In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking and knowing God as a personal being. They encourage the audience to study the Bible and other Christian literature to understand how God interacts with individuals. The speaker also highlights the life of Jesus as a way to understand God's character and actions. They emphasize the need to diligently seek God and share personal testimonies of how God has answered their prayers and done the impossible in their lives.

Hebrews 11, 5. Now this should be our greatest thing. It covers every part of our life and it simplifies our life. It is no more, is this right or is this wrong, but is this pleasing to God? And I pray this week, and we asked you to pray at the end of the class last week, that you would pray one for another and for yourself, that you would live pleasing unto God. And I just wish we had time for some testimonies on it this morning. At the retreat, they gave out little promises. How many of you were at the retreat? Did you have your promises with you? How many were really blessed by the promise you were given? Yeah, they were all prayed over and hand-selected and hand-written out. And I read my promise and I thought, oh, praise the Lord. And I looked at it again. Now remember my class last Friday morning was on living pleasing to God. And the promise I received at my place Saturday night was, when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Isn't that precious? When a woman's ways please the Lord, he maketh even her enemies to be at peace with her. I loved it. And God confirmed it, not through somebody that I considered an enemy, but through a situation that had not been too great in my life, but through someone whom there was just a little conflict. And the person called me up and it was beautiful. After I received this promise, I'm just going, wow, Lord, you are so precious and so faithful. And when you give a promise, it's ours, we claim it, and it's going to come to pass. When we live pleasing to God, it is no more that thing of is this right or wrong, but does it please God? And I use disco dancing, and this morning I'll make you all cross, or not all of you, but at least some of you, when you're watching soap operas. I'm going to get that as an epitaph on my tomb, I guess. They hated for us to watch soap operas. I saw a review of them on a program the other night. It was a Christian program, and they were bringing out all the things that soap operas teach you and show you. And you know what your eyes watch, and it becomes part of your behavior, what you're taking in. That's why it's so harmful for your kids, and I could go off on a whole other lesson. But it isn't our soap operas right or wrong. I happen to feel they're wrong, but you may not. But is that pleasing unto God, when you sit there and you absorb that stuff, when the world's coming to an end, the world as we know it, the great tribulation is at hand, the prophecies have all been fulfilled, and Jesus surely is coming soon, is that what you want to be programming into your mind? That is your decision. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I'd love to, believe me. But God hasn't placed that in my hands. He wants you to ask the question, is this pleasing to you, Lord? Before you pick up a book to read, before you watch a TV program, before you start to feel something verbally that maybe you shouldn't, is this pleasing unto you, Lord? And that check will come. Okay, I've caught you up with last week. We're ready to start on this morning's lesson. What keeps me from pleasing God? We might answer, well, I really don't know His will, or I want to do what I want to do. And I think nine times out of ten is probably the latter. I want to do what I want to do, rather than I don't know what His will is. The Bible gives us two very specific statements concerning not pleasing God. And these are the essential foundations to pleasing God. Now, it's going to sound like a negative lesson, but it's going to be very positive because you're going to gain some insight through it. The Spirit has promised me that He's going to open our eyes this morning, every one of us, including me, to see how important these truths are to us. There are two things that are very specific of pleasing God. We're going to deal with just one of them this morning. I believe they deal so wisely with our root problem that looking at these words of God as we gain insight, we're going to begin to be pleasing to Him in a way we've never been pleasing before. And we're going to learn how to pray about the place where we've been displeasing. And we're going to learn how to commit our lives fully unto Him, full to middle. It reminds me again of plants. You know, sometimes your plants have external problems. They have mealy bugs, which I found yesterday on some of mine, and it's very exasperating to me. Or they're getting too much light or not enough light, or the soil is too acidy. But sometimes the problem is in the root. It's invisible. You can't see it. And you can apply all the light, air, and water you want to, and you can polish the leaves as beautifully as is possible. And if the problem is with the root, it's not going to do a bit of good, and you're not going to have a pleasing plant. We talked last week about being plants. We bring plants into our home to beautify our home and to please us, and to please those who observe them. Okay, the first problem, Hebrews 11, 6. But without faith. Now, Cheryl stole this in her prayer this morning. When she said, Oh Lord, without faith it's impossible to please you, I thought I knew it was a confirmation of the lesson. I thought God's been working in her heart, and He's already prepared her to hear this, and it really blessed me. But the preachers always say, Oh, they stole my sermon and prayer. Well, I'm not a preacher, so I'm not saying that. He was really confirming it to my heart. