Episode 954: Going Deeper - 6/28/2026

Welcome to Going Deeper. I'm Debbie McKinnon, and I'm here this morning by myself. Brad is off, and so is Malcolm, but I'm going to open a simple prayer and we'll get started. Lord, I thank you so much for this church. I thank you for Mark and the sermon we just heard about your incarnation. And we are not mere mortals. We walk around and realize we are in our flesh and blood and we are living a natural order. But Father, we do know that we are also spiritual and that we have a soul. And Lord, we thank you that you sent your Son to save our soul. And we are so grateful for that. Grateful for the baptisms of those two little boys this morning. We pray, God, that you would continue to grow them up in Christ wherever they are, wherever they are going, that they will know you personally and that their faith would be their own, and that they would continue to walk in truth of your word and in your spirit. And Lord, thank you for this time that we gather. Father, I pray that you direct this conversation this morning that as we go to your word, and as we look at what Mark has shared with us, that we can get firmer in our belief in what we know is true, the miracle of you coming down and becoming a man, 100% God, 100% man. We thank you for that, and we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't know if that's me. I don't think it is. OK. This is actually music. All right. OK. Maricles. All right, miracles. Let me just ask, because anyone in this room, have you participated in seeing and observing a miracle in your life? Cindy? It was a getting close to older scholars fifth birthday, I believe it was. And we had no money. Ron and he did, you know, his paycheck had earned his spend on the house, and the house, and the resources, and the records. Had no money to give a personal money to the Lord. From our youth, or-- And I just started praying. And I prayed for about three days straight. And at the end of that three days, only to the mailbox and there was a check in the mail. Yeah, that's not a miracle, though. And I was able to get-- you know, I mean, children, they want something for their birthday. Sure. One much, but, you know, I'm able to get something, and it made my heart happy. Yeah. So I could do that. So-- When we see God provide out of the blue, or when he protects or provides in a way that we had not expected, I do believe there's miracles. Anybody else? Yes. Mine is kind of interesting. I worked at a private school, and I would give a party if it was for the middle schoolers, and I'd do a theme, and all this kind of stuff. And so I was doing something where gold was going to be part of my theme. And I really wanted-- I can't remember the name. I remember these candies. They still sell them something-- I don't know, broker or something like that. And they had gold for all of them. Oh, yeah. And I thought these are perfect. But when I priced them, they were not in my budget for just, you know, basically to put candy out of the party. So I didn't get any stuff. So then every wean-- I heard they brought-- one of the stores brought food, like leftover baked goods and stuff, to our church, and people could come and get them, you know, people that need more food and stuff like that. So that way, somebody came up and said, it's the weirdest thing. They never bring candy, but they brought this box of candy. And I didn't even have to-- they didn't know what it was. And I said, OK, God sent me that. And it's gone. And I went down there, which I never did. And opened it up. And it was like a big old box of cans of this-- go candy, this-- that I wanted. Yeah, and I just told him. I said, that was a miracle to me, because they never brought candy. And that was a weird candy to bring, as the one they did. And probably more than you would have ever gone. Yeah, I bought that much. Yeah, that was perfect. It was great. I love how God just these little signs that I'm with you. Now, I'm talking about a manual. God with us. Who else? Yes. I'm positive that I'm more than one occasion. God put his hand in there and make sure I didn't die. Because what was your job? I was a mechanic. A mechanic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a few core incidents. OK. All right. Yeah. So the protection, the provision of the protection, yeah. Darryl. Well, I had a heart attack, and I didn't know it. And either-- when I went to the doctor from my next checkup, he said to me, you've had a heart attack. And I said, no, I didn't know that. So it was a miracle, I guess, that I didn't impact me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah. Talkings. I'm going to talk about you. And I told you the story is correct. But their daughter, Tracey, and Sun and I, Eric, tried to try to try to have a baby. And she lost five of a lovely baby. And there was this baby going to be born at Grandbury Hospital. And they had found a couple that would like to have the baby. Well, the last minute, this couple decided they didn't want the baby. And one of the nurses knew the pumpkins. And she called them and asked them if they would like to have the baby. And they took that baby. Yeah. And that's a miracle. Yeah. They all worked out that way. It was so beautiful. Isn't that wonderful? Yes. I had a woman that-- she's from Costa Rica. And I knew her in Williamsburg. She helped clean my house and other friends of mine. She was one of the hardest working women. And about 20 years ago, she and her husband who did grounds work for Bush Gardens. And so they had very limited means. She