Responding to Configurations of Life

You know, you're born into a configuration of life. You have nothing to do with what that configuration is. You simply are born into it. That's the case with every baby. Baby has no say. It's born into whatever configuration it is, and we're born totally helpless and at the mercy of that configuration. And be it good, be it bad, be it ugly, be it whatever blend or mix of that, of those three elements.

But that's the initial configuration of your entry or birth into life. And the forces and the factors of it that make it up at that time are not of your making. Somebody else makes those forces and those factors, don't they? You simply, at birth, and for some time after birth, you're simply the recipient of those factors, and you can only make the most of them.

And even as you grow up you find there's certain forces and factors that you can only make the best of. Our most dynamic president, in my opinion, and I think it's the opinion of most, the most dynamic president that we ever had, Teddy Roosevelt, made this statement. He said, do the best you can where you are with what you have. Really good advice.

Do the best you can where you are with what you have. Now as you age, as you grow up, you will have more and more hand or say, and I'm speaking according to the natural scheme of things, not talking about the fact that so many of us here have long since grown up, but what I'm talking about does still affect all of us lifelong, but you will have more and more hand or say in determining the forces and the factors that do set the configuration of your life.

But that said, there will never be a time in this life, in this life, when you can totally configure the configuration, there will never be a time when all the forces and factors are totally 100% under your control, and you'll never be able to make everything be exactly like you want it to be and how you want it to be.

Sometimes that just needs to be voiced. This life is bigger than you and me. There are forces and factors that are above and beyond us, but you can affect that configuration at any given time, you know, whatever that configuration is, you can affect it. You can affect it. You can modify it to some degree. You can determine to some degree what the nature and mixed blend of good, bad, and ugly of a. By your actions, by your attitudes, by your choices, decisions, by your responses. The wise person learns to apply what we call the serenity prayer. Maybe you knew this prayer was called this, maybe you didn't, but this is what the serenity prayer is, and I know you'll recognize it by what it is.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. And that author is Reinhold Niebuhr. From the time, beginning with the time, from that time on, that you and I begin to have responsibility and accountability with our actions and our responses. Somewhere beginning around age three, let's say, you begin to have a little measure of power.

Now, it's very small, yes, to effect, but you do begin to have a little bit of power to effect the configuration of life that you're encased in. For instance, I remember I was somewhere around four years of age and I had a little silver toy pistol. And I discovered my mother's red lipstick. And I thought that little pistol would look better painted red than being silver. So I painted my pistol with her lipstick and it took a lot of lipstick to paint that pistol.

And I had the pistol very much painted and had it all over me as well. And I can tell you that I did effect the configuration of my life there at that time for a time because my mother was not happy with me.

But that ability to effect the configuration we're set within, obviously, it increases, obviously, as we age until at some point it maxes out. But it will never rise to the level, ever, where you have all control to totally determine the configuration of life. There will always be forces and factors absolutely beyond your control and that is a reality. And in some regards, accepting that as a reality does help some with the frustrations it can come. But now, if that's all true, which it is, then doesn't it make it even more important that you effect the forces and factors that you can effect through wise decisions and wise choices?

And one constant throughout life which will always be within your control, no matter what the configuration of your life at the time is, is your response. That is within your control, your response. You can consciously choose to always respond responsibly to whatever the configuration is.

That's always within your power. That's something that if you don't want to surrender it, it can't be taken from you. That cannot be control, the power of your response. Now, I know we like titles. We like titles to hang the messages on. And I've always been one, generally, as a regular rule, to give titles. If you want to title this, title it this way, responding to the configurations of life. And if you want to make it real personal, responding to your configurations of life.

Responding to configurations of life. Always bear in mind, never lose sight of, never let it escape your thinking. Never let it lapse from your realizations that God is bigger than the configuration of your life. He is above and beyond it. He's bigger above and beyond the forces and factors of your life.

And just like the song, you know, He's on the mountain, but He's also in the valley. He's in the day and He's also in the night. I was thinking, listening to that song, how appropriate it is to that most crucial factor. You know, you've heard the phrase, let go and let God. Well, that phrase carries a certain valuable meaning and impact if it's understood and applied properly. Who is in a better position to help you no matter what the configuration of life is that you're set within?

