Predestined

Hello everybody and welcome again to Wednesday Night Live. My name is Ron Crawford and I'm coming to you from the Father's Church in Dallas, Texas. And as I say Dallas, Texas, it's in the most glorious time of the year. It's starting to get really hot here and it's a great blessing to live in Texas now as opposed to sixty years ago, or seventy when air conditioning was air refrigerated air, and it was only in certain places. I really don't know how those folks that formed this state existed in the heat.

But you know when I was a kid in Pennsylvania, if it really got hot we'd say, or somebody would say, it's 90 degrees in the shade. And I would almost prefer 90 degrees in the shade here. You know, that would be a cool front. But we're blessed, and it's great to be able to welcome you. A lot of the world is convening here in Dallas for the World Cup.

There are many different games played at the, what is called for this cup, the Dallas Stadium. Even though during football season we call it Jerry World or AT And T Stadium. But today, if you're listening to this on Wednesday, England has invaded The US and they're playing here in the stadium. The prices are really really high for these games and parking. I heard that some places were charging $500 to park one car or one vehicle.

Isn't that something? I could you know, that would be a good way for us at our church to actually use our parking lot. We could have people park here and then our brother Rick who has a big white van, he could just take them over there and we could charge them a $100 for the round or a 150 for the round trip. We throw in a bottle of water. We could finance the end time harvest that way.

But anyway, it's great to be able to connect with you today to to look into the word of the Lord. I mentioned this past Sunday that a theme that had been resonating within me was that very familiar passage in Romans eight that we who are Christians have all known since we were kids, and we've heard this preached about over and over and over and over again. Romans eight twenty eight, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. My goodness, we have preached that. We've heard that preached.

It's a comforting consoling word. Something goes sideways, and we say to somebody, well, you know, God promises. He's gonna work this for the good. You might wonder, this is a terrific, horrific circumstance, but it's included in the all things. All things does not exclude anything.

All is inclusive. We've said those things, and in so many ways it's been a comfort to people. And it's funny to me that many people who quote this verse totally disregard the verse right, the two verses right before it where the Spirit Himself making intercession for us with groanings and the Spirit knows how to intercede according to the will of God. There's a whole lot of 'splaining away with those two verses in a lot of our extended family in the kingdom of God. But I I knew that God was highlighting this verse, and I want to just explore it with you a little bit if that's okay with you.

And we just read this twenty eighth verse but let's continue in the context to see what qualifies as loving God and accepting the calling of His purpose. Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he called, whom he called, them he justified, whom he justified, then he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things if God before us, who can be against us? And it goes on, but it's it is the continuing context.

You know, it's it's amazing to me how theologians can see this truth sitting right in front of them, but they'll argue about minutiae. For instance, one of the things that we had to spend way too much time on in college and seminary was this aspect of predestination. And oh my goodness. Throughout so many, religions, there is the idea that God has a plan for you, and it's like the ticket of your life. And no matter what you do, it's it's like Christian karma.

It's like it's like you're you're just stuck, and, you know, it's your fate. Fate and predestination are linked together in this idea. And then there are others who would suggest the connection between what it said about Judas and the son of perdition. And did did Judas have to betray the Lord? And did God send him into the world knowing that he was going to do this despicable thing?

And I mean, you spend an inordinate amount of time going through this debate with no real clear solution in the debate because you're not looking at it properly. And some of you are gonna get stuck on this Judas thing. The the whole aspect of Judas was that Satan betrayed the father. Satan betrayed the Lord. And Jesus had to, in that sacrifice that he offered that was perfect, he had to deal with someone close to him who would betray him.

But Judas, it could have been any of them. The the enemy was working obviously on Peter. Look at the way these guys skedaddled. Look at the way they scattered. You know, they they were all in a precarious moment.

I guess then the argument could go, well, what if they were all strong and no one betrayed? You know, that's just that's just one of these endless debates. But Judas knew. He entertained the the enemy's strategy, and the Bible says that Satan was dealing with him then. And then after the bitter sop, the Bible says Satan entered into him, and then that was Satan vicariously living that point of betrayal.

