
I’m uncertain of the details of this story, but it’s been told to me by some of the oldest from this congregation that the Pauls played a significant part in this church life some years ago. I don’t know all the details. And I think I passed by what I heard to Joanne and she said, let’s not quite that way. I heard that they came and they actually lived in this village or somehow with some of our people, but I don’t know if that’s accurate. But I do know that the Pauls brothers sang here. I know that that was an important feature of this church back in the day. So this is Joanne Pauls. And I know most if not all of her family, and there are others in this church here this morning who also know the Pauls family. So this was a great honor when I was assisting in the church in Hamilton called Bethel. Joanne was among the young people that were there. And I remarked to somebody a couple of days ago how much I appreciated it when she responded and I would ask her for the youth meeting tonight, will you play the piano? And if she was going to do that, we’d move into the auditorium, and we sort of all position ourselves around the piano. And Joanne would lead us into the heights. She would just lead us in such a beautiful, beautiful way. We had some of the most wonderful times of worship. Joanne has had a wonderful time musically, but also she’s developed a speaking.
And she’s here, there, and all over telling her story. And so without any hesitation now, I have suggested to her that it be nice if before she leaves us today, she wouldn’t go to this piano. She has a wonderful touch on her musically and in that very special sense. I hope she does. If she doesn’t, we’ll just never have her back again. So Joanne, April, and I love you and those who know you, well to know you are to love you. So you’re welcome. Take the service and God bless you.
Nowadays, I have to be careful when I walk up the stairs. I lose my balance. Does that happen to any of you? It could be that I’m getting old, but I doubt it. Now your pastor, he’s old. But I’m still just a young girl. You know what? You are so lucky you came here today. Do you know why? I’m going to tell you God’s will for your life. Some of you think, well, you know, most of my life is over. No, there is, I’m going to tell you God’s will. Are you ready?
Are you ready? Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Now is that a problem for anybody? I’m sure everybody here is rejoicing all the time and you’re praying without ceasing and no matter what happens to you, you’re giving thanks. I know it might be hard for you. Some of you aren’t as spiritual as I am, but in my family, it wasn’t a problem for us especially when the children were young and on a Sunday morning. It was always peaceful. I would rise early and put the coffee on and then go to my husband to rise beloved. He would arise and call me blessed. Then I’d go to the children’s rooms, little runs, another day in which to serve the Lord. Oh, yes, Mommy dearest, thank you and they’d run to the breakfast table. And everybody was just so pleasant. Nobody spit on anybody’s food and nobody touched each other. That was just beautiful. And then I’d say, now children, yes, mommy, because when mommy speaks they jump. Time to go to your room and get ready for Sunday school.
Oh, and they were so happy and everyone dressed appropriately and everyone had clean underwear and clean socks and everybody knew where their shoes were and we just went up to the car of a joy thing. Yeah. Well, it doesn’t quite go like that, does it? I mean, life gets messy, and things get difficult. When I was a kid, I could memorize anything. I was so good. At Bethel, at the back of the children’s thing, there was an old china cabinet with things you could win for memorizing. I won everything. Bracelets, bibles, plaques, the whole thing. I could memorize up a storm.
But now, I don’t even know my kids’ names have the time. You know, what did you do yesterday? I don’t know. Like, it’s just gotten so bad, you know. But some of the things you learn when you’re little, you never forget. And right after John 3, 16, you always teach your kids, all things went together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. The Romans 8, 28, you say, well, why are you lisping? Because I was a little fat kid that lisped. All things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.
Well, you know, then you get older and life happens. And if you’re a thinking person at all, that’s got to give you pause for thought. All things work together for good. Well, you know, my eight-year-old niece died of cancer. My 42-year-old nephew died of cancer, leaving behind three kids. Look what’s going on in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia. All things work together for good. What does that mean? What does it mean? So you know, I started to look at it when all things work together for good. First of all, I thought it’d be easier if it said some.
I can see how some things work together for good, but all? Well, you know, I went back to seminary when I was 47. Did you know that? Crazy. They let anybody in. And some of those smart people, start looking up words in the original language and they get a different understanding and a different nuance and a different perception of it. So I looked up all, and in the context of Romans 8, do you know what all means? All. Thirty thousand dollars in education.
It says all. It means all. All things. So in other words, there’s not one single thing that can happen to you. It can’t be worked together for good. What does that mean? Well, she doesn’t think that all things are good because that’s obvious. All things are not good, but it said they can be worked together for good. But then you have to ask yourself what good means. Mark Rutland, you’ve heard Mark Rutland. He’s just a fabulous speaker.
