The Art of Seeing Yourself Clearly

When I was growing up, one of the things I became quite familiar with was the challenge of blindness. It was something I came in contact with at a very early age. I think I was probably 12 years old, when my brother Keith was stricken with blindness. I remember watching him find ways of coping and getting around the house when he was five years old, and feeling his way around until he finally got the ability. He got to the point where he could just walk through the house almost, and he could sense the walls. He was that good, because he again had a long time to develop this ability.

Interestingly, as he got older, I wondered how he would do. As he got older, he eventually went to school, went to high school, graduated from high school, got married, and had two children. When he was a young adult, he lived in an apartment in Oklahoma City. If any of you have ever been to Oklahoma City, it's a fairly good-sized town. I remember visiting him in his apartment, and it was a night, and I can only imagine how in the world did he get around? What did he do? But he had a cane that he was able to maneuver around the streets, through the lights. He had a full-time job, actually, and believe it or not, he was a cashier. He would think it would be pretty hard to be a cashier, but he did that. He was able to maneuver around, and he was able to cope with his blindness, his hearing, like I said, and other things. His senses were quite sensitive. He had acute hearing and other things that I think really, really helped him. Let's go over to Isaiah 59. You know, what we were talking about in announcements about the world that we're living in and the society we're living in. And we don't say these things just to bash the world. You know, we're all a part of the world and have come out of the world, and we have the same issues that we battle with physically and mentally, and certainly from the standpoint of morality. All of us have the same set of problems that we deal with, and we're striving to overcome. We're striving to change. But in Isaiah 59, verse 1, let's notice this, And behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. You know, God is not deaf. You know, that he cannot hear what we have to say. He certainly does. But notice this, but your iniquities has separated you from your God. So sin separates us from God.

And it says that your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, with violence. And again, it's getting worse and worse, the things that happened down there in Texas, or across the border, I should say, in Mexico.

I can't think of about 70 or 80 miles from Douglas. You know, where these people massacred these nine people in a family. Some of them children. It again shows the violence that is in the world. And your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue have muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth.

They trusted empty words that speak lies. They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. In other words, one thing leads to another. There's no turning around. There's no changing that occurs. Down in verse 7, let's notice this, their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood. You know, I saw on the news this, it seems like they do show these from time to time, where there was a man that teenagers or young adults were just kicking this individual and pummeling this person. And in fact, when he was apparently to the point where he could not move, they came back after a period of time and began to kick him again. Unbelievable what people are doing now. And in some cases, and you know, young people are getting into this, I guess it's sort of a fad, where they'll come up and just bang somebody on the jaw. Out of the blue, you don't know them. And it's an incredible thing. This is happening in the schools of the day. I remember when one of my sons was in high school, that it happened to him. He didn't know this individual. This guy got apparently very upset, just went around. He hit my son. And I think they ended up suspending the boy who did it. But again, it's again that mentality that is in the world, that is this world that is doing mischief. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. And, you know, going on down there, therefore rejoice, or therefore justice is far from us. Nor does righteousness overtake us.

We look for light, but there is darkness. For brightness, but we walk in blindness. But notice this right here. We grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at the noonday, at the twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places. We grope for the wall.

Physical blindness, the blindness my brother had, by the way, is not the worst kind of blindness that people can have. My brother was a wonderful human being. He died a few years ago. But he was a wonderful, wonderful human being. He had that challenge in his life, but he didn't have the worst form of blindness. I've seen people that are much blinder.

You know, God indicts Israel because of their spiritual blindness. So these just don't see. They don't understand. It's all in the way that you live. How people live their lives. Now, in this message, brethren, we're going to discuss the art of seeing yourself clearly. So you see yourself clearly. So you're not blind. Brethren, are you in your life groping for the wall, wondering what to do next? How to live? Are you groping for the wall? Are you blind? I think probably every one of us in this very room is, oh, no, I'm not blind. I see.

Remember what Jesus said, though, to the Pharisees, you see, therefore, your sin remains. So if we truly do see, then our sin remains, if we see what we're doing wrong. But I think probably all of us do have the sight. We do have vision. You know, and maybe there are some things or blind spots to us. Certainly none are completely blind, but vision can be lacking. Sometimes we can be nearsighted. We can have myopia. Or we could be farsight.