And, really, I'm not saying Judas was possessed. I've seen I've seen Christian people, even when the oppositions came against us for walking the pathway of saints. I've seen people do things that are far worse than what I think demons could do. And I I've seen the enemy nudge people or just people just being ornery. And then they they go about doing things that were just evil.

I mean, just evil. So but but again, you can argue. None of us were there. The Bible says the enemy entered in, but I've seen people that were just absolutely directed by the enemy, and then after they've done whatever they were gonna do, they they seem to think, what was I thinking? What was I doing?

And it's just the issue of if you give place to pride or let your iniquities guide you or you let jealousies come. You know, there's a reason people have given quotations about a woman scorned or, you know, hell hath no fury or, you know, the the wickedness of of jealousy. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave, the Bible says. And a person can be jealous. I don't think the enemy has to mess with them very much.

They're already they've already made the move that's taken them out of the game and to set them up to be someone that would be obstinate and an opponent. So but these are all things that you can spin off on and debate. We've already done it in the first ten minutes of this broadcast. But what what is God really saying here? And what does it mean to be foreknown and predestined?

And I think this is so important for us as saints to realize. We have to go back to the idea of being foreknown. When the other scriptures that we've looked at, where before the world began God knew us. The blood of the saints shed before the foundation of the world. Christ being, put forward as a sacrifice.

God God who knows everything knew this was going to happen. You might say, well then why did he do it? Why did he do it this way? Well it's the idea of God wanting participants, not hostages. God wanting partners, not automatons.

God wanting you to love him, not because he makes you love him. God wanting you to be an overcomer and somebody who walks through the valley with him and not somebody that is absolutely bereft of any challenge. So God is all about the journey and about partnership and about us hungering for Him, us going, breathing hard after His purpose, which is what agape is here. It's not some philanthropic effort, even though some philanthropic efforts can be guided by agape. Hear what I'm saying.

This word agape translated as charity. Well, I'm doing a charity work. Well, what are you doing? Well, you know, I just want to be a contributor to society, so I'm out here at this soup kitchen. And I bless anybody who does that.

You know, when I was a little kid, I guess my mom wanted me to get out of the house, so my father who was in some ways a frustrated preacher, I won't go into that, you don't care about that, but about once every two months, he would go down and he would preach at the Union Gospel Mission on a Saturday night to the guys that were there. They were all men who were either homeless or vagrants or, you know, and they were there to get a meal, but they had to listen to a sermon. So I was just a little boy, maybe five, six, and I remember being there for that, and I thought well this is a nice thing. All those men that were there, some of them would weep when they saw me because I think they recognized that they lost their families or whatever. I wasn't that ugly of a kid that they, oh, look at that kid.

Woo hoo. Okay. Did somebody have a hanky? But, you know, so I'm not denigrating that kind of thing, but that's not agape. I mean it could be the motivation for your calling to reach out to those that are homeless, but doing a charitable thing is not necessarily agape.

I dare say, and we know this as Saints, don't we? That agape is serving God and doing whatever is necessary to fulfill his purpose. That's the meaning of holy. That's the meaning of saints to bring about the restoration of what God originally intended. And we've studied all these concepts, but agape is really serving God.

Now that could extend to, in some ways, serving mankind, but we're serving God. It could be on our face most of the time in prayer. It could be doing prophetic acts in obedience to him, participating in activations guided by the spirit, going to regions previously unknown to preach the gospel of the kingdom when God opens a door regardless of how much of a of a sacrifice in the natural that is to you. Agape, front and center, is not doing something on behalf of God, but doing something that you're ministering to God. And that separates the well meaning translation charity or benevolence, from what agape really is.

To breathe hard after what God really is wanting to do, and that is the apex of partnership with him. So we know that all things work together for good to them that agape God. Well then this explanation comes, God foreknew you. And here we go back to Adon, a d o n, what originally Eden was, what Adonai has, where each of us were created for a purpose with specific gifts to find our place during our lifetime, to serve God in the way he created us in the midst of the theater of operation that he is wanting us to serve in. This is really not that hard.

