Father, thanks for being such a great God. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving each of us. Thank you that you have never given up on us. That you've adopted us as your very own children. So we praise you and thank you for that. Holy Spirit, please teach us this morning. You know where we're all at. You know what each one of us is facing, the different things that we're going through. And so please just speak right to each of us directly. And uh let us walk away with something from you. So we praise you and we trust you for that. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this morning we have a new God story. Um, if you're new, a God story is just what God is doing in uh in someone here's life. You know, we're all we are all God stories. You know, God is working in all of our lives, transforming us, uh um, changing us. And it's so encouraging, I think, when we can learn from what God's doing uh with each other. Every story that that we've seen, every God story that we've uh we've seen together is uh completely different. Uh a marriage just broken and destroyed that God completely rebuilt in uh in a wonderful way. Um a young man orphaned when his father um killed his mom and then himself, and how God rebuilt his life and gave him a great home and and and a great family. Addictions overcome and turned into a life of helping others. A young woman sexually abused by her dad, but how God's completely restored and healed her. A man so mad at God when his uh brother died, but how he now has just a great and close relationship with God. Some stories less dramatic, you know, just just finding joy in life, uh connecting uh with God. But there's one thing that all these stories have in common. In fact, I think you could say that all great stories. All great stories have this one thing in common adversity. Something to overcome. Tough times, something to get past. It's one of those kind of counterintuitive things about life. You know, God uses tough times and adversity to create greatness. It's what he does. It takes tough times and then out of them creates greatness. He molds us into his image. Now it's not like any of us are out looking for tough times. Boy, tough times, you know, God uses those. I just want more tough times, you know. In fact, singing the song um um the uh Lead Me to the Cross. Okay, that's a great song. And and it is true. But it's hard for me to sing that with the same enthusiasm that I do other songs. You know, lead me to a cross, lay lay myself down. You know, it's it's uh the tough times, it's the the adversity. But we don't have to look for things for uh for tough times, because uh in this life, tough times will find us. They will find us. And in John 16, Jesus says, I've told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world. You know, the tough times, the hard things, um they're confusing. You know, I've been through my share of hard times like everybody, and and um it's confusing. You know, why? I mean, is is is God not there? Does he does he not care? Is there something about me? Has he given up on uh on me? What's wrong with me? Am I unlovable? Do I not have enough faith? You know, Peter experienced his share of troubles. And he says in uh 1 Peter 4, he says, friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process with glory just around the corner. You know, he is gonna make, God is gonna make many things right now. But he's not gonna make everything right until heaven. Then we'll be just as God originally planned. His creation, all of earth will be as God originally intended. But until then, it's gonna be a mixed bag. We're gonna have good times and we're gonna have tough times. Jesus' brother James says that our perspective can change to the point that we actually consider a tough time as a gift. It says in James 1, consider it a sheer gift, friends. When tests and challenges come at you from all sides, you know that under pressure, your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. He says, so don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way. Well, is that possible for us to look at tough times and adversity and struggles and those types of things? As a gift as a blessing from God? It is. It is. I know it's possible to view adversity as a gift. I know it's possible to embrace what God is doing inside of us. I know it's possible to wake up every day and just be thankful for all the blessings we do have. I know it's possible to wake up every day and just be thankful for the relationship with God that we do have. And the reason I know that's possible is because I know uh Dan Bailey. And if you don't know Dan, I'd like to introduce you to him right now.

