Overcome The World

With everything that was said, the scriptures that were shared and the thoughts that were shared that the scripture came to me, if an eye beats a single, thy whole body shall be full of light. And I was looking up the scriptures, another one that comes to me, but first it's talking about single, it's talking about your focus being on the Lord. And it brought up another scripture. I can't have read it without my glasses here. And it's a very familiar scripture and it's one that we all need to practice. It's Jesus saying, "I am the vine." That's what he wants us to focus on, is him. He says, "I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing." And there's so many things in scriptures that speak of staying focused on the Lord. Like a scripture they that observe lying vanities for sake their own mercy. The lying vanities are what we can see with our natural eyes, but the Lord wants us to use our spiritual eye. That the Lord has been trying to get me to do his past week and that has passed on by cares on him and keep my eyes on him. And I was really struggling to do that sometimes. We kind of came to our parents and I got up this morning and I said, "I'm okay. I'm going to cast all these hairs on the Lord, it's too heavy." And I was just struggling, I was still clinging too long and I just sometimes I think I want to just talk about them. But it's not even me. It's constant. Sometimes the Lord has to try to put them out of our hands and wear them out. So, just the whole thing, keeping your eyes on the Lord is a quote from Mark Luther that came across that it's really, it's meant a lot to me.

He said, "When I look at myself, I can't see how I can be saved, but when I look at Christ, I can't see how it can be lost." That to me, it can be used so many different ways because what I've been struggling with this past week wasn't necessarily salvation, but when we look at ourselves, sometimes we don't see how we're going to make it. But when we look at Jesus, we don't see how we can fail because he comes and he brings everything we need with them and he promises to never leave us more for sake. He promises to go with us wherever we will go. And all the songs that we sing this morning are to feel like, it's just reiterating the Lord saying, "Everybody look at me, keep your eyes on me, turn my almost requested address on to Jesus, and I'm too bashful to bring it for me." And then the other thing is, Arne sent me a scripture this morning and it's from Psalm 27, 14, he says, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." And first I kind of value those and I just, you know, then I thought, "Would that have lost the Lord spend your time?" So I don't know, I just was encouraged that the Lord just kept on bringing it away, "Keep your eyes on me, turn your eyes in, keep your eyes on me, and cast all your tears on me." Praise the Lord, this should be brief. I woke up this morning and I don't know why, but I thought about the story of Saul and David, but specifically Saul, more than David. You know, it kind of leads towards David, right? But there's a lot there, it's been a while since I just read the whole story. There's a lot there regarding Saul and his actions and the person he was and the position that he was put in by the Lord, but I'm going to skip all that because I'm still reading through it. It's just been a little bit overwhelming to me what I was there, but with what has been sung this morning, what Amanda just said, "You know, I cast all my carriers upon you. If you carry the weight of the world, he will carry you." grains of sand, like and they said we are in trouble, we are in bad trouble. And he got impatient, there was a set time for Samuel to come.

And Samuel, I don't know, I'm not a theologian, but Samuel was the prophet and it was his place if I gather this right to do the offering. And Saul was like alright, we are about to get squished by the Philistines. And Samuel didn't show up, something must have happened, I'm going to do it myself. I'm assuming I've got that theologically right. Nonetheless, so he said alright, we are about to get destroyed here, Samuel is not coming, maybe I don't know, but I got this offering to get blessing from God. So that sounds somewhat justifiable to good, right? I mean I know I got to give this offering to God so to get his blessing, right? But he wanted the offering so that he didn't get destroyed, not so that God got the glory and the honor. That's the heart of the matter through the whole story I think. So he said bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings and he offered them. As soon as he finished, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. I think he was a little proud of himself that he got, because it says earlier he worked what he says it. What have you done? Since I saw the people were scattering from me and you didn't come to the point at the point of time, the Philistines were assembling and I thought they're going to come down against me at Gilgal and destroy me and I haven't asked for the favor of the Lord so I worked up the courage and offered the burnt offering myself. But Samuel said to Saul you have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which he commanded you. For the Lord would now have established your kingdom over Israel forever but now your kingdom shall not endure. I'm going to stop there, like I said, there's a lot there that I didn't realize because you kind of, I tended to read a lot of it almost like it's a historical account that led up to David, honestly. There's a lot there. So I'm still reading it, but I just, if God has sent us to a battle or a time, I guess

