All right, good morning. We're
glad that you're here today with us to worship him. God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross. All right, this one's kind of
corny. I heard about a retired gentleman who bought a red Corvette. He was traveling down a stretch
of highway. Actually, he was speeding. Speed
limit was 55 and he was doing around 80. A state trooper pulled
up behind him, put the siren on and flashers on, and instead
of stopping, the man put the metal to the pedal and got up
to 100 miles an hour. And he realized just how crazy
what he was doing. He pulled over, and the state
trooper came up to the car and said, hey, Where are you going
in such a hurry? The man apologized and he said,
I really don't know what got into me, he said. The trooper
said, I'll tell you what. It's 4.30. I get off at 5 o'clock. If you can tell me why you took
off like that, and it's the most original thing that I have ever
heard. It's really the most original
excuse that anyone's made to me. I won't give you a ticket,
and I'll let you go. The man said, well, 10 years
ago, my wife ran off with a state trooper, and I thought you were
bringing her back. All right. All right, Psalm 139. I probably shouldn't have told
that just before I preached. Psalm 139, I hope you enjoyed
the reading of God's word today, the hearing of God's word. Psalm
139 is such a wonderful, wonderful psalm. Boy, I could have spent,
we could have spent hours on this psalm, but I want you to
think today with me on verse 17. And here's what it says. How
precious also are thy thoughts unto me. How precious are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. And even when I awake, I am still
with thee. What a comfort it is to the little
believer to know he has a personal God. A personal God. A personal God to confide in. One who condescends to think
lovingly of us, one who considers our needs and supplies them,
a personal God. Is it not comforting to you to
have a personal God, one that you can talk to? I hear a lot
of talk and have over 50 years of ministry about an abstract
deity. or in what some people call the
laws of nature. I pity you. If you're here today
and there are some very intelligent people that I've talked to who
have one God, the laws of nature, there's really nobody in charge.
You don't have a personal God. You're kind of acting by yourself
apart from God. You know, man does his best to
get away from the thought of one true personal God. Man in his depraved nature. I
think about it this way, and I find great solace in this,
that my God is creator God. He is preserver God. He is redeemer
God. He is the all in all to his people. Those of us who have this personal
God, We know him as Lord and Savior and Redeemer. And we have such fond personal
descriptions of him. Think about those who deny the
inspired record of creation. They have us to believe that
we descended from monkeys. And quite honestly, I've met
a few people that I thought maybe that could be. Just kidding. Descended from
monkeys are from something with even less intelligence than an
ape possesses. If it were true, there certainly
is no comfort in it. You find any comfort in evolution? I don't. But when I come back
to the revelation of the Bible concerning a personal God, a
revelation which has been confirmed by my own experience. See, I'm
not talking from a lack of experience. I have experienced this personal
God. He is my God. And when I realize
that this personal God takes a special interest in me, Think
about it. And thanks of me with tender,
loving, gracious consideration. How awesome is that? When I think about that, I lift
my hands like David did his in adoring wonder and say with David,
how precious are your thoughts toward me, oh God. They're more
than can be numbered. I know today, as with me also,
converted when I was eight years old, I still have not reached
the depth after 50 years of ministering in considering this. He knows
all about me. He knows all about you. This
is a delight to me that this God thinks about me. and plans
everything that is for present time and for eternity. Now you
may not like the word predestination, but you can love this, that it's
all been mapped out for you. That it's been planned for you,
that it's been purposed for you. He knows the words that you're
going to speak, David said, before you speak them. He knows what
you're going to say before you say it. He knows the thoughts
that will travel through your head. God knows. And he judges what is best to
do for us, not merely for an hour or a week or a month or
even for a whole life here below, but he puts eternity into the
scales and orders all things well for the everlasting ages. Oh, you can't get your mind around
that, and I tried to this week, too. Not only why David said,
before I was formed in my mother's belly, before the parts ever
came together. You knew all about the parts.
You put the parts together. David said, I'm fearfully and
wonderfully made. Think about it, God. You are
not an accident. Let me say it again, you are
not an accident. And you know, if you feel like
you are, I feel for you. God's got it all mapped out from
everlasting to everlasting. Now think about this. Think about
all the thoughts that God must have. He must be a big God. I can't even remember all my
sins. How about you? Thank God I can't remember them.
