The Road Less Traveled

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PRCUA Life, protecting life through all its stages. Alright, for my YouTube channel, it's If Not For God with Mike Zwick. Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. See you. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope.

Here is your host, Mike Zwick. If Not For God with Mike Zwick, I'm glad to be back here today with you. Good Saturday morning. I was going to start off with 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and I'm using the New King James Version. And I'm going to start in verse 7, and it says, And lest I should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Does anybody have any idea what I'm talking about right there? Has anybody ever come against you? Have you ever had problems where you said, Lord, this is not going away.

This is not getting better. I heard this morning a quote by J. Vernon McGee. He said that God is the author and the creator of the universe, and that sometimes you may not like the way that God is doing things, but God runs the universe.

He said if you don't like the way that he does things, that's fine, but you don't have your own universe to run. Leave it up to God. I was looking at a story with Amy Carmichael. She was going to do mission work in Japan, and she had to leave. She said on her way back to Ireland, she stopped in India for healing and found her lifelong vocation helping young girls who were sold to the Hindu temples when the families could not afford to raise the children and the girls were sold into forced prostitution. Carmichael ended up saving over a thousand young girls from a bleak future in Donavor, 30 miles from the southern tip of India.

I wonder if you're listening to that. She was going to do a lifelong mission trip. She wanted to go to, I think it was Japan. She got very sick on her way back there. She stopped in southern India, and when she was in southern India, she found her lifelong vocation. She saved over a thousand women from sex slavery in her lifetime, and her name is still being talked about today.

I believe because she was down there, after she was there, it became illegal to force young women into sex slavery. See, maybe you're on a road, maybe you're on a path right now, and you say, God, this is the path that I need to be on, God, and I know this, God, because I know better than you do, Lord. Well, what if God is taking you on a different path? I had a friend of mine who I was just talking to in the car. And when I was talking to her, she said, Mike, this weekend, she said, I had a vision, and she said, with a vision, I saw that there was a road, there was a road that you were on. Because we had talked about something, and I said, okay, and she said the road was out ahead, and she says, Mike, you need to change course. Let me ask you something.

Are you on a course right now? And the course may seem easy, but maybe it's not the course that God has you on. Sometimes we just have to listen to God, we have to let go and let God. God knows best. How many times in our own lives have we been going one way, going one way, going one way, and we have been absolutely miserable, and we said, God, why is this happening to me? It may have been a relationship that ended. If God would have let me continue to have this friendship, it really would have ended badly.

If God would have let me continue in this romantic relationship, it really would have ended badly. Are you on a road right now where it may be the wrong road, but you're saying this is the road that I want to be on? It's the easy road? Let me remind you the words of Jesus. He says, narrow is the road that leads to righteousness, and very few find it.

He said, but wide is the gate that leads to destruction, and many go therein. And so, who is the ultimate authority in your life? Is it your friends? Is it your spouse? Is it anybody else? But is the Lord speaking to you, and if the Lord is speaking to you, then you need to listen to the Lord.

I don't care who it is. I don't care what it is that they're telling you, and I don't care how hard it is or how uncomfortable it is for you to get rid of this relationship. Maybe you need to leave somebody that you're doing ministry with. You just need to go, and you don't need to explain everything.

You don't need to tell them everything that is wrong, but there are times where there are relationships that you just need to leave, and sometimes it's tough. Lord, you have searched my inmost spirit. That's what David said. I mean, let me ask you, are you having some tough times in your life, and you say, God, I don't know why I'm having these tough times, and so sometimes we say, okay, maybe we shouldn't be in this tough time, or maybe it's this person, or maybe it's that person. I don't know, but I do know what Psalm 51 says. David wrote this psalm after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirous truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord, open, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else I would give it. Thou desirest not an unburnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy pleasure unto Zion, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering.

Then shall offer, then, then, then, and then shall they offer bullets upon that altar. God, search our hearts, Lord. Search our hearts.

Are we on the right road? David in there, he says, Lord, you search my heart. Not what anybody else is saying, but God, you search my heart. Is there a situation that you're dealing with right now, and you don't see a way out? God has a way out, but you have to ask him for help. If you've ever read the book, A Pilgrim's Progress, when he gets into, when Christian, the main character, gets into a difficult situation, he has to call on the Lord for help.

Unless he calls on the Lord for help, there will be no help coming. Who else are we going to cry to? Who else are we going to look to other than the Lord our God? I mean, are we going to look to money?

Are we going to look to provisions? Are we going to look to anything else that could help us out in the day of calamity other than the Lord our God? And I'm going to look at Psalm 73 right now.

I'm going to look at the NLT. Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone, for I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives. Their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don't have troubles like other people. They're not plagued with problems like everyone else. They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelties.