We make it hard. We make it hard because in even though we're all called to be intercessors, how many how many Christians really do intercede? I mean, intercede. And I'm not talking about praying for prayer requests, and I'm not denigrating that either. See, you you go through these trip lines.

You know, if somebody's praying for somebody's needs, I understand that that's kind of like an emergency room. You know, I've seen people, I've known people who really feel it's their ministry to be a counsel, to help people. But then that can become a, you know, it can become a panacea. Instead of that person actually finding God for themselves, well, we're gonna run over here and find aunt aunt Myrtle, and aunt Myrtle is going to pray for us because she knows how to reach out to God. Well, why don't you know how to reach out to God?

Why don't you pray? Yeah. Bear you one another's burdens, But then the Bible says each person should bear their own burden. So, know, we we need to be walking in righteousness, but we recognize that we will be linked or should be with righteous armor on the right and left. We should be skilled.

We should be one that can put a thousand to flight, but we recognize that the principle when God links you with someone with a common cause from him exponentially to put 10,000 to flight. So everybody has a calling. I wouldn't put a percentage on it because I know that that would just be a haphazard guess, But just from my perspective in growing up in the church and me pastoring for a number of years where myriad numbers of people came to me and said, pastor, I wanna know what God's will is for me. Or and it's almost like the pastor serves as a soothsayer or a prognosticator. But I've said this, you you really won't know who you are until you enter into absolute commune with God.

And then those verses that we read prior to verse 28, where we're allowing the Holy Spirit within us, the index of our life where the friend breathes, and our passion and our wisdom and understanding is generated for the word of God. When the spirit himself is making intercession with us for us in unknown tongues. These groanings here are not, as I heard recently in fairness, that you're just getting old and your body aches and you groan and you're looking for heaven. No. This this is where you are passionately calling out to God, and for want of a better term groan is is the word that King James translators chose, But you are desperately allowing the spirit to appeal from deep within you, the born again spirit, for the will of God to be done and for you to adequately and valiantly find your place in that equation of what God intends to do to fulfill his will.

So if if you just go to church and you listen to doctor so and so every week, lambast the opposing political party, and you go to church social or you fellowship with guys down at La Madeleine hearing somebody read the same scripture, It's good to read the scripture. It's good to have fellowship, but is that really coming boldly before the throne of grace to to find to to to gain the mercy and grace that you need to partner with God? Look, I know it's not. You cannot equate those. I lived that life.

I led that other life. And I know the difference between just being a good old boy who loves the Lord and somebody who is actively pursuing the agape. Everybody should be doing this. Why? Because God knew you.

God let you be born at this time in this moment. Why? To serve him. And with that foreknowledge, there's also this predestinate. So what does this mean?

Well, I hope you all have your Bible program because this is, of course, Wednesday Night Prayer and Bible Study. And I hope you've pulled up this passage, and I hope you invested the grand sum of a cup of coffee to buy the Strong's version. So if you click on that you'll see that this word predestinate is proorizo, and if you hit search then you see that this indicates a in acts four twenty eight when Peter was talking after they'd been threatened by the Jewish leaders, He said, we want to do whatever your hand and your counsel determined, proorizo to be done. It was a commitment to the horizon. That's our objective.

And then there's the Romans passage. I'm just if you've got your bible program, you're seeing this right with me. First Corinthians two seven, we speak the wisdom of God in a mysterion, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our participation in glory. So God has a unique path that we should be sensitive to him to follow and to participate in. We'll be guided by wisdom and mysterion, and we'll be partnering with him in his glory for something that he's ordained to do now that's not been done yet.

Look at Ephesians one five, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. This is God wants you to be born again, and he wants you to begin to submit yourself as a member of the family that's going to grow from the elemental stages of childhood into the good pleasure of his will. One eleven Ephesians, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will. So being predestinated is not some fate. You know, I dare say that most Christians, and this is not critical, this is just an observation based from years of experience.

