Greg Laurie — Overcoming the Insurmountable

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Well let's grab our bibles, we're gonna turn to two passages today. They're Hebrews 11 which are our base texts for this series that we're doing and Joshua chapter six. So Hebrews 11, Joshua chapter six and the title of my message is Overcoming the Insurmountable, Overcoming the Insurmountable. Let me ask you a question, have you ever faced what seemed like an insurmountable obstacle? Maybe you're facing it right now. Something that's so big, so overwhelming you wish you could just turn and run away; an incurable illness, what seems like an insolvable problem, a prodigal child, a marriage that is unraveling, you think it will never get fixed ever.

Well, if that's what you're facing right now, you have a general idea of how the nation Israel felt as they stood before the massive ancient city of Jericho; the city that God said they were supposed to conquer and his battle plan was one of the most unorthodox ever envisioned in human history. As you know already, they were to march around the city for seven days, that was the plan, and then the seventh day march around it multiple times and then yell and blow trumpets. If that's not the craziest plan I've ever heard, but it was a plan designed by God to show his power. We all have big challenges in life. I remember last year when we did Harvest America at the AT&T stadium. I mean, you wanna talk about Jericho? This place is so gigantic, it's hard for you to envision the size of this place, but when I went there for the first time and walked around the circumference I don't even know if I walked completely around. It was so big, like everything else in Texas. It was just like how are we going to see this thing filled? It seats 85,000 people, biggest venue we've ever been to. It's not our home state, it's not California. It's Texas. But we prayed and we worked and we got the word out.

And then of course, you all know the rest of this story. AT&T Stadium was filled to overflowing and we saw, that's our event there by the way, we saw thousands of people come to Christ and of course, it was beamed around the United States and ultimately we saw 25,000 people make a profession of faith to follow Christ on that day. So that was our Jericho. So now we have another Jericho, it's the University of Phoenix Stadium that we're going to be going to this year on June 11th, and that too, is one giant place; not quite as big as AT&T Stadium, but trust me, big enough.

So we're taking steps of faith and this is what the interior of the University of Phoenix Stadium looks like, and you can see it's empty, and the way that's gonna be full like AT&T Stadium was is if the people there catch the vision in Arizona, so we need to pray for the churches, we need to pray for the pastors, we need to pray for the believers that they understand how important it is to get the gospel out, but then we're inviting people from all over, and I'm especially hoping that all y'all right here in California and in Hawaii will join, Hawaii watches this service so aloha to everyone in Hawaii, I'm hoping that all y'all will come and join us in Phoenix because this is gonna be a great opportunity to reach out and of course, it goes into various venues around the country for people that take the signal, and by the way for the first time Harvest America is gonna be live on television this year so you'll be able to watch it all over the place, all around the world.

But sometimes God will allow a Jericho in our life and I use that as a metaphor for something big and scary. It might be a problem, it might be a challenge, hey it might even be an opportunity, but all you know is it's really big and there's no way you can do it in your own strength. And you know, for many, the greatest difficulty is to get to the place where they're willing to admit they need God or they're willing to admit that that thing they're facing is too big for them and that if God doesn't come through they're not gonna get through it, and by the way, that's not a bad place to be. As the great British preacher used to say, Alan Redpath, "When you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God".

So, maybe you're facing your Jericho right now. Well, our series is called World Changers, and we're looking at Hebrews 11 which is a collection of the great heroes of the faith, men and women, that distinguish themself because they put their faith into action, and we learn there that world changers don't quit, world changers keep marching forward, and now in Hebrews 11 we're introduced to two very distinct world changers and very different from one another, Joshua and Rahab. Joshua and Rahab. One was a godly man, the other an immoral woman. One was a general in the Israeli Army, the other a prostitute. One was a Hebrew, the other an enemy of the Hebrews, a Canaanite , but we use that expression often, well we need to get on the same page on this. Well literally, Joshua and Rahab are on the same page in the bible here in Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews 11, verse 30 says, "By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith, the harlot, Rahab, did not perish with those that did not believe when she received the spies with peace".

