Packing Our Spiritual Bucket List

And I'd like to talk today about something that I hope that you'll take home with you and utilize. Today we're going to talk about a bucket list. How many of you have ever heard of the term a bucket list? Okay, I'm talking to the right crowd. But allow me to begin the story by talking to you about two men, two gentlemen that were sharing the same hospital room and they were both terminally ill.

And what happened here was that they wanted to do something before they kicked the proverbial bucket. They wanted to do something with their lives, so they began to develop a list of what they yet wanted to do in their life, where they might want to go. Because like them, like with us, so much stuff. You know what stuff is?

That's a Hebrew word for stuff. There's no better word in any language than just stuff. That stuffs us from doing at times what God has called us to be, where he wants us to go and where he wants us to develop. All sorts of stuff can come up with the rat race of life today, with everything that comes into us communicationally, with the internet, with social media, with being in the crowd at Megalopolis, Ventura, Los Angeles, all the way down to Tijuana, with 22 million fellow citizens, the crowding of the freeways, which we experienced just a little bit today, personal obligations which sometimes need to be met, but there's other things that we never get to.

We're always, maybe I'm the only one, I'm kind of looking in your eyes. We put things on shelves. We put things in closets of our heart, always thinking that one day, somehow, I'll be able to get to that. And that stifles the adventurism in our life to tackle the very, very big things in life. These two men that were in this hospital room, one was fabulously wealthy, and asked the other man who was not so inclined, who shared the hospital room, to combine their personal list.

You make your list, I'll make my list, and let's see where we go from there. And to have this final, this final grand adventure. They proceeded across the world to tackle their fantasies that they had in their mind, that were no longer fantasies, but were becoming real. That is, that is, until in a while they drew breath. They accomplished much, but experienced some disappointments, learned a lot about themselves, and then, dear friends, time ran out.

Time ran out. Now, not all of this room will be able to do what these two gentlemen did, due to the largesse of this wealthy individual. Most of us are not, perhaps, even going to be able to get out of county, out of state, out of the U.S., and you expand that list going forward. But there is a spiritual bucket list, and that's something that all of us can do if we have a mind and a heart to do it.

And so, I'm kind of throwing that out at you as my friends and fellow brethren. Do you have a spiritual bucket list? Do you have put into, not a bucket, but into your heart and into your mind, someplace, somewhere, some attainment that is yet out of your reach, and that you have not visited, that you have not tackled, that you have not climbed that mountain, that God bids us to do, that holy God that we just heard about?

And I'm going to give you a spoiler alert. You hear about that term sometimes on the radio, especially when it comes to a ballgame. A spoiler alert. In all of this, our comfort zone that I'm going to be talking about today will be impacted. Your comfort zone with what I'm going to share with you. What I hope that God has granted me to ask you to come further into the spiritual adventure that he has in store for us.

There are many similarities in the adventures and the journey that we are about to be invited to. Why is that? What's the first similarity? I don't mean to be utterly morbid this afternoon, but there's something I've got to bring up, or otherwise I wouldn't be true. Just like those two gentlemen that were in the hospital at their time, we too, in a sense, are terminally ill. I know that we think death and paxus happens to everybody else but us.

Can we talk? Is that happening? And does that happen? So we, in a sense, are there. We, we, when we look go into a cemetery, we look at the cemetery, we see the tombstones and we will see a birth date and we will see a death date and that they loved somebody or somebody loved them on that that tombstone. When you look at that, when you look at that, number one, we were not responsible for our birth date. Are you with me? Can we talk?

It was mama and papa. They basically determined the birth date and we would eventually come out. And we do not determine our death date because we do not necessarily know the day in which we die. But what we do have responsibility over is the dash, that that silent yet loud dash that's between the birth date and the death date. And that's where God wants us to live. Now, now people that go and visit us one day somehow will look at that and they'll see the dash and they may not know what made that dash up.

But God above and our Savior Jesus Christ, our champion and the ultimate adventurer who has been up there down here and back up knows where we are at all times. And that we understand, first of all, the importance of stretching now while we can.

I have to share a story with you. This is a spoiler alert for Susan. I'm going to share something that she never likes me to share, but you're all on my side. Who wants to hear that? I noticed the lady's hands didn't go up. You know me as pastor. You know me as Robin. Susan happens to know me as husband. And I thought one day I'm going to, because Susan basically will tell me that basically I know everything that you've preached on for the last 50 years.

Thank you, honey. Anyway, but I went in one day into the kitchen and I thought, I thought maybe Robin, just Robin, not Mr. Pastor, but Robin will tell my wife something profound.

And here it goes. I took a deep breath and I went and said, honey, all we have is today.