And thank God he can't remember them either. Yeah. David begins to contemplate God's
thoughts. And he says, and I think gives
consideration to this when you read the whole psalm, that God
is omniscient. That he's not only knows everything,
but he's everywhere present. He's an omniscient God. And then
David begins to speak of how God's eye has always rested upon
us. He said, well, I don't know about
that. Read your Bible. You know, many of the things
that we reject are a tremendous source of comfort that God has
known all about us. And his love has been resting
upon us from eternity past and will rest upon us through eternity
future. That now God reads our most secret
thoughts and that our unspoken words are all known to him. And by the way, when David says
all this, if you read that 139 Psalm, David is not saying, oh
God, I wish you didn't. Have you had a few thoughts that
have been a little off center in your life? God knew all about
those. Hey, listen, have you ever done
something so evil to someone who trusted you, someone who
was close to you, and you got that in your head and they don't
know about it? They haven't found out about
it. I mean, it's been years and years and years since that thing
happened. They don't know about it. Let
me tell you this. God knows every traitorous act that you would
ever commit. God knows everything you have
ever done. He still loves you. You know, I'm glad I have no
secrets. David said, God has searched me. He knows all about
me. So really, you may not, and you do not know all about me,
and I don't know all about you, and that's probably a good thing.
But God knows all about us, so you don't have to be fretting
that God's going to be shocked by something you've said or done. Amen. I know I'm over my head today. You know, I know some of you
are sitting here and you're without Christ, not a believer. And the
fact that God is everywhere is pretty scary to you. I rejoice in that fact that God
is everywhere. Thou God seest me, David said. And there's nothing melancholy
about that. You mean God? God saw David in
bed with Bathsheba. That's right. You mean God saw
his thoughts and knew his thoughts before he committed? That's right.
And God loved David no less after he was in bed with that beautiful
woman than he did before. Boy, it's getting quiet in here
now. Sounds like pastor, you're just kind of whitewashing our
sins and no, not at all. I'm just saying you're saved
by grace and God knew all about your dirt. And that makes it
even gooder that God knew all about your dirt and knows all
about your dirt and dirt you haven't even committed yet. Because
if you live another day, another hour, there'll be some dirt. And yet he's never left you nor
forsaken you. To those of you who are without
Christ and don't know the gospel, that's a very scary thing, that
God sees you. There is nothing that causes
us to be despondent or makes us feel gloomy in this 139th
Psalm. When you read this Psalm, don't
get down. David's not melancholy. He's not down. He's rejoicing. Only believers can do that because
we understand that Jesus paid it all and that salvation is
by grace. And God's knowledge and his existence
with us compasses our path, our lying down and our getting up. When you go to sleep, not even
conscious God's there. David said, when I wake up, you're
still there. and I'm still with you. Well, what if you have a
bad dream? I'm still there, God says. Oh,
I know some of you don't have bad dreams, do you? You never
dreamed any sin, did you? How come some of you are looking
at me like this? Because I'm telling the truth
and you know it, but you're rejoicing because you know the gospel. Actually, as we grow in grace
and come to realize that we're fully reconciled to God and love
Him and rejoice in Him, it causes joy to reflect that our best
friend is never away from us. You can't drive God away from
you. I know you blew it, I know you messed up, but God will never
leave you. We used to sing the old hymn,
Never Alone. He promised never to leave me alone. What a glorious thought that
is, that the protector's hand is never removed, that the great
observant eye of divine love is never closed. When you have
messed up to the hilt, God never goes like, oh! He never goes
like that. He sees it all. I know what this
message and this word is doing if you're a Christian, it's tenderizing
your heart. You're thinking, oh my God, you
saw it. I did it and you still love me. How great thou art. How great thou art. I was thinking in my study, let
the day be blotted off the calendar when God is not near. I don't
want there to be such a day when God is not near. What a joy to
know that even when we are not seeking him, yet he's still above
and David says he's above us and beneath us and all around
us. He's never far from any one of
us. Even when you're in the crack
house. As a believer, God's there with you, even when you've messed
up to the hilt. If you are a child of God, believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, He's there. What do you think this
means? And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Yeah, but what if, what if, what
if what? God already knows what you're
going to do. God took out his big telescope
before the foundation of the world, looked down through the
ages of time, trying to find a good man, couldn't find a single
one. Not a one. Said there's none
good, no not one. God already knows what you're
going to do. Amen. Some of you should have
been here Wednesday night. You'd understand what I'm talking
about. You'd get the big picture. The big picture is that God does
not save you and then leave you. That all things, think about
that. God must be always thinking because
all things work together for your good. Do you know how much
planning God does for you? In order to make all things work
out, For your good and his glory.