So there they are, put together in the heroes hall of faith. And that's what sets a world changer apart from a non-world changer. A world changer uses their faith. They go from the realm of theory to reality. They don't just talk blue sky, they go out and do things for God. They take risks. They're willing to put their faith on the line. Now, let's sort of pick this story up. We remember that God has delivered the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt. Why did He bring them out of Egypt? So He could bring them into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 6:23 says, "He brought us out from there that He might bring us in to give us the land which He swore to our fathers". And it just reminds us that God always has an end-game. Maybe you're at a point in your life where things aren't making sense, there seems to be a lot of loose ends, a lot of unanswered questions, but God has a game plan. God has a beginning, a middle, and the end.

Now we don't always know where we are in life. Some of us think we're at the beginning when we may be near the end. Some of us think we're near the end when maybe we're near, well, a new beginning. So we're not quite sure, but you just need to know that God has a plan and God finishes what He begins. He's described as the author and finisher of our faith. I don't know about you, but I don't always finish what I begin. I have an office at home, it's just really a room that I have my computers in and my books and such, and it looks like a bomb went of in there. It had so much because I am a pack rat, okay? I don't throw anything away. My wall is covered with drawings from my grandchildren and I have all these things that I think I'll need later which I really don't need later, and so I got to a point where I couldn't find anything. I lost my wife for a week. I thought she might be in there somewhere, so I just said okay, this is the day. So I attacked it. And I got this bins and I filled them, and I almost was completely done. I mean, it was absolutely transformed, but I didn't quite finish it. I moved this stuff to another place and it was looking pretty good there, still a few little piles, but I've noticed those little piles are now starting to grow again, you see.

See, I did it the wrong way. I need to completely clean it. I didn't complete what I began, but God always finishes what He starts. So He has a plan for you. Now listen to this, He's not gonna force that plan in your life. I know you've heard it before but it's true. God really does love you and He really does have a wonderful plan for your life. Having said that, you can botch the plan. You can abort the plan, you can sabotage the plan, or you can cooperate with the plan, that is up to you. God will not force his purpose in your life. He said this to the Israelites, and it's, in principle, true for us as well. In Deuteronomy 11:26 He says, "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you have not known".

And in the same way, we have that choice before us each and every day. We can choose life or choose the blessing by choosing to follow God or we can choose death, and in effect, the curse by not following God. He brought them out to bring them in. He brought us out to bring us in. He brought us out of sin to bring us into light. The apostle Paul, describing what convergent looks like says, "We turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God". And the point is we go from darkness light. He brings us out to bring us in. It doesn't say He brought us from black to gray or from cold to luke warm, and here's the problem, some of us go part of the way, sort of like me cleaning my office. I did it part of the way, and I might even add most of the way, but I didn't do it completely. So I'll be thinking I'm gonna follow Jesus and Jesus can have this part of my life and He can have that part of my life, but there's a few little piles over here I'm keeping to myself. And I won't say what those are piles of, but probably papers or trash or things you don't need, but whatever it is these are mine. I'm gonna keep these and then those little piles turn into big piles and pretty soon you find out that you haven't changed as much as you should have.

1 Peter 2 says, "They stumble because they do not obey God's word, but you are not like that," speaking to Christians, you're a chosen people, a holy nation, called from darkness to light to show others the goodness of God". So, He brought them out to bring them in. So here are the Israelites now, they're out of Egypt, the Red Sea has parted for them, and they are now moving forward. They were going to the Promised Land, God is giving to us the land of promises. Let me say that again, they were going to the Promised Land, but for us, God has given us the land of promises. Someone counted and said that there are 3,573 promises to believers in the bible. Now does someone want to check up on that for me because, you know, if you come up with a better number that's more reliable, I'll use your stat for a while, but that's a lot of promises.

So let's go back historically now. The Israelites have been delivered from Egypt and they came in short order to the point of entry of the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, which would ultimately become the nation Israel. And the point of entry was a spot called Kadesh Barnea. So instead of marching in, they said well, let's check this out. Let's send some spies in. So 12 spies went in. Two of them we know by name, Jason Bourne and James Bond, no, wrong names, actually Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb went in along with 10 other spies, and when they came back there was a majority report and there was a minority report. The majority of the 10 said there's no way we should go in there, the people are really big. In fact, we were like grasshoppers in their sight. Joshua and Caleb came back and said ya, things are big in the new land, but check out this cluster of grapes we brought out. These grapes are so big it took two of us to get them out of the place. Let's go for it. But the people of Israel said no, they were filled with unbelief. They said we do not want to go in.

