You are not whole yet. Let's talk about it. On this edition of G.I.E. That's Steve Brown. He's no guru, but he loves Jesus Christ. He loves the Bible, and he loves to teach him. A program is G.I.E.E. and here's Steve with a teaching for today. Steve? Thanks, Mike. Hope you have a great weekend. Hope your worship time was as meaningful to you and your pastor, sermon, as mine was to me. If you have your Bible, keep it open because I'll be referring to it as we go along. I'm going to spend a little bit more time. We're still talking about God, pain, and evil when your rope breaks. In another two or three weeks, we're going to get back to our old testament survey and pick up where we left off at the book of Jeremiah. Today or tomorrow, probably tomorrow, we're going to talk about demons that peep and mutter in the night. The occult evil side of pain and suffering because I don't want to leave that out if we're going to talk about this sort of thing. But we can't get there until we get there and we have miles and miles to go before we sleep. Before we study the Bible, let's pray. Father, we praise you and we worship you. Sometimes we're in such a panic mode and so down and things are so wrong that we just ask you for stuff and we forget that you're God and that you're worthy and that you're the only one worthy of our worship. And so we worship you and we praise you. We have our laundry list of things we would like to be different. Father, you know our frame and you remember that we're dust. Father, you are compassion and kind and gentle and merciful and gracious. We praise you and we worship you and we trust you. Help us to trust you more. Father, when we come into your presence, the darkness in our life feels more dark because we remember what we really are, what we've really thought. The sins we've committed, the times we've rebelled, the times we've gone in directions that make us ashamed. And so, Father, we're here. Not because we're good but because we're yours and because you are a gracious and forgiving God. We repent and we come before you in the joy of one who dances in the presence of a Father who loves unconditionally. Father, as we study your Bible this week on key life as always, we pray for the one who teaches. Forgive him his sins, for they are many. Father, we would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Now, if you were listening last week and we're going to wrap that up this week, we've been talking about discouragement, the ugly. Ugly are an ugly sister of pain and suffering. We talked about the great cloud of witnesses. We talked about the demon of guilt and then we talked about the power that is available to the Christian. Keep your eyes on Jesus. He's in charge. The text was from Hebrews 12 and he sits at the right hand of God the Father and we spent a lot of time talking about that. And then we had kind of a laundry list and I'm going to finish that up today. Yes, and maybe we'll get into the principalities and powers and rulers of the dark today too but probably not. We had kind of three or four things that you ought to remember when you're discouraged and you're down because things aren't going well. And we said, don't forget to remember the past. Now there's a sense in which you've got to remember to forget. But there's something you need to remember. The world says, have a drink and remember and forget. Jesus says, at the last step of our drink and remember. What are some of the things we remember? We looked at Job 8, 8 through 10, where Job's friends and they were done but they said some things that were really good. The problem is trying to decide what was good and what was done. But they said one thing, at least one of Job's friends and Job 8, 8 through 10, about looking to the past that it might inform you. We talked about the importance of building memorials. Now I said, remember the facts. Kiss and don't last, cook and do. You said, say what? I'm not exactly sure but let me try to explain. Kiss in these feelings. I mean, kiss and it's fun. But after a while, kiss and get old and cook and never do. And that's true of the Bible. Doctrine last. Feelings do not last. And so don't go by your feelings. Man, when you're going through a difficult time, your feelings are that your ugly and your mother dresses you funny. Nobody likes you. And God has rejected you and you never knew Jesus and your life is meaningless and you've been cast away and God has turned his back on you. Those are feelings and they are just that feelings, they're not true. We looked at Edmund's quote and talked about it much in detail. Never doubt in the dark what God has taught you in the light. Listen, study the Bible. Now I don't, I'm not big on systematic theology in doctrine and say we're going to talk about gold and I'm going to teach you the Westminster confession of faith and all that. But let me tell you something. Don't think I think that is unimportant. That is so important. In the third Reich, the Christians who stood were Christians who believed and understood and knew and had underlined the truth. They didn't feel good about it. They didn't want, they didn't want to have to face the persecution they were facing, but they stood