you'd like me to pray for you, I'd love to do it.

Just send me a photograph. You can even do it now through the computer. Let's pray for some of the nations in the world, especially where the suffering is so great. They're not in order of importance, and I'll be leaving probably your favorite country out because we're limited in our time.

Intercession for Nations in Crisis

Let us pray. Father, our hearts ache for the nations of the world where the suffering is so great. But before we pray for those nations, God, we thank you for what you've been doing across this world.

We thank you that in this past decade and century, we've been in the greatest time of harvest of people the world has ever known. Across Latin America and Africa and Asia, tens and hundreds of millions have come to know you, and we would give you the praise and the glory.

But Lord, we know we live in a real world where Satan is still a degree of freedom, where men and women are still lost with all that that means. And so, Lord, there are many, many messes in the world tonight.

There are many unbelievable situations. And we start by uniting our hearts in prayer for North Africa and especially for Algeria, where tens of thousands have died in the past decade, where now there is some degree of peace, slight opening for the gospel.

We pray together as a united body for Algeria that your church may be strong and that the harvest may come in and that the peace would remain. And then for the land of Sudan, where still perhaps the suffering is greater than any other nation in the world, especially in the South.

The children who have lost their parents. The suffering is even hospitals have been bombed as the civil war continues. We just haven't got words, but we pray for Sudan. We thank you that there's still an open door for the gospel.

We thank you that thousands have come to Christ even in the midst of the war. And we unite for that land. And Ethiopia also to the east with her time of crisis and drought and Somalia as well, with ongoing chaos, almost impossible to describe.

And Lord, our hearts also go out to West Africa and what's happened in recent years in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia. And we just cry to you that peace would come to West Africa. We think of the crisis right now in Nigeria, with Muslim and Christian, even sometimes killing one another.

And we pray for Nigeria. We know AIDS is roaring through Africa, almost out of control. We know the whole crisis of refugees and street children and raw, unbelievable poverty is beyond our imagination.

We thank you for every mission in every church committed to this crisis. And Lord, we want to recommit ourselves even before we break bread together tonight to see an impact for your kingdom upon Africa.

And then we think, oh, God of places like Afghanistan, again, where the church barely exists. True, also in Tibet, that's been very much on our heart in these days. What can we say of this crisis between Pakistan and India?

With some thinking about possible nuclear war? What can we say of a phenomenal increase of persecution of Christians in the land of India that would lead us together right now to pray for India, for your church, for those that have lost loved ones, that somehow this nation may remain relatively stable and that we may continue to see a harvest there.

And for Sri Lanka represented here in these days at the conference, we pray for the crisis between the Tamils and the Sinhalese and our hearts ache for so many, so many that have died. We pray that that may be brought to an end.

Lord, we cry it also for the land of China, with all of its complexity, with persecution and yet also with freedom. What can we say, Lord, as we try to unite for Indonesia, where hundreds have died just in one place over here in Ambon?

Lord, we know it is still harvest time in Indonesia. We think of what's happened in Timor and we reach out to that part of the world in the marvelous name of our Lord Jesus. And Lord, as we come closer to home, we think of Chechnya.

As we come even closer, we think of Northern Ireland and pray that that crisis will not come back with all the death and all the destruction it has brought in the past. So we lay these burdens before you, many other unspoken burdens for the people of the world, for the people's groups of the world.

And we know if one individual is suffering and that is important, then what can we say of whole nations and whole people's groups that are in such agony and in such times of crisis? Oh, Lord, teach us more about prayer.

Teach us more about touching the nations from our Antioch churches, wherever they may be, that Lord Jesus, the impact of Keswick 2000 will be felt in every nation and every people's group across the world.

For we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. You don't have your own globe. I'd be happy to supply one just in the back of my book. You'll find my website George Verwert dot com. Pretty simple, even for you non cyberspace types.

By the way, if you don't get your own domain name, somebody else will. Everybody's grabbing everybody's name. And you need to get your own name. Somebody already had mine. I had to do a lot of finagling to get my own name.

Somebody else has Bill Gates dot com. He's got 40000 emails to Bill Gates, which didn't go to Bill Gates. The interesting thing is when they get your name and then open a porno site on it. I know that will especially excite your grandmother.

So some of you might want to get a little more proactive in terms of the Internet. I want to urge you to make one more visit to this little mega dynamic dynamo bookstore. It's not world's largest bookshop, but it's certainly one of the most fascinating.

I work very closely with a character named Jerry Davey, and I told him I wanted to get Martin Lloyd Jones's book on Bible readings, daily Bible readings reprinted. So we've been working on that for about a year.