He's got to be constantly thinking about you, little rattlesnake.
That's what we are. Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love.
But he said, a mother may forsake her suckling child, but I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. God's there in the worst of times. This is not a subject of dread
unless you're not a believer. Now, if you're not a believer
in God and a believer in Christ and you don't believe the Bible
and you don't believe creation, you got a big problem if there's
a God. And there is. But to us, the
Apostle Paul said, and we joy in God. We don't say, I wish
there wasn't a God. This is not a dreadful thing. We're glad there's a God and
we're glad he's big and we're glad he's sovereign. Let me just give you some real
simple things now. That God would even think of
you. You ever had people say this?
I'll be thinking of you. Usually that doesn't mean a whole
lot. I'm thinking about you. Yeah, and they may have some
horrid thoughts too. You know, people are such hypocrites.
I'll be thinking about you. And they walk away and think,
what an idiot. They're never going to make it.
But think about this, that almighty God is thinking about you and have
thoughts and plans for you that are good and not evil. Amen, you can clap. Boy, how
precious that is. You know, I know that every little
believer here says something like this, who me? You mean he's
singing about me? I know I sang Jesus loves me,
this I know for the Bible tells me so. I sang that in Sunday
school, but you know, I've gone a long ways. I've done a lot
of stuff. Yeah, but God. You see, if you
see God as an officer of justice, in other words, you're sitting
here and you're under legalism, all you've heard all your life
is, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. And if you do, God's going
to get you. He's a booger bear. You've got to be perfect. You've
got to do this. You've got to do that. If you're
under law, you see God as some judicial officer who's out to
get you. He's got a warrant for your arrest. When you see God as the one who
so loved you that he gave his only begotten son in your room,
stand, and place, and satisfied his justice on the tree of the
cross, there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
There is no judgment. I will never appear before God
as my judge in the sense of condemnation because Jesus paid it all. He
finished the work. He reconciled me to himself in
the death of his own son. And not only that, but knowing
the gospel, I don't even carry around a consciousness of guilt.
You know, one of the things I've learned to do and grown in grace
enough where, yeah, did I do it? Yep, but I'm not gonna carry
it around because I know Jesus paid for it. Well, if you didn't
believe that once saved, always saved and Jesus paid all your
sin debt and it's all fixed and you just live like hell and still
go to heaven. Let me tell you something. Somebody said, you
know, Pastor Clark preaches, you can live as you please and
still go to heaven. I wanna tell you this, I'm pleased
to be here. I'm pleased to bow my head in
prayer. I'm pleased when I read the Bible. I'm excited. You know,
I couldn't wait to get here today. I live my life as I please. You
know what I hate? I hate every evil way that's
in me. I hate it when I mess up. Because greater is he that's
in me than he that's in the world. I have a new nature. I've been
born of the spirit of God. I hate every evil way. But I'm
not going to carry around condemnation. Because God's already thought
about me. God never has begun to think about me, nor will he
ever stop thinking about me. This is limitless. And so we
cry out, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within
me, bless his holy name, thinking about you. When you leave here
today, knowing Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, leave here thinking
that his thoughts are toward me. And yes, he has predetermined. Yes, he has. Are you accountable
and responsible? Is the man who got drunk and
died on the porch here in Pontiac accountable and responsible?
But could he have known the Lord and died and went to heaven?
