Children, Part 4

You and I have been betrothed to Jesus Christ through baptism, through a covenant that we've made. We are marching down a difficult path. We're making progress towards becoming more godly in our lives. We are praying for the kingdom of God to come. We are looking forward to great events, and we feel close to God, and we are. And then, catastrophe strikes. It's cancer. It's a car wreck. It's the death of a precious child. It's bankruptcy. It's persecution. It's prison. It's a tear in the church or a split. It's kind of like piloting an aircraft. Pilots, we pilots, say commonly, flying is defined like this. Hours and hours of tedious boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. And that's what flying is like. You know, flying, if you take off in a jet aircraft, it comes at you fast. And it's usually a beautiful experience. Have you ever had the opportunity to set up in the front, left seat in a jet airplane? You are the windshield, essentially. There's no hood. There's nothing in front of you. It's just glass. And you're looking out at the runway. And when you push the throttles down, the engines spool up slowly in response. And when the power kicks in, it's quite a ride. You better be prepared. And as you thunder down the runway, going faster and faster, suddenly you reach the point where you roll up and the plane becomes airborne. And it goes up so fast you wouldn't believe it. You've seen some of the airplanes at the airport and how quickly they go up. Well, you're only cleared to 2,000 feet. And yet this thing is probably going to do that in a few seconds. And you just hope the controller clears you instantly to 8,000 feet, which is normal because if they say there is no clearance to 8,000 feet, you've got to change things rapidly, get the nose down and get the speed down. But that's not usually the way it happens. As you pass through 8,000 or 2,000 feet, you're giving a new heading. If you're turning back downwind, it's not a turnaround. It's a turn-up. You turn up and climb up and over and continue climbing up and away you go. Getting clearances to 16,000, 22,000, 32,000. Done it all the way up to 45,000 with an instructor pilot. It's a rush. But at some point in time, it can be like being in God's church. Everything is going beautifully. Everything is going smoothly. All the systems are looking good and BAM! It's a bird strike. You've got birds in the engines. Or you're hit by lightning. Or the engines just simply stop working.

Some catastrophic failure takes place. It's impossible to steer. You're going to crash. You're going down. It's inevitable. You are now flying this metallic thing that oven by itself unlike a bird cannot fly. What do you do? Do you yell, we're going to die? Which is kind of obvious.

Or do you do something else? I'll give you three choices here real quick.

Your life depends on the answer to these three choices. A mature cornfield, a shallow lake, or a grove of citrus trees. Just hang on to that. We'll get back to that in a little bit.

Life doesn't always present you with the choices that you would like. And this life can be a little bit unsettling. Why is that? Well, you've been called down an interesting path with an interesting God, and sometime in your life tragedy will strike, probably more than once. The best life possible for humans is in God's church. And yet, even though we've just completed an inspiring feast season that looks forward to fantastic things, we also know that there's the most difficult time for humanity that spans between us and the wonderful kingdom of God here on earth.

In one way, it's like Peter and the disciples. It's the best of the best. They were with Jesus Christ. You and I are linked to God as part of his divine family.

Peter got to walk on water. It doesn't get much better than that in his day. And yet, however sometimes, mind-boggling catastrophes strike, we may be found wondering, wanting, doubting. We might doubt ourselves, our conversion. We might doubt whether there is a God. We might doubt there is a church. Today, I'd like to talk to you about a principle that's involved in your calling in mind that we don't tend to recognize. The title of the sermon today is Children Who Stand Up for the God Family. Children who stand up for the God family. It's all nice and good to be called to God's way of life, and we know there's blessings for it, and there's rewards, and there's gifts. There's also responsibility. There's a responsibility to take it on the chin, to really be a part of the family in all situations, to fly the plane when it's under attack and when all physical human hope is lost to keep going.

You and I need to be children who stand up for the new family that we are partakers of through the graciousness of God.

Now, in Mark 13, Jesus warns of this great tribulation that's coming. I'll turn over there. Mark 13, verse 23. He goes through and he tells about this event, kind of like Matthew 24. It's a companion passage. He says here, but take heed. What does that mean? He's telling you, you really need to think about something. You need to plan. You need to take heed. You need to brace up. You need to prepare yourself. Take heed. See, I have told you all things beforehand.