It never happened. I walked into this amazing bookshop, find out it's already done. Some American just printed it, probably didn't even have permission, God bless him. But and I've been and Doug, I think you've got a thousand copies of these.

And Doug's very shy, quiet guy that runs that place. But reflections, a treasury of daily readings. That's one of the gold nuggets I picked up in there for three pound ninety nine hardback book. And I want to urge you if you don't already have ten copies, some of you are shy, you're laid back, others are broke.

Please write to me. I have special books for those who are broke. One is on subject of faith. But I want to really I want to really urge you to pick up this brand new book about Keswick for 40 years. I've been studying and fascinated and deeply stirred by reading about the Keswick Convention.

One hundred and twenty five years, men and women of God, the things that have happened here. Don't go over there tiptoeing like some kind of backslidden mouse asking for one copy, but go there and get a dozen copies so that you can spread the word around.

Because the average evangelical fish in Britain these days doesn't even know what Keswick hardly is, much less the poor Americans who still thinks of some kind of extreme super spiritual movement. Bless their non-spiritual hearts.

So I pray that we'll make use of this tremendous book and that you'll pay one more visit. There seem to be books everywhere in Keswick around this time of the year. Even garages are turned into dynamo book centers.

And it's all quite exciting. The character like me, it's a miracle I don't have a seizure or a heart attack. Praise God also for book aid. If you're wanting to get rid of books, contact Bob Hiley, hire yourself an articulated lorry and send your pastor's library down to him and he'll make sure it gets perhaps to Africa or somewhere else.

Preparing for Communion and Returning to the Trenches

It's always a difficult challenge to speak before a communion service. And I'm humbled by this this privilege. And I want to honor God and I want to above all else just exalt the Lord Jesus as we look into the word very briefly before we break bread together.

I didn't understand much about this communion thing and breaking of bread. I wasn't from a Christian background. And it was really in Mexico with a little sort of brethren assembly. I don't know if you've met these types.

They're all over the place. And they infiltrated Moody Bible Institute when I was there. And Harry Ironside took over Moody Church before Alan Redpath. And, you know, he came out of that open brethren, whatever you call it, became a senior pastor at Moody Church.

What? And that's another amazing history, the history of the open brethren. Read that in one hand, the Anglicans in the other hand, and then hold a book about the Pentecostal church on your foot and you'll be blessed.

I especially want to just look at the last couple of verses of this great passage in preparation for this. I've been reading all the way over and over and over again from the first verse in Luke 23, right through the last verse in Luke 24.

And as I've studied this passage, seven words. Sorry about this. I know some of you don't like this, this approach, but just the Lord give you grace, you know, get, get, get this book, Grace Awakening.

Don't worry about the first, the first three chapters. It's very a little boring. Start in the middle. I started in the middle and read in both directions. It was a spiritual bombshell, a bit confusing, but an enormous blessing.

But I do want to share seven words. You may think that'll cause me to go too long. Wrong. It helps me stay on course. And we, we want to really have our hearts prepared. But at the same time, more than preparing our hearts for the Lord's table, we want to prepare our hearts and our minds for leaving here tomorrow, for going back to the trenches where we come from, spiritually speaking.

And I believe we need to understand what C .S. Lewis once tried to say, that we have a tendency to think, but not to act. And we have a tendency to feel when we have thought. We've had brilliant speakers.

I've listened to most of the messages and it's been an enormous challenge, especially to the mind. But also we felt, as we've heard testimonies in it, we've shared together. C .S. Lewis went on to say, we have the tendency to think, but not to act.

And we have the tendency to feel and not to act. And if we go on thinking and feeling without acting, someday we will be unable to act. When I spoke at Urbana as a young man, I called this spiritual schizophrenia.

I don't use the phrase so much anymore, but I believe it is possible. It is possible to have your life in two different compartments, where you have that sort of spiritual department and the way you would behave at the Keswick Convention or Sunday or with Christian friends, and then the way you would behave when you're with other friends on other days and different situations.

It's called a dichotomy, a spiritual dichotomy. It's the theme of my first book, which was not easy because I'm not really a writer, but that book, Hunger for Reality, brought me 25 ,000 personal letters.

History and the Reliability of the Bible

Yes, if you send me these seven words back, and I haven't seen a big response to this so far because I don't see anybody writing it down much, and I know your memories are not that good unless your laptops are hidden in your mobile phones, but if you send me these seven words back a year from now, I'll send you seven really great books.

