The Law and Its Logic

Well, good morning everyone, Happy Sabbath. Glad to have you

here today, the first time I've been to your wonderful

church and facility, but that the first time I prayed

for your congregation and for your pastor, who was a

good friend of mine for many years. We went to

the seminary together, and then we did a semester of

evangelism in Chicago together years ago, and we would get

up every morning many times and studying God's Word before

we went to classes. And your pastor is a man

of the word, and usually five o'clock five point thirty

would find us studying together in One of the big

discoveries back then that was fresh in your pastor's mind

was the study of the bluestone, and how you're familiar

with his study on the bluestone, which was kind of

a paradigm shifting study for me back then, and I

thought of that often. Today we're going to talk about

God's law, and your pastor is not here, so hopefully

i'll see him sometime this week and be able to

catch up with he and his wife. And I also

watched several of your services last night before I came

this morning, and your midweek service with your pastor leading

and reading three different stories of how God leads his

people through trials, and then last week's sermon on perseverant

prayer and Peter and how the church prayed for Peter

was especially touching to me. I believe you're blessed in

the ministry of the Word in this place. And yeah,

and I would have liked to listen to your pastor today.

If he's watching or listening right now in his journey,

I think we should pray for him and for ourselves here. Now.

I understand that you have sometimes people come up and

read verses, Young people come up and read. Is that true?

And are there any young people to read verses today?

If they are, I have some verses for you to read.

If not, you know, that's okay too, all right, all right, well, okay,

you look like the youngest but maybe too young to read.

And I'm not sure what they read. Okay, good, You're

gonna come up and read for it's excellent. We feel

honored that you would do that. And let's see while

I use a smaller, the smaller all right, all right,

what's your name? Okay? So right, there are the scriptures

to read. I love I love the perfect.

If I've seen a show.

When you're here, see that chief.

Like you wies de precience of the Lord are right,

given joy to the heart, and the Lord are waiting to.

The knights. All right, thank you very much to say man,

wonderful too to hear these young ones reading today. I'm

going to use a whiteboard today to develop a study

with you on the law of God, on the Ten Commandments.

And I believe the study of the Ten Commandments is

especially relevant today. In the news we hear about a

number of states that are wanting to put up monuments

of the Ten Commandments and put ten Commandments in their classrooms.

And this is at the supreme court level of a

number of states. And then you know, we have other

people talking about the Sabbath. We have various aspects in

our culture that are pointing people if they're listening back

to scripture, but I don't think they are really pointing

out the fullness of scripture. I'm just finishing the series

in my church at Weimar University, where I'm the pastor,

called more Fully and our job is to understand the

Ten Commandments more fully. Our job is to understand the

Sabbath more fully. Our job is to understand more fully

from the lens of scripture what God is trying to

say and communicate, especially at these times. You know, when

you think about the reformers, many of them wrote treatises

about the Ten Commandments. Martin Luther wrote about the Ten Commandments.

He said, every day you should pray the Ten Commandments.

He sighed as a part of the rights by Faith message,

and they would kneel and would actually recite the Ten Commandments.

John huss who was another reformer in Prague, took a

copy of the Ten Commandments and handed to everyone on

his journey down to Constance, where he met his end

as a martyr. Even in England there was a queen.

One of Henry the Eighth's wives, Mary Divorce died, Mary

Divorce survived. You remember that history, and one of them

was named was Anne Boleyn, and she gave a copy

of the Ten Commandments to Henry the Eighth. I don't

know that he listened to the Ten Commandments too much,

but the point is that the Ten Commandments were something

that went along with the idea of reformation with all

of these reformers. Roger Williams, Roger Williams how many remember

who Roger Williams was, perhaps the only American reformer, you

might say, And I take people on tours. We have

university tours that go to the Reformation sites, and we

go to the Reformation Wall. They have all of those

magistorial reformers, Calvin huss and Luther Bullinger. And then off

to the side, the far side of that monument, you

have Roger Williams. I think we should be studying Roger

Williams major Bible study very much these days. He wrote

a book called The Bloody Tenant of Persecution, and he

decried the fact that back in England, when the monarch

changed because of the law of the Divine Right of kings,

so that the religion changed were Catholic, you had to

be Catholic, if you were if they were Protestant, you

had to be Protestant. And if you didn't agree with that,

you were killed or banished. And Roger Williams said, you

know that that's not really good. Let me study the

Bible on that. And he saw all these people taken

to the Newgate prison right near his house, and we

take people on tours there to show them, you know,

Smith's Field and the Newgate Prison where many people were martyred,

and he began to think about that, does God's word

really teach that? And he saw that God's word didn't

teach that. He said, let the wheat and tears grow

together to the harvest. He said, you know, let live,

and let live allow freedom of conscience. So how was

he going to convince people of this? He went to America.