wanted a baby, really, really desperately. And so she went through Bethany, the adoption agency out there that would do it. A friend that worked for Bethany and I called gosh, I don't know if it's going to happen for them. Because there's just a lot of competition of her newborns. And anyway, this woman was pregnant, down in Tennessee, and had gotten pregnant. I don't know. One that planned one for sure. She wasn't married. And she was Caucasian and the man was Hispanic. And that is exactly what my friend, Sonja and her husband, both Hispanic and Caucasian. But anyway, somehow or another, they got that baby. And we all said, that was a miracle. And you know, you think about life. And I'm pretty sure I'm talking to the choir here. But every life, every life is precious. No matter how it's conceived, where it was conceived, the circumstances, any of that. But God has a plan. God has a plan. And he will orchestrate that. And it is a miracle. Life is a miracle. So good. Yes, back here. Tell me your name. I'm K-Law. So I'm G-S-E-W-I-K. And I just wanted to share with you. My husband had a massive, in-radue stroke, with a sixty-one. And when we went to hospital, they said, help for the baby. I was prepared for the work. That it was really bad. And I've always believed in a power prayer. And we pray, and God blessed us with seven more years within, and he was able to see our younger and children testing. You have owned enough that they were in memory. That's fine. But it was just a blessing in a miracle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have one more walking miracle among us. He's still in the hospital. But yesterday, I got a picture of him sitting up in bed with his kids standing around him and Janet. And it was a miracle that he did not have to have the cranium out of me. They were able to just do some inside work and everything. And they were just praying that we could have to pray now that this tiny selection completely goes away. It's like a team that is a miracle. Yes. He is. Y'all know Tan's gone through a lot the last couple weeks. So anyway, yes, boy. Well, I don't remember it. But when I was three and a half years old, I had some sort of paralysis. I had a polyhomes. What's supposed to hit the doctor? They were all country doctor. We lived in foreign markets. But anyway, the whole story short, I got accordingly to my parents and other people. I was supposed to have to walk again. And about seven months later, of course, they were real the whole list of people. I don't remember it at this, but they had a lot of hair babies. Long story short. story short, once undead, I walked out of the charge. I don't remember any of that. Yeah, yeah. So it's a hearsay, but. Yeah, but his father was so religious that he wouldn't have told a lie. Yeah, he would not. And he. Of course, and I'm sure other people that saw that, that it increased their faith. I knew it. Well, I know, I'll speak from my sister back there a few years ago. I don't even know. Well, she's like, what do I always say about Janice? She takes a lick and it keeps on ticking. But I always say the Lord has not done with her, and because I believe this, that I need adult supervision. And that's why she's still here. But she, a few years back, they saw a dark place. There's one of the many miracles for Janice, but they saw a place on her lawn that they were convinced. Well, they were about convinced that it was a lawn cancer. So they went in to open her up, and they didn't know what they were going to do or find. But Carl was on his way, and I don't know if you were coming or going. Carl's burned up at 77, so much to go to Fort Worth Hospital. But I'm on my way to the hospital. She's about to come out of surgery. And we just saw, okay, here we go, Lord. You know, y'all were praying. Everybody was praying. And I'm on the road and Carl calls, and Carl's choked up, so he can't get the news out quite fast enough for me. But he's like, you're not in believe it. I go, "Just tell me what happened." He said the doctor even said it's a miracle that there's nothing there. There's nothing there. And so she was still in her anesthesia. I got there, and she says that when she was waking up, I was on top of the gurney, on top of her going, "It's not cancer." It's not cancer. So anyway, but we've had a few miracles. We've had a few miracles. And anyway, so it's so great, because now we do have these two little grand babies of hers. And we get to dodo over. Yes, parents. You know, I kind of am miracle. Yes, ma'am. I should not have probably been sitting like I am now and back to normal. I can better make a big deal. You look fabulous. Yeah. Yeah, but it's been a little more difficult than I had when I had my surgery. Yeah. I was a bit of a brain surgery. Yes. I had been one over this half, and she wouldn't have been the whole person. Yeah. You know, just so many. And we could go on and on, couldn't we? Yeah. I, uh, my side, you know, I was seeing all right. And all of a sudden, I was legally blind. And the miracle is that I can see a little. I don't drive or anything like that. But I can see enough to be around. And like I tell everybody, that church that I get up close to women to see them, who they are. I have to do that. I have to get close. Do you have a minute for me to say some sure, Jay? I've been on several mission trips with Joyce Myers, medical team. And we had a clinic, a five day clinic each time we went. And before we started the day in the clinic, we would gather around in the circle and hold hands and pray. And our leader