[Music] [Applause] Dr John Wallace is a close friend we've been friends for over 30 years he was my pastor he's been a mentor and he's become a very good friend he's a little bit older than I am he's moved to Wimberly but when he gets back to Dallas we usually have a long lunch for two or three hours and just talk about what God has been doing in our lives and we just enjoy God's stories and that kind of stuff that's going on all the time John tells a story in one of his books about when he was making a career change he was a dentist for 13 years and about the time his practice really got some roots and started to take off God called him to walk walk away from it go to Dallas Theological Seminary get a degree there and Pastor a church plant so several young couples young families from Northwest Bible Church left the big church at Northwest in the toll road and headed for old East Dallas they wanted to bring Jesus to that neighborhood and they moved into that and they had a church and it was thriving and John was the pastor but he started having things happen with the Holy Spirit he realized it's time for him to leave the Bible Church which is all he'd ever known and go into something different that was more Holy Spirit focused and he ended up planting the Dallas Vineyard and while he was about to make that shift he didn't want to do anything that would hurt the plant that he had done he want to keep it going but he just knew he was going to leave not touch any of those people not take any of them with him unless they really wanted to come and start this new church he didn't know where they were going to meet they didn't have a space they didn't have a building and he prayed he said God where are we going to meet what are we going to do and the Lord one morning spoke to him and said mcken and phell man he wrote it down mckin and phell it's like okay okay he started getting excited he went to mcken Avenue he didn't think it was mcken the city up north he went to mckenny Avenue he drove from one end to the other looking for Ferell Street couldn't find Ferell Street went back got a map SC this is before the days of GPS look at the map couldn't find a feral Street intersecting mcken thought God I thought I heard you I thought it was so clear how did I miss you and God didn't say much and he thought okay I'll I'll keep it in mind maybe you'll speak when you're ready two or three days later he was back on mcken Avenue he thought okay I'm going to give it a try I was looking for feral Street I just assumed all God said was McKenna and Pharell so he thought I'm gonna look for anything that has pheral I'm gonna look for buildings I'm gonna look for signs I'm gonna look for trucks I'm gonna look for anything that says Pharell and he driven up mcken Avenue only had two or three more blocks to go before he got to the end again he thought now God I really need some help and he was looking at a building he'd never noticed before it was a multistory building he's looking at building God says go in there another clue in faith he Parks his car he gets up he walks in this building he'd never been in before and he looks at the directory and he sees feral Financial Associates on the Marquee and he thought okay I'm going he gets on the elevator when the elevator started going up his courage started going down he thought oh man God really this I'm kind of new to this kind of thing you really want me just walk in there not KN what I'm going to say and it's like God said hey follow me trust me have faith so he got his courage up he walked in this place it was a glass door he turned the knob he stepped in a secretary came around the corner very gracious and said can I help you sir and he said well I hope so and they started a little conversation and she said Mr frell is out of the office for all the rest of the day but I'd be happy to schedule an appointment and they scheduled something a couple days later so he comes back now he's got McKenna Street he's got frell the man he walks in he meets this guy they have a conversation and after about five minutes Mr frell says to him well Dr Wallace tell me what brings you here today and he said well I'm a Christian I pray to God a lot every day and I talk to him and sometimes he talks back to me and I felt like he told me that somehow you were supposed to be part of this new church that we're going to start and Mr F looked at him and he looked back and Mr fil kept looking at him he didn't say anything he just looked at it and it got uncomfortable John will start sweat a little bit finally this big smile comes over his face and he said I gave my life to Jesus many years ago and I've taken some huge risk with him and he's never ever let me down this is a financial office we're not a real estate company I don't think there's anything in this building that would be good for a church to meet in but I've got a friend who's got a building just up the street he's been trying to rent and he can't figure out why nobody's rent The Price is Right In fact he's discounted it several times it's really low for the neighborhood it's got a big parking a lot it'd be great for a church let me give you his contact information and he's a strong believer John called him met him ended up renting his building and I had some of the best experiences with God in my life in that building back in the mid90s amazing things were happening there it was phenomenal we're talking about faith again today and most of us have faith all the time every day we have faith that the car is going to start when we turn the key we have faith we're going to go to the fridge there's going to be food but I want to start talking as we go through this that your faith will get a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and you'll start living life like some of these people we talk about in the scriptures big Faith audacious space that you'll have audacity to pray Supernatural prayers that you'll ask for God for things you've never asked for before he may say no sometimes but we're going to talk about