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I think are really helpful for us that you might not have thought about together um but he makes a great connection for us in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus anyone struggle with this to give thanks in everything right and then in Romans 1:21 to to just emphasize the importance of Thanksgiving right um which is our theme today for even though they knew God they did not glorify him as God or give thanks but they became feudal in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened that’s in Romans 1:21 and we see kind of the the cycle or the or the um the downward spiral of sin biblically starts with a lack of Thanksgiving and I find that personally challenging and we are commanded to it and so we want to dive into um the application of that today uh as we end this series and then I love this verse that talks about uh how we’re to be how we are to live as Believers therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and being built up in him and having been established in your faith just as you were instructed and abounding with Thanksgiving well how have we received Christ Jesus right we we receive him in Repentance and faith we continue to to walk in Repentance and faith and as our walk deepens we overflow with Thanksgiving so I think it’s it’s uh important to say and I think right to say that the extent of our depth in our walk will impact the Overflow of Thanksgiving in our lives so uh we have uh well before we continue let me go ahead and pray for us father we just um we’re just so thankful for this journey that you’ve had us on these last few months uh we ask you to work in us that which is pleasing to you as only you can help us to see the beauty of Thanksgiving the warnings of a lack of Thanksgiving and may we be so rooted and built up by you and in your word that it overflows more and more in our lives we think of our brothers rich and Freddy today who’ve had a rough week of um uh physical challenges and we lift them up and ask that you would grant them healing restoration and yes even thankfulness uh we pray for comfort and strength of this holiday season for those who have lost loved ones in the last year we know this can be particularly difficult and may we truly ride the wave of your Providence now and into the future as we think of all that you’ve done in the past and all that you’re going to do in the future we pray this in Jesus name amen amen well uh speaking of waves you all just kind of came in like a wave this morning that was kind of fun to watch well what a journey we’ve been on uh I just I took a look at all the chapters and I’ve listed them for us um and we’ve we’ve really focused on just the idea of can you trust God and we’re going to going to end with that question on two different levels today is God really in control right um many doubt that we are tempted to doubt that in our lives and so we are we sought to be really grounded in that reality and then we talked about three primary attributes of God what I call kind of anchor attributes of God his sovereignty his love and his wisdom and you may recall we put a triangle out there I didn’t put that out here today but if you take any one of those out you’ve got a God who is not the god of the Bible and you’ve got something very very dangerous and very bad for us so his sovereignty his love and his wisdom don’t compete with one another but they work with one another one of the things that we discovered in Iron Man as we went through the attributes of God is that some of the attributes of God for example his loving kindness and his wrath for example they they seem to be intention for us it’s hard for us sometimes to reconcile those things but they are in Perfect Harmony in the mind and the Heart of God and that’s a wonderful thing to think about because sometimes when we talk about them we talk about them as if they compete but God is is perfect in his unity and his Perfection so so we need to think about and talk about him in that way so sovereignty love and wisdom and we spend a little more time on sovereignty a little more time on love anyone here struggle to really understand or appreciate or accept the love of God right I think I think we all do to a certain extent Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that we would know the love of God which surpasses knowledge we might be filled up to all the fullness of God how do we know that which surpasses knowledge it’s a supernatural act of his spirit and then growing through adversity um there are many challenges in life small and big one of the things I I think is really interesting and I try to be very sensitive to during the holid holiday season is sometimes it’s very easy to both receive and give Comfort when someone’s going through a crisis something that’s very visible but there are many underlying struggles that people have that are unseen that I think God would have us to be sensitive to as we uh as we interact with one another and so ask questions and be prepared for the answers and prepared to to give and receive the comfort of God I think God will have us to be transparent with one another and you know this time of year I I I alluded to it in my prayer the intensity is high during the holidays have you found that the highs are really high the lows are really low that’s just how it goes and so let’s be sensitive to and encourage one another I’ll just say this I was thinking about um our last lesson in Iron Man we talked about the discipline of tongue and how we use our words and I was reminded of a verse that I don’t think we mentioned in that lesson and that’s Isaiah 50:4 which talks about God giving us the tongue of disciples not only to learn from him but it says to sustain the weary one with a word right sometimes just a good word to help encourage and sustain