And when he was in America, he immediately got in

trouble because he said, we should not be stealing land

from the Indians. Just because our king says it's our

land doesn't mean it's our land. So he got in

trouble over that. And then he got in trouble because

he said, you should not make people worship a certain way,

because if you make them come to church, you're making

them live a lie and they're going to go to

hell anyway. So don't make them do something so called

freedom of conscience. But how could he bring people along?

He wasn't bringing people along at first, But then he

discovered something that was called the two table argument. And

I think that this is what actually made America great.

If you want to know what made America great, there's

a lot of talk about making America great. And what

he discovered was that in the Ten Commandments, the last

six were supposed to be the purview of the state.

You know, honor your father and your mother, don't kill,

don't commit adultery, don't lie, don't steal. Those things. Yeah,

the state needs to watch over those. But the first

or so called first tablet, you leave that up to

the individual conscience. And of course he was banished because

of these teachings. And he went to Providence, Rhode Island,

and he had translated the English language and put it

in a book called the American Language. It was the

best seller in Europe. But when he went to talk

with these Indians, and when he went to tell them

what he was about, they loved him so much because

he had worked among them and helped them, and he

stood up for them that their land would not be

stolen and explained to them what he thought about God.

And he said, they said, that's what we think too.

We let people make those decisions on their own. And

because he used that two table argument of the law,

it was actually the ten Commandments and that application of

them through the study of scripture and looking at the

commandments in that way that stopped the bloodshed of hundreds

of years, and it's what made America great. It allowed

people to come to decisions about God through the power

of preaching, through the power of persuasion, not through mandate,

not through force. You know, we have this phrase revival

and reformation. Have you ever heard this? Revival and reformation?

How we want to have revival and reformation. But how

does true revival and reformation go? If you believe that

you have to tell people what to do and make

them do things, that's reformation that supposedly brings revival. It's

the wrong way around. There's another hor that's mentioned when

we talk about revival and reformation, and that's repentance. And

repentance is changing the mind, which is something only you

can do or allow God to do. Amen. That then

leads to revival, that then leads to re But unfortunately

today it's pretty vogue to say, no, we'll take over

the government and we'll make people do things that are right,

and then there'll be a revival. That's the wrong way around. Amen.

So Roger Williams then used the Ten Commandments. But I

want to show you then something practical today, practical today,

and I've written a book about this. I'll leave it

with your pastor. It's called The Law and it's Logic,

and it's a study of the Ten Commandments that I

learned in my line of work. Now I'm a pastor

there at the University Church, and I love what you

do with the youth here. It's it's a discipleship church,

and we're always including the youth. In fact, this week,

when I'm away, I have a group of youth that

are preaching about the Sanctuary message. And so Friday night

they preached about the same methods, and today they're speaking

about the Sanctuary message. So we're always involved in discipleship.

And one of the things that I do one hundred

days out of the year is I'm a counselor. So

ten days every month, for at least ten months of

the year, I'm counseling people. And I'm counseling people who

are struggling with depression and anxiety and various things. And

they come from around the world really to meet with

doctor Neil Netlie, who's the president of our organization. And

I've served as the spiritual counselor there for about eighteen years,

actually twenty years. Time flies when you're having fun, and

there's actually nothing more exciting than seeing lives transformed in

that in that interaction that comes between the medical aspect

and the evangelim aspect medical missionary work. And that happens

on our campus at the new Start program that has

a physician team and a chaplain, and then in the

depression recovery team and our students, whether or not they

be theology students, religion students, nursing students, pre matter predense students,

business students, or music majors, or our master's programs, one

in counseling and one in Biblical mission and wellness. They

all rotate through these programs to see how the Gospel

can be shared in a way that rejuvenates health and healing.

Now it's in that setting that you know, I'm a

registered nurse. And then I went to the seminary with

your pastor Mike Oxentenko. Back then he was Mike Davis,

but he rediscovered his father, and you all know the

story here about that. Anyway, So when I first started out,

I was reading a lot of maybe vain philosophy, you

might say psychology, falsely so called. We talked about that

little bit in our Saber school studying colostions, and I

realized that it was so hollow what I was doing

in my approach to people. And then I came upon

ten questions that I began to use in my counseling,

and I want to show you how I use those.

Is that okay? With you? And I would be doing

this using a piece of paper right with them in

front of me as I'm talking with them, taking notes.