how you can align yourself with his purposes and then ask him for the really big stuff and there's a very very good chance if it's part of his purposes you'll be the person that helps bring it into existence so let's review a little bit from last week in Hebrews chapter 11 starting in verse one it gives us a nice definition of Faith Hebrews 11:1 now Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of Things Not Seen for by the people of old received their Commendation stop there for a minute the people of old received their Commendation from God by faith would you like God to reward you would you like him to commend you would you like for him to say Well done good and faithful service servants this is going to come by faith this is how it came throughout the Old Testament all these people we read about that did amazing things it came by faith verse three by faith we understand that the Universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as righteous verse five by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him we come to verse six and without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him by faith Noah being warned by God concerning events as not yet seen in reverent fear constructed an art for the saving of his household and it goes on and on and on and on by faith then we're going to jump over to the other end of the this paragraph and we're going to start looking in about 33 all these things big things that were done by faith through faith they conquered kingdoms enforced Justice obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the power of fire escaped the edge of the sword were made strong out of weakness became Mighty in war put foreign armies to flight big things happened because of faith and most of these people were at best Common People regular people normal people some of them were less than that some of them were murderers and adulterers and they done all kinds of bad things and God still used them because they had faith God will use you and the more faith you have the more he will use you if you enjoy adventures with God faith is the ticket to make that happen now this is a quick review last week we talked about how to have faith let me tell you we go back to Matthew 929 Jesus said according to your faith be it unto you so your life experience is a product of your faith if you don't like where your life is change your faith how do you change your faith you change your beliefs how do you change your beliefs you change your thoughts imagine a pyramid that has four different levels on that bottom level you have the thoughts you think again and again and again the average person thinks 60 to 80,000 thoughts a day are you familiar with the talk that's going on in your head the thoughts that just keep popping up and popping up and popping up and popping up a lot of people say things and I'm guilty of this like I don't have enough I don't have enough time I don't have enough energy I don't have enough resources I don't have enough I don't have enough I don't have enough if you think that again and again guess what you're G to believe that the thoughts you think again and again and again whether they're true or not true will become your beliefs about yourself about God about life about faith about whatever put all of your beliefs together and you'll have your faith think about that we're sitting in an Episcopal church across the streets a charismatic church they have different faiths because they have different beliefs you think about the Baptist and the Methodist they agree on most things but they disagree on things like baptism the modality of it the timing of it things like that so you put all different beliefs together and there you have your faith and as Jesus said according to your faith that's the third level be it unto you there is your experience you want to change your experience go all the way back to your thoughts and think differently today we're going to go for New scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and four when I'm getting ready for messages I usually take lots of notes I study scriptures I study the commentaries I just put stuff down I write it illustrations all kind kind of stuff then I started arranging it on my desktop and I just have a knack for seeing acrostics and acronyms and I ended up with a tub of BS that would help you remember today's message and you thinking what where's he going today what's the matter with him and I think about just the letters tub we're going to be looking at three things there turn to Jesus we're going to be looking at Faith leads to understanding most people think I have to understand to have faith but your understanding will come from your faith we'll look at the scriptures there so we turn to Jesus and we understand by faith and then we become transformed we will be being transformed by the that and then we believe and speak and there is your BS there's your tub of BS believe and speak we're going to talk about practically how you can use these things in your life and it will make things happen so we go to First 2 Corinthians chapter 3 vers 14 through 16 but their minds were hardened their mind were blinded for to this day when they read the old Covenant the same Veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is the veil taken away yes to this day whenever Moses is read a veil Lies over their hearts it's talking about the people who did not receive Jesus as the Messiah verse 16 but when one turns to the Lord the Veil is removed what if Jesus became your default mode what if the veil was blocking your vision spiritually what if your eyes had been calloused and you just couldn't see the truth the veil is lifted when you turn to Jesus every time you turn to Jesus that Veil lifts because he is the way and the truth and the life so we have to learn to turn to him this is something we've talked about many times you you know me I'm I'm really kind of a kindergarten teacher because we're just learn to read and write new arithmetic the simple things but so many