is all we need so let’s let’s really take hold of that as Brothers and Sisters in Christ and then choosing to trust God it it is something of a discipline sometimes we have to work against our natural inclinations and our emotions to trust him and then today um giving thanks always and we’ll dive into that so our outline the chief end is God’s glory and I think even if we just park on that that settles our Minds right Psalm 46:10 I think is a familiar verse for us cease striving and know that I’m God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the earth God’s agenda for him to glorify himself in all things will be accomplished and we can be settled in that to the extent that we get on board with that in our lives the more at peace we will be to the extent that we fight that the less peace we will have and so this leads us into some a deeper Thanksgiving worship humility forgiveness that was something I wasn’t quite expecting in this chapter we’re going to talk a little bit about that how big of an issue that is for many of us um praying praying for deliverance right uh even while accepting the adversity um and then I’ll give a little hint toward the end can you trust God we’re we’re going to ask in two different ways can you trust God right and then can you trust God and as I said earlier we’re going to U try to give some generous time for Q&A at the end so um I’m going to kind of not welcome interruptions as I usually do as I present the content we’re going to save that for the end okay and I’m confident that you all will participate really well as you always do the chief end God’s glory Psalm 100 uh was the first Psalm that I memorize as a young person the first scripture uh that I memorized as a young person so it’s precious to me make a loud Shout with the psalm of Thanksgiving make a loud shout to Yahweh all the Earth serve Yahweh with gladness come before him with joyful songs know that Yahweh he is God it is he who has made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise give thanks to him bless his name for Yahweh is good you convinced in that this morning that God is good it’s hard sometimes to receive that his loving kindness endures forever and his faithfulness generation unto generation as I mentioned before we ride that wave of Providence uh I think that’s a quote from John MacArthur someone shared that with me recently and I keep thinking about it all that God has done from eternity past and we’re just part of it and we’re following that that wave as he rolls forward um and accomplishes his purposes into the future the verse we opened with in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus and Jerry Bridges had us compare that with this verse and I’m going to challenge our thinking a little bit uh in this way in a way that you might not have thought of before and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose these are absolute statements in everything give thanks right and God causes all things to work together for good so are we to be thankful merely in all circumstances or actually for them it’s interesting as I processed this and I remember a conver a conversation I had years ago with a fellow leader at at a at a church that we were attending and I and I said I might have even been teaching this lesson because we did this years ago I said you know it’s so important that we thank God in all things but we don’t necessarily have to thank him for all things and he stopped me said well hold on wait a minute Mark if God is in control of all things and he’s using all of those things for your good and His glory can’t you give thanks for them and I thought I’m just going to let that land with you I don’t know that I fully solved that but it challenges Us in in terms of how we receive very difficult things in our lives and there are things that are you know some of you that that I’ve talked to some of the things you’ve experienced I don’t know how you would necessarily thank God for that but certainly for his work in that so I just want to challenge our thinking in that is this true for us in everything do we really see that in things where people mean evil we’ll talk about that that God is doing something good that he could not do any other way in your life that’s brothers and sisters that’s true um and so you you see how we have to keep going back to that truth as we process the very difficult things that are going on around us brid says this we can see a very close connection between the promise of Romans 8:28 and the command of 1 Thessalonians 518 when we understand that the literal translation of the words in all circumstances is in everything in the Greek as in the English language the words and meanings are very very close we are to give thanks in everything because we know that in all things God is at work for our good as I like to say and I think I’ve said this before the difficult things that God brings into your life he brings not because he doesn’t love you but because he does right and we see we have to keep reminding ourselves of that Lord I may I may not see this I may not understand it but I trust that you are good and you love me help me to receive this as a gift you know in James 1 when it talks about count it all joy when you encounter various circumstances our brother Rich Monte perto taught us on this several weeks ago count it all joy and then in Romans 5 it says we are to exalt in or boast in our tribulations that just sounds like insane language doesn’t it why knowing what it produces I don’t want to be trit about this but we need to really think through what are these things that God is producing in our lives one translation of James 1 says consider it a sheer gift when these trials come and don’t try to get out of those things prematurely let God do his full work right John M uh John Piper had an article years ago I think when