The first word that jumps out of this passage for me is the word history. One of the great influences on Operation Mobilization, and about a hundred men and women were major influences on us, a number of the men and women linked with Keswick, was a character named Dr. Francis Schaeffer, and I challenge you young people who may not have heard of him to pick up some of his books, and especially if you're as I was as a young Christian with many doubts and many questions about the Christian faith.

And it was through Dr. Schaeffer that OM came into a paradigm shift to understand the place of the arts, to understand more about grace, but also to understand more about things like the book of Genesis, the Bible being 100 inspired by God, and then the great the great challenge of having answers to tough intellectual questions.

It's a wonderful thing to see agnostics and atheists coming to Jesus, and it's happening all the time. And I want to urge you to do anything you can when you leave Keswick to get time with people who don't know Jesus.

Even if you don't talk about Jesus the first time you meet them, do something together, learn to bond with people, learn to listen to people, learn how to weep with those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice.

And as you become a people person and a relational person, I believe you'll become an effective evangelist. But it was Dr. Schaeffer who said, Jesus Christ died in time and space and history. If you were there and ran your finger down the cross, you'd get a splinter.

I thank God that when I almost lost my faith during my first year at university, God, through books like Joseph Freeh's book on archaeology and other great apologetic books, reached down to me and brought me out of the cloud of doubt and difficulty to a strong intellectual faith that the Bible is God's Word and we can trust God's Word 100%.

I just spoke at one of the most famous Christian camps in California, Forest Home Conference Center, founded 62 years ago, the year I was born, by Henrietta Meir, who's one of the most incredible women in the history of the American church.

It was there, I'm told, that Billy Graham also had a crisis concerning the Word of God. Charles Templeton, around that time, had a similar crisis and ended up, he was an evangelist at that time, completely abandoning the Christian faith and became an outspoken enemy of the gospel, even unto this day, later writing against Billy Graham.

But there at Forest Home, Billy Graham wrestling with this great subject is the Bible, God's Word, came to that place where he was convinced, absolutely, the Bible was God's Word, he could build his life upon it, he could build his ministry upon it.

Yes, what we read in these two chapters and in this whole book is history. Let's never forget that. It's not only history, but it is history. The second word I leave with you is a great word and it's the word reality.

Reality, Self-Denial, and the Human Factor

I hunger even though I'm 45 years down this marathon race, remember Hebrews chapter 12? That's a great chapter, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Every time I watch one of those London marathons, I just think of the fact that we are God's marathon runners.

And as we leave here, it will not be an easy road. Paul said, I buffet my body and bring it into subjection, lest after preaching to others, I become a castaway. Why are we surprised when ministers are blown out of the ministry by a fiery dart?

What are we, naive? This has happened from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation. And we need to wake up. We need to allow horrible things that happen around us, especially in the moral arena, to awaken us to become more committed to moral purity, to discipline, to following that simple biblical mandate from Jesus himself.

If any person come after me, let him deny self, take up the cross every day and follow me. When I think of reality, I think of Jesus. I think of the Holy Spirit, who I'm going to say more about in a few moments.

And then I think of the fact that in my early Christian pilgrimage, I had a big tendency to go toward extremes. I'd get one verse, like Luke 14, 33, and I'd hit you so hard for that, you'd wish you'd never met me.

I'm sure you've all got that verse memorized, except you forsake all that you have. You can't be my disciple. When I gave that to this little gal at Moody Bible Institute, I left university to go to Moody.

A hard decision, but I've never regretted it. And I met this little gal who I immediately fell in love with. I'd been a three-year fast as far as girls because I'd been involved with about 32 different girls before my conversion.

And then I got involved with several after my conversion. And it was very, very confusing, especially leading them to Christ and then necking with them for the next two hours. And you know, you'll not find that even in a Navigator follow-up book.

And so I felt somehow I needed a cold turkey experience as far as women. And it was during that two and a half years of not dating, and I know God doesn't lead everybody that way, that I went to Mexico and God started to revolutionize my life.

Then I left university and I went to Moody and I thought, these are all born-again, spirit-filled girls. I was immediately in love with about seven of them. That was getting a little bit frustrating.

And I went up to rent a Moody Science film and there was this lovely girl sitting there in charge of the films. We've been married now 40 years. For me, it was love at first sight. For her, it definitely was not.

She was interested in my spirituality. It's always dangerous. I remember the first date, it wasn't really a date, but I wanted to scare her away if she wasn't the right gal. So on the first date, I said, look, I'm from New Jersey.

Of course, New Jersey people were very, you know, blunt or loud or aggressive, were basically impossible until we get saved. And then even after that, difficult. I said, I'm going to be a missionary. And if you marry me, you'll probably end up being eaten by cannibals in New Guinea.