I thought that was important to mention. And she said, nope. Oh, she said, all we have is the moment. All we have is the moment.

And I share with you today that as God gives us moment by moment and day by day, but it begins with the moment. And you and I only have the moment today to glorify our Father above and to emulate the example of the one who tells us to follow Him. So we take a look at that.

And we too have been invited in this adventure. Christ has asked us to come on an adventure with Him. And that's kind of the theme that I want to share today, an adventure.

Being a Christian does not have to be boring. It's not theoretical. It's not pedantic.

God asked us to use our hearts, our minds, and our feet, proverbially, our feet, to walk over the walk behind the one that He sent down here to earth. And unlike those people that were in the hospital room, unlike the man who had the largesse and the wealth to help his friend, the good news is simply this, the good news, and yet the important news is it cost us nothing. It cost us nothing, comma, but ourselves. Therein will come the cost.

Therein will come the challenge that we are willing to follow Jesus Christ wherever He wants us to go.

Now that we're all set to go and we're going to go on the adventure, are you ready? Deep breath, put on your seatbelts, airbags deployed, we're going to move forward. So what would be on my spiritual bucket list? I've made a bucket list that I'd like to share with you. If I knew I had only a season to live, perhaps the moment physically, people think about that. What would I want to do? You know, I'd like to see the sunrise again. I'd like to see the sunset again. I'd like to hear the clap of thunder. I'd like to hear the rain on the window. I'd like to see a rainbow one more time to understand not only the beauty of it, but the significance of it that is the promise of God to mankind below. I'd love to hear the laughter of children or embrace my wife one more time. That would be on my physical bucket list. And it's all beautiful and wonderful, but is there more? So allow me to give you the title of the message so you'll stay focused. So I'll stay focused, and here it is. And that is simply this, packing our spiritual bucket list. So you kind of think that you have that packet in front of you. I'm going to kind of, I'm going to kind of like the grocer, like the checkout person. We're going to put some stuff in that bag that I hope that you'll take home and that you will think about. Let's join me, please, to begin with in Romans 7 verse 14. Romans chapter 7, 14.

Just a foundational scripture to take a look at, and then we can proceed. In Romans 7, 14.

And stating this, I realize that I'm talking to an august audience that has been in this way of life for many years, some of you for over 60 years, 50 years, 40 years, and some of you maybe for 50 days, or maybe you're just showing up here for the first time. But I want to just have to take a look at the Apostle Paul for a second, what he says here, to know the adventure that we're in and why we need to keep on climbing. In verse 14, it says, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, and I am sold under sin, for what I am doing I do not understand, for what I will do do do, that I do not practice that what I hate that I do. In other words, everything that I'm supposed to be doing, it ain't happening. Not going there. I'm stuck.

And everything that God wants me to do by His grace and by giving us His Son, I'm not doing that. What's going on here? And he says, For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. And that's going to be a part of our adventure today. For the good that I would do do, I do not do, but for the evil I will not do that I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. And he goes down to, then let's notice verse 25, just to close this section. With all of this frustration, frustration that maybe still lingers in us after 60 years, 50 years, 40 years, and the countdown down to this day, we know what to do, but we're standing still and not making any progress. But there's an exclamation. I love this exclamation point. He, Paul, this man of God, this man, a Jew, a man who's a Roman citizen, a man who understood the Hellenistic culture, a three-in-one kind of a guy that was propelling the gospel. He was honest enough, and God allowed his life to come down to us, that he still had internal issues, stuff that was getting in the way of him glorifying God and going any further until he addressed it. And then he addresses it in verse 25. He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. But he thanks God, the Lord Jesus Christ. For some of you that are new, this is the most glorious titles that any individual can have. The Lord Jesus Christ. Number one, he is kurios. That's Greek. He is Lord. He's the Lord of our life. He is the Pathfinder. Remember, Jesus said, I am the path.

I am the way. I am the life. He is. He is Jesus, which is Yeshua out of the Hebrew, which means he is Savior. He is Messiah. And he is the Christ, the anointed one, Messiah itself. And you bundle this all together, and we're ready to begin to pack. And also, again, looking at Paul and being honest, join me over to Philippians 3 for just a second. In Philippians 3, and we're going to pick up the thought in verse 12. Paul is so honest. Maybe something that we can all take a look at and put that in our spiritual bucket list as well. Not that I have already attained or already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. This is called the double grab. That's my terminology for it. Christ laid hold of us and embraced us and held on to us to bring us towards the Father. And now we are to grab a hold and turn Him and the things that He bring. When you have a double hold, if Christ is holding us, and then we're holding Christ, we've got a team. We've got a family. We have a party on our adventure. You talk about the two guys that were in the hospital room. This is the twosome that we want on the spiritual adventure that we're about to embark on. But notice what it says here, after the double hold, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching towards those things which are ahead.