And so this is my first thirty minutes with somebody. Okay,

I don't know if I have thirty minutes, so we

can make it twenty minutes. All right? When do you

usually get out here? Well, hopefully I'm done before I

got up here. Anyway, it's not about me, amen, So

let's let me ask you some questions. First question I

would like to ask you, did I pray? Let me

pray again, Father Heaven. As we enter into this message,

we ask your blessing to be with us, that your

spirit would come upon us, would live in us, and

then live through us in a meaningful way this next

week as a result of being here and worshiping today

in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. Question number one and how

many of you have fingers today, you brought your fingers,

by the way, that was a beautiful number. That was

a beautiful special number. Oh man, I thought this can't

get better. And then you saying another line, and God

really used to thank you for that. So I'm going

to ask you some questions and I want you to

use your fingers to help me. And I'm going to

ask this first question, which is this, on a scale

of one to ten, how saddest, how satisfied are you

with your life? Scale of one to ten? Hold up

your fingers, let me see nobody left behind. Hold up

your fingers. If it's a ten, hold up ten fingers.

If it's okay, someone went like that, that's pretty innovative.

All right, some real energy here in the congregation. Give

me five twice, so I don't notice your hanging out

with your hands. What would you say, scale of one

to ten, ten being the top. Okay, I say seven,

I see a ten, I see a ten, I see

a nine and eight, I see three? All right, a three?

Al right, ten. Everybody should be holding up their fingers

like I'm trying to judge what I say next. Okay, okay, five,

all right, all right, so normal, okay, So normally, you

guys are fairly healthy. Here, just look at that person

next to you, say you're fairly healthy. So usually when

I'm working in the depressed an anxious population that come

to our programs, they're going to say somewhere between zero

and three. Some of you were that low, but not

very many. And they're not satisfied with their life as

it is, right, and they have no real peace. They're depressed.

Some people say, you know, depression is looking at the

past with a negative lens, and anxiety is looking forward

with no hope. Right, So they're they're they're depressed or

they're anxious. And the less satisfied you are with your life,

probably the more vulnerable you are. How many would agree

that that's probably true. If you don't feel satisfied, or

someone can plant doubt in your mind like the devil

did with Eve and the Garden of Eden. You know,

if you can, if you start to get a mindset,

things are not that great. You're not satisfied. You're not

satisfied with your clothes, you're not satisfied with your car,

You're not satisfied with your wife. You're not satisfied with

your husband. You're not satisfied with your education. You're not satisfied.

The less satisfied you are, the more vulnerable you are.

How vulnerable you are? Number two, let me ask you this.

Do you struggle at all? And this marker is not

so remarkable? I can tell do you struggle at all

with negative thoughts? Thoughts? Negative thoughts that you know just

are not true? Anybody here struggle with negative thoughts, so

you know just are not true. Now, by the way,

they've done studies on this, eighty percent of our thoughts,

according to the researchers at Stanford. But I don't think

they talk to everybody. But anyway, they're sample size with

their looking at negative thoughts. They believe that about eighty

percent of a person's thoughts are negative. Eighty percent. So

maybe don't look at the person next to you, but

look at yourself and say, don't be so negative. So

eighty percent of your thoughts, of a typical person's thoughts

are negative, and ninety percent of your thoughts are repetitive.

In other words, most people you meet are having negative

thoughts and they're just repeating over and over and over again.

Some of them end up on the news. I was

watching the news and I realized, man, this is a

pretty negative and usually they don't cover positive things in

the news. We just wanted to touch spaces with you.

Let you know that all the flowers are blooming beautifully.

They're in Laurel, Maryland. Man, it's so great. You got

to go over there and we'll just meet you there.

And there's a huge crowd there already. No no, no, no, no, no

no no. They want to talk about drone attacks and

bombs and everything. That's terrible negative thoughts. Sometimes the negative

thoughts are true, but many times they're actually false. They're

what we call in our business distortions, a distorted thought.

How many of you have ever struggled with negative thoughts

besides me? And this is why we have midweek service,

This is why we pray for each other. This way

I have a praise team, this is the way I

have special music because we're constantly having to fight against

the negative and overcome the evil with good. Amen. All right.

Third question, how many of you have ever been stolen

from or stolen How many of you have ever been

stolen from or stolen from someone else? Another way to

say that, how many of you have ever been abused

or abuse someone else. Can you see how these would

be very interesting questions to talk to someone? And I

just listen to them. Sometimes I hear horrible things. What

are the two emotions or at least maybe a couple

emotions that come up if you feel that you've been

stolen from? What would you say? Anger? I speak loud

because I'm getting older and I only have two ears. Disappointment, anger.