Absolutely! Because salvation is not by works
and it's not by doing good. It's by the precious blood of
Jesus Christ. I was thinking too, okay, you're
thinking about me, I know a lot of people that think about me,
but is there any practical help? You know, think about this. I know you've had people say,
I'm thinking about you, but there's no real practical help in their
thoughts. In other words, they say, I'm
thinking about you, but as the week goes on, as the days go
on, there's no practical help that comes your way. But what
if you had a rich friend who had promised to find you a position
and to provide for you as long as you live? Well, I'm telling
you, Christian, you have a rich friend who has promised to provide
for you as long as you live. And what a great comfort that
is, that God is constantly thinking about you, drunk or sober. Listen,
I thought about speaking on one of these days. I might get up
enough nerve to do this Speaking on this subject you could have
been in the Bible You could have been in the Bible have you ever
committed adultery? Well, you could have been in
the Bible Have you ever got drunk? Well, you could have been in
the Bible Just think about all the people
in the Bible and You know, I was thinking this
week about the woman at the well. You know, she'd had five husbands,
and Jesus, back over in the Gospel of John, says this to the disciples,
I must need to go through Samaria. And the disciples go like this.
Lord, you've probably been a little too busy and your planning's
not the best. Don't you know that's out of your way? He said,
I gotta go through some area. Yeah, but they don't like us
in some area. That's all right, I gotta go through some area.
So they start on their journey and they get to Jacob's well.
And Jesus said, now you guys go on into town, go to McDonald's,
I got an appointment here at the well. That's my translation.
So he sends the disciples away because they're not ready for
what he's about to do. And here comes the harlot and
she's gonna draw some water. And Jesus goes like this, you
know, if you knew the water I had, you'd ask of me and I'd give
you water and you would never thirst again. Huh? He hadn't fully got her attention
yet. So he says, go get your husband. Uh-oh, now we got a
problem. Now this thing is starting to
be broken down. I've already had five. And Jesus
said, the one you're sleeping with now is not your husband.
Uh-oh, we got a sinner here. But we've got a sinner with a
divine appointment. Jesus had already thought about
her. You think about the Syrophoenician
woman. She, like a little puppy dog,
nipped at the heels of Jesus saying, well, son of David, have
mercy. And the disciples said, send
her away. She kept begging. Lord, have
mercy. And finally, he turned to her
and said, You are a Gentile dog. Why should I give bread to a
dog like you? And then she said this, I am
a dog, but the puppies get the crumbs that fall from the master's
table. And Jesus said, I've never seen
faith like this before. All that was purposed and planned.
Or Phillips up in a great revival. And the Spirit of God goes up
there and says, go down into a deserted place in the desert. And lo and behold, here comes
a Ethiopian man, a black man riding in a chariot, reading
Isaiah 53. Now, do you think that was an
accident or a hookup? That was a hookup. Jesus hooks
us up. God's thoughts are toward us. But let me tell you this, you
as a child of God, there is no need for you to be a failure.
He'll cross your path with people who will help you and make you
successful and encourage you because he has plans for you.
His thoughts are constantly toward you. Isn't that a comfort? And he's at work. in you and
that he's constantly thinking about you. Some of you, your
minds are racing right now and you're thinking about you too,
but you're not thinking about him. You're thinking about all
the stuff you've done. You're thinking about, pastor,
I just don't believe this could be for me. I just don't see how
God, after all my mess, God knew all about your mess before he
chose you. Now that's another thing, what
about, I don't see how he could, listen, you gotta quit thinking
on your level. We're not talking about how you
think. We're talking about God's thoughts toward you. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and in tender kindness have I drawn thee. Who said that? Almighty God.
I've always loved you, that's what he said in the book of Jeremiah.
Or how about this, before I formed you in your mother's belly, I
knew you were gonna be used, crack. Aren't you glad he did? Because if he didn't know about
it, how's he gonna pay for it? Somebody ought to be shouting
hallelujah in here. I mean, I'm gonna preach to myself. If you're
not with me, sometimes I just enjoy my preaching so much. Because it applies to me. Darren emailed me and said he
was going to, he said he was going to preach this morning
on worry and fretting. I said to him, oh, you're gonna
enjoy your message today. You know, most preachers preach
to themselves anyway. The problems they have, they
get up here and listen, you're no different than me and I'm
no different than you. I wanna know God's thinking of
me. He's thinking about what's best for me. Absolutely, he's
thinking what's best for you. What you require for today, what
you require for tomorrow, God's thinking about it. One of the
greatest passages, the shortest passage, of course, in the Bible
is this, Jesus wept. Does Jesus care? Absolutely,
Jesus cared. The Bible says he's touched with
the feelings of iron firmities. When you, as a child of God,
fail, mess up, relapse, Jesus is touched. Lord have mercy. We kept Hayden
and Caleb last night. Pray for me when that happens.