He wasn't there yet. At this point, He was still climbing and climbing, not looking around. And that's where we get caught up because we get caught up and around, but He was looking up. He was going for the mountain peak. He was not just simply looking at Mount Sinai, but looking at Mount Zion, as it says in Hebrews. And He knew that He had company, the assembly in heaven, God the Father, Jesus Christ, and climb and climb and climb until He stopped drawing breath. So, my bucket list, I'm going to go through this rather rapidly.

I know you'd like me to speak for three hours, but Jean is a technician of time, and she's heard me too much. So here we go. I'm going to share a bucket list. You might want to jot this down if you like. I'll send out my notes. Just get the impact of where I'm taking you. I'll send notes out to Mr. Seagly. I'd like to first of all visit Armenia, Asia Minor, Turkey, in that area. In my bucket list, I love mountains, and we look at mountains in Riverside County. I know that you like to look at Saddleback, Mount Santiago. Remember, I grew up in Newport Beach. I looked at it every day when I was in junior high, but we got big mountains out in Riverside County. Asia, big mountains, twice as high. I'd better bring that up. So I like mountains, and I want to go to that area where there were mountains, and also in the sense that there were also plains in that part of the country. You have plains with the rising mountains. It's a little bit like Riverside County, where we live. Plains and then mountains. I'd like to visit a man named Noah.

I'd like to just spend some time with him and drop in at that time when God knocked on the door of his heart and said, I'm going to do something for you. And forever, in Scripture, when you are introduced, it'll say, but, comma, Noah. Noah was the exception of what was going on in that pre-flood world. And God gave him an assignment. Now, when he gave him that assignment, I have to share something with you. I know I'm aging, and some of you, I can tell by your faces, you think I'm aging when I'm meeting you after some years. Thank you very much. But Noah was 480 years of age, and God gave him an assignment. Gave him an assignment at 480 years of age in a dry world, on a dry plane, and he came to Noah and said, Noah, you're going to build a boat. Hello?

Maybe, oh no, I know I'm the one with the butt, so I guess I must be the one, right? Oh, okay. And it's interesting that he asked Noah to build that boat. And you've seen the instructions, you know, it says, I mean, God's kind of a master controller here.

But there's three things that he left off. There was no rudder.

There was no sail. And there was no anchor. I don't know how that would work down in the east side of Long Beach, Belmont Shores, the harbor there. I don't know where I grew up in Newport Beach with 10,000 boats back then. I can't imagine what it is now. How does that work when you don't have a sail, when you don't have a rudder, and you don't have an anchor to feel safe, to feel secure? What is going on in God's mind that Noah is going to accept? And that is simply this.

I'm going to put my life and the life of my family into your hands. And in a sense, we gain the sense of Jesus that he will be the the way. He will be the path. He will be the truth. He will do what he says he's going to do and see me through. And he is life. And the life would begin again in that second set of life after Adam, Noah. And that's one thing that brings us all together. If you're not related to Adam, we know we're all related to Mr. and Mrs. Noah, right? How would you like to go through life without a rudder, without a sail, and without an anchor? And maybe you are right now. Maybe in the situation that you're facing right now, Christians face tough things. We're not immune, just like what's up here in Altadena. That's home. Pasadena grew up there. After I grew up down there, Susan and I lived in the San Gabriel Valley for years. Those people, our people, our fellow citizens, many that are in the Church of God diaspora that are up there, United Church of God members that have lost their home.

This happened both to the saints and the strangers for purposes that are only known to God.

That would be on my bucket list. And what I share with you, you are never too old. You are never too infirmed. It is never too late for God's interruption in our lives.

And say, I have something for you to do. It may never be as grand as a boat, but it will serve God's purpose. And as we heard from David, you will be a vessel of God's life to other people. Who wants to go someplace else with me? That's when you're supposed to raise your hands or the sermon's over. Okay, good. I would like to also, I like to be on the Mesopotamian plains. In the Mesopotamia means the the the dual rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. I like to kind of be over there. And I'd like to be on the road. I'd like to meet somebody that's coming up from Ur of the Chaldees. His name is Abram. And it's interesting that as I'm going down the road towards Ur and my on my spiritual bucket list of adventure places, I would like to go. I notice that all the chariots and all the carts and all the people, they're going south and there's this one family coming out of Ur and they're going north. Hello? What's happening here? Right? We can understand that when we see the freeways of the megalopolis, where you see the crunch of cars. We saw that about three different freeways coming in today. Where you see all the cars jammed trying to go somewhere. But on the other side is just like a rocket ship. That was Abram. And he was heading north with no known compass, with no known guide. And as everybody was coming into the cities, he was going out to worship the God that had called him. Very, very interesting.