Some people are ashamed. Wait a minute, I listened to

that person who called, and they talked me into giving

them my bank account number, and now I lost all

my money. I don't even want to tell anyone about it.

Shame or I can't believe I did that when I

was younger. To that person, I feel guilty. I feel

guilty that I've done that. And can you really live

long with those types of emotions going through your mind?

Shame guilt Seventy eight percent of illness, one researcher said,

is related to lack of forgiveness. And sometimes we can't

forgive ourselves, and sometimes we feel like we can't forgive

other people. And this all comes out of this idea

of being stolen from. So shame and guilt okay, Number one, two, three, four,

if you if you feel as though you've been you're dissatisfied,

if you feel that you're listening to negative thoughts, that

are lies, many of them, And if you feel as

though you've been stolen from would that impact your intimacy

at all, your ability to be close to people? Scale

of one to ten, with ten being on the top.

I'm not asking to raise your fingers for this one.

How is your intimacy? Do you have someone you're close

to mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. Does that matter? Does that matter?

Many times I'm talking to people that you know they're

desperately alone, even though they're in a family. It's like

Henry David Thoreau's old quote mess most men live lives

of quiet desperation. Maybe a wife who feels that way,

or a husband who feels that way, or someone and

they feel alone. Well, I'm not useful anyway, I might

as well not go on. No one cares. I'm alone.

Could that even happen in a church where people are

there and yet they fill alone? Could that be a distortion? Yeah?

The devil's always trying to get you to feel like

you're alone, that you're the only one isn't he That's

what he tries to do. Yeah. Now, if you have

this feeling of maybe dissatisfaction that's leading to negative thoughts,

you feel as though you may been stolen from or

stealing from others, and you have compromised intimacy. What do

you think that causes a person's life? Certainly depression, okay,

but what are some of What's another thing? Have you

ever met someone who's angry? How many met someone who

has resentment, bitter, embittered? You see this cascade of events, satisfaction,

negative thoughts, feeling stolen from or stealing from others, in

lack of intimacy, anger, resentment, bitterness. Let me ask you

one more question. Well, i'm tripping you, there's nothing to

trip over. How do you relate to authority figures? First

of all, what are some authority figures? What would you

say some authority figures are parents? Do you get along

well with your parents? Did you get along with your parents?

The longest study, one of the longest standing stories studies

at Harvard University, the Harvard Master's of Stress Study, shows

that if you didn't get along with your father your father,

eighty six percent will have bad diseases in midlife. You

didn't get along with your mother goes up to like

ninety six percent. If you get didn't get along with

both one hundred percent. Authority figures? How do you get

along with? What are some other authority figures? Police? All right,

don't raise your hand. You might be on camera here.

How of you get along well with the police. I mean,

you'd rather not raise your hand or comment, So authority figures?

That can be a big thing. What are some other

authority figures? Teachers? So, professors? How many have ever had

a teacher that you just didn't like her? You felt

like they didn't like you, and did that mess you

up at all? I remember I had a teacher when

I was in school that really really questioned my ability

to do math. You know, anytime i'd do something wrong,

he'd bring me up front and he goes, all right,

let's think about it. Think about it, think about it.

I still remember it now, I mean think about it.

In other words, what am I not doing? I'm not

thinking I must be an idiot, so I'm thinking I

can't think about that. Look, never mind, many of my

relatives are engineers and own engineering firms. Right, but at

that moment, in that stage of development. Here's a person

who's frontal lobe is very developed talking to someone who's

frontal lobe has not yet developed. And that had an

impact from that authority figure. And do people struggle with that? Right?

Any other authority figures? I heard some pastor wait a minute,

you're picking on me. Did you hear that? Right? Here?

Bring the police in, right. Pastors can be disasters. Ministers

can be sinister, right, and some of them have their

own problems and they create problems. And that's true authority figures.

If an authority figure that's a pastor who's representing in

some certain sense God, or a father or mother who's

representing in some sense God, or even a politician who says,

I'm going to make America great again, or there's change

that you can believe in, and you know, there's different slogans,

but they're all saying, I'm going to take care of you,

and then they don't. Can that cause problems? Can that

lead to dissatisfaction? Could that lead to negative thoughts? Can

that lead to feeling stolen from Can that lead to

problems with intimacy? Can that lead to anger? Protests? Right? Wow?

So What do you think people do when these things happen?

What are the kind of things that people do to

get through the day if they have these things going on?

What are some of the things that they do? Drugs?