Hyperopia, I guess, is what they call that. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Whereas we maybe have good vision at a distance, but not so much in the nearness. We're not able to see those things near us. You know, there are many physical maladies of vision that probably have a spiritual analogy as well, but those are two. Either people are nearsighted or they're farsighted. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. Sometimes people can't see the tree for the forest. They can't see what's right in front of them because of the forest. We need to have both abilities, don't we?

Many of us are familiar with David's sin of adultery and the murder that took place, how he basically stole Uriah, the Hittite's wife, who was a very faithful soldier to David.

He stole his wife away from him and murdered Uriah. Had he murdered or killed by putting him in the front of the battle when it was, again, very heated, he knew he was going to die? But when David had this sin with Bathsheba, brethren, it was the most spiritually dangerous time of his entire life. You ever thought of that, brethren, in terms of your own life? What has been your most spiritually dangerous period of your entire life? Maybe you're going through it right now, where you need to really get a hold and you need to be like David and begin to cry out to God.

Maybe it's that for us that we need to do. But David learned some powerful lessons, and those lessons, brethren, have been preserved for us. David, of course, his story is going to be in the Bible for eternity. And I'm appreciative of the fact that David made mistakes, and I can read about it. I'm not glad he did make that he sinned and did what he did, but I'm glad that at least I can learn from it, that all of us can learn from it, and we can push forward in our lives and not make the same mistakes.

Let's go to 2 Samuel 12, because this is the time when, in fact, God is beginning to deal with David because of his sin that had taken place. And again, maybe there's a lesson in that for us, brethren. If God is truly calling you and me in our life, and if we are not doing those things we should be doing spiritually speaking, do you think that we're any different than David? God began to deal with David's sin. He confronted him about it, and he used Nathan the prophet.

But here in 2 Samuel 12, verse 1, it says, Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, he says, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other one poor. The rich man had an exceedingly many flocks and herds. He had all these animals that had been given to him that he had, that he had access to. But the poor man had nothing.

And it says, Except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him. And with his children it ate of his own food and drank from its own cup and lay in his bosom. And it was like a daughter to him. Now again, if we understand what this is saying, I think we do. It's talking about Uriah's wife, Bathsheba. We read into this right here, brethren, that Uriah loved his wife with all of his heart. He would have given anything for Bathsheba. But he was loyal to Israel. He was loyal to Israel.

You read the story. You get pretty emotional about it. What David did to Uriah. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd, to prepare one for the wayfaring man, who had come to him. For he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. And so when David heard this, he was angry and greatly aroused against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives the man who has done this, shall surely die.

This man should be put to death for what he did. And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. So David, you know, immediately, as we can see here, he saw what was the right thing to do.

It's like David could see sin in other people. He could see what other people were doing. And, you know, Jesus himself said, look, you know, before you want to take the moat out of your brother's eye, you better get the beam out of your own eye. You clean your life up, and then you can help your brother. Well, David could see the sin in other people, but he couldn't see it in himself. Now, why is that, brethren? Why is that way for us?

It's hard for us to see sin in somebody else. Well, there's a few reasons for that. Because of emotions, we're emotionally involved in it. You know, our emotions cloud what is right and what is wrong. It's hard for us to change, personally. So that's another reason. You know, we don't like to change the direction we're going in in our lives, because it means we're going to make up major adjustments.

And, too, after a period of time, you know what? We get hardened to what we're doing. We get hardened to sin. If you ever have a sin that you need to overcome, you better deal with it quickly, because you get hardened to it, and it gets more difficult. It's like if you're a person dealing with smoking. The more they smoke, the more they want to smoke.

You've got to quit it. You've got to kick it. Get rid of it. And, you know, it is particularly hard if we have a sin that's accepted by somebody else. That gets pretty hard. Imagine if your committed sin and your own friends don't tell you it's wrong. So this is where David was. There was nobody, obviously, he was the king.