Very interesting. And to recognize the what he was doing and he went out.

In 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3, I'd like to have you look at that with me for a second.

Notice this. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3.

But I fear, Paul speaking, had somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. I want to share something, there is a simplicity which is in Christ. How much stuff do you have going on in your life that is creating a heart blockage, not physically, but spiritually, where we cannot rise to the calling that God has given us to simplify your life? I'll share something with you in the book that I'll never write. But being in Pasadena and being there with Mr. Armstrong back in the 80s after he came back, he in a sense gave the church three guidelines. He was no longer trying to predict the future, per se, not that his mind changed about Jesus Christ coming back, but he was centering in on the moment. Now, the now, what are we going to be doing in our challenges? And there were three things that he shared with us as a church. When he came back from Tucson, his mind was focused, and he gave three important points. Number one is to come out of the world. Come out of this world, this culture, this age, the word cosmos with a K, out of this world. Number two, he said, simplify your lives. Using this verse, learn to simplify your life.

Bring the common denominator down. And number three, then, he said, learn now to become teachers.

If Jesus Christ, the Lord of the millennium, and the high priest of all, we're going to have an opportunity by God's grace and election to be able to serve. Not in the same plane, there's always Christ, but we're going to be allowed to serve. And what if we don't practice it now, if we don't learn it now, our words are going to be cheap. It will only be precept and not practice.

And so we learned that, that there is a simplicity. And the one thing I like to kind of put in there with you is simply this. There are two things that this father of the faithful was known for. Are you ready? You can jot it down. Number one, he was a man that lived in a tent. You can't get any simpler. Probably a nice tent. Probably a nice tent. I'll give that a tent. And number two, he had one altar. One altar. The one thing about the biblical character of a Brahm versus the kings of Israel, the kings of Jude, and all the others, he never worshipped on the altar of a pagan god. He only worshipped on the altar of his own making and only worshiped to the one true god that had called him out of moon worship many years before that his family was steeped in, being in Ur of the Chaldees. So my bottom line is, as we're looking at the spiritual bucket list, we're going to put in this visit to Mesopotamia. And you can do that in the scriptures and follow what a Brahm was doing. I'd also, while we're kind of in that territory, we're going to move west a little bit, I'd also like to kind of go up and be around what is now Israel and what is now what we call the mountains of Moriah.

I'd like to visit Moriah. I'd like to take a look at it right up front and close and walk on it. And think of how it must have been for Abraham by that time and Isaac to walk up that mountain in faith. God was asking Abraham to sacrifice the Son of Promise.

The Son of Promise. And you go, you say, say what? Really?

Have you ever gotten kind of what you think are like mixed signals from God?

After everything that I've done for you, Father and God?

But you said. But we give God all of our jigsaw puzzle pieces and ask Him to include our jigsaw puzzle pieces in what His master plan is about ahead of our time and in His perfect will. Join me, if you would, in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 3.

Oh, that's not what I want. Pardon me. Hebrews. I have to just hear. I can't see up here. There's no light. So this is a work of faith giving this sermon to you. Hebrews 11. And pick him up with thought in verse 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said in Isaac, your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, which he also received him in a figurative sense.

We have a hint here of why Abraham was able to walk up and do what he did. This was beyond him. God makes the impossible possible.

He opens seas. He brings down walls that are in front of his people down through the ages. And most importantly, he opens up hearts. You know what I would like to do? I'd like to spend some more time on Mount Moriah, but I have other places to go. But just to think about that, we know it today where the Temple Mount is in Jerusalem. So we're visiting Jerusalem right now. But one thing I'd like you to jot down is simply this. The mountain was renamed by Abraham.

Now here we have Mount Wilson. We have Mount Santiago. We have Mount San Sinto.

We have the different mountains that rise above us. But this mountain, in the midst of Jerusalem, which has always been where heaven touches earth, down through the ages, Abraham renamed it.

And he named it the Mount where God shall provide. Because he provided the ram, didn't he? Remember? The ram was called in the thicket, and they sacrificed the ram instead of Isaac.

Take that and put that in your spiritual bucket list. That you want to visit that story again in the Bible to help you with your own personal adventure. And while we're at it, I'd like to kind of go to the Land of Oz. I'm not talking about the Land of Oz. That's on television. That's a movie, 1939. But we're going to go to the Land of Oz for a moment, again in that basic Mesopotamian area, most likely. And to recognize what was going on there, here is Job. Here is Job, who is a man that is righteous, and he has the biggest challenge that anybody can have.