You know, so they might be drugs, what else? Anything else? Alcohol,

over eat, what else? Gambling, big one, Yeah, pornography, procrastinate,

They might cut themselves, cutting, self harming. Yeah, so they

do it again and again and again and again and

again and again and again. Right, all these things happen

because they feel so low that they want to get

what so they're trying to get high because they feel

so low? And what good does it do to point

out that that's wrong? You know, that's really wrong what

you're doing. Does that really help someone? They're already feeling dissatisfied,

They're already having lies that they tell themselves or have

been told them. They're already having problems because they stole

from or have been stolen from. They're already struggling with

shame and guilt. They already have lack of endnessity and loneliness,

and they already are angry and bitter and resentful. And

then you point out that that's really bad, that you're

doing that. No, no, that maybe that's the only way

they're getting through the day. Maybe have a little compassion,

right or wrong? Am I right on this? Maybe try

and get to the root problem. The root problem is

not this, It's one of these things. How are you

following me? I remember we were leading a health seminar

one of my churches years ago, and I went to

the I came in. I was greedy, you know, because

I can't really cook. If you started out eating my food,

that's the last seminar, right, you died anyway, So I'm

greeting at the door. This lady comes in and I go,

welcome to our you know, our cooking school. She goes

you blankety blank blanks. She curses me out. I was like,

I mean, I've been cursed out many times, but you know,

not usually when I'm welcoming someone to a cooking school.

So I thought, well that I don't know. I just

kind of, you know, I went behind the plastic plants

and kind of hid. And then she came back the

next time and I greeted her again. I didn't think

that it'll be two times. She cursed me out again.

This happened three times and when I started coming the

next time. No, no, no, no, I did not greet her.

I hid behind the plants. Literally. Well, she came to

the program. She was very, very overweight, and then she came.

We had these month long cooking schools, actually a month

and a half, and it was called the CHIP program

Coronary Health Improvement Program, and we'd see amazing changes in

people's lives. Well after, you know, about three weeks of this,

her mind started to clear and everything else since she

realized that I was essentially harmless. And took about three

weeks to figure that out. And then she says, could

I talk to you? And I said, I was a

little I was a little nervous. She goes, you know,

did you ever wonder why I was cursing you out?

I said, well, you know, the thought did cross my mind.

Although you're not the first person. I mean, don't feel

too bad. I uh you know, I'm trying to be

accommodated as I can. Uh yeah, but I did kind

of wonder. She goes, you know, you just look a

lot like my uncle. And I said, oh, did you

get along with your uncle? No, my uncle abused me

and my sisters, and I made a decision after that

happened that I would try me as ugly as possible,

so no man would do that to me again. And

when I saw you and you remind me my uncle,

that was reaction. So what was her issue? Was it overeating? No?

It was a mess up of an authority figure? Are

you following me? All right? Guys, have a great day.

That's the end of the message. No, how many want

to look at something now? Hopeful? So I have another

series of questions, so you're ready for some more questions now.

By the way, I want to recommend that you remember

what I said today and use it in your conversations.

How me think this would be a fruitful conversation anywhere

if you did it with deafness intact, right, I did

it on the plane two times on the way out here,

just talking to people. Okay, here's the next question. How

many of you in this room have ever escaped from

a bad situation? You don't know how it happened, but

you got out of it. How many you have ever escaped?

How many wonder if you're going to escape today? No,

anyway you've ever escaped? Do you like escape stories? I

can see that your church likes escape stories. You know,

I can tell you got all these signs up your

exit exit one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven. Oh,

this is kind of a biblical number of escape stories here.

I love going to restaurants where they have these all over.

And I asked the waiter or waitress, where'd you get

that sign? What's that sign mean that? They're going, well,

it just means you know how to get out? I said, Okay,

where'd you get that home depot? They say, well, where'd

they get it? China? Or where they could come up

with the idea. I'm not sure, sir, Well, could I

talk to the manager? My wife hates this, you know, see,

first time she thought it was good. But I do

it every single time because it's making a point. The

word exodus comes from the exit comes from the word exodus.

It's the largest escape story ever. One point five million

people escaped. Can you say hallelujah? And here's the thing.

If you can remember your escape story, it does something

to your mental health. They did a study of rats.

I'm gonna go glad you're not a rat. Okay, only

a couple of you. The rest of you were going

to pray for your negative thoughts but anyway, rats, They

did a study of rats, and they took these rats

and they put them in cold vats of cold water,

and they dunked them in the water and they kept

them there and wanted to see how long they would live.