We need to take heed and take heart and realize there are some difficulties coming.

Bracing something, bracing up, is something that you do to trees in advance of a storm. If you have a big old oak tree on your property and you're out in an area that the storms come rolling through and you want to save that oak tree, you're going to have to brace that thing up. Especially if it has what they call a crotch in it, where it's two splits. That's going to be the weak part and you're going to lose that tree in some storm. So to brace it up, you might go up there and drill holes through the big branches and put a cable through there and big bolts on the outside with washers. So you'll brace that tree up. Some trees that we have, I have to put wire up and fasten them to the branches at our house, because the spring winds here come with the storms and they just shake those trees into rags. In Southern California, where I grew up, earthquakes were common. When they started building these big super freeways with the flyover overpasses, with these single pillars, they tended to collapse. You saw some of that in various parts of California in the 70s, 80s. Well, now they've gone through California and they are anticipating earthquakes, so they've braced up those supports. If you go to any of the older freeways, you'll see the braces. Steel-clad braces over the concrete supports and sometimes more concrete poured up there. They're braced up. They're expecting something. And in that sense, you and I need to take heed, because he has told us beforehand that there are things coming. And it's not just natural disasters. There are persecutions against the church. There are issues that you and I will have to deal with that Satan are going to throw at us. You know, where it says in the Bible, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. What's that about? Take a look at that. So as turbulence, like a super typhoon might bring us, comes into our life and would tend to bring storms and surges of tides and high winds and shake us, we're expected to remain standing. We're expected to be God's family through anything. And that's why he said, I have told you beforehand, so take heed.

When these things come to us, what does God expect us to do? Faint in the day of adversity. If so, the Bible says our strength is small. What are we supposed to do? Wine? Complain? Run away? Give up on God? I've seen it happen. You've seen it happen. Trials hit. People fall apart. It's kind of like jet airliners. The problem with jet airliners is, you see, jet airliners, I've known my whole life, don't survive crashes. They're not like the small planes. They go too fast. The jet airliners cruise at 550 miles an hour. It's a common speed. 747 goes a little bit faster than that, even, and it's a big one. Those pieces of metal weren't made to sort of say, oh, we've got a problem. I think we'll land in a turnip field. The debris field tends to be two miles long when one of those things comes in, and there's just little pieces left.

So what do you do? Christians who have Satan the devil throwing fiery darts at them, you know, are outclassed and outgunned. So what are we supposed to do? Throw up our hands and say, we're all going to die! Is that what we're supposed to do when these things come upon us? In Revelation, we find that civilization is going down eventually to total destruction, and they really are going to auger in with big swaths of civilization dying. And Jesus said, if he didn't intervene, there would be no flesh saved alive. So yeah, the threat is real against your physical life and mine. But it shouldn't be real about our spiritual life or our calling.

United Airlines Flight 232 was a DC-10. A DC-10 was a rather new plane that came out at that time, and it was the type that had the twin engines on the back, fuselage, and a third engine up inside the tail. Not low, like the 737, but high up in the tail. And this provided the thrust for this rather long, powerful airplane. And it was Flight 232 was flying between Denver and Chicago on a rather normal flight. It was a nice day. And as it worked its way along on the IFR route, from time to time, you cross a VOR and then you turn a little bit to the next VOR. And so it was somewhere halfway that in one of those turns up at altitude, a gentle turn to the next heading, the center fan, the turbofan up in that tail engine disintegrated. It came out. It came out whirling, and it came out throwing pieces, and it generally went down to the right and sliced through the rear vertical stabilizer, the little wings at the back, and sliced through them, cut all the hydraulics to the airplane. Now, the hydraulics are what controlled what you call the steering wheel. Flaps that go up and down. The turning controls the regular flaps that you hear going, these big old flaps extend the wings and those little skinny wings start getting fatter and fatter and drop down so that it can slow up on landing and this fast airplane can now slowly lumber in and in order to stop on a two-mile runway. All that's gone. The pilot simply had nothing, and that plane went down in Iowa.

