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Let us pray.
Lord, you spoke the world into existence, and all things were made by you. It is your word that renews my mind and refutes old lies, so I can think pure thoughts. The more I understand you, the more my faith believes in who you are, and the greater the anointing in my life. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's daily prayer.
For more inspiration and an incredible message from our feature pastor, stay tuned to Pray.com's Sunday service.
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Welcome to The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young. Before we get to today's message, we want to help you move forward in your faith with perseverance, power, and purpose by sending you Dr. Young's book, The Winning Walk. It comes as thanks for your gift to help share the proven truth of God's Word with more people all over the world through the broadcasts and resources of The Winning Walk. No one is born with the ability to walk. It requires practice, coordination, and time.
In the same way, nobody instantly becomes an overcoming Christian. Like all journeys, it requires proper equipment and preparation. In his book, The Winning Walk, Dr. Young helps you outfit your life with the Word of God so that you can conquer the spiritual drift and walk confidently in Christ every day. So be sure to request your copy of The Winning Walk when you give. Just call 1-800-350-WALK.
1-800-350-9255. Now, let's get started with today's teaching from Dr. Young. But I'm told that when all the lights go out, that the diamond, the Hope Diamond, has unusual qualities of brilliance. And when the lights are out, it shines even brighter than it was then, even when it was under the lights. And that's hope. That's hope. And we ask the question, what has happened?
In America, what's happened around the world? There is violence, and the answer to violence is more violence. The cartoon in the New York Times pictured two men standing there in Missouri, Ferguson, and they were looking at a burned-out business, and one man said, "I guess we showed them." The other man said, "Yeah, I guess we did. I used to work there." I don't have the answers for that.
But I don't hear any answers for that. And the idea that you can get this group and that group to come together, communicate more, and sing another stanza or two of "Kumbaya" is not the answer. I'm not interested in blame or purpose. I'm interested in what is there in our world, in our cities, that leads to protest and violence and in the streets numbering the millions
There we need to take a time out and see what is going on. The Book of Romans, the formal study ends in the 13th chapter, in the 15th chapter and the 13th verse. It talks about hope, hope, hope, hope. Christian people have hope. The rest of Romans, Romans chapter 15, verse 14 through the rest of 15, all the way through chapter 16, Paul is saying goodbye.
He's saying, "Here are my future plans," and he has two or three prayers, benedictions written in, and he lists a lot of people's names that he knew and he loved and encouraged them and gave them assignments. But he ends up Romans saying that you and I as men and women in Christ, we have hope, and we are to take that hope and let it explode in the world in which we live. Listen to this 13th verse. It's a powerful challenge for you and for me.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that, in other words, we are filled with joy and peace. Why? So that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The joy and peace we have in Christ is to overflow to joy and peace in the lives of others. Let's prepare for the teaching of the book. Father, we kneel, hands and hearts and minds before you asking that you will speak and challenge us.
and move among us. And may we hear your words, not for anybody else, but as for each and every one of us. You speak, Father, by the power of your Spirit. Let me get out of the way, is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness.
It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We have nothing before us. We were all going to heaven. No, we were all going the other way, to hell. Opening words of Charles Dickens, a tale of two cities. One city was Paris. They had a revolution. Heads were cut off. There was division. There was war. There was violence.
There was all kinds of corruption exploding in Paris. It spilled off into France. It was the darkest of hours. The other city in the second part of the tale was London. Not perfect, but they had a spirit of Christ and God and redemption and hope in the lives of people. So there's two different cities, and there's a tale of two different cities. We live in a city, metropolitan Houston, Texas.
What a city, what a moment in which for you and I to be alive. Various cities in the history of mankind, perhaps no city before, has been so privileged and blessed as we are now in Houston. Look at where we are in Houston. Houston has the number one wealthiest zip code in Texas.
with a medium income, average income $240,151 per person. We have that zip code in metropolitan Houston, and it's not River Oaks. It's West U. Interesting. Houston has four of the top 10 wealthiest zip codes in the entire state of Texas.
Houston area housing start rates climbed to 28,990 this year, showing growth for the last eight quarters. Houston is designated as the top real estate market for investment and development for 2015. Forbes Magazine says Houston is the top big city where self-employment opportunity is growing the fastest. This fall, Forbes Magazine declared Houston the best city for jobs.
American Express commissioned study declared Houston the best metro area for women-owned firms by revenue. Houston has the most college graduates over age 25 per capita. New York Times listed Houston as one of the top destinations for college graduates. Houston in 2014 is the best city for young entrepreneurs.
