Ladies and gentlemen, if a video could sum up a thousand words, if a video could sum up an ancient problem, if a video could sum up a current battle that each of us is facing in our hearts, this is that video. Okay, I want to make this is our last nap. Do you understand last game of the season? Aidan, I was on me.
I want to make sure you guys remember what our goals are when we step on this field. Jackson, we're the next. What's one of our goals when we step on this field? Two.
To do your best. Okay, not even close. Blang with a Y. Blang's not here.
Blang, did you get over that bloody nose again? Okay, what's one of our goals when we step on this field? If I, if I can try, if I can try to win. I like the second half.
Nate, you got it, another one? Riley? You don't have any other goals? Aidan?
Okay, negative, ghost writer. Alright, did we learn anything this season? Yeah. Our goal.
Our goal. No, not even close. Our goals. Listen, listen.
Our goals are two. Hit Dingers. Everybody better have their eyes on me. Eyes on me, Riley.
Hit Dingers. Disgrace the pitcher's family. Make the other families, other players, cry and stomp their butts into the ground. Does everybody understand that?
Does everybody understand that? Look, look, look. There are two types of people in this world. There's winners and there's losers.
And just so that we're clear, every time we step on this field, our goal is to be a winner. And if your dad has said, oh, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, just as long as you have fun, well, I hate to say it, your dad's a loser. Okay, so let's get our hands in. That team's pretty good.
But we are good. So let's go good around three. Let's go good around three. Here we go.
Hands in. Hands in. Hands in. Come on, talk to your English teacher here.
Good around three. One, two, three. Go. Jack.
I love that man. I really do. I mean, don't make him a cigarette. He's a misinformed jerk.
But at least he's not a phony, right? I mean, I've raised four kids and they've all competed in the game. I mean, I've raised four kids and they've all competed at varying levels of sports around town. And what cracks me up is, I mean, he's really just saying what most of us are thinking when our kids get into these sports.
I mean, yes, we want our kids to have a good time. But why is there something so important about winning? Like if truth be told, I'd rather have my kid violently puking over the fence with a gold medal, right? Then just like being last in the race and going, Dad, I'm having a great time, right?
What is it? What's in there that causes that? Welcome to week two of our Easter Series V is for victory, and we're continuing to look at this eternal battle for peace. Here's the underlying concept of entries week one.
There will be no peace for you. There will be no peace in this world. No peace out there, no peace in our cities, no peace in our homes, no peace in our churches, or our offices until there is peace in here. In fact, this is where the battle Jesus came to win is.
Now today we celebrate on the Church calendar, Palm Sunday, and it's an ironic day for me. Jesus, if you go home and look at it in your Bible, it's in a couple of places, it's Luke and Matthew. You'll see, it's marked by the words over the story, Jesus' triumphant entry, which is always a little strange to me because I understand that people were yelling out to him, but, but, anybody remember what Jesus is doing? He's crying.
I think part of the reason he weeps amidst people waving their palms and crying on his name is he knows it's a giant exercise in missing the point. Because they were looking for a victory, but not the kind he came to give. They were looking for an outward one that would leave their insides unchanged, and it would be a temporary victory at best. They're ushering Jesus in as a warrior king who they think will help Israel overturn Roman power, who will help them win, because they want to be winners.
But see, Jesus understand the weapons of his warfare are quite different. Jesus comes to bring peace not out there, but in here, to our hearts and our souls, because there will be no peace out there until there is peace in here. In fact, many of you know it would be that same crowd once they realized that Jesus did not come to make them win, as they had hoped. It'd be those same people that days later would be yelling in the streets crucifying them.
This morning, our search for peace, the kind of peace that settles in our hearts and changes our homes, I want to introduce you to a very ancient war and another really haunting question. If you were here last week, I gave you one haunting question, had to do with Israel's great prophet Elijah. And if you remember, Elijah is running from his destiny, running from God, he finds himself far away from God, indicated hiding, despite all the things that God had already shown him, and he's full of fear. And God comes to Elijah and he looks at me and asks him this question, he goes, Elijah, what are you doing here?
Now, if you thought that was a thought-provoking question, I hope you asked yourself that a few times this week. I don't know where you were, but that question might have popped into your mind. We're here today's. Many of you are familiar with the creation of Counting Genesis and the world of inner and outer peace into which we were created in place.
