In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis. Joseph experienced many disappointments and heartaches, including being sold into slavery by his own brothers. However, he did not become bitter because he saw God in control of his life. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing that even when people betray us or things go wrong, God is still in control and can use those situations for our good. The sermon also highlights the biblical principle of responding to our enemies with kindness and meeting their basic needs, as this can lead to transformation in their lives.

The material that we're sharing tonight, we've been doing in our church. You're up to date with my church now. We've been doing this particular material now for about five weeks. So I'm going to give you tonight, you know, five weeks. I'll never do it. But what we're sharing tonight, I think it's all important, but what we're sharing tonight is extremely important. A lot of things have happened as a result of learning insights from this particular material. I was sharing this in a Sunday school class. I think I'm on. To me, I sound so loud and everybody's like, I can't hear you. I said, you've got to stand up here. I can hear me good. I can hear me too good. But I was sharing this in a church in Kansas City, and in the church was one of the top ten artists for Hallmark. I've mentioned the fellow before, Hallmark Greeting Card. He has a position in the penthouse there as one of the top designers for Hallmark. This fellow, since the time he was 14 years of age, had serious migraine headaches at least once a month that caused him to miss three or four days of work since he was 14 years of age. He went to the two top neuro centers in the United States for help. One in New York and one in Chicago. He was taking the strongest medication that you could take for migraine headaches, but it would still knock him off his feet. He listened to the material that I'm sharing tonight, applied it, and was healed. He waited for four months before he got up before the church of around a thousand people and shared how God had healed him. Physically, when he applied spiritual truth. Now, he didn't do it to get healed. A lady that I knew in the same church had bone cancer, and she was dying. Her daughter was at Calgary as a freshman and listened to this material that I'm sharing tonight, shared in a freshman class. She knew that this problem was her mother's problem, and it burdened the girl because she knew she couldn't go home and say, Mother, do you know what your problem is? Her mother was dying of cancer. You go to a mother dying of cancer and say, Mother, you've got a spiritual problem. But she loaned her none of these diseases. The mother read that book and realized her problem was the one we're dealing with tonight. And when she confessed it and dealt with it, she began to be healed of her cancer. And she got up in Calgary's chapel and shared how all the cancer treatments had absolutely no effect until she dealt with it, and then the cancer began to go away with the treatments that they were giving her. And the doctor was amazed because they had given her up for dead. They told the girl her mother was dying and there was no hope because she was not responding to chemotherapy or radiation treatment. I was going to give you one more. That was two. Okay, we had a friend of ours that we hadn't seen for a long time. And the husband said, When you see my wife, you won't believe her. But she has crippling arthritis. And when we met her, we couldn't believe it because she looked like her husband's mother in a year and a half's time. They were in our church, hadn't seen her for a year and a half, and she looked like his mother. She could only take one step at a time. The doctor said there was nothing more they could do for her. She realized that her problem was spiritual. And she dealt with her problem. And today, you would never know that this woman had crippling arthritis. I was sitting in my office one day at the college, and a fellow called me on the phone. He says, I'm out of state. Do you ever see people from out of state? And I said, Yes, I do. If I feel I can help them, there's no point. And I said, If you come, I would give you like three or four hours. But there's no point in you driving and making a trip to the college if I don't think I can help you. He said, Well, it's not for me. It's for my wife. The doctor says that my wife's problem, she has a physical problem, but he said the root of it, and he wasn't even a Christian, is spiritual. He says, Woman, you have a spiritual problem because you are not responding to treatment. And she had crippling arthritis. The doctor said, Assume a position. And that's what you take. You want to be stiff laid down, you want to be stiff sitting, but you just take a position. In fact, Wilma would know this woman because the people in Gerrard knew her, and they knew that she had been healed. So the fellow told me, he said, I said, What's your wife's problem? She has crippling arthritis. She's 34 years of age, and she can barely walk. I said, I am positive I can help her. Does your wife have this spiritual problem? He said, Yes. I said, Bring her in. I know I can help her. And he brought her in. I shared insights with her. She confessed, followed the scriptures, she went home, and I heard nothing. I heard nothing from her. And so I got to tell him, we should have called you beforehand, but my wife has been sharing here in Bible study what God has done in her life. There's a lady down here that just attempted suicide and was in, almost died, and was in intensive care. Could you help her? She has the same problem my wife had. She has a problem with this particular sin. I said, Yes. Bring her in. And they brought this woman in. And now both these women are sharing in the area where Wilma's from, but God, how God had freed them from the problem. What is the problem? Do you have any idea? There's a correlation between this sin and the bones and blood disease. It's bitterness. You see it as resentment. You never want to tell a Christian, Do you know that you're bitter? And they'll say, Oh, no, I'm not. And you just are put on the list. So you never go to a Christian and say, You're bitter. But, you know, they can't handle that. They say, Well, I have a few resentments. But resentments come from a character deficiency of bitterness. The scripture says, Bitterness dries what? The bones. Now, just because someone has arthritis, don't say, Aha, now I know, you old bitter thing. No. That's not necessarily so. But if they have arthritis and are bitter, it will get worse and worse and worse and nothing will help. Do you see? Because bitterness causes a chemical. When you're bitter, I don't know what happens. But what happens is, because you have these resentments and you review these resentments over and over and over again, it causes a chemical imbalance in your body that puts some type of certain glands, secretes, whatever it is, it gets in the bloodstream that causes problems in the bones and with arthritis. And so leukemia and a lot of these things. Because, see, where is the blood? Manufactured. In your bones. And you should do a study in the scripture about bone marrow in bones. It's an interesting study. And what God says about the bones and what is the health of the bones and what isn't health of the bones. I mean, God knew before people knew that your blood cells were, you know, manufactured in bone marrow. Especially in your sternum and other places. Now, let us look in scripture at bitterness. And I said we really can't go into it in detail like I would like. But I really, we need to see insights. If there ever was a problem today that is destroying Christians, it's the problem of bitterness. It is just devastating. There are so many bitter Christians in churches. It is terrible. It's just unbelievable. You know, and like divorces in the church. And you got the family that dislikes this family because their daughter divorced their lovely son. You know, how could you do such a thing to such a fine boy as that? You know, and this family is upset because how could such a lousy boy marry our lovely daughter and treat her the way he did? You know, and you get, it's just awful. All the bitternesses that are in church. And we've got to deal with bitterness. Why is bitterness devastating? Bitterness will destroy child evangelical fellowship. Bitterness will destroy this center. You say, how do you know it? Well, because the scripture says it will. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 13. Bitterness will destroy the church I pass through. Bitter people will eventually see that place totally ruined. Hebrews, did I say, what chapter did I say? Well, you won't find it there. You might try 12. Hebrews 12, 15. Look diligently. He says, you keep a very watchful eye. Lest any man fail to draw from the grace of God. And he's using the illustration here to forgive. If you refuse God's grace to forgive, what will happen? Lest any root of bitterness spring up. And what will it do? It'll trouble you, but what else? Thereby what? Many be defiled. Let me tell you this. There is not one bitter person on this ground that hasn't already shared it with others. Now, I don't know who they are. But they've shared it. You can rest assured. They'll share it. And they'll be murmuring and complaining. There'll be an independent spirit and eventually there'll be a fraction. Cause, and you trace it back to who? Roots of bitterness in a person that was what? Unwilling to forgive a decision that was made. The way somebody was treated. What should have been done and wasn't done. What they owed me and didn't give me. You know, that whole route. And will just literally destroy any Christian organization. And that's one of Satan's ways of destroying an organization. Not gross immorality in the camp, but what? Murmuring and complaining and resentment against fellow believers. And those seeds are planted in the heart and they take root down and then they spring up and they defile. Now, and it all comes when I refuse to forgive. Remember we made a statement and it's so important. God is more concerned about my response to situations than He is my situations. God is more concerned how you respond to an offense than He is that you were offended. Because if you are offended then that's an opportunity for you to draw of the grace of God to what? Forgive. What is the only message that we have to give to a lost world? If you would take the whole message from Genesis to Revelation and you'd boil that message down to the simplest term what is the message that God wants us to give to the world? Forgiveness, that's it. The Bible is a story of how God forgives. What does Satan want? He doesn't want you to forgive. Because that, you know, how can you preach forgiveness and be unforgiving? You can't. You just can't do it. And you can sit there and say, yeah, okay, Logan, that's fine, but you don't know what I've been through. I didn't tell you what that lady had been through that had crippling arthritis, did I? But I will. It's not very pleasant. She was raised in a Christian family. And her father was quite a bit older than her mother. And so the grandparent, he was such a neat grandpa, and she was such a neat grandmother that they would love to take the children periodically on the weekend so the couple could, you know, just go out and, you know, have a date or something, you know, and they just leave the kids with grandpa and grandma. Well, the kids were little. They left them with grandpa and grandma. Grandpa had retired first, so he would have them all day Friday and grandma would come home Friday night and they'd have them the weekend. They'd pick them up Sunday and bring them home. Well, a tragedy happened. Grandpa died. And finally, grandma retired. And so the mother one day, and the kids were all, I think, maybe four and seven when grandpa died. The seven-year-old was now about 12. And one day she said to her mother, mother, why did you take us down to grandpa and grandma's? And she said, well, because, you know, they wanted to have you and you liked being down there. She said, no, we didn't. She said, why? She said, I don't want to tell you. She said, honey, why? She said, grandpa made us take off our clothes and did bad things to us. Now, would you resent your father that would molest your daughters? Would you resent that? Isn't that understandable why this woman would be bitter? Isn't that understandable? I can't even begin to tell you. You don't, I don't think you're aware of how prevalent molesting in the family is today. I know when I would teach a freshman class at Calvary on molesting, I would think there's probably at least 10 girls out of 150 that were molested by their father, grandfather, uncle, or brother. At least 10. If not more. It is so common, and it's becoming more and more common because you have these men who are not related to these girls living in the home with these teenage girls because of these split homes. And it's going to get worse and worse and worse. Your clubs, you're going to have many girls in your clubs that are being molested at home by a brother who's not a brother. Just some guy that's living in the home, you know. It's her stepmother's son. It's so prevalent, you just can't believe how prevalent it is. And I know in this group there's probably at least one girl here or more that was molested in this group right here. And has had some real struggles with it. It really has a devastating effect on a person. I got... I won't go into that one. That is so bad, I won't even share it with you. I'd share it at the college, but I won't share it here. This is so bad. But I had to deal with a girl and talk about bitterness. You know, and people... And this woman, when she shared this with me and her dad was already dead, she found out after he was dead. And she just, you know, you talk to her about forgiving, I had to show her that I understood. But it was wrong. That her response to this was wrong. And to be bitter was wrong. And then she thought. And then she dealt with it. And so I want to share some insights. And I just don't know how many we can share tonight, but we really have to see this thing from God's perspective. And it's very, very difficult. Because most Christians that are decent Christians, you know, I mean, really a growing Christian that's still struggling with bitterness has some real reasons why. I mean, they're genuine reasons. And they're still bitter. And as they rehearse those reasons, the hurt... I mean, this woman, every time she thought about jumping her kids off down there and thinking about what that grandfather did to those girls and the far-reaching consequences of that, she got deeper and deeper and deeper into bitterness. This woman that tried to commit suicide found out her husband was having an affair with a younger woman and left her. So she decided the only way to handle it is to kill herself. And so she took pills and her kids came home from school and found her on the floor nearly dead. Wasn't that a wonderful way to handle that? With these teenage kids and they already have enough problems with their dad running around with the younger woman to come home and find mother nearly dead on the floor. In fact, she just barely pulled through. So when you talk to a bitter person, this mother that had the arthritis so bad that would not respond to treatment, this woman that came to our home that was in our church, was bitter towards her son for what he was doing to God. And he wasn't living for the Lord. And he was just giving them heartaches. And she was just so bitter. And he married this girl that they were not in favor of. And she says, how can this boy hurt us more and more and more? They were third generation Christians. Those kids were fourth generation Christians. How could this boy do this to them? And boy, when she dealt with it and got things squared away, then, well, you wouldn't know she ever had arthritis. Either would you know this other lady that had the bitterness towards her father. When she came back in to see him, when she came to the college, she shuffled like this. She was just 32 or something. She shuffled. She came back in. You'd never know she had arthritis. She just walked right in. I said, I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. Her countenance was different. She was free of this bitterness. And her body was free of this. Right. It was just thrilling. Well, let's look at some insights here in the Word of God. Remember, you and I may not be able to control what happens to our life or comes into our life, but we are responsible for our responses. We've got to see that. You are responsible for your response. And if you resist God's grace to forgive, what will you have? Bitterness. And it's going to trouble you, and you will defile men. Let's turn, and I want to tell you this, and I think it's important that we realize that forgiveness deals with my emotional response to a situation. We're talking about my emotional response to a situation. Pardon deals with the consequences of the crime. You and I may not be able to pardon, but we can always what? Forgive. Pardon may be out of us, out of our hands. You know, someone may have done, we had a kid that sprayed my car with paint. The guy said, you know, some kid sprayed your car with black paint. I could have went out there, looked at the car, and put a curse on this boy. I mean, I don't know who it was, but I could have put a curse on him. You know, what kid has the right to spray my car? Well, it's not even my car, it's God's car, I'm mad or yeah. You know, what was he spraying God's car with this black paint? You know, it didn't even face me, it wasn't my car anyway. And I just didn't get all upset about black paint, this big S on my car, or a Z