Who is in a better position to help you than God? And when I say God, I mean the Father and the Son. Who has a bigger concern? My wife loves me and I love her.

But regardless as to how much I would want to help her if she helped me, there could be forces and factors that are out of her control in helping me or me helping her, but not God. God's concern and His power to help His concern and interest in our welfare and especially the spiritual welfare, who is more concerned than God and who is more concerned than God with our development? Who has the bigger investment in us than God?

And who will reach out to us more than God? Think about it. Pentecost was last week, and Pentecost actually, we connected to the Spring Holy Days and rightly so. We came through the season of Passover and Unleavened Bread and of course Pentecost. The investment that God made in us. I mean literally, God died for us. You can't make a deeper investment than that in somebody. And so that willingness and that ability and that capacity to come into your configuration and help you, nobody supersedes God on that.

And we know that. But I think sometimes depending on the configuration we might kind of momentarily lose sight of it. Philippians 2 and verse 13. Such an encouraging scripture. Chapter 2 verse 13, For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God which works in you.

Now it's interesting, I think Paul as he wrote this letter to the Philippians, when he got to this point and he writes this verse, he writes this in his letter, I don't think he forgot what he wrote in chapter 1 verse 6. I think he dovetailed into it. He repeated it for emphasis. See chapter 1 verse 6 says, Being confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it or finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. So he's telling him, he which has begun a good work in you is going to stay with it, he's going to finish it, he's going to complete it.

And then you come to chapter 2 and he says, For it is God which works in you, which he's just again emphasizing he's both telling into what he had said previously in the letter, both to will, that's to help with your motivation, that's to help with your mind and your motivation and to do of his good pleasure. And when God does something good for us, he feels good about it. When you do something good for somebody, don't you feel good about it? You get a good feeling. When you do good for somebody, you get a good feeling.

You're supposed to get a good feeling. It's a built-in reward. And that's magnified with God when he does something for us. He feels good about it. You can't escape the configuration of your life. Again, there are forces and factors bigger than we are, but God does make it plain and he does make it clear that he can and he will step into that configuration, step into that configuration with us and help us.

I want to go back to an account that we're very familiar with, in Daniel 3. And I just ask that you put a marker there or whatever. We'll go back and forth some in Daniel. Daniel chapter 3. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is in the fiery furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar is at a vantage point where he can see into the furnace but be safe from the heat. And he makes this statement.

Chapter 3 verse 25. He answered and says, lower, look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire. They have no hurt. They're not being hurt. That fire was so hot that the men who threw them in, and of course they had to throw them in because they left all their clothes on them and they wrapped them, they bound them from head to toe.

They had to carry them and pitch them in. And just to get close enough to pitch them in, the flames were so great that the flames leapt out and burned up the ones who threw them in. And so here's Nebuchadnezzar. He's seeing four walking in the flame with no hurt, and he said, the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Now just picture Shadrach and Meshach in a bed and go.

They're going to die if, I mean they're willing to die if God doesn't spare them, they're going to do what's right. Okay, they're thrown in the fire. Of course, the bindings either fall off or burned off, whichever, but their clothes weren't burned and they didn't smell of smoke or anything. But you can imagine Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego looking at each other in the flames. We're in this together, guys. And all of a sudden, there's another individual standing right there in the middle of the three of them, the Son of God, the one who would later come as Jesus Christ.

You know what I said? God makes it plain and clear that He can and He will step into that configuration with us and help us. You know, the forces and factors that got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fire were bigger above and beyond them. Notice this same chapter. Let's look at verse 1. We'll do a little kind of a skim read. I know again we're very familiar with the account so we don't have to spend much time with it. But in chapter 3 verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was three square cubits and the breadth thereof six cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together to assemble the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces.

Whoever was somebody, this was the whole who's who's list of the kingdom. I mean, if you were somebody, you were there. So just picture all the audience that he had there. All of the great and mighty of his kingdom were there to come to the dedication of the image.

And it wasn't like you get an invitation and you turn it down. You turn it down, they'll put the turn down invitation with a head cut off or something like that. So the audience was anybody that was really somebody in his kingdom, they were there. Verse 3, Then the princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, they list them all. They were gathered together to the dedication of the image that it set up. And verse 4, Then a herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet flute, unless all these instruments, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up.