would say, I want all of you to remember that God puts his super with your natural. That's good. That's good. Yeah. And I think about that so often, because we are out and about among people who probably aren't Christians, or what, but he's putting his super with our natural to be able to talk to them or just be, just be examples of a good, super natural. Yeah. Amen. I love that. That's his super with our natural. I think you finished that story, because that night, I got to call their movement heard from Harry Southwest and moving her to Harris downtown, because he was going to go through brain surgery that night or the next morning. Well, I was on my huge set. I was kind of a basket case. But members of this class who are close friends of mine, I believe it was a miracle because everything was taken care of. And they were there to drive me. I couldn't have driven. And they were there at the hospital, and they spent all day and open to the night. And I said, thank you to them. I said, thank you to God because you have already handled it. Amen. Amen. That's exactly right. I love it. Because we don't really even know what we need. And the Lord does, and he provides a way. Now, y'all going to think I'm crazy with this analogy. Well, you know me, so you already know that. But have you ever watched a ball game, whether it's football, basketball, baseball, whatever, after it's over, and you already know that your team won. Have you anybody ever done that? Okay, Janice and I is that in? Okay, he's done it. All right. Well, on Wednesday of this week, I watched OU North Carolina again for that championship game that played last Monday. No one who was going to win. All right. So when North Carolina hit a home run, I didn't care. Because I know what the final score was going to be. I knew it. Right. So I just enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And I just waited for that little branch kid to hit his home run in the eighth inning. And it was just a beautiful experience. All right. So my nerves were not there, whatever. Well, y'all, we know the end of the story. Don't we? I've read the book. I know how it ends. I've read all the way through Revelation. I know that God wins. He's our victor. He's the one. Now, none of this us in this room are going to get out of here alive unless Jesus comes back first. But we know the victory is in Christ. So no matter what comes your way, no matter what hardship, no matter what defeat you might feel or an answer trainer that you might have. You have the victory. You know who wins. So anxiety, anxiousness and worry is not to be a part of us because we know how it is. And it's really saying, I need to be in control when we have a lot of anxiety and worry. I have to be in control because I don't know that God is. So if we really acknowledge God who he is, like Mark was talking about today, get that settled because then we can live in peace that only comes supernatural peace. He puts his super in our natural for our peace. And I love what Mark said. Some people struggle with the miraculous. And he said, but I want to suggest that someone that has this belief struggles more with the idea of who God is than with the miraculous. I was at a wedding years and years ago and I had a friend, my husband's friend, it's nice wall. And he was raised, I think he was raised, penicostle with his parents are very spiritual people, but he had rejected it for the most part. And we were standing on the back of this country club thing at this wedding and he was talking to me about this. And he was like, I just don't know that I can really believe the whole thing because I said, why not wall? What's your down? What's your beef with God about what's true and what's not? He said, I never had the whoosh. I said, excuse me. He said, I've never had the whoosh. I said, what is the whoosh? He said, you know, like you hear people say, oh, I got saved and I just felt it and I said, you're putting your faith in the whoosh. And not in what God says is true and the evidence of what is true. I said, dude, you're missing the mark. You know, you really have missed that. And through all these years, he has kind of held to that. Now, I was wise, I believe her. But I'll never forget that and I was reading that as Mark was talking about it. I thought, that's the issue. No, no miracle for the truly faithful. No miracle is necessary for those who must doubt, no miracle is sufficient because he would say, if only Jesus were here today turning water into wine, this way, I could believe. Now you would, you'd be just like those back there. They didn't believe. You know, no matter miracles that God can do is going to make a non-believer a believer if there's doubt in who God is. And so I love that. I want us to look at a few scriptures. I love the hole in one analogy. I know that I have family members. >> Giving that happen for real. >> Hit it to you. Did you make a charge? >> Not for a single note of silence. I have him up in the room, carrying that with. And I skipped church. - Ah. - And I couldn't tell anybody. - You could tell anybody. (laughing) - So you're here, he was talking about. I love that. - You're here, everybody. - I love that. - I love it, I love it, I love it. - Yeah, I mean it. - Oh my gosh. All right, I want someone to look at Colossians 2 verse 9. And then somebody else, look up, Isaiah 40, verses 3 through 5. And then one other person, so three people. John 16 through 10. And we'll play around in the first chapter of John, just for a minute. Okay. All right, who has the Colossians 