Auto news on Youtube May 20 2018

[PASTOR MARK JESKE] Hi,

Pastor Mark Jeske here for

Time of Grace.

You know, all of us

struggle not only with the

problems that we're

dealing with right now,

but as we look ahead we

sometimes struggle in

advance before the

problems even come.

You know, it's said that a

hero only dies once but a

coward dies a thousand

times.

And as much as I'd like to

pretend I'm a fabulous

hero, I know that

sometimes I burn up an

awful lot of energy

worrying and being afraid

of stuff before it's even

come yet.

Pastor Jon Enter's going

to dig into the Bible with

us today on Time of Grace

and he's going to help us

get some confidence in

where do we go for

strength to handle our

fears.

Join me; it's going to be

excellent!

[MUSIC]

[PASTOR JON ENTER]

I have been incredibly

blessed to work with

teenagers in my ministry

down in Florida; not just

teenagers, but tweens -

the pre-teens - and it's a

lot of fun to work with

that age group because you

instantly know where you

stand.

You instantly know if they

are in and they are

listening and they are

vibing with what you're

talking about and if they

aren't, ooh, you know that

pretty quick, too.

Over the years, I've

created a number of things

that I call "faith

experiences," which is

where we take a tough

topic of the Bible, we

take a social issue, and I

try to apply God's word

but not sitting inside of

the church with

fluorescent lightbulbs on

and not experiencing it.

I want those kids, those

teens, to experience that

faith and apply God's

word.

Take your teens down to

the local precinct and

each precinct normally has

like a drunk tank and -

make sure there's no one

in there, okay?

- and then you put the

kids in and you let them

know that they'll be there

for an hour but then you

tell the parents the

truth; they'll be there

for four hours.

That gets really real,

really fast.

And then about three hours

into your time in there,

that's when you have a

Bible study about the

apostles being locked up.

And then singing songs,

spiritual songs,

gratitude, joy in their

hearts to God, suddenly,

that's really real as

opposed to just flat on

the pages of Scripture,

sometimes we can

experience it.

My favorite one though was

the one that connects to

our message today.

Today we're talking about

what to do with your

fears; where to go with

your fears.

And I had the teens over

to our house for a "Face

your Fears" Bible study.

So the first one we did is

we're sitting in my living

room and I had all the

kids there, we had 16, 17

in this group this time,

and I said, "I want you to

write down on a piece of

paper your biggest fear;

what made you terrified

when you were four, five,

six years old."

I said, "Don't be funny;

something legit that made

you afraid when you were

small."

And so they wrote it all

down, they handed them to

me, I mixed them up so no

one could know whose was

whose, and I started

reading off their answers,

which a lot of answers

you'd expect - afraid of

the dark, loud noises, the

vacuum cleaner.

My favorite was

teletubbies; one of the

kids wrote teletubbies and

everyone started to mock

him.

He finally outed himself;

this 17 year old boy, "I

was four.

Leave me alone."

[Audience: Laughter] I

said, "Okay, now we've had

our fun with that; now I

want to ask you again now.

What makes you afraid now?

What are your fears right

now?

Write them down, I'll mix

them up so no one knows

what's what, who's who.

Let's talk about them."

It got really real really

fast inside that room.

One kid wrote down I have

a learning disability and

I'm afraid I'm going to

fail out of college.

Another person wrote down

I'm afraid my parents are

going to divorce.

Another wrote down I'm

afraid that I'll never

live up to my dad; I'll

never have his love or his

respect.

Another one said I'm

afraid that grandma is

going to die; I'm afraid

I'm going to be alone and

never find love.

And all these things were

down on this paper, we're

sharing all these things,

and God worked his

incredible blessing.

And this is something we

don't do!

We don't make ourselves

vulnerable.

We don't share our fears

with one another.

It was incredible!

After the teens did what I

was hoping that they would

do, that they ministered

to one another, then I had

my Bible study with them

and I had them open up

their Scriptures to where

God says, "I am your

shield; your very great

reward."

And said a shield is only

good if you have it with

you.

If you leave it back at

camp and go off to battle,

you're in trouble and too

often we leave and go out

in life and we tend to

forget God and God's

promises and have God with

you.

And then the shield is

good and strong as stand

behind it and it takes the

blows and it takes the

action from the foe and it

occurs to them, when

you're facing your fears,

stand behind the power of

the almighty God who loves

you so much that he made

this beautiful world.

That loves you so much

that when we broke this

planet, he sent his Son.

He loves you so much that

he calls you his own.

Stand behind that power

when you're facing your

fears.