In fact, the Bible used the word for that kind of peace, the word Shalom. It's usually today used as a greeting, but in its original Hebrew, Shalom meant to be safe and at peace in mind, body, or state. It spoke of completeness and fullness and wholeness. And this is our creation story.
This is how we live with God and with one another and with our creation in our creation. And it was sin and the resulting brokenness in ourselves and our relationship with God and with one another, where the war started to heat up. And right after our fall, we see our first, and what I think is maybe our greatest, the battle jumped into this story with me. When a woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate.
She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened. Walk through this because I know you've heard this story that I think I'm going to show you something this morning that you never really thought of before the fall. Results in us quite, I don't know, like the first thing that happens, primarily in us seeing things differently.
And that's the truth. What was the writer of this story? What would he want to communicate changed? What did they see differently?
Was it that they suddenly, when they ate of this apple and they did what God told them not to do, did they, when their eyes opened they suddenly realized, shoot, we should have listened to God. Perhaps they, when their eyes were opened, they took around the garden and realized, you know, this is really more beautiful than I had previously thought. Or maybe when their eyes were opened, they suddenly realized, shoot, our ability to stay in this garden is now tenuous at best. What would be the primary thing that they would notice, that they would see when their eyes were opened, then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked.
So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. I'm naked. I got to cover myself. See, I think the context of the story is not that Adam realized Eve was naked.
I think that would take us in a very different direction. I think the context of the story is they each noticed something about themselves suddenly, shoot, I'm uncovered, I'm naked. Because prior to this, there was no thought of covering or clothing or hiding or judgment. There was a sense of shalom, this inner peace and confidence and rest.
Their eyes were on God, their eyes were on each other. They were not on themselves. There were, in value, their identity. It was all driven and given by God, but in their broken state, they took their eyes from God and placed them suddenly upon themselves and they realized, I'm naked.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the pool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you? What are you doing here? Of course God knows the answer to the question is once again rhetorical, it's meant to help them process.
He answered, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid. The very first emotion introduced postfall, loss of shalom, eyes off God and others and unto ourselves, the very first emotion postfall is fear. This is why it would be the number one thing Jesus said when he walked the earth, do not be afraid. Now what were they afraid of?
As I read the story, I figured they were afraid because God was going to condemn them. Because God was going to punish them, because God was going to be angry with them. I would think that's what I would be afraid of. But listen now, because this is a really deep question.
I didn't think about it, so I was right in the talk. What if there is a fear so primal in each of us that it could outweigh the fear of God? I heard you in the garden and I was afraid. Why?
Because I was naked. And so I had. What if the fact that you realize you're naked is more fearful to you and scares you more than even God? You just once we realize that we're naked, we spend a lot of time trying to cover and hide.
It's been going on for a long time. I have four kids. And maybe if you're a parent you can relate to this. And the very haunting and painful question which God is about to ask.
See when my kids were little, probably like yours, clothes were really just an afterthought. Remember your kids prancing through the house and you're thinking nobody just shows up because they're going to think we got a new discolent running in here. The kids are just running around. Nobody's thinking anything of it.
In fact, I remember one time we were on a road trip. My son John was maybe three years old or so. And I introduced him to one of the great privileges of being a guy. He had to go to the bathroom.
I said there's no problem here, son. Let me show you how we do this. And I pulled over on Route 80 and right there on the side of the road isn't it good to be a man. And he just thought this was the coolest thing ever.
He unleashed in him a sense of freedom that he probably shouldn't have known about because it wasn't too much later where I got a call for my next door neighbor. Saying to me, hey John's out in your front lawn naked pea. And I looked out there. There he was.
In all his glory a little stream coming out. And I looked at him and I'm like what are you doing? And he's like were you said it was alright. See something happens too shalom.
You see it with our kids maybe best. Look it starts in a seling up. Because remember when they're young they don't actually even care what anybody thinks of them. And we care what you think of them right.
I mean the first word is no. Their first action is usually throwing something at me. They don't really care that much. But then when I came home from work I was greeted by the same statement.
Hey dad, look at me. Hey dad, look at me. And I have four kids so then it became a course of no look at me. No look at me.
No look I can do it better, faster, higher, stronger. Then I got on the school bus. Remember the first time your kid came home from the school bus? The little kid, the little innocent child that you loved and all of a sudden you were aware that he no longer thought the world was such an innocent place.