And whosoever falls not down, and worships shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore, at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet flute, the harp, etc., fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Verse 8, Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and they accused the Jews.

I spoke, and they said to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever! You, O king, you've made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of all these instruments and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image.

And whosoever falls not down, and worships that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Well, there are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded you. They serve not your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up. Now again, put yourself in Nebuchadnezzar's shoes. He has called anybody that was really somebody in his kingdom there as an audience and to bow down. So in front of all this audience, there's three men that refuse to bow down.

What does that say to Nebuchadnezzar? And what does it say to the audience? And what does it say to Nebuchadnezzar, being on the spot and embarrassed in front of all this to him? Very important and great audience. So when it says, then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage, he was raging mad. In his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said to them, is it true? You know, you could just hear him biting his words. Is it true? Oh, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, do you not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if you be ready that at what time you hear the sound of these musical instruments and you fall down and worship the image which I've made, well, but if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? He was spitting mad, as we might say down south. Verse 19, then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spoke and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was want to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hoes, their hats, their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. But God was bigger and above and beyond those forces. You notice verse 15 again where he said, and who is that God?

That shall deliver you out of my hands. Then verse 24, we read it.

Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished. I guess we hadn't read this one. Was astonished and rose up in haste and spoke and said to his counselors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True King. And then what we read previously, he answered and said, Look, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire. They're not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, and you know his tone was different. And said, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth, come here.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth in the midst of the fire. And verse 27, The princes, governors, captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed upon them. It just had no effect. And God also calls the change. You know, previous to the, let's say, the configuration of the fiery furnace, they had certain power and position in the kingdom.

They had a certain configuration that had some real blessings in it. And then you've got the configuration changed and included the fiery furnace and all of that, but then that configuration with God stepping into it with them took and changed the configuration that it had previous to something that was a lot better even. Because in verses 28 through 30, God caused a change, a positive modification in their configuration.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, and I noticed this whole reversal and switch around, blessed be the God of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and it should be translated messenger. Christ has been the word, the Logos, the spokesman, and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies, yielded their bodies, willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice if need be, that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God.

Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made an outhouse. That's what it's talked about, a dung heel, because there's no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

You know, I want you to think about those three young men for a moment. They lived in a configuration of life that was beyond their power to change. They were captives. It was beyond their power to change, and yet it was not of their creation. It was not of their creation in doing, but it was simply a reality that they had to live with. They were born at a time, started growing up at a time when Judah was going to go into captivity. And if you look at chapter 1, there was a reality they had to live with.

They could not remove it or even significantly altered certain things of the configuration of their life. It says in chapter 1, verse 1, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and he besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God.

And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding science, such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine, which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Michiel, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, to Hananiah of Shadrach, to Michiel of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego.

Captive teens, taken to a land of captivity, torn from their homeland, to be eunuchs in the service of the king.

You ever wonder why, when later on under the Persian rule, certain jealous ones tricked the king, the Persian king, and got Daniel thrown in the lion's den, and God spared Daniel's life in the lion's den. And then, when the night was over, and he realized Daniel had been spared, which the king was very thankful that God intervened for Daniel, and he pulled Daniel out of there. All the men that had set up the king and set up Daniel, the men were thrown in the lion's den with their wives and their children. That's the way it was done. You know why they didn't throw Daniel's wife in with him? And kids, he didn't have any.

You know why he didn't? He was a eunuch. You know why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't have their families thrown in? They were eunuchs. They were cut. They didn't choose that. They didn't choose that configuration. They didn't choose to be captive to any of these. They didn't choose to be taken to land a captive. They didn't choose to not have marriage. They didn't choose not to, you know, have children. But that was the reality that they had to deal with.

This is why I say there are sometimes there are forces and factors that are bigger than us and beyond us. But there was one force, one factor, one power that you always have and that they had that couldn't be taken from them. They had in their hands, in their power, the most important and significant factor of all. And it was the only force or factor that lay truly and fully in their hands and their power. It was their response, and it could not be taken from them. It was their response to the configuration that had been created around them. Again, in Daniel chapter 3.

Verse 15, chapter 3 verse 15, that last sentence, where Nebuchadnezzar said, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Now notice the response.

Now think about it. Here's this king that's got the power of life and death in his hands.