because they knew the truth. Everybody says that Martin Luther, when he stood at the diet of worms and said of worms and said, here I stand, I can do no other. He didn't say it that way. Luther's an old friend of mine. He said, oh man, I'd rather go to the dentist. I don't want to be here. I don't want to stand. I want to run away. I want to go to Vartburg and just hide, but I can't do anything but stand because I can do no other. I know the truth. And so it's important that you remember the facts. Then I suggested when we ended last week on Thursday that you ought to remember the process. And I gave you something that's really important. It's important for me to remember. It's probably important for you to remember. When you down, you think you'll never be up again. And when you're up, you think you'll never be down again. And both of those beliefs are from the pit of hell and they smell like smoke. The truth is, you know what the best verse in the Bible is? Of all the verses in the Bible, the best verse, and I'm not sure where the reference is. I'm not an avigator. But quote, and it came to pass. And it does. I mean, it all comes to pass. It all passes. Just hang on. And when it's enough, it'll be enough. And God will know, when you're down, you're not going to be that way forever. If you're going through a tough time right now, it's not going to stay that way. Trust me on this. And if you're sitting on top of the world every day, the world rolls over on top of somebody who was just sitting on top of it. So you're not going to be up forever. God works in process. And we expect him to work immediately right now and to fix everything the way we want him to fix it. And God doesn't do that. He's teaching and drawing to you to himself. So don't forget the process. And then one other thing in our laundry list of things to remember when you're involved with pain, suddenly sister discouragement. Don't forget to remember the future. When your rope is broken, when things are bad and you're discouraged, don't forget the future. If you've got your Bible, look at 1 Corinthians 15, 51 through 54. If you're a Presbyterian, you're still looking for it. If you're a Baptist, you've already found it. Listen to what Paul says. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Do you know Richard Warnbrand? You ever read any of his books? I heard him speak one time. He dealt a lot with broken ropes. He was for so many years of voice of hope in the midst of discouragement. As some of you may know, he spent some 14 years in communist prisons. He was an example of a follower of Christ who with hope and love survived the worst that men or people could do to a man. Warnbrand, discussing the atheism of communism, spoke of the hope we have for the future. He suggested that if somebody were to speak to an embryo, he or she might say that there was a wonderful life beyond the womb. If the embryo should answer the way an atheist would, it would say, don't bother me with that kind of religious superstition. This is my world. It's the only one I know. It's warm. It's comfortable. I cannot see beyond it. It is pure opiate of the people to suggest that there's anything beyond. But suppose Warnbrand, and this I'm going to quote him from his book, this embryo could think with greater discernment than our academicians. It would say to itself, eyes develop in my head to what purpose? There's not anything to see. Legs grow. I don't even have room to stretch them. Why should they grow? And why do arms and hands grow? I have to keep them folded over my breast. They embarrass me and my mother. My whole development in the womb is senseless unless there follows a life with light and color in many objects for my eyes to see. The place in which I'll spend this other life must be large and varied. I will have to run in it. Therefore my legs grow. It will be a life of work and struggle. Therefore I grow arms and fists, which are of no use here. I know it hurts. I read your letters. Sometimes we sit as a staff and look at your letters and we have a staff prayer list that we all pray for people that are going, I know. I know how hard it is, but you're not home yet. I have not seen nor ear heard nor mind of man conceive what God has prepared for you later. You think about that. Amen. Listen, if you're not a part of key life tapes or family, I'd love for you to be a part of it. Let me tell you how it works. If you'll give us a call 1-800 key life, you can do that 24 hours a day. Or write key life post office box 5,000, Makeland Florida 32794. Or key life Canada post office box 32150, Cambridge Ontario in 3H5 in 3, or you can email us, Steve at keylife.org with your regular mailing address and ask to be a part of key life tapes. Then there upon you will receive every seven or eight weeks as funds permit a tape of some place where I've taught the Bible. It reforms seminary at the Billy Graham Training Center at Lake Barkley Fellowship where we are this weekend at a missions conference. We take those and send them out to our family and they keep coming as long as you want them and they're absolutely free. Now these are not the tapes of the broadcast. 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