Ron Dunn Podcast - Prayer Testimony Kaye Dunn

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

Kaye Dunn gives her Testimony

That is the loveliest introduction I have ever had anywhere. I tell you, I wish my husband could have heard that. I do appreciate Brother Paul asking me to speak today. And I'm just simply going to share a word of personal testimony to you. It's just telling you about how gracious and good and how faithful God has been in our lives. I love the verse in Hebrews that says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, forever. I'm not the same all the time.

And I'm so glad that God is. That his faithfulness is always the same. That his love is always the same. I'm afraid my love isn is always the same. That his love is always the same. I'm afraid my love isn't always the same. I've not been an obedient child of God all the time. There have been those times when I've balked when I have known what God wanted of me. But God's faithfulness has just been overwhelming to me. If I had to have a theme, I would use Philippians 1.6. For

I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus. I came to know the Lord in a Christian home. As a teenager, I lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and it was a wonderful place to be a teenager. I have such terrific memories of my years there. I was a member of J. Harold Smith's church, and God's anointing was on that man. God's anointing was on our church, and God's anointing was on that man. God's anointing was on our church, and it was nothing for us to see people just flooding the aisle every service, even on Wednesday

nights. And as kids, we loved to get up a busload and go out on the weekends to the little churches in the little areas around, and one of the guys who was going to be a preacher would preach, and somebody would lead lead the singing and the rest of us would share testimonies or we would witness in some way. And it was just a lot of fun to get together for fellowships and it seemed like they always turned into prayer meetings, not because some leader said, now let's have a prayer meeting, but our joy was just in the Lord at that time. And it was in this setting that I met Ron. And we dated for two years. And in December of 1956, decided to get married. He could preach and I could play the piano.

I could teach a Sunday school class. And if you weren't real particular, we could sing a duet. So we married and set out to win the world. We had five years of college and seminary right after we married, and our children started coming along the first year, and four years later we would have another one, and four years later we had another one. And everything was not roses in our marriage. We had all your normal problems of young couples. But I think compared to the marriages I saw around me, we had a pretty good thing going.

Now, the biggest problem we had, the biggest fly in the ointment by far for years was finances. We had such a tiny little bit to manage, and we didn't know what to do with what we had. We really ended up in some messes. I'm going to come back to that a little while later. During our final year at seminary, we were called to a little church in Dallas, and this was so exciting. This was our first full-time church. This is what you've been training for all these years and been praying for.

We bought our first little home, and we settled down to really a comfortable pastorate. And I got to be the church pianist since I was the only one who could play the piano. And during Sunday school, I'd travel from department to department playing and then I'd end up in the church service and would lead the ladies visitation. And it was really a joy for those two years. But one day Ron came in and said, Honey, God has, quote, quote, called me into evangelism. Now those are the right words. You just wouldn't dare say you were going to do something

if you didn't say God's told me to do it or God's called me. But it was not a right decision. Ron is not an administrative person. Ron likes to preach. He just hates details. And in that little church, he was everything from the sweep-up person to the secretary to the preacher.

You know, he didn't have a big staff. And he was at the hospital every day visiting and then having to go door-to-door visitation and doing all the little things. And I'm afraid we had some friends who were in evangelism that made evangelism look very good. The grass is always greener on the other side, isn't it? And we would see them go out for a week of meetings and see people saved. And then they'd be home with their family for a week while he was trudging up to the hospital

and doing all these little things. And so we left our church and went into evangelism. Well, let me tell you, God just picked us up and put us on a shelf for two years. We call them our wilderness years. And they truly were a wilderness. We were totally out of the will of God. And I think what hurt worse, Ron has always been a good preacher. I mean, even back in college, it was obvious that God had gifted him to preach. And we'd see guys out there

