Power of Blessing!

And she looked at me, and I said, what are you doing? She said, I just have to put a mark on this piece of paper. I said, have at it. I never understand. I don’t think they’re doing anything. I don’t know. But as I started to walk away, she said, have a good day. And I stopped dead, and there were people right behind me. I said, well, thank you, and may the Lord bless you. Her mouth opened just a little bit, and she said, well, thank you. I believe that when I said those words, well, I’m going to share with you. I’m so excited about this. Pastor, you get excited really easily.

Yes, I get excited with chocolate cake. I love Chinese chews. I love Chinese food. But I love the word of God. And when I discover little nuggets, I come unglued. So I’ve read this so many times, and it never struck me. Revelation 311 says, I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown. The one who’s victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name. I’m pumped.

I have discovered I’m reading stuff. Stuff, I mean, besides the Scriptures, I’m reading historical stuff. I’m reading what the great seers of years and centuries ago of the Israelite ways. I’m reading archeology things. And here’s something that just drives me nuts. In 1979, a biblical archeological fellow, a professor of a university in Jerusalem, went out and he practiced his archeology. And he found a chunk of silver. And he took it and put it under a microscope and began to work with it. It took him some time. And he unrolled. It was actually rolled up. The silver was rolled up somehow or other. And when he got it unscrolled, these were the words that were written in such fine, fine lettering.

Numbers chapter 6, the Lord bless thee, and all the rest of it. And it was from three or four hundred years before the angel sang to the shepherds in the fields. I get excited about that kind of thing. Now, the concept of blessing one another is very much a part of the Jewish culture. When it was part of a greeting, they used it all the time, all the time. Someone would enter your house, and the first thing you would probably say is, oh, it’s so good to see you. God bless you. It was just done. It was so frequently spoken. They might have even quoted all of it. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Verse 27, so shall, so they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. I never saw that before. The Lord bless you, keep you, make his face shine upon you, be gracious, lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. And then he says, and this is Moses speaking to Joshua, seeking the priesthood, this is what you will say. This is God speaking to you through the priesthood. And the priest knows when he gets to verse 27, so they, the priesthood, shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. So what occurs to me is that when I said to that lady at Costco, God bless you, I was trying to impose the name of the Lord upon her. What I was doing was I was reaching out. It’s a form of evangelism. That’s who I am. It’s a form of evangelism. There’s another wording that I’ve taught you three, four years ago about the various measures of grace. Before you ever surrendered your heart and life to Jesus, you surely can look back at some times when God was imposing upon you, when you didn’t realize it, but he was pursuing you, there were people he put in your way, like the lady that I spoke to at Costco.

Would it be a wonder if she went home and said to her husband, a man spoke to me in a weird way today. I said, have a good day, and he said, God bless you. She said, no one’s ever spoken to me like that again, ever before. And if she wasn’t a Christian and she didn’t know the Lord, but if she’d been wondering about God, this strange person walks up and says, my prayer for you is that God will bless you. That’s called prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. It’s a grace that’s bestowed upon the unbeliever. It’s the grace that’s bestowed upon a person that we’re hoping is going to be on the journey to word. And my thought is this, she needed to hear that the other day, that God put her. When I was walking up to the door, I had the choice. You’ve been there. There’s a person on the left and a person on the right. On the right, there were too many people lined up.

I’m impatient. I want to get out of the line. So I moved over to the lady on the left. That’s just how it worked out. I believe that that was a divine intersection. And I want to believe that there was a transforming moment in her life that somehow through my wording, God impacted her. And maybe even today, she’s thinking about the Lord. 1 Peter 2. 9, you are a chosen people, help me, a royal priesthood. Hey, priest, number six, I want you to speak over the people. And you’re going to be the voice of God. You’re going to speak over the people. And listen, priest, it’s going to be like a thunderclap. It’s going to mesmerize them. It’s going to touch them. It’s going to strengthen them. Say the words. And in verse 27, so when you do so, you will be imposing. 

You will be putting upon the people the name of the Lord. The Lord God is saying to them, I’m not just some carved out piece of deity. I am the Lord God, and I’m claiming you for my own.

 I love you, and I’m going to take care of you. It was the Lord saying, don’t be afraid. 

I’m here for you. So when we say to someone, God bless you, it’s the Lord through us saying ownership. I love you, and I want to be a part of your life, and I want to bless you.