And they lived for fifteen minutes. Rats they lived for

fifteen minutes and then they died. They took rats that

were genetically related to them, the same family, the Macintosh

rat pack. I guess whatever I called my family the

macpat pack. But anyway, they took these genetically related rats

and they put them into the water, but this time

just before the other ones had died, said fourteen minutes

instead of fifteen minutes. They pulled the rats out, barely alive,

and they dried them off. Can you say hallelujah? That's

an exit story, amen. But then guess what they did.

I put them back in the water. And they wanted

to see how long they would swim if they put

them back. And guess how long they swam? Twenty minutes?

Someone said, twenty minutes? Did anyone have any other ideas?

Twenty five minutes? Wow, you're very generous. They swam for

sixty hours. Sixty hours? Why did they swim so much

longer because they remembered that they had escaped. They remembered

they had escaped. You see how important that question is.

Have you ever escaped from a situation you don't know

how you got out of it? A hand came down

and seemingly picked you. Whatever the story is, people that

are depressed and ready to kill themselves, they can't seem

to remember any such stories. I remember I was talking

to him man. He happened to be from Alaska, and

I asked him that question. He goes, now, I can't

remember ever an escape story. And I was like, whoa,

this guy's bad and bad safe and he left my room.

About an hour he came back. He goes, wait a minute,

I got to ask you a question. What is it? Well,

I was in the bar and I was drinking, and

I ran out of money, so I went to get

some more money. But I got so tired when I

walked down the street that I you know, I just

laid down on the snow just to get a little nap,

and I actually went to sleep. And it was like

thirty below and my friend, who was drinking with me,

he came out because he didn't see me come back,

and he wondered where I was, and I was covered

up with snow, I mean had been snowing, but there

was this lump and I was by the road and

he actually thought that was me. And he came and

he woke me up. Is that an escape story? I said, absolutely?

Is escape story? He goes, I guess I did escape,

I said, And your friend came and woke you up.

You have a friend that cares about you. Oh, this

changes things. If you can get people to tell their

escape stories. What is it that they got out of?

How was it that God intervened in their life? Maybe

they don't even know it's God. So I usually don't

use the god dug at first because many of the

people I'm talking to are atheist or agnostics. Right, okay,

another question? Have you ever been given a second chance?

How many of you have ever been given a second chance?

Anyone here? Could you tell me about it? All right?

I wish they had time to listen to all your

escape stories or in your second chance stories. These are vital.

When I went to school, I got kicked out of

many schools because I had problems with authority figures. And

I heard in your last week's sermon from your pastor

that he had occasional you know, problems as well growing up.

He had some stories. But then he told he said, well,

maybe I shouldn't have told you that anyway. So I

was in school and I was in nursing school and

I said something in a patient room that I shouldn't

have said. If I told you what I said, number one,

you would never remember anything else in the sermon. So

I'm not going to tell you even if you asked

me afterwards, don't even bother. And I said something and

I got kicked out. The nurse that was mentoring me

or tormentoring me, whatever you want to say. That nurse said,

you're out. She kicked me out, and I drove home

and I called my sponsors, my parents, and I said,

I got kicked out. What your grandfather has been paying

for you. We put this and that, we've invested in you.

We wanted to return our investment. I'm sorry to disappoint you. Well,

I got kicked out. Well, tell me what happened. I

told him, and my mother started laughing. She started to laugh,

and she laughed, you know, quite readily, but she just

laughed so hard, and I heard a thump. I said,

what happens? She goes, I fell over. I'm laughing so hard.

And then I heard her go Charles, that's my dad's name.

And then she tells my dad. My dad never laughed, really,

you know, it was not something he did too much.

He hadn't read song one twenty six yet, but anyway,

and he was laughing. And both of them such as,

you just get all the nursing instructors together and you

just tell them exactly what you told us. We think

you might be okay. So I got them all together,

and the prosecuting an attorney, the nurse that had turned

me in. She summarized what I had done, and they

were all aghast and how terrible it was. And then

I said, they said, do you have anything to say?

And I said, well, I'd like to just give the

context of what happened. And I told what happened. And

when I told what happened, this nurse who had never

I think laughs in her whole life. She genetically was

not made for laughter or smiling. And she had hair

that looked like a helmet, you know, it was like

this like this, and it was kind of with brilled

cream in it, and it was like it was a

cell was like a hard shell. I mean, she could

have played for the packers. And she she had this

helmet on it, and when she heard what I said,

she began to shake and her hair literally cracked. It cracked.

And when that hair cracked, this they actually heard it.

I could hear it crack. And they all started letting.