Some people will buckle under extreme pressure. We find in Matthew 24 in verse 7 that here in this same end-time scenario, national rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places doesn't necessarily mean that you and I are going to be in a bubble unless we're in the place of safety that God will provide for some of His people. And we should be people of prayer and people of spiritual ethics to where God could count us worthy to be part of that. But as we go on, notice these are the beginning of sorrows and they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. And you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. Is that where you and I crash and burn spiritually? Do we say, ahh, I gotta now change, I gotta run away and, I don't know, yell and scream and get selfish and get a gun and protect myself and my last grains of food and quit being godly and spiritually, we're going down. This is it. Well, let's just see. Is that what He wants? Then many will be offended and betray one another and hate each other and just, boom, that's in the church. That is the end. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many who are left. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many that are left will grow cold, the agape will go out of them. This is not looking good. Is this the end of it?

Verse 13, But he who endures to the end shall be saved. You and I are expected to stand up for the family of God. We're to be godly all the way to the end, whatever that end is. And Jesus said, take heed. I've told you this in advance. You need to buckle down, prepare for this, get some measures in place, get strengthened, be ready, because this is part of your calling. And if you fail this in the day of adversity, you didn't really have a spiritual strength that was very great. See, this should not be the case with us, especially when you consider that after this, there's a multitude of people that are called and converted in the Great Tribulation that are too many to number. What does that say about this group? It says they were flying along in the jet, and they were expecting everything to be smooth, because they'd always been smooth, and then catastrophic failure, and the family goes through, and we lost the steering wheel. What do you expect us to do? Not like the ones who were called during the trials and the challenges. That's where they start, and they're very successful. I think it's up to you and me in this time where I know in my lifetime, being born in 1951, we haven't really seen much physical tragedy. I know there's been some spiritual challenges along the way, but here we are. Do we think that it's over now? Do we think it's behind us? Do we think there's nothing ahead? Will we be caught up short? Let's go to James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4, and take a look at what James is saying here. You know, these in books in the New Testament were written during times of great crisis, great persecution. People were being physically harmed and spiritually just devastated in the churches. And James is crying out here. James 1 verse 2, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Why? Because the trial's a lot of fun? No. The joy comes because you're going to fly the plane, no matter what. You're going to survive. You're going to endure. You're going to make this thing go right with God's help, and you're going to be saved. That's what he's saying here. Let's notice.

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. It's endurance, is what the Greek word means, an enduring patience or a perseverance in godliness. Verse 4, But let perseverance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. See, anybody going down there? No. It's not expected. Whatever the trial, whatever the problem, it should be an encouragement to us. In fact, we are expected to keep going. You might call this turbulence from a flying perspective. I've been flying too long. I've been flying for 37 years, and there's a lot of things that pilots can talk about because they equate to life in many ways, and that's a very vulnerable place to be at times. Suddenly, you're flying with clear skies, and you get clear air turbulence. Some of the most severe turbulence on earth is clear air turbulence because you can't see it. There's no cloud. There's nothing there. You just fly into it. It may shake you to pieces, or you just may drop a few thousand feet, 10, 15,000 feet of what they call clear air because there evidently is nothing in it, and you just fall. It's amazing what can happen just like that.

Well, we have, in a sense, the opportunity to encounter turbulence, which hits you unexpected. But turbulence is an integral part of this calling. It's not a surprise. We think it's a surprise, what's happened? Oh, no! Maybe God doesn't like me anymore. What did I do wrong? Maybe I won't pray anymore. I think we're on the outs with each other.

Well, hang on. Turbulence is just what we read there in James, an opportunity to show what we're made of, and a chance to stand up for the family and be godly. You know, and your boss or your neighbor or somebody is out to get you and they're slandering you and saying all evil about you. What do you do? Do you do what Jesus did? Do you do what the family did? And not a single thing comes out except blessings and prayers for their benefit and assistance, however you can give it?

If so, count it all joy. Take it on the chin, as it were, for the family. If you're not encountering turbulence in your life, then you might wonder why, because it's an integral part. Let's go to Matthew 7, verse 24, and hear Jesus tell us about this. Matthew 7, beginning in verse 24. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Now, we like to say, ah, yeah, I built my house on the rock. Well, get ready. There's a reason why you're on the rock. There's a reason why you've strapped it to the rock and sunk foundations in the rock and poured concrete around rebar and rationed this thing down.