I just encourage you at all times, whenever you can, bless somebody. Bless somebody. Bless somebody before you leave here today. Make it a point to bless people as you go, because you don’t know what the words of your mouth are doing. Now, it’s so intriguing, this passage in Numbers 6, where the Lord is imposing upon the priest, Aaron, this is what you’re to say. He says, I’m going to read it in the King James, and it’s never as clear, because we don’t talk this way. You have to slow down and grab onto it. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, talk to Aaron, and unto Aaron’s sons. So Aaron’s sons were also to be priests. So the Lord is saying to Aaron, make sure your sons understand this, because it’s suggested here very strongly. You won’t say this to my people once. You will probably say this to them every day. You’re to say this all the time.

I want Aaron to start it today. But going forward, the young priests are to participate in this way. And he says, on this basis, we don’t talk like this. In this way, you, priest, are going to bless the children of Israel. I want you to know something. The word children signifies many, right? We understand that. So if I were to say to you, to a congregation, God bless you. There’s a difference from that if I were to say, Nicholas, God bless you. Cheryl, my prayer is God will bless you. I’m talking to the first person singularly. So the thing that was happening on that day when the priest said this, he wasn’t just saying it to the children of Israel. He was saying, this is a message for every one of you.

God bless you, and you, and you, and you, and you. It was singular. So often in the scriptures, they’re called the chosen people. You’ve got to boil that down and realize this. You are a chosen person. This is a personal message. So it’s not leaping out of the context of the scripture to say to a lady at Costco, God bless you. It’s not just meant for a congregation. It’s not just meant for a pastor in some church this morning, probably nearby, who’s quoting this. No, it’s up to you and to me to act out as priests. You are a royal priesthood, and you need to understand this, that when those priests spoke that word, it had an impact on those people. The Lord was saying, I’m with you. Remember the last time we had communion, I mentioned to you that Jesus took the cup, the communion service, the last supper.

He took the cup. I mentioned to you, as I dug again into Jewish history, biblical history, there were four cups. And to this day, if you’re a Jewish person, and when the Passover feast comes, and it’s approaching soon, everyone who’s a Jew is expected to participate in the Passover, to skip over that, to not even show up. No, no, no, no, that doesn’t matter. If you’re a Jew, you will show up. And in showing up, you will participate in every element of that Passover supper. And there are four cups, and you will drink every one of them. And I discovered that every cup at the Passover feast was singular, each cup was a promise of the Lord. So every time they take a drink, they’re saying, well, remember that God was saying, you are my people. Second cup, and I’m going to get you out of the bondage of Egypt. Third cup, I’m going to lead you out of here into a promised land. Fourth cup, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. You dare not skip one of the cups.

You drink each one. Because you see, it’s not just the Lord saying to all of Israel, I’m leading you, but it’s the Lord saying, I’m leading you, Peter Kuke, and I’m leading you. Doreen, you are mine, and I love you, and don’t you ever doubt that. Don’t you for a moment give up on that. And so when we say to one another at the close of every service, I’ve bragged about this. I told a whole congregation down at the south end of St. Cal, I had the privilege of speaking there recently, and I said to them, we try not to close off a Sunday morning service, try not to leave without praying over one another. And you saw the people staring at me and probably thinking, oh, they’ve gone loopy, yeah. We’re all going to stop and have a prayer meeting, one by one by. I said, it’s a simple prayer. And I explained it to them, God bless you. The pastors I shared started to weep. His wife started to weep.

There was an impact even in sharing that with them, because at that moment, they were discovering something that I’ve only discovered recently. To say those words, it’s ginormous. It’s huge. It’s wonderful. We’re participating as priests, as priests. It’s so interesting to look at the verses. I want to read them for you. It’s in couplets. It’s in couplets. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. In the next couplet, the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The third couplet, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.

There’s three beautiful prayers, and each, it starts off very singularly, I might say. The Lord bless you and keep you. And then the next couplet raises the bar and gets more definitive. And the last one is the most powerful one, that he will lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And so, I’ve been thinking this through. What’s the essence or what’s the value of that the Lord will lift up his countenance upon you? I’m sorry to bring up our little dog all the time, but it’s easier than picking on my poor wife. She just thanked me. It’s all right, dear. Remember, I like chocolates and don’t you eat all of them. Sophie dog, I can do this anytime with her. Sophie dog, I’ve come to realize, has a very delicate personality. Our dog has feelings.