Um when I was seven years old, uh, second grade, was when I first noticed that if I was seated in the back of the classroom, I was unable to see what was going on in the front of the classroom, the teacher drawing on the chalkboard. First I was diagnosed as having uh being far sighted, and um, then they said, no, it must be nearsighted, and well, we're really not sure. And then later, my little sister, who's four years younger than I, uh, started uh showing signs of visual impairment. And so it was the summer of 75 that mom and dad took both of us to the quote-unquote specialists in Boston for three days of testing. And boy, oh boy, they did uh uh brain scans and eye uh X-rays and anything and everything you could think of. And uh we were diagnosed at that time with juvenile macular degeneration. And what that simply means is that the center of your retina is the macula, and the macula has degenerated to the point where there was no site any longer. And then to fast forward to now, um about 18 months ago, I guess this was the summer of 08, um, it was becoming evident that I was no longer self-sufficient. Uh, I was becoming somewhat dangerous, I guess. And it was time to decide: am I a cane guy or a dog guy? And as you can see, I'm a dog guy. Uh Phelps is truly a godsend. Uh, next to Jesus and my wife, he is my best friend. Um Phelps is a yellow lab and uh he's 65 pounds. He just turned three years old uh last week. And he and I graduated from the Guide Dogs for the Blind uh school in Portland, Oregon, April 18th. So we just graduated, just celebrated our one-year anniversary. And uh in one year, he and I have uh been to 28 states. Phelps is uh quite a traveling dog. You know, I felt like with my wife and my children, uh, I'm the guy, you know, basic stereotypical chauvinistic uh thought process. I'm the guy. I should be the driver of the family car. I'm the one who should take care of my wife and kids. Um, you know, even down to uh from from providing financially to providing for care of the house, uh handyman kind of uh fix it qualities, to uh protection. You know, what if an intruder came into the house and and and I can't see to protect my family? So I guess you know some of that is valid and and uh uh certainly understandable. So I had certain expectations of uh what I hoped to gain from my relationship with God uh in regards to receiving my sight, in regards to being healed. And boy, I can't tell you the number of people who felt led. Are we boring you, Phelps? Who felt led to uh lay hands on me, all the sweaty palms I've had on my forehead, on my eyes. Uh and God bless these people. Uh, you know, they they felt like they were uh fulfilling their the Great Commission, you know, and that's an interesting part of the process too, is is dealing with my own perception of God when I wasn't healed and continued not to be healed. Okay, uh, is that God's fault? Is that my fault? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe if I, you know, obviously I don't have enough faith to be healed, you know, and of course that's that's the typical uh default is that I'm the fall guy. I'm the one who's who's visually impaired. I always got a kick out of the verse that talked about uh Jesus and his disciples coming across a man who had been blind his whole life, and the disciples said, Whose fault is this? Who sinned, his parents uh or uh this man? That he was born blind. Um, hello, he was born blind. So how did he sin? Okay. Anyway, um, and of course the answer is true. It's uh not that anybody sinned, it has nothing to do with uh sin in that case. It has to do with uh glorifying God the Father and having an opportunity to show his love. Uh Angela and the the kids and I sat under a ministry uh where they preached that uh you cannot please God without faith. I mean, that's biblical, and uh that it is God's will every time, all the time, to heal. And that brings me to my point, I guess, which is that that is so uh immature, I think. Um sure, if you want to just talk about that in a fundamental uh manner, but if you go a little deeper and you allow yourself to consider that God actually has higher ways and higher thoughts and a bigger picture, and that possibly because of the challenges, the struggles, the adversities that a person has to deal with, and I mean on a day-to-day basis, a moment-by-moment basis, we all, of course, want to be zapped by God and get the quick fix. But when Father loves us to the point where he's willing to work with us through the situation and allow us to develop, I mean, uh, you know, the where the Bible says uh perseverance for those of us who do have to persevere, and of course, we all have to persevere in one way or another, Jesus Himself said, in this world, in this life, you will have trouble. And even if, even if it was God's will for me to be healed, great. But what about the rest of my life? And all the other difficulties and all the other trials and temptations and adversities. If dealing with my visual impairment has helped me, given me sort of a leg up, if you will, on uh dealing with adversity and realizing that it's not my fault. It's not because of some tremendous sin. It's not because of the sins of my youth. Uh I truly believe that adversity is the catalyst that God uses to connect with us. I am so blessed. I'm so blessed. I have a wonderful wife, a good, godly, brave woman who's been married to me for 26 years. Um we have uh six children and uh a wonderful home. I've got a great job. I'm so thankful for being gainfully employed, uh, especially in the economy uh that we're in. And so it's kind of funny because I travel so much that, and of course, Phelps is a rock star everywhere we go. Everybody says, you know, wants to say hello to him or pet him, and of course ask about him what's his name, and uh, how old is he, and how long have we been together. And uh that, of course, opens up the opportunity to talk uh with that person about Phelps, and then of course the easy segue is into who I am in my life and um how blessed I am, uh, my wife Angela and our children, and and just what God has done in our lives in regards to adopting uh our precious daughter Aspen from China in June of 06, and our our uh full of life and energy daughter uh Avalon from Vietnam uh last April, and now we have the privilege of adopting uh Anya from China and will probably receive travel approval this October. I mean it just tickles me because these people seeing me, I I I imagine the folks in the airport as they walk, as they watch me walk down the hallway, you know, being led by Phelps, and I'm I'm trying to find the right gate and find my chair and get settled in. And I imagine I can I can hear them thinking, oh, the poor blind guy. And yet, if they could trade places with me, if they knew what my life was like and the blessings I experience on a daily basis, I guarantee you they would give up their sight. And and I know the way that sounds, I'm not saying that because of my sight loss, because of my visual impairment, I am who I am or where I am, it's only because of God and his grace. It's because of God's love and the path that he has laid out for me, and that if I just wake up in the morning and say, Father, I want to listen and I want to obey, lead me. And if I had to lose my sight to get to this place of dependence on Him, then thank God for it.