You and I are supposed to be built on a rock for a reason. Verse 25, and the rain descended. That didn't wash it away. So the floods came. See, that can batter it. Well, that didn't do it. So the winds blew and beat on that house. And oh joy, how encouraging and stimulating this was because the house did not fall for it was founded on the rock.

See, he or she were ready. They were prepared. That was who they were. They were rooted into the family and they stood with the family under any circumstance. They did not fail spiritually. You know, interesting thing about pilot training is it's not that much about how to fly a plane. You might think it is, but it's really not. Little secret is planes tend to fly themselves, as many pilots have found out the hard way.

You know, it used to be that you didn't have a starter on your plane. You had to go out and throw the prop and then get in it. So if you're by yourself, you went in and you got the little gas thing and turned the mixture onto full-rich and then you pumped it up to jam some gas into the carburetor and then you shut off the power, the full gas supply. You're supposed to bring that back to nothing. Then you go throw the prop a few times and the thing comes to life. Of course, it's kind of sputtering and idling because you don't have the throttle all the way up.

You put it up and then you pull it back. Then you go get in and you take off. Well, a few pilots have forgot to put the throttle back into the closed position and it's been on full and so they throw the prop and the plane comes after them and they run. The plane runs down the field and takes off. Guess what? It flies quite well. For as many hours as it has fuel, that plane just goes and goes and goes.

So as far as the small plane goes, there's not a whole lot to taking it off and flying it. Like I said, it can be hours and hours of tedious boredom. Getting it down, however, is always exciting. Very, very, very exciting is getting it down and dealing with some things in the way. The main thing about pilot training is dealing with potential failures and catastrophes in flight. It's one of those vehicles we have where you can't get out and change the tire. You can't pop the hood and see what's going on. You can't run out on the wing and fix something or climb out on the tail.

You're pretty much... you got what you got. So pilot training is all the systems and knowing all the systems and how everything on that plane works, plus the backup systems they build into the plane. If something does go wrong, how could you do something else with it? I mean, it gets as crazy as this. When in small planes, some of us have even practiced and developed the talent of being able to fly the plane with the doors. See, you get the door on either side of the plane.

You just pretend that you've lost all your steering. You've lost any control whatsoever of the plane except for your throttle. You know, you got power and that's it. So it turns out if you open your door and push it, it makes the plane go the other way a little bit. It puts you in a turn.

If you get your buddy over there to open his door and push it, it'll straighten the plane out. Well, there's left and right. Power will take you up or reducing power will take you down. Now you can fly the plane with the doors. Seriously, you practice this stuff if you're buggy enough about flying to where you actually come in and land with the doors and you set it all up and always running scenarios as you fly.

Could I land there? That passes. Ooh, could I land there? If this engine quits at any minute, I don't know any pilot that isn't always looking for a place to get out of this thing somehow. What happens if there's a fire? There's smoke in the cockpit. Well, now you've got a real problem. So you're going to have to get down real fast.

How fast can you get a plane down? A lot of your training is how fast you can get from altitude onto the ground before this thing is fully engaged in flames. Can you get down before you burn up kind of thing? And on and on and on. What happens if a bird comes in? What happens if this fails? What happens if that fails? What happens if part of your propeller falls off?

If you keep it under power, your engine will actually shake itself out of the airplane and disconnect. You've got so many, many things there. The main job of a commercial airline crew is not to distribute drinks and peanuts. It is actually safety. Safety for the passengers. See, there's so many, many things that happen. If an engine fails, it's a big, big deal. And that can happen by birds flying in. Remember Captain Sully just after takeoff? Boom! Canadian geese, both engines, both stopped. And his comments afterward was, it got really, really quiet.