Most Christians don't even begin to scratch the surface of what God predestinated them to do for him. Now you you will also recognize this pro orizo because the orizo part, which we say we get our word horizon from, is when you actually engage or commit to go into that horizon of partnership with God. And when you study that, and I can tell you how to do it, we're not going to do it here, but you should know this anyway. Like if you take predestinate, you've clicked open your Strong's, and you see from Greek four two five three and Greek three seven two four. Well pro, you know, is going to be the first one.

At least you should know that, but you can click on that and see anyway. And the second one is going to be orizo. So what you do or horizo, and then you can look and you say that it is from Orion or Horizo. So you you do Greek three seven two four, g three seven two four in the magnifying glass, or g three seven two five, and you see all of those verses. One of which is the famous one that we've looked at in the book of Acts when the teachers and the prophets came together in Antioch, and they, the Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I've called them.

Says the spirit is looking at the horizon. It's often translated as coasts. So to go into a new place, a new place in God, not just necessarily traveling in the natural, but in so many ways in intercession and development. God says, okay, these guys have a mission over here. I've called them to it.

This is a chorizo. Now they're actually going to put their lives into motion to go forward. And they laid hands on them and prayed and sent them forward. This was a predestined thing, predestinated. Can somebody be pro orizo and not travel overseas?

Well sure. But are you participating in the program? And I don't mean just as much as we appreciate this, writing a check or sending some kind of an electronic payment once a month. I mean, the funds to support the work of the Saints are necessary. It's God's way.

But it's also you've you've gotta be a praying person. You gotta be praying in the spirit. You've gotta apply the things we've seen in the word. You've gotta be on your face before God. God searches for that.

You've got to grow in grace. You've got to be willing to serve God. And there are people that I know even in my church who we love, who pray, but they can't travel anymore. It's not that they don't want to, they just can't travel anymore in the natural. But they are participating, and God needs them to be doing this in the way that they're doing it.

So that's predestinated. It's not fate. It's not God's gonna make you do something. It's what he laid out for you. And most again, growing up in the church, if I was just in first whatever church, some kid would be growing up and they think, man, you have a talent.

Or they'd say, son, you want to make some money. Or if you're looking for a spouse, make sure you pick one who's making money so you can live a comfy lifestyle. That's helpful, but I've seen that go, woah, wheels off in a hurry because having money doesn't mean you're a kind person. That's another story. But so they'll say, alright.

So obviously that God has given you this gift, and you can make money doing it. And, you know, let's pray that God will bless that. Well, the parents say, you know, I've always wanted my son to be a doctor or my daughter to be an attorney or something that would make money and be respected. So I put them on this course. Or some mothers have they they just know what kind of man their daughter should marry, and they're on an agenda to get that.

And they ask God to bless it. Bless this Lord. Well, what are you blessing? What are you asking God to do to bless your plan, to bless your aspiration? This happens in churches all over the world.

It happened in my not my immediate family, but in my family. I would hear this type of stuff all the time. All the time. And, that's not necessarily, underline that, the purpose that God has given. Now do I believe that God has ordained some people to be doctors or attorneys or politicians or people who are in the limelight?

Of course. Of course he does. But if it's a matter of us targeting that as our objective, that's more akin to you saying, this Lord, I've charted out this path and I want you to bless it. So let everybody let's old aunt Myrtle again, let's have her praying that this will happen. I went through that, you know, in high school.

I have a few really lucrative opportunities in front of me, and I had well meaning people who I knew really cared about me who came and said, son, God has given you this pathway. It's obvious. You have these skills. I'm not talking about myself. I'm just saying you have skills that people don't necessarily have.

And so it's obvious that God has ordained for you to be this. Well, that obviously wasn't God's plan for me, was it? No. I think you look back over the course of my life, and even even what I thought even what I thought when I got training for ministry and I was trained. Okay, this is what you do.

You know, you want to go in, you want to grow his church, you want to find a need and meet it. And then you're chasing people. And that was ingrained in us. You chase the needs of your people when you should be leading. Instead of leading, you're searching needing.

And then you put together all these things that will attract people to the church. You get them in there. And because then that grows your constituency. You can get more money. You can build.