And that is that Satan asked for him. He said, you know, God, you're just, you're just, you know, he's your favorite student on earth, and you're not going to do anything with him. And God allowed Job to be tested, but he also put a hedge around Job. He said, you can do this, you can do this, but he is to remain alive. Even with that said, it would be like a living death when you read through the 42 chapters of Job. And yet he remained faithful, even when his wife, humanly, I can understand it, Mrs. Job was not a happy camper, losing her children, said, oh Job, give it up, curse God and die. And yet you never find Job do that. But you do find, I'll share another story with you, a little story out of the past. Somebody once asked Mr. Armstrong, said, was Job ever converted? And Mr. Armstrong said, yes, but it took him 42 chapters. When he came to chapter 42 and verse 5, and he said, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Perhaps that's our case today, that we need even further to know that God loves us. His will is perfect. Sometimes we can feel that we are rudderless, anchorless.

I can't say saleless, that would be bad English. Living life without a sail. And yet to know that God will provide. Yes, he will. I'd also like to spend some time, more time in the land of us, because you know what I'd like to do? I'd like to sit around the campfire with with Job's friends and to find out what not to do. Have you ever had friends that they thought they were friends, that you thought they were friends, and yet they were circling the wagons and never hitting the mark? What does that tell us as we move forward on our adventure? These friends seem to have an answer for everything and missed the mark. You know, when you miss the mark on a fire range, if you miss the mark, you miss the mark. If you miss by one inch or if you miss by a mile, you have missed the mark. And they kept on missing the mark. And that tells me as I spend some time around that campfire on my bucket list and on this adventure of learning how I, myself, can proceed is to recognize simply this, to learn to hug more and talk less. To hug more and to talk less. To watch out for the bum-dope that I might be sharing with somebody when I do not know what I'm talking about. I was just sharing with some people here today that I think the older I get and the experiences I get with people and being bedside with people in hospitals or this or that or this or that and marriage situations, you name it, is simply this. I have to caution with my words. I'll share a thought here. Is that when it comes to a simple thought is that many of you remember my dad from Long Beach Days Forward and my mom. And my mom had Alzheimer's in her 80s and she died from old age and Alzheimer's. And I can understand that. I can understand that as a son. And Susan was right there with me and taking care of her. I can understand a parent that comes down with Alzheimer's. And I can relate and I can touch on that. But then when I'm giving advice or I feel like I'm understanding, I have to recognize there's a distance between a parent that has Alzheimer and your mate, the love of your life, who doesn't know you any longer and looks at you and says, have I met you before? And this is your honey. This is your sweetheart. So I have to understand where I put my brakes on as a Christian. Not just a pastor. I don't think I'm just a Christian. Where do I put my brakes on in giving advice? With people that have not yet climbed that part of the mountain. Oh, I think going back to us, sounds like a back to Eden. Now this is a famous book. Back to us would be very profitable for us in our bucket list. I'd also like to then move west and I'd like to be in the environs of Bethlehem. And I'd like to be in Bethlehem, which is there just outside of Jerusalem by about six miles. And I'd like to stand by Jesse, not Jesse, excuse me, but by Samuel the prophet. And to spend a little time there and as he's choosing who the next king of Israel is going to be, to anoint and to recognize what happens there. Join me if you wouldn't, 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. If you don't know where 1 Samuel 16 is, it's in front of 2 Samuel.

I'm picking up the thought if I could. He's going down the list of the sons and looking at them. So it was when they had come, they looked at Eliah and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said in verse 7 to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature because I have refused him. For the Lord does not look as man sees. For man looks after the outward appearance. They judge the book by its cover to their detriment. But the Lord looks at the heart.

Do you think that might be an interesting piece of geography to visit and to be there live? Over the years, I have an opportunity to read a lot of books, and I travel a lot in books. I think many of you know I love history, love social science, all that stuff. It's one thing to even look at it and know it mentally. But to get into it and to be there, to be with those people, and that's available for all of us to pay a visit to us, to pay a visit to Ur, to pay a visit to Bethlehem, to pay a visit to the mountains of Ararat, and to soak up the experience and know what was truly happening and then to apply it ourselves. How often do we judge based on simply appearance and miss the mark?

That's an adventure that I think is still worthwhile until the day I die, because as human beings, we look that way. You know, while we're over in that neck of the woods, I'd also like to go to a place called the Valley of Elah. This is the interactive portion of services now. What happened in the Valley of Elah? Can somebody help me?

Now, you know what? We don't want to hold up ceremony coming after this.