I never thought about the fact that being impatient or acting hastily sometimes, it's not just being impatient, it's not just that you could literally be stepping into a place or a position that you were never meant to be in and bring a lot of harm to yourself. Like I said, I don't mean to be all sad, it just stood to me that do we have faith, do we believe that the Lord has done what he's done and he can do, that he's carried the way of the world and his shoulders, do we believe that? And if we do, God help us with what we're going through, not keep trying to source our own wisdom out of our impatience in these things, but to truly trust him and see him work things out and get the glory, which is the whole point, so. Here's God, I don't know exactly what I'm going to say here, but I, like it's already been said, I appreciate the worship service this morning. There was so much about problems, issues, needs, burdens, and the fact that we can has been said, cast it on the Lord and really give it to him. But the reason we can is because he's the one with all the power, he's the one with all the strength, I think that was just alluded to, that gospel that's been preached to us is the power of God and salvation. And when we have that, despite how we may feel and things may look while we're in our sojourn here and in this earth, Jesus said, "In this world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." That means the whole thing. He gave us victory over the whole world. And when we were singing these songs this morning, it always goes back to the gospel. Jesus overcame and He puts within us the same power through the new birth, through His Word, through His promise, and we have in Him through that new birth the everything that we need. It just so happens that we encounter things that are not easy and we're reminded of the flesh that we have. You know, we're reminded that, well, here's why I got a problem. But who is it that solves all the problems? Who is it that solved everything?

His name is Jesus. So I was thinking about, I know we had talked about listening to a, possibly listening to a service this morning. I hadn't heard a whole lot more about it, Carl. But I just want to say this, that the thing that came to me this morning while we were singing is the prayer that Paul had for the Ephesians. And I'm not even going to read all of it, but it's in Ephesians chapter 1 and he's saying prayer and he's praying that the know Him better and actually understand that whole principle. And I just principle what God has done for us that actually enables us and empowers us to move forward with confidence in Him. Do we need confidence? We do. We have that in Him. But it's, I'm going to start there in, let's see, verse 18, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you. The riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people and His incomparably great power for us who believed." So He's talking about the, "We who believe have a great power that's residing in us." It's in us in Christ. But then He kind of, you know, you think about the gospel and why Jesus did what He did. He was the second Adam and when, you know, says through that one man, you know, transgression and sin was passed to all men and death by sins. So sin isn't just ugly and bad and it causes problems, it actually kills us. But Jesus took all that sin on Himself. But the awesome thing about it is that when He took it, He did something about it. Next verse, "That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms." And you think about every person that's, you know, we sin and we die. But think about all the sin that He had on Him.

He had all the sin of all humanity for all of history. And if sin kills you, how dead must He have been? I mean, can you imagine the sin that was placed on Him? I can't even imagine. I cannot imagine that. But what kind of power raised Him from the dead? The power of God, it showed you that all that sin was paid for and the fact that He was saturated and covered, I mean, He was inundated. He literally, our sin was placed on Him and He went to the grave and He was dead. You know, it's amazing that just a little while before that, He went to a tomb where Lazarus was, remember? He had the power to raise people from the dead. He still does. He still does. He raises us from the dead. He can do it physically and the most amazing thing, spiritually. We are dead and trespasses and sins. And when He says, "Come forth," we come forth in the power of God by His Spirit. But He went to Lazarus' tomb and remember He said, "But the loud voice He cried, "Come forth." And a man who was wrapped in grave clothes walked out of a tomb. He said, "Lose Him and set Him free." He was raised from the dead. But much greater and much more profound was the fact that Jesus, a little bit later, took all our sin and He was completely, I mean, He was annihilated on our behalf. He's dead in a tomb, but that's what He was raised with, that incomparable great power. That's the power that the Father exerted when He raised Him from the dead. Isn't that awesome? That means that when we're encountering the things that we're having to be faced with in this life, which we all do and it sure as you think you'll never get down again or