And look at the response. Verse 16, 16 through 18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer you. We're not hesitant. We're not timid. We're not anxious. We don't hesitate to answer you, and we're not careful to just really, really pick our words so maybe we won't tick you off further. No, we know what we're going to do. We're not careful to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, if he chooses for whatever reasons not to, be it known that we will not serve your guides nor worship the golden image which you have set up. In other words, we will respond the way we know we're supposed to, and you do your worst. You've got to throw us in, throw us in. It's not going to change our response. Our response is still going to be responsible and right. See, that had to have infuriated Nebuchadnezzar too because that was the one thing he couldn't control. He couldn't control it. He couldn't take it away from him. He had no power to take the response. He could enslave them. He had. He could make them servants. He could throw them into the fiery furnace. He had power to do all that, but he could not control or take away their power of response because it lay in their hands. That is a power that can never be taken away from a person, and you and I hold that within our power, within our hands, how we will respond to and within the configurations of life that we find ourselves in at any given point in life. Again, we start out in life born into a configuration that we absolutely did not create. We don't have any control over it, and as we age and grow, we have more and more opportunity to affect and to have influence on the configuration of life that we're set in. The movers moving us, the days it took to get us packed, and of course they unpacked us a lot quicker. It doesn't take as long to unpack, but among the movers there was an 18-year-old young man, a nice young man, a respectful young man, and he told me, he said, 90 percent of my childhood and growing up was bad. He said, 90 percent was bad, only 10 percent was good. I told him, I said, well, you know, you can't change that per se, and of course there's not a lot of time to really get into any detail talk, but I said, you can set your mind that from this point forward that you do the best that you can, and you can counter against some of that and all. As we age and grow, we have more and more opportunity, but there will always be parts that we're set within that we cannot change. Life is fluid. Life flows. Life never stays the same. Changes come and changes go. That's the nature of life, but in and with and through it all, again, we can choose our responses, and that's very important. We can choose how we respond.

How we respond can actually make the configuration better and more livable and bearable, or it can make it worse and even harder to live with. You can either add positives and negate some negatives, or it can diminish positives and magnify some negatives. Healthy, proper, positive spiritual responses within and to the configuration that we find ourselves having to live within will always be a benefit to us. I'm going back to Philippians 2, a scripture that I have going all the way back to age 21 when I started out, that I've always focused on after the split up back in the days of apostasy in the church, emphasized it even more, it even took on even greater meaning. But in Philippians chapter 2, always responding in a right and responsible way keeps us on the road to salvation. It keeps us on the road to salvation. This verse here, chapter 2 and verse 12, wherefore, Paul said, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation. That obviously has to do with taking personal responsibility. If we talk about working out our own salvation in terms of taking personal responsibility for what lies within our power, then aren't we automatically in telling response in that, how we respond? Because response lies in our hands. God cannot do our responding for us, but He can and He will help us with it. And again, Paul put verses 12 and 13 here together, because when he said, work out your own salvation. Now chapter 1 verse 6, started a good work in you.

Verse 13, it's God working in you both to help with your will, your motivation, and all, supporting and coupled with you and I, we doing our part in the issue which entails properly responding. And where there are fiery flames, He can walk in the flames with us.

Yeah, it is wonderful to have God with us on the mountain, but it's even more needful to have Him with us when we're in the valley. It's very wonderful to have God walk with us in the sunshine, but it's even more needful to have Him walk with us when we walk in the valley of the shadow of death. Working out requires two things. Number one, faith and number two, fortitude.

Remember what we read in Daniel? We are not careful. We're not timid. We're not hesitant. We're not anxious. We don't have to stop and think about it. We don't have to weigh and consider our words to you, Nebuchadnezzar. We're not careful to answer you. We'll just tell you. And back there, they said, if it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hands. Okay. That's faith. Notice, they said, He is able to deliver us. That's faith. I would like to read one faith scripture. It's Hebrews 11.6. And again, very familiar to us. Hebrews 11 verse 6, "...but without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God must first..." You know, I say first because there's two things mentioned here. "...must believe," obviously, that comes first, that He is, that He exists. "...and along with that, that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Again, able to deliver us. That's faith.