The problem is, they had a small god, thus they had big problems. And that unbelief cost them 40 years of needless wilderness wanderings. Unbelief says let's stay back where it's safe. In contrast, faith says let's go forward where God is working. Well, here's the problem, they didn't go forward. They went around in circles because God was going to weed out all of the doubters, and so now 40 years have passed going around and around and around again, and then they were whining, complaining about the food God gave them called manna. I mean, granted, everyday they had manna. So what's for breakfast today? Manna omelet. Awesome. Lunch? Manna meatloaf. K. Dinner? Manna pizza. And every day it was some version of manna. They started complaining. They said to Moses we're sick of manna. We've tried every version of manna we can eat. We've had bamanna splits, we've had bamanna pancakes, we've had mannacotti, we just, we don't want anymore manna. They said we remember the good old days back in Egypt when we used to eat garlic and onions and leeks.

Man, their breath must've stunk, right, okay. And best of all, we remember the meat, we want fresh meat. So the Lord said they want meat, I'm gonna give it to 'em. And the bible says God rained quail on them, and these people were so hungry for meat they ate the birds before they were even dead, but the bible says it turned bitter in their mouth. The scripture says, "He gave them what they wanted, but He sent leanness to their souls". Careful what you ask for, you might get it. I think that's why it's always a good thing in prayer to say not my will but Yours be done. Lord, I think this is what I need and I think this is what I want, but You know better than I do, and if for some reason this request that I am no praying is outside of your will, please, I ask you, overrule it. That's a good way to pray. Well, we want meat. God says you sure? Yes, here you go. They got what they wanted.

So now their numbers have begun to shrunk, and they're no longer the great multitude they were. In fact, that older generation is gone. Now we have a whole new generation, they're young people. They didn't go through the Red Sea, they just heard the stories. They've lived their whole life eating manna. The only life they've known is a life in the wilderness. These are the people now that are gonna go into the Promised Land. God was going to lead them in, but they needed their own encounter with the Lord. And you know what? Every generation needs their own encounter with the Lord. Over 40 years ago we had the Jesus movement, and a whole generation was impacted, but we're all grandparents now, if we were there for that. And, we're praying for another Jesus movement for our young people today, that they can encounter God in their own way and see the Lord work. That's what we should be praying for. But now there's a big barrier keeping this new generation, ready to enter in to the Promised Land, from getting in, and it was called the Jordan River.

Now granted, it wasn't as big as the Red Sea, but hey, it was still big enough, enough to keep them out. I've seen the Jordan River, it's a powerful, rushing river. So they come to the bank of it and they look at it, there's no way they can get over it. So the Lord does a special miracle just for them, and the waters part, sort of like a mini Red Sea, and they went in and got their feet wet. What's interesting about the Jordan River is the Lord said walk in, and it was still moving, and it didn't open up until they go into the water. Sometimes the Lord will say take this little step of faith, and you have to first get your feet wet. And it doesn't happen right in front of you, you have to be willing to take that risk and that's what they did. So the Jordan River opens up, they walk through it now, and now they're facing what appears to be an insurmountable obstacle, the first city that they are to conquer in the Promised Land, the city of Jericho. But before they go in, a mysterious visitor comes to them, you can read about it later in Joshua five, a massive, strapping soldier with a very large sword.

Joshua looks at him and says uh, excuse me. Are you friend or foe? And he's thinking please say friend, please say friend. And that massive soldier says I'm commander of the Lord's Army. So believe this was an angel, others believe this was a Christophany. A Christophany is an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. I sort of lean toward the latter. I think this may have been an appearance of Christ Himself. And here's why I think that, because this messenger says to Joshua, "Take off your shoes, you're standing on holy ground". I don't think an angel would say that. In fact, when people would try to worship angels they would rebuff them, but of course, this reminds us of what happened to Moses at the burning bush as God spoke to him. So what the burning bush was to Moses, this soldier is to Joshua. It's his own encounter with the Lord. And God's preparing him now for Jericho, which, by the way, comes from an original Hebrew phrase that translates out to the big enchilada. No, I made that up, but it was big. And so now here come the battle plan for conquering the big enchilada.