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Why? We'll read on. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is. Why don't you stop and think here for a minute. You must believe that He is. Okay, Kate, I'm glad we got over that. I believe that He is, therefore I don't have any problem with that. Believe me, I believe God exists. Let's see, He's God, and He's the Creator, and He's powerful, and He's mighty. And I believe that most of us in the room this morning believe that God is. I'm touched I can go a little further. I believe that everybody in the room believes that God exists, that He is. But you know, in James 2, 19, the Bible tells us that the devils believe in God and tremble. And there was a poll taken in America recently, and in this particular poll they said that 96% of the people they polled said they believed in God. Now, we live in a strangely hedonistic country for 96% of the people believing in God, don't we? So there must be more to this believing He is than just believing He exists. In this chapter in Romans 11, as you read it, and I hope you read it over and over, it is one of the most moving, vibrant chapters in the whole Bible, this chapter of faith. If your faith seems weak, read this chapter of the exploits these men of God did, and women too, and how faith changed their lives. But the 11th chapter of Hebrews, what did I say? Oh, well, there I go again. Please correct me when I do that. I need that over and over. I forget. It's like, you know, Chuck says Moses, and we're all sitting there saying, and when he means Noah, we're going, Noah, Noah. And he's saying Moses. It's a disease in our household. It's a virus. We've all got it. Read this 11th chapter of Hebrews about these people who had such an intense belief in God, our Father as a personal, infinite God who created them for Himself, that they through faith subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, they obtained promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the violence of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness they were made strong. They waxed valiant in fight. They turned to flight the armies of the aliens. One of them built an ark for 100 years in the middle of a desert. Another one had a baby at 80 or 90 years of age. Another one took thousands and thousands of people through a sea, believing that God would part the sea and make it dry land for these people to walk through. These were people who did not just believe. He is some essence way up in the sky, and He causes flowers to bloom and the sun to shine. They believed He was a personal God who ponders all your goings. Proverbs 5, 2, it's a good scripture. Don't turn to it now. They're all good scriptures. But this is especially good on this point. God observes all our goings and He weighs all our actions. There is not one thing you do that our God isn't aware of. And this is the message to you this morning. You are to be aware of God as a personal God who cares for you, who ponders all your goings, who is ever present with you. A God from whom you cannot hide. And if you think you can hide from God, read Psalm 139. David said, Though I take the wings of the morning and go to the uttermost parts of the sea, yet I cannot hide from God. Though I make my bed in hell, I cannot hide from God. There is no way to hide from the infinite personal God. You serve and believe in a God, or you should believe in a God, who doesn't just exist, but He has thoughts towards us more than the sands of the sea. And we shared that before. In Jeremiah 29, 11, in the Living Bible, it says that God has plans for us. And I want to read it to you. Because you hear of the four spiritual laws a lot of times, and God has a plan for your life. And sometimes we've heard it so much we're prone to joke about it. But this is so beautiful in Jeremiah 29, 11. The Lord said, For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. God has plans for every woman in this room. And they're plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. These are hopeless days. And if we listen to the news, and we read the newspaper, and we look at Afghanistan, and we look at Iran, and we look at Israel, and we look at Lebanon, and we look at Africa, and we look at America, and we look at Central America, and we realize what's happening, we would be very, very hopeless if we did not believe in a God who is there, and who has a future, and a plan, and a hope for our lives. This morning I'm here to tell you He is a God who is interested in you. You cannot really believe this, really believe it, without the truth making a deep impression upon your heart. I was reading Tozer's