So, she might be, I can say to somebody, watch my dog. It’s kind of unkind, but I fix it. They say you can kick a dog and the dog will come back and be your friend. No, I’m not, I would never kick her. I’ve never, I don’t hurt her ever, ever, ever. She’s my buddy. But I’ll say to somebody, watch this. Sophie, are you a bad dog? And she puts her face down. And I can just hear her brain. What have I done now? And then she will put her tail between her legs. It’s all from me saying, Sophie, are you a bad dog?

Puts her tail between her legs. And she comes over like this and puts her nose against my pant leg. And she’s saying, I don’t know what I’ve done now, but can you find it in your heart to forgive me? So, the first thing she does is she turns away from my face, my face. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord’s countenance will bring you peace. When he lifts up his countenance upon you. Wait, Psalm, no, Isaiah 59. Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor is his ear so dull he cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you. Back to Costco. I don’t know who this lady is. I don’t know her pedigree.

I don’t know where she comes from. She might have been like the woman at the well. She could be living with, had five husbands and the man she’s living with. She’s living common. I don’t know anything about her. But is it possible that God has turned his face away from her? Because maybe, maybe, maybe she has fallen into sin. But I said, may God bless you. And it means, my prayer is, dear lady, that God will lift up his face upon you. And he will give you peace, that he’ll be gracious to you. You see, when you say God bless you, it’s a tsunami. It’s a tsunami of blessing that you’re endeavoring to impose upon that person. I’m scaring you, aren’t I?

Are you okay? Say yes. Somebody show me your teeth. Come on, show me. Okay, I’m not raining, I’m not raining down upon you. I’m trying to say, isn’t it wonderful? Psalm 34, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil and to blot out their name from the earth. God cannot tolerate sin. It’s like, it’s toxic. It’s like, it’s like battery acid. It’s like the worst, it’s incomprehensible to us because we know nothing of purity. The only thing we know of purity is when the Lord saves us and washes us from our sin with his blood and calls us son, calls us daughter. For that moment, we begin to understand, well, he’s calling me a good guy.

He’s calling me pure. That’s as close as we can get to the understanding of purity. But God can’t stand to look upon purity. And as I thought about this this week, I thought, my father, it never really occurred to me. One is hanging on a cross and he says, my God, my God, you’ve turned your face from me. When somebody turns their face away from an argument like Putin, if he, if you’re sitting at a bargaining table, a negotiator, if he gets up and walks away, if he shows you the back of his head, if you’re looking at his taillights, he’s giving you a message. We’re done here. It’s an understanding. When we turn our face away, we’re finished. It’s done. The prayer is to people who don’t know Jesus. I got all excited yesterday. I saw a white pickup pull into my driveway and the windows were tinted very dark.

And I thought it’s my friend who lives out near Caledonia. His name is David also. He’s a biker friend. And I guess he has his windows tinted. I’m unsure. But as I’m looking, the truck was identical to David’s, everything about it. And he drove in my driveway like he owned the place. So he, it’s somebody who thinks he knows me. It must be my friend, David. And so I’m walking toward him and I can’t see the window. And then finally the man opens the door and I said, oh, it’s you. Poor guy. It was like I was saying, oh, I was hoping it was somebody important, but it’s just you.

He said, yeah. I said, I just thought I’d drop by and see how you’re doing. I’m excited. He’s a neighbor. He’s a neighbor. I’m working on the neighborhood. I’m reaching out to as many as I can. We’ve got our own little snowplow now. It would have been $5,000 for us to pay for a contract to clean our snow. I’m too cheap for that. I know somebody has to make a living, but that’s not my problem. And so we bought this little ATV. It has nothing to do with me being a man and liking to ride this thing.

It’s got nothing to do with that. That’s my story. I’m sticking to it. So as a church, we bought this little ATV and we got it for cheap. And the thing runs really, really well. And it’s got a blade on it. And so when there’s heavy snow’s heavy, we bring it up here. And a friend of mine who’s up in the balcony, he gets to run the thing more than I do. He’s more man than I am. 

Like he wants to ride it. It’s kind of like a game. Do I get to do it? Do you get to do it? And we ride around the back here and it makes a lot of noise. And we push the snow out of the way. But we store it at my house because there’s no room for it to be here. Oh, I’m so sad about that. So when there’s a heavy snow, I start the thing up and I do my driveway. And this happened just a couple of weeks ago. Remember, there was a big dump of snow. And the graders came down the road. You get your driveway cleaned out. How many have never experienced this? You get everything all set. Then the grader comes by and he dumps about 600 pounds of rock, icy snow in your driveway. And when you go out there like, hello, your shovel won’t even go into it.