who couldn't preach their way out of a paper bag. Just being blessed and being used. And I can remember going to the mailbox day after day, just looking for and being used. And I can remember going to the mailbox day after day, just looking for any kind of an invitation. But all we had was silence from heaven. Well, during that two years, since Ron wasn't doing much preaching, he had to earn a living because by that time we had three children. Kimberly was just a baby at that time and in fact she was born during that time and so he did all these little odd jobs he had to not have a really steady job in case he got a preaching invitation

but he made mops he sold every kind of encyclopedia every kind of insurance you could sell he worked at a gas station for one day and was fired. Now that's sad when you can't hold down a job at a gas station, but he couldn't do anything under the hood of a car. And you know, I really thought God was being mean to us. It seemed like he was, but little did I know that if anything had worked for us financially, in fact, we tried to borrow money to buy into an employment agency that looked like a super good deal, and we couldn't borrow the money. If anything had worked in the realm of finances for us at that time,

we were so miserable, God would have left the ministry. So God was loving us and protecting us by allowing us to fail. During this two-year period, if you had known me, you probably wouldn't have known I was a rebellious person because I was in church every Sunday and I was teaching and I was doing all the right things. But you've heard it described of a little child when you say, you tell them to sit down and yet you know they're standing up on the inside. Well, this is kind of the way we were. We were just mad at God. We didn't understand why he was treating us like he was treating us. And God really let us get

desperate, let us get to the end of ourselves. And I guess when he realized that we had just come to the end and really were ready to listen to anything he had to say to us, we received an invitation one day to preach. Ron received an invitation to preach at a little church over in Dallas called Munger Place Baptist Church. The pastor, I'm trying to think whether he was on vacation. He was there for some reason. And why Ron was invited to preach, I'm not really sure. But the pastor really liked Ron. And the people loved him. And the pastor told him that day, he said, you know, I think I'm ready to retire.

I think I'll just retire. Why don't you come, pastor, and I'll just be a member? That's a strange situation. Well, the very same Sunday that this church called us, a church from our hometown, from Fort Smith, called. Now, here's the difference in the two churches. The church over at Munger Place was meeting in an old tabernacle. It was in an old transient part of town.

The members were mostly elderly people. There was really not much chance for growth in the church. The little church in Fort Smith was a new church out in a new area and all kinds of prospects of it really going somewhere someday. But I tell you, we had been out of God's will long enough, and we had one desire, and that was just to do what God wanted us to do so He could bless us. And we really one desire, and that was just to do what God wanted us to do so he could bless us. And we really prayed about it.

And we really felt God calling us to the little church over in Munger Place. We didn't know why, but we weren't questioning God at this point. And so we accepted that little church. And, you know, we had so many wounds that needed healing love over that two-year period. But that's what they were there for. They absolutely loved us to death and loved us back into a sweet fellowship and relationship with the Lord. And let me tell you about the little church. We only stayed there one year.

And then we were called to MacArthur where most of Ron's ministry was. But when Ron left this little church, the pastor stepped right back in as pastor and stayed there eight more years. Isn't that beautiful the way God just carved out a spot for us, tailor-made to meet every little thing we needed in our lives? There's no way we could have manipulated. There's no way we could have even known what we needed at that time. But God is so faithful to provide just what you need when you need it. And you don't have to try to arrange it yourself if you place yourself in His hands. Well, we were called to MacArthur.

I didn't want to go. I was so happy at Munger Place, but at the same time, I was so anxious to be right in the center of God's will that I was willing to go. And God gave me a verse when we went to MacArthur. It was Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Little would I know all the things that would happen to us at MacArthur, the wonderful things that would happen.

The greatest thing was that all three of our children were saved and baptized there. The church was doing great when we got there. They had a sweet fellowship. It was just a good church. We were loved beyond description. We were so happy there. We'd just never been happier in our lives.

But you know, in the quiet of the evening after the children had gone to bed and husband and wife started talking, there were times when Ron and I really felt like something was missing. We didn't know what. We were really doing everything we knew to do. But we talked occasionally about the possibility of there being something more for us and in April of 1970 after we'd been at the church for four years Ron went to Aurora, Colorado for a week of revival

and when he's away from home he calls home every night and when he called home every night he just simply said the meeting was going great he really never told me anything specifically that was happening there but when he came home I had a new husband I didn't quite know what to make of it he was so gentle he was so now he you've got to understand he was good I had no complaints before.