Pursuit of God one day, and this impressed me so much that I wrote it in my Bible. A loving personality dominates the Bible. Walking among the trees of the garden, and breathing fragrance over every scene. Always a living person is present. Speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself whenever and wherever His people have the receptivity necessary to receive the manifestation. He is a God who is present, speaking, pleading, loving, working, and manifesting Himself to you whenever you have the receptivity to listen, to heed Him, to look for Him. If you really believe this, it's going to affect your heart, your life, and your behavior. If I am truly aware of God being right here, and watching my ways, and weighing them, I'm going to want to shape up. But more than that, the realization that He loves me, and He cares for me, and He has plans for me. And He cares for me more than He cares for any star in the sky, than He cares for the sun, or the moon, or any ocean. He didn't give His life, He didn't give His son, for any of those things. He gave His life for you, and He gave His life for me. And when that realization hits me full force, and when it hits you full force, it's going to cause a response in your life. And one of the problems with us as Christians, is we go through our days forgetting God is there. Isn't it true? We do. We spend our hours and our minutes doing what we want to do, and forgetting that our God is right there with us. Think about this. Meditate on it. Absorb it. Believe that He is. I was meditating on this this morning, and I began to think of one of the first things that God said to Moses. When Moses said, well when I go before the people, you know, who am I? And God said, He didn't say it like this, I'm paraphrasing. God didn't answer Moses who He was. He answered who He was. He said, tell them, I am the Savior. I am. He was saying, I am the God of all possibilities. I am the God of power and might, and I depart the red sea. How many times we look at God and we say, who am I? And He's looking down and He's saying, oh, it isn't who you are, it's who I am. It's who God is. That's the important thing. Know that He is. Know that He really is, and He is your personal God. Without this awareness, this strong conviction, you will not care whether you please Him or not. Now the reason that we don't go through our life pleasing God as we should, is not because there's a shortness of His arm, but because we do not have this continued awareness. And I suffer from it as you do. I am shocked sometimes. You know, I go through a day. I start out with devotion, and then I get involved in something, and all of a sudden, the Lord will speak to my heart and say, Kay, you haven't looked up and just said, oh Jesus, I love you. Oh Father, I love you. Have you forgotten I'm there? He wants us to have that continual awareness of His presence constantly. And it is possible. I've gone through days and weeks and months like that. But you know, Satan will do anything. He will cause your flesh to work in any way to keep you from that continued awareness of Him. Chuck says, the definition of ungodly simply means living as though God didn't exist. That's all. We think of it as the gross, wicked, ungodly man. You know, oh, the person who's never accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. But what we're really saying, the ungodly person is saying, He's not around, He's up in the sky, I can do whatever I want. He doesn't see, He doesn't know, and He doesn't care. And you know what? Your choices and your decisions are all made without any consideration of what His will is, because you really don't believe He's there or here. And that's why this is so important this morning, that the Holy Spirit puts in every one of your hearts that He is, and He is with you right now, every one of you in this room. Just where you're sitting, your God is right with you, and He's aware of everything you're doing. He's aware of what you're hearing, and if you have a listening heart this morning, He's aware of you so much that He wants these seeds planted in your heart today, that they might grow and they might bear fruit, and your faith will expand and increase, so that you'll say, I know what those Hebrews 11 people did. By faith in Him, I can stop the mouths of lions today. And you can. When you are aware of His presence, and that faith is born in you because you know your God is with you, and you're not doing it, but He's doing it through you, there is not a miracle that cannot be formed by God working through you, that you ask Him to perform. Okay. If you're not aware of the presence of God, what to do about it? The rest of the verse tells you. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He that cometh to God must believe what? That what? That He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Let's read verse 6 all together in this room. If you don't have King James, mumble along in whatever translation or paraphrase you have. Hebrews 11, 6. And keep your Bible open to it the whole time. Okay. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. I want you to turn to the person next to you, just to, to, whatever way it works out. I'm not going to give specific instructions. And I want you to read this to that person, and I want that person to read it back to you. And I want you to stop after you read it, put your hands on the Bible, and say, God, make this real to my heart today. Okay? Thank you. Is there anyone who didn't pray with someone? Okay, would you pray right now? Father, engrave this truth on our hearts. Let us see this morning the importance of knowing that You are, and that You are our personal God, that You care, You watch, You wait. Oh, God, engrave this on our hearts. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. The word of God is alive and powerful. And as you spoke that word to each other, God began to work in your heart of making this real to you. It has got to be real to you. If you want to live a life that's pleasing to Him, you have to know He is there. And if I repeat it over and over and over this morning, it's because repetition is the key to learning. And I don't want one of us to go out of this room this morning without the strong conviction, realization, and knowledge that God is your personal God, and He's there. Okay, what do we do about it? We diligently seek Him. The next part of this verse, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We must start searching for Him. We must start looking for Him. He promises He rewards those who diligently seek Him. And how does He reward them? By finding Him. By finding Him. Now, this morning is just the beginning of this realization in your life. And I don't care if you've walked with God 50 years or 2 years or 3 months, this is a brand new beginning in the awareness of God. I ask God to do that for you and to do it for me this morning. Every one of us in this room needs that new awareness. You may have come in this morning with a bleeding heart and a broken spirit, and you're going through trials, and you're just groaning and moaning, and as the girl at the retreat, God gave knowledge, was suicidal. She was at the end of her rope. Oh, she was born again. She was spirit baptized, but she was suicidal. Why? Because she forgot God was there. God was there to help her, to strengthen her, to build her up, to bring her through the trials. He said, when you pass through the water, it shall not overflow you. And through the fire, you're not going to be burned and destroyed. Remember the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace? There was one in there with him, like unto the son of man, and it was Jesus that was in the fiery furnace with him. And maybe you're in the fiery furnace this morning. You know, the greatest thing you can know this morning is that Jesus is right there with you, and he will bring you up. I'm not talking on the top of my head. I've been there. I've been in the fiery furnace, and I've been in the waters that could drown me. And he hasn't let me drown, and he hasn't let the fire consume me and burn me. He's been with me every single step of the way. He's faithful, and he cares about me. Cast your care on him, for he cares about you. Okay, how do we diligently seek him, and what will he do? He will reward us by revealing himself to us. I want to talk to you a minute about how he reveals himself to the unbeliever, just in case there's one here this morning that doesn't know God. I have a friend named Rose, and I may share a little bit about her wisdom. I'm not supposed to share too much because there's going to be a book and a movie out, but being the person that I am, I always share a little more than I intended to, but I'll try to be cautious, and I ask the Holy Spirit to make me careful, and he will. Rose is a Jewish girl that I told you one time I asked you how she came to know the Lord, and she said, I don't know, Kay, I guess he just lifted the veil. I thought that was beautiful. I had a chance to spend more time with her one day, and she was telling me, and maybe I shared this in the classroom, I don't remember, but she said that what actually happened is that she grew up in an affluent family in Beverly Hills and always had everything and always did whatever she wanted, and she dated Elvis Presley. That gives a little bit of her background, and she sort of went all over the world, and she met a man in Mexico who was very, very wealthy, and she became his mistress, and while she was his mistress, he introduced her to his drug life, and she just went downhill very rapidly and began just kind of floating around the world without any direction, and just as Psalm 1 says, driven by the wind. Do you know how to tap? It's driven by the wind, just going hither and thither without any purpose in life, and she arrived in London with four guys. She was boarding a plane, and she was arrested with the four men. Now, she did not know this, but the four fellas she was with were importing $150,000 worth of hash back into the United States. They were a gang. She didn't know it. She wasn't into any of that, but the police thought she was. She said she was loaded at the time. She was not only heavily into drugs but also alcohol. The police put her in a jail in London. The drugs began to wear off, and she said the next day she awakened, and she looked around, and she thought, where am I? And as she began to get freer and freer of the drugs, she began to just think, what am I going to do? Is there any help? And she remembered her