Here's the plan for bringing down the might walls of Jericho and the inhabitants. Joshua chapter six. I'm gonna read verses one to five. Read along with me. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. "Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go in or out. But the Lord said to Joshua, 'I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its mighty warriors. Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the ark, each carrying and ram's horn, and on the seventh day you march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing your horns, and when you hear the priest give one long blast on the horns, all the people should shout. Then the walls of the city will collapse and the people can charge straight into the city.'" I want you to notice this battle was already decided. God said in verse two, "I've given you Jericho, the king, and its mighty warriors".

Did you know the battle you're in is already won? You don't fight for victory, you fight from victory. Satan is a defeated foe. At the cross of Calvary Jesus dealt a decisive blow against the devil and his followers, his minions, if you will, and He conquered them. So when we face the devil, we stand in the Lord and in the power of his might, not in our strength but in his strength. Now, I'm not saying you're not gonna be tempted, I'm not gonna say you won't be harassed, and I'm not saying the devil is not powerful, but what I am saying is you'll never be tempted above your capacity to resist, and your God is greater than your adversary. So this battle is already decided just as it was for Israel. We just need to do what God tells us to do. For them, march around the city in silence once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, march around seven times and then scream and blow trumpets. Do you ever feel like God is just messing with your mind a little bit? I mean, what kind of a crazy battle plan is this? It seems as though the Lord goes out of his way to come up with plans to cause us to be dependent upon Him.

Whether it's Israel with their trumpets or Gideon with his torches, and we'll look at that next time, God loves to use human weakness to show his strength, but understand this, there's always a method to the madness, and this is not madness at all, but God had a plan and God had a purpose and a reason for having them do this. But it seems to me that the Lord will find unusual ways to lead us so we'll realize it is from Him. Look at the different ways that Jesus healed people. Have you ever noticed that each case was different? To one person He would speak the word and they would be healed. To another He would touch them and they would be healed. To even another, they would touch Him and they would be healed. And the one guy who was blind, He spit on the ground, rubbed it in dirt, and put it in the guy's eye. Here buddy, here's mud in your eye. I mean, can you imagine if you came to me for prayer. Hey, would you pray for me, Pastor? Sure, I'd be happy to. Wait, what are you doing? It's in the bible. Why did Jesus do this?

So people would not get hung up on the technique. It is God that heals. He can heal in many ways. He can heal you through the prayers of believers, He can heal you when the elders of the church pray for you and anoint you with oil, He can heal you through the guided hands of a gifted surgeon. There's many ways He can touch you, but ultimately we say well, that was from the Lord. But God intentionally changes his method so we'll continually look to Him. You know, when you stop and think about it, in so many ways, what God wants to do in our life seems upside down from the way you would think you would do it logically. But God tells us in Isaiah 55, "My thoughts are completely different than your thoughts, and my ways are beyond anything that you could imagine". For instance, you want success? By the way, there's nothing wrong with wanting success. It beats failure every time. But you want success? In ministry? You want success in business? You want success in marriage? You want success at whatever you're doing?

Well here's what God says you should do, Matthew 6:33, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you". I know people that have been chasing success for their whole life and they've never found it. They're always looking for that shortcut, the get-rich-quick scheme, the angle that's gonna propel them to the top, and they never achieve what they want and I know other people who never sought it, but just followed the Lord and lived a godly life and an honest life and worked hard with integrity, and God has blessed them in so many ways because they put God first. Put God first in your career, put God first in your marriage, put God first in your ministry, seek Him first and these things will be given to you. Hey, you want to be happy? You want to be happy for the rest of your life? Never make a pretty woman your wife. For my personal point of view, get an ugly girl to marry you.