That's the strategy. Was that necessarily God's strategy? I'm not gonna comment. I think you know my answer. We had to abandon that to really seek after God.

And when we started to seek after what we're seeing here in the scripture, oh my goodness, you'd have thought I was just in league with Satan because I wasn't playing the game. You see, God does not serve us, we serve him. And when we do the things that God put us here on this earth to do, and when we embrace why he well, we may never know exactly why God put us on earth. But it can be pretty obvious once you start seeking him. He puts you in position and you need to say yes to the Lord and obey, and then you grow in in those aspects.

And then he puts you in position to say yes in a certain task, and then you begin to see progressions. But then you gotta be careful not to let your mind, your natural mind, take over. There've been so many ways that God through, for want of a better term, curveballs to us. He and it's always testing our willingness to obey. We're dealing with one right now on behalf of a a really powerful point of ministry that the Lord has brought before us.

And things that we knew God wanted to do were not really embraced in the way that they were agreed upon. And so we're praying and we we know God's gonna do what he wants to do. And the end result is gonna be better than what we had thought. Now the original agenda, we got that tucked in the back of our head because ultimately going forward, this is a structure that's going to build disciples throughout a major country. So sometimes God gives us the plan.

We say, yes Lord. We begin to make strides toward that, and then the spirit says, no. Or the spirit restrains you, or the spirit gives you another pathway. Is God confused? Did for instance the apostle Paul not hear God when he was preparing?

He had people praying. He had people committing themselves to go into Asia, And then the spirit speaks to him in the night, the man of Macedonia, and says, come over. Teach us how to call unto the Lord. And then Paul had to I don't know how much explaining he actually did. I think he just said, this is what God said.

I'm doing it. I think I need to be more that way. But was God confused? No. I think he tries the reins.

And all things work together for the ultimate purpose of God. If you are agape before God and you've accepted the calling that his purpose is employing. And because he foreknew us and he predestinated us so that we would be as his son. Isn't that wonderful? That we would be conformed to the image of his son.

In other words, that's just saying that we would to be like Jesus. That we would be not just every now and then like him, but conformed to this pattern of sonship. Because Christ came to be the firstborn among among many, whoever he pre now look at this, verse 30. This is the progression. We need to see this.

Verse 30 of Romans eight. We're back to our initial passage. Whom he did predestinate, he called Kaleo. And if you look at Romans eight twenty eight, which is the couple verses before, you have kleidos, and kleidos is the actual work. You know, parakleidos is the Holy Spirit saying come and get in line, where you're committing, you're doing it.

But here it's it's Kaleo. So he's been making an appeal to us. If if we recognize the predestination of God, and God is always beckoning us to get with the program, to submit ourselves. That's Kaleo. He's making a call.

And then when we say yes, God begins to speak to us. Justified. Righteousness. That's another word that has been spun endlessly in theological discussion. The famous preacher line, justified.

Do you know what that means? It's just if I had never sinned. Well, let me just clarify something here. That's being born again and your sins being forgiven. What is righteousness and justification?

It's just those two terms are used synonymously from the same original in the New Testament. Remember when God first defined righteousness? He takes Abram out. Do you think he had a plan for Abram? Of course, he did.

And he calls Abram out. Abram's called out from Ur of the Chaldees. So he's walking with God. He's saying yes to the Lord. Now he's put Clados to Kaleo.

And God says, come out here. And this is what I wanna do. Look up at the sky. Look at the stars. Your seed is gonna be more numerous than that.

And Abram believed God, and God said this is righteousness. Righteousness is embracing the partnership vision that God releases to us as we seek him. This could come in many ways confirmation of what he's told us. Vision, open vision, dreams, rhema words, the spirit speaking in that still small voice to us. The confirmation of prophetic words.

It it's it's just the righteous pathway. And where does it come? Well, He created us. He knew us. He's been calling us to get with the program.

And we when we hear that calling, then and we begin to participate with him, then he begins to speak. I say that word, and that confuses some of you that think you don't have any giftings. Well, doesn't speak to me the way he does you. Everybody has a unique measure of receiving direction from God. Now you gotta be really careful because the still small voice can be imitated by iniquity.