he or a friend had cancer and and the the title of the article was don’t waste your cancer right get the full benefit what God is doing through it that’s hard but in God’s Providence we can do that by his Spirit Worship um we’ve talked a good bit about job in our time together after job lost everything but his wife you can sit and think about that for a bit then job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return there Yahweh gave and Yahweh is taken away blessed be the name of Yahweh through all this job did not sin nor did he give offense to God amazing he was encouraged to give offense to God wasn’t he remember what his wife said Curse God and die that’s not the partner that’s that helpful right yeah we must recognize the reality of what we deserve job had to be brought along through a long process say toward the end I spoke that which I did not know I Repent in thust and Ashes right he needed to do that when we recognize what we deserve compared to what we get we deserve an eternity in hell right what we get is so much better than that even in this life and we need to think about that and then the right of God to do what he will with his own right that that’s his choice so we need to be just settled in that um if I were God I wouldn’t do it that way well then it’s a good thing you’re not God it’s a good thing I’m not God right um so we need to really these can be harsh truths but in reality they can be very comforting truths right we understand what we deserve and what God has the right to do thankfully with that will he is perfectly sovereign he is perfectly loving and perfectly wise as we’ve discussed brtish says this as we bow in worship before his Almighty power we can also bow in confidence that he exercises that power for us not against us well that’s so important have you ever felt like God is conspiring against you that God is not for you that he doesn’t have your very best in mind keep in mind that biblical love agape love is not g it’s it’s seeking our highest good and that is not necessarily what we want God knows that what we want can often be very destructive for us he loves us too much for that so do you need to be reminded of that today I need to be reminded of this constantly God is not against me but for me so we should bow in an attitude of humility accepting his dealings in our lives but we can also know bow in love knowing that those dealings however severe and painful they may be come from a wise and a loving heavenly father and you you know you may be in a place today where this really lands well with you and you’re you’re saying yes amen um I’m sure there are some of us who are saying I I really struggle to believe that that God is for me right um how many of you have looked at things in your lives that you’ve hated maybe even would have done anything to get out of but now you look back and you say wow God was doing something that I didn’t see right for me I I talked about it my mom’s death she was she was 47 years old I was 26 this to me this is like one of the worst things that can happen to you but I look back and I had to have brothers come alongside me and point out the things that God was working in my life through that I could not see it I knew these things to be true you you could have given me this lesson and I would have been like you know I just I don’t see it sometimes we need the word of God ministered by the people of God to help us see that and so I I am convinced now um that God was working in my life things that he couldn’t do any other way through something that I never would have chosen and that’s important for us to take comfort in and to respond to with humility right therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you you know if you humble yourself you you can legitimately think to yourself well who’s who’s looking out for me you know um who’s really really loving me um one of the things I I take great comfort in is um Psalm 23 and in verse 6 the last verse of Psalm 23 says this surely goodness and loving kindness will pursue me not follow me is the standard translation but the idea it’s going to it’s chasing you it’s pursuing you you loveing goodness and loving kindness will pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever and think about that in light of what job said in job 3:25 for the dread that I dread comes upon me and what what I am afraid of befalls me right the worst that could happen in his mind actually happened to him and yet we know from the perspective of Providence that was actually God’s loving kindness pursuing him when we went through the book of Exodus as our uh in our in Iron Man we recognize that there were Earthly realities of the slavery and and The Exodus and all that but behind that there were Heavenly realities dictating all of that and so that’s something that we need to think about that the reality is if you are in Christ goodness and loveing kindness are pursuing you even in these circumstances and so we humble ourselves under that reality so think about this whose will are you s seeking are you seeking what you want or what God wants right when they conflict where will you go and so God’s God’s will as we as we noticed in Psalm 4610 is that he exalt himself right are you committed to that purpose right so often we’re not we want what we want praise the Lord that in the gospel he transforms our desires that’s the only way that can happen and then whose Glory are you seeking you know when you when you see humble yourselves right I I think of that the um that I think it’s Winston Churchill quote described someone as a humble man with much to be humble about right uh humility is not um is not something that NE necessarily we enjoy right it means less recognition it means maybe being treated in a lowly way right but when that happens his strength is put on display his glory is put on