He could have anybody's head locked off that had the courage except Nathan, who was sent of God. And he didn't know what was going to happen to him when God sent him to begin to point these things out to David. But you know what? Here, what Nathan has done is he is confronting King David. And again, he didn't know what was going to happen here. And he had to confront him. So in this example here, brethren, put yourself in this situation.

You have a friend that is committed atrocious sin. Here, Nathan was sent to do what God is teaching us and showing us a lesson of what we should do. We should be involved in some confrontation about the sin. You know what we call this as well, if somebody has, say, substance abuse or other problems?

Intervention. And this is what was happening in the case of Nathan. God was sending Nathan to intervene and say, look, David, you've got a sin. A major, major sin. And he could have finished the sentence, and if you don't deal with it, David, you're going to be like Saul. You'll be like Saul. Or you'll be like other kings that later were ejected from being kings.

It could have happened to David. Often it takes confrontation, rather. But what if the tables are turned? You're not the one going to confront, but you're David. You're David. And somebody comes to you and says, you need to overcome this sin. Whatever it might be. I don't want to get specific. The question then is, are we quick to listen? Are you listening to what I'm saying right now? Are you hearing what I'm saying? Will you be willing to listen to somebody if they come and say, you know, to your friend, I don't want to say this to you, but you really need to confront this problem in your life. It could cost you to return to life. Are we quick to listen? Are we open to listen to the church and friends when we fall down? And we all do. There's a saying, there is none so blind as those who refuse to see. Over in Ecclesiastes 4, verses 9 through 12, you know, Solomon talks about how a three-fold cord is hard to break. You talk about how important if you fall down, you have somebody that's going to help you. But the three-fold cord here, one of them is who? Is God. It's a very strong cord that cannot be broken. In fact, that three-fold cord has been called God's knot. God's knot. Also, it has been referred to as a unity braid in terms of a rope, a cord. And again, God is one of those strands. We think about, in fact, the unity braid in the context of marriage. But it can be also in the context of friendship between two people. You know, over in Matthew 18, in verse 15, it talks about over there that if your brother is caught in a fault or has a problem, you go to your brother, you talk to him. And if he doesn't listen to you, then you take somebody else and to confront him, to talk to him. And then if he doesn't listen to you, then what do you do? You take it to the church. You know what Jesus said? If it comes to the point where it's brought to the church, it says, and woe unto him if he doesn't listen to the church. See, the church does have some power. It has a responsibility to, again, uphold the dignity of the congregation and the sanctity of the body of Jesus Christ. The church, though, is the last option. All of us should be willing to help one another, and we ought to be willing to be helped. So that the body is always sanctified. All of us need, brother, in the attitude of David, who had an open mind here. He could have said to Nathan, you get yourself out of my palace. He could have had a different attitude altogether, but he listened. And it hit him like a ton of bricks, what Nathan said, because he knew he was speaking for God, that this was coming from God.

He believed it. Let's go over to James 1. Over here, James 1, James records over here what we should be like as Christians. In verse 18, or verse 19, we'll just turn there. It says, So, brethren, are you open to listen, and are you willing to go to your brother and to talk to your brother? I submit to you, brethren, that doing just that is seeing yourself clearly. Understanding yourself. You see, David saw himself immediately when it was pointed out to him. He understood it. There is an art to seeing ourselves clearly, of seeing ourselves who we really are.

Now, how do you then approach your brother or your sister? How do you do it? To see ourselves clearly, brethren, we look to the example of Nathan. How did Nathan point out David's sin? Nathan reminded him of God's great kindness toward him. It's known as going back here to chapter 12, verse 7.

See, this is where we, if we're dealing with our brother, we say, God has really blessed you. Have you seen his blessing in your life? Remind people of how much God has blessed them. If we're the receiving end, we should think about how much God has helped us. How much God has been with us. You see, Nathan's approach was a Christian approach, a godly approach. It was founded on outgoing concern for him and love. I'm not going to turn to it, but in 2 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, it says, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, and be patient, though, with everyone.

So when we're going to people, we should be patient with them. Not expect or demand something to happen overnight, but keep coming back. Keep going back to our brother, to win our brother or our sister. Let's go over to Galatians 6. Galatians 6, you know, brethren, all of us have been down. You know, I know in my own personal life, I've been up, but I've been down.