That's my grandkids. I'm exhausted. As soon as service
is over, I'm going home, going to bed. Caleb took a little tumble down
our steps. You know, not a bad one, but
Pam and I were both right there. He was crying. I thought about
God whose thoughts are always when we take a fall. Do you know
how confused you are? Do you ever think this? You know,
I'm about half. That's the end of the sentence.
I'm about half. That's the question. You ever think about that? I
am so confused. I'm about to have a breakdown.
What about those of you who grew up in such a dysfunctional family
that you can hardly get through life trying to figure out how
to live life? Do you know God's thinking about
you? Do you know God thought about you? God thought about
you when the abuse was taking place, and God purposed to bring
you to Grace Gospel Fellowship, Grace Center. Do you know whatever's
troubling you today, God brought you here this morning to hear
this message, to bless you, because God's thinking about you. He's thinking about how to bless
you, how to perfect you, how to glorify you. and his thoughts
always lead to action. And what that ought to cause
is this today, I want to get nearer to him. You know, some
of you sat in the back to get away from the fire. If you're
cold, you ought to come up closer. Come closer to the heat. The nearer we get to God, the
more we prize every crumb from our father's table. And we began
to say, God did that. God did that. And we're overcome
with his mercy and grace. You know, God brought you here.
And I don't care where you've been or what you've done or how
bad you are or how churchy you are. You know, not only does
God think of the crack addict, he thinks of the church addict.
Some of you have been dying in some of the churches that you're
in. No gospel, no thrill, no joy, just bare bone religion. You know, the Lord Jesus went
to one of the Jewish rituals, sometimes you ought to study
this, where there was tremendous ceremonies in these feasts. And
they had all kinds of water flowing through pipes and down onto the
altar. And they made a ceremony. 500
priests went to the well of Shalom and drew the water and brought
it back and did all this. And it had gone on for hours
and hours and hours. And Jesus stood up right at that
feast and goes like this, is anybody thirsty? Let him come
unto me and drink. You ever been in church and so
thirsty, I wish that preacher would say something. I wish there
was some joy in this place. I wish there was some happiness
in this place. I wish there was some blood in
this place, some gospel. Listen, I've preached some of
the greatest messages in my study all by myself. I get so excited
as I read the word of God. And you know, I've been in this
a long time, but the excitement is greater. I sat there last
night and I was thinking about all of the outgoings of the divine
mind. In other words, in and out. Those deep, eternal, infinite
thoughts. You think about how deep the
gospel is. I would say the gospel is the purpose of God. It is
the concentration of God. But then we add on to that all
of the redeemed of the Lord who have been saved and how He's
constantly thinking about them. That's pretty weighty stuff.