mother used to say to her, Rose, God will help you. God will help you. God will help you. She was a Jewish mother, and that's all she ever programmed into Rose about God. But Rose said, Kate, I literally got down on my knees in the jail cell, and I said, God, if you're there, help me. And she said, at that moment, I had a vision of, get this, Jesus Christ. She said, I knew it was Jesus. Don't ask me how I knew, but she said, I knew it was the Messiah. It was Jesus. And she said, I never felt such warmth and love in all of my life. And she said, I forgot I was in a cell. I just wanted that presence to remain with me forever, that love and that warmth. God brought her into the fold. She got out with a $10 fine, got back to the state. She is a powerful witness for Jesus Christ right now. Another man, a man I'll call Jim because you don't know him, but I don't want to get too close to him. Someday you might need him. Was an alcoholic. He was a professional man. He lost his wife and his children. Was roaming around rather without purpose also. Remarried, got back into practice again, but could not give up this alcohol. Finally, his wife and second family left him, moved far away. And he said he was effing desolate. One morning at 4 o'clock in the morning, he'd been lying awake all night. And he said, I got up by the side of my bed and I knelt down. And I said, I don't know you, God, but I know I can't go on any longer. It's either you or it's suicide. And he said, I can't tell you what happened, Kay, except peace came over me. And peace came into my heart and I knew there was a God. He is walking with Jesus today. It's been two years, not a touch of alcohol. The most vibrant man, when you meet him, oh, he's so alive. I wish I could, well, you know, I wish I could tell you more. Beautiful testimony. Maybe he'll give his testimony publicly. He doesn't attend Calvary, but he does attend a Calvary. So I have to be careful. And the other day I was at an AIA luncheon, Athletes in Action luncheon, and we were sitting at a table with nine other ladies. And there was a lady there who didn't know Jesus. The speaker spoke and asked how many wanted to commit their lives to the Lord. And this lady, all of a sudden, this light came upon her and she committed her life to Jesus. And we looked and we said, what happened? And she said, you won't believe this. She said, two nights ago, I had a dream that I was going to come to a luncheon like this and a lady was going to say to me, Julie, have you accepted Jesus? And she said, after that lady prayed, I accepted him. And then that lady said to me, and she said that lady had no way of knowing. And the lady said, did you accept Jesus? She said it was exactly like my dreams. God had revealed in a dream, first of all, and awakened her heart to the fact that God is. Now the first two were diligently seeking. The third one sought him in a moment and he was there. He's the rewarder of those that diligently seek him. And for those of us as Christians, we could tell story after story after story of every time we diligently, desperately sought the Lord, how he met us. He's met me over and over and over again. There's never been an impossible place in my life that I haven't sought him, that he hasn't answered and done what was impossible in the natural. All right. Now, how do we seek him diligently? First of all, and I'm going to give you seven points here and we'll go through them quickly. First of all, ask him to reveal himself to you. I am a little child when it comes to faith and things of God. You heard Chuck say, Kay can start car motors. He's teasing. Of course I can't, but the Lord can. Because I don't know a thing about a car motor, I can pray that it will start. And it does. Now, I've heard of people going long distances on heavenly Ethel. How many in class have done that? Do you have any women? We don't always know that it takes gasoline to run a car. Yes, we do. We're not dumb. We just come to the Lord as a little child and say, Lord, it's dangerous for me to be out on this highway. If my car runs out of gasoline, you've got to get me home. Or you've got to get me to the service station. Okay. First of all, ask him to reveal himself to you. Be calm as a little child. And just say, God, show me you're there. Show me. Let me know. Speak to me a special way. Whatever way. Reveal yourself to me. And he will. He wants to. Has it ever occurred to you that he wants to reveal himself to you much, much, much more than you ever desired him to reveal himself to you? He's just waiting for you. In fact, sometimes he even intrudes on our plans, doesn't he? When we didn't exactly ask him and we weren't exactly looking and we weren't exactly asking, and he comes in and he says, hey, I'm here. Jackie, I'm here. Crystal, I'm here. Dixie, I'm here. And all of a sudden, oh, that's right. Ask him to reveal himself. Secondly, ask him to become real to you. Oh, God, become real to me. Jeremiah 29, 13. He said, you will find me when you seek me. If you look for me in earnest, if you seek me with your whole heart, you're going to find me. And when you find something, it's real. It's there. When you really ask him to make himself real, he will. I've shared before that one New Year's Eve, I was driving someplace early, rather