I'm not going to let my troubles get me down, don't speak so quick. You can get the right situation and you'll be on your face. I have, but praise God, the Lord renews those strength, the people who wait on Him, their strength is renewed. He's able to renew our strength, He's already raised us from the dead spiritually. Praise God. So when we do find ourself in that place and we will, and that's why Jesus said, you know, in this world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. The opposite of that is to be down, to be depressed, to be worried, to be looking at all these situations and they consume us rather than us fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ. But the reason why we can have joy, peace, and confidence is because not only has He overcome the world, that power that He was raised with resides in here. We have all we need in Jesus Christ. And as we step out into this world and we move forward, who is this residing here? The one who was so dead by all the sins being placed on Him and slain and in power He was raised. Praise God. That's what happens when we're baptized. We're raised with a new life and we have that spirit residing in here. Aren't you glad of that? Praise God. I know, I don't know what all the Lord has here this morning. I know that Carl had sent an email about, there was a service that brother, Carl had called, and I actually even thought about it when we were singing the day. I'm not saying that when you listen to it because if someone has something here, you know, things have already been shared. Let's don't be under any duress and staring at the clock. Let's let God lead us. But within that message, and it wasn't even that long of a message,

it was about Peter and how he saw Jesus walking on the water and he said, "If you bid me come to you," he said, "Come on." But what happened when he looked at the waves? Down he went and that's in all of us. We get discouraged. We get discouraged. But the opposite of that and the contrast was, "Jesus reached down and picked him up." He reaches down and picks us up. And not only that, he didn't just pick him up. You know, we sang that song this morning about, "I want you to hold me." You know, some of these songs about the Lord rescue us and understanding where we're at it. Understanding exactly where we're at. He's got all the power. It goes on to say that he's the Lord of heaven and earth. There's no other name given whereby a man can be saved and yet he's meek and gentle in spirit. So when you fail and I fail and we're weak, you know, he was tempted in all points like we are and yet he didn't sin. He knows exactly how you feel. If you feel depressed this morning, overwhelmed, overcome, sad, hopeless, Jesus knows how you feel. He said he was a man of sorrows and a queen with grief. His friend was grief.

It was an acquaintance of his. He knew what it was like to be overwhelmed with grief. Overwhelmed with everything and yet he did all that for us so that when we get in our little situations that we're in and they're not a little, some of them are big, some of them are long lasting, but there's none of them that are bigger than him. And there's none of them that he doesn't understand. He actually fully, really understands, you know, we're worshiping the Lord this morning just thinking, what kind of God has such a tender heart to be able to see each one of us right where we're at and really care. He really does. That's why he can really wrap his arms around us. He created us, you know, we're complex. Human beings are very complex. We're also very stupid at times. And we're heartheaded, but we are complex. And, you know, the things that we go through, even sometimes in childhood, they shape what we turn into. And sometimes we carry baggage with us for decades. Decades, do we not? Does the Lord understand that? Is he able to steal, heal? Is he still, does he still have the ability to heal you when you're 30, 40, 50, 60, 70? If you're going through something that you really haven't never really given to the Lord.

I mean, really cast it on him. Does he have the ability to take that? We'll give it to him and replace those ashes with beauty, power and strength, healing. He is a healer. Jesus Christ is still a healer. He has not changed. He can raise somebody from the dead physically or he can deliver them from sickness physically. Wipe it away, just like that. He still does that. It's not an every case, but he has the power to do it. And he has the power in every case when we are going through issues and we're sick and afflicted in our soul because of sin or issues or baggage. He has the power to heal that. Is it by his stripes or we were healed? It's past tense. He's already done it. He did all that for us. He did all that for us so that every person here, young or old, he meets you right where he at and he wants you to know, I understand what you're going through. I love you. I've already empowered you when I die on the cross, but I want you to know that I can empower you today to do what's impossible. What's humanly impossible? All this is humanly impossible,