times God is saying turn to me look at me lift up your eyes lift up your heads lift up your faces lift up your countenances look at me look at me look at me and we're like no God I've got to look at economics I've got to look at politics I've got to look at what I don't don't like I've got to look at what hurts in my body I got to focus on all this stuff because it bothers me and I don't like it that's like going to a buffet that you pay $50 for for a nice meal and everything that you don't like you put on your plate and go back and sit down and try to swall it doesn't sound real intelligent or when your channel surfing and every time you come to something that's just disgusting or boring you stay there for a while uh-uh you don't do that when you go to fet pick and choose good things so you have the option you can think about whatever you want to but God is saying hey hey hey hey up here look at me look at me look at me fixing your eyes and eyes can be blinded eyes can be hardened eyes can de Callas you turn to him when you look up the veil lifts you start to see him and you go where you look I learned that in the Texas motorcycle safety training course I took years ago mom and dad would never let me have a motorcycle because my mother worked in surgery at Baylor hospital and they' bring in a patient 10 minutes later they bring in his leg she said the most memorable thing is they brought in two guys had' been on a motorcycle and they ran up on a truck that had rebar sticking out and they were Shish KOB and as soon as they brought them back to life and they were getting better and about to be discharged they said Doctor how soon can we ride our motorcycle again and she said Son you will never have a motorcycle if you live in this house so many years later I still didn't know how to ride a motorcycle so I went to the Texas motorcycle safety training school and learned a great theological lesson we had to ride between orange cones well a motorcycle that weighs 500 pounds is a little bit different from a bicycle that weighs 25 pounds big difference I took out a whole row of those orange cones and the instructor standing there at the end laughing at me and I think he was ready to get out of my way because he knew I was out of control and he walked up and he said hey this time don't look at the orange cones and I looked at him like you idiot and he knew exactly what I was thinking he said hey on a motorcycle you go where you look look at the space look at the center of the space between the comb aim at the empty space they also taught us when you're ride a motorcycle don't look at the ground because you will go there but he said look at the space between the cones went through it looking at the space it was strange I never done that before I was focused on what I did not want to run over the orange cone when I focused on what I wanted the open space boom there it was folks this is so important so we start we turn to Jesus and then once we've turned to him the veil has been lifted we start to understand but in Hebrews 113 we're going to go back to it by faith we understand pop test Time by what we understand faith we usually think we have to understand so that we can have faith but the scripture says by faith we understand that the Universe it's talking about something that's kind of still a mystery by faith we understand about the universe it was created by the word of God it was created the universe by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible so all of a sudden we're starting to realize and understand that invisible things make up the visible thing we've come a long way with science science I love it verifies scripture again and again and again I've just enjoyed that so much and I've lived in a time where science has been booming we've had so much new discovery quantum physics has helped my faith probably more than five years of Sunday school because I'm one those guys want to understand things how does that happen how does something visible come from something that's invisible and you know that this wonderful red stool that seems to be solid matter at the microscopic level at the atomic level at the molecular level is 99.999% empty space and that part that's not empty space is made up of subatomic particles that tend to flash in and out of existence and little things called quarts that make up Atomic Parable particles those little quarts have the properties of particles and they have the properties of waves and human attention like a scientist looking at this stuff under electron microscopes by just looking it collapses the wave that is everywhere and nowhere and boom particle form so these little invisible things are visible invisible visible invisible and what if this was a big answer to my question what if God already put anything in everything that could possibly ever be here now in invisible wave form and human attention collapses those waves and boom it manifests this this is science the Bible says this in thousands of years ago God has always been ahead of science science is built on error look at any scientific discovery and count how many thousands of experiments were wrong before they finally found one that was right and work the Bible is truth from the beginning and it changes not so this is what faith is about is believing God who can make the invisible visible and this is how we understand by faith we understand we we've been kind of TR trained in condition that we have to understand before we can believe God says trust me and I will give you you the understanding and things will begin to happen there it'll make a big difference so we turn to him he lifts the veil we begin to understand what he's up to and then we start being transformed so this is one of those places where we are we pick up in verse 17 of Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit we are transformed when we Behold Him you become what you behold some of you I'm so grateful for crowds that are closer to my age I'm probably the oldest guy in the room but still you think