display where do you want the attention to go right as the casting crown song goes only Jesus only Jesus and so this challenges our desires and our motives and if we seek his will and his glory he will always accomplish that so it’s to our benefit and to our peace to our joy to really receive that with humility and not exalt ourselves he must increase we must decrease as John the Baptist said Isaiah 66 um so precious so helpful to us thus says Yahweh Heaven is my throne and the Earth is the foot stol of my feet where then is a house you could build for me and where is a place that I may rest for my hand made all these things thus all these things came into being declares Yahweh but to this one I will look to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word would you like the the attention of God the intimacy with God this is the path to it right humble contrite trembling at his word eager to hear from him him having your full attention and let’s face it folks when we’re more comfortable he doesn’t always have our full attention does he but when things get hard it sharpens our Focus puts us in a different place draws Us close to him we want to invite his attention his favor on our lives um with the humble wisdom with the humble he is far from the proud the scriptures say and if we know what the scriptures say that The Nearness of God is my good I think it says that in psalm 16 then what is distance from God it’s pretty terrifying and so we want to seek humility as a means to be as close with God as we can so whose strength are you seeking you know one of the things that I really struggle with is just um not seemingly not having the strength to do all that I want to to do all that I want to do if you hear that right he’ll give me the strength to do what he wants me to do um his power is perfected in weakness and I’m noticing this more and more as I get older it’s very humbling to me to recognize that I just can’t seem to push through in ways that I used to right and this is forcing me to humble myself in ways that maybe I haven’t before for and that’s a good thing because as it says in John 15:5 apart from me you can do nothing nothing means nothing it’s emphatic and so he sustains the very fiber of our being and so for us to recognize this and to walk in that reality it’s a very very good thing and then whose attention are you seeking are you good if you serve and you do something and nobody notices nobody says anything you good with that yeah our reward is in heaven if we do that but if we seek attention and reward from others we lose it right we see this in the Beatitudes and so this is something to really think about right um we want to be strong or at least to be seen as strong we want others to be impressed with us are you seeking great things for yourself the prophet said seek them not right put that aside give all attention all attention to him him from the book on the one hand we are to Humble ourselves under God’s Mighty hand an expression equivalent to submitting with a spirit of humility to God’s Sovereign dealings with you and on the other hand we are to cast our I’m going to look over here because it’s hard to see that we are to cast our anxieties on him knowing that he cares for us the anxieties of course arise out of the adversities that God’s Mighty hand brings into our lives we are to accept the adversities but not the anxieties our tendency is just the opposite can we relate to that I thought that was so helpful we seek to escape from or resist the adversities but all the while cling to the anxieties that they produce the way to cast our anxieties on the Lord is through humbling ourselves under his sovereignty and then trusting him in his wisdom and love humility should be both response to adversity and a fruit of it right I don’t know about you but I’m not yet humble enough I’m not yet holy enough and so these adversities help me with both you know my uh my standard response my my probably established pattern through most of my life is to if something difficult happens to work myself up into a panic right and then when I’m exhausted then I’ll go to the Lord anybody I’m not the only one who does this right that’s been more often what I what I’ll do um we watched the movie forged recently and um I don’t know if you’ve seen it but there’s a woman who was from the movie War Room she’s kind of the the prayer Warrior and she said something that I thought was really helpful she said prayer isn’t like a spare tire we pull out in an emergency prayer is the steering wheel you know with the analogy of the car and I thought you know maybe we should try that first right uh and so I thought that was really really helpful all right forgiveness now in my experience um no other topic tends to penetrate the heart or get people’s attention more than forgiveness because I think it’s an issue uh for most of us both in receiving God’s forgiveness fully and not withholding forgiveness from those who have offended us right Bridget said this adversity often comes to us through the actions of other people sometimes those hurtful actions are deliberately directed at us at other times we may be the victim of another person’s irresponsible actions that though not deliberately aimed at us nevertheless affect us seriously how are we to respond in those to those who are the instruments of our adversity the answer of course is with love and forgiveness true difficult simp simple but difficult right and so the question is why why do we forgive and then there we go and then how how do we forgive I’ve heard some Christian teachers say well just just forgive just just just do it well there’s got to be a basis for it a fountain from which we draw right uh it’s I think impossible when we look at the horrible things that are often done that we just just choose to forgive with no real basis and so the Lord