And so this little machine, it takes that on like butter on cinnamon toast and it’s gone. And as I went out there and I pushed this stuff out of the way so that my way was open, I looked next door and there was a man and his wife out there. And they’re digging. So I ripped down there and like, you know, King Cal ahead. I said, get out of my way and I push it all out of the way. And then I turned around and I went up to my other neighbor And here the man is away And here’s this young mother Her little baby is sitting in a little sleigh They’re all bundled up And this woman’s got this shovel and she’s banging away Of the ice, it’s not gonna move I said get out of the way.

Happily she got it all away And I pushed that out of the way And then I did the next driveway I’m having fun But the neighbors don’t see me Is this starchy old preacher From up the street I’m trying to win The privilege and the opportunity Where I can say You know, I’ve been praying About you lately I dare to do that It’s nice to beat you here today Isn’t this a coincidence When I was in my prayer time this morning Who could have thought I was praying for you this morning That would be like striking them with lightning Wouldn’t it? You’ve got to earn the privilege to do that. I’m doing my very best And I said what do you. . . To the man in the truck

What do you really up to today You said I just wanted to say hi I said he remember who I am right It’s like he’s a criminal And I’m a true officer And I can still put the handcuff You know I said you know who I am right He said yeah your day from the church I said there you go I want so much I want so much to influence his life He took the opportunity to brag To me about all the wonderful things He’s been doing recently He’s retired and he’s making more money than when he worked Another job He’s bragging to me I’m just thinking bring it on Because my brag time’s coming We’ve got to win The loss but there’s You’ve got to build a bridge You’ve got to build a bridge You’ve got to win The privilege of speaking life Into somebody else.

And the thing that ought to move every one of us Is the thought I don’t know who you are You’re only a neighbor I don’t know I don’t know your private life I don’t know where you’ve been I don’t know what you’ve done But it’s possible that God has turned his face away from you Oh how wonderful it would be If you would sense that God Is looking at you today And that you would recognize He’s lifting up his countenance upon you Sophie you’re a good dog And her tail goes like this I’m sorry to bring that back But it’s such an easy Pathetic comparison Between turning away And wagging the tail The Lord causes face to shine upon you Exodus 34 Moses goes up in the mountain And he spends time with God. And it says that when he came down the mountain He did not know That his face Was brilliantly shining. To the point that as he approached the elders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, I believe they would have responded this way.

I mean the scripture is very clear that the people were troubled as Moses came down He went up one way and he came down another He went up that’s Moses as we know him, but as he’s coming down You need sunglasses This is incredible what happened to him What happened to him He was brilliantly so shining That they actually started backing away When you come face to face with God And Moses didn’t even come face to face Because the word says No man has ever seen his face So Moses never saw his face Be got about as close as he can Without seeing the nature

The complexity of God’s face And the result was Moses face was changed Moses face had a shine upon it And I tell you What a difference to me To someone who knows Jesus April and I were in Florida Those are in the 70s And we were walking through them all And here’s a young man And he captured butterflies and moths And he put them He dried them somehow And he had them in these little encasements It was like a little glass dome It was the prettiest thing A branch in there and some moths And here are these glorious Beautiful butterflies I was captivated by And I’m standing there looking at them And so the young guy came along And it’s his display Right in the middle of the mall And he said you like it do you.

I said this is magnificent I said you know this This actually speaks to me Look at the delicacy of those butterflies And I forget how the conversation went As I was making a big to-do about Wow The colors Wow the delicacy That little rascal came out from the chrysalis And an emergence started to flying around And it contributes to our lifestyle And everything and he said You’re talking Like a Christian And I said Moments ago It occurred to me This guy knows Jesus When I meet somebody who knows Jesus I can’t explain this Surely it happens to you You start thinking If this person doesn’t know Jesus They must have a couple of extra batteries

Somewhere to cause their face to shine something Like You just caught on Am I talking like a Like a cookie here Am I making sense? Surely you’ve experienced that Because when you encounter the Lord When God has blessed you May the Lord bless you When He does It’s transformational Then I’ve got to hurry on because time is moving on.  May He Lift up His countenance upon you And give you peace And then I love The final verse And they The priest Shall put my name Upon the children of Israel This is a spiritual Dynamic The priest is hearing this. Here’s what I want you to Proclaim upon the people And know this That as you proclaim this To them Not as a nation But one by one by one The Lord bless you The priest It’s being impacted upon His sense of knowledge And knowing this is not going to be just a little bit of

Liturgy…. My mother makes better cookies than your mother.