early in the evening, probably around 6, 30 or 7. We had some plans. I think I was taking Terry someplace. I don't recall. But I was to cross Newport Boulevard down around 15th Street. And I had been praying all day that day, Lord, we're starting a new year. And I did. I prayed it over and over. I was doing, Lord, make yourself more real to me than you ever have, ever, ever, ever. Just make yourself more real. And as I was driving the car with Sarah, I was going back home, and I was saying, oh, Lord, you know, it's getting late in the evening. And I just ask you today to reveal yourself to me more than you ever have before I start this new year. I need it. I need it. I just need this reality of your presence. As I got to the signal, and as the signal was about to get, well, it was about a block before I got to the signal to cross Newport, the Lord spoke to me and said, not in an honorable voice, but to my heart, do not cross Newport Boulevard until every car in every lane of traffic has stopped. And as we're so prone to do, okay, you're really getting squirrely. You're thinking, have you ever done that when God spoke to you? Sure you have. You go, huh? That's me. That's my conscience. That's not really God. That's not the voice of God. So I sort of put it to the test. Lord, you know, good to see you. That's me. Again, he spoke to my heart. Hey, do not cross Newport Boulevard until every lane of traffic stops. I got to the signal, and I thought, well, Lord, I think it's you. But I'm not sure, and I don't want to do anything dumb, but I'm going to creep across Newport Boulevard just in case that's you speaking to me, just in case. I started to cross, lanes stopped. All the cars that left me, every lane stopped. To the right, every lane stopped until the last lane. And I was almost stopped by the time I crept across there. A pickup truck came screeching. Didn't see the signal. Came right through the signal, saw me, made a complete circle about up in that little place where you go up on 15th. A complete circle came back facing this side of my car. Missed me completely. Does God speak to us? Does he make himself real to us? More real than the breath we breathe? Oh, ask him today. Ask him to make himself real. He wants to make himself real. He doesn't want to just be an essence up there in the sky. He wants to make himself real to you. Okay. Third, search out the scriptures that teach you or show you he is a personal God. Search out those scriptures. Write them down. I keep telling you to write down scriptures and put them on your mirror. And I've told you that so much that from now on out, when you look in your mirror, you're going to see God instead of you. Because his word is just going to be up in front of you all over your mirror. Well, if the mirror is full, put them any place you can put them. Put them in pockets and pull them out. Put them on the car seat. Put them any place. Put them on your kitchen window sill. Wherever. Strap them around the vacuum cleaner. Start taking them to the vacuum cleaner. You could even start taking them on the corner of a dust rack. Any place. Somebody said on the TV, said across the screen. Search out scriptures that teach you or show you he is a personal God. And I'm not going to give you examples because I want the Holy Spirit to teach you what it is to find scriptures that tell you he is a personal God. All right. Fourth. Study the lives of men and women in the Bible and in any book that you can get about Christian men and women. And discover and meditate on the ways God moved in their lives. I think my. I better wait. Don't you repeat it? Okay. I should. Let's see. Do your own shorthand. Put study, lives, Bible, books. Okay. And you can write this down. I'll read the whole sentence. Use which one. Study. Not just read. Study. The lives of men and women in the Bible and in other Christian books. And discover. And meditate. On the way God on the way God moved in their lives. The entire Bible. Is about God dealing with men. With you. With his creation. With me. That's what the Bible is all about. It's not about a God who's way up in the sky with a white beard and long white hair. Looking down. Ready to conk you on the head with a club. Not what it is. It's a God of infinite love. Who watches. Who weighs. Who's present. And who cares. Study the lives of men and women who diligently sought him. Discover and meditate on their ways. Especially study the life of Jesus. Who said, I do always those things to please him. Jesus came to earth. Not only to die for us. But to reveal God to us. If you want to know what God is like. Study the life of Jesus. What is God like? What was Jesus like? He had compassion. He forgave sin. He walked among the people. He cared. He raised the dead. He healed the sick. He opened the blind eyes. He taught. He took a woman at the well. And he gave her living water. And she never thirsted again in the same way. Study about Jesus. If you want to diligently know that God is there. You must seek him. And these are ways to study. Fifth. Listen to him. Listen to him speak to you. He has spoken to every woman in this room. You know that? God has spoken to you. But unless you believe he is. As I've explained and defined it this morning. You won't recognize his voice. We were out