Gene, I'm not breaking church until they come up with it. Okay, pardon? Who said that? Oh, hi, Howard! Okay, Goliath! What a place to be and what a moment to be there with to recognize what was going alike. Here was David, who's probably maybe 18, 19, or 20. He wasn't just a little boy. He was a trained shepherd, and the shepherds knew, and many people in the Middle East used slings to get rid of the varmints and also just in armies. In armies, there would be whole legions of people that knew how to use the sling. And here he is, and you see what's happening here, and he recognized simply a simple point when he goes through 1 Samuel 17. He did not make the mistake that the spies that spied out the land had done 300 years before. They felt like grasshoppers, right? When you remember the story, they came back, and they were into etymology rather than doing what God told them to do. Got into the grasshopper talk. Not David, not our man David, not the one that is going to rule over the wonderful world tomorrow. No, this guy knew that God was bigger than his biggest problem. What problem are you going through right now? Where are you stalled on the mountain and on the adventure? Where are you stuck? Look at these stories. Have the adventure going through Scripture. Read it. Make it personal. David, a lad, takes down a guy who is at least, if you look at the cubits, he was anywhere between seven feet and nine feet tall.

I wasn't there. I didn't have a measuring rod. I know some of the kids here might think I'm old. I'm not that old. I was not there. I was not the fly on the wall. But to recognize that, in David's eyes, Goliath was a fly. And another thing that he did when we were in the Valley of Elah, he didn't just kill Goliath. He didn't just stun Goliath to where Goliath plopped and it had to be like thunder when he plopped. He didn't say, oh no, what have I done? This has got to stop.

I may be reported to prevention to the society of giants. This might haul me out of the valley. I'll do jail time. Here's he's the one that started it. Now I'm gonna be tossed in prison. Sounds a little bit like what almost happened in New York recently. Now, he took the guy's own sword.

And he took it and looked over him and you know what happened? Wack! That was kind of fun to do. Whoa, everybody awake?

Goliath didn't wake up. He was dead. What are we doing with those giants that are in our life? Are we playing with them? Are we toying with them? Do we continue to almost have them down and then we start giving them like a cat? We put out the bowl of water. We put out the little cat food and try to keep this problem alive in our life. Or do we know that the Lord that is holy, the Lord Almighty, the Pathfinder, Jesus Christ, who looks down and sees us, says, rise up. Now, take that sword of the Spirit and you're not alone. You are the man, you are the woman, and for such a time as now, maybe not in Persia, but here in Garden Grove, here over in East Long Beach, maybe down in Newport, wherever you are, rise up and know that you are not alone. Let's go back East. More adventure. Let's go to Babylon.

Oh, how I would like to go to Babylon. Well, we are actually in Babylon, but that's a whole different sermon. But to recognize that this helps us to go to Babylon and to recognize that there were people that said, enough is enough. Daniel and Michiel and Hananiah and Azariah were being groomed by the Babylonians. They were given new names, and in those names are the names of pagan gods. They were given new grooming to wear, slowly, slowly wearing them down. And maybe there are some things that you let go by and you'll wait. But then it came to a point that they were given the famous vittles. Now, I don't know what those vittles were. I know it was an In-N-Out Burger.

You don't know, but there are different things we can look at. Either it was food that was unclean, just straight out unclean. It could have been food that had been offered to idols. What we know was that Daniel knew, and he said that I am not going to partake. Here I stand. My conscience bids me not to do so. Here I stand and I can do none other. Join me if you would in Daniel 1 and verse 8.

In Daniel 1 and verse 8 as we enter Babylon. And, you know, instead of them laying down the marker, the man of God lays down the marker. But it says in verse 8, but Daniel purposed and or determined in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested to the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He was polite. He asked a question, and he was willing to take the answer no matter which way it came. I know growing up, I was just telling Susan this year that I had shared it with Redlands, I think, or San Diego the other week. He said, my mother taught me three sayings that still come to my mind 70 years later. And one thing that my mother always taught me, it says, Robin, that's why I always ask, she said, Robin, always ask questions of everybody.

All they can do is say no. This is a big no. And there's the rest of the story that you can now obtain as you turn into Babylon and see what we need to do today, that there are some things that we have to quote-unquote put up with being in the megalopolis of LA and the culture of the 21st century. But you and myself, we need to know the firm line and know that Jesus Christ is on our side of the line, no matter what comes our way, and to give it over to him. Allow me to move on to another one here for a second. Oh, you know what? We're still having our adventure in Babylon.

And, you know, further in the book of Daniel, we see his three companions, Michiel, Hananiah, Azariah, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.

Those are their Babylonian names, like I said, that we're more familiar with. They were asked to bow down to an idol.

And when you and I have this adventure and we trace their footsteps and their heart steps, and we look at this, it's to recognize something very powerful. For you and me today, God has not called us to go along with the crowd. Are you a crowd pleaser or a God pleaser?