I've had sometimes young ministers ask me, have I ever been burnt out? And a lot of times they're very surprised when I say, many times, many times. You get burnt out. You really do. You get down to the bottom of the barrel almost, and somehow you try to get back up. And I believe God, I believe God, that He's always helped me get back up. But let's notice here in Galatians 6, in verse 1, He said, That's the mentality God wants us to keep. We think we're something when we're really nothing without God.

Now with God, we're a lot of things, and we can be very important, not only to our families, but to others in the church family. You know, vanity causes us to vaunt ourselves like we don't sin, like we don't make mistakes. And you know what Jesus said to the men who were gathered around the woman there in John 8?

They were all ready to stone her because of her sin. She was caught in the act of adultery. And what did Jesus say? He that is well out sin cast the first stone. And everybody, apparently, in their wild state dropped their rocks and left, because all of them had sinned.

But he didn't let the woman off scot-free either. He said, look, you better go and repent unless something worse comes upon you. Something much worse could happen to you if you don't repent, if you don't change, if you don't overcome. I'm sure that woman, brethren, became a part of God's church. It means, brethren, we should empathize with people and their humanity, because we are human. But we should make it clear that sin is sin. That has to be overcome. That has to be changed. And that with God's help, we can. And that's what David, you know, learned.

And Nathan did this with David. So be clear, as Jesus was with the woman God and the act of adultery, as Nathan was with David, be clear about the infraction. Be clear about the sin, if you're helping your brother, whatever it is. And be clear about the consequences. You know, right here in this room, brethren, is a room full of prophets. All of you have the ability to prophesy. Let me explain. I don't mean you're going to be standing on some soapbox and say, this is the end of the world tomorrow. But, you know, you have the experience in your life.

If you see somebody commit a sin, a certain sense, particularly, you can predict what's going to happen. You may not be able to predict exactly what's going to transpire in their life, but you know where it is headed. It's like I remember talking to some people that in the years past got involved in drugs and other stuff, and I've been able to sit down with them, and I've been able to say to them, look, if you keep going on this direction, not only, you know, will you leave the church, you're going to end up losing your job, eventually you're going to lose your marriage, or you're going to lose your family or your children.

And, you know, rather, in that way is what I mean, all of us are prophets. We can know what's going to happen to people. And I hate to say it, but, you know, I hate being right about things like that. You wish people would turn around. You know, I've seen people turn around as well in their life. So, brethren, be clear about the infraction, and be clear about the results, the consequences of the sin, if they don't do anything about it, if they don't change.

Let's go back to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel over here, in chapter 12, verse 9. Notice how Nathan explains it here. He says in verse 9, Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in this site? Why have you done this, David? You've killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with a sword of the people of Amond.

That's, of course, the Jordanian area. But he says, Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. David, do we know what that means for Israel? What that means? It's not what David was just going to suffer, but his people, everybody, were suffering here. And he goes on to say, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up an adversity against you from your own house. What an awful thing! Somebody's going to come up in his own house. Who would that have been, brother? Absalom. His formidable challenge. His own son tried to kill him, tried to get rid of him.

And he loved Absalom. And Absalom wasn't the only one of his own house that rose up against him. And then God also said to him some other horrible things. That his own wives would be dishonored in his own sight. That he would see these things. And he said, David, you did this secretly. This will be out in the open. Everybody will know.

Everyone will see. And not only that, but the child that came because of the sin with Bathsheba would die. So, you know, we need to be clear again about the consequences of sin. The Bible doesn't say, pat somebody on the head and say, oh, they're there. It'll be all right. You didn't do all that bad. It says, cry aloud. Spare not. Show my people Israel their sin. What it is that they need to change, that they need to overcome.

And what does it say back in the book of Numbers? It says, but if you do not do so, in other words, if you don't repent, if you don't listen, if you don't hear, then take note. God says, you have sinned against the turtle and be sure your sin will find you out. It'll come out if we don't repent.

Sin has that way about it. You know, we can't point our fingers at other people either and expect that, you know, we're going to get off, you know, Scott Freese, as long as somebody didn't fight out about our sin. You know, it's like it says on the book of Romans about that. It says, therefore, you are without excuse, old man. Everyone who judges, for in that in which you judge another, you condemn yourself.