I’ve heard he can speak nine languages. Is that true? He’s brilliant. So I heard him once at Brayside and he said, you have to learn how to speak God. I speak English. That’s the language I’m comfortable with. I know all the nuances. That’s my language. French. Je pe peu l’égis de imprecia. You had a fine coup, honey, see? No, fine coup, honey. Yeah, good. Because I don’t speak. Are you? Do you have a bien? Wait. Je pe peu, bien. Je peu. I don’t speak French. But Italian. Bate maniniki vene pappa porte cosos en neva porte mandolin. Adoni Italian’s here? Good. That was perfect Italian. And I don’t speak Italian. But this guy says you’ve got to learn how to speak God. Because you see, sometimes God says one thing and we’re hearing something else. When he said if Adam and Eve ate that fruit, they would die. Well, they didn’t die, but they died. And when Jesus said he was coming to set up a kingdom, they thought, yes, tear down this crooked Roman government and set up a kingdom. You know, he didn’t set up a kingdom, but he set up a kingdom. Just not what they were thinking. And you know, in Romans 8 when Paul says all things work together for good, he doesn’t mean good. He means good.
Because if somebody says to you something’s going to be good, what do you think? Comfortable, pleasant, chocolate. Coffee, it broke my heart when I came in here this morning and there was no coffee being served. That hurt. But we’ll let it go. But if you want to see the Lord move, start serving coffee when people come in that door.
Sorry. So what was I saying? Oh, yeah, good things. Things that are good. But you see, I think we get a clue into what good means here in the next verse. It says all things work together for good to those who love God are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. So good is anything that will push you closer to looking like Jesus. You see, it’s not that everything works out pleasant and lovely. But through these things, he works it out for good in that we become more like Jesus.
We become closer to him. We learn more of him. So in that context, yes, everything can be worked together for good. You know, there’s a town in Alabama at the turn of the century, enterprise Alabama. Way back at the turn of the century, they thrived on cotton. Everybody’s business was related to cotton. Everybody, you know, life savings. That was a prosperous town until the little boll weevil, the bug that each cotton worked its way up to Alabama and they had an unprecedented plague. And they just got wiped out and people lost their businesses, people lost their savings, they lost their jobs.
And the town just went into a real slump. And when they, you know, in a crisis, you’re forced to diversify and they started trying this and trying that. Pretty soon they found out they were good at growing peanuts. As a matter of fact, they became more prosperous in the peanut industry than they’d ever been in cotton. Have you ever heard that story? And I read if you go to that town, in the middle of town, there is a great big monument to the boll weevil. I didn’t believe it. I googled it.
It’s there. Because they realized if it hadn’t been for the boll weevil wiping them out, they would never discover their true potential. Are you getting what I’m saying here? You know, I told this story once out west and a man came up to me and he said, I’m from enterprise. He said, not only did we have that monument, we have a boll weevil day every year. And kids in school draw pictures and colored little wooden boll weevils. And you know, why? Because somebody had the sense to realize that sometimes crisis brings about wonderful things.
So my suggestion to you this morning is that you become monument builders, to the very things in life that feel like they’re going to destroy you. Build a monument, make a marker in your life so that you can say, well, before this, I didn’t understand this about the Lord. Before this, I didn’t know about this, but now I’ve learned and now I’ve grown. So I would build a monument for you, I’d build a monument for you right here in my life. And this is a monument to mental illness. Did you know your pastor was mentally ill? No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
It may seem like it at times, but apparently, he isn’t. But I am. I have suffered from mood problems all my life. It’s hard growing up in a Pentecostal church with depression. I think it’d be easier with the Baptist or something because Pentecostals, just want you to be happy all the time. And so is everybody happy tonight and the pastors would get up sometimes on a Sunday night? If you’re happy tonight in the Lord, come on, tell us your story, and any testimonies. And people would say things like, you know, all my life, I struggled with this and I struggled with this.
And now I found Jesus. I’m so happy. And they, amen, amen. And then I didn’t give my testimony because it stunk. Mine would have been, you know, all my life I basically wanted to die. Then I asked Jesus into my life and I still wanted to die. Nobody says amen to that, not even Italian Pentecostals. That doesn’t bring out an amen in anybody. But it was my story. And I didn’t understand. And on the outside, I don’t think I looked depressed as a teenager, did I?