but with God, all things are possible. He does want us to fully look at him as one who can do what he said. What he did do, what's recorded in this Bible and what he's actually doing in our hearts. You want to know that Jesus Christ rose from there? Look at the life and the people that are here. I mean, the risen Christ. None of us are anything. I tell you what, we're made of clay or you could say that where despite how complex we are, we are completely broken in many ways and we need a Savior who's full of strength, life, deliverance, he's raised us from the dead spiritually and can you imagine what heaven's going to be like? But one thing for sure, when it comes to this gospel, this gospel was given, like Paul was saying here, I pray that you would know him better, this strength is and what this life is that He has given you. I don't know. I praise Him this morning. I don't know the rest of what the Lord has for us. You know, it's not late here, but praise God. We serve a living Christ. He is alive. Can you imagine what it was like to see Him walk out of that tomb? I tell you, when the earthquake hit them soldiers fell over like they were dead. It would have probably had the same effect on everybody, you know. But when He came forth from that tomb, it was to never die again. What He did was enough and remember when John saw Him in Revelation, you know, He sees

Him all glorified and there He is and John, He falls down as one dead. Again, that's probably what we would do. But Jesus reaches over and touches Him and He says, "You know, it's all right." He said, "It's me, it's the Lord, I was dead, but now I am alive." In heaven, and it says that when He died, He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in heavenly places, which means even though we're here on this earth through God's eyes, we're already in heaven. Isn't that amazing? That means that no matter how big our problems are, and I'm not making light of any problems, some of them are very difficult, God is bigger than the problems. He's bigger than the need, and He's bigger than all our deficits. We've got some deficits. Does anybody here have any deficits? Two people. Yeah. I've got them. He's got all the answers. Praise God. That's all I have. Praise God, I appreciate what's been shared this morning. I do too. I also appreciate very much the song service man. It was very encouraging, wasn't it? I tell you what, we're in a world of trouble, but be of good cheer God has overcome the world as we've heard here, already this morning. I'm up here strictly by faith, not by qualification or anything else, but because I feel like the Lord gave me something to share here, and it's out of Joshua's reading this this morning. And man, we do, we have, there's troubles, there's storms. Many times we either in a storm or we're getting ready to go into a storm. I mean, it just happens.

That is life. That is what happens. But I want to read this first part of Joshua here, it's chapter one, the Lord will help this and give this some life. It says, "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, 'Son of none, Moses aid, Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan into the land. I am about to give to them to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the Great River to your Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the great sea on the West." Listen to this, no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. Now I read that and I said, "Wow, man, that's a praise God. Is that a word to you this morning wherever you're at? Is that something that the Lord has told you?" You know, we have to be, man, we want to be in tune with the Lord so we can hear what He speaks to us, because I tell you what, man, we can live outside of the prayer there that's in Ephesians. We can live in a place that's desert, it's dry, and sometimes the Lord leads us there. But man, there is something about abiding in the love of Jesus Christ that helps us, that gives us strength that we do not have in ourselves. It does not abide in our flesh, but it does abide in the new life that Christ has given us. And there is a laying hold of that. I mean, you look through Joshua, man, there was some battles going on. I mean, it was battle to battle to battle to battle to battle, but I tell you what, man, the Lord gave them specific instructions on how to fight those battles, and God wants to give us specific instructions and the battles we're facing. If we wait upon the Lord, He will renew our strength. He will bring us out of that depression, that anxiety, that fear, because fear will

stymie us from doing anything. There's a line out there that roars, and you got no teeth, but I tell you what, sometimes we hear that over Christ's voice. And man, it paralyzes us almost, but I tell you what, man, the Lord's got better for us as we abide in Him. It says, "No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." Now listen to this, because this is something that said here that was said again, "I will will never leave you nor. Has God forsaken you in your place right now? He hasn't, because he cannot break his promise. He cannot break his promise. He is not a man that he should lie. He is God Almighty. And when he makes a promise, it is 1,000% coming true. He made this promise to these folks a while before this happened, you know? There's something to man about trust in the Lord. You know, there was only two people that crossed over the Jordan from the prior deal. Who was it? Joshua and Caleb, man. Joshua, why? They believed God. They believed he was who he was. He said he was. And they trusted him when no one else would, man. Everybody else perished. But do you believe God this morning? Right in the midst of your storm.