on the door, and this spray black paint he put around on the car. It just wasn't a big deal. I mean, to me. But it could have been. If I was building my life around that car, and someone sprays it, you know, then I could have ruined it. It was an opportunity to see, you know, what does this car mean to me? It doesn't mean anything to me. Cars don't mean anything to me, as you understand. You know, until last night, I'm not into cars, you know. As long as they get me there and back, that's okay. It doesn't have to be, you know, whatever, just any kind of a car. You know, and so I had an opportunity to forgive him, and I forgave the kid. But I had to make a police report. If they catch him, what can I do? I can't do anything. It's out of my hands. The police will decide what will happen to this boy because he happened to spray some other cars, you know, and they're not exactly as excited about forgiving him as I was. And so I had to report it for insurance purposes. I didn't want to report him. I was hoping I could find the kid and talk to him rather than get in trouble with the police and get a record if they ever find out who did it. But you see, pardon, in that situation, I have no control over it. He broke the law, and he's going to have to deal with the police. But I can forgive him. And there's some tremendous books written on this. I mean, there are so many books written on forgiveness. You know, The Hiding Place, On Out. You know, people, families have been murdered. That Japanese family, did you read that? I mean, the Korean family where the two boys were murdered by the communists, and then they took over that area and caught the fellows that murdered, and the father went and adopted the murderers of his son and loved them. Fantastic books. Did you read the Moody Monthly of the great the guy who raped the girl and murdered her? And the parents began to write him in prison and then visited him? And shared Christ with him? Let me tell you. You know, something on forgiveness. I mean, there's some tremendous illustrations, but we want to, I mean, from what I can get, a lot of good books on forgiveness. But let's look at some scriptural insights on forgiveness. Let's turn to the book of Job. You know, Job is really a better book than what you think. I mean, you know, when I think of Job, I go, oh brother, 50 chapters of moaning. You know, I'm just not into Job. I'm so glad that I force myself to read the Bible through every year. You know, because there's so much I wouldn't read. You know, if I'm going to, you know, I like this deal like they had tonight. You know, the salad buffet thing. I really enjoyed that. You know, a little of this, a little of that, you know, and a little of my favorite. You know, it's really good. I went to the line and she had spinach. Is the cook in here? Well, Brussels sprouts is worse, broccoli is second bad, and spinach is third. But I thought, well, that dear soul, she's been slaving over those hot steam kettles all day. You know, and she cooks spinach. If she cooked it, you know, I can get it down. I didn't want to offend her and say, you know, a whole bunch of spinach. You know, I just thought, I know what she'll do. She'll get me a genuine high speaker, you know, pop. But she didn't. I got about the same as everybody else and I said, Lord, I'm going to eat it. But you know, that's the way we had to with the scriptures. Oh, I love Ephesians and I have a little lot of Matthew and oh, I've got a favorite place in John. You know, we do a little of this, hitting that, and a little here and a little that, and you know, no thank you, Job, and you know, Chronicles, you know, I'll skip that. And you know, we forget that all scripture is profitable. We don't believe, we, you know, quote it, but we don't believe it. And so I hope you read the Bible through every year because it forces you to read through it. Every time I read through Job, I say, I can't believe how much good stuff's in this book. And it really is. It just, I don't know. Do you have that same Job complex I have? You know, someone, you know, it just, I don't know. And every time I read it, I just am amazed. But you know, here's Job. You look at Job. Job shows us how to respond to losses. What did Job lose? Everything. I mean, he lost everything. You know, I don't, I've never had much. And so if I lost it, it wouldn't be so bad. You know, if you don't have much and you lose it. We always, our house is always furnished with this early nothing. You know, now we've got some real pretty furniture. We really do. So if you came to our house, our house is not early nothing. Our house is really very beautiful right now. God has given us a beautiful home and very, very beautiful furniture. Most of it, Ethan Allen. It's gorgeous. One couple, two years ago, this guy, we met him. We knew his wife. He came home and he said, Honey, we haven't given anything away at Christmas time. This Christmas, we haven't given anything away for a long time. What do you suppose we should give away? He says, you go in the living room, and you write down what we should give, and I'll write down what we should give, and then we'll decide what we'll do. So there's one thing my wife has always wanted all of her life, and that is an Ethan Allen beautiful hutch. She's always wanted one of those. He wrote, Let's give away the hutch to the Logans. And I'd never met him. His wife wrote, Let's give away the hutch to the Logans. So they gave us the hutch. We went in Ethan Allen's store just to see what they gave us. You know what they're going for? Somewhere around $1,600. So right now we've got more than early nothing. We've got early Americans. But we had early nothing for years. You know, don't sit on the couch. You'll bend the cover. The job lost it all. I mean, just everything. And you know, he said something so tremendous. He could have become so bitter. That's what happens when you trust God. I knew it. You know, as soon as you trust God, you know, they pull the rug out from under you. You know, that's what happens. Look at verse 21. And he said, What chapter? Chapter 1. Pardon me, verse 20. Job found out he lost everything including his kids. Now, let me tell you this. If you don't read that chapter very carefully, you don't realize that Job was not a very good father. Job was not a good father. Job did not restrain his children. He was making spiritual sacrifices his kids should have been making. And he made them because he didn't think they were. You know, it doesn't work. It didn't work either, did it? He did for his kids what they ought to be doing for themselves. You study Job, it's very interesting. You find out that his kids were not what they ought to be. And God brought a judgment. Anyway, Job arose and he found that he lost everything. He rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down on the ground and became bitter. What did he do? He worshipped. And can you imagine? Just think about that. And here this guy didn't know anything about the grace of God. He'd never read Hebrews. Isn't that fantastic? He had a real walk with God. He fell down and he worshipped. He lost everything. And don't you think he loved his kids? Why would he be sacrificing for them if he didn't? And he said, naked I came out of my mother's room, naked I shall return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And look what it says. In all this, Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly. And how many people charge God foolishly when they suffer a loss of temporal things? And kids are more than temporal things. You know, there's only two things that you can take to heaven with you. The Word of God because it's eternal and your children. Right? The only two things I know you can take to heaven with you. And Job lost them. And I know it was difficult for him but he didn't charge God foolishly. Job teaches us something really tremendous in the area responding to losses. You know, one of the reasons people get bitter is because they feel like God owes them so much. And if God does not fulfill what they feel He owes them, they become bitter for what they don't get. Now let me explain this. I was sharing forgiveness in one of our churches and this lady came to me, a dear saint of God. This woman's living with an unsaved alcoholic. They live in literal shack. She has terrible arthritis and she has to carry water from a creek in a bucket for the water in the house to drink or cook with. And I'm talking about a lady in her seventies. She's not bitter about that. She has a wood stove. This winter she's hoping they'll have enough wood to keep the place warm. And you should see the place. I mean, you should see this place. In good snow, the whole thing would just fall down. Living out under the pine trees. Just really a struggling thing. She's trying to love Jesus. The guy says, I don't want to see you read your Bible. So she has to read the Bible secretly in her home. This dear