The first time he got his feelings hurt. Because somebody told him he couldn't catch or he was dumb. The first time somebody told your little girl that she wasn't pretty or very popular. I remember thinking about this one time when I have two daughters and when my first daughter was I don't remember how old she was going to school.
I was in my bedroom and I could kind of catch a glimpse through the door and out and she was in the bathroom and she was putting on makeup and doing her hair. And she was in there for a very long time. And I felt this little thing and he started to rage because I started going, Who told you that you need to spend all this time working on makeup? You were beautiful.
Stop it. Who were you doing that for? And I think it's with that same heart of a father that God asks a very haunting question and I think that we need to ask it to ourselves. Here's what God says.
I, because I was naked so I hid and he said to them, Who told you that you were naked? Who told you that you weren't enough? Who told you that you weren't right? Who told you you weren't good?
Who told you you weren't smart enough or successful enough or pretty enough or tough enough? Who told you that? Who told you you had to be prettier, busier, richer, stronger, tougher? Who told you you were not good?
Who told you you were not enough? I see that in the corresponding question which comes with it is what have you been trying to cover yourself with? Now where have you been trying to hide? Because once you realize you're naked and you need to cover and hide, what fear starts to creep in over what others think about your heart is never ever the same again.
And our need for constant and more approval from others for, it starts within us with what many of you called an addiction approval. I make no mistake about it. This is an addiction. We all have.
For men, I do a lot of counseling so I'll give you some of the stuff I see and hear all the time. For men we often got it put on us from our dads, our well-meaning dads. I've loaded it onto my kids I'm sure unfortunately. I remember when I was a kid, you know my dad was very concerned that we would be tough guys.
And so he used to do what he called man training with us. So you know he'd wrestle us in the living room and throw us around and my mother would be going, Why are you doing the kids? You know, well I'm teaching them to be a man. And then he would tell us you never lose a fight.
Never. You never lose a fight. You always get the first punch in and you never lose a fight. Which was great advice until I got to high school and I was like 5, 10, 120.
And it's really hard to be a tough guy at 5, 10, 120. And so now somebody told me I wasn't strong enough. We're tough enough. I mean a lot of guys that are still trying to impress their dad 50 years old, 60 years old.
I think about it. Why is a man's identity so tied to his job and his success? It's almost true of every guy I've met. Why?
Think about this. Why? Why would a man let his marriage wilt and die, let his children grow up without him all for a job that the many leaves will remember him no more? Why?
Because I got to cover myself. And see if you think I'm really successful. That's pretty good covering on somebody. Now for ladies, see guys are fairly simple.
I'm not sure if you've discovered this fact. You ladies are a little more complex. But I do see a couple things come through all the time. One that bothers me as a father of two daughters.
There's several things that women use to cover themselves. The first is this. When every little girl becomes two or three years old and she walks into a room, what is the first thing that everybody says to her? Oh, you are so?
And what do we communicate over and over to every little girl? Your value is tied up in how you look. That's your identity. Some of you have carried that around forever.
For others, it's my identity is wrapped up in the guy I got. Some of our daughters are going to marry jerks because they're good looking or rich. That's how Joan got me, for example. You're just stuck.
All of a sudden you're like, what's I doing? Right? I'm just trying to cover myself. It's for this reason the writer proverbs, this book of wisdom, this angel book of wisdom, the scripture says, you know it's dangerous to be concerned with others.
Think about you. But if you would trust them, the Lord, you'd be safe. One writer put it this way. This is how pervasive this is, guys.
We live in bondage to what others think of us. And the addiction takes many forms. If we find ourselves often getting hurt by what others say, do you not like to be criticized or hypersensitive to criticism? If we find ourselves getting hurt by people expressing other than glowing opinions about us, we probably have it.
If we habitually compare ourselves with other people. If we find ourselves getting competitive, how about this people? Have any of you thought over a board game recently? If we find ourselves getting competitive in the most ordinary situations, we probably have it.
If we live with a nagging sense, we aren't important enough. Or special enough. Or we get envious of another success. We probably have it.
If we keep trying to impress important people, if we probably have it. If we worry that somebody might think ill about us, should they find out we are an approval addict. We probably have it. Like other addictions, we will go and make no mistake about this.
We will go to great lengths to get a fix of approval. This is why we do the silly things we do. This is how they are able to sell $10,000 purses and $20,000 watches. But yet, like other addicts, what we find is we get a hit and it doesn't last forever.
So we keep coming back for more. As approval addicts, we are always at the mercy of somebody else's opinion. There is an old preacher story that goes like this. I was leaving my last church and a woman at the farewell reception was weeping.