That’s what sometimes the liturgy I either singing in Latin or whatever I’ve been to some of these cathedrals The people are sitting there They know what’s being sung And so so much Liturgy and churches It just happened They come in at 11 o’clock sharp And they leave 12 o’clock No

There has to be life There has to be something that’s life changing And it’s His face that makes the difference It’s His face The priest Being impressioned upon Him When you say these words The Lord bless you The Lord keep you Causes face to shine upon you At that moment when you say those words You are putting my seal My ID on them

They are sealed With my name My name When you have something Embossed I remember Alf Cowell had He led somebody to the Lord Alfs on his deathbed And he said to Irene He’s in his home To go to the heaven from his home And he said, Irene, I’m in pain I’m called a doctor, call the doctor I need a shot for his pain She called And a different man showed up at the door And he said, I’m doctor so and so Oh good, your doctor isn’t available today I’m here for you And he came in And he started fixing this syringe Whatever And Alf He just told roll up the sleeve of your pajamas Or whatever And as he did so he looked at the doctor And he said, now Alf was in dire pain But he said, you can’t do that yet. You can’t do that yet Until I bless you Now this man was a Hindu He did not back away Alf said, I want to bless you I want to tell you about my Jesus I’m on my way to heaven soon You won’t have to come here and visit me much longer You are my regular doctor I’m going to be with Jesus.

But I’m telling you you can be there too And he led the man to the Lord at his bedside He said, now you can pinch me The doctor left And El said to his wife Irene And to his daughter who was there To be with her daddy Passing He said, get to the Bible bookstore And buy a Bible for that man And they did My understanding is I don’t know how they did this But they got their doctor’s name Imprinted on Somehow on the Bible That was his Bible now That was his Bible God has put his name on you People say they were afraid of the devil When he sees the name Printed on you It means Don’t even think of it You belong to him He has sealed you with his Holy Spirit

We are now priests In this new covenant relationship How do we live out our priesthood There’s about 35 ways that a pastor could approach that passage As priests we represent God To the people and people to God As priests of the Lord We act out To the grace, Loveliness, sweetness To the community Or graces to those who are suffering and in trouble As priests representing the Lord

We provide food for the hungry We provide a blanket for the person who’s cold But I just want to take this little course This to me the greatest dimension As priests we have the privilege of speaking Salvation words Into the heart of that person You and I have the privilege Of being those who would pass on to a person who would name Jesus We pass on with our word Words We pass on prevenient grace When you say God bless you. There will be times when you’ll shake them To the souls of their feet They’re thinking I never heard those words Since my precious mama died When God was calling me into the ministry I didn’t understand it I couldn’t comprehend it all I knew as there was a disturbance in here That was something wrong In that I was restless That was something missing And it was on a Sunday morning

We sat in church I was dating April Sweet April She was sitting on two hymn books So she could see the preacher in the pulpit And I would put two hymn books under her feet So her feet wouldn’t dangle And I turned to my beloved And I said You go home with your mom and dad Who were also in the church that morning And I said I have something I have to do I think it’s the way I said it to her. She didn’t challenge it. She didn’t say what? What do you mean? She said okay And when the service concluded the way she went I went downstairs It was a huge building And the basement was a prayer room And I went down the stairs And I went in the men’s washroom Because I wanted to be alone I wanted to know What do you want with me?

And I didn’t want anybody there I didn’t want to hear a choir I didn’t want to play that organ I didn’t want to say David Say it this way I wanted to be alone I wanted to experience his face I wanted to know God is this you Or am I going crazy Like what’s in the habit of the last person goes out He would go to the front door Big oak doors And when he locked it, it would go clunk.

But I knew he would come to the washrooms And he would check to see if there was anybody in the washrooms Somebody who just got a last minute Zot her call at the throne Or maybe it’s a bad person And they’re hiding And I’ve seen him do this And he would bend down like this so he could see under the cubicles I didn’t want Mr. Edwards to say, what are you doing David? So I went in the men’s cubicle And I climbed up on the toilet seat and I stood there And I held on up here.

And I heard the door open and closed He didn’t see me, didn’t find me And I heard clunk of the door And I went all the way into the prayer room That was all set up for the evening service Because every Sunday night, concluded in the prayer room Hundreds of people on their faces calling out before And it wasn’t a quiet prayer meeting I’m going to tell you what It was glorious But I was alone in that room And I was crying out to God And saying, what?