old saint. You know why she's bitter towards God? Not because she has an alcoholic husband. Her dad was a doctor. She's living with an old, old, old repubate. I mean, they're married, but you know, this guy's just a repubate. You know why she's bitter? Because her son died at seven. I didn't realize that. I didn't know she even had a son. You know why she's bitter? Because she thought that God should have given her 63 more years. And she was bitter towards God because she didn't get 63 more years with her son. After all, how many years did someone live? Three score and ten. And she didn't get the full three score and ten with that boy. And I said, shame on you. You should be grateful to God for what? The seven years He gave you. Instead of being bitter about the 63 you didn't get. And she said, you're right. And she asked God to forgive her. And now she rejoices that God gave her a boy for seven years. I said, I know women that give anything to have a boy for seven years. Anything to have a boy for seven years. And I said, that boy is with the Lord. How can you be bitter? And it just crushed her because she was, where was her focus? On what she didn't get. Instead of on what God had given her. And you take a lot of the bitter people you're going to deal with it's what they felt God should have given them. And they think God owes everybody, you know, well, that's, you know, that's the charismatic teaching. You know, if you're walking with God you're going to have a swimming pool and the whole bit. You guys ought to shape up. Wasn't that right? you get saved and you live happily ever after in a mansion. I mean, really, that's almost some of the teaching. The success, whatever, it's sickening. You know, they haven't read all the scriptures. Well, let's turn to another beautiful example in scripture of forgiveness. You'd have to go to Genesis, wouldn't you? There happens to be a guy in Genesis that gives us a picture of forgiveness that's just outstanding. Genesis 45. Here is a fellow that God promised tremendous success through a dream and a vision. And what happened? Everything began to go wrong in his life. I mean, everything went wrong, but it was what? Beyond his control. His brothers, his own brothers said what? Let's kill him. You know, when's the last time your brothers got together? They had a little meeting. But can you imagine your own brothers wanting to kill you? And then you know, he was sold as a slave and I thought, oh, I'm a slave. And then he's in Pontiff's house and everything seems to be going real well and his wife starts seducing him. And you know, he didn't say, let's sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk about this. And you know, the scripture says that she did it day after day, day after day and he would just try to figure out times to be in the house where he wouldn't be around her and she'd know when he was coming and she'd say, come on Joseph. And one day all the men were out of the house. You know the story. And here he was true to God. He stood alone. He stood for virtue and purity and where'd he end up? Prison. That's just what happens when you trust God, you know. See, what could have happened? Imagine what he had a chance to think about. Then a guy says, don't worry, don't worry, I won't forget about you. How long did he forget about him? Two years. How's it like sitting and waiting any day to get reprieved? Two years is a long time waiting for the, you know, the guys to come down and let you out. Can you imagine the disappointments and heartaches this kid had? Can you imagine? Now, what kept him from getting bitter? If anybody had a right to get bitter, he sure did. His family failed him. He looked like God forgot where he was. You know, even people made him promises and let them down. Why didn't he? Because he saw God in control of his life. And he knew He says it so beautifully in verse 5. Chapter 45. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For what? You sold me, but what? God sent me. Isn't that neat? You sold me, but God sent me before you to preserve life. And then look at verse 7. God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by grace. Isn't that great deliverance? Look at verse 8. So, it was not you that sent me hither, but what? God. You were just tools in God's hand to place me where God wanted me. If Joseph would have got bitter, what would have happened? These boys would have been dead. It would have been his turn now. Look at chapter 50. Because they still didn't believe that he really meant it. When their dad was dead, they said, wait till dad dies. Now we've got it. Now. Now, he'll really get it. And you know, that dad had problems. Problems. You know, he never did get straightened out. Do you believe that? He never got straightened out in his life. He, you know, it says in the scripture that the sins of the father are visited onto the children to the third and fourth generation. But it also says in Psalms 103 that the righteousness of a father will affect the children to the third and fourth generation. So, you can affect your children with your sins or you can affect them with righteousness. It's your choice. And that's why we have the biographical sections in scripture to show you that the scriptures are true and what God says is true. And you have Abraham. Abraham thought it would be a good idea to tell a lie. His son thought it would be a good idea to tell the same lie twice. His grandson's name meant what? You can't believe what he says. His grandson, this guy, did he get his lying taken care of before he died? No. Because when the boys came home, remember they went and he says, you got any more brothers? And they said yes. They came home and they said, Dad, remember he kept one and they were supposed to bring Benjamin back? And the dad said what? You surely didn't tell him. You had another brother, did you? He still wanted him to lie. He still had a problem. And here he was, you know, not very far from the grave. If you read it, you see he just struggled with that. That family had a problem with what? Truthfulness. And they lied when it was convenient. And even almost on this guy's deathbed, he still struggled with that weakness in his life. But in verse 19, Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for I will tell you again, I am in the place of God. But as for you, he says, I understand your motives. I want you to understand that. You thought evil against me. But God meant it for good. Can you believe that? You know, you may have a committee that you are sure that's under the control of the devil at this point in time. You need to raid desperately and they can't see any need for it. I mean, after all, the last director got by on $35 a month and you're getting $60. You know, and why should you get a raid? And you're just sure. And you know, we get our eyes off of God and get our eyes on these people and what do we do? We get all kinds of resentment. Joseph did not focus on his brothers. He focused on God. And he said, I know that your intentions were not right, but I know that God was in control. But God meant it for good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Therefore, fear ye not. Now, if Joseph did not see God in it, they had a lot of reason to fear. But when he saw God in it, then he, how could he do any different? Because Joseph knew that God would not what? Allow anything to come into his life which was beyond God's control that would ruin or hinder God's purpose for his life. He believed that with all his heart. And he says, God is in control even of this. There are so many situations in Scripture. I think, turn to 2 Samuel. There's unbelievable amount of illustrations, of tremendous illustrations of Scripture on forgiveness in a living setting. That's not what I wanted. 2 Samuel 16 and that's not it. Where's the zig-zag deal? Which one? No, no. Zig-zag. The city, zig-zag. First chapter? No, that's not what I want. No, it's just the top of the page and the bottom of the page. 1 Samuel 30. That may be it. Okay, bottom and top. You got the right kind of Bible. Okay, 1 Samuel 30. Remember David was doing what he really believed God wanted him to do. And when he came back to his city, a marauding band of men had come through. They had left their women and children defenseless. They took the wives and the children. They burnt the city to the ground and they took all of the provisions that they had. And, I mean, they had nothing. And let me tell you, these guys were not glad to be rid of their wives. So David and his men came to the city. Behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and daughters were taken captive. Verse 3. David and the people that were with them lifted up their voices and they wept till they, what, had no more power to weep. And they wept till they were crying out. David's two wives were taken. They shouldn't have had two wives. And while they were crying, the deacons had a meeting. And they said, David, the deacons have gotten together and we've had a meeting. And you know what's happened. And you know what we decided to do? David said, what? We decided to stone you. Verse 6. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man, for his son and daughter. What did David do when he found out the very man he was leading wanted to kill him? That's what I get for being a leader. That's what happens. My committee's going to stone me. But David, what? He encouraged himself from the Lord. Isn't that something? You don't think that a group of leaders in the Scripture can identify with you when you've got a program and everything you're really excited about and you share it, and they shoot it down. And what happens to us? We get resentful. I knew I wish I had more spiritual people on this board. Turn to Romans 12. We need to look here. Do you know that bitterness is a form of vengeance? Bitterness is a form of vengeance. Bitterness is assuming a right that you and I do not have. Verse 19 says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself. Do you know how Christians take up vengeance? By avoiding the person that they dislike. Just avoiding. Do you know avoidance is a form of vengeance? They say, Oh, well, if I just don't see them, I'll go down this staircase. Let them go down the other one. There are probably people that work here that really don't like meeting each other in the hall. Because there's so many people working. I'm not saying just because they're here. If it's any place where you have at least 80 Christian workers, there's bound to be some people here that would prefer not to bump into each other. And in a lunchroom, you can just rest assure that they won't sit at if they have a choice. We've been watching where you guys have been sitting. But he says, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. Let's just let it go on. If someone is wrathful or spiteful or whatever, just let it go on. You're not to do anything about it. For it is written, Vengeance is mine. God says, That is my business. I will repay. Now, how does God usually deal with someone? You can admit that maybe you have someone that is opposing the evangelism of children. They are opposing the whole work in your area. Strongly, verbally, and everything. Maybe a pastor. I think it's a cover up for an ERA movement. Look at all the women. It's got to be. It's got to be something wrong. And so he's out there telling his people, Don't you get involved in that. You want to win children? This guy is preaching against it. You know what God is going to do to this guy? He says, He's going to smash his nose and he's going to bless him. And you're going to get so upset. He's going to prosper. The scripture says, The goodness of God is to lead thee to repentance. You're saying, God, what's wrong with you? I thought you were for children. You're not for children. Here this guy is opposing the work and you're blessing him. Maybe he gets a lot of money. Maybe his church is growing like crazy. I can't understand it. But after God blesses him and he doesn't respond, then God brings judgment on him. Keep your finger there. We've got to look in the book of Proverbs somewhere. I usually quote the verse. Here it is. But I want you to see it. Turn to Proverbs chapter 24. Seeing it is so much better than quoting it. You're watching. And all of a sudden, here it comes. The bottom drops out. And you're saying, Get him, God. Sick him. It's about time. And you know what God does? He immediately stops the judgment on that man's wife. You know why? Because he's more concerned about the resentment in your heart than he is about what this guy is doing. You say, are you sure? As the scripture says, look at Proverbs 24, 27. Rejoice not when thy enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be clad when he stumbleth. Lest the Lord see it, and it displeases him, and the Lord turns away his wrath from him. See that? Isn't that something? Proverbs 24, 17 and 18. Isn't that something? If you've never seen that before, that's something, isn't it? You know that when your enemy falleth, you know what God wants you to do? Zoom in there, and begin to meet his knee. That's what God wants you to do. You say, are you sure? And that is taught all over scripture. Go back to Romans. Look at Romans. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather get placed under wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I'll repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thy enemy, what? Hunger. What are you supposed to do? Feed him. And if he thirsts, what are you supposed to do? Give him a drink. Why? Those are what? Basic needs. And God says, listen, I'm going to allow this fellow, he knows what he's done to you, and I'm going to allow him to suffer some basic needs, and I want you to get in there and meet those needs. Because as you meet those needs, what's going to happen in his life? It says, and I never understood this, For in so doing, ye shall heap coals of fire on his head. That's it! I'll do it, and you get him. You know, and I'll give you a bigger shovel, God. You know, we don't understand this. I never understood this until I read Weiss. What's his name? Weiss, back to the Bible. Wrote a book on Bible customs. And he deals with this. I never understood it until I read that. And he talks about, and they understood exactly what he meant. This is not a vengeance type thing. In a Bible day, people would travel, if they could, a day's journey. And that means they would start out early in the morning, and they would like to travel clear through to almost sunset, so they could strike up camp. Now, if someone came to your home on one of these traveling journeys through Israel, and you wanted to be an excellent hostess, what you would do is in the morning, you would scrape up all the hot embers you could find from your fire and put in the wife's fire bowl, which she carried on her head. If you really were going to be generous with your hot coals, you would keep it up. Why? It would last longer. And see, the more coals she started out with, the longer the day they could go, so at evening, she could just dump it down and have to go the two-stick route. It's a lot easier to start a fire with hot coals and cook the dinner than it is starting from scratch. And so this woman carried these fire pots on her head. And all day long, as she was carrying this pot of coals on her head, what did she feel? A warmth that came down as a reminder of your generosity. And you say, well, you should? Yes, because the very next verse confirms this. Be not overcome by their evil to you. But what? by their evil to you. But overcome their evil by what? Doing good to them. And as you meet their basic needs, what's going to happen? God will put a warmth in their hearts towards you. So, you know, I really can't understand. They know what I've done. They understand the things I've said. Why are they doing this? And we have seen, I couldn't read the illustrations in our church where things are turned around when people begin to do this. Because if someone intentionally offends you, they are super sensitive to your response. And if they unintentionally offend you, it's an opportunity maybe for you to cooperate with God with their insensitivity at a later point in their life. I have, I have what I call my ace in the hole. You know an ace in the hole is? That's your trump card. You know, you thump it out. As I'm dealing with bitter people, I have a certain passage of scripture that I thump out last. And when I thump it out, they just die. Because it just annihilates them. I was doing a PTA meeting in a school. And we were talking about how to build the character of Christ in your children. And we were going all through this whole program. Afterwards, a lady comes up to me. I mean, I've only been to the PTA one time. She walks up to me. She says, Mr. Logan, what do you think of alimony? I'm like, alimony? What in the world? Right out of the blue, alimony. And I looked at that lady, and she was in her 30s, tailored dress, expensively dressed, probably looked like a secretary of a, of a, you know, a businessman, you know, a corporation, really a sharply dressed woman. You can tell. You know, you can tell money, can't you? Money clothes. And she just spelled out money. But her face, I looked at her face, and I said, lady, you know, I don't really think your question has to do with alimony. I think it has to do with bitterness. I said, oh, Mr. Logan, how did you know I was bitter? I said, it's easy, it's all over your face. She said, I am so bitter, I can't tell you. She said, my hostess, the rat, my first one, this guy sends no money, and he flies in at Christmas time with all these gifts for the kids, and they think he's just super. He never does anything for her. She's going on and on and on and on. I saw her second husband over there. I said, do you know that your bitterness is ruining