2, 9 passively? - For him, the whole fullness of the individual is bottled. Okay, love that scripture. In him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. I don't know how it can say it any better. - No. - That God, it was Jesus, Jesus is God. And so then we read in Isaiah, the prophecy of Jesus, the Messiah, who's got that one. The voice of one calling and the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert, how we pour our God. Every bounding shall be raised up, every mountain and hill may load. The rough ground shall become level. The rugged place is a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all the people will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. - That is such a powerful prophecy. And if you ever listen to the words in the hallelujah chorus, those are anybody ever sang the choir that sang the hallelujah chorus, okay, those are the words, isn't it? And we read through that, we go, "A-ha, a-ha, a-ha." But if you really stop and you read what that's saying, and Isaiah wrote that so many years before Jesus. And then as Mark was talking about, "Love how it connects the old and the new and I'll just throw this in there too." It feels like right now, there's a lot of even in Christendom, in the Christian community, it's like, "Well, I'm a New Testament believer." And I'm like, "Well, good for you." And then they'll go so far to say, "I just trust in the red letters." I'm like, "Why, grateful that your pre-press "had red ink because the whole Bible is inspired." You know, so we're not just New Testament believers, we're all God's word believers from that Genesis 1 to the end of Revelation. God's word is true. And I will say this, and I may maybe hear toying with the idea that this might be true. His promise to Israel was, yes and I am in, that the land and the seed would come through Israel. And that covenant was not temporal, it was eternal. Eternal covenant with Israel. And so there was no switcheroo, there was no switcheroo, some place, the dysbara, the Jewish people have been dispersed across the world and came back together in 1948. So don't believe the lies that God is not done with, that God is not done with Israel is the truth. So all of the Bible is inspired by God, all of it is true, and he is not done, he's not done with Israel, he's not done with you and me, that Jesus is the way truth and the life, and that there's no other religion on this earth that has what we have in Jesus Christ. And so I just love that. All right, so Isaiah 43 through 5, is that prophecy and then who has John 1, 6 through 10? - There was a man, said from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. - Okay. - Go ahead. - 6 through 10. - 6 through 10. - Yeah, the true light, which give light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. - Okay, so that light, the Shakana glory, the glory of God, was coming through Jesus, and then, and John 1, 23, and it talks about John saying, "I am the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, make way that path for the Lord." And John 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the whole first chapter of John just really ties in that prophecy of the Messiah and the revelation in Jesus Christ, and that John was the one that kind of took up that mantle for Isaiah, and here we are. You know, and he has fulfilled that prophecy. So that truly is the Christmas story, isn't it? I never thought about, you know, I had the notes, and I was looking at that, because if you'd asked me on Thursday, what's the greatest miracle that God has ever done? I think my first, my first, out of my mouth would have been the resurrection. But you know what? I love what Mark said. The greatest miracle is incarnation. You know, that God became a man and dwelt among us. So anything else that stood out to you all in this sermon today, maybe you didn't think about it, or I hadn't thought about it, or didn't know anything? Okay. So he talked about the whole idea of skeptics, and what would you expect to see from a Messiah? And where he said that. And I y'all, this book, now when I was in college, it was not this big. (laughing) As a matter of fact, this is Josh McDowell's evidence that demands a verdict. And you see here, Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, PhD, well, I babysit him. I babysit Sean McDowell in the early eights, I did. And he did not write a book while I was babysitting him. (laughing) He was kind of a wild child. But anyway, but I remember as a student, giving my life to the Lord, I had come to faith, I had come to Christ as a child, a little Dixon Baptist Church. And then went kind of my own way in high school, pursue my own stuff. A lot of us find that to be true, kind of go wayward. And then in college, my, between my freshman and sophomore year, I went to a revival in Del City, Oklahoma, first Southern, Bell City, Oklahoma. Anybody ever, here ever, remember Bailey Eastman? Remember Bailey Smith? He was our pastor. And he did a sermon on the Lordship of Christ. And the Holy Spirit used, I was sitting in a football stadium. Of course I was in a, in a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, city. And I can remember sitting there in his sermon about the Lordship of Christ. And I said to the Lord that night, I said, you know, I can't promise you, I'm gonna do better tomorrow. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but all I know is this, I believe what he says is true. And if you can be Lord of my life, I want you to be Lord of my life. And my life did change. And I remember the next morning, waking up and wanting to read the Bible. And I had a little Bible and I read John 17. I just remember reading John 17 about how that Jesus had prayed for me and Jesus was for me and he, all the great things in John 17. But it really, the spirit just really changed my life. And so I went back to OU that I was gonna be a sophomore and I had an English class. And the English professor was an atheist as, you know, back then you're just like me. But I remember we were assigned to do a persuasive speech. And so I thought, okay, and I, you know, I was ready to charge hell with this workgun. I can't, I was like, let's go. And I thought I might fail this course, but I had my copy of "Evidence to the Man of the Verdi." It was a paper bag. I don't know what happened to it, probably gave you some money. And in there, Josh lays out that the evidence of Christ, that he had to be one of three things. He had to be a liar, that he knew what he was saying was not true, but he said it anyway, or elunatic. He didn't know what he was saying. And he believed himself to be God when he was not, or he was Lord of all. And so I wrote this speech and I got up and I gave this speech and I was scared to death, you know, 'cause you have to turn me in all that. And the professor gave me a B. And he said, you know, I guess I followed whatever his rules were about writing a persuasive speech. He said, your speech was done well as a persuasive speech. I still don't believe what you're talking about. Yeah, I'm good. So anyway, but I'll tell you what, I ended up with an A in that class, but you know what, we have got to be able to defend our faith. We've got to be able to say, here's why I believe what we believe. And I know about many of you, this room, you may have children or grandchildren that have walked away from the faith that have said, "Now I've deconstructed, you know, that's a big term now. You all know about that? I've deconstruct." I'm like, "Oh, honey, you didn't have anything constructed to be constructed." And so, you know, I think we've got to be as grandparents, as parents with adult children, that we have got to be able not to say what we believe but why. And so, I really recommend if you don't have it in your library to get a copy of evidence that demands a verdict. Any other thoughts, ideas today? We're going to not go on and on because, you know, I can tell my stories. We're going to zip it up today. Anything else? I thank you all for sharing your miracles. You know, it really does encourage one another, all of us in this room, to hear what God has done and what is continuing to do in each of your lives. So, okay. Yes. I have one about Roy. Okay. I feel very guilty because I had him doing something in the rain last week. And we have outside. Outside? Outside that was in general rain. In general rain. In general rain. And we were in my memories to where, you know, we just gradually got wet. But it was better than being in the middle of 95 degrees. Yeah. It was very close. So, it was you. Well, well, that's the miracle. Yeah. It is that we had some bags of soil. I developed a garden on it. Not that I counted them, but yeah. A lot of creeks. So, it's very rocky. Yeah. But we've amended the soil and built it out and we've got some things planted. But felt like we needed a little bit more. And so we felt like that. Okay. So, this was on a slope. And he had done 17 bags down to the garden. And the 18th one he slipped. Oh dear. And I thought he'd done the splits. Okay. But he said, you know, one like he pulled back. High-percent. High-percent. And very concerned over the next couple days because it was sore tender and wasn't favoring it. Yeah. But phrase gone. There was nothing to it. And at our age, you know, we know how easy that is to really do something. And we're going to pray for Wanda in a little bit. Wanda has fallen in broken. I don't know if they can. What are you going to say, Mr. Gough? I was just going to praise God for who I was. Return to the Gough for the wind, dear, after that high-percent. We made our portion complete. I don't know if they can see it on this one. Like that. Yeah. That's why they were 18 bags. You know what I mean? Yes. The neat thing about this baby that we got as a surprise one day, where she says, "Wild is her mother." Oh, she can. So, Tracey was there when they were okay along. We wondered what was wrong with the doctor. And she said, "How do you know what this baby would do?" And I said, "He just lays there." And Tracey was like the daddy. That's what she said. No, the doctor said, "The doctor said he's not your problem. She's your problem." Oh, okay. I love it. I love it. Okay. Well, take it over, Mr. Don. Oh, you're going to put it in the bread? Well, I sure can. Okay. I'll close this in print. Father, thank you for this group. Thank you for the stories that we've heard this morning of miracles and just those protections and provisions when we surrender to you and that we're noticing more of your grace and your mercies that we receive every single day. Lord, I thank you that we can go out from here and trust you with our future. And Lord, I pray that you would just remind us of the things that we need to trust you for, deep in our heart, to our heart, the gospel in every area of our life. Lord, sometimes I think there are areas of my life that have not heard the gospel yet. We need to really make sure, Father, that we really have surrendered it all to you. And thank you again for this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.