Is the crowd so important that you're willing to give up your relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son out of a moment in time, if but a moment that you can stand tall? Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. Everybody in the great courtyard of Babylon, everybody's going down before the image except for the church. Three individuals. And here's the point I want to share with you. Allow me to do this, and it's simply this. It's one thing to stand. That's pretty important, isn't it, to take a stand. But it's a whole other thing to keep on standing. Keep on standing. And ask yourself, as I ask myself in sharing this with you and the echoes coming back to me, how often did I initially take a stand on something and then I sat down, proverbially, and did not keep on standing?

I ask you. You think about it.

I have about 10 or 12 more, but we're going to begin to wind up here.

You can figure out your list. I'll send out my notes to all of you, but I'll share another one I think that we can all do. I would like to go to the northern tier of the Sea of Galilee.

One of my favorite stories, and I've written about it in our magazines at Saturn, given sermons on it, but you know, Jesus has the crowd.

And the disciples are kind of whispering under their breath, oh man, look what he's gotten us into. You know, they're probably going to want us to feed them.

Five thousand.

And the guy that grew up in the area, one of the disciples said, he said simply this, he said, there's not enough down there in the bakery to feed anybody, and we're up here stuck on hell. Basically saying, oh, thank you, Jesus, very much. But then there was one individual, just one, that Andrew found. And sometimes you say, you know, you don't hear a lot about Andrew in the Bible.

You hear about Peter, you hear about Paul, you hear about John, you read all the chapters and chains. But what about Andrew? Andrew had a unique gift. May I share it with you? That's when you're supposed to nod, so I can share. Okay? It's simply this. He connected people with Jesus.

He connected some of the Hellens in Jerusalem and brought them to Jesus and dropped them in front of Jesus. And here he found a lad who had brought his lunch pail into the crowd.

Are you with me? And he took the loaves and he took the fish. And the rest is history. And then, as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story, he had the disciples go out with baskets to collect all the leftovers. Just to kind of, are you with me? To grind in the point. Do not limit what I can do. What's the bottom line for you and me as we begin to conclude this sermon in just a couple minutes? Simply this. Never underestimate God and never underestimate what God can do with you. Not just Mr. Seagly, not just Robin Weber, not just people that everybody knows or you've listened to for years, but you in the body of Christ, Christ followers, disciples of Christ.

That if you give God nothing, you give Him nothing, but if you take your little, He can magnify that to His glory. Never underestimate the little that God can do and make it much towards His purpose of allowing Him to be glorified and that you can be a witness. A little fish, a little bread, and the rest is history. Let me just look down my list for just a second.

There's one I want to share here with you. Hold on.

I'm going to go to one more.

In my bucket list, and as I traveled, I like to travel again in the land of Israel, and I'd like to have a reserved seat. You know how you're on these tours sometimes in foreign capitals and you have a reserved seat? I would like to have a reserved seat by Peter. What a rock and roll ride that would be when you read the Gospels about the life of Peter. And not only that, but especially when it came to water. Have you ever thought about Peter in water? It's to recognize that he was the one that got out of the boat on the Sea of Galilee and he spotted Jesus. He got out of the boat.

He was walking on water, and of course, I think most of us know the rest of the story. He, as we say in Hebrew, he petered out. He went down. And our Lord and our Savior, Messiah, came over, did not disparage him, gave some instruction, but lifted his hand out, as he does to us today, and says, Come, get up. There's more on the journey. Again, having reserved seat by Peter on that night of nights when our Savior was betrayed. And Peter was not going to get washed by Messiah. That's not how it worked in Jewish society. No, no, no, Lord. No, no, no, Lord. No, no, no, Lord. You know, he's really good at no, right? Do you ever know? No. But then, once he found out, he said, Give it all to me. Lay it on me. I understand now. And we that have been in this way of life for six years, there's still some things that we do not fully grasp. I'm sorry to break the news to you. There's more to learn. Or do you already have it all figured out?

But he interrupted Peter's life. And there's one other spot I'd like to be in a reserved seat with Peter on my bucket list is simply this. After Savior is resurrected. And he says, Meet me in Galilee. And so the guys are out there fishing just like they started. Life is a circle, isn't it? Have you ever been in that circle where you're kind of right where you started? And God's going to do something special. And they're out in the boat and they look at and they see some smoke going up on the shore. And everybody's excited because it's Master. He's there. He had said to go there after he would come back. Meet me in Galilee. But what does Peter do again while everybody is watching? Can somebody help me? Help me? Thank you. Was he naked? Were you there? I... Bous?

Lee, that's fascinating.