gives us one in the Cross I’d like us to dive into this a little bit this is where God’s sovereignty gets applied very personally to us Joseph with his brothers right they sold him into slavery you know they metant evil for him no doubt as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day to keep many people alive this enabled Joseph to forgive his brothers you may remember in the narrative that um once they were reunited with Joseph in Egypt and then their father died the brothers were convinced that Joseph would now exact his revenge on them and they approached him and this is one of those wonderful examples of where we see for shading of the Gospel in the Old Testament they approached him and they said we know that we cannot justify ourselves does that sound familiar right so Joseph was very much a Christ figure pre- shadowing of Christ’s forgiveness but he could only do that knowing that God’s purpose were behind it Lamentations 3 who is there who speaks and it happens unless the Lord has commanded it is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good go forth why should any living person or any man complain because of his sins right we get back to that reality of what do we really deserve knowing that we should not we should not complain and what’s so interesting you think about Joseph you think about job I mean job literally had the attention the personal attention of Satan the most powerful evil force in the universe and yet God’s purposes were accomplished think about that this is how Sovereign God is that kind of effort doesn’t matter because God has a purpose in it in the garden right from the very beginning right the the Temptation and the fall was all part of God’s salvation purpose so God’s salvation is our basis in instead be kind to one another tender-hearted graciously forgiving each other just as God in Christ graciously has graciously forgiven you and this is worth a lot of thought a lot of consideration how has God in Christ forgiven you you know in the gospels when there’s that woman who washed Jesus feet with her hair do you remember what Jesus said about her they were in a a Jewish I think a Pharisees house and he said you you didn’t you didn’t honor me in any way but she has not stopped honoring me why he was forgiven much loves much but he was forgiven little little loves little always kept kept in front of us should be the depth to which God has forgiven us always always so as we saw in that last verse we must not complain because of our sins right just that’s a hard that may be a harsh word for you today we need to understand that that’s the reality we must not complain because of our sins and we dare not withhold forgiveness because of our Salvation time doesn’t allow us to go through Matthew 18 but it’s the parable of the unforgiving slave who was forgiven to death that in his whole lifetime he would never be able to repay and yet he would not forgive a relatively small debt from someone else right this is the reality that we face when we think about forgiving others I want to be sensitive here the horrible things that people can do and have done to us as horrible as they are and my mind is just swimming with things that are just unspeakable that does not compare to the depth to which you and I even at our best have offended God and the depth to which he has forgiven us so may God grow us in our understanding of this so that when we understand that when it penetrates our heart how can we possibly withhold a heart of forgiveness from anyone and I said heart of forgiveness very specifically because sometimes people who’ have done us wrong will not apologize will not repent and yet we are to forgive them we to have a heart of forgiveness toward them there’s a lot to unpack there but I think going back to the reality the reality of our s salvation helps us okay um let’s bring it home prayers for deliverance sometimes when we go through something hard um all we want is out right and that’s okay to pray for that Jesus did that um my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me yet not as I will but as you will right okay I mean our Lord wonderfully set an example for us that it’s okay to ask for that but yet subject everything to the father’s perfect will right so history teaches us that God uses evil for good I think we’ve established that through many chapters and through our lesson today but Faith produces hope in future Glory so in Hebrews 12 it said what it say about Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame right he saw the future of what was going and that fueled him in the presence Romans 8 gives us this as well in the verses that lead up to Romans 8:28 it says for hope that is seen is not hope for why does one hope for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it the hope of the future that we do not yet see but it but but in one sense see with the eyes of Faith fuels Us in the present the fact that we don’t yet have it is meant to help keep us going there’s a lot that can be said there but that’s just a wonderful thing so we look at the history of how God has worked we take hold of the promises of how God will work in the future and we can ask for deliverance and that’s that’s okay but but keeping it under under the Sovereign hand of God I you know I I talked earlier about my um my my mom’s passing and and I was amazed at how the Lord really worked in me in this that um I felt that it was important to to ask even in a hospice situation ask that God would healer acknowledge that he had the power and the ability to do that if you so wished uh but yet release that to him and that was a that was a hard thing to work through but I think both are necessary God you could you could change this in an instant if you wanted to but you may have a purpose in it so our author says this we should pray for deliverance and we