Infinite thoughts, which have already, think about this, 2,000
years ago, before you were ever born, Jesus Christ on the tree
of the cross saved you. You weren't even born, you weren't
around. Say, well, what do you mean he saved me? I've never
been saved. Oh, you've never been saved in experience. There
never has been a time and place. But I'm telling you, when he
said it's finished 2,000 years ago, it was finished and accomplished
and done. And then he sent the spirit of
God, God's bloodhound. Oh, where he had to go to sniff
you out. Of course, you were stinking
enough where he could get on your trail. He sniffed you out
of your lody bar, down in the hood, down in the mar, down in
the bar, down in the crack house, down using heroin, down in the
church house. Those of you who've been saved
out of church, you've been saved with a great salvation. Because
you are in a double darkness. You are not only in the darkness
of your depravity, but you are in church anity. Church anity
will kill your soul. and for God to draw you out of
there, turn you inside out and cause you to see yourself, and
for you to cry out, oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm
constrained to be. God's thoughts toward us, those
outgoings of the divine mind, how wonderful they are. What
do you think God has planned for you? What do you think God's
thoughts are for you the rest of the afternoon? With me, I
hope it's sleep. But what are God's thoughts toward you? That's
why, I can't wait till tomorrow. By the way, we made budget $1.2
million. Amen. God's thoughts. Somebody out of the clear blue
sky sent me a check for $3,000 and said, I want you to put this
toward working on that third floor up there where the boardroom
and offices are supposed to be this week. Some church sent $20,000
out of nowhere to us. A church in Mississippi sent
$5,000. You know, God had all that planned. God had all that purposed. God's everlasting thoughts. I
wish you could just venture in that just for a few minutes and
think about God's thinking about me right now. And it's not just
a few thoughts. He has multiple thoughts toward
you. I am struggling because how do you describe the mind
of God? You know, I am amazed. I'm a multitasker type person. ADD and WDD and HDD and PPD. I'm all of those. In other words,
I'm the type of guy that can be painting that wall and then
decide I don't want to paint the wall anymore. I want to go
plant a garden. I'm that kind of guy. Somebody said a few weeks
ago, you know, you're just all over the place. You know, you're
just all, yes. But think about God. Think about
God's thoughts. Think about what goes through
the eternal mind and how he's, you know, the sun came up even
though we can't see it today. You know, God's got a busy schedule.
You ever thought about that? The truth is God will still be
thinking lovingly of you when the sun and the moon and the
stars have fulfilled their mission. When the sun, moon, and stars
have all been forgotten, and when all things that men count
solid and lasting shall have been dissolved like a bubble
and passed away forever, God will still be thinking about
you. That's far out. His thoughts will always be directed
toward you. He will never forget you. There's
never a moment in your past when he did not think of you. Even
in your years of sin, he looked upon you with the eye of pity.
Are you depressed today? In your depression, in your depression,
I know there's people who attend here who struggle with depression. I did too at one time. When you're in that black hole
and you try to reach up and you can't see any light, it's just
dark inside of you, He's thinking about you. Isn't that good? Oh, I'm glad He's thinking about
me when I'm depressed. And your depression doesn't depress
Him. Somebody said, I hate to be around so-and-so and so-and-so
because they make me depressed. Well, I'll tell you, you've never
depressed God. God is not, God is a God of joy. He really is. He never thinks of you insistently. He's thinking of you consistently. It's never hit and miss with
you. You say, well, God's got so much to do. No, you have his
undivided attention 24 seven. Aren't you glad of that? Aren't you glad of that? And his thoughts are always thoughts
of love. You know, Ephesians 2 says, even
when you are dead, there's nothing beautiful about a corpse. Ephesians
2 says, even when you were dead in trespasses and sins, he loved
you. And you know what a dead in sins
and trespasses means, you were inactive toward God. There wasn't
a flicker, there wasn't a spark, there was nothing good about
you and God loved you. That's amazing grace. And Paul in Ephesians 2 writes
this, his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins. And you know what about God's
thoughts? They're always wise. Anybody in here ever had some
stupid thoughts? Had a few myself. God's thoughts
are always wise. They're wise thoughts in his
providential dealings with you. I know this. I was telling the
church Wednesday evening. By the way, we had a great time
here on Wednesday evening. I was telling the church about
two bankers that I met with this week, this past week, and just
to show you how God plans and purposes. These two bankers had
previous history with TCF Bank, but their bank had given us a
$500,000 grant for the Women and Children's Shelter, so they
come over to check us out, right? So, they told me about TCF Bank,
and I said, Do you know so-and-so and so-and-so that used to be
at TCF? Yeah, we do. We were young when we went to
TCF Bank, but we knew this guy. Well, some of you don't know
about the penny campaign, but probably, I don't know, we raised
$330,000 in pennies about 15 years ago. Well, I wrote a letter to the
20 largest banks explaining what we were doing because I had a
million pennies in my garage, or 12 million pennies in my garage.
I had 12 million pennies in my garage. At one time, pennies
came in so fast. So I wrote the 20 largest banks
in the United States offering to sell those pennies for two
and a half cents apiece. Well, a guy appeared two weeks
after he got the letter, appeared at the front door of the mission.