Thanks, Dan. You know, I asked uh Dan if he was especially excited about you know, looking forward to heaven, because he'd be able to to see everything there. And he kind of laughed and he said, you know, I can't believe I'm saying this. But no. I don't especially look forward to heaven even more because I'll be able to see there. He says, My life is so great now. Without sight, I can't imagine how that's gonna make it any better in heaven. You know, Dan is living what James said. Consider it a sheer gift of friends when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know, God does kill us often when we pray. Dan himself was healed from a different but very life-threatening situation. But God's ways are above our ways. He knows better than we know. It reminds me of Paul, the Apostle Paul. You know, Paul was shaved saved from shipwrecks, um, from a king trying to to kill him, he was lowered out, you know, in a basket, he was saved from uh a deadly uh uh poisonous snake bite. And yet when he asked God to heal him from a physical handicap, this is what he wrote in 2 Corinthians. He said, at first I didn't think of it as a gift and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that. And then he told me, My grace is enough. It's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicapped and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride and with good cheer. These limitations that cut me down to a size, down to size, abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over. And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. Sometimes our circumstances don't change. The only thing that can change is our perspective. How we see, how we look at life, and how we look at our relationship with God. You know, focusing, like Dan, on how we are blessed. This is not all that there is. You know, there's so much more. This life, we can't help it because we're we're uh you know part physical creations. We're this kind of strange part physical, part spiritual creation. So the physical things we want to hold on to, and we can't help but focus and feel like this life is what it's all about. But this life is not what it's all about. This life is growing and learning and mostly training so we'll be better prepared for the life to come, so we can truly be effective and purposeful and enjoy the eternal life to come. It's then that everything gets fixed. It's then that everything is made right. In Revelation 21 it says, I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, Look, God's home is now among his people. He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them, he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. You know, if the worship team wants to come up, we're gonna finish in a second. You know, hopefully you're not struggling now, you know, going through a tough time. But I know that many of us are. You know, I guess I just want you to know that that you'll make it. No matter what God does, you will you will make it. That he loves you. He does love you. He has not given up on you, he has not checked out on you. That he might remove your hardship, or sometimes he will use that hardship for your good. And so you'll be able to look back someday, as ridiculous as it seems now. You'll be able to look back someday and say, thank you, God. Thank you that I had to go through that. Look at how you've used that to change me from the inside out. He will get you through it. He will get you through it. You know, getting into a relationship with God is as easy as just turning to his son, saying, you know, I'm gonna depend on you, I'm gonna trust in you, I'm gonna believe in you. And then he kind of takes over from there. He makes our spirits come alive inside, he starts transforming us from the inside out. He shows us the way, the way to live. He brings good friends into our lives to help us through tough times. He doesn't promise. He does not promise to keep us from tough times. His promise is to carry us through tough times and then make them all turn out for our good. So let's stop there. If you we'll stand, we'll get ready for one less song. Worship what a great God we have. What an adventure. What an adventure it is to live a life with our loving Father. Let's pray. Fathers, praise you for being such a great God. Thank you for Dan and how you've used his life. Thank you for his uh willingness to share his story and uh encourage all of us. Please help us, Father, each one of us. Help us through. Help us through the tough times. Our first prayer is like Dan's, it's like Paul's. Our first prayer is to remove the tough time, the hard thing. But if not, God, we thank you for it. Don't let it go to waste. Use it to change us. Change us to be more like you, to be full of joy, to be full of peace, to really see all the great blessings that we have in life. We thank you for life itself, but especially for relationship with you. And we do trust you in Jesus' name. Amen.