about that there used to be something called The Ed Sullivan Show and one of my favorite episodes was they had people who looked like their dogs and they did they had people and they had men and women women and they brought their dogs on and they had started to look like their dogs why because they probably were beholding their dogs more than ever or maybe the dogs started to look more like the people because they were always looking so this is just kind of how it happens we become what we behold we're transformed so we turn the veil is lifted we understand and he transforms us again and again and again Glory to glory to glory by observing the lord well how do you behold the Lord that's a loaded question he's invisible most of the time he may appear in your imagination he may appear to you in a vision he may speak to you you may look at a gorgeous sunset and behold his glory manifested the Earth you may be looking into a face of a person who loves you and cares about you and is doing everything in their power to help you with something that's really important to you there's so many ways just about anything good in this world you can behold God in so we learn to do this and this increases our faith then we get to some strange verses of scripture in chapter 4 chapter 4 verse 13 since we have the same Spirit of Faith H did you know there is a spirit of Faith since we have the same Spirit of Faith according to what has been written I believed and so I spoke we also believe and so we also speak knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence I believed and so I spoke this is tricky stuff the name it claimant people get a bad rap and in some situations God's people named it and claimed it they had to believe it and they had to speak it let me go back to last week we talked about Romans 8:28 which is often misquoted or partially quoted which Alters the meaning altoe and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good whoy goody goody all things work together for the good well sometimes sometimes they don't you got to read the rest of that verse and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes his purposes okay last week we talked about Romans 122 do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can test and approve God's will his good pleasing and perfect will well God's Will and God's purposes are pretty much the same so how do you get to know what they are you renew your mind you stop thinking the thoughts of the world and start thinking the thoughts of God you stop looking at all the stuff down here and you start shifting your focus to Jesus and you turn to him as your default mode when something knocks you out of your love and your joy and your peace and your gratitude and you s soon as you realize it default of Jesus and the reason you lost your love your joy your peace and your gratitude is because you're looking at all these things and it steals your joy it just takes it all away from you so default back to Jesus turn to him understand by faith what God is doing get back to his purposes you've got the purposes of God but then people have passions people have plans people have preferences let me tell you my plans often overrule God you know a lot of times if I have a plan and I've got a schedule and it's on my calendar and it's part of my agenda I'm G to make it happen and if God sends somebody that needs me to minister to and it doesn't fit in the schedule I've just said no well we've got God's purposes and we've got my plans and passions and preferences if you don't know what God's purposes are you can't align your passions and your preferences and your plans with his and if these are not aligned with his purposes you're on your own but if these do align with the purposes of God that's when you can start believing and speaking and things will happen in Isaiah 55 starting in verse 10 and 11 there's something that I think is very powerful that has to do with believing and speaking and the purposes of God it says just as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens watering the Earth causing it to Bud and flourish providing seed for the S and bread for the eater so it is with my word that comes out of my mouth it will not return to me without accomplishing my purposes so his word coming out of his mouth always accomplish his his purposes King James says it never returns turns void it's the word of God is living and active so now we got to ask what is the word of God ultimately Jesus Jesus is the word of God in John in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us this is God's word now back to Isaiah 55 11 and 12 or 10 and 11 when you go back to that when God's word comes out of God's mouth you are God's mouth you were purchased for a price God owns you your body is his property Therefore your hands are his hands your feet are his feet your mouth is his mouth and when God's words be it Jesus speaking through you are the written word of God about the only time I say thus say the Lords when I'm quoting scripture the rest of the time it's like I think the Lord's saying this I had a sense but I gotta hold it all up to scripture which separates the word of God divides Soul and Spirit so you know whether this is my soul my thoughts my feelings my will my emotions or is it God that Spirit or is it the devil that Spirit that's why the word of God is living and active sharper than a double-edged sword penetrating dividing bone and Marrow Soul and Spirit so you can know and we look at this and then there's the word of God that God gives somebody Revelation and they speak it when we do prophetic ministry here I hope and pray that it's accurate knowing 1 Corinthians 13 we know in part and we prophesy in part I know I'm not going to get it all all the time and sometimes I'm playing raw sometimes I did not properly divide Soul and Spirit and it's just wishful thinking because I love you I like you and you're my friend and sometimes it's from the Lord and sometimes it's a mix of the two but we try and it's always to strengthen to comfort