Don't be sad. I said, I'm sure the next pastor will be better than me. That's what they said the last time she cried. But they keep getting worse.
I see the addiction is so deep in there. It starts in the garden and Cain is filled out, sacrificed by Abel and kills his brother over who is doing best. Being acceptable to God, you see what this does to religion and how religion gets insidiously caught up in it. The primary symptom is a tendency to confuse our performance in some aspect of life with our worth as a person.
And the result is we seek a kind of approval from people that can only satisfy if it came from God. See this battle to clothe ourselves in the approval of others, to create for ourselves some kind of identity based on performance becomes very dangerous. This has led some of you to very bad places. Even see it with Jesus.
Many of the religious leaders of the day, they were beginning to be drawn to Jesus. John tells us what happened. At the same time, many even among the leaders believed in Jesus. But because of the Pharisees, they wouldn't openly acknowledge their faith for fear that they'd be put out of the synagogue for what was it they were really afraid of?
Were they afraid of reprisal? Were they afraid of fear for their lives, their reputation, their jobs, their families, their homes? No, there was something much stronger that they were afraid of, for they loved human praise more than praise from God. And see this is a profound, this is a deep profound truth that starts a war within us and a war out there.
In fact Paul rails against it to the church he planted in Galatia. He goes to them, look, obviously I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ-servant, because it is really hard to follow God when your identity and worth are coming from someone else. There's a sociologist, George Medey.
He wrote about what he called the generalized other. This is whose impression we're worried about. The mental representation we carry of this group of people in whose judgment we measure our success, our failure. Our sense of esteem is largely wrapped up in our thoughts about their appraisal of our work.
John Woodburg said to think of them as the kind of mental jury box containing all the people who raid us like so many judges that evaluate an Olympic skater. Almost certainly for everyone of us in the room, our parents are in that box, maybe some school teachers, some significant members of our peer group, our boss, coworkers, neighbors, perhaps others in our profession. See, here's the thing, it gets really crowded in that jury box. And of course, here's really the interesting part.
We really never know for sure the totality of what any other person is actually thinking about us. Now can I give you the irony of the generalized other? Here's the irony. The generalized other isn't thinking about you at all.
The truth is most of us are too busy worried about what others are thinking about us to worry about thinking about others. I told my kids when I went to high school, you know, high school is so hard. I said, listen, I have a Westmore Central, the pinnacle of social status is to sit on the stage in the lunchroom. You know, as a freshman, you can't even get in the lunchroom, right?
You work your way up eventually, like the cream of the crop gets to sit on the stage. And I said to my kids, listen, I want to tell you something about what's going on there. There are two kinds of kids in high school. There are those desperately trying to get into the cool crowd and figure out a way to get on the stage.
And there's another set of kids that are desperately willing to do anything to stay in the cool crowd and stay on the stage, but there's not one of them that feels at peace. See, the real key to the addiction is something that David Burns noted. He's a psychologist. He said, it's not another person's compliment or approval that makes us feel good.
It's our belief that there is validity in their compliment. Let me give you an example. When I was a teenager, my grandma, who was in nursing home. So I would go to visit my grandmother in nursing home.
I got my driver's license. I was 17. I'd go there. And almost every time I'd walk in, hey, Graham, how are you?
Whoever she was with, it would always have the same compliment about me. They'd say, your grandson is so handsome. Now here's the problem. It meant nothing to me.
These were all 85-year-old half-blind women, right? I'm great with that crowd. I look fantastic, but when I went back to school, I still couldn't get on the stage. The reality is people's opinions are powerless until we validate them.
No one's approval affects us until we give it credibility and status. And it's the same holds true, by the way, for their disapproval. That's why when this battle rages within us, when we're trying to clothe ourselves with something, we're worried about others, and we grant their opinions, credibility in our lives, you will never, when you live this way, we're all living this way at one level and other. When we live this way, we're never going to find any sense of inner peace, because we're all clawing for the same approval.
Don't believe me? Check this life assessment out. This is so fascinating to me. Here's some pathetic loser that wrote this.
I have done nothing. I have no ability to do anything that will live in the memory of mankind. My life has been spent in vain in idle aspirations and in ceaseless rejected prayers that something should be the result of my existence beneficial to my own species. What pathetic loser, see, all I've ever wanted was a plaque on the playground or something, right?