Then I told them the last

part; a shield is also the

most effective when you're

moving forward.

If you're retreating and

you're running, that

shield is slowing you

down.

But if you move forward,

you're more protected.

So I encouraged those

teens to move forward in

your faith with God's

word, with God's favor,

with God's love, with

God's promises on you.

You could feel the Spirit

in the room; it was an

amazing, blessed day.

And I assured them - and I

want to assure you -

whatever you're afraid of,

whatever your fear is, and

we all have multiple ones

in our lives, when you

progress from this life to

the next life, when you

stand before the Lamb of

God and his throne and the

almighty presence in

heaven, you're going to

look back at this planet

and this life and go, "I

was afraid of death?

I was afraid of cancer?

I was afraid of being a

failure as a parent?

I was afraid of losing my

job?

I was afraid of being

alone?

I was afraid?

When I've got a God like

this who's been my shield

and my very great reward?"

The problem is we're not

there yet; oh boy, we're

here and there's a lot of

pain and a lot of

brokenness and a lot of

sadness and a lot of hurt;

a lot of sin within this

world.

And so, God wants us to

trust in him and then rely

in community with one

another.

Someone who did that in a

very beautiful way, a very

unique way, someone who's

willing to be vulnerable

and be authentic with his

fears and with his

struggles is a man known

by Jeremiah in the Bible.

Maybe you know his

nickname; Jeremiah's

nickname was the "weeping

prophet."

Now some people might look

at that and go, "Man,

that's weakness.

You're weeping?

You're with God; you

should be strong."

But he was being really

real; he was being

authentic.

Now Jeremiah worked for 40

years and he worked under

three different kings.

One of them loved him, one

of them tried to kill him,

and the other one made him

suffer so badly he wished

he was dead.

Listen to Jeremiah; we're

going to turn to Jeremiah

20, so if you have a Bible

in front of you, you want

to flip to Jeremiah 20 or

if you've got a smart

device of some sort, you

want to punch it on it,

Jeremiah 20, we're going

to look at verses 13, 14,

15, and then jump to 18;

so big thing is Jeremiah

twenty.

Notice the difference that

Jeremiah's going to have

here.

He starts off and says

this.

He says, "Sing to the

Lord!

Give praise to the Lord!

He rescues the life of the

needy form the hands of

the wicked."

And then all of a sudden

he shifts and all of a

sudden, Jeremiah says,

"Cursed be the day I was

born!"

He went from praising God

to the next verse saying,

"cursed by the day I was

born.

May the day my mother bore

me not be blessed!

Cursed be the man who

brought my father the

news, who made him very

glad, saying, 'A child is

born to you - a son!'

Why did I ever come out of

the womb to see trouble

and sorrow and to end my

days in shame?"

Man, Jeremiah's being real

here, isn't he?

He is being authentic;

he's letting it all be out

there.

He's showing his need, his

fears.

We don't do that very

well.

We - the church - have

this thing that I like to

call the perception of

perfection.

You come at a church and

what do you see?

You see these well-dressed

- you all look lovely

today, by the way - these

well-dressed, happy, whole

people.

And you go, "I don't

measure up to that!

I'm broken.

I'm messed up.

I've got problems in my

life.

I'm not like that person

or that person over

there."

If you come in and you're

a teenager, you look up to

an older person to you and

you go, "Man, I want to be

like that."

And you see that their

life is so great when you

don't know they're

struggling, that their dad

or mom isn't showing them

love.

Or maybe you're a single

person and you see another

single person at church

and they are just so happy

and they're driven and

they're good with being

single and you go, "Man,

all I want is a spouse and

I want to be loved and I

want to give love," and

you see this other person

who seems so whole but you

don't know that they're

financially destroyed.

But you have this

perception of perfection

in them.

And you see other people,

couples at church, and

their marriage just seems

like it rocks and they're

just having joy and love

back and forth, Ephesians

5 is exploding inside of

their marriage of love and

respect, and you go, 'Why

can't I have that?

I'm married to this bozo

over here.' But you don't

know the struggles that

they're having trying to

get pregnant and it's got

their marriage on the

rocks.

Can I let you in on a

secret?

The people in the row or

two in front of you?

Their lives are just as

messed up as yours.

[Audience: Laughter] Did

you know that?

They're holding on for

dear life, praying that

God will get them through.

And can I let you know

something else?

The person and people

sitting two rows behind

you?

They're looking at you

right now going, "Man, I

wish I was like that

person.

Man, they've got their

lives together."

We have this perception of

perfection inside of the

church and what does that

do?