So if we see that something is wrong and we do it anyway, you know, we're going to be condemned as well. That's in Romans 2, verse 1. But it says, know that the judgment of God is according to truth on those who practice such things. And, old man, the one judging those who do such things and practice them, do you think this, that you shall escape the judgment of God?

Brother, you don't have to even be a part of the church. If you know something that's wrong and you do it anyway, you know, you can leave the church and you can get as far from the churches from Timbuktu to wherever it is in the world. And you and I will be still condemned for what we know. You know, so let's really understand the consequences, brethren, of sin.

So, brethren, be clear. And again, seeing yourself is your ability to be clear about the consequences of sin. You should be able to explain the consequences. And if you don't know what the consequences are, you're not seeing yourself clearly. You need to see yourself. So you can change, so you can get the mode out of your own eye, so you can help your brother, that we can do that. All of us, I include myself in that. And you know what, brethren? Somebody who is truly repentant will have a godly response. You. You know, if it's us that is confronted like David was, you know, or the way that Nathan talked to David in a godly way, you know, a person will have a godly approach, a godly response.

Somebody who is trying to help is going to be that way. What did David say when Nathan confronted him? Did he say, well, you know, I didn't really do it. Nathan, you must misunderstand that I didn't have Uriah killed. He could have tried to hide it. You know what David said? I won't turn to it, but in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, he said, I have sinned.

I've sinned. Have you ever come to that point in your own life, brethren, where you say to God, on your knees, I have sinned. I've made a mistake. God, I pray you forgive me of that mistake. Truly, let me, by the power of your spirit, overcome it. Help me to overcome it. But David didn't blame others, but he took responsible ability for his own sin.

He knew he didn't just sin against, you know, Bathsheba or Uriah, you know, or even Joab, because he led Joab to do something that was wrong by sending Uriah in the fit of battle. But he said, I have sinned, God, against you. And when we read about David's repentance over in Psalm 51, he says this. He said, I confess my sin. I sinned, God. I made a mistake. I did that which was wrong. What I've done, so you are clear about it, and you know that I know that you have the right to block me off the face of the earth.

I confess my sin. And he said, it's ever before me. I can't forget it. I can't forget what I've done. Against you, he said, and you only have I sinned. And so that's the step when we are confronted, brethren. I confess. I'm wrong, and I want to change. I want to overcome. I want to be different. I'm not going to go to 2 Corinthians 7 and verse 9 through 11, but you might want to write it down and read it later because it shows the response of a converted mind, of the right godly kind of response over there.

And part of what Paul explains over there, when we have a right attitude of confessing and wanting to change, Paul says, what clearing of yourself? You cleared yourself before God. And you know, God, brethren, wants to forgive every one of us. He wants to. He's looking for an excuse to forgive us. But you know what happened with David? And I'm not going to go to it, but in 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 13, it says that God forgave David immediately when he had that attitude.

And he will do that for us, brethren, all of us, individually. And brethren, seeing ourselves clearly, knowing that our great God loves us so much that he's looking for a reason to forgive us, and we go and we confess whatever sins we've committed. We're seeing ourselves clearly that God would do that for us.

He's going to do that for our brother and our sister if we go to them. And we believe that with all of our heart and soul and mind. You know, Simon Magus, who was the one who was the catalyst for what became the universal church, you remember he was trying to buy an office, an ecclesiastical office, and being able to lay hands on anybody and they received the Spirit of God.

What did Peter say to him? He says, You have neither part nor lot with this matter, for your heart is not right. You're not even thinking right, Simon. Not right in the sight of God. And he said, repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and pray that God, it perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. That you could be forgiven. Let's go over to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1 over here. Maybe I'm talking to people here that don't have the kind of problems I do. I think we all have the same kind of issues that we fight, our carnal human nature. But in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9, here John says here, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive, it says, us, of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And if we say that we've not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. All of us have sinned, brethren. And, brethren, now more than ever, we need to be cleansed, all of us, spiritually speaking, in this world that we live in that is upside down and topsy-turvy.