your marriage, isn't it? She said, is it ruining my marriage? She said, I can hardly stand him. She said, I just can't respond to him. She said, I am so upset. So the bitterness she had towards her first husband was ruining the chances of anything with the second one that God never intended a woman to have more than one husband anyway. You know, a living husband. She had two living husbands. You know, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? But anyway, so I showed her this scripture verse. She said, I have never seen that before in the Bible. Why didn't someone tell me? She said, I realize now that bitterness is wrong. She said, I never saw that. Never. The lady with arthritis, all these people, when I showed them this, when they had all these reasons to be bitter, they said, I have never seen that before. Of course, Satan just wouldn't let them read it. If they read it, they didn't, you know, they just skipped over it. They just like closed their eyes to the truth. And it's in Ephesians 5. Now, I know that's the whole list of sins that should have put off and put on before. Ephesians 5, 30. But also, there's a passage after. And let's read afterwards. We don't need to go through before. But afterwards, he says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Now, what grieves the Holy Spirit, besides what went on before? What follows? And let some bitterness. What's it say? All. All? How many people say, all? I mean, the Bible says, all? Ephesians 4, 30. All bitterness, and all wrath, and all anger, and all clamor, and all evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice. And what do you need to put on in its place? And be ye what? Kind one to another. Tenderhearted. You know what that word means? Compassionate. And here it comes. Forgiving one another, even as, underlying the even as, God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. You know what I ask Him? How have you been forgiven? Sixty percent? How much is God still holding against you? What is He holding against you? Nothing. How has God forgiven you? One hundred percent. And you know what the struggle is? People say, well, it is not, I can't forgive because I don't want to. Feel it. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It's an act of your will. God says, you are to forgive. You don't have to feel anything. Because God knew that if you had bitterness, why do you have bitterness? Because you don't, what? Feel like forgiving. When are you going to feel like it? Never. So God didn't say work up a feeling. He says you are to forgive. And you know what happens? After you forgive, God begins to give you what? The feelings. It's amazing. But they will never come ahead of time. And so a person has to say, God, bitterness is wrong. Take the roots of bitterness out of my heart. Pull it all out. Have you ever gone for dandelions? A friend of ours had a home built in the state of Washington. And their home was to look over the Cascade Mountains. I don't know if you've ever seen the Cascade Mountains, but boy, that's something to see outside of your sliding glass windows across the back of the house. And it was on the house where you came in the front way this way and then two levels down and they had glass all across the back and they had a million dollar view of these Cascade Mountains that run from Canada all the way down to practically down to Portland, Oregon. You know, all of Mount St. Helens is one of those down in that range. It's absolutely gorgeous where they had this home. When the contractor came, there was a big, huge maple tree in the backyard. The fellow said, take it out because we can't see the mountains. So the contractor pulled a good one. He sawed it off at ground level and then filled it over with dirt. Well, when spring came, guess what happened? Up came maple shoots. And when you have a tree about so big around, the shoots just got thicker and you can't see out. So the dad went out that year and cut down the maple shoots. Guess what happened the next year? Maple shoots. Guess what they had to do? Uproot it. And the dad told his kids, you know, that's what bitterness is like. We can cut it off, but if we don't uproot it, it'll just spring up again. He used a tremendous illustration when he was a teenager to point out what bitterness is. And you've got to have God, the Spirit of God, cut your heart open and take it out. It's a cancer and it will destroy you. You know, it's like going to a doctor and the doctor says, you know, you've got cancer. And he says, you know, I want to remove it through an operation. And then you say, will it hurt? I think I'll put a Band-Aid over it. And you know, a lot of people sugarcoat bitterness. And that's sickening. When you have a bitter person that's trying to be sweet. Somehow, sweet and sour in Chinese is okay, but it's not okay in people. It just isn't. And you can tell. They're sugarcoating their bitterness. And they become like saccharine. It's just too much sugar. Because they don't want to deal with it. And then something comes along and guess what happens? They're bitter again. Because their roots are still there. They're just cutting off the top. And so they have to say, God, I forgive this person for what they've done to me. And they have to say what they've done. I've had girls, we had last summer, seven girls at Calvary that didn't want to go home because they knew their fathers would try to molest them. Seven girls that didn't want to go home for the summer. And that's not all the girls in the school that have been molested. That's seven girls that didn't want to go home but saw help to find out what should they do because of the way their fathers were. And let me tell you, it's very difficult for these girls to deal with this. Because their fathers don't come and say, hey daughter, I'm sorry. And you know what's worse yet you need to deal with? When these girls go to their mother, guess who the mother blames? Their daughters. It's unbelievable what these mothers do. I just can't tell you. It makes it worse when the girl's bitter towards her mother and she's bitter towards her dad. And then Satan's wiping them out because you just aren't spiritual when you're grieving the Holy Spirit. And bitterness grieves the Holy Spirit. So you ask, you say, God, take the bitterness out of my heart and Lord, I do forgive them for what they've done. And Father, teach me to love them. And this girl said, what should I do? And we know people that have had bitterness and someone had already died. And they went to their grave knowing that the Christian was bitter towards them. And they felt so guilty about it. And I said, this is what I told them to do. It's not very scriptural but it's the only thing I know how to do. I said, listen, if it bothers you that much, why don't you pray and tell the Lord Jesus to tell them that you're sorry. You tell the Lord, Lord, my dad went to his grave and I had hatred in my heart towards him and he knows it. And if he's in heaven, I know if you think he's in heaven, Lord, you tell him if it's important for him to know that you've dealt with it in my life. But I confess it and I ask you to take that out of my heart. You let him know. And then there's another passage that we need to look at that's so important. And that is in Peter. 1 Peter. In 1 Peter, if you work for any organization, you've got to understand 1 Peter 2. And if you don't understand 1 Peter 2, you will have terrible opportunities and you'll just struggle with bitterness if you don't understand it. It says here in 1 Peter 2, we'll go to verse 13. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, not for your sake. Submit is what? To get under every ordinance of man. That means don't walk on the grass, don't drive over 55, and all these dumb rules. Whether it be to the king as supreme or to the governors or unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers. Who are those? Those are the policemen. For the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God. What's the will of God? That you put yourself under all of the civil authorities. That's God's will. I know God's will in many areas for people. They say, people say, you can't know God's will for someone else. That's not true. You sure can't. It says right here, this is God's will. I know God's will. I know it's God's will for you to be filled with the Spirit. I know a lot of places God says, this is my will. And if God says, this is my will, I can know God's will for anybody. And this is God's will for anybody. For this is the will of God, that as you do this, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, as free, but not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness, but as servants of God. Now here's the will of God too. Honor all men. Place value on all. In fact, you can leave men off. Just place value on all people. Love the brotherhood. Dear God, and respect, or honor, or put value on the president