The devil plays on that

with our fears.

You don't measure up.

You're not good enough.

You're no good at this

God-thing.

You're no good at this

believer-thing.

You're a failure and

you're a fraud.

So what do we do?

When we see the perception

of perfection in other

people, well then we go,

"Well, then I need to

project perfection.

I need to take a part of

my life and shine it up

and make it look so

beautiful and so whole,"

and that's what we put in

front of other people

inside of our church and

we hide all this other

messy baggage behind us

but we know it's there.

And everyone looks at us

and goes, "Man, look at

you.

You're so great!"

You don't hear a word they

say because your focus is

right here.

And there's a fear that's

crushing on you going,

"I'm a failure.

I'm a fraud.

I'm a fake.

I don't feel whole.

It happens all the time

inside of the church and

people who aren't inside

of the church, that's why

they're saying there's so

many hypocrites inside of

the church because they

see us shining up and

putting this perception of

perfection and projecting

perfection and go, "I

don't want to be a part of

that."

Man, that's why I love

Jeremiah!

Jeremiah, who gets really

real, really fast, and

says, "Cursed be the day

that I was born."

If someone said that to

you, like, "Whoa buddy,

slow down!"

But isn't that what we,

inside the church, should

do in community together?

Should we be willing to be

real and authentic with

our problems and our

hurts; sharing those with

one another?

Not for ridicule, not for

mockery, not for the, "Oh

man, did you hear what she

did?"

But instead, for support

and for encouragement.

Again, Jeremiah, back and

forth, on the one hand he

says, "Praise - give

praise to the Lord," and

then he says, "Cursed be

the day I was born."

One thing you can say

about Jeremiah - he's hot

on fire for God and then

all of a sudden, he's

really cold, numb.

But he's not lukewarm.

That reminds me of this

section of the book of

Revelation, the last book

of the Bible.

And maybe you've read

through that book before.

The first few chapters are

all about seven letters

written to seven different

actual churches in Asia

Minor.

And one of those was a

city known as Laodicea.

And Laodicea was - I've

read, I've never been

there - but I've read that

their water source is this

hot springs; beautiful,

the sitting in the hot

springs, the minerals,

refreshing.

But when that water would

travel from the hot

springs down into the

city, it would be this

nasty, lukewarm

temperature.

I live in Florida, as I

mentioned, and there's

times where I'm - it's

beating hot and I'm so

thirsty and I get back to

my car and like, "Oh,

there's a half-drunk water

bottle in the backseat!"

And I pull that out and I

open it up and I take a

swig and whoa - I spit it

out.

It's nasty!

That's what the Laodicians

had to drink all the time.

And so, God uses that

picture to them and he

says this about being real

and authentic, which they

were not being.

He says, "I know your

deeds; that you are

neither cold nor hot.

I wish you were either one

or the other.

So because you are

lukewarm, neither hot nor

cold," God says, "I'm

about to spit you out of

my mouth."

God detests us covering

over our fears and our

needs when we've got our

shield, our very great

reward, who's right there,

always willing to help us,

heal us, and forgive us.

God's got incredible body

of believers surrounding

you that you can reach out

to and gain encouragement

and gain strength but what

do we do?

We stay lukewarm and we

cover that up.

Friends, it's okay to have

a bad day.

It's okay!

I give you permission.

You can have a bad day.

You can have a bad week.

You can have a bad month.

Jesus even said in this

world, you will have - do

you know what the word is?

Trouble!

You're going to have

problems in this world.

It's okay to have a bad

day.

But when you have those

fears and those pains on

you, don't try to fix it

yourself.

Go to God; go to the

Almighty.

Go and listen to all of

his promises and be

enveloped into his love.

Just before we got on a

plane to come here and

record this message for

you, one of my daughters

was having just a bad day.

I got home and my wife

says, "She has been just

hurting all day long."

And so I go up the stairs

and my daughter's just in

her room crying; just

crying on top of crying.

And so, I asked her what's

going on.

She says, "I'm having a

bad day, daddy.

I'm having a bad day."

I said, "Honey, it's okay!

You can have a bad day."

I said, "Come here."

And I held her close and

tight and I simply did

this:

[Pastor: Exhales]

and repeated that about

three, four, five times;

holding her tight,

breathing in slowly.

Exhaling.

I said, "Honey, do you

feel how calm I am?

Do you feel that I'm mad

at you that you're having

a bad day?

Daddy loves you.

Your mommy loves you.

Your sisters love you.

Jesus loves you.

It's okay!