Things like cabin depressurization. You know, the stewardess comes out and says, now if pressure is not good, put it on your math first and then help the kitties. No one pays attention, you know. You realize if you're at altitude and there's an air leak, everybody on the plane has six seconds until they're unconscious. You don't tend to think about that. Six seconds is not enough time to put your little mask on your child and get yours on. So put yours on first and then your unconscious child can have one on them and everybody will be fine. So there's a lot of things that happen really, really fast. They learn the hard way. I remember a famous person a few years ago was in his plane, his jet, and they're flying at altitude. It happened to pressurize and he didn't get it on quite quickly. That plane flew as long as it had fuel and finally went down up in the Dakotas because there's only seconds. Many, many, many things come up such as landing gear collapse, flat tires, hail, no fuel. A famous thing, you go up to Canada and talk about aviation. Everybody knows the story. I think they have a national holiday up there for this one pilot. The Canadians went over to Metric a few years ago and they used to do gallons of fuel and the guy fills the fuel thing down there and runs up. He's got an order for 3,500 gallons. Got it! Disconnect. They changed to liters. That's like quartz. 3,500 quartz. Good to go. Went quarter of the way and got really, really quiet. Things you want to plan for, you see. You and I, including medical emergencies on board, saboteurs on board, hijackers, all these things that go in and many, many, many more things go in. If that's good enough for airplanes, what about you and me in our flight down the most difficult road with Satan who wants to make sure that we don't make it, you see? Are we going to crack under a little pressure? But in fact, these are just part of life. Just part of life.

Ephesians 6, 13 through 16, talks about taking up the armor of God. Now, what's that for? Ah, I don't need the armor of God. I'm having a nice life. You and I need to be prepared. We need to be shored up. We need to be braced. We need to be ready. Not like the five foolish virgins who are running around thinking everything is going to be just fine. And the five wise virgins have probably more oil than they would need because they're right on top of it, realizing that in the middle of the night, if that's when trials are going to come or something happens, you're going to need fuel. Otherwise, you can't see. You can't see in the dark. And so he says, Paul says in Ephesians 6, 13, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

God doesn't expect us to fail in the evil day. And having done all to stand, we have to stand up for the family and be family, including the evil day. So stand, therefore. And he goes on and talks about things we can be armed with, the universe 16, in which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And wait a minute, a while ago, I mentioned that fiery darts from the wicked one. Well, that's impossible. That's like a plane that's at all its hydraulic severed and going down in Iowa. But wait a minute, that you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of an invisible devil? That's expected.

Let's go to Isaiah chapter 50. I won't go there right now. Let's say this. We have a good day. You probably had a pretty good week this week. Looking forward to a good week next week. But you know, Satan has found you. He's got you in the crosshairs. Nothing to worry about. God's got bigger angels, and he's bigger than Satan is. But at the same time, we just read about fiery darts from the wicked one, didn't we? Just read that we're supposed to... our enemy is unclean spirits in dark places. So let's kind of reverse that thought for a minute. Yeah, he does have your number and mine.

Catastrophe is inevitable in some ways. But Jesus himself met catastrophe, didn't he? Did it devastate him? Did he fail? Did he crash and burn as the term goes?

You know, he was having a pretty good life. He was doing some leadership training. He had some friends. He was doing miracles. And then, bam, Satan attacked. And just in the course of a few hours, he was shredded, naked, hanging on a stake, and his life was flowing out of him, just within the same day. And yet, he did extremely well to the point of perfection, and we can do the same thing. What is expected of you and me by him? John 16, verse 33, Jesus said, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. Now, that's what we come to expect, and we appreciate. Peace with our Lord. In the world, however, you will have severe turbulence. You will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

You know, our example here from our teacher, our master, is that he kept standing up and being a godly individual. No matter what little he had left, he kept flying the plane, as it were. He kept using the resources of his mind and body until he couldn't use them anymore, and he finally got out the words, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they were doing. He was still on course all the way. We're expected to do the same. Remember what we read, and you will be hated by all nations for my namesake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. But, but, but, but, but I can't because... and here's why. Because, I don't know, I have some reason here where I can't. He could, but I can't. Why? Well, you and I should never get there. Thomas Watson made a comment, if you stand up and are counted from time to time, you may get knocked down. But a man flattened by conformity stays down for good. We're not expected to conform to this world under any circumstance. We get up, we stand up, we may get battered about, but if we're really with the family, if we're really up here, are rooted to the rock because that's who we are, and this is our family, we should always be prepared to stand up and be family in any circumstance. Now, this sermon was prompted by meditating on a passage in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 16, many months ago now.