What do I mean by that? I've heard people over the years saying, well, God told me. And then when I hear what they say God told them, either it's not scriptural or it's just a bailing out of something that I know they didn't want to do. I just know that. And so they're hearing what their mind is screaming at them, and then they're blaming it on God.

And once that's said, what are you gonna do? No. You didn't hear from God. We gotta find a way to pry open that lame trump card that excuses people from doing what God's really asking them to do. God told me.

You know, that's a slippery slope. But God can tell you. We all have the capacity of hearing from him, whether it's audible, whether it's through any of these sources, or whether it's just in that idiosyncratic way that God gets through to you. But you gotta be really careful because if anybody says, God told me, you gotta you gotta make sure that it's not jealousy, that it's not wanting a way out, that it's not envy, that it's not just downright hatred of something or an unwillingness to commit. You'd be really careful.

You're borderline take God's name in vain. So if somebody says God told me, I know. Well then there's the other type of person who's just kind of, forgive this phrase, but kind of wheels off. And God has a lot of odd friends. He really does.

And there are some people that just are over exuberant and they they wanna do something and they blame it on faith and they say God told me. And you have to counsel those people back into reality. And usually the way you do it is you say, now let's let's talk about how did how did God tell you this? And then you hear them process, and you say, well, know, when I hear that, I don't really hear what you're telling me it means. I'm hearing this.

And that you can deal with a lot of times, can deal with people that are a little bit more extravagant or more excitable. Sometimes God will be speaking to you and you knee jerk and go ahead of him. Well, God told me to do this. Well, what did he really say? Did he say that he's gonna be moving you out of this?

Did he say go and quit right now? You want to, but did God was God giving you a forewarning? You see, we have to be really careful. We have to measure twice and cut once. But God will activate this measure of your communication with Him and direction and revelation.

And then when that happens, His ultimate goal is for you to partner with Him in His glory, which again is not goosebumps, touchy feely, hair raising up on the back of your neck, even though some of those things can happen. God wants to do things through you commensurate with this time frame that in this time frame he's never done before because it's not been his timing to do it. He's never going to break his word, but he is going to, from glory to glory, reveal his ongoing will. So what do we say then? If God is for us, who can be against us?

How is God for us? He knew you. He put you on this earth with a plan. He wants to fellowship with you. He wants to reveal things to you.

He wants to teach you his ways, his word. He wants to use you. That's God being for us. God being for us doesn't mean that whatever you well, almost said phrase that some of you would not like. It's not you just setting a course in motion and you think, well, God wills it.

I I remember this scene in the crusades. It was a movie about the crusades, not Billy Graham, but the medieval crusades. And those guys thought that if they had a piece of the cross in front of their army, that that army could not be defeated. That was dispelled over and over again. Sometimes they would go out on foolhardy, ridiculous battle plans, and somebody, maybe a priest, would raise his hand and say, God wills it.

An army with the cross of Christ in front of it cannot be defeated. So you got to be really careful when you say God is for us. The better thing is is that God is God, and he created you to be a son, and that's the greatest for us that anyone will ever know. He's for us, but we're ingrained in him. So if we're doing that, who can be against us?

It goes back to all things work together for good. And this context keeps going, the famous who shall separate us from the agape? Tribulation, distress, persecution. And then it goes on. I am persuaded that death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, powers, things present, and things that come, height, depth, any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.

Now that's that's an interesting word. Separate. Cora. Corizo. Is there a link etymologically with orizo?

Well, we don't really have time to go through this, but this word is a best to say it, it is a chasm, in the orizo. And so there's not gonna be any boundary in this process that the love of God has not already foreseen and will be more than able to circumvent and overcome. Does that make sense? But it's agape. Agape, the committal of your life to breathe hard after the purpose of God.

You know, we studied recently about what Jesus said to the Ephesians. You've left your first agape. Do the first things, first works. Well, what are the works? Well, to me, it's not by works, but it was speaking about Jesus was speaking about doing these things in conjunction with agape and with your purpose.