Apologies to anybody here from New Guinea. But when I gave her Luke 1433, she gave all in her inheritance. She had a lot of money. She had put that in Walmart, which started around that time. She'd be a millionaire today.

Instead, she's more or less broke, married to me and attempting to praise God. Reality is in the midst, yes, of great spirituality, what I call the divine factor, but it's also in the midst of the human factor.

No matter how committed we are, how zealous we are, how knowledgeable of the word of God, we're still incredibly human. And it was only through Dr. Schaeffer and a number of other people like Eugenia Price, and other people, it's not time to mention them, that somehow I began to accept the humanity in my life.

And I started to enjoy things that before I thought weren't spiritual. I remember when Lindsay Glegg tried to get me to play golf, and I, whoa, no, golf. You know, that's from the devil. I don't know if I said that outwardly.

I told you about that Wednesday night, so no need to mention it again. But then I got back into things like roller coasters. Now I've been on a hundred of the greatest, wildest roller coasters in all of planet Earth.

One of my dreams for the dome is to convert it into a giant roller coaster. The Japanese who bought it yesterday, they may have that in their plan. I'll be one of the first in the queue. Now we're all different.

Other people, like Keswick speakers I've ministered with, they like to go out and play around in the garden with their roses. I used to think that was a waste of time. Now I say, hallelujah! Hallelujah!

We all need a holiday. We all need a hobby. We all need to know how to rest. Jesus taught that in his word. And that leads me quickly to the third word, and that's the word motivation. And I hope as you go from Keswick, you go motivated.

Motivation for Christian Service

We should be always motivated, not on the same level. My wife, looking at me years ago, said, darling, looking at you makes me feel really tired. We have different ways of expressing ourselves. Some of us need to slow down.

I've met quite a few Christians who I personally think need to speed up. But one thing for sure, when we contemplate what Christ has done on the cross for us, when we contemplate what we're going to remember in the Lord's table in a few moments, when we contemplate the resurrection of our Lord that we've just been reading about, we have to be motivated, people.

I want to be absolutely raw honest. I have never had a non-motivating day since Jesus Christ came into my heart 45 years and a few months ago. Now, I'll be more than honest. I've had some miserable minutes.

I've had up to several non-motivating hours. And I've certainly battled struggles and difficulties like anyone else. When I'm speaking to young people and I still have this opportunity to speak to tens of thousands of them, I often give my boredom testimony.

I have never had a boring day since Jesus Christ invaded my life in Madison Square Garden, New York City, March 5th, 1955. If you're bored, you need a spiritual overhaul. The only exception, I believe, is when people are medically suffering from depression or some other illness, something we need great sensitivity toward in the body of Christ.

But generally speaking, we don't have to be bored anymore. Again, I've had boring minutes. I've had up to a boring hour. To be honest, I've met a lot of boring people. But God's grace, God's grace is sufficient.

Discipline, Freedom, and Doing the Word

The fourth word is perhaps the most unpleasant word in our vocabulary today, and it's the word discipline. In preparing for this talk, I was reading this little book by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And just by accident, I opened, I'm not going to read it, to a very down-to-earth, one-page basic challenge about discipline.

And I find that most Christian leaders, whatever their background is, charismatic, evangelical, automatic, asthmatic, I find that so many of them, when it comes to discipline, they agree. Billy Graham is strong on this.

You're not going to be able to convert what you've heard and received here during these days into action. Remember, we're supposed to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, unless you're willing for change.

And change takes discipline. Billy Graham said, life is habits. And if you're not willing to change your habits, you'll never live for Jesus Christ. It's great to get a blessing. It's great to sing songs.

But in the days to come, you and I will have to be denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him. We'll have to be disciplined in the area of food, disciplined in our driving, disciplined in what we look at, disciplined in every single area of our life.

And my testimony is that discipline is one of the most liberating, joyful aspects of the Christian life, because it's tied in with redeeming the time, and it gives you more time to do other things that you want to do.

We have been set free in Jesus Christ. And the road of discipleship and the road of discipline is a road of freedom. It's a road of grace awakening. And then my fifth word is the word witnesses. In this little passage, we read something very, very similar to what we find in Acts chapter 8.

Witnesses Called to Preach Repentance and Forgiveness

It talks about being His witnesses and going as His witnesses. Can we look just quickly at verse 46? He told them, this is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things. Not easy. As I've said in my little book, Out of the Comfort Zone, being a witness in a court case can cost you your life. We are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. And though many of us find it difficult to open our mouths and witness, I still find it a struggle.