I wasn't going to... We're going to put his shorts on, at least for the end of the sermon. But what does he do? He dives off. What do we learn from Peter, even with his woes and with his big mouth and everything else? God can put up with that and he can put up that with you and me. But wherever Jesus was, he wanted to be as close as possible without any separation. Jesus was Lord. He was Messiah. He was friend. He was companion. And he was the way. I want to share a story with you that I shared, I think it was last week, as we begin to conclude. Join me if you will in John 14.

And Jean, we are going to conclude. I'm watching Jean's eyes here.

I can't see up here, but I can see Jean's eyes. They're burning.

John 14 verse 6. On that night of nights, again, the learning curve and the adventure that we're on, these guys had been embedded with Jesus for three and a half years, morning, noon, and night, sea of Galilee, down in Jerusalem, over in Nazareth, up in Capernaum, over in the Decapolis on the northeast side of Galilee, everywhere. They were breathing and living with Jesus, but they still didn't get the big picture. When he says, in my father's house, verse 2, are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may also be. Now notice verse 4. And where I go, you know, and the way you know, you know, you've been with me. I've told you, again and again. But notice, Thomas, ever, ever mindful, ever so honest, Thomas said, Lord, notice like the poke in the ribs, into the hands, Lord, we don't really know where you're going. And how can we know the way?

The early church was not, even before Antioch, where they were first called Christians, they were known as being in the way. And this is what we learn as we go through the Old Testament, the New Testament, on our spiritual bucket list, and you can add, and I'll send out my notes to you, as I leave today and as soon as you and I scoot back up to Riverside, I'll share this with you.

And that is simply this. And Jean, this will be my concluding story and comment.

She's like my sister, so I can have fun with Jean. Isn't it fun having fun with Jean? Okay, here we go.

What does that mean? Maybe right now we have experienced a crash landing in our life, and things aren't going like we had hoped for when we started out on this journey.

For long is the way, and we can get tired, and we can get snookered by something, and we can go off the path. Jesus said, I am the way. Other translations will say, I am the path. Allow me to share a story with you for a moment. It's the story of a man that was on an adventure, he was in a plane, and it crashed in the jungle.

He got out and he was surrounded with jungle, in a little clearing, and he didn't know what to do.

All of a sudden out of the jungle came an individual, a native. And the pilot said, how can I get out of here? I don't know the way. Do you know where there's a path?

Can you lead me to it?

The native went, follow me. So they're in the jungle, and the native is going forward, and he has a machete. He's hacking, hacking, and hacking, and hacking, and they're a couple of hours in, and the man that had crashed said, excuse me, he said you knew where there was a path. He said you knew the way out of here. What's going on? You can appreciate the desperation of being in the jungle.

So the native is going like this, and he hears what the man is saying to him, and the native just looks back like this.

I am the path. That's what your Lord, my Savior, your Savior, my Lord, is to us, as we are entrapped in the jungle of this world, as we are shrouded sometimes by our human nature, as we're striving to go up the mountain, but we've slipped and fallen on our adventure of following Jesus Christ. We've gotten off path, and we're not following Him.

The Scripture says, lo, I am with you always to the end.

It also says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's our Savior. That's our God.

In this brief time, I hope I've opened up your thoughts about having your own spiritual bucket list. I'll send more out to you when I have a chance. It has been a wonderful opportunity to rub hearts and rub shoulders in this hour. Keep on looking up. And remember, as you look up, just remember this, I heard something. Was it Roy? Were you reading the directions to something?

Hope this isn't a euphemism. Good night! I'd be lost! Have you ever been in a town, I'll finish with this, have you ever been in a town where you're running, you're not from these parts? You pull over to the hardware store, and there's the old guy, and he says, hey, I'm from, you don't want to say you're from California. You're in trouble. And you say, I'm not from around here. We've all been, I'm not from, can you help me? Sure, pal. Here's what you do. You keep on going down Main Street, then about six or seven, maybe eight blocks down. You take a left on Third Street, and then about eight blocks, I think there's a 7-11, but beyond that, take a right on C Street. Then you're going to kind of go up for a while, and then he says, good luck!

I want to share something with you. This is the power of what I'm talking about today, and may God's blessing be upon you. Always remember, when you start with Jesus Christ, he just doesn't tell you about where to be and where to go. He will be with you. He is the path. He will be your partner. He will be your spiritual buddy. He will be the bridge between us and God, the Father. He will be our champion in times of darkness and trial, and banging our head against the wall and asking, is there any way out of this self-imposed prison that I have put myself into?

Do you remember if Robin Weber in this lifetime ever tells you something as I have opportunity to speak? Remember this. Our Savior, He who came from heaven and came back and now has gone back up to the mountain of the kingdom and waits for us and bids us to go forward to remember simply this. I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the life. Dear friends, it's so good. It's so good to see all of you after all these years. May God bless you and may God keep you.