They had and they were except for the accuser of

the brethren. They were all laughing except this one. And

they kicked me out and I was out in the

hall for like an hour, and finally they called me

back in and they gave me this legal pad full

of things that I had to do if I was

to stay in the program. They were going to give

me a second chance. They were going to show me, really,

they were going to show me what mercy. How many

have ever been shown mercy anybody? And you know, because

of that mercy in my heart, I had love for them.

They didn't have to do that, and because of that,

I was very happy to keep their commandments. I was

very happy to keep their fifteen rules. I was very

happy to buy blocks. I had never done that before.

I was very happy to do whatever it was. How

many can see that this is an important paradigm because

if you realize that your concept of God is that

He reaches out with you with mercy, and he does

that for every single person, then your heart springs up

with what and then you want to you wanta what

what can I do? In response? You wanta what now?

If it goes this way? This is the gospel? Can

you say, a man, if it goes this way, that's

legalism and that's a yoke and chain. Are you with me? Wow?

Very important? So I'm trying to get this when I'm

talking to people in my first thirty minutes with them.

All right, let me ask you this. If you've been shown,

ever escaped and given a second chance, and usually most

people at least have something to work with, has that

helped you, read restructure your lives according to new rules

in other words, these commands? How many of you have

ever escaped, have been showing a second chance and it

led you to restructure things in your life? What did

you say? What kind of things did you say? I'm

not doing things my way? I want to do things

God's way. You know, when we try and live our way,

does it work out well? In vain? Do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. What happens in

society and sometimes even churches is they come up with

rules that God never had and they think that's going

to be good. Is that good? Wow? It's vain and philosophy,

it's main ideas. But if rightly understood, it actually can

be liberated a law of liberty if you're living by

those When I started to live by those commands because

I understood their mercy, love and commands, I was liberated.

I went from being a C student to an A student.

I went from being a zero to a hero. I

radically moved. I have many stories like this in my life.

My life completely changed, Amen, and my life is filled

with gratitude. How many of you have a time every

day where you think about what you're grateful for every day?

How many you have that? How many you have it

every week? How many of you have gratitude that you

don't just keep to yourself, but you get together in

a group and talk about it, maybe midweek or every day.

How many have gratitude times in the morning and in

the evening and at lunch. How many think gratitude might

might change your mind? As a matter of fact, when

you're involved in this. Let's say, now, let me just

show you one thing here. You're getting the point already.

How many you get the point already? This is commandment

number ten. Thou shalt not cove it. This is commandment

number nine. Thou shalt not lie. This is commandment number

So let's just put nine. This is commandment number eight.

Thou shalt not steal. This is Commandment umber seven. Don't

adulter rate or corrupt your intimacy. This is commandment number six.

Don't kill? Are you with me? How many think this

is kind of exciting? And this is commandment number five?

Honor your father and your mother or authority figures. The

Bible says, honor them in the Lord when they're not

in the Lord. Be careful, don't follow things not in

the Lord. Amen. It shouldn't tolerate abuse from your parents.

Are you with me? So? Wow? Essentially this is a

diagnosis of what depression. But over here we have recovery.

We might say, we have the Gospel in the law,

law and love combining in the law. Are you picking

up on this? In other words, intrinsic in the law

itself is love? This is Commandment number one one by

the Lord, that God brought the up out of the

land of Egypt, out of the house of bondeds. I

delivered you from all your addictions, from your imprisonment, from

your enslaver, your enslavement. I did that. I am the

God of the exit sign. Hallelujah, Amen. And when they

came out, what was happening. They were walking, they were

having different food. They had tryp to fan, and that

trip to fan was chained in the presence of light

or sunlight into serotonin, and serotonin made them feel good,

and they had dopamine. They had a sense of reward,

and they had oxytocin. They started to come together in unity, hallelujah.

In other words, they were not getting high, they were

getting what most high, Hallelujah. And there were the benefits

that came from that relationship, both personally and corporately with God.

The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he

who has it will abide in satisfaction, will abide in satisfaction.

How many you like to live in satisfaction? I had

one of my patients. I do follow up counseling for

about a year after people get out of the program,

and I touched patience with them. I said, how are

you doing today? This is a lady just a couple

of weeks ago. I'm talking to her on the zoom.

She goes, I'm doing great. I said, to remind me

again where you live. She said, I live in satisfaction.