And I have failed my Savior many times. I want to go from Keswick with a greater sense of God's grace to speak out and to share what God has done. We are His witnesses. And then my sixth word is the word power.

Power from on High and the Unity of the Church

It speaks here about the power from on high, referring to the event that was soon coming in Acts chapter 2, the reality of the Holy Spirit. How sad that the church is so divided in regard to the Holy Spirit.

Not an easy subject. I can't get into it, though. I talk about it in my books. But I thank God for again what Billy Graham said. In speaking about the reality of the Holy Spirit, he said, I don't care how you get it.

Just get it. For 43 years in OM, we have had people of all different viewpoints about the Holy Spirit working in our fields, working on our ships. And we've seen it is possible to develop, to live and dwell together and work together in unity.

I believe it is more difficult in a local church. I believe a local church probably has to be more finely tuned doctrinally. And that's why I love that chapter in this book about agreeing to disagree.

Swindoll, one of my favorite authors, often talks about attitude. And as we bow our heads soon to pray and prepare, I would ask you not just to think of your outward actions in the past and as you look to the future, but to let the Holy Spirit examine your attitudes.

Your attitudes toward people that don't like you. Your attitude toward people that have hurt you. Attitude toward a pastor who may have let you down. Or a missionary or someone else who may have disappointed you.

We can't get through life without these things. Let us be set free from a naive, simplistic, blackened view picture of life. There are things that are clearly black and white. We've heard about them here at Keswick.

But there are many things that will be a mystery until we're with the Lord in the glory. Just read those last verses of Romans 11 and I think you'll get a spirit-led confirmation about that. D .L. Moody talked about the fullness of the Spirit long before the modern Pentecostal movement put this emphasis more on the map.

Keswick talked about it 125 years ago. D .L. Moody's described as an overweight American evangelist. I tell you, he would have looked great in this global jacket. When I get to heaven, I want to put it on him and see how he looks.

Probably won't be able to get near him. Because the encyclopedia went on to say, D .L. Moody, overweight American evangelist, who depopulated hell by two million souls. How are you doing, my friend? Have you even led one person or helped lead one person to Christ so far in your life?

Yes, there is power from on high. Older ones among us know this story of how D .L. Moody was once questioned when he was going on about the need to be filled again and again. Remember Acts 4 31? The place where they were praying was shaken.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit, went forth and spoke the word of God with boldness. So Moody, as many other great men and women of God, would emphasize the need to be refilled. That can happen even tonight as we break bread together.

That can happen in the quiet of your home. It doesn't have to be some kind of a circus with a video being made to send out to the local gospel press. Many of God's great people are quiet people. I thank God for them.

Loud people tend to attract quiet people. No wonder God put me in Britain 38 years ago, even though it's been intimidation ever since. D .L. Moody said we need to be filled again and again. The lady raised her hand and said, Mr. Moody, why do you go on about being filled again and again?

And he said, madam, because I leak. I don't know about you, but that is my testimony. And I know that by Monday, when I get over to the Netherlands, that somehow I would have sprung some real spiritual leaks in comparison to where I am perhaps right now in God's grace.

You know what I say? Praise the Lord for the free refills and praise the Lord for his grace toward failures. I failed the Lord so many times. How I thank God for Erwin Lutzer, the present pastor at Moody Church, walking in the steps of Ironside and Redpath.

Lutzer wrote a book, Failure, the Back Door to Success. Hallelujah. What a great book. I've not even read it. The title just spoke so powerfully to my own heart. And my last word is the word worship. We find that Luke ends on a note of worship.

Worship, Joy, and Pressing On in Grace

They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they stayed continually at the temple praising God. Praise God for the worship during these weeks at Keswick. I'm excited about listening to a lot of these Keswick tapes.

I must confess to you, I'm not just a bookworm. Yes, I'm also a, you know, I listen to tapes. And I hope, I hope, I hope that you and I will not just read through this great transforming Keswick book, but I hope that we will praise God through this Keswick book, realizing what he has done for these 125 years, the enormous impact on the world in which we live.

And you may say, well, I, my life, you know, I'm here. I've had so many failures. And I relate to people who have a lot of failures. That's why one of my favorite preaching places is prison. And I feel it's only by the grace of God that I am not in prison.

And I've spoken to prisoners and seen them weep, and I've wept with them. And maybe you're someone that's had a lot of failure in your life. Maybe for you, it's not plan A or plan B or plan C. Be honest.

You know, you're like me, you've had a lot of failures. You're on plan H. You know what I say? Praise God for a big alphabet. Press on in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.