the other night with a friend of ours. And he's not been a Christian a long, long time. But we were talking about when Chuck and I were in Israel. And Jeff was in intensive care in the hospital here. And he almost died. And this friend knows Jeff quite well. And he said, oh, how interesting. Jeff almost died. What happened? And we said, well, God healed him. And he had this illness that he had with white swine flu. And they still don't know what it was. And it hit every organ in his body. And as you know, Dr. Ganey called us in Israel. And I was ready to come home. And as this man was talking to us. I said, well, God healed him. And we were in Israel. But we didn't have to come home. Because God gave us the promise before we knew of the healing. And he said, what? How did that happen? And I said, well, I stayed in the room. The morning that we got the wire. And after talking to the doctor. Instead of going touring. I stayed in the room all day. To just spend the day in prayer for Jeff. And for the situation. And for an answer from God. And I said, I fell asleep. And I awakened with tears on the pillow. I fell asleep praying. And awakened with tears on the pillow. Where I must have cried while I was asleep even. Which has never happened before or since. And I remember waking up and saying. God, I have got to have an answer from you. You have got to speak to me right now. I've got to know what to do. It would have cost $749 to get home. We didn't have it at that time. But we would have. They borrowed or whatever. Not stolen. They could borrow. To get some money. To get home. If my son was dying. I would want to be with him, of course. But I had to know from God. What step I was supposed to take. And the spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart. Not audibly. Spoke to my heart. And said, Kay, read Philippians. And read. I think it's the second chapter here. It's right to the verse. Philippians 2.27. For indeed he was sick, nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him. And not on him only. But on me also. Lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Now I was going through another great sorrow in my life right then. And it was so amazing that God said to me. I'm going to heal Jeff, Kay. Lest you have sorrow upon sorrow. I mean, how much more directly could have spoken to me? I got up out of bed. I showered. I dressed. Chuck came in. My countenance like Hannah was no more sad. And I said, Chuck, Jeff's healed. Oh, how do you know? He knows me well enough to know I don't say those things lightly. And I said, God gave me Philippians 2.27. I read it to him. And I believe you will move on that. I went out to dinner. A lawyer had gone on the trip with us. I said, Kay, come here. I've got to talk to you. God has spoken to me. I've got to go home. Jeff is healed. Confirmation. Thank you, Lord. You spoke to me for the word. You spoke to me through a godly man on a trip. I believe you. That's the way I'm walking. The doctor called us back within 12 hours. Kay, Jeff's well. God speaks to us. He wants to speak to us. Are you listening to him? This man that we were talking to the other night after we told the story, he said, oh, that's how. Oh, well, you know what? I had to get someplace really fast. And I said, oh, God, I don't have enough time. And I cannot be late. He said, you know what happened? All the lights turned green. You've had it happen. God does it. And he said, you know, God spoke to my heart. He said, I did this for you. But see, he wasn't listening. He didn't know how to listen for the voice of God. Sometimes the voice is so soft. And it's so tender. And it's so sweet. And it's so precious. We just don't listen. Jesus said, my sheep know my voice. We are supposed to know the voice of God. Say to him today under this point five of listen. Oh, God, I don't think I remember you speaking to me. But I want to know your voice. I want to hear you speak to me. I want to know every time you even whisper. I want to hear it. Carolyn Lamb and Betty and I are kind of fanatics. You already know that. You must know that. We were in Israel all together when you're on tour. And we, the three of us have spent some time in prayer together. I don't mean prayer. I mean prayer, you know. And you also have a prayer partner like that or two that you can go to. And you really speak God with your whole heart together as well as separately. And we were walking through, I think it was the Dan Preserve or something. I can't remember what it was. It was a mountain valley. And we got up to a mountaintop. And it had been kind of a long walk. And they started singing. The whole group started singing My Loving Kindness. Well, you know around Chuck, we're cautious about throwing our hands up in the air. I don't think Carolyn or Betty or any one of us would do it around Chuck. I mean, he was there. But we were singing so it was okay because Chuck had his hands up too. You know what I'm talking about? Okay. And he's right. I mean, he's the pastor and we're the sheep and we follow. And I don't want to get off into goofyism. I want to praise God. And you know, this thing just was sweeping over us. We're on this hilltop in Israel. And oh, the sky and the sun and the beauty of the day. And so everybody was singing My Loving