I was just the opposite. Yeah, I was always having fun and, you know, but inside wanting to die. And in one of my good times, I went to Bible College and I met this man, Joe Goodwin, bless his soul. He married me. And he had no idea what he was getting in for. He just, actually, he did. He sort of knew I was crazy, but he loved me anyway. And, you know, I said too much, how can you stand, how can you stand living with me? And he said you don’t get it. People like me live for people like you.
Good answer. Really good answer. Because, I mean, I was just up and down emotionally, like a toilet seat. He was just sort of steady, like the rocket, you brought all of it. You know, if you told him, you know, somebody just left you a million dollars, he’d be like, oh, that’s lovely. Or if he said, Joe, we’ve lost everything, you have nothing. Oh, dear. It’s hard to fight with the man and Lord knows I have tried. I could fight. He’s not a fighter.
He’s just peaceful and loving and, you know, whatever. But anyway, the boy married me and then I became a mentally ill pastor’s wife. You understand, April? Again, I am kidding. As far as I know, you’re not psychotic or anything. Well, you live with David so there’s got to be a little struggle there, you know what I’m saying? Anyway, I didn’t know what was wrong with me. And when I was down, I was very, very down. I had three children in three years and we’ll just put that down to mental illness. And you know, I had times when, when I was, see, here’s the thing.
When I felt good, I felt very, very good. And I could do all kinds of things. And you know, we were passing out in Montreal and I said, you know, we need something for the kids ages six to 12. There was nothing. So I started something. I couldn’t find any good curriculum. So I wrote the curriculum. And then we needed something for the home builders, the young families. I couldn’t find any good curriculum. So I wrote the curriculum and we did it.
And then I’d be leading these things and then playing during the service and then something. It was bizarre. So one time it was a Saturday and I had been getting more depressed all week and I thought, I’m not going to be able to pull this off. I’m not going to be able to do it. It’s getting worse. I can’t do this. So on Saturday, I left a note for Joe and I said, I’m just going somewhere. I don’t know where. Get somebody to play the piano. Get somebody to lead God’s kids on the block.
Get somebody to lead the home builders class. It took six people to replace me. Isn’t that ridiculous? And so I got in the car and I drove. I didn’t know where I was going. I ended up in Peterborough at Morines. So my husband, who knows me well, like most of you, if you came home and your wife left the note like that, you’re like, oh my goodness, what’s happening? He just goes, oh, brother. Here we go. So he said to the children, we happened to have his mom and dad’s camper trailer because we were trying to sell it for them. And so he said to the kids, okay, everybody pack a little overnight bag and we’re going to go and try and find Mummy. They found me. Whatever. That’s just the way I lived. And it was very, very difficult. So finally, just before I turned 40, I remember thinking, I wonder if I’m nuts.
I wonder if I’m mental and I snuck off to a psychiatrist, snuck because I didn’t think any good Christian woman should go to a psychiatrist. I mean, you know, people would say, we don’t do that. We don’t need counselors and psychologists. We have the word of God. Well, we still get sick and we still go to doctors. Anyway, I went to this guy and after six or seven times, he said to me when I asked him a question, he said, well, Joanne, people like that with major mood disorders. I said, excuse me, just stop there. Did you say mood disorder? I have a mood disorder. I’d never heard of it. And I said, and I think you said major. So I have a major mood disorder.
So I’m nuts. He says, no, you have a physiologically based biochemical imbalance. And it requires medication. I said, well, I can’t take medication. First of all, I’m German. And we are strong like bulls. You know the Paul’s stronger men. And you know, we’re strong. And in my family, we used to laugh at people who took medication. Somebody says I’ve got a headache. If you got any aspirin, we’d think wimps. Pill for this and a pill for that. Come on. And plus, I was a Pentecostal pastor’s wife. And we don’t do drugs to feel good. Maybe April. But she doesn’t. And I said to the guy, I said, I don’t care what you say. It’s not going to go over in my family. It’s not going to go over in my church. I’m not going to take medication. I don’t care what you say.
We have to discuss something else because I’m not taking medication. He said, one of the side effects is you could lose weight. And I said I’ll try it. And that was the only reason I tried it. Because I thought, I’m not going to take one little pill and all the troubles in the world go away. But hey, if I could take it for the side effects. So I started taking it and never lost a pound. But I started to feel better. And I thought, well, I’m just going through one of my normal times. But six weeks, two months, three months. I remember saying to Joe, does everybody feel like this? Because they’re not happy pills. They don’t suddenly make you happy. What they do is restore to you the ability to focus. Because somebody had said to me what you know, well, Joanne, the Bible says that will keep him in perfect peace. His mind is stayed on me. Well, that’s a beautiful verse for anybody who can control their thinking.