Breathe in this peace and

breathe out that hurt."

And friends, that's what

we need to do when we're

feeling pain and fear.

Breathe in God's word.

Breathe in his love and

his forgiveness and his

mercy for you.

Instead what we do, we

look at the commands, we

look at so many of the

commands and go, "I failed

that and I failed that."

Can I tell you something

pretty cool?

The first five books of

the Bible - when you add

up all the commands, all

the imperatives in the

first five books of the

Bible - there's 613

commands that God gives.

That's a lot!

But you know which one is

repeated more often than

any other?

It's not do not lie, do

not murder, do not steal.

It's not don't do this and

do that.

It's do not fear.

The command that God gives

you the most often than

any others is do not fear!

And when God says to you,

"Do not fear," he's not

yelling at you just like I

didn't yell at my

daughter.

He's coming to you as a

father does, as I did to

my daughter.

Holding you in the embrace

of his arms and says, "Do

not fear.

I've got this.

I've got you."

Drink in, breathe in, his

beautiful words to you.

Do not fear.

If you're feeling alone in

your life, God says to you

in Hebrews 13, "Never will

I leave you, never will I

forsake you."

Do not fear.

If you feel like a failure

in your life, that you

don't measure up, God says

to you, "The Lord directs

the steps of the godly.

Though they stumble, they

will never fall for the

Lord holds them by the

hand."

Jesus with his nail

scoured hands reaches down

to you; to hold you and to

make sure you're never

going to wreck in this

world.

He holds you near; he

holds you close.

He holds you with his arms

of love and forgiveness.

God says there's nothing

for you to fear; do not

fear.

But you go, "But God, I've

messed up so much.

I've sinned so often."

And you're afraid maybe

God's given up on me.

God says to you in 1 John

1: "If we confess our

sins, he is faithful and

just and will forgive us

our sins."

Friends, you've got

nothing to fear.

"My grace

is sufficient for you for

my power's made perfect in

weakness."

So if you feel weak, feel

strong in God.

Go to him and trust in

him.

When you've got fear on

you, there's just three

things you need to do:

Stand behind your almighty

God.

The shield who protects

you, who loves you,

forgives you, and move

forward against that fear

with God guiding you.

Secondly, reach out to

people inside the church.

Don't have this projection

of perfection but to go up

to someone that you trust

- maybe an older, wiser,

mentor - and say, "Hey,

I've been watching you in

your life and I would love

to be where you are when I

get to where you are.

Can you guide me?

Can you lead me?

Can I take you out to

coffee?

Can I share my concerns

and pains with you?"

Could you imagine the

community that we would

have?

And then finally, you've

got to change your

perspective.

Because what we do, why we

have so much fear, is we

see the end game; we want

to be the end game now and

we don't know how to get

there.

So we go, "Man, I might as

well give up."

But God says this

beautiful encouragement to

you.

This is Philippians 4:8;

God says, "Whatever's

true, whatever's noble,

whatever is right,

whatever is pure, whatever

is lovely, whatever's

admirable, if anything is

excellent or

praiseworthy," then God

says this.

Listen very closely, he

says, "Think about such

things."

Does that strike you as

odd?

Shouldn't God say, "Go do

them!

And if you don't, I'm mad

at you."

No, what he says is think

about such things.

Because God knows that

where your thoughts are,

that's where you're going

to go.

And if your thoughts are

on your fears and on your

failures, guess what

you're going to repeat?

Your fears and your

failures.

But if you're thinking

about what God wants you

to do - which is noble and

right and pure - and you

think, "God, anoint me

with your Spirit.

Help me to walk that

pathway.

Guess what the shield will

help you do?

Go that way even when life

is messy.

I remember in first grade,

amazing teacher,

Ms. Wastrack.

I vividly remember, for

some reason, the day in

class that she was

teaching us how to mix two

crayons - two colors

together to make a

different color - and so

she handed out this

printed off sheet of this

happy little frog and she

goes, "Alright class,

point your blue crayon."

Blue crayon?

That's weird.

I'm like, "Okay."

So we color our pictures

and I look at my picture

and it's a blue frog and

I'm laughing, "Ha, blue

frog."

I wasn't very mature yet.

So I'm laughing at this

blue frog that I'm staring

at and so the teacher's

got the blue frog in front

of class and she goes,

"Now pull out your yellow

crayon."

And this is before the

yellow, blue make green

gladlock seal that was

there; so I didn't know

they made different

colors.

So she pulls out her

yellow crayon and she's

just coloring away and

magically, before my eyes,

it turns green.