should learn to resist the attacks of Satan in the power of Jesus Christ but we should always pray in an attitude of humble acceptance of that which is God’s will sometimes God’s will is deliverance from the adversity sometimes it is the provision of Grace to accept the adversity trusting God for the grace to accept adversity is as much an Act of Faith as in trusting him for deliverance from it we just have to recognize that we grow a lot more through adversity don’t we yeah that’s just God’s pattern um and comfort sometimes to be honest scares me you know especially around the holidays you know like if if things are a little I I I’m not saying don’t enjoy the holidays but sometimes if I’m a little too comfortable I’m a little LAX right in in my spiritual life and I don’t want that I don’t want that I want to to keep that that Focus Comfort can be a curse sometimes and then seeking God’s glory Paul said this according to my Earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body whether by life or by death he noted that in his imprisonment the gospel was advancing and Christ was being glorified and that’s God’s agenda so Paul getting on board with God’s agenda enabled him to endure and then the verse that I’ve quoted several times for us already cease striving and know that I am God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the earth you want to get on board with a mission that will be accomplished this is it this is it so can you trust God right I hope that we’ve established that really well from the word of God in our Contex these past few months for I proclaim the name of Yahweh ascribe greatness to our god The Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a god of faithfulness and without Injustice righteous and upright is he that’s a rock for us to take hold of do we believe that so we’ve seen that God is trustworthy he is absolutely Sovereign over for every event in the universe and he exert exercises that sovereignty in an infinitely wise and loving way for our good in that sense we have answered the main question raised by this book can you trust God he will never fail you nor forsake you but can you trust God right I love Psalm 655 by awesome Deeds you answer us in righteousness oh god of our Salvation you who are the trust of all the ends of the Earth and of the farthest sea in Jeremiah 17:7 blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose trust is Yahweh you notice something unique in those verses we’re not simply called to trust God but to make him our trust that makes sense that’s a little bit stronger he is our absolute Foundation right and if and if we understand those passages correctly you can’t TR trust God and something else right cursed is a man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and his heart turns away from the Lord right it says earlier in Jeremiah we can either trust in self and circumstances or trust in him make him our exclusive trust and I think that’s what the scriptures and what our author are calling us to is God your exclusive trust today all right I’m not going to read that quote hopefully you’ve read the chapter um I would like to just open it up for uh just some comments I’d love to hear we’ve got maybe we’ve got to end a little bit early today because we’ve got the kids choir coming up so we’ve got maybe 10 minutes or so just to interact a little bit around uh trusting God so I’d love to hear um maybe some testimonies of of how this Ian’s got on the mic back there U maybe some testimonies of how this has impacted you or some questions you have so Leela thank you good morning everybody um so Michael and I were just talking last night and um what Mark you said about the holiday season and um we were just thoroughly enjoying all the blessings that God has surrounded us with and um I personally am trying to stay really close to God in all of this time knowing that this is all from him it’s all from his hand um it’ll come it’ll go uh but not focusing on the going necessarily just enjoying it now so that like you said not to be frightened when things are good and comfortable because you think you know something else bad is going to happen or and there’s dire situations that are still in our lives present right now but just going through it with God the the the Blessed times as well as the difficult times yeah we live in a world that’s trying to experience the blessings of Christmas while eliminating The God Who provided them right and I it’s a little crazy yeah Steve that’s right I can be loud well the online folks can’t hear you so uh we want them to hear you Steve okay yeah so I think um unless you actually go through these things they don’t become real right I mean it’s great to have all this you know Doctrine and teaching and know it up there but unless you go through it it doesn’t become real and then you know you have to you almost have to want to do this to actually be able to grow you know um it’s not easy but you know it’s it’s it’s easy up here it’s hard you know when you go through it but if you don’t go through it you don’t experience it and you don’t get that closer connection with the Lord amen yeah I I’m really eager to hear to people who’ve been through some things um people who’ve had it easy I’m honestly I’m just not really interested and um what there’s a credibility there I think that comes through adversity yeah I’ll give an example I mean I I know one things I’ve observed is is people who have had families who have had special needs kids have a level of character that I just find amazing compelling I’m like wow I mean I just want to sit there and just ask you questions and observe because that’s yeah and and and with rare exception those are people of very high character yeah Glenda um what I got from the last chapter giving thanks I I see where Jer said we seek to escape from and resist adversity