These fat cats have everything that their hearts could ever wish for. They scoff and they speak only evil. In their pride, they seek to crush others. They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth. And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. What does God know, they ask? Does the Most High even know what's happening?

Look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? I get nothing but trouble all day long.

Every morning brings me pain. If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people. So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper, but what a difficult task it is. Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. Truly, you have put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction.

In an instant, they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. When you arise, O Lord, you laugh at their silly ideas as a person laughs at dreams in the morning. Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside.

I was so foolish and ignorant. I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you, yet I still belong to you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious, a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you? Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart.

He is mine forever. Those who desert him will perish, for you destroy those who abandon you. But as for me, how good it is to be near God, I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter.

And I will tell everyone about the wonderful things that you do. God is sovereign. Everything around this world, it seems like all the bad guys are winning and the good guys are losing. But there is nothing in the Word of God that says you are going to have it on easy street. There is nothing in the Word of God that says that you won't have problems.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says that you will have problems, that you will suffer persecutions. Chip Ingram, I was listening to a sermon that he had a while ago, and he said that there was a Christian who went over to, who was living over in a predominantly Muslim country, but for the most part there was peace between the Muslims and the Christians in this country. But all of a sudden there was a radical Islamic group that came around and was killing the Christians. And so what happened is that what they did was that there was a girl who knew that these Muslims were going to come around and kill them, but she had friends of hers who were Muslim. And so what happened was that she went over to her friends who were Muslim, but they were very friendly towards Christians, and this is what they said to her. They said, look, they said if you have something, they said you can stay with us, we will give you a Muslim name, we will give you Muslim dress, okay, and you can stay with us, you can hang out with us.

And then no matter what, what happens is that we will make your life easy for you. When the radical Islamists come around, we'll tell them that no, you're a Muslim as well, and they'll leave you alone. And she was just about to say yes, but she remembered Luke 9 26 where it says, whoever honors me, whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge you before my Father in heaven. Whoever denies me before men, I will deny you before my Father in heaven.

And she says no, she says I'll let them do what they want to do. And these Muslims came around and they killed her. See, life, life in the Bible, life, life for the Christians, life for the disciples, 11 of the 12 disciples died because of their faith, and they died horrendous deaths.

Peter was crucified upside down, and even the disciple who was not killed, John, he was sent to an island in Patmos where he read the book where he was, where they showed him the book of Revelation, and the only reason he didn't die is because they boiled him in oil, and he would not die, so they sent him away. Life can be very difficult for you as a Christian, and if everything seems easy to you, then maybe something is wrong. God is not the author of confusion.

God is not the author of confusion, but I know I've seen this in my own life recently. I have had a road to go on, and that road was the easy road. That road was, was, was the road that did not have the problems. That was the road that, that was just this, the easy, easy road, but God said, no, that is not the road that I want you on.

That is not the road that I want you on. God loves you, and he warns his people if there is a problem, he warns his people about what's to come. God is warning many of you today, stay away from this person, stay away from that person. They're no good, but you say they're nice. Everybody likes them.

They're friendly. But God wants you to stay away from them because God loves you, and he's warning you. He's warned me. He's warned me in the past, and sometimes I've listened, and sometimes I haven't. And when I'm, and when I've listened, I've looked back, and I go, thank you, Jesus, for warning me about this person. Thank you, Jesus, for helping me to stay away from that person. And there's been other times where the Lord has said no. The Lord has said no. He's taken me in a different direction, but God is not the author of confusion.

God will take you down the right path. Sometimes we have to have patience. We don't see everything as it's supposed to be, and we don't see everything that's supposed to come. And we say, God, it's not happening yet, and we always want to take these little shortcuts. God doesn't want to give you the shortcut. God wants to take you on the hard path many times.

If you look at it, look at this. In the Bible, when they were coming to get Jesus, there was a man who was coming to arrest Jesus. And when that man came to arrest Jesus, Peter cut his ear off.

I mean, in the short term, that made sense, right? I mean, they were coming to arrest Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You know what Jesus said?

He rebuked Peter. Jesus healed the one. Jesus healed the man who was coming against him. He healed him.

He healed him. Is there an enemy that you need to forgive? Is there somebody who's been doing you wrong? Jesus said to love your enemies. He said to love your enemies.

Do good to those who just use you. And we say, why is this? This doesn't make sense, because it's what he told us to do.

It's like that man I was talking about earlier in the show, J. Vernon McGee. You say, God, this isn't the way that it seems to go. There's an easier way. God, I mean, I could certainly do better than you are. Do you have your own universe? Have you been crucified lately? Have you shed your own blood?

I don't know. I mean, you see, the Lord, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. Not as some men count slackness, but he is, he is long suffering. He doesn't want anybody to perish. He does not want anybody to perish. And God is in a place right now where he may be moving the, he may be moving the goalposts for you, and you may not understand what is going on, but God knows what he is doing. God is not the author of confusion.