in our country. Servants be subject. That is a horrible word. That also means to rank under. And he's talking to servants. What kind of servants was he talking to mainly? Those that were owned by somebody else. So you can quit. They couldn't quit. I mean, how would you like to have a job that you could never quit? Because you weren't free to quit. You were owned. Most of the early church Christians were owned by somebody else. Look what he says. Servants be subject to your master with all fear. Now he didn't mean to be afraid of them, but he meant a fear of not being subject to them. Not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the difficult. You know, it's easy to get under the authority of the good and the gentle. But what about the person that loves you the wrong way? You get under them too. We have a tendency to be gentle. God says get under them. Look what he says. For this is thankworthy. What is thankworthy? If a man or a woman for a good conscience towards God endures grief, suffering wrongly. You're saying, what in the world does that mean? That is so strangely put in English. He's saying this. You can thank God if you didn't do anything wrong and you got blamed for it. He's saying, no, I want to set the thing straight. I want to say, no, no, no, no. It was her. It wasn't me. I didn't do anything. He's saying, if you know that what you did was right and you endure grief, suffering wrongly. Look what he goes on. For what glory is it? What's glory? Glory is the glow that comes on your life. Glory is the glow you can have come on God. Glory is a way of having people focus on God. For what glory is it? How is God glorified when you're buffeted for your faults and you take it patiently? Now, what glory is it if you do something wrong and someone says, you know, you were wrong and you take it patiently and you say, wasn't that wonderful? Gotcha, you ought to do that. Look what it says. But when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. This is what? Acceptable with God. You know what he's saying? He's saying, you and I have been called to suffer for doing right. When's the last time you suffered for doing right? If you suffer for doing wrong, what's that? But it's when you've done right and you don't say anything and you're suffering for it. Then there's an opportunity to glorify God. For here unto were you called. Do you know that we were called to suffer for doing right? That's our calling. And you know what happens when a Christian suffers? They think something's wrong. They think something's wrong. And God says, it's just starting to go right. You were called to suffer for doing right, not called to suffer for doing wrong. Because Christ also suffered. He left us an example how to suffer doing right. Now we look at the example of Christ. So when you've done right and you get called and accepted for it, you are told exactly how to handle it. You don't get bitter. You don't get resentful. You don't say, well, it's them and them and them and it really isn't my fault and all of this stuff. Who did no sin, neither was any trickery or guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, what did he do? He reviled not again. When he suffered, he what? He didn't threaten. But what did he do? He committed himself to the Father. Why? Because the Father said what? Vengeance is mine. I will take care of it. So Jesus said, Father, I am suffering for doing right. And I'm committing this into your hands. And you and I need to do the very thing. When we're suffering for doing right, we commit it to the Father. Then it's his responsibility to set it straight if it needs to be set straight. If it doesn't need to be set straight, then we just suffer quietly for doing right. Who, when he was reviled, he didn't do it. And when he suffered, he didn't threaten. But he just committed the whole situation into the hand of the Father. And what happened? Who, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on a tree that we being dead to sin should what? Live unto righteousness. By whose stripes what? We were healed. Do you know what God is going to ask you and I to do? He's going to ask you and I at points of time in our life, are we willing to suffer for doing what's right to bring spiritual healing? Are you willing to do that? Jesus was willing to suffer to doing what's right to bring healing to the body. Are you willing to do that? Because we were like sheep going astray, but now you return to the shepherd and the bishop of your souls. You say, how do you know? Because now he gets down to the nitty gritty in the next chapter. And we're going to go through the nitty gritty. He says, likewise ye wise. And let me tell you, if you don't understand 1 Peter 3, then don't have any women, married women, working under your leadership. Because you will tell them wrong counsel. Many of the women who are in child evangelism have unsaved husbands or husbands who are not burdened for a lost soul. How are you going to counsel these women to respond to their husbands? Now, if a woman came to you and said, my husband is going to be saved and I want him to become a Christian, what would you tell her to do? If you tell her to give him a tract, to give him a tract, to witness to him, to witness to him, drag him off the church. Those things are all wrong. Those are the worst approaches. If he wanted a woman preacher, he would marry one. I don't like women preachers and I sure wouldn't want to be married to one. And I told some women when they told me about their husbands and their situation, I said, if I was married to you I wouldn't be a Christian either. I didn't understand. You probably set God's program back 20 years in that guy's life. Because you know what? We do what? We do what we feel instead of what God says. We wonder why we don't get God's results. Let me show you this. A woman came to see me. A woman called me on the phone. She said, can I come and see you? And I said, I am so busy I can't see you. She said, please. And she was crying. She said, I happen to know a friend of yours and she mentioned this person and they recommended you. You know, a little leverage. And I said, oh brother. And she also had been one of the top 10 artists at Hallmark. Now she's a freelance artist that makes a fortune. She works whenever she wants to. She goes in and says, I'm a little yellow to this and this. And they give her so many thousands of dollars and she walks out. She is one of the top artists in America. She's super fantastic. She showed me her portfolio and I saw cards that I had bought that she had designed. Paper. She designed golf. She designed, this gal is super fantastic. You buy me a Snoopy card, she does all the backgrounds or did all the backgrounds on it. And she said, oh Mr. Logan, I've been going to a Christian counseling center down here in the plaza. I've been following your advice to a tee and my husband left me. And she said, he is an executive for TWA. I said, come on in. So she came in. She said, oh Mr. Logan. She said, they told me to go home and assert myself. They said, listen lady, are you going to let this guy walk all over you? You know, no woman has to be a doorman for us. Now that's really true. But you know what I mean, there are truths out of bounds. You go home and you tell him a thing or two. Well she told him a thing or two in four and five. And in about after one year he left. I said, I'm surprised he lasted that long. And he moved in with a stewardess. And he was scuba diving and having a bath. And as far as he was concerned, it was over. Just over. I showed her this passage. She said, Mr. Logan, I've never seen that before. She called her husband on the phone and she said, I'm calling you with no altering motives to assume responsibility. She said, this past year I look over this year with great regret. The way I treated you, I mean here he was having affairs, you know, I mean he was, she was a Christian, he was a non-Christian and he was living a terrible life, you know, even when he was home. She asked for forgiveness for her attitude and what she had done wrong and would he forgive her. She didn't say, come home. She didn't say anything. She just said, would you forgive me? He said, yes I'll forgive you. And he said, boy this last year you've been difficult. Well this guy's been difficult for 19 years. Well she, she let it go and after three weeks of seeing her, picking up the kids and everything, he says, what's happened to you? I said, what do you mean? He says, you're different. You're really different. He says, well, I've been seeing a fellow at a college, a chaplain. I said, is that why you changed? He said, yeah, I guess so. He said, well he's seen me, she told me my husband will never come to town with me, never. He's so proud, never. He came in my office and received Christ as his personal savior. When his wife changed her attitude following this, he was saved in less than a month. And he's an executive. And let me tell you, executives are hard guys to get saved. But when she started living it, instead of preaching it, it did a whole different thing for this fellow. Look what it says. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to the pastor, to the CE, the local director. You get your orders from him, not your wife. You get your orders You check with the CE director what he wants you to do. And say what your husband wants you to do. Is that what he's teaching? Is that what he's teaching? I will not even counsel a wife without her husband's permission. I'm saved, or whatever, because I'm not the head of the audience. We check with him. She said, what if my husband says no? And I said, obviously God doesn't want you to come in for counsel, because God's bigger than your husband. I said, Mr. Logan, do you really believe that? I said, I sure do. I said, I'll probably follow the devil when you ask him, instead of saying, hey, I'm going to go talk to this guy. He said, can I? He'd probably check you out and say no, just to see that you're good. He said, you're good, you're right, I'm going anyway. I said, well, I knew it, I knew it, you stubborn woman. Be in subjection to your own husband. If any husband obey not the word of the Lord, they also may without not the word of the Lord not the word here, would you? You better believe that they suffer. Let me tell you, you gals that are single here, don't you get married, unless Gabriel comes and talks to you then. Hold up! Don't let anybody sell you on the idea that because you're single there's something wrong with you and that you're missing something. You're missing nothing. You know what's worse than being lonely as a single? It's being lonely married. What you think marriage will do for you, it will not. Marriage is not so it will do anything for you. You get married to do something for the other person. And if you're bitter because you're single, then who'd want to marry you anyway? Right? You know, you think these single gals, they're just, ah, it's a school, I get over these kids. Why are you dating? Man, you're not even 25 yet, what are you dating for? You know, why don't you give some of your life to the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ was never married and He was totally fulfilled as a person. And don't let anybody else tell you anything different. And you can be fulfilled as a person. We won't allow our kids to date because I've counseled so many high school and college kids. When I teach my dating seminars at Calvary, we get into spiritual dating, the kids say, I wish I would have known this. And I have never had one kid at Calvary say, yes, I'm glad my soul allowed me to date singly in high school. You know what they say? I wish I never had done it. Because they can't handle two kids in a car alone. They can't handle it. And you know, I'll just share a dating illustration. You've got to work with your kids in dating. Now I know you can't with these little C.E. kids, but I'm talking about these older kids. You've got older kids, you'd better work with them in the dating area. Getting dating goals and all those types of things. You can't go into the dating material, but you need to do this. I had a girl come into my office one day. She's a freshman. She sat down and she started crying. And I didn't know what to do. And I mean, she was sobbing. And I said, what's wrong? She said, I'm struggling, I'm ugly. I said, ugly? How did you come to that conclusion? She said, I've been in this school for two months and no one's asked me out. You know, and she's crying. And I said, how would you know who you ought to date? I don't know. I said, well, listen, what you need to do, I mean, you're just not going to date anybody, are you? She said, no, I just won't date anybody. I said, well, what you need to do is to go to your room and write down ten qualities that you are and that's all you date. She said, okay. And I said, when you get them, come back and make an appointment with us. So, she went up to her room and she had ten qualities. So, she came down and drew ten qualities. She sat and we looked at them. I said, you know, these are the finest ten qualities I've seen in a long time. I said, you know what, this guy is a super guy. He's excellent. I said, would you make a commitment not to violate these standards, even if it means you don't date? She said, really? I said, yeah, would you do that? Okay. She said, I know this is really the type of guy I want to date. So, she made a commitment that she would not, we have some kids make them commitments, they sign their names and date them. And a lot of times they make them with their dad and their dad signs them too and dates them. And so, this girl had these commitments. We always have the girl send them home, let the fathers look at them. Some fathers say, what are you showing me this stuff for? It really helps a girl, you know. Some dads are really excited about their daughters looking, wanting to be a quality girl. And I said, you know, this guy is a quality guy. You know what you need to do? She said, what? I said, you know what kind of a girl this guy wants to date? She said, what? I said, a quality girl. Why don't you focus on becoming a quality girl and leave the dating thing to God? And this girl did that. The next semester, she came to see me. And she said, Mr. Logan, you won't believe this. She kind of floated in. She said, Mr. Logan, you won't believe this. I said, what? She said, you know, the most wonderful guy in this school has asked me out. I said, really, who? And she told me. I said, you're right, he is. I said, see, I told you. When you become a quality girl, if God wants you to date, you have to date a quality fellow. Are you going to wait to date the right person? Have any of you besides Wilma met our daughter Terri? How many know our daughter Terri? You probably went around here when she was here speaking. Our daughter Terri is a missionary. Okay, our daughter Terri has some of the highest standards for dating a fellow at Eversoft that she grew up. So when she went to Calvary, she spent four years in the school and only dated one fellow in her senior year. But before she went off to college, there was a fellow in our area that asked permission to date her. And I said, no, because you're out of college. And she's just a high school senior. I said, well, she's got all the qualities in a girl I want. I said, that's fine, but, you know, she's young and you're old and you can't date her. But if you'd like, you could write her. So he wrote her. And so she worked for a year, went to the mission field, and this last September, or October, my wife and I were praying. I said, honey, you know, this guy's been writing Terri for a while. You know, I need to see the light of God to give me permission to date her. Now, she never dated this guy in Calvary. They went to a couple functions together, but they never dated what you think dated. They just went to social things, a couple social things, you know, senior social things. So I wrote Terri, and I was happy to call her. I said, Terri, would you like to date Jeff? She said, oh, Dad, really, really? I said, okay, now, she's quite fine. I said, okay. So I wrote Jeff a letter. Jeff is 30-something. So I wrote Jeff a letter, and I said, Jeff, we've been praying, and the Lord's laying on our heart to give you permission to date Terri if you'd like to. He wrote back this letter and he said, Mr. Logan, I praise the Lord. I've been waiting seven years to date your daughter. Do you think she doubts his love for her? Do you think she doubts this fellow's love for her? Love can wait to give. Lust can't wait to take. The test of love is how long a fellow is willing to wait for a girl. They had their first date this Christmas in our home, and you know what? They love each other, and she's committed to the mission, so they have three more years to wait. Terri says, I don't want to get married yet. I'm only 25. You know, she wants to reach kids. She wants to focus on her ministry yet. Maybe she'll never marry him, but one thing she knows for sure, there's a young man who loves her deeply, and he will wait the rest of his life for her because he loves her, and that's so super. All of our kids made dating commitments. I could share a tremendous story of each one of our kids and what God has done in their life through dating commitments and so on, and then they don't need this, but it's the ones that just, after marriage, they need it. Now, what is the adorning? What should a woman do? If she doesn't get a husband that loves the Lord, what is she to do? It says, ladies whose adorning, let it not be what? Outward adorning. The platening, or how would they say that? The hair. You know, one platen hair coming up. The wearing of gold, or the putting on of expensive clothes. What's the three things God says, ladies, don't put the extras on? Hairdo, accessories, and clothes.