Right in the midst of whatever emotion or circumstance that you're facing, do you believe God this morning? That he can and will deliver you. Because he will, he's promised to do it. He did not promise that it's going to be easy. What did they come back with? If you go back to Caleb and Joshua, something happened when they went. They sent the 12 tribes, right? A leader from each one. A lot of them came back with a negative prospect. But I tell you what, Caleb and Joshua saw the Lord. They knew that they were well able to go up. Not because of who they were, but because of who God is. Because of who he is, he's able to rescue. And I tell you what, when they went through this, there were fortified cities, right? What else was there? Giants. I haven't seen a giant once I was read a giant one time. But man, I tell you what, Giants can make us melt and fear, right? Well, I tell you what, what was the thing that there was something else that happened here? I'll get to that just a second. But it says, I will never leave you or forsake you. How about this, be strong and courageous? Listen to this, because you will lead these people inherit to inherit the land. I swore to their forefathers to give them.

Be strong and very courageous. Listen to this, be very careful to obey the law of my servant Moses gave to you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left that you may be successful wherever you go. We measure success in different ways than God does. The way we measure success is by our bank account and how we're feeling. That is not how God measures success. When he calls us to a purpose, whether we end up, it doesn't, when we come to Lord, nothing we have as ours anymore anyways, it is all his, it is all his. He gave it to us, it all belongs to him. So the way God measures success is way different than what we do. His success measurement, do we believe him? Do we trust him and when he says go, will we go? Will we go when he says go or when he calls us in the middle of the storm out of a boat? Come on, man, it happened and it does happen. It can happen for us too folks. This is a living active savior alive in the world today and he's alive in our hearts. He says, have I not commanded you? This is the question of Lord asking, be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. If you read on a little bit, there was a discouraging spot there, something had happened in their midst.

They went up against, I think I can't remember if it's the Amorites or what, but man, something had gripped one of the people's hearts, man, gripped their hearts. They coveted something they found and they took it and they hit it. They went up to the Amorites, they didn't win. Guess what Joshua did, he hit his face. Went down to the floor, God said, why are you on the floor? Get up. He says, they're sent among you. Get it out of there and continue to go forward. The Lord calls things out of our lives. You know, luckily, what happened to that guy there? He got stoned and everything you had was burned. Man, are you thankful to God doesn't deal with us like that anymore? He deals with us in grace and love and mercy because of Jesus Christ and who he is. I'm thankful for that, folks, because, man, I tell you what, we fall in many ways, but God picks us up. He does not want us to stay there. It is his desire for us to walk with him, to talk with him, to be in communion with him, that that life of Christ can come out through us. I thought about one more thing here. I hope this ain't taken too long. Let's go to Romans chapter eight here. And the Scripture came to me when we sang the song this morning. We've been made more than conquerors. Overcomers in this life.

That is present day to day, folks. Where you're at today, God wants to help you. He wants to help you tomorrow when you wake up, when the trip, that mountain might still be there. And guess what, it may not get cast in the sea, but I guarantee you this, God's gonna give you the strength to climb and if you need it, just look to Him. Keep your eyes focused on Him. Praise Him, worship Him, because I tell you what, inhabits the praises of His people. Let's see here, let's go to Romans 828 here. This, we all know the scripture says, and we know that in all things, all things, all things, man, that is hard to wrap our head around, right? Because of circumstances, because of storms, because of feelings, whatever it is, we put that in there. But it says in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, and this is very key, who have been called according to His purpose. If He has called you, oh man, and this is hard to say, everything is working together for your good. I didn't say that, God said that, whatever you're facing, man, and we can face some very troubling things, devastating things in our life, we lose love of whatever the facts are,