He knows what he is doing. How many times in our own lives have we said, God, I'm going to go my own way. I'm going to go my own way. And we go our own way, and it wasn't the way that he had, and the bridge is out ahead.

I can see it. I can see times right now in my own life, I can see where there is an easy way. There isn't a way where it just, there won't be any problems, or there's always have problems, but I just see an easier way, but Lord, the Lord, he wants to take me on a harder way.

Maybe you've been thinking about something for a while. Maybe you're comfortable in your job right now, and the Lord is telling you, no, I want you to do foreign missions. No, I want you to quit your job because I have something bigger and better for you. I have a work of the Lord that I want to do in you. Are you willing to quit your job? Are you willing to take that risk and to take that chance? God has a way. He has an awesome way. All the ways, all of the ways of the Lord are good, but it doesn't say it's straight.

It doesn't say it's easy. Are you in a relationship right now with somebody that you know you're not supposed to be in a relationship with? Well, break it off, break it off. Are you doing ministry right now with somebody that you know you're not supposed to be doing ministry with?

Break it off. Has the Lord told you to do something, and it seems hard? Go ahead and do whatever the Lord is telling you to do, because I'm telling you what, we are living in a unique time right now. We are living in the last days.

We are living in the very last days, and Jesus Christ is coming back soon. Don't you want to be obedient to Jesus? Don't you want to obey what he's told you to do? Can you imagine Jesus coming back and you saying, God, I didn't do what you wanted me to do? I'm not saying you're going to go to hell because you didn't do exactly what you were supposed to do. I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is how embarrassing would that be when the Lord has told you to do something, and you're standing before the Lord, and you said, Lord, I did it my way.

To take the Frank Sinatra song, I did it my way. The Lord doesn't want you to do it your way. He wants you to do it his way.

He wants you to do it his way. You know, I was just doing a show with Pastor Steve Goode from Northside Baptist Church, and Ephesians 5, starting in verse 22, it says, wives, submit yourselves, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the church, even as the wife is the head of the church, is the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to everything in their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

There's some stuff in there that people don't want to talk about. You know, there's some stuff in the Bible where it says that the man is supposed to be the pastor of a church, and they say, no, that's okay for women to do it. Well, that's not what the Bible says. You know, there's plenty of talk in churches today about how the men are supposed to love their wives, and there's plenty of man bashing in the church, but I don't really hear a lot of Ephesians 5 verse 22 where it says women are supposed to submit to their husbands.

Women are supposed to respect their husbands. Friends, we can't preach a partial word of God. The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman.

It is. The Bible says, he says, I knew you before I formed you. I knew your inward parts. And some preachers and some Christians want to be silent when it comes to this issue of abortion. I can't. I have to preach the word of God as it is. I can't change the word of God. The word of God changes us. And if they throw me in prison because of it, they throw me in prison.

I don't care. God comes first. Put God first place in your life and everything else.

He will direct your paths. And before I go out, you know, I'm going to pray for somebody right now who's dealing with a spirit of anxiety. Lord, I just want to pray right now that their anxiety, you lift it from them. In Jesus' name, I want to pray for somebody who's dealing with depression, Lord. I want to pray that you clear them up of that depression, that spirit of depression leaves right now.

And I heard a word earlier today. Somebody said something about cancer. I want to pray for cancer to be completely healed and gone.

You've gone to the doctors. You can't figure out what else is going on, but I pray for that cancer that is in your body to be completely healed right now in Jesus' name. I want to pray for somebody right now who has not spoken to their children in a while and that relationship is not working. I want to pray for that relationship to be healed. I want to pray for somebody right now. You have a spirit of bitterness within you, and I want to pray for that spirit of bitterness to be gone. And I want to pray in Jesus' name that you go and you ask forgiveness of that person that you've been bitter against.

You see, we talk about revival, but if we're going to have revival in this country, it starts with the Christians doing what the Lord has called us to do. But if you've never given your life to Christ, I want to pray right now that you ask the Lord to forgive you. Just pray with me. Jesus, forgive me of my sins. I know I've done wrong against you, Lord, and I surrender my life completely to you right now in Jesus' name. Amen.

If not for God. Alright, for my YouTube channel, If Not For God With Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Consider joining the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, also known as PRCUALife. PRCUALife is a fraternal benefit society that offers a variety of different life insurance portfolios for all stages of life. PRCUALife also offers fixed, indexed annuity plans with a yield up to 3.75% APY. As a fraternal organization, the PRCUA provides member benefits such as education scholarships, sports tournaments, numerous Polish American cultural programs, and much more. To become a member and for more details, visit PRCUA.org or contact local PRCUA representatives at 336-776-7456. Consider joining the PRCUALife this week.