He would not come in. He was a banker. I didn't know he was
a banker. Security came, got me. And the
guy goes, did you write this letter? I said, yes, I did. I
said, is that the penny letter? He said, yes. I've been in banking
35 years. I've never got a letter like
this. I have a check here for $5,000. I don't want any of your
pennies. He gave us $5,000. So I said to these two, by the
way, we sold $12,000. Michigan National Bank bought
$7,000. And you ever had a Brinks truck come to your house? They
took all those pennies, and Michigan National Bank counted all 33
million of those pennies. That was years ago. And also
bought $7,000 of our pennies for 2 and 1⁄2 cents apiece. But anyway, so these — I'm talking
to these two bankers just a few days ago, and I said, did you
know so-and-so and so-and-so? Well, yes. You see how God crossed
the path? Fifteen years ago, or however
long it was, this guy comes to the front door of 35 East Huron
Street, and then fifteen years later, I meet two young men who
are both bankers who knows the old banker whose bank has just
given us money. So what I'm saying is God's gonna
hook you up. There are people gonna cross
your path. You got a dream, you got a vision, something you wanna
do, God will bring people into your life. God has ordained this. I don't know what you're doing
in a rescue mission, but God does if he saved you by his grace
and saved you from drugs, he's got a purpose for you there.
I thought about this last night too. There are times when God's
thoughts are particularly precious, especially in times when you've
been betrayed by somebody you love. You ever been betrayed
by somebody you love? There's no hurt like that. There's
just no hurt like that. But to know God's always thinking
about you, he'll never betray you. God is not a liar. He's always there. He's always
thinking about you. God is faithful. What about when
others don't esteem you? Has somebody run you down? Maybe
it's your parents. Maybe as a child, they never
said one thing good about you. Oh, you're never gonna amount
to anything. This is never gonna happen. That's never gonna happen.
You're so stupid. You know, God never thinks that
way about you. God's got plans for you. His
thoughts toward you are precious. You can do all things through
Christ that strengthens you. You ever had your actions and
maybe things that you've done misconstrued? And I'm gonna tell
you this. I'm gonna tell you this. I've
been here about 28, 29 years. Let's see, I've been accused
of sleeping with the girls. I've been accused of stealing
money. I've been accused of buying property to make me rich. I mean,
you ever have things like that thrown at you when your motive
is not that at all? Oh, he's just doing that for
himself. That's all this or that. Boy, it's nice when you know
God's thoughts toward you are always there. and how numerous are his thoughts?
Does he ever speak to you? I've got to finish this point
here. You know, it's a very special
thing when God speaks to us. I'm not talking about audibly,
I'm just talking about when you know it's God speaking. When
somebody as important as God speaks, you ought to listen,
right? And it's nice to be able to say,
I heard from the Lord. Pam and I were in Spain several
years ago and she went into a little shop and I was standing there
on a corner waiting for her to do her little shopping things
in there. And lo and behold, right around the corner comes
these black limousines and the Queen of Spain is in there. She came right past me and went
like this. I couldn't wait for Pam to get
out of there. When Pam got out of there, I said, you are never
going to guess who just hit on me. I said, the Queen of Spain. She
said, not. I said, yes, she did. Well, what'd
she say? I said, well, she didn't say
anything. She just went. I was reading the other day about
Spurgeon. He had met a man who boasted
all his life that King George had spoke to him. And when this
man died, Spurgeon said to this man's wife, what did the king
say to him? And she said, oh, he was in the
middle of the road when the king's caravan came down the road. And
the king said, get off the road. That guy had bragged all his
life. that the king spoke to him. You
know, here's my whole point. It's a wonderful thing to be
able to say, I heard from the Lord. That the Lord is thinking
toward you and whispers to you and you hear that still small
voice and that his thoughts toward you are innumerable. I want you to leave here today
just thinking his thoughts toward me are innumerable. When things go bad, when things
go good, know this, God's got you. God's got it planned out.
God's got a purpose for your life. God's got a design for
your life. God's a great architect. You
cannot fail. You cannot fail. when you trust
Him, believe Him, and follow Him. I promise you that life
can be good and joyous and happy. All right, let's stand together
and praise our God.