Do those things. It makes perfect sense. You could even read the passages leading up to Romans eight twenty eight where it's talking about creation groaning, and it's talking about we have the first fruits of the spirit, and it's talking about hope, and it's talking about, you know, those first seeds of faith, and it's talking about patience. These are all dynamic divine nutrients and modes of thinking and training and acting, all leading up to the fulfillment of the foreknowing and the predestined aspect of partnering with God in his glory. But agape is the thing that gets you through all of them.

So I know that this is, like I said, bible study, but we what are we as saints doing? What are you doing? Well, think it's obvious that God has been revealing to us aspects of what our mission is as saints. We're making disciples. This past Sunday, in conjunction, I mentioned this Romans eight, and then I spoke about what Paul said in Romans 11, just three chapters later, about going throughout the Gentile world and gaining whatever God's created them to be and grafting them as olive trees into the root of God.

That's a really unique calling called to be saints. It's it's something that few will welcome. You were made for this. You were called to this. And you know if somebody believes they're called to something, that is a strength in itself.

It really is. That you're not just giving it the old college try or I just did it because everybody else was doing it or you know the pastor said this and you know, was just following along. I really had my doubts all the way through. Or, you know, but if you really know that this is an identity that God foreordained and predestined and gave you giftings and callings to serve, that is a strength in itself. Now the enemy will try to attack that aspect in really subtle ways, and I think he's tried to do that in many really strong saints over these past number of months.

I know he's tried it with me. And that can be questioning, why is God doing this to you? Why hasn't he done this? What good has it done for you to do this? Things just like that, and especially if you're tired or if you're really pressing toward the mark and you you know, I don't need to go through details here.

You could everybody could spin their own. And then then here's one for those of you who are like me. Everybody's getting older. You do realize that. It's just how old you think you are.

Well, you know, I'm getting really old now. I I think I need to scale back. No. You don't. You need to be before the Lord and say, what do you want from me?

What if Anna in the old in the New Testament would have said, you know, I've been at this for decades now. My body's groaning. I think I'll just not come in today. God will understand. What about Simeon?

What about Zechariah? He tried that. Anyway, live as long as you're alive. You've heard that before. God knows you know, it's not like some of us think it's like some of the courses we took in in college or or like let me just say this.

When I was working in the mill, in the steel mill, during my college summer, And the foreman came in and said to us when we got there for midnight to eight in the morning shift. The foreman said, okay, guys. We've already filled our quota for today. So I don't want you to do anything. Now if there is a sudden inspection, which happens every now and then, somebody's gonna be watching for that, and they'll let you all know.

And you get up no matter what you're doing, you act like you're busy. Some of you think, well, you know, I've already done the quota of my life, and I've done a pretty good job. I still have life, but I'm not gonna do anything more. Oh, the days of the union. I'm glad we don't have a Saints Union.

There'd be all kinds of protests. So and I'm not denigrating the union. I'm not. My dad was in it for thirty four years. I was in it.

It did good things for our country, so I'm not getting there with unions. But you are not in the Saints Union. You have to answer to God and you better be serving him until the day he calls you home for good. I'm preaching to myself now. Well, just remember all things work together.

How many things? All things work together for good to you who love God, agape, and are called according to his purpose because he had a purpose for you from before the foundation of the world. He predestined you. He sent you here for this place, for this time, for this work. And if you say yes, he's gonna begin to reveal himself to you, and he's gonna teach you, he's gonna train you, he's gonna give you opportunities to serve, and you're gonna be partnering with him in his glory.

And what should we say? God is for us. God is for us. Who else would do what he has done? He sent himself as a son to die for us so that we might become sons.

Who can be against us? I pray God will bless you today. This really was a study, wasn't it? But it's one that we need to get into our spiritual acumen. I think there's a strengthening through this understanding.

God loves you. You're important to him. He sent him his son for you, not just so you could be born again, sit in the back pew, have a home in heaven. He wants you to fulfill his ordained purpose for your life. I pray we all do that.

God bless you all. We look forward to Friday, the power devotional. And until then, be blessed.