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August 14, 2003
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LaGuardia Airport
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Standing curbside to get out luggage and
leave. Waiting in the hot summer sun for
twenty minutes. Walked up to the man and
asked him if there was a problem.
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“Yes, there was a power grid failure in Canada
and it reached us.”
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Caught in the black out of 2003
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The later it got, the darker things got
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Then there was an announcement: LaGuardia is
closing down! No one in and no one out
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Proverbial dilemma; caught in a dark situation
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Called my agent, “Sylvia, see if you can find us
a hotel room”
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Crown Plaza LaGuardia had one room left, but we
had to reach it in 10 minutes, because everyone was looking for hotel rooms
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We hailed a cab, there were no street lights, no
power, utter darkness.
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We walked into a candlelit hotel, handwritten
registration, walked to our room by flashlight
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We planned to go to sleep, hoping tomorrow would
be a better day
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And with as hot as it was in the summer, my wife
decided to try and pull back the curtain to see if we could open the window
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And across the street, the Marriott Hotel was
all lit up!
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We opened the window, we could hear music
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How could this be!?
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How could things be so dark, but so lit up?
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Hot food, TV, joy, laughter, gaiety! We made it across the street and I asked the
Asst Mgr, “I don’t understand. Everyone except you! Why?”
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“We built this hotel with a gas generator,
because we decided that what does on inside here doesn’t depend on the
circumstances out there.”
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Maybe for you things are getting dark, family,
inner battles, and the light just won’t stay
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Darkness pervades, an Ecclesiastes darkness
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Sunday you’re in church everything great, but
Monday—Monday rolls around and no one gets along
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Jeremiah 29:11 NOT FOR YOUR CALAMITY, BUT A
FUTURE, A HOPE
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A well-lit verse in a very dark chapter
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Jeremiah 4 You are in exile because of your sin,
family, economics, all in disarray—a dark chapter
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This particular season is dark, but there
remains a well-lit chapter in a very dark book
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Is there one chapter in your dark book
tonight? It’s still a good verse!
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What is hope? Joyful expectation about the
future; my tomorrow is going to be better than yesterday
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Hope talks about the future. If you can look out
and see a better tomorrow, you can make it!
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Don’t spend your life in the rearview mirror.
Where you’re going is a lot bigger than where you’ve been!
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We’re living in a post-Christian era.
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Modern day Babylonia. Darkness sets in.
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Don’t read verse 11 and skip 12 and 13!
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When you search for Me with ALL of your heart…when
He takes you south, it because the only way to go is UP; go left, He’ll take
you left until you—His people—give Him undivided attention
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Don’t look for the plan—look for ME!
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Ever been to a pizzeria?! A real life pizzeria with Italians? They slam the bread, beat it, flatten it, and
then twirl it on their fingers…until the dough is ready to receive the good
stuff, the pepperoni, the sausage…as long as it’s lofty, you can’t get the good
stuff
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You need the illumination of His presence
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You can’t get hope and leave God out
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Dating my wife, she was moving a little slower
than I wanted. There was this ride at
the fair called the Wild Mouse, it would take you and spin you and slam you and
when you got off the ride it looked as if only one person had ridden. I asked for two tickets. Sometimes you got to create a situation to
get what you’re looking for!
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Labor is good news in a bad situation! In labor, if the head isn’t facing the right
direction, the doctor will go IN and turn the baby around, because you can’t
have the baby until the head is in the right place, THEN WE CAN BE DELIVERED,
but only when our head is in the right place!
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LOOK FOR ME!
SEEK ME!
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You go to a restaurant, you get a menu. On this menu is a listing with a written
description of what’s on the menu. So
good sometimes it makes you salivate.
Waiter gives you details…So you read it, you heard it, and you don’t
say, “Let’s go!” You didn’t come just to
read and hear, but to experience! You
went for the experience of it!
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When you’re looking for a job you have resumes
and references. You have a listing of
what you’ve done and people who can talk about you. Then you have an interview, because they want
to see you for themselves. He has 66
books worth of a resume. In those 66
books he has thousands of references!
Want a relationship you can own, not a name to use!
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14 I will be found b you and I will RESTORE your
fortune
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He will give back what you thought you lost
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If you’ve lost your joy, He knows where it is!
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If you’ve lost your family, He can renew it!
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If you’ve lost your life, He raises the dead!
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“I know how to give it back!” And that is good news for the Gospel and a
country in trouble
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My wife…excellent cook. She made a multitude of delicious things. But only on Sunday. Not on Monday. But she’s the Tupperware Queen. She took leftovers one time, added this,
skimmed this, fixed this, and gave it a French name, and it tasted even better
than it did on Sunday! That’s what happens
when your leftovers meet the hands of a master!
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HE KNOWS HOW!
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He can’t be an extra!
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A man needs to take his family first to God, NOT
AFTER EVERYTHING ELSE
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“I can’t be an extra!”
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Mother and daughter shopping in line. They go down one aisle. “Mom, can I please have some chocolate chip
cookies?” “No, you’ve had enough for
this week.” They go down the second
aisle. “Mom, please can I have some
chocolate chip cookies?” “I already told
you no.” They reach the third
aisle. “Mom, I NEED some chocolate chip
cookies!” “What you NEED is a
spanking! No!” They reach the check-out line and the little
girl puts her hands together and stands in the cart. “Dear Jesus, earlier this week in school they
taught us that You would fulfill all our needs…please show that You will meet
my needs more than my mom and give me chocolate chip cookies!” The women behind them in line said, “Why won’t
that woman give her daughter chocolate chip cookies?!” And the mom ran back and grabbed all the
boxes of chocolate chip cookies she could…that’s where some of us are. We’re in the check out line… But you need to check up, before you check
out.