Do you know what loser wrote this? John Quincy Adams. Because when you live this way, you'll never get what you're looking at. There will be no peace.
The battle is in here and you're trying to clothe or something. I'm naked. I've got to cover myself with something. I think a better diagnosis of the disease came from a more modern day celebrity.
Jim Carrey, who came through a whole bunch of depression, he wrote this. I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it is not the answer. So how do we get any victory over a primal need that is so deep? This is so interesting.
I never saw this pointed out anywhere before. I believe I've discovered it and I'm thinking about writing a book and patting it. And then I realized I'm just doing the same thing right now, aren't I? Just trying to make myself a little bit of a thing.
From the Garden to the Cross, there's been this battle against nakedness as we tried with increasing desperation to clothe ourselves in something to create an identity that will bring us some worth. Here's what Paul writes. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God. It's a statement of identity.
You are a child of God is a statement of work. How are you a child of God? Through faith, not by works, not anything that you've done so that you can boast about it. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, say it with me, have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Isn't that fascinating? The problem is we're naked and Jesus came to give us some clothes. Now if you know anything about the story of the Apostle Paul, he suffered terribly trying to bring the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection around the world. Every time he would start a little church, all these religious guys would come in behind him.
And they would discount everything that Paul said. Oh Paul, he didn't know Jesus. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Let us explain to you how much more important we are and why you should listen to us.
And Paul would drive him crazy and eventually hear what he wrote. He goes, you know what? I care very little. Imagine this, imagine living this way.
I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court. Indeed, and here's a real interesting thing. I don't even judge myself. My consciousness is clear.
That doesn't make me innocent. It's the Lord who judges me. See Paul came to understand what others were thinking about. And this is really important.
What he also discovered is what he thinks about himself didn't matter either. And some of you need to hear that this morning. I'm going to repeat it. It is not only that what others think of you that does not matter.
It's also whatever that voice is in your head that keeps telling you, I'm not pretty enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not successful enough. I'm not rich enough.
I'm not a good enough dad. I'm not a good enough mom. I'm not a good enough wife. I'm not a good enough Christian.
Whatever that voice is, Paul goes, yeah, don't listen to that. He goes, I don't even listen to that one anymore. All I listen to is what God says about me. Why that's important is because God has a lot to say about you.
Post resurrection of Jesus. Paul said, look, if I judge myself, I don't, I'd be living a life of misery. I still do the things I don't want to do. And I do the things I shouldn't do.
I have to rely on God. Here's a guy named Neal Anderson. He put together his theology degree and a counseling degree. Here's what he discovered.
He goes, I began to discern discipling people to Christian maturity involved much more than leading through a step-by-step ten-week Bible study. We live in a country glutted with Bible's Christian books, radios, televisions, but Christians are not growing to spiritual maturity. Some are no more loving now than they were 20 years ago. I have found one common denominator for all struggling Christians.
They do not know who they are, nor do they understand what it means to be a child of God. It's who you are determined by what you do. This is powerful, okay? It's who you are determined by what you do, or is what you do determined by who you are.
Because I believe that your hope for growth, meaning that fulfillment is a Christian, is based on understanding who you are. Your identity in Christ as a child of God. Your understanding of who God is. Why it would only be his opinion that matters.
And who you are in relationship to him. See, in the Kingdom of God, the success equals happiness and failure equals hopelessness. That equation doesn't exist. Everybody has the same opportunity for a meaningful life, because wholeness and meaning of life doesn't come from what you've done.
You are already a whole person, and you possess the life of infinite meaning and purpose because of who you are. Yeah, I read a great quote one time. I never got out of the head. What if you woke up one day and you just realized it never really was a competition anyway?
Do you know how freeing that is? You see, you already won. You're a child of God. The only identity equation that makes any sense in the Kingdom of God is you plus Christ.
It means wholeness. All of the work, all of the striving, all of it, I have to get there. Once I get there, I must have titled the talk. What if there is no there?
Once I get there, then I'll feel better about myself. Then I'll be something. Then people will perceive me a certain way. What if it's only God's opinion that really matters?
And if it is, you really need to know how special you are. There's an old Tony Campola story that speaks to this. I love it so I'll share it with you. He said when speaking to young people, I always enjoy telling them this.
Do you realize you were once a sperm? That's right. You were once a sperm. And you were one of five million sperm all together in a group.
You remember? All of you lined up at the starting line and at the end of a long, long tunnel, there lay one precious little egg. And there was a race. And you won.