I was perfectly happy with my life. But there was just something different. He was so patient. He was so kind. Well, Galatians 5.22 was the only way to describe it. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I asked him what happened, and he didn't even know. He said, I was sitting on the front row Tuesday night, and he said there were 25 people lined up that had been saved that night.

He said, I looked down at my shoe. I had on a black shoe. And he said, suddenly I just simply realized I had not completely yielded everything to the Lord. Now you see at this time, we had never heard this terminology that all of you have heard tossed around for the past 10 or 12 years, the Lordship of Christ, the abundant life, all these things. We'd never heard any of that. We didn't know any of the terminology. We'd not heard it preached. He just simply realized he had not totally let God have control of his life. And sitting there, just completely yielded himself to the Lord. Well, seeing such a difference in his life made me miserable. I absolutely was so frustrated.

I wanted God to do something in me. But I didn't even know what to ask for. I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't know what God had even done in Ron. And for a couple of months, God really dealt with me in some different ways. And in June of that year, I made a new commitment to the Lord. And still, we didn't know all this terminology. I just simply knew I wanted God to take everything I was, and I wanted Him to have all of me. I wanted to be everything He wanted me to be. You see, I'd really compartmentalized the Lord before that. I said, now God, you can handle these things, but now I'll take care of this over here. And there were things in me that I really thought were just personality traits, and God made me call them sin. God started cutting, started doing surgery in our lives, started revealing things

bit by bit that he was displeased with. And as God would reveal them, we'd have to deal with them. And it just went on and on and on. And I thought, you know, God's not ever going to get me cleaned up enough to be able to use me. I love this definition of revival. Revival is the new beginning of an obedience to God. And really, that's all it was for me. I just simply opened myself up to the Lord and said, Lord, you show me anything at all that you want changed in me. And I'm going to be obedient before I ever knew what he was going to tell me. Well, we came to a point where Ron and I began dealing with some things in our marriage. And you know, although God had worked in him and God had worked in me, God needed to work in us as a couple.

We had some things we had to deal with. And when we got through dealing with all the things God needed to speak to us about as a couple, we called the children together, and we read out of Ephesians to them about mutual submission. And we shared with them what God was doing in our lives. And we had the sweetest service at home one night, just rededicating our lives to each other, ourselves to each other, and a fresh and a new to God. And the people of the church, the men of the church, began noticing

something different about Ron. And they called a meeting one Sunday afternoon. They said, Pastor, you're going to have to tell us what's happened. That something's different. And he still didn't have any of this terminology to use or any of the answers. He said, I just floundered around trying to tell them what God had been doing in my life. And it was amazing at the way revival broke out in our church.

Now it wasn't this hip, hip, hooray, hallelujah, praise the Lord. God began working deep, convicting of sin in life. And people began going to other people and began making things right with each other and with God. And there was a deep time of conviction before we got to the hallelujah, praise the Lord part. All of that comes and is part of it, but there was so much that God needed to do first. Well, we've got revival breaking out at home and we've got revival breaking out in church. And I tell you, it is so sweet. It was just like a foretaste of heaven.

And of course, my Bible, I've read and studied my Bible. I've been in church since I was two weeks old. It just seemed like God gave me a new Bible. All these scriptures I'd read and known suddenly just came alive. And you know, one of the very first things God did in our lives,

He started working in our finances. You know, I think the very first things God did in our lives, He started working in our finances. You know, I think God takes your biggest mess first and straightens that out and goes from there. And we had a mess. Ron often said, if we were called from that church, we couldn't have left. The city of Irving, we were so in debt. And oh, God convicted us of that. What a testimony for a Christian.