Contemplating this, meditating on it, thinking about it in my personal life, finding myself wondering, feeling unprepared, having gone through recurrent training, as it were, for inevitable situations that might arise someday. But let's read this together. Matthew chapter 10 verse 16, Behold, I send you out a sheep in the midst of wolves. Now, just think about that scene for a minute. Doesn't that sound a little bit about like you and me with the devil with fiery darts? Because sheep have no defense. In fact, they actually attract wolves. I think we attract Satan. You know, just being the color that they are against the background they eat on, and if they get any indication at all, they'll go, bah, like here I am!

And that's about what they do. And if that's not bad enough, they're all hurt up together to make sure that they're found. But I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves is the expectation, not some sort of, oh no, what's happened? This is how we are. This is our role, as it were. Down in verse 24, he says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. Are you going to stand up with your master, or are you going to run away?

It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. That's what we're trying to become here. If they have called the master of the house Baal-Zebub, how much more will they call those of his household? What do you think they're going to say about us? Verse 32. Here's the part that I was really meditating on. Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I also will confess before my father, who is in heaven. Those who stand up for the family say, yep, I'm part of that family. Yep, that's my Lord, my master, my elder brother. I'm in that family. I'll live and die with that family. Then I'll confess him to my father that he's family. Verse 33. But whoever denies me before men, no, I'm not really of that family. I'm more conforming with you, him I also will deny before my father, who is in heaven. And verse 38. He who does not take up his cross or his stake or that instrument of sacrifice that we are to be part of, not in being sacrificed necessarily, but our bodies are to be living sacrifices of love for others, of giving ourselves for others, and helping everybody move towards God's kingdom. That's the way I understand it. He who does not take up his stake and follow after me is not worthy of me. And there is sacrifice in that. And there's a journey there that is with him. We get the same response that he got. He who finds his life, he who saves his own life by copping out, will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake, because he stood up for me, for the family, he will find his life. I think one of the more inspiring passages in the Bible that comes down to a human, just a human who made mistakes, but really grew to be loyal to the family and really would have it no other way, was Paul. We go to Acts 21, verse 10. I'm always encouraged by this and amazed. And I look up to Paul in this, and I want to be like this too. I think that will take a little more meditation until I get there. A little more inspiration. Probably all of us need to grow in this. But he says in Acts 21, verse 10, And we stayed many days. A certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea, and when he had come to us, he took Paul's belt off of his robe or his garment, and he bound his own hand, and he said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles, the Romans. Well, that had put the living fear in you right there. If you knew the Romans and what they did, aligning the streets with people being crucified and just going in and crunching through with iron through civilizations. Now, Luke, who's writing this, says, Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. And then Paul answered, verse 13, What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. For the family, for the God family of which I see my citizenship, and I have my brothers and sister and father and elder brother. I would give you a reading assignment that I hope you will fulfill.

Book of 2 Peter. Book of 2 Peter. That was written as Peter was nearing crucifixion by the Romans. That's the last book that he wrote with the things on his mind about being shored up, about really being devoted and dedicated and serious. It's a survival manual for Christians. 2 Peter. If you read it from that aspect, here is what goes through the mind of an individual who knows that he's now going to go up against Rome's worst.

Read that. Read it from a perspective of getting prepared. Read 2 Timothy, written from Rome. As Paul was about to go in for his final visit with Caesar Nero, Paul was appealing to one of the worst Caesars in history who needed more bodies to put into these coliseums with more gore than had ever been used before. Paul appealed to this man for a hearing.

He wasn't heard from again. Before he went in, Paul wrote 2 Timothy. We need to be of that mind that they had as we go forward with Jesus Christ into situations that he said are going to be difficult. They just simply are going to be difficult. And they shouldn't be to us, oh no, I'm out of my league. We're expected to endure. We're expected to put out the fiery darts of an invisible one. We're expected to march right on into the kingdom of God and say, welcome. Be said, welcome. Be faithful. Everybody knows that jet airlines don't survive crash landings. I've known that my whole life. It came from a history of when they came out with each new jet model. They introduced it right away into the airlines and then they started going down. After enough of them went down for the same reason, then they fixed that. It's kind of like in a small airplane. It's the old V-tail Bonanza that the doctors used to fly. It was an expensive airplane. Rather than having a tail like that, it just had a V on the back. That's all there was. It looked really cool. I flew one of those with a little trepidation because it was called a doctor killer. The tails fell off. They weren't made strong enough. It took a lot of tails to fall off before Beechcraft finally went in and beefed them up a bit. Now they don't fall off anymore. So it was with the airliners. When the 707 came out, the field went down and they figured out what was wrong with those. The 727 came out and they figured those out. The DC-9, the DC-10, and the MD-80, and you know these planes. It's just part of it. When the L-1011 came out, you remember they had one or two of those. The DC-10 came out. So here was the DC-10 and flying between Detroit and Chicago, or Chicago and somewhere. I forget where it was. But they go really fast. When they come down, they go long, long, long, long, long, long way. That's just the way it is.