Princeton Review designated Rice University as offering college students the best quality of life among U.S. colleges. This is the best one. U-Haul declared Houston as the number one destination for relocation moves. And last but not least, Forbes declared Houston among the top coolest cities to thrive in America. We've got the cool factor, ladies and gentlemen. A tale of two cities. That's one city.
Urban Houston, Metropolitan Houston, downtown, midtown, suburban areas of Houston. That's one city, but we've got another city. We've got the inner city. Oh yeah, the inner city.
Well, we know about it, we heard about it, used to been there, and we have a flight from the inner city. We call it white flight. Oh no, it's white flight, it's black flight, it's brown flight. Anybody who's in the inner city, they fly out as soon as they can get out. It's flight by all. Flight leaving behind blight. Let's see how this looks nationally, if you would. Look at your screen. U.S. spends $600 billion on welfare programs.
For just $155 billion, now we spend $600 billion, but just $155 billion, we could establish subsidized employment programs in private sectors, something like Works Progress Administration that would employ 11 million dependent people. See that WPA, Works Project Administration? My daddy...
the Depression, had a little bitty service station, lost the station, lost everything. There was not food on the table, and my daddy worked for the WPA, the government. He was ashamed of it.
'Cause my daddy was the hardest-working man you have ever met in your natural life, bar none. If you can find someone, I challenge you to do it. But he was so embarrassed, but he worked for the WPA so food could be on the table. Something like that can help. 1965, U.S. poverty rate was 15.2% with 20 million people living below the poverty line.
Now, back in 1960, only .65% of working age population received disability checks. But today, the poverty rate is virtually the same, 15.1%, with more than 40 million in that category, 15 million children living in poverty, and we have spent since then over 16 trillion to try to alleviate the problem.
5.6% of working age population receive disability checks. So here we are. That's nationally. This is where we are nationally. Not a pretty picture. Now, let's look in Houston. Let's look right here. Let's look in Harris County. That's the best way to look at it.
Father List cast a shadow of fear, 343,647 out of 1,184,988 children in Harris County live with single mothers. Did you get that? Single mothers.
Poverty cast a shadow of fear, 802,318 out of 4,336,853, that's the population of Harris County. People in Harris County live below the poverty line, one out of four. Broken educational system?
Lack of knowledge cast a shadow of fear. Almost 1,910,739 Harris County adult residents can't read. One out of every four adults in our area cannot read. Did you get that? Abuse and neglect cast a shadow of fear. 25,438 child abuse and neglect reports filed in Harris County.
19,834 are, listen to this, 78% of the perpetrators are parents. 18,053 are 71% of these parents were unmarried. 52% of victims were female ages one to three.
Gang Rue cast a shadow of fear. 41,000 registered gang members we know about. There are others we know about in Houston. Gangs are connected, of course, to the drug trade. We can go on and on because there's a tale of two cities. In every city in America, there's a tale of two cities, and therefore, there is illiteracy, illegitimacy, immorality, depression,
Despondency, despondency, fear, and finally there's hopelessness. You say, "What are they doing?" Did you see interviews of those who are in the streets that say, "Wow, you're here?" They couldn't give you a coherent answer. "I'm just here." Because there was a hopelessness in the inner city and a helplessness in the inner city, and it stacked up generation after generation after generation. And you got two extremes.
You got one extreme that says, "Let's throw more money at those people and let's just throw more money." The other extreme says, "Let's take the money away. Let them go." You got a problem. Most of them have a felon among the males there, and they can't get a job because they have a record. Two extremes: "Take away all the money, throw more money." Both radically wrong. Now, what are we to do?
Two cities, a tale of two cities, right here, right here where we live, right here in the cities around the world, a tale of two cities. Some people just say, "Oh, just give up, you know, you're, it's not a hope." Let me tell you something, what we've got as Christian people, folks, first of all, we have the commands of God and we have the promises of God, and in light of that, without the communication of God, let me tell you, there are some redemptive answers. Now, let's start right here.
Good place to start with a book, is it not? The book always gets us in trouble. It gets me in trouble. If it doesn't get you in trouble, you're not reading it properly. Chapter 15, the Bible says, "Now we who are strong," that's all of us here. We're in urban America. We're the top side. We're the strong. Oh yeah, every one of us, we're the strong.