Another thing I think that is important for us to know, to see ourselves clearly, and to help another person, we need to be reminded that sin always has penalties. Sin has a ripple effect, like with David's life. You know, God accepted David and forgave him immediately, but God did not take away all the penalties, you know, from him. For the sins He commended, David really let down in the eyes of Israel. It's like sometimes I have had alcoholics come to me over the years. I've had drug addicts. I've had people that were philanderers come to me. Thieves talk to me about their life, and sometimes with crying and tears.

You know, a drug addict, for instance, might overcome the problem of drugs himself, but the damages are done. The damages are done. The person's going to have health issues in their life, maybe. An alcoholic, maybe the same thing. Maybe even somebody who's a sexual addict in the same way. They may have health issues that will come about. A broken family, a broken marriage, children impacted that are going to have problems for the rest of their lives because of what one person does. Maybe even a ripple effect of going through and affecting people in a community that know us. People we've come in contact with. Sin creates a chain reaction. And it's a ripple effect that's there, that affects and impacts. And of course, I'm not saying that every sin that we commit has caused all the problems that all of our families have had. I'm not saying that. Please don't take it that way. But sin has that chain effect, that ripple effect in our life. I give an example of how sin, sort of like that ripple effect or that chain reaction type effect, is an example of the sin of Adam. Look at the last 6,000 years that we've been coping with in this world. And when David sinned, he had the ripple effect in his life. The continual war, the continual fighting, and other things. And I submit to you that in the Church, we've had the ripple effect as well, because of sins that have been committed, that has affected the Church. And of course, it's been there for the Church probably for 2,000 years. With every successive generation, the ripple effect has been there. Sometimes ministers have not set the right example, the proper example, and it's impacted the Church in a wrong way, in a wrong manner. So, brethren, be reminded that sin always has its penalty. God can forgive us that sin might have a dramatic effect on our life and continue. It can be counteractive to the degree that all of us recognize and see ourselves clearly. Maybe children can be changed. The direction they take could be changed if we go to our children and try to explain to them what God's way of life is. And maybe how we have made mistakes. I don't mean that we should go through a big confession and speak about all of our sins to everyone, but brethren, appeal to people that the realization that we've made mistakes but don't follow my example, you know, help me to change and I will help you change, and that we can move forward. Like I said at the beginning, brethren, the worst kind of blindness is spiritual blindness, where a person does not see themselves. We've looked at the example of David and what Nathan did. You know, God wants us not to be blind as the people in the world are blind.

Brethren, I hope we all understand that in the world today, the way it is, I think I see this clearly more than I ever have, we are living in a Laodicean mentality world. The world out there is blinded by materialism. It is blinded by affluence. And I can say it's party spirit all the time with people, many people in the world, even the religious people in the world. You remember what Revelation 3 says, though, to the Laodicean church. You know, they are blinded. They are blinded. They think they see, but they're blinded. And Jesus says to them that they think, of course, that they are rich and increased with goods. They've got maybe a lot of material things. They have the affluence, but they think that they are rich spiritually. Speaking. When Jesus Christ counsels them, what did He say? Gold by a me, gold tried in the fire. And that's symbolic of the fact that He wanted them to build holy righteous character in trial and tribulation. And, you know, trial and tribulation come from ultimately sin. Sins that are committed, mistakes that are made. My gold tried in the fire and purified, in other words, and He said, anoint your eyes that you may see. So it's a matter of seeing clearly ourselves, brethren. Understanding ourselves. The message of lay to see you. See yourself, brethren. I don't know. Maybe it takes that for, I'm sure it takes that to be a Philadelphian. To be somebody who truly sees themselves. You know, the cards, brethren, are stacked in our favor. We're going to be in the kingdom of God. We're going to be reassured by that reality. That God has called us. We are the weak of the world. He's called us, but we have a fantastic future, brethren. So I call upon you, brethren, to do your part. Let's do our part to make sure we're there. That we can be a part of God's kingdom. Let us see ourselves, brethren, clearly. Let us change. Let us repent and change. And strive to do so more than ever, brethren. So that we can enter into the great kingdom to which God has separated us and called us to.