The Courage to Go On IV, Set Free By the Blood of Christ

This is North Way tape number 560. This message was delivered by Pastor Jay Passavant of North Way Christian Community on Sunday morning, October 25th, 1986. Hebrews 9 and 11, read with me or follow along. I hate to do this to some of you. I'm going to confuse you. I'm going to read out of the RSV. I'm comforting the comfortless right now. Hebrews 9 and 11, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy place, taking not the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now for some of you today who may be new in the Lord, or perhaps you don't even know where you are with God, that might sound like just so much double-talk. Beloved, there are life, there is life, and there will be life coming out of those words for you in just a few moments. I was sitting at dinner with a very wealthy man some years ago, and I just was prompted to ask him, I said, Sir, how did you become so successful? And he was a little bit understating in his response, and he chuckled a bit, and said, well basically I did two things. I had some good luck, and I worked very, very hard. Simple formula for success. He went on to share how for many years he was rarely home in the evenings. His wife raised their kids. He went on to say that he made a lot of sacrifices, but now he was enjoying the fruit of all that labor. The American way, isn't it? Work really, really hard, get a few good breaks, rise to the top. USA Today says that the number one common characteristic of successful executives is that they work very, very hard. On the average, 12 hours a day. But beloved, more than we know, this same mentality of working very hard to secure something for ourselves has slipped in to our spiritual lives. More than we really will ever fully comprehend, we have become participants in the work ethic of our spiritual life. At its extreme, it manifests itself in things like the Shrine of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where I visibly saw people walking for miles on their knees to get to a shrine to drop some money in so that they might gain some benefit from some saint that was being worshipped. In the United States of America, we don't have that kind of thing as much as we have the normal person on the street who would say to you today, if you asked him, about their relationship to God, it's in accord with how good they've been. And in the end, God's going to take their goods and their bads, put them on a scale, and they're confident, if you ask them, that their goods outweigh their bads, and consequently, God will say, you win, come on in. You ask anybody. I'm telling you, that's the way most people think today. But let me just talk to you about us, about those of us who call the name of Jesus as our Savior, those of us who say that we're not saved by our works. But I want to just talk to you about what we, as believers in Jesus, sometimes succumb to in terms of ministry and spiritual discipline in order to, listen, gain favor and success before God. I want to talk to you about works this morning for just a couple minutes. In the Bible, there are three kinds of works. There are evil works, or works of sin. You can read about those in Colossians 121. Those are the things that are just straight down the line sin. You do these, you know you're going to die. Name them off, you know, adultery, stealing, cheating, murder, all those things the Bible talks about. Then there are good works. The Bible talks about those in Ephesians 2.10 and other places. Good works, to me, are defined as things that God has ordained for us to do that will bear fruit and benefit other people. Good works, evil works, but beloved, in between those two, the Bible talks about dead works. Dead works. We read about it right here in Hebrews 9 and verse 14. Dead works. My definition of dead works is this. Things we feel we ought to do to become better Christians, but which we've never quite succeeded in doing. Uh-oh. How many people here would be honest today and say, I've participated in some dead works? I'm not talking about other churches. It's so easy for us to point a finger at another church. Saw on TV the other night how the the fundamentalist Christians in Denver are upset because the Mormons are taking their people. Y'all see that? And they're upset about it, but I'll tell you something. Doesn't do any good to get upset about it. What you got to do is give people life. You've got to give them food. Sheep don't wander off from green pastures, and it's easy to point to the Mormons and say, well, there's some dead works religion, or we can name some other things, but beloved, don't look down the road. Don't look across the street. What about us? How many of you heard the idea that one time or another, if you prayed more, if you gave more, if you read more, if you witnessed more, if you served more, you'd be a better Christian? All of us have heard those words. You say, well, Pastor, I was just here this week, and I heard Brother Gentry saying that we needed to be at prayer in the morning. We needed to be seeking the face of God early in the morning, and that if we did that, God would mightily bless us as individuals, changing