"Ought to bear the weakness of those without strength, and not just please ourselves. The strong ought to bear the weakness of the weak." That's a good place to start. What else would each of us is to please his neighbor for his good to his edification. We're not to please ourself, we are to please the weak to his edification. Edification means that they're to be edified, and they're edified when you and I are educated.
We begin to understand, then we can build up. "Oh, I understand it. Just hold on. I thought I did too." But I can tell you, I understand it better. Edification. We're not just to please ourselves. You're not gonna find your life by just serving your life. Edification. We're to be a part of the edification process of the weak, of the weak.
Verse 3, "For even Christ did not please Himself, for as it is written, 'The approaches of those who reproach you fell on Me.'" We are to identify with Him. "Boy, if I were in the inner city..." Let me tell you something, a few escape, but a precious, precious few escape. If you're in the inner city and I were in the inner city,
Let me tell you, there's oppression, there's generation after generation after generation. There is no easy way out of the trap. No easy way out of the trap, let me tell you that. We got to identify. Put on those shoes for a while. Go down and look, walk around. Different universe.
Verse 4, "For whatever was written in earlier times were written for our instruction so that perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope that may the God who gives you and me perseverance and encouragement grant to you of the same mind of Christ that according to Jesus Christ." We've been given perseverance and encouragement. We're to go and give perseverance and encouragement to the weak. Tale of two cities.
One city, oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho
Then what else? Verse 7, "Therefore accept one another just as Christ also accepted
us to the glory of God. We were accepted, we are accepted Him. And he goes on to say, "Jesus was a servant of the Jews and a servant of Gentiles." That's verse 8 all the way through verse 12. Now verse 13 says that, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, believing so that," we read it, "you will abound in the hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
So you say, "How in the world can I accept this? How in the world can I bear the burden of the weak?" We can do the only basis of love. ♪ Jesus loves me, this I know ♪ ♪ For the Bible tells me so ♪ ♪ Little ones to Him belong ♪ ♪ They are weak but ♪
He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so. Lot of me there, isn't it? Children of that age who sing that song need that heart, don't they, that Jesus loves me? And we build that in our children. They need that.
But it gets kind of bad when we begin to shave and put on some lipstick, and we're not that obvious, but we're still like that, you know? Still so narcissistic. I woke up this morning. Did you know I didn't even think about or care how you look today? But I said, "This tie, I go with this suit. It's all about me." Right now,
I'm not worried about what you're gonna have for lunch. I'm worried about what I'm gonna have for lunch. I don't care what you eat. I got my own stuff here. And that's how tragically we live. And you've got the outer city and the inner city. It's a tale of two cities, the tale of two lifestyles. God has given us instruction and command as to what we ought to do. You say, "Where and where we been?"
Oh, in the outer city, there is great hope. These buildings going up. Look at all. Boy, in the inner city, the buildings. Boy, in the inner city, the buildings are falling down because there are no buildings. It's just slums and ghetto that moves from here to there to yon. About 30 years ago now, three or four of the guys in the church took me down to then the Toyota Center to see a closed circuit
I don't remember who was fighting. I don't know whether it was Foreman or Frazier or Ali. You've been listening to The Winning Walk with Dr. Ed Young. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 5112. God never gives up on his children. I'm grateful for that. I wonder how many of us might admit that.
I thought God had given up on me. There was a moment when I'd gotten so far away that I no longer felt the intimacy I once had with God, but he just kept on pursuing me and helped me recapture lost ground. How grateful we should be for this basic truth.
God wants to bring his children back to himself regardless of how far they have retreated or how much ground they may have surrendered. God is that hound of heaven who keeps calling us to come back home to him. And where sin abounds, the good news is that's where grace all the more abounds. Come home. Come home. He'll have open arms and welcome you. Welcome you.
We hope today's message has encouraged you to build your life on the proven truth of God's Word. And we'd love to help you strengthen your faith by sending you Dr. Young's book, The Winning Walk. Like every journey, your winning walk requires proper equipment and preparation. And this book will outfit you for the victory with the powerful Word of God. So call now to request The Winning Walk as our thanks for your gift to reach more people with the proven truth of God's Word. Call us at 1-800-350-WALK.
That's 1-800-350-9255. Thanks for being with us today on The Winning Walk. Tune in next time as Dr. Young shares more proven truth from God's Word. Winning Walk is a listener-supported ministry. Your prayers and financial support allow us to bring proven truth to listeners around the world. Connect with us at winningwalk.org. That's winningwalk.org.
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