When she said I live in satisfaction, that increase my serotonin,

my dopamine, I got high all over again. Amen. So

when they were leaving, physically they had this bump. They

also were singing, right, And as they're singing, that also

brings healing. And they were not only living in mercy,

they were extending mercy to others. Hallelujah. How'my beginning to

see how powerful the thing commandments actually are as a

treatment plan. Yes, so commandment number one, Commandment number two,

commandment number three. In vain, do they worship me teaching

these doctrines, the commandments of men? But if you don't

take God's name in vain, you start to live within

the framework of His law, which is the most satisfying

thing ever. Amen. And then you spend time every day

thinking about God and your personal devotional life. But then

one day and seven you come together for a feast.

Maybe you have a special speaker. I don't know. You

have a wonderful special music you have. The kids come

and rip off money from you, but they're so cute.

You love it. Please take some more money. Just come

close to me. I don't have children on me all week. Amen.

And every aspect of your service is getting you, not high,

but most time. And then what happens. What happens you

start to reframe your use of authority. Your dad may

have been bad, but you're glad. The children have eaten

sour grapes. Their teeth are out of an edge. I

don't like this proverb. See everything your father did, consider it,

but not do likewise? Well, what wait a minute, how

do I do that? I seem to just do it.

My dad always did. Well. I tell you what I'm

gonna do. I'm gonna write my law in your heart

and mind. I'm gonna do that. And this is the

New Covenant experience. And the New Covenant is all these

I Will statements, and all the Iowa statements are from God,

not you. I will write it in your heart, I

will write it in your mind. I'll be your God,

you will be my people. No one has to tell

anyone about me, because everyone will know me because I'm

telling everybody because you forgave my iniquity and you erase

my sin, and that comes right out of the law

of God. Can you say hallelujah? And the largest quotation

from the Old Testament to the New Testament is actually

that saying. The largest quotation from the Old Testament Jeremiah

thirty one twenty nine through thirty four is repeated again

for Batim in Hebrews chapter eight, and repeat it again

in Hebrews chapter ten. Whoa holle do you are? You

beginning to see the law in a new way and

it's logic. Now I want to show you one last

thing and then we'll close. Are you Yeah, I'm embarrassed.

It was very early where I'm from though, Okay, only

nine o'clock, so you guys are going overload, but not me.

I noticed something else. I'm gonna leave it with you.

I never saw this. I memorize the ten Commandments from

when I was like, I don't know. My dad had

me say the ting comunts on the way to school

and the way home. On the way he had me

sam and on the way back at him saying it again,

he said, which ones did you break? That was our

devotional life? So I never noticed this before. But the

name of God, the name of God, Lord God, Yahweh Eloheim,

I'm the judge, but I'm a judge who wants to

be in relationship with you. I'm the Eloheim. I'm the

creator and redeemer. It's only associated with the first five commandments.

It's not even mentioned. It's not mentioned at all. Name

of God is not mentioned at all with these last commandments,

not at all. He doesn't want you to be dissatisfied.

He doesn't want you to have negative thoughts. He doesn't

want you to be stealing or stolen from. He doesn't

want your intimacy to be messed up. He doesn't want

you to be angry, bit or resentful. He doesn't want

it at all. In fact, he doesn't want to associate

your his name with it. Even in his name.

I'm now I want to be the God of deliverance,

the God of mercy, the God of liberty, the God

of gratitude, the God of Sabbath, the God of.

Purpose. How old are you? Well, that's all I have

to say. But is that helpful to you? And look,

I don't even tell them. I don't even tell my

patience that I assess them. But then I just go, Okay,

the lot of the words perfect for restoring the soul. I've

got so many days here, and we're going to work

on these issues. And many of them make decisions for Christ,

and many of them make decisions in the light of

the Cross. And many of them make decisions that saves

their relationship with God and with others, and they move

from depression to recovery. Hey man, so I want you

to plagiarize this. Take this, make it better, Use it

in your parenting, use it in your Bible studies, use

it as your witness. The law of the Lord is perfect,

converting the soul. Great peace. Have they was loved they law,

Nothing shall offend them. If you love me, keep my commandments.

Here's the patience of the saints. Here are that the keep

the commandments and have the faith of Jesus. The faith

of Jesus leads to obedience because it's God's mercy and love.

Are you with me? We need to be able to

proclaim the law more fully. It really is perfect, and

it converts the soul. As your pastor would say, dear heart,

did you feel your heart moved today at all? Do

you see God's love in the midst of his law?

Something you thought was always against you was really for you.

Can you see something new? Did it reach your heart?

Do you want to take it internationally? Well? Relation if

you're watching or if you're here, God speaking to you.

He's not out to get you, He's out to keep you.

He loves you. He's shown you mercy. Who wants to

take you out of the rat race and dry you off?

Hey man,