but all the while clinging to our anxiety I’m really good at that I’m so good at that and that’s when we cling to our anxiety it makes us like feel like oh like we the victim right but then if we stop and think why are you clinging to this when God said I am Sovereign and I know what you need I know what you’re going through but because we are so much in the flesh it rise up and cause us it’s only when things happen where we say you know I’ve got to get out of this MH so then that’s when we learn to say well why am I sitting here moping and moping when God say I’m Sovereign and he knows what you’re going through he knows that’s a beautiful thing right our God through Christ is not a stranger to suffering H okay I wanted to share from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 where Paul says we do not want you to be unaware Brethren of our Affliction which came to us in Asia that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength so that we despaired even of Life indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead and you know when you reflect on this you realize there’s a time lag from the time that they were despairing of life I mean that actually I think means it been better to be dead in the moment he thought it it’s better to be dead and there’s a time lag between this Affliction and then when Paul writes this and I just think about that God will teach us the lessons we need to do so we don’t actually even have to beat ourselves up for the fact that we’re despairing of life that it’s a process that God brings us through from the beginning to end and you know I often think about people who do have a more light-hearted picture of Life who didn’t grow up in all kinds of adversity and I don’t I used to be jealous of that you know I had a very good friend who had the life that I thought if I had a life like hers I would be farther along in this Christian life but the fact is wherever God places us he accomplishes his perfect will in us and rather than being upset that I experience anxiety or I despair of life I do think we have to remember that he brings us out of it and and accomplishes his work in us and that you know it’s often only by looking back that we realize that we came through it you yeah that’s beautiful Cheryl thank you I I think of the phrase I don’t know if it’s in that passage or not where it says sorrowful yet always rejoicing and I that’s a great reminder Cheryl that it’s okay to struggle and to suffer and to strive in our emotions and just to work these things through it’s it’s evidence that we’re alive and the evidence evidence that we’re seeking him Jay yes I had um two many thoughts but two I think that um first one was um you know do we thank God in adversity in Trials do we thank him for it and I say a resounding yes to both of them because I think that’s right um when we’re in the trial if we let our emotions take control of us we’re not going to feel like saying thank you to God but we know um that God allows the trials the adversity he is Sovereign over everything he allows those things in our lives so you know we know just from that doctrine that we say okay thank you God for this but we don’t really feel it has nothing to to do with our feelings it’s a decision that we make I will trust you yeah that’s right God gives us Faith but trust is something that we have to consciously exercise we have to make a decision and say Lord I do trust you and that’s where I think um um you you know I’m not sure about this I I don’t know that the verse that you said um um the verse about sustain uh the weary one with the word it says Isaiah 50:4 is the word that they’re talking about with our words or God’s word it’s I think it’s our stewardship of God’s word with one another that’s how I would view that so you know so I say the more of God’s word that we can hide in our hearts as we know but that’s what keeps us from the sin of not trusting yeah because we need to just keep going back to his word and meditating and when we’re laying in bed and we’re struggling with anxiety and worry or whatever is going on in our lives we all have things going on in our lives I just know from being the age that I am and having gone through many things and being able to look back and God did mean it for good always always every single time so you know when we’re struggling with having anxiety when we’re struggling with our feelings our feelings have nothing to do with it amen doesn’t matter what we feel it matters what God has to say about it and I can promise you that it is always for our good amen so just you know stay in the word memorize appropriate scripture and meditate you know when you’re going through a struggle with your it’s it’s really with our our feelings it’s in our mind yeah amen God never changes we do amen well guys we uh we have to cut you short I’m sorry we’re going to let the kids um go ahead and rehearse I’m going to you know Cheryl as you were talking it reminded me of a passage that I’m just going to end with and pray I think it’s just so helpful for us um Isaiah 50:4 I encourage you to maybe spend a little time in that Jay you unfolded some of that truth so well 2 Corinthians chapter 4 starting at verse 6 for God who said light shall shine out of Darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ but we have this treasure and Earth and vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves in every way Afflicted but not crushed perplexed but not despairing persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus Also may be manifested in in our body that’s what it’s all about father thank you for this journey that we’ve been on thank you for the the struggles thank you that lives have that our lives have not gone according to our plans but according to yours may we rejoice and encourage one another in Jesus name amen amen thank you