to encourage and build you up so when the word of God comes out of his mouth things change things shift Jesus who is God was impressed with faith now think about this God's love for you does not change he has loved you with all the love he has and his promise that he always will it's like do you remember the first time you held a baby and you held that we little baby in your hands and you loved it so much you thought I didn't know I could love anything as much as I love this little baby you know when you think about that little baby about the only thing it does is pretty disgusting and Despicable that's what babies do that's why you have to change them all the time they wake you up in the middle of the night they do foul things with them but you still love them your love doesn't change based on their behavior we're God's babies his love does not change based on our Behavior but if you want to impress God if you want to be commended by God faith is the thing that's going to do it remember how Jesus was so impressed with the syrop phenician woman who just argued with him and just wouldn't take no for an answer and he was so impressed that she had the faith to just keep coming back until she got what she believed she should have and there was the Centurion Jesus said I haven't seen greater Faith than anybody than this person Jesus offered to go his house he said you don't have to go to my house I understand author just say the word and my servant will be healed Jesus was impressed with his faith Mary had the faith to bust an alabaster jar full of pinoid that cost a full Year's wages and anointed him he said what she has done will be remembered forever God was impressed with faith so if you want to impress God get your faith working get your faith going big big things will happen for you when you do that it's going to make a huge huge difference some of you are probably wondering why I played Hallelujah in a Spanish version I read a story this week and there was a lady a grandmother named Evangelina and she had three children and they all had grandchildren and Evangelina was in her early 70s it was a Labor Day her husband already got up he wanted to go eat breakfast somewhere they knew all the kids were coming over that afternoon celebrate lever day together the whole family was going to be on the way they had plenty of do he said hey honey you want to got eat breakfast with me and she said yeah yeah let me put some clothes on while she was getting dressed she had a heart attack he called the ambulance ambulance came to picked her up by the time the ambulance picking up one of her daughters had driven by just to pick something up and saw the ambulance so their dad and daughter are freaking out because mom's going to the hospital they get her to the hospital and she dies the doctor fills out the death certificate and puts the time of death on it 30 minutes later she's still hooked up to the respirator she's still hooked up to the thing that shows she has no brain waves whatsoever 30 minutes later she's as white as the sheet she's just blending in with the bed and she's dead and cold and gone and the fam's gathered around and they're so concerned they don't know what they're going to do they don't want to part with her and one of the granddaughters comes in and the granddaughters were talking about how much they fun they had had when they went to hear ill devvo it's the band that you heard singing Allelujah it's a quartet and how much grandmother enjoyed this band that the kids wanted to see and how much she loved that song Hallelujah one of the grandchildren took her cell phone pulled up the video of them singing that song laid it on her pillow next to her ear a toe moved they ran they got a nurse from the nursing station she came in said oh this the doctor's already pronounced for dead 28 29 30 minutes AG go that's just a reflex it'll go away she's look at the look at the machines she's Flatline she's not thinking she's not alive she's not with us the respirator is still doing that and they just beg would you get a doctor please just get the doctor the doctor who had signed the death comes back 30 minutes later this lady's still dead and They begged and plea to do something for her and he just picked up her wrist and acted like he was checking her pulse and there was a very faint pulse now the child has taken her phone playing Allelujah the doctor's checking for a PSE this lady's laying in bed with this playing in her ear this song that meant so much to her that she had such good times with her granddaughters and her eyes move and the doctor said something is going on here and she came back to life so the doctor said what he had to say she's been with without blood supply for the last 30 minutes she's going to she's just not ever going to be able to communicate you with again uh she may never regain any kind of Consciousness but you can keep her alive on machines if you want to by the end of the day she was fully recovered and left and went home that's Faith the child with an electronic telephone believed and spoke Hallelujah they praised God they worshiped God they just thought about God and Grandma came back and she had a wonderful wonderful story to tell about what she had seen while she was in heaven while she was gone but God sent her back you can do this kind of thing with faith this again and again and again it's important to believe believe and speak David as a young boy going up against the Giant Goliath he believed God was going to give him the victory that day and he said to that giant this day I'm gonna feed you to the birds of the air there was a lady with an issue of blood for 12 years who had exhausted all of her resources had suffered great harm at the hands of many Physicians and still had the issue of blood and she said in one of the gospels if I touch the Hemm of His Garment I will be healed this is not name it and claim it unless it ties into the purposes of God you can name it and claim it all day long for your passions and for your preferences and for your