We began seeing what God said about finances in the Bible, and we realized we had to get out of debt. We began doing it, and it was some chore, I tell you. But it was the most thrilling time of our lives to see how God took care of us during this time and how God met our needs because we were being obedient to Him. We were trusting Him.

And God taught us to give out of His resources. We had always given out of our own resources. But He taught us to see what He owns, what He has, and allowed us to give far and above anything we ever dreamed of. Well, I could talk on that all day, but I'm going to go on. One of the first verses to jump out of this new Bible I found was in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.

For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I really had never felt compelled to be thankful when things went wrong. In fact, I thought you had a right to grumble and complain when things went wrong. And I didn't realize how important it was to realize that God allows the circumstances that come into your life. And when you grumble and grump about them, you're giving a foothold to the devil. And so we began praising God and thanking Him for the things that were happening in our lives. And I guess everybody in the whole world has the same set of circumstances, a little bit different. But you know, when the washing machine would break down, the car wouldn't start, and the kids were sick and all this. Instead of complaining, we learned to say, well, praise the Lord and try to see what God had in this

for us. And it was so much more fun around our house. Everybody not grumbling and complaining, but saying praise the Lord and hallelujah and having such a sweet attitude. And little did I know that through these things, God was teaching me to be able to thank him later on when real darkness would set in. And then I have to talk about prayer. I've always prayed. Prayer, my mother's the greatest Christian I know. And I was taught to pray. But I'm very sorry to tell you that I don't know if I could have told you any prayers God had really answered for me outside the prayer of salvation

and a few vague things. I don't think I really knew how to get hold of God. And suddenly, I just wanted to talk to the Lord all the time. Oh, I tell you, I always thought God would answer prayer for Billy Graham, and I knew he answered for Peter and Paul, you know, the saints, super saints. But I never realized he wanted to work miracles in my life every day. And when I found out about it, I just wanted to talk to the Lord all the time. I like to mention

that Ron calls home every night, and when he does, now I must say he calls every other night. This was back when he was only traveling part-time, now traveling full-time. He calls every other night, but we have no limitations on our phone calls, and if I need to talk to him every day, we talk without hesitation. But when he calls, he wants to know every single thing that's happened in every single one of our lives. And we just chit-chat about nothing. And we just talk. It's very important when your husband travels for you to be able to have that communication.

And for the children to know that they can talk to him at any time. Well, he's simply an earthly father. How much more does a perfect heavenly Father want this communication with His children? Well, between 1970, when all of this began happening in our lives, and 1973, if you had asked me, I would have said, God is truly a good God, and if you'll just get your life in order, everything will be wonderful. Ron gave me this watch on our anniversary in 1972. It's the last of December. And let me read the inscription to you. It says, Love forever,

Ron, 1972, a very good year. We got out of debt completely. God was blessing with revival in our church. We were having a sweet revival in our home. And things were generally just wonderful. Well, January of 73 rolls around. And we learned that Ron's mother had cancer of the colon. Their relationship was one of the sweetest relationships I've ever known. And when I found out she had cancer, I literally told the Lord, He can't take that. Don't let Him lose her. I really thought she had cancer. I literally told the Lord, He can't take that. Don't let him lose her.

I really thought he would crumble. Now that's a sad commentary, I'm sure, for me, but their relationship was just such a beautiful relationship. She meant so much to him that I thought this would devastate him. Well, at the same time, a seemingly minor problem with our oldest son took a turn for the worse. As a young child, we viewed these problems with Ronnie as just a difficult

temperament. He was a beautiful child. He was a lovely child. He was a smart child. And our problems would disappear just as fast as they appeared. And they would be over so fast, we just didn't really give paramount concern to them. But suddenly we were facing things that we didn't know how to deal with, and we were really having to seek God's guidance in what to do. At the age of eight, Ronnie had made a profession of faith, but we had never seen him grow as a Christian. But when he was 13, we had a revival in our church, and he walked the aisle, and we saw him make a profession of faith that made a difference in his life.