By the way, that's not true, if you're writing it down. This doesn't seem biblical. No, it's a stupid song. How many of you remember that song? Ya, okay. So that's not true. You want to be happy and in fact, here's what the bible says, "Learn to be sad". What? Yes, Jesus said, "Happy are those that mourn for they shall be comforted". Or another way to translate it, happy are the unhappy. You say I don't know what that means. It means that if you want to find true and lasting happiness, there must first be sadness, and that sadness that comes from a recognition that you are a sinner separated from God, but if you will ask God to forgive you of that sin and mourn over that sin and turn from that sin, then you will find the real happiness you've always wanted. Hey, you want to be great? You want to be numero uno? You want to be top dog or the head hog at the trough? Then learn to be a servant. Jesus said in Mark 9:35, "If you want to be the first, then take last place and be the servant of everyone else".

So, in God's economy up is down, the way to be happy is to be sad, and the way to find life is through death. You say no I have no idea what that means. Jesus said if you want to find your life, you need to lose your life, and take up the cross daily and follow Me. What does that mean? It means put God first, and take your plans and your aspirations and your dreams and all the things you aspire to and commit them to the Lord, and you will find his plan for your life. Okay, so now the day of reckoning has come for Jericho. A word about the inhabitants of the city, they were very wicked people and they deserved judgment. These Canaanites used their children as prostitutes for false gods, history tells us. They even sacrificed their children on pagan altars. They were into every kind of idolatry, perversion, and sin, and by the way, they had plenty of time to repent because they knew the Israelites were coming, and they'd been hearing about this and this evil had gone on for years and years and years. And God patiently endured the evil of the Canaanites from the time of Abraham to Moses, a period of 400 years.

And then as Israel is making their way toward the new land, that was another 40 years. And they knew all about it because, by the way, when the spies meet Rahab in Joshua 2:10 she says, "We've heard how the Lord, your God, made a path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt, and our hearts have melted in fear. No one has the courage to fight you after hearing such things. We know that your God is the supreme God of the heavens and the earth below". See, all the people of Jericho had been following Israel in social media, and they tweeted every day. You know, making our way through the Red Sea, hashtag God is awesome. Manna for breakfast, enjoying it, but hoping for something new soon. Getting close to the new land, ready to conquer Jericho. These people knew it was coming. These people knew about the miracles that God did for Israel, and yet they continued in the hardness of heart, and so now here come the Israelites, and they're marching around the city for six days.

So those Canaanites could've said oh man, judgment day is here. We repent! Come into our city! We want to serve your God! Oh no, they probably laughed at 'em, they probably dumped garbage on 'em, they thought this was all a joke as Israel marched around the city day after day after day, and then finally the last day came and they gave their shout, and they blew their trumpets, and of course, the walls collapsed. Listen, you can overcome the insurmountable. Just do what God tells you to do and trust Him. Let's think about your Jericho. How many of you would say today I'm facing a Jericho? Raise your hand, kind of a big thing, it's a big thing. Okay, think about your Jericho for a minute, and I don't know what it is of course, but it's an illness that you see no resolution for, no way you can be healed of it, or you have some problem, what ever it is, just know this: there's no illness He can't heal, there's no need He can't meet, there's no problem He can't resolve, and there's no person He can't save. Just know that, it's true.

To make that point, let's wrap up with our second world changer, Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot, the prostitute, the hooker, the call girl, fill in the blank here, and it's interesting how many times in the bible she's referred to as such so we get the memo, this was an immoral woman. She had everything going against her. The cards were stacked against Rahab. Even her name, Rahab, she's named after an Egyptian deity, and then to make it even worse she's an immoral woman. But what is she? She's the perfect candidate for the grace of God. Reminding us that the gospel is for everyone everywhere, and there are no exceptions to that. No one is beyond the reach of God, and it seems as though Jesus goes out of his way to reach people like this. Of course, we see Him there with this appointment with the woman at the well, drawing water in the heat of the day because she was ostracized by the village and was living with a guy, and had been married and divorced five times, and Jesus reaches out to her, and she ends up believing that particular day. Or the woman caught in the act of adultery, how Jesus would reach out to her and others like her.