Proverbs 24.10 says, if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. And so it was when United Airlines flight 232 went down in Iowa. My wife and I were just up the road a bit from that when it happened. We weren't there, but we were just north of it a little bit.

It's obvious, you know, what happens to these things. Well, what happened was, Captain Hayes did something very unique in the situation where you have no steering, right? No flaps, no control. When an airliner comes down and it puts down all those flaps, it will land at approximately 135 miles an hour, because this creates an immense amount of extra lift. The air is forced over the wing and down, and it gives it a lot of lift at slow speeds, because there's so much drag now. And then the gear comes in, so much drag, it can come lumbering in and get down to about 135 miles an hour and run out of flying and collapse onto the runway. Get her stopped, you're home. It's a pretty narrow thing there that has to happen. But if you don't have those flaps, you come in at maybe 250 miles an hour in order to keep air, keep the thing flying, because those things don't have lift at slower speeds. Remember, they're made of fly at 550 miles an hour with lift up at altitude. They've got to go really fast to have enough lift to just stay airborne. This pilot has no flaps, he has no steering, he's got no chance, right? But he's still flying the plane. Watch what happens. He's got two engines left. One of the top failed, sliced all his hydraulics, got no steering, but he's got two engines left. Okay, two engines, you've got power, you've got up and down. Problem was is when he was turning, that little turn to the next VOR is when it all sliced, and so the vertical stabilizer is tilted and he's in a permanent turn. He can't do anything about it. He's just doing a big circle out there over Iowa. But he figures, wait a minute, I've got a big circle, but I can go up with power or I can go down. I'm going pretty fast, but I'm going. So he gets with the FAA and he says, hey, is there any runway out there that in one of my big circles out here I might pass over as I'm kind of looping across the state? And he said, well, you know, Sioux City, Iowa is coming up in a few minutes and looking at all the models here, you might be able to sort of at least hit part of it at high speed. All right. Well, that's what he did. He did a high speed crash landing across part of the runway. If you watch the film, you'll see the thing instantly when it touches down, start to disintegrate, wing breaks off, the fuselage breaks up, but it's scooting down the runway pretty well. A lot of it is. The tail section totally breaks off and slides off a different direction. The middle part slides apart, catches on fire. Of course, they had the fire trucks there ready and everything. And it skidded off the runway, the whole mess. People then started walking out of the fuselage. Interesting thing.

Pilot walked out of the fuselage. Passengers started working out of all these pieces. And the incredible thing for the people who were there, who were putting out the flames and everything and helped people out, he said the most unusual thing was people started walking out of the cornfield. Couldn't believe it. Big cornfield next door, and people are walking out of the cornfield. Kids with their dolls and some people pulling carry-on luggage. The tail had spun off and slid off over to the cornfield, and people walked out of there. 85% of the passengers on board walked away from that. Turns out, jet aircraft aren't always fatal when they land. If you fly the plane, you can even walk away from something that's an impossibility. Next day, Mary and I and our girls peek through the fence and looked at the wreckage out there. I just couldn't believe anything like that could ever happen, that a jet airliner could survive a crash. And yet, there were the pieces. And there's the story. You know, it took forethought and preparation and training and knowing all the systems and knowing everything. Like bracing the ship in Paul's day, or going to the storm, you wrap it with cables and cords and you brace it up against the storm. It's like the pillars of the LA freeways, you know. They're ready. It's like the training that goes into pilots. It's like your training and mine as spirit-led children of the family. We always have options. Always have options. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. As we begin to wrap this up, 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. This Apostle Paul, who had found so much strength, is telling us here that he was an individual who could walk and was expected to walk, and therefore we are expected to walk into whatever Satan throws at us, whatever this evil age brings upon us. And he says, With then, as workers together with Christ, we also plead with you not to receive the graciousness of God in vain. You are not called to fail. There's no excuse for it, or for me, or for anybody. Even if your plane is ingested with birds, we now see that Captain Sully can land in the Potomac River, and everybody can walk out on the wings and survive just fine. And airlines, by the way, don't fall apart anymore with the new models that come out, because they pre-test everything over and over, and you just don't ever hear of airlines going down anymore because of systems failure. You and I should never go down. We shouldn't experience the things that those who are not really tested and those who are not really with the mind of God will end up going through. For God says, In an acceptable time I have heard you, in the day of salvation I have helped you, God is there for us. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation.