I mean, we saw a change in actions and a change in attitude. And then the latter part of that week, he came to us and said, Mom and Dad, I know God's calling me into the ministry. Well, you can imagine the joy we felt. We've never mentioned the ministry to any of our children because we didn't want a mama-papa called child. If anybody called them, we wanted them to be God called. But that was the joy of our heart,

that our children would serve the Lord in a special way. And so we were thrilled and we thought, oh, things are going to be different now. In 1974, Ron's mother became worse and our problems with Ronnie just became overwhelming. In a very literal sense, I felt shut up to God. One of my very best friends and I just love to get together and crochet and do needlework. And we'd talk about how fantastic our husbands were and we'd talk about how wonderful our kids were and how good the Lord was and how things were going in our church. And yet in one year's period, I met with her three times. It was as though God said,

I'm all you need at this point. There were times when, I'll have to be honest with you, I thought God was being unfair. Because you see, I saw boys and girls whose parents could care less about the Lord or about them, and they didn't seem to have any problems. And here was a child who was loved so dearly. And we were so in love with the Lord, and we were trying so hard to be the best parents we knew how to be

and yet we were having problems that were just paramount and then we realized Ron's mother was dying and I thought, now wait a minute surely God would not take Ron's mother without making it up to him with a miracle in Ronnie's life listen to Isaiah 55, 89. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Have you ever tried to help God plan your life and maybe even suggest what the next step might be? I still find myself trying to tell God how to do it sometimes. Well, in August of 1974, Mrs. Dunn did die, and I was overwhelmed at God's sufficiency in every way. Just overwhelmed.

And I knew now that it must be time for that miracle in Ronnie's life. A week before her death, Stephen, who was Ben 13, had had a go-kart accident. And he had broken his leg in two places and was in a cast from his ankle to his waist. Well, the night before her funeral, we were out on the farm.

He had been riding around in a little riding lawnmower, and I don't know how it happened or what he was doing with this milk can or anything, but he had a steel milk can full of gasoline, a five-gallon milk can full of gasoline, and he dropped it on his big toe, on that leg that was in the calf, and nearly severed his big toe. Well, let me tell you, we had some nursing to do. He nearly lost his toe, and his leg had just gone in the cast. And while Stephen was in his cast, Ronnie had a car wreck and broke both sides of his jaws. And he was wired shut. An infection set into his teeth and his gums, and for two months he could not eat,

and I had to liquefy everything, and he was on painkillers and antibiotics and all of this. And it was under difficult circumstances to begin with because Ronnie had been away from home. Ron's mother had just died. I tell you, I thought I'd had it. I really wondered just how much I could take at times. Manel Beasley had been in our church in 1973, and he made one statement that I don't know why

I hung on so dearly to that, but we were undergoing just a little bit at that time, and I grabbed hold of this statement, and I have clung to it ever since. He said, God won't hurt you. And I don't know the times I would go to bed at night and I'd take my Bible and I would be crying so hard. I would have it open and try to read and couldn't. And I would just clasp it. And I would just sob, God won't hurt me. And do you know angels would just come and minister to me through the night? And by the time I woke up in the morning, I would just be full of joy. I loved the Psalms.

I lived in the Psalms some of that time. David, his heart to the Lord. I loved to read David. He told the Lord exactly how he felt. And then, you know, he would start rehearsing the attributes of God. And then he would start talking about the promises of God. And before he got through, he would just be praising the Lord. And this is what the Psalms did for me.

They were such an encouragement, such a blessing. Psalms 139 says, How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you're thinking about me constantly. I can't even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I awaken in the morning, you're still thinking of me. I found a little poem last year at Mother's. She said, you've just got to include this in your testimony. And she said, it just says everything. And when I read it, she was so right.

I want to share it with you. It's called, The Journey is Too Great for Me. I'm too tired to trust and too tired to pray, said one as the overtaxed strength gave way. The one conscious thought by my mind possessed is, oh, could I just drop it all and rest? Will God forgive me, do you suppose, if I go right to sleep as a baby goes, without an asking if I may, without ever trying to trust and pray? Will God forgive you? Why think, dear heart, when language to you was an unknown art? Did a mother deny you needed rest or refuse to pillow your head on her breast? Did she let you want when you could not ask?