I'm like, "That's so cool!

I've got to try this!"

And so, I grab my yellow

crayon and I'm going to

town on my paper that was

there and it didn't look

like hers; it looked like

two crayons got in a fight

and threw up on each other

on my paper.

[Audience: Laughter] And

I'm a perfectionist and

I'm looking down on this

and I am broken and it is

messy and it makes no

sense to me and I'm

fighting back the tears

and I'm looking around and

all my other classmates,

they're like, "This is so

cool!"

and it looks green on all

their sheets.

And I look at mine and

it's a mess and my teacher

noticed it and came over

and said, "Johnny, what's

the matter?"

I said, "It's a mess.

It's wrong.

I'm a failure."

She goes, "Come with me."

She grabs my hand and she

leads me from my desk and

she walks me up to her

coloring and it's a mess -

blue and yellow on top of

each other.

And she turns me around

and walks me up and down

the aisles and all those

other kids' colorings that

look green from afar, when

you're up close, it was

messy.

And then I looked over at

mine and suddenly, it was

green.

And it hit me about your

perspective because you

and I, we know ourselves

so well, and what do you

see?

You just see the mess;

that's all you see.

But God who's a God of

grace and a God of love,

who gave you the

perfection of Jesus, sees

something else.

He sees a Christian

believer striving and

struggling to live for the

Almighty, saying, "God,

help me and heal me when I

mess up."

And he does and he has and

so, when he sees you, he

doesn't see the mess; he

sees perfection, something

that's been colored not

green, but red by the

blood of Jesus.

Healed by the Almighty who

one day will be in heaven

and look back to this

earth and go, "I was

afraid of that?"

Until that time, trust

Jesus.

Trust your shield, reach

out to your friends

around, and change your

perspective and you will

gain peace.

Amen.

[MUSIC]

[PASTOR MARK JESKE]

You know, one of

the things that really

works for me when I'm

feeling stressed and

anxious and when there is

various kinds of fears

rolling around in my head

is just to make myself

write it down and to look

at it and to just consider

it in actual words and

then maybe even to say it

out loud.

Sometimes and somehow, my

worries and stresses just

don't seem so bad when I

actually put them into

words rather than just

having it be a churn of

feelings.

Another great strategy is

prayer and I'll be back to

pray with you in just a

moment.

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[PASTOR MARK JESKE] I'd

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Grace keep going.

Thank you!

Let's pray, shall we?

Dear Lord Jesus, We come

to you today with all our

anxieties and all of our

fears.

You know all these things;

you know the happy

endings.

But we don't.

But it's enough if you

know.

We put our trust in you

and ask that you would

make happy endings come

out of all of our

dilemmas.

Maybe we can learn from

things; maybe hardship

will make us tougher.

Maybe it will tenderize

our hearts so that we're

more compassionate with

other people who struggle.

And maybe it's just going

to make us appreciate

heaven all the more.

Whatever you have in mind,

we know it's good.

Please help us trust you

more.

We know you love us and we

love you, too, Lord Jesus.

Thank you for listening.

We pray in your name,

Amen.

For Time of Grace, I'm

Pastor Mark Jeske,

celebrating the fact that

every day is a day of

God's grace for you and

for me and it all starts

now.

[PASTOR MARK JESKE] When

we started Time of Grace

eighteen years ago, we had

one goal: To get a

grace-based TV program on

the air.

Since then, we've been

able to use all the

advancement in

communication technology

to help proclaim the

gospel to people all

around the world.

It's amazing how much has

happened and the

intervening time and while

it's awesome to see God's

hand in how Time of Grace

has grown, to me it's even

more exciting to envision

and imagine and pray for

the blessings still to

come.

After Easter Sunday in

2019, Pastor Mike Novotny

will be taking over as

lead speaker here on the

Time of Grace television

program.

I feel strongly that Time

of Grace must continue to

change and that's why I've

chosen to take on a

different role in the

ministry; helping to

spread God's word and

assist with Pastor Mike's

transition.

I know you're going to

love Pastor Mike.

He's a talented pastor who

adheres to the same

messages you've heard here

on this program all along.

He'll bring a renewed

energy to the program that

will help you and other

people experience the

spiritual freedom that

comes from God's grace.

In coming months, I'll be

sharing more about this

transition with you.

I'm so excited to see God

at work in these things

and I'm counting on you to

provide support, guidance,

and prayers as we

officially welcome Pastor

Mike in his new role.

[MUSIC]

[ANNOUNCER] The

preceding program was

brought to you by the

friends and partners of

Time of Grace.