When I become chronically depressed, I can’t think straight. I can’t pray straight. Or I’ll try to read the description. I’ll read the verse. I don’t know what it said. I read it again. I don’t know what it’s saying. I couldn’t. Sometimes I remember people talking to me and I saw their mouths moving. But I didn’t know what they were saying. My mind was busy and it was noisy. And then all of a sudden it would just get quiet. And I was in despair. I couldn’t really talk. Well, I didn’t go through a dark time like that for quite a while. And then we went to pastor in a little town with a little tiny little salary. It was fun, kind of like an allowance. Just barely covered the rent with a few groceries. It was bad. Anyway, so we had to pay for these pills, you know?
And so I said to Joe, I said, you know what? I think I’m OK now. I think I’m OK now. I think I’ve finally matured and the Lord and I’m OK. So I’ll just stop taking the pills. And he said we’ll sell one of the children if we have to. He really liked the pills. So it is, I was on them for a long time. And I thought it, you see because I would far rather not have to take pills for the rest of my life. I would far rather be healed. But a couple of times I tried quitting, and you don’t even want to know those stories. That wasn’t pretty. So I have decided that if this is what I have to do, I’m building a monument. You know, I’ve been able to lead more people to Jesus because of this than despite it. Because it gives me the credentials to speak into the lives of people who are suffering pain because I’ve been there too. And so monument.
Monument. And then I build another monument for you over here.
And this would be the monument to raising troubled children. Now, I used to tell my daughter’s story. She’s asked me not to anymore. I’ll just tell you that for 25 years, she has been a drug addict. And we’ve been to hell and back. There were days I didn’t even know if I could stand another day. I remember times walking around the grounds at Paris at Braeside and just weeping. So I didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know where to go. But from this one, I’ve learned that God is bigger than anything I feel. From this one, I’ve learned about the power of prayer. How many have been praying for kids or grandkids for a long time? Me too. Do not give up. You never know what God is up to or what will happen. Let me just tell you after 25 years of drug addiction.
Do you know what she does now? She is a nurse working with drug addicts and teaching recovery coaching. Praise God. Yeah. Yeah, it’s quite amazing. Quite amazing. And leading people to Jesus. She’s something else. She’s something else. Anyway, I remember one time I was speaking in a Jamaican church. Have you ever spoken to a Jamaican crowd? I mean, they bring out the preach in you because they talk right back to you. I would say something and they just stand up. Sometimes they just stand up and point at me. What? What? No. And they just, one lady in the front, she looked like she was angry, but I don’t think she was angry.
She kept standing up and going, hallelujah, hallelujah. OK. And there was another lady on the other side and she had a hanky and she kept going, oh, sweet Jesus. Jesus is sweet. Sweet Jesus. And they’d be going on like this. And sometimes in the middle of a message, I’d just start singing a song to make a point. So I did that that day. I was talking about a grateful heart, no matter what you’re going through. And I was saying, so you know I thank him for the mountains. And I thank him for the valleys. That’s the hard part. And I thank him for the storms he’s brought me through. Because if I never had a problem, how would I know that God could solve them? How would I know what faith in God could do? And you know, most people listen politely, like you just did. Not in Jamaica. Oh, no.
I started. You know, I thank him for the mountains. And I hadn’t noticed the guide behind me. I’d never left a keyboard. And I heard we are. Never had my preaching accompanied before. And I thank him for the valleys. Yeah. I looked at him. He just grinned and was ready to make that thing dance. And I thought I could do this. And I thank him for the storms he’s brought me through. And they’re hallelujah. Amen. Sweet Jesus. Sweet Jesus. Because if I never had a problem and a man stood right up and said, then how would you know? How would I know that God could solve them? How would I know what faith in God could do? And we were having a good time. Well, it was a special women’s emphasis that day.
So after me was another female preacher. And she was Sister Jennifer DuVaux. Now, I’ve lost 140 pounds. But I was big then and she was even bigger than me. And Sister DuVaux, I think I’m fairly animated when I preach. Compared to Sister DuVaux, a puppy dog, she screamed. Like if I want to make a point, I’d say, we have the power. But she was like, we have the power. And I was like, ooh. It was frightening. And I’m sitting in the front row. And she’s marching back and forth in front of me. And she’s spitting on me and sweating on me. And she said, you know, sometimes I call my name into the atmosphere. And the angels of God carry it to the throne. And I thought, OK. I don’t know the scriptural basis for that. Maybe Revelation 5, 8, or whatever. But whatever. She’s painting the picture. And she said I call Sister Jennifer DuVaux. I thought she even called herself Sister to the Lord. Sister Jennifer DuVaux and the angels carry my name to the throne and their amenning and hallelujah. And she came over to where I was sitting. And she did something so powerful. She put her hand on me.