Did she set her child an unequal task? Or did she cradle you in her arms and then guard your slumber against the lawn? Oh, how quick was her mother love to see the unconscious yearnings of infancy. When you've grown too tired to trust and pray, when overwrought nature has quite given way, then just drop it all and give up to

rest as you used to do on a mother's breast. He knows all about it, the dear Lord knows, so just go to sleep as the baby goes. Without even asking if you may, God knows when his child is too tired to pray. He judges not solely by utter prayer. He knows when the yearnings of love are there. He knows you do pray, and he knows you do trust, and he knows to the limits of poor weak dust. Oh, the wonderful sympathy of Christ for his chosen ones in that midnight trust, when he bathed them sleep and take their rest,

while on him the guilt of the whole world pressed, you've given your life up to him to keep. Then don't be afraid to go right to sleep. We got everybody well and decided we needed a rest. So Ron asked the church if we could have a month vacation. And we took the month of July, and there were five weeks in it. And so we set a little trip for each week, a different trip each week, just made rounds. And it was the most glorious time we've had as a family.

Everyone was well. Everyone was in good spirits. And we were doing some healing as a family. We had a wonderful four weeks. And we had come back home, and we were on our way to the farm the next morning and we were telling Ron the night before, thank you, thank you, thank you for such a wonderful trip. You know how it is when you have three children in a car. She touched me. Don't look at me. He's on my side. You know, all these little things that happen. Just can't stand

to ride in a car. And sometimes we'd ride for like 10 hours at a time. I cannot recall. And I don't mean that I've forgotten. It did not happen. We didn't have a word of argument during that time. I guess God just knew we really needed some sweet time together. It was just a wonderful four weeks. And so we were all saying, thank you, Ron, for taking us. Well, the next morning, Ron Jr. awoke with an unexplained hostile attitude. You see, everything had been wonderful for four weeks. And before the day was over, he had tried to take his life. Now, these sudden mood changes were very frightening because things would be wonderful one minute

and he would be in the depths the next and not want to live. And after a very horrible ordeal, he ended up in the psychiatric ward at the hospital in Portsmouth, Arkansas, where we have our farm. Ron's father and his brother's family live there, and we spend our summers there. For four days, the doctor said, you cannot hear, that you'll not even have any

contact with Ronnie. He said, don't even call us. We'll call you if we have any news. First of all, they didn't expect him to live. If he did live, they expected him to be brain damaged or blind, and they just locked him away. Well, my mother called, and she has her credentials to give advice, I guarantee you. She knows what she's talking about, and she said, well, honey, you've got two choices. She said, you can either worry yourself sick and have a miserable time, or you can put Ronnie in God's hands and go ahead and have a wonderful vacation with the rest of the family. So we called a family council, and we literally put Ronnie in the Lord's hands.

And it's very difficult to believe, but we did have a wonderful vacation. And four days later, we were called and they said, there's no brain damage. There was no blindness. And they said, we think we have found the problem. They said there is a new miracle drug on the market called lithium, and he has a mood disorder, which is a chemical imbalance in his blood, and we feel that this medicine might be able to control the problem and take care of the problem. And so for two weeks, they started him on a drug schedule, got him balanced out on lithium,

Stelazine, and Elavil. And by the time we picked up our son to go home, we had our normal teenager back again. And I thought, this is my miracle. Pardon me. Because once again, he was making age in school, looking forward to college. We did put him in a new high school so he could have a new start. He loved his teachers. He loved his counselors.

And just, you know, things were back to normal, and I thought, thank you, God, for my miracle. Well, we had about six sweet months, and Ronnie got off of his medicine. He regressed, and during one of these periods, he did take his life at the age of 18 on Thanksgiving Day. And I thought, where is my miracle now? I really felt God would not allow that to happen to me because he knew I couldn't take it. And yet, here we were absolutely astounded at God's grace and his efficiency. We were surrounded by people who loved us and people we loved for 24 hours a day.