our lives as well as breaking this church out into what God wants for it in this city and beyond. But beloved, what is very likely to happen in response to that message? I want you to turn to Romans chapter 7. Here's what's going to happen. Romans chapter 7. You're going to take your place right alongside of those who are going to say these words in Romans chapter 7, verse 15. This could be some of your theme verses. You know, Bill Gottfried has life verses. This might be your life's verse. I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I don't do what I want. I can't get to do the things I really want to do, and the things I hate to do, I do. Ever find yourself just caught in that trap, in that prison? Will you turn that on, Adam, please? The prison of good works. Ever find yourself in that prison? Where you don't even want to say something to somebody. It just comes right out of your mouth. I did that this morning already. You know, you just can't grab that word. You just wish you could, but you can't do it. Oh, you see, we'll try to do what God wants us to do. We'll just... How many of you have already thrown away your snooze alarms? Okay, you've already wrapped up the cord, driven down to the Ohio River, and thrown it in there, just like you were instructed to do. You see, I know what it's like to hear a word and say, now, God, I'm gonna do that. I can't tell you how many Bibles I bought at the beginning of a new year in order to start afresh. Now, I have Bibles that are marked clearly in blue underlining, from Genesis to Leviticus. I can't tell how many notebooks and read-through-the-Bible cards I've got stashed away. I have a file drawer full of them, because I'm trying to... I'm gonna do this. I remember once when I read about D.L. Moody, and he said that what changed his life was he committed himself to witness to somebody every day of his life and lead him to Christ. And he would not go to bed until he did that. And told stories of how he went out late at night, and under the lamp post late at night, he'd find some bum that he'd go and he'd witness to, and lead him to Christ. Then he'd go up and go to sleep. So I said, you know, that sounds godly to me. I'm gonna do that. So I committed myself not to go to sleep till I shared Christ with somebody. And so I just do the silliest things. I'd go into, you know, a stop-and-go. Wait around till no one was in the place, you know. Sneak up to the guy and said, hand him a track and say, you really ought to read this. It'll change your life. Thank you. You know what I found out? Now this was some years ago, but you know what I found out? That was maybe a few months ago. I found out that most of my world never crossed into the world of the unbelieving. I mean, I had to look for people. I could go whole days and never see anybody that didn't know Jesus. Sometimes I'd go in the office and talk to the staff and say, are you sure you've been saved? You know, I got to find someone today before I go back home. Now I want to tell you something. After a couple of weeks of that, I realized I was locked into a dead work. I was not gonna make it. I was in a prison. I couldn't get out of it. And prayer, beloved, can be one of the worst. Because you know you should. And you know it's your life's blood. I can't tell you how many days I've gone up to that cabin. I've told you about up in Mars. Gotten up there and said, now this is gonna be a day. And I had Jack and Andy and everybody'd say, now we're praying for you to really hear from God today. And I said, I guess I'm gonna go. And you know, I go marching up in there and I'll get in that cabin. You know, I'll get maybe half an hour into it. I'll just get, oh, I'm at an elders meeting the night before. Start getting sleepy. Oh, you know, I just... And then the cows will come and they're my friends and I got to talk to them. Told you about the cows. And I get distracted and I think about all these things and I go out walking. And I've had many days when I've left that cabin more guilty than when I went in. Until something happened in my spirit, and I'm gonna share that with you. You see, beloved, we know what we ought to do, but we can't do it. And you know what becomes our greatest enemy? Our conscience. The Bible says right here that our conscience, back in Hebrews again, chapter 9, our conscience begins to torment us. How many of you have ever committed yourself to do something, failed in doing it, and then when you thought about it again, your conscience just rose right up and said, oh boy. Who do you think you are, Mr. Spiritual? You know, our conscience is a very, very brutal taskmaster. It can destroy the best intentions of our hearts. It can make us suffer sleepless nights. It's much like... And you know, we can even get rid of the problem and our conscience still bother us. It's like a coffee stain, you know? You can take a coffee cup, put the coffee in it, and even when the coffee's gone, if you don't wash the cup out, the stain remains. And then it's very difficult to get it out of there. I'm willing this morning to assume that many of you right now have stains in your conscience because of failed commitments to God. Things, dead works, a prison that you've been locked into. Well, what is the key to get out of it? That's what I want to share with you right now. This scripture is a little bit mysterious. The beloved in it is a key that's going to set a number of you free today from the prison of dead works. Look what it says with me. Look carefully now. For if... 13, 9-13. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify, cleanse, purge, it says in the King James, your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now, what is this business about the ashes of a heifer? In Numbers 19, don't turn there, but just mark it down. In Numbers 19, we read about the ceremonial cleansing that had to take place of a person who was involved with death. In other words, if you were part of a group of men that was called upon to bury a dead person, you became ceremonially unclean. That means you could not worship. You could not bring a sacrifice. Now listen, you could not commune with God. And what you had to do was to submit yourself to this cleansing rite or ritual, which what the priest had done, they had burned completely a red heifer, just a cow, just completely consumed it in an intense fire and had barrels and barrels of ashes outside the tabernacle. And then they take some of those ashes and mix them with water. And then if you'd been involved in death in any way, you would come and get that sprinkled over you once, then the third day, then the seventh day. And after a week, after those three times, you would be declared ceremonially clean. And then you could bring your sacrifice and be restored again to commune with God. Now this was a law. This was not just a suggestion. The priest didn't say, Hey, you got to get cleaned up. I mean, you could not do it. And beloved, there was a lot of death in the wilderness as the people moved. A whole generation died. That meant lots and lots of people needed to be cleansed by the ashes of a heifer. What did those ashes signify? Think about it. Ashes symbolize total consuming fire. You see, the ashes came down and burned up the heifer, indicating the judgment of God against the stain of defilement that had come upon these people. The ashes were a memorial of the judgment of God that had come down on the defilement of the people. Now listen, please catch this. At Calvary, at the cross of Christ, the judgment of God came down on Jesus. Only one person in all of history has known the full wrath of God. That was Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. The full anger of God against sin was poured out on Jesus. And when He died under the wrath of God, the Roman soldier came and stuck his spear up in His side and blood and water poured out. And you see, beloved, it's the blood of Jesus that symbolizes the finished work of the judgment of God. I want to say that again. The blood of Jesus symbolizes the finished work of the judgment of God against sin. This is the power that's in the blood. See, the cross symbolizes humiliation and punishment, but the blood symbolizes judgment that is finished. The wrath of God already poured out. The judgment has been satisfied. And now the blood can be applied. You see, it's when the blood is applied to our past failures, our broken promises, our unkept vows, our dead works, that our conscience can be cleaned. God is desiring to give you the very thing you're seeking to attain. Are you hearing? God wants to give you, through the blood, the very communion, the very service, the very gifts, the very love, the very fellowship that you're striving to attain by doing all these works. He wants to give it to you by the blood of the Lamb. Somebody say amen to God. He wants to do it. And the very first thing that will happen to you when this breaks into your spirit, as I pray it will today, you'll stop striving. I lost my keys 70 or 80 times last year, it seemed like. But I remember one time, just a few months ago, I lost my keys and I'm racing around the house looking for them. Lo and behold, I put them on the nightstand in my bedroom and they got behind the lamp and I didn't see them. What was the first thing I did when I found my keys? This is an obvious thing, don't laugh. The very first thing I did, besides saying all glory to God, I stopped looking for them. Catch the point. The moment you grab hold of this truth, you'll stop striving. You'll stop looking for what it is that you don't have. You see, the blood of the Lamb frees you then to move on in God and take your next step. Picture yourself that night as the plague of death was poured out over all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Picture yourself as a little Hebrew boy or girl in your little home and your daddy brings in a little tiny lamb, innocent and pure and white. And you say, Daddy, what are you going to do with that little lamb? He says, Son, the Lord Jehovah has said that the blood of the Lamb must be spread over the doorpost and the little. So that the judgment of God will pass over. Picture yourself that little boy or girl saying, Daddy, I don't want to kill that little lamb. And you say to him, My son, either the Lamb dies or you will die. And that blood was then applied, beloved, applied. It wasn't enough