Stop to think about that for a moment. The odds were five million a one and you came through. You're a winner, baby. You are here by divine appointment.
Five million a one. You're no accident. Just think about it. If your mother had a headache that night, you wouldn't even exist.
You are a very special person. Because see, when you understand who you are in Christ, when you clothe yourself in that, you can't consistently behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way you perceive yourself. You don't change yourself by your perception. You change your perception of yourself by believing the truth.
And if you perceive yourself wrongly, you're going to live wrongly. Because you're believing is not true. If you think you are a no good bum, you are going to live like a no good bum. If however you see yourself as a child of God, you will begin to live accordingly.
If you think you need to clothe yourself and someone else is approval, you'll live that way. Most of us spend our whole lives living this way. But if you rest and you're already given approval of God, if you had deep levels decide what he says if he was all that matters, you win the war. The war is over.
Why are you still fighting? Next to the knowledge of God and knowledge of who you are is the most important truth you can possess. One of the most frequently used words in all of the New Testament about people who have come to follow Jesus, who have decided Jesus is who he said he is, accepted him as our Savior, and they begin to follow him. Do you know what one of the most frequently used words is for those people?
Say, literally meaning a holy person. Now see the tendency of the Church over the years has been to say that saints are people that have earned a title by a magnificent life or by maturity. But that's not what the Scriptures teach. In fact, can I tell you something interesting?
This is really cool. The Scriptures teach 240 times in the King James Version of the Bible that those who follow Christ are saints. Why? God declared you so.
You didn't do anything to deserve it, but that's how we see you. You are a saint. Do you know how many times in the Scripture people that have decided to follow Jesus have accepted him as a Savior and are now living in Christ? Do you know how many times I'm going to do a testament they're called to center?
Zero. Because we get a start. God knows we live out of who we are. You're a saint.
This is who you are. Let me ask you a question. Who told you you were naked? Paul would actually repeat this same question later on and then he would answer it.
He said, who would bring any charge against those who got us chosen? It's God who justifies. It's God who clothes who condemns no one. Christ Jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and he's interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Trouble or hardship or persecution, famine, nakedness, danger? No. Even when it comes to sitting on the stage at West Marr Central, we are more than conquerors than him who loved us.
You can be set free from an ancient addiction. But you have to know who you are. I'm going to close with this story because I think it just shows it so well the band can come up. This is the story about a guy named Bill.
And Bill was into the college scene, but like many of us, many of the guys in the room, he saw himself back in his college days as a skin wrap, package of him, salivary glands and taste buds and sex drives. Because that's how he saw himself, how did Bill occupy his time with this self-perception? Well, he ate and he chased girls. He ate everything in sight.
Didn't matter what his nutritional value was, and he chased anything in a skirt. But Bill had this really special little gleam in his eye for a luscious-looking Susie, the cheerleader. See, Bill was chasing sweet little Susie around campus one day when the track coach noticed him and said, Hey, you know, this kid can really run. And so when the coach finally caught up and he said, Bill, why don't you come out for the track team?
Now Bill answered, kind of watching Susie out of the corner of his eye. I'm too busy. But the coach wasn't about to take no for an answer. So he finally convinced his bill to at least give track a try.
So Bill starts working out with the track team and he discovered that he really could run. When someone began to change his eating habits and his sleeping habits and his skills got even better, started winning some races and posting some times. Well finally, Bill was invited to the big race at the state championship. He arrived at the track early to stretch and warm up.
And then only a few minutes before his event, guess who shows up at the race? Sweet little Susie. Looking more beautiful and desirable than ever. She pranced up the bill in a scanty outfit that accentuated her fine or fine physical features.
And in her hands with the sumptuous slice of apple pie with several scoops of ice cream piled on top. I've missed you, Bill. She sang sweetly. You know, if you come with me now, you can have all of this.
And me too. No way, Susie. The respondent. Why not, Susie pouted?
Because I'm a runner. Who told you you were naked? I don't know who told you that you had to be better. You don't.
You won. You're a saint. The scripture say your chosen love planned for wanted desire to forgive and made in the image of God with a purpose and plan and bought at a price. You are not what they say you are.
You are who he says you are. You are not naked. Listen to me. You're not naked.
Stop trying to clothe yourselves and other things and getting addicted to the approval of others. You don't need to fall into that balloning world because you're a runner. You're a child of God.