People came by our home to give encouragement and they left encouraged. Some would come and Peter Lord came and preached a sermon. Some would come and sing, play the piano and sing. Some would come and just share little stories and sweet things about Ronnie. Some would come and cry with us. Some would come and laugh with us. Our home was just a sweet place to be.

There was a sweet aroma, a sweet fragrance. Because underneath all the tears, all the sadness, we knew God was still in control. The weeks and the months set in, and the reality that Ronnie really was gone was difficult. We don't really like to think that a Christian has to face death, losing someone they love, poverty, divorce, drugs, any of these horrible things. When life is less than perfect, we think God's made a mistake and we begin to apologize for him. And we think if we whimper loud enough and long enough, maybe God will remove us from these trials and put us on flowering beds of ease.

But the Bible teaches clearly that there are going to be obstacles in our path. There are going to be mountains that need to either be moved or climbed. There are going to be rivers that are going to have to go through. There are going to be valleys. And you know, I love what it says in Habakkuk 3, 17 and 18. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine. The labor of the olive tree shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk was saying, God, even if everything fails, even if the problems aren't solved and the circumstances aren't removed, or I'm not removed from the circumstances, I still love you and I still trust you. You cannot dictate to God what he's going to do in your life. He's a sovereign God. Paul said in Philippians that his circumstances turned out

for the greater progress of the gospel. He was in prison when he wrote that. I know that some of you today have hearts that are really hurting. People are hurting everywhere. There are a lot of different kinds of pain. Death is not the different kinds of pain. Death is not the only kind of pain.

I've never seen so much hurt as I've seen lately in divorces and drugs and rebellious children and misunderstandings and financial problems. But, you know, God made provision for all of these things. He says, my grace is sufficient for you. In 2 Corinthians 6.10, He says, our hearts ache, but we have the joy of the Lord right in the midst of whatever we're going through. And he particularly promised his presence in the midst of these storms. Isaiah 43.2 and 3 says, when thou passest through

the waters, not if, when thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. Through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through the water, I'll be with thee. Through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. A few months after Ronnie died, a lady sent a story to me, and I want to close with this today. It says everything I want to say to you.

It's a story. It's called perfection. It's a story of an American couple who go to England celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. Both the man and his wife just love beautiful pottery and china and antiques. They come to Sussex and they pass a little china shop. They instantaneously stop, back up and go in, and their eyes single out a little teacup on the top shelf. May I see that, he asked. I've never seen a teacup like it. It's beautiful. But suddenly the teacup spoke. You don't understand. I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time that I was red and that I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and over, and I yelled out, let me alone. But he only smiled and said, not yet. And then I was placed on a spinning wheel,

the teacup said. Suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it. I'm getting dizzy, I screamed. The master only nodded and said, not yet. Then he put me in an oven. I've never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me. And I yelled and I knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head and said, Not yet. Finally the door did open. He put me up on the shelf and I began to cool. There, that's better, I said. But suddenly he brushed me and he painted me all over and the fumes were horrible and I thought I would gag.

Stop it, stop it, I cried. And he only nodded, not yet. Suddenly he put me back into an oven, not the first one, but one twice as hot. I knew I would suffocate. I begged and I pleaded and I screamed and I cried and all the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head and saying,

not yet. And then I knew there was no hope and I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and he placed me on a shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, look at yourself.

And I did. And I said, oh, that's not me. That couldn't be me. Why, I'm beautiful. I want you to remember, he said then, I know it hurt to be rolled and padded, but if I had left you, you would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin you around on the wheel, but if I had left you, you would have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin you around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt, and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed you and painted you all over,

but you see, if I hadn't done that, you wouldn't have hardened and there would have been no color to your life. And if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you would not have survived for very long and the hardness would not have held. Now you're a finished product. You're what I had in mind when I first began you. to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.