Then they went on to say, but if not, if He doesn't choose to deliver us, if He sees some aspects, and it serves His will in some way, that He chooses not to deliver us, but if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve your guides. That's the bottom line.

In our worship, the golden image, which you set up, that's fortitude. That's fortitude.

Faith believes, and fortitude accepts. Faith believes, and fortitude accepts, and both are needed ingredients for a right and responsible response. If you think about it, those men simply knew what a right and responsible response was, and they were going to make it and let the chips fall where they would. And they were just going to deal with where the chips fell.

And they knew that the power of response lay in their hands. They didn't know for sure what would come in connection to that, necessarily. They knew what could come. They knew what they believed would come. But the bottom line was, if it didn't work out the way they would really like it to, they were still going to have the proper response. And again, working out our salvation has to do with learning to respond to God, no matter what the current configuration of life may be.

We can never, ever afford to allow whatever configuration that might surround us to weaken us in God, to cut us off from God, but when we have wrong or irresponsible responses to those situations, that does weaken us. And that quickly begins to diminish our connection to God and allow it to continue. It will, can and will in due time, cut us off. But if we continue to respond responsibly to God, it does keep us on the road to eternal life. And, just like Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13 put together, it has God's support. I am a firm believer God could bless thin air if He chose to, but frankly, what I have seen is God stands willing to support and bless, but He's saying, do something. Do the right thing. Make a right response. You know, weigh and consider and present a right response. Give me something to bless. I will bless it.

But then that brings up another question. I'll say, I might be remiss if I didn't cover this aspect, if I didn't point out that working out our salvation in relation to our response means working out your response. You ever find yourself in a situation where you have to sit down and think about it, pray about it, think about it, and maybe even fast and say, hmm, I wonder what would really be the right way to respond to this?

What would be the responsible way to respond to this? What would actually be the truly the spiritual way to respond to this? How are you going to know sometimes? Some things were cut and dried and easy. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, it was cut and dried. It was easy. It wasn't easy what they went through, but I mean it was easy to understand what the right response was. There was no ambiguity about that. But what about situations where you really don't know for sure?

What does it depend upon for us to be able to make right and responsible responses? Well, I can tell you.

Knowing what God's Word is, His will is His way. The more you understand His will, the more you understand His way, the more you understand what matters and counts is important to Him, the better positioned you are to know how to properly respond. Well, how do you know His will?

How do you know His way? How do you know His Word? By knowing this Bible. Knowing because this reveals you spend enough time in here and you spend enough time thinking and meditating about this and connecting dots. God's will, His way, understanding His expectations will shape up more and more to where it won't just be the cut and dried ones and the clear black and white ones that are so easy to understand as to how we should respond, but even areas that get into a certain vagueness, you'll be able with God's help to know how to respond in that.

But see, that takes a lot of thought. That takes a lot of study. That takes reading this, studying this, thinking on it, meditating, spending time. It takes a lot of effort, especially in a busy life.

In a busy life where we all seem to be running to the ground with so much we've got to do and keep up with, to carve out time, to really spend time there. It can be, in one standpoint, work. Nice work, but it can certainly come under the category of working out. You're getting a real workout. To recap and conclude, and I might actually quit on time.

Been up here 41 minutes, but I'll get used to it.

Most of my sermons anymore, they go around 50 to 60, around 55. Rarely do I go an hour and five or ten on a rare occasion, but we are born into a configuration we did not create.

And that we have absolutely no control over, and again there's forces and factors that are above and beyond us. That's its condition. At our birth, totally 100 percent, as we enter into life, and of course, as we age and grow, it's not going to be 100 percent, because we have more and more opportunity to affect it. So it may shrink to 90, into 80, into 70, and keep coming down to a degree.

But even that said, we will never, ever, in this life, ever get it to where it is reversed from at birth. 100 percent, nothing in our control, because we're totally dependent and helpless, to, at the other end of our life, 100 percent control over everything that can and does affect us.

You'll never flip like that, but you will have more opportunity to affect it as you grow older. But it's something that we will always have to deal with in this life, and of course, God utilizes it in so many ways to develop us for His kingdom. But the one constant that will forever remain in your hands, in my hands, is the power of response that cannot be taken from you. No one can take that from you, and no one can determine that for you. And when you respond in a right, in a responsible way, you have God's full support and blessing. God honors righteous response.