So here come the spies, they come into the city, they're checking it out, Jason Bourne and James Bond. No, now this is later, a second set of spies. They're checking out Jericho, and so she says I'm gonna hide you here on my roof, from the other Canaanites, and she said the reason is is because she believed in the Lord their God. She said you serve the real God, you serve the true God. So she'd, in effect, already become a believer, Joshua 2:11 says, but saying something is not enough, it has to be followed by actions. The bible says, "Faith without works is dead". And Rahab showed her faith by her actions. James 2:25 says, "Rahab, the prostitute, was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers, and sent them safely away by a different road". So, she showed evidence for her faith. And then another indication she was a real believer is she cared about her family. She believed judgment was coming, and in Joshua chapter two she said to the two spies, "Promise me by God, I showed you mercy now show my family mercy and get me some tangible proof, a guarantee of life for my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, everyone connected with my family. Save our souls from death".

Don't let my family die. A true mark of conversion is when you want to go and reach your family with the gospel. And let me ask you this, have you reached your family? Does your family know that you believe? In the story of Lee Strobel's conversion, after his wife came to faith, she didn't want to tell Lee because she knew he wouldn't like it one bit, and sure enough, when she revealed to him that she'd become a Christian he was outraged and tried to disprove her faith, but ultimately came to faith himself. But that's a mark of conversion, you want to tell someone. My daughter-in-law, Brittany, who's married to my son, Jonathan, they go up to the Fred Jordan Mission once a month on Saturdays, and they go out and give bottled water out to people living on the streets there in Skid Row, and they invite them to a meeting where they give them a meal at the Fred Jordan Mission, run by my aunt Willie Jordan, and then they share the gospel with these people.

So as they were on the bus, folks from our church on the way up to Skid Row, Brittany says she was amazed to find that everyone on the bus that was going up to spend a Saturday afternoon helping people was a relatively new believer. She said most of the people on the bus had been believers for a year or less. I find that interesting. I read that 70 to 80% of those that have the gospel shared with them have it shared by someone who has been a Christian for less than two years. Does this make sense? In other words, new believers, God bless them, are doing a great job of sharing their faith. But my question is where are the older believers? Why is it that people who've known the Lord for 10 years or more are not sharing their faith as aggressively as those who've known the Lord for two years or less? See, if you really know the Lord, you'll want to share this message with others, and that's what Rahab did as well.

Well, here's the one final thing I'd like to say about her: after the spies left Jericho, they said okay now, when we come back with the army it's not gonna be pretty. So we want you to hang a red rope from your window so we'll know where you live and we'll get you out of there. So sure enough, here comes the Israeli Army marching in after the walls have collapsed, and when they see the window with a red rope they go in and take Rahab out, and she's protected from all of these things. And now if this wasn't enough that she was pardoned and she was not judged and she was forgiven, God even took it a step further and this shows the grace of God. Guess what? She made it into the most exclusive genealogy in all of human history. Rahab the harlot made it into the messianic line of Jesus Christ. That's amazing to me, because later she marries a Jewish guy named Salmon, and I think that was a fishy thing. No, I'm kidding. She marries Salmon, and then she enters into the messianic line.

So when you read the genealogy of in the gospel of Matthew, whose name is in there? Rahab the harlot! God can take your life, I don't know what you're known for now, and so turn you around, people will not believe it. That's the power of God, to change a life. There are no exceptions. Let's pray:

Father, thank You for your power to transform. Thank You for your love and desire to change us, and I pray for any person here now who does not yet know You, who does not have that relationship with You, and they're looking at what seems like an insurmountable obstacle, and they don't see how they could ever change. Lord, we know You can change them, we know the gospel can change them, and Lord, we pray for them now that if they don't know You yet, they will come to believe in You at this very moment.

While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, maybe you would say today, Greg, I want Jesus Christ to come into my life. I want Him to forgive me of my sin. I need a new beginning. Pray for me today. If that's your desire, if you want Jesus to come into your life and transform you, just pray this prayer with me wherever you are. Again, as I pray, pray this prayer after me. Right where you are, pray this:

Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I turn from that sin now, and I choose to follow You from this moment forward, and Lord, we pray now for any here that are facing those insurmountable obstacles, fact of the matter is there is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle, because You're bigger than our problems. So we pray that You'll help us get perspective, and not look at You in the light of our problem, but instead look at our problem in the light of You and know that through You we are more than conquerors. So Lord, help us to trust You, help us to keep perspective, and help us to follow your battle plan for our life as laid out in scripture. We commit ourselves to You now, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.