plans and you may or may not get it but if it's the purposes of God that's when as in Isaiah 5511 you speak you the voice of God the mouth of God speaking the word of God and it will come to pass what did God say everything was created by his word it was the word of God he spoke the word and the universe was created in the tongue is the power of life and death the tongue is like the rudder of the ship it's like the Bridal in the horse mouth those tiny little things a Rudder or Bridal control a massive gigantic ship in a huge powerful horse with such a small device this is the device that controls where you go so if you believe and speak the word of God it will fulfill God's purposes God has stated one of his purposes is that all of your needs be met another purpose of God is that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you so find the scriptures that help you know the purposes of God and believe them and speak them always turning to Christ because he lifts the veil understanding because you have faith understanding follows your faith and being transformed as you continue to Behold Him then you believe and speak in things do start to happen according to the purposes of God I'll wrap it up with this Pastor David Hess had acute myoy leukemia and he was about to die and they gave him massive doses of chemotherapy and strangely enough it worked and he live to tell about it and the last oncologist had finished his last run of chemotherapy and said I think we got it all I think you're cancer free we're going to have to check you every six months you got to take it real easy because you have no immune system left you have very few white blood seds we you you don't have platelets we're gonna have to build put you back together because chemo itself nearly killed you but it got the cancer the family celebrated his wife and kids went home it' been a long day this was well-received news and after they had left the hospital his appendix exploded they call the family back in he said listen this is bad we cannot do surgery his blood will not coagulate if we slice on him he will bleed out just from the surgery we can't do it and there's so many toxins in that appendix that has exploded he cannot have surgery and we don't see how in his weaken condition he could possibly fight it off people from his church came they prayed they said nice things to the family but at the end of the day only one person from his congregation and she was kind of the the one that was a little bit different from everybody she had audacious faith is amazing she had the audacity to believe God for miracles and she came in and said pastor I don't know where it is it's somewhere in the Bible maybe it's in one of the hyms I I don't know who said it but the Lord just keeps telling me he is going to surround you and shield you and protect you and the pastor thought about it said yeah that's from Psalms that's what David said the Lord is your Shield he surrounds you and protect you and that's all he really had to hang on her name was Franny and she just believed God she heard from God she shared that well he went from bad to worse and every morning when he would wake up and he'd see those water spotted ceiling tiles he didn't think there were any of those in heaven so he knew he was still alive in this earth and he wanted to see his daughter graduating he wanted to cheer his kids own in football his sons and he wanted to stay but he was in bad shape about the second or third day Franny came by reminded him that the Lord is a shield and he's surrounding you and protecting you and something shifted he started getting better after a week the social worker came in said they're sending you home tomorrow but you're gon to have to come back two or three times a week for more blood work because we got to keep an eye on you six weeks later his blood count was good his plate oats were back he was doing better and he was healthy enough to have surgery they came in and said we're going to do some exploratory surgery Pastor because we don't know how or why you're alive today this defies Medical Science you should have died days ago because of your exploded appendix and all the toxins that would be released into your system and they put a tube in trying to drain the toxins away from his appendix and uh but still they knew they didn't get it all they couldn't understand so he said we're going to do some exploratory surgery and see if we can get the appendix out without making too much more toxic after the surgery the next day the surgeon came by and he had some five by seven glossy color photographs and he handed them to Pastor David and said do you know what that is and he said they look like blobs to me and the surgeon said how many surgeries have you had before this one for your appendix he said the only surgery I ever had was for my tonsil he said I've been talking to professors and other Physicians we can't figure you out these photographs are photographs of pieces of your exploded appendix that have been surrounded by Scar Tissue it's the kind of scar tissue it's the strongest Scar Tissue the body forms and it usually comes from people having surgeries and under a microscope it looks like a whole bunch of little Shields have been lined up to create this bag around the pieces of your intestine that has isolated has kept the toxins from going into the rest of your body and has preserved your life and he remembered the words of Franny the Lord is going to Shield you and Surround you and protect you and he surrounded these pieces of appendix with scar tissue and he fully covered and went back as church with a whole new kind of faith when you experience God your faith grows when you go through hard times and you get to the place like he had he had nothing left except prayer your faith grows some of you are in some tough dicey times the Lord has surrounded you he is a shield he's protecting you because he's growing your faith so it'll be stronger and stronger and bigger and better for all the rest of Eternity [Music] w [Music]