Verse 4, In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, notice the margin, perseverance. We keep going, you see, you persevere, you endure to the end. And tribulations and needs, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors. You know, this is what we're called to. Paul did it, Peter did it, Christ did it.

I'd like to conclude by going to Isaiah chapter 50 in verse 6. You know, the need to prepare in advance is shown by our Savior Himself. Well, let's back up 700 years before the crucifixion, before the day where Jesus Christ suddenly entered a severe turbulence and flew the plane. 700 years before, here's what He said, Isaiah chapter 50 in verse 6. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. Now, in a sense, you might think this is retroactive, but no, this is pre. This is 700 years beforehand He's saying this. I have determined that I will give my back to those who struck me, strike me, my cheeks to those who pluck out my beard, my face to shame and the spitting that will take place 700 years in advance. This is God laying down a prophecy here. He was already steeled to this. He had set His mind to this. For the Lord God will help me. That's the key. Therefore, I will not be disgraced.

Therefore, I have set my face like a flint. That is what's important. We pre-determine. We know I'm on that rock. I'm staying. I'm in this family. I'm staying. I don't care what happens. I'm going to be godly. I'm going to stand up for the family and be family. I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near me. That's just what Paul said. Who are these Romans? I don't care. I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I don't care if they kill me. Verse 9, Jesus said, Surely the Lord God will help me.

Verse 10, Who among you fears the Lord, reveres the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant? Would your hand go up to that one? I'm sure it would.

Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. This should be very encouraging to us. We need to meditate on this. We need to think about it. We need to pray to God and ask him for the strength and the courage. Also, to internalize his mindset and his way under any circumstance can be practicing that daily as we have opportunity. Those things will give us courage as we grow. Okay, so here's your urgent situation. You're flying a single-engine small four-place aircraft. It's got a high wing on it, fixed propeller, fixed landing gear. You're flying and the engine quits. You're going down. For whatever reason, you will not be able to restart the engine. It's a metallic plane. You've got people on board. What are you going to do? You're going to scream, we're going to die! Or are you going to fly the plane? You have three choices. Choose quickly because the choices are passing as we speak. Whatever choice you make will depend on whether you live or die. Are you ready? Here are your choices. A cornfield, a shallow lake, or a citrus grove? Choose quick. Choose quick. Okay, time's up. Got your choice? Hang on to it. You're committed. If you chose the cornfield, you're about to be plummeted by hundreds of ears of corn at head height that will destroy you and the plane. If you chose the shallow lake, it's an impossibility for your plane not to flip over as the wheels touch the water, and instantly the wings on the other side will dig in and stop you in a heartbeat, injuring both you and sinking the plane upside down with your head underwater.

If you chose the citrus grove, interesting thing will happen. As you land the plane between the rows of trees, those big bushy, springy trees that tend to grow together, the trees will support your plane completely, and you will glide to a stop, albeit a few feet in the air, with no harm to you or to your plane, according to a friend of mine who did this off the runway in San Bernardino, California. It's amazing. They just picked the plane up, and aside from a pitot tube, it was ready to go again.

So the point is, there are options. We need to be skilled. We need to understand what the options of this life are. We need to understand the problems and the challenges. It's all in here, and God will help us. There's never a time for us to say, oh, I can't do anything. I have to give up. There's always something that you can do. So be bracing up. Put on the whole armor of God. Prepare yourself for certain unknown turbulence that's ahead, and when the time comes, with God's help, stand up for the family and live for eternity.