just to be slain, it had to be applied. And when the plague of death came over the land of Egypt, the homes where that blood was applied, the judgment of God in the plague of death passed over. And the people were freed from it and the next day they went on into liberty. The next day they rose up and went out of Egypt while all the firstborn of Egypt had been killed. What's the message in this then? What is it that we're to do? Well, beloved, there's a purpose in our liberty. You see, only free men and women can serve God. I want to say that again. Only men and women who are free can really serve God. Those who are striving to please God in their own flesh cannot really serve Him. You never come into a liberty. You never know joy. Right now, it's so clear to my spirit and some of you that you are halfway free. You think that God doesn't really accept you because you haven't done what you're supposed to do. But it's the blood. It's the blood that brings you into freedom. Look what it says here. Once your conscience is cleansed, once you're no longer haunted with guilt, I didn't have my quiet time. I didn't pray this week. I didn't read the Word. I didn't give anything. I didn't witness. I didn't serve. I didn't care. I didn't minister. Once your conscience can be freed from that, look what it says. You can be freed from dead works to serve the living God. To serve the living God. How did Jesus Christ awaken every morning to have fellowship with the Father? What did He do? He said, well, I've got a discipline I've got to keep. I'm a man of God. I've got to get up and keep it. What gets us up in the morning to be with God? Is it a vow that we've made? Beloved, that kind of self-imposed discipline will dry out. You know when it's going to dry out? It's going to dry out around about January the 10th when it's 25 below zero. And you're going to say, I just can't get up anymore. But beloved, what brings me up? What compels me to share? What causes me to get in the Word? Is that I'm a free man because of the blood of Jesus. And my conscience has been set free. And what drives me along is the love of God. The love of God. What brings me out of the pit of trying, trying, trying, is the fact I know that it's been done. And so it's a motivation of love. It's not a motivation of works. It's a motivation that I've already been accepted. And I can love. See, Jesus loved the Father. So He went and spent time with Him because He loved Him. He loved His Father. And communing with God is the fruit of a conscience that's been set free. You say, well, what if I start and fail? What if I say I will and I won't? Beloved, someone asked me last week after the message, they said, well, where does obedience fit into this, Pastor? Well, here's where it fits in. When you set yourself to do what God's calling you to do with a free, clear conscience by the blood of Jesus, what you do is you say, God, if I fail, I go back to God and I say these words, Lord, I confess that I've fallen short again. I confess that in me I don't have the strength. I thank You for accepting me. You see, beloved, there's a very subtle deceit about good works. The more we fail, the more we try because we think somehow that's going to restore us. You know, there's no restoration from sin without the blood of the Lamb. There's no restoration. You may think, well, I'll have to say, I've done this once. I said, I'll pray for 15 minutes a day. When that didn't work, I said, well, I'll pray for a half hour a day. You ever done that? I'll make up for the 15 minutes I didn't do. And the more I try, the more I fail. And so if you fail and disobedience enters in, the first thing you do is you go back to the cross. You bow before the cross of Christ and you say, Lord Jesus, I apply the blood. I spread the blood. I sprinkle, 1 Peter 1 and verse 2 says, the cleansing of the conscience by the sprinkling of the blood. You say, I don't like to talk about the blood. This is America. I don't see blood. Well, beloved, without the blood, we don't have any access. Without the blood, we don't ever go anywhere in God. The blood of Jesus, that was shed for me way back on Calvary, it will never lose its power. We can say with Charles Wesley, listen to this now. Oh, may the least omission, pain, my well-instructed soul, and drive me to the blood again that makes the wounded whole. Oh, God, for a conscience that knows when I've grieved the Holy Spirit, to go back again to the blood and say, God, cleanse me again. Set me free again, that I can serve the living God day by day, moment by moment. Beloved, you don't need to work it up. God's done it. And I believe right now, right now, this very morning, God's going to set some of you free from the prison of dead works. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Thank you, Father God. Oh, Jesus. Set the prisoners free right now, oh God. Lord, I know that there are many here today who are discouraged because they've tried and they've failed time and time again. God, they've tried and failed and tried and failed. And now, Lord, a man has come, and he's challenged us, God, to go on. He's spoken prophetically over our church, God, and he said that we're going to be a people of deliverance. Beloved, look at me for a moment, would you? I want to interrupt my prayer. The Lord spoke to me about this last night, and He said this to me. If you weren't here, this man of God spoke a very clear word to our church, and he said this. He said, God gave me a word for Northland. The word was, and it wasn't a word that I really wanted to hear, the word was deliverance. We're going to have a ministry to this city of deliverance. That can be an ugly word. That can be a word that implies drugs and alcohol, addictions and habits and dirt and filth and pornography. Beloved, the Lord said this to me. Deliverance will begin in the household of God. The first place we're going to minister deliverance is right here among us. And it's going to begin with the deliverance from the prison of dead works. We're going to rise up and serve God in liberty, because we're going to be set free from that prison, delivered from it by the blood of the Lamb of God. Hallelujah to your name, O God. O Jesus, minister to us, God. O God, minister life to us, Jesus. O God. Let's pray. Let's rise to our feet, church. Jesus, glory to God. His name is Jesus. Jesus, sad hearts weep no more. He has healed the brokenhearted, opened wide the prison doors. He is able to deliver evermore. Sing it once again. Your name is Jesus. Your name is Jesus. Jesus, sad hearts weep no more. He has healed the brokenhearted, opened wide the prison doors. He is able to deliver evermore. Beloved, I'm going to open wide the prison door now, and it's... The only thing I'm going to do is say this. If the Holy Spirit has spoken to you this morning, and He's setting you free from a prison that you've been in, I don't know what it might be, but it's been a dead world. You want free today. You want to apply the blood of Jesus. I want you to come up out of your chair right now. I want you to stand right here in front of this platform and say, God, I give up the old. I forsake the old, God. I turn from it, and I apply the blood of Jesus in my life. I receive my forgiveness. I repent of my failure, and I receive the blood. You come right now and just tell God, I went out of this prison today. Let's sing it once again. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Let's sing this. Your name is Jesus. Jesus. Sad hearts weep no more. You have healed a broken heart. Open wide the prison doors. You are able to live forevermore. Hallelujah, Lord. Let's just minister in the Holy Spirit for the night. Hallelujah, God. Let the blood settle over you, people. Oh, my God. Oh, let the blood of Jesus come down on you. Set us free, oh, God. Set us free this moment. Let the blood of the Lamb be on ours. Let the blood be on ours. Jesus. Oh, God. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Lord God Almighty. Oh, Father. Wherever you are here, those of you who have come up right now, you are applying the blood over the doorpost in the middle of your heart right now. And the judgment of God has been spent on your sin. I just want you to say, The judgment of God has been spent on my sin. I am now free to serve the living God. I declare before God that I will serve Him by the power of His blood with a clear conscience and a right heart in Jesus' name. Praise God. Amen, oh, God. Yes. Oh, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah to your name, oh, God. Amen. Yes, oh, God. Beloved Brother Greg McAtee, I want to share a word that I believe fills out what I've spoken here. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. You know, we sang the song earlier in worship today. I hear the sound of the army of the Lord. Well, this week, I was riding in my car, listening to the Bible on tape, and I was in 2 Kings. And the Lord really revealed some things in my heart. And I think it's really relevant to what God wants to do today. And I really believe God wants to set people free. You know, the kingdom of Israel were besieged by the Syrians. And the Syrians, what they had done was form a blockade around the city of Samaria and kept anything from coming in. Anyway, they picked it up in verse 3. It says, there were four leprous men at the entering of the gate. And they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we'll die also. Now therefore, come, and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore, they arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their asses and even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. You know what, I believe that there are people here right now You've allowed the enemy to camp out in front of your gate and to blockade God's blessing on your life. Whether it be hurt and bitterness, whether it be unforgiveness, or whatever, or even dead words. And you're like those leprous men that stood at the gate. And if you stay in the city, you're going to die. You're going to die of starvation spiritually. If you go into the city, if you stay there, what God is calling you to do is to go out into the camp. And you know what, God hasn't hired the Hittites or the Assyrians. What they heard, what the enemy will hear is the sound of the chariots of God sweeping through. And they fled for their lives. And I believe as you release those