What are you saying to me? And what’s this got to do with me speaking to the lady at Costco Or at the food land or wherever Because I was disturbed, the Holy Spirit was trying to do something in my heart And that person that you meet at that grocery store Or that lady that serves you in the restaurant You don’t know what kind of trouble is going in there And you don’t know that if you say When she says to you, hands you the bell and takes the money And then says, well, have a nice day You don’t know what will happen if you were to say, well, God bless you You don’t know that it would stir something up And she might stop and say, can we talk about that?

You don’t know the prevenient grace. You are a high priesthood of the Lord And you have the privilege of offering them A muscle of heaven It’ll change their life Quickly I close With a story You like stories? I’ll be fast. I’m going to call from somewhere in the mirror time David Forrest, you’re a pastor I’m in the church office, yes There’s a lady. I just wonder if you’d mind visiting her name as Betty She’s an ungodly woman, she’s desperately sick She’s got cancer She probably doesn’t have long to live I’m very concerned about her I knew her from childhood or whatever Down here in the mirror time, she’s without God She needs Jesus, Mr. Forrest I don’t remember, I don’t think I asked this person How did you find me? So I went to this hospital I went down the hall.

And I found this woman I walked in, I said, your name’s Betty. Yes, I said, well, my name’s David Forrest I’m a pastor and she said, what do you want? I said, I’ve come to talk to you about Jesus No, I don’t want anything to do with that I knew I had a captive audience She didn’t have a purse So she’s not going to hit me And she can’t get out of that bed She’s stuck, she’s there And I said, well You can try and make it unpleasant for me if you want. But I’m a man on a mission And I said, all I want to do is to tell you about the person It’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met His name is Jesus She broke into tears Don’t talk to me about that Don’t talk to me about that I said, Betty, what is your problem You don’t know me, I said, I don’t have to know you I’m wicked I’m wicked I’ve done terrible things I’ve been a nasty person

She said, I’d be embarrassed if To even tell you the things that I have done I’ve been a wicked, wicked woman I said, have you ever seen An artist rendering of Jesus on the cross I said, it’s our sin that put him there I said, we’re all guilty, Betty I said, the good news is He died He died For you And that was a moment that transformed Betty’s life I said, Betty, what have you got to lose

Let me talk to Jesus on your behalf Right here right now And if I’m a poached egg I’ll leave and you never have to worry about me again But I said, I’m serious I believe that when I pray, Jesus is going to meet you right here I prayed with her Long story made short She recovered from her cancer She got to go back to her apartment building She gave me a call on the phone after a few weeks She never made it to our building It’s not about the building

She never made it, her legs were shot She couldn’t come It was down here, I got some people I want you to meet It was a seniors building You know where you have your own little room, your own little apartment You got to be a senior to live there Betty had a congregation She had all these people She’d got a hold of some Jimmy Squagart long play records That’s how she put honey on it and got them to come She said, this is my pastor This is the man that told me about Jesus And here’s this room full of seniors

And they’re listening to Jimmy Squagart saying God was doing something beautiful When you say God bless you You could be unleashing a beautiful tsunami Don’t miss the opportunity, okay Oh good, we’re getting some smiles You’re back, that’s good Don’t you ever carry a burden of like I didn’t do it And you’re allowed to say this in prayer Heavenly Father, I want to say God bless you But I’m not an idiot like my pastor That’s okay I know he’s not afraid of anything

He would lead a dragon to the Lord If he had an opportunity just stop breathing fire on me I’ve got to tell you something You don’t have to be like me You don’t have to do that You don’t have to talk to the lady at Costco But there’s going to be a chance for you Don’t miss it I can’t describe it but there’s going to be an opportunity For absolutely everybody There’s going to be somebody in Port Colborne That needs to experience a moment of prevenient grace It’s grace that’s imposed by the Holy Spirit

Through a vehicle, a priest It’s the beginning of something beautiful Don’t miss the chance, okay Heavenly Father How I thank you For this precious privilege that’s mine To unfold the beautiful truths Not hidden, they’re there in plain sight But it’s only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit that we know with our knower Suddenly we know that we know that we know Only you can do that Thank you for the privilege that we all have of going to Costco Food land

The post office Thank you for the opportunities that we have with our neighbors Whether they come to our driveway in a white pickup truck Or they meet us in a snowdrift Lord, there’s always going to be a chance an opportunity To just drop a couple of words God bless you Maybe we come to understand We just put a small mark on that person’s life Where God was saying I love you We’re imposing your name Upon somebody

Thank you for that privilege In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.