And she said we need to call the name of Ginger. It’s my daughter’s name. Into the atmosphere. And hundreds of people simultaneously began. Ginger, come home, Ginger. I thought I’d pass out. It was so powerful. And I was thinking afterward, what was so powerful about that? First of all, just on an emotional level, even, the affirmation of all those people standing with me and calling on my daughter was huge. And spiritually, God always commands a blessing on unity. And there’s power when we pray together. And when I look at what she’s doing now, sometimes I can just hardly believe it. Hard to believe it.
The conversations that she’s able to have with these drug addicts, she can’t go in there and decide to preach the gospel. But if they ask the questions, and often people who are high or perhaps schizophrenic or whatever, a lot of the mass questions about stuff like that. And one person said to her, he was just coming down. And he said, how come Jews have to get circumcised? And she said, well, it was a sign of the covenant. But she said, but now the new covenant is Jesus. And anybody can know God through Jesus. And she has conversations like this.
One time she was having a conversation with one, and she said, Mommy, I felt the presence of the Lord in that room as they continued to talk. And one of the nurses came by afterward and said, what was going on in that room? I walked by and I thought, whoa, that really feels like something coming out of there. It’s called the Holy Spirit. It’s called the power of God. And so prayer, keep praying. I have grandkids too that I’m concerned about and keep praying.
I tell my grandkids almost every time I see them, do you know I pray for you every day? I want them to hear that. I want them to know that that’s what I’m doing on their behalf every day and my kids. So prayer. And then I would do one more monument for your old here. And this is a monument to deep hurts or abuse or whatever you’ve been through. And I can’t tell many details about this either, but in my 20s I realized I’ve got to deal with this. I’ve got to forgive this person.
So you try looking at the scripture, and what it teaches you about forgiveness. All it says is to forgive. I would like a few more details. So I did. Lord Jesus, I forgive that person. And I remember thinking, getting up and thinking there. That’s it. I’ll never think of that again. That’s gone. I kept coming back. And then I thought, well, I know preachers who have said, you know, sometimes you give something to God and then you take it back. So I thought, maybe I’m taking it back by thinking about it. So I will refuse to think about it. So every time it came back to mind again, I just, you know, how about them blue days? I’m going somewhere else. I’m not thinking about it. And I refused. So you know what happened? I started dreaming about it. I remember waking up the night, sitting up in bed and crying and saying, but
I was just a little girl. I thought, what am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong? Well, you know, I know sometimes when people try to forgive things, they try to, they kind of lie to themselves about it. They say, oh, it wasn’t really that bad. Well, maybe it was. Or maybe they meant no harm. Well, maybe they did. Or other people have suffered worse. So that can sometimes give you some perspective, but that doesn’t take your pain away. And so we try, in an attempt to be spiritual, we try to trick ourselves and say, oh, it’s okay. I just, I just brush up. No, God made us when things hurt us. We grieve. When we lose people, we love, we grieve. And so what I started doing, and it’s interesting that there was a psychotherapist in a crowd once when I was talking about this and he said, that’s exactly the steps we take people down.
Every time it would come to mind, I looked at it, called it what it was, and allowed myself to grieve. And then I would say, and in the name of Jesus, that’s what I forgive. And I would do it again, and again, every time it came back to mind, I would just do it again, and let myself grieve. That wasn’t fair. Wasn’t right. That’s what I forgive. Well, I noticed in my 40s that it was coming back less and less to mind. But the interesting thing that I wasn’t expecting was, that now I can recall to you with perfect clarity what hurt me, but I can’t recall the pain anymore.
I think that’s called healing. Healing. And so monument. And you know, some people find it hard to forgive because you think, if I forgive, it’s like letting them off the hook. Well, they’re still on God’s hook, but it’s not up to you to repay. And some people think, well, I can’t reconcile. As much as you can, forgiveness can bring about reconciliation. That’s wonderful. But sometimes you can’t. And if that’s not possible, then you still forgive and you still pray,
but you might have to draw boundaries. I know a man who, well, he’s a pastor now, but he was brought up in an extremely abusive home. His father was an alcoholic and he’d go and preach at churches for money for booze. Of course, the churches didn’t know that. He would beat his kids. He would rape his daughter and wife in front of the other children. I mean nuts. I mean crazy stuff. This man grew up, got married, became a minister, and had a couple of kids. And this man, this father, got in touch with him somehow.