things, as you release forgiveness, God is going to cause that army to come down. You're going to go out there and you're going to find out there's nobody there. And you're going to find a great spoil besides God's blessing on your life. We receive it, Father God. Thank you, Lord. Yes. Yes, God. Yes. I want to give you a specific point of application of this word. This is one of them. There are many, but there's one of them. One of the greatest dead works that any of us have ever fallen into is the trap of religion. Seeking to be pleasing to God and our old religion. And there are many people here this morning that have come from churches where you were told if you did these things that you'd be accepted by someone in authority and ultimately by God. And today, God is setting a number of you free from your old, dead religion. And what this word means to you today is you've been sitting there at the door. He called it a city. You can call it a church. And you say, I'm going to die right here. I'm going to die right here. I'm going to die. And the Lord's brought you here to this church today. And He's purposing to knit you in to the household of God this morning. And He's saying to you now, come up, get up, and take a step. Be knit in. Take your step out of dead works and into the liberty of the sons of God. Now, beloved, we only believe one thing. God brings people to this church. We don't go out there and draw them in, force them in. But if you're here today and you know God is saying, it's time for me to get on, I'm getting placed. God's placing me here. You don't know how that's going to work. But you say, God is drawing me in here right now to leave my old, dead religion. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. God's drawing you into a new liberty. And you say, I want to be part of the new liberty that's in this church right now. I want you to just raise your hand. Yes, okay, right here. Now, listen, I'm not talking about those of you who come here. You're already part of this. I'm talking about people who have a church, part of an old church, and you know you need to be woven in. Now, let me just agree with you. Yes, I saw one hand. Who else? Just let me see your hand. You say, I know God's bringing me to be here. Yes, miss, okay, I agree with you. Right here. Somebody else. God's calling me to leave my old, dead situation. Let me just see your hand. I know there are others of you here this morning. You need to do this. God's saying to you, it's time to do this right now. God's calling. Anyone else? Let me just agree with just two this morning. You've heard a word from God today, beloved. It's up to you to respond to His word today. He loves you very, very much. He's calling you. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of the Lord. Lord, I thank you for all these that have come forward now, and I thank you for these two that have said they want to leave the prison of their dead works of religion and come forward right here, right now, God, and say, this is to be my church. This is to be where I'm to be moved in and encamped with the household of God, the army of God today. Oh, God, surround them now. Let them hear the sound of the army of the Lord setting them free right now. Jesus. And now, Lord, for all these that have come up, God, I pray that there would be a new liberty in them, a new joy in serving you, God. Lord, out of a consciousness that says, I'm free because of what God has done. In Jesus' name. Oh, yes, Lord. If you sense that freedom in your heart right now here in the front, would you just begin to praise God? Oh, Lord, yes, praise Him. Praise Him now. Jesus, we declare what you're doing in their hearts, Father. Thank you, Father. Bless God. Can I ask you all now, praise the Lord, in the front, just to go back to your seats for a moment before we dismiss the service. Hallelujah, God. Those two gals that just indicated that you know you need to be part of this, can I see you right after the service for a moment, right after the service? Thank you. Praise God. You can be seated for a moment, would you, everyone? Come on. One last thing I need to share before we're dismissed. There's going to be some new things happening here, church. It's going to come right out of you. It's going to come out of your inner man. Something happened to me yesterday that I know I need to share today before we're dismissed. I can't even take time to pray over the offering this morning, but I trust you've prayed over your offering. You know what God's told you to give today. But something happened to me yesterday, and the Lord said, I'm going to share this with you. I was driving to a soccer game at a place from one of my sons, a place I'd never been before, and I followed a map and somehow made a wrong turn. I was sort of preoccupied, and I got lost. I've been lost in a long, long time. But that's a strange thing, isn't it, to get lost? And I was out in the country, and I didn't know where to go. There weren't any people around. And I was reading these directions. There wasn't a map of directions. I didn't know where I was. You know what I found? The more lost I got, the faster I went because I figured I'd get lost. No, I'