Kindness. And we reached our hands and everybody else put their hands down. And we were so into it, into worshiping God. Our hands were so up in the air. Oh, you know, like this. And all of a sudden, thunder just crackled through the sky. And we started laughing. We were like, thanks, Lord. He spoke as he really did. I came home and I found this scripture. Not looking for it, I was reading it. It said, He speaks in the thunder. And I go, oh boy, do I know that? He wants to speak to you. What was he saying? I'm a God of power. I'm a God of might. The three of us had been in prayer on that trip for something that was really troubling. A heavy, heavy, heavy burden that we wanted to see God release the person out of this bondage that the person was in. We needed to hear God's thunder. And he did. He spoke to us in the thunder. And we knew. We knew it was God speaking. Listen to him. See him in the rainbows. Let him speak to you through a rainbow. What does he say in a rainbow? I've made a covenant with you. I've made a covenant. Every time I see a rainbow, I remember. God made a covenant that he would never destroy the earth again with water. The entire earth. That's his covenant to you, to me. Remember that he speaks to us in rainbows. Joseph, he spoke to in dreams. Remember, Joseph was afraid to take Mary into him, his wife. And God spoke to him in a dream. He spoke to him again and said, get out of here and go down to Egypt. Herod's going to kill all these children. He spoke to him again in a dream and said, it's all right. You go back now. Paul heard a voice on the Damascus Road. Nobody else heard the voice. But Paul heard the voice. Peter had a vision. God spoke to him in a vision and spoke to him. I'm sure many other ways, too. With all of these. I remember Chuck telling him about the time he came up Fairview. And he looked over this plot of land, which then 10 acres was $300,000. And we certainly didn't have $300,000. The church didn't. And nobody was about to bestow $300,000. And Chuck looked over there and went, oh, it's too much, Lord. I can't bear the burden of it. And remember, he told this time and time again. The Lord said, the Lord said, whose church is it, Chuck? See? And Chuck all of a sudden, that's right. It's not my church. It's not mine. It's yours, Lord. What if Chuck hadn't been listening? He would have gone through the day just full of despair. Through tears. Through the torment of Satan. Through anxiety. Through a little fear there. What are we going to do? What am I going to do? But God spoke. He listened. He was comforted. He was relieved. The beautiful smile, you know, just lit up the face. Because God had spoken to him. All right. I jumped a point. I gave you this. Listen. Ask him to speak to you. And be aware he is. And then go back to the point I just gave you. Okay. He also speaks through sermons. How many times we've sat in church and the preacher has said something. And all of a sudden God said, vow at the man. Vow at the woman. This means you. Or God has spoken comfort to our heart. And we said, ah, he said that just for me. Chuck has every Sunday. Somebody goes up to him and said, oh, Chuck, that sermon was just for me. Why? You were listening. And they had asked him to speak to them. You ask God to speak to you. I hope that every one of you today will say, God, speak to me. Ask him. Ask and you shall receive. He speaks through the radio. He speaks through books. He speaks through mail. One time I was going through a very difficult time in my life. And I awakened and deep, deep depressed. And one morning I opened my Bible. And I was reading. And I read Psalm 37, 5. Commit your way unto the Lord. And I just said, OK, Lord, I will. You know, I will. Kind of like that. And it didn't have an impact. I went out later in the day to get the mail out of the mailbox. And there was a little Christian magazine in it. And I thought, oh, I don't know. And I went like this. And the very first page, the very first scripture on it was, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. I turned on the radio while I was doing the dishes. And guess what sister came over the radio. Three times God spoke to me. I needed him through that morning. I forgot to mention that I had asked him in this deep depression. I said, God, speak to me. I've got to have help. And I was listening. And he spoke. All right. So he speaks to us through all kinds of ways. And he wants to speak to you. I looked at the daffodils at the retreat. They were so beautiful. And they were just kind of praising the Lord. And every time I passed those daffodils. You know, the little daffodils had pushed their way up through the snow. And those bulbs are so ugly and horrible. And they're planted. First you have to put them in a cold, dark place. You know how it is with a daffodil bulb. Then you put it in the ground. And then it had the snow to fight up there. And it came. And you know, they're about this high with those beautiful yellow faces praising God. And every time I passed them, God spoke to me as I had asked him to do at the retreat. I said, speak to me. Speak to me, Lord, over and over again. And every time I passed the daffodil, he said, praise me. Praise me. Lift your hands. Lift your heart. Praise me. He speaks. Ask him to speak to you.