He said I want to get to know you and get to know your kids. And he said, no. I forgive you for what you’ve done, but it’s too dangerous. So it doesn’t always mean reconciliation. The interesting thing was that when he said no to the father, he said, then I’ll find them and I’ll kill them. It was just talk. Nothing ever happened. But you know what I’m saying? So it doesn’t always mean that, but it’s, that we need to become forgiving merciful people. I mean the word love is probably the greatest word ever, but to me the best word in the world is mercy. Mercy. I love mercy. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Part in there was multiplied to me and it was there. My bird and soul found liberty. Right? At Calvary, that’s an old one. But mercy. Give out mercy wherever you are. We get so easily offended these days.
They would say, well, that offended me. Well, okay. Now, get over it. I’m making it a goal to never be offended. I’m not going to reach it. But I really try when things offend me or hurt me. I try right away to say, hey, that’s a mercy. Every bucket of mercy. Just dip into it whenever you need it. Mercy. Mercy. It’s a beautiful word. It’s a beautiful habit to learn, to be merciful, to give people the benefit of the doubt, and to forgive people as soon as the offense happens. And not hang onto offenses of, well, that’s my right, because that offended me and they shouldn’t have said it. Well, probably not. Let it go. Let the offense go. So mercy, whatever you sow you will reap, so mercy, so grace, so kindness, so faith, words that like water sprinkled with love, you will harvest all your hearts, been dreaming of if you sow mercy, so mercy.
And if someone has come to your mind, a baby from a deep herd or maybe just from, they’re annoying and you don’t like being around them, mercy, mercy. It will change you. You will become a little bit fanatical about it. You become so merciful and loving that people may start to say, wow, what’s going on there? Who’s one of the most famous people for their mercy? Sister Teresa, Mother Teresa, I mean, come on. People to everyone at whose arms Mark Bontaine, oh, I loved that man. I loved his heart, loved it, pouring mercy on people who don’t deserve it, just like you didn’t deserve the grace of God. Mercy. And some I think have trouble forgiving themselves.
Often, I talk to people like that and maybe in their heads, they sort of know God has forgiven them, but they can’t let themselves go. Well, you know what? I have this bucket of mercy with me and I’d like to wash you down with it. If you’re this side of the root, I’ll wash you down with mercy. Are you ready? Mercy. You are forgiven. You are loved. You are precious in the sight of God.
This side of you ready? Mercy. And it drips into your pores. The mercy of God. You are loved. You are forgiven. And you know, as we close this service, I just want to have a little time of prayer where you are deciding what your monument is going to be. And instead of, God, make this go away, why won’t this go away? Okay, God, if this is here, teach me how to become more like you. So some of you need to start looking at the things that feel like they’re going to kill you in a different light, saying, how can this teach me? How can I learn through this? And others of you need to be forgiving some of the people that were in your life who have hurt you. I’m just going to sing us a chorus. How many love Jesus? How many want to be like Jesus? Yeah, me too. And if we want to, we need to learn that kind of forgiveness. And so I’m just going to invite the Holy Spirit to come as we just sing an old chorus and turn this place into a sanctuary.
You say, Holy Spirit, come and make me more like you. Just sweep over my heart, Lord. Sweep over my soul, sing. Sweep over my soul, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul. My rest is complete as I sit at your feet, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul. Call out to him and make this a real prayer of your heart. And Holy Spirit, I pray that you will lead people right now in their minds and hearts to what they need to do in their thinking, to how they need to praise you even when things are not well.
And Father, show them how this can make them more like Jesus.
So now sweep over my soul, sweep over my soul, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul.
My rest is complete as I sit at his feet, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul, sing it again,
Sweep over my soul. Sweep over my soul, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul.
My rest is complete as I sit at his feet, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul.
Hear our prayers, Lord. Here are the cries of our hearts.
Change our hearts, purify our hearts. We want to be like you, Jesus.
To be like Jesus. To be like Jesus. All I ask is to be like Him.
All through life’s journey. From birth to glory. All I ask is to be like Him. Sing it again
To be like Jesus. It’s our prayer, Lord. To be like Jesus.
All I ask is to be like Him. All through life’s journey. From birth to glory.
All I ask is to be like Him.
Pastor. Dave …. AMEN.