whatever the circumstance is, God is working together for the good. That's hard to fathom that, but He's gonna give you the strength to know that. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. He is making us like Jesus. Praise God, praise God that He might be the first born among many brothers, and those He predestined, He also called, those He called, He also listened to this justified, and those He justified, He is also glorified. All those things are past tense. He sees that this morning. What shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also? Along with Him graciously. He's not holding condemnation over you. Graciously give us all things. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? Man, do we have an advocate this morning? We got the best one in the business, buddy. (laughs) It is God who justifies who is that He condemns. Christ Jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God

and is interceding for you this morning and for me this morning. No matter what, that is God's word this morning to us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword, as written. For your sake, we face death all the day long. We are considered a sheep to be slaughtered. Man, I'll tell you what, that's sometimes the outlook, isn't it? (laughs) Sometimes the outlook. The only thing that needs to die is its own nature. That thing needs to be slaughtered every day 'cause it's always trying to resurrect yourself and run the other direction. But it says no, in all things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Get that. We are more than conquerors. How through Him who loved us? For I am convinced, are you convinced this morning that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Man, we take those things a lot of times. Man, we're separate, our mind starts working.

It's depth, height, yeah, man, everything. No, no, we have to take those thoughts in the captivity. This is not a work yourself up deal. This is the reality of living in Jesus Christ, Him living through us and accessing the things that He has already given us. And it is access through trouble, through trials, through circumstances we would not go through because we have to grow, man, the Lord wants us to grow in Him. But be of good cheer this morning 'cause God has overcome the world. I tell you what, man, we have a lot to be thankful for. I love the song we sing to, Jesus never fails. Not once in a while, not here, not there, never. Absolute never fails. He hasn't, and He's not going to. He's gonna see us through, folks. Raise guard. - Praise the Lord, I have to stand up quick or I'll talk myself out of it every time. (laughing) I was honestly, I guess you might call it, complaining to the Lord, just kind of feeling overwhelmed, feeling stressed, still dealing with some pain in my back. So yeah, just talking to the Lord. And I said, "Lord, would you give me a scripture just to encourage me and comfort me?" And it's in Psalm 32 verse 11. And oftentimes he speaks to me by just giving me a scripture reference. That's kind of what I just hear from the Lord and I go to that scripture. But as I opened this scripture and began to read it, I was a little taken back.

And I was like, "Lord, are you sure this is what you're trying to tell me here?" But it was, and I believe it fits with what's been said. And it says, "Rejoice in the Lord and be glad you're righteous." And the only way we are righteous is because of what Christ did on the cross, as it's been talked about this morning. It says, "Seeing all you who are upright in heart." And the King James actually says, "To shout for joy." So here I am kind of like, you know, feeling little down, little confused and stressed. And the Lord says, "Shout for joy." So here I am, yay, yay, Lord. But as I'm again to read the full chapter, the Lord really showed me how we can shout for joy and the reason we can shout for joy. And I want to just read through some of this, I'm going to start in verse 1. It says, "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered." Tell you what we could stop right there and have plenty to shout about. Our transgressions are forgiven and our sins are covered. Praise God that if you're in Christ this morning, that your transgressions are forgiven and your sins are covered past, present, future, it doesn't mean we go live contrary to the Word of God and, you know, live a lifestyle of the world. But it is forgiven. And I thought of that song. It is well. It says, "My sin not in part but the whole was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more." You can shout for joy just right there. And in verse 2, "Blessed is the one who sinned, the Lord does not count against them." And if you're under the blood this morning, the Lord isn't up there counting strikes every time we fall in the mud and just beating us over the head. And it says, "In whose spirit is no deceit and that's no hiding your sin, no pretending that you're, you know, that we're not in a flesh and that we're not sinning but rather being honest before him and bringing the need, our needs into the light."

And in verse 3, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." I believe the Lord kind of showed me that that's unconfessed sin, but guess what? In first John it says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and he's just to forgive us." This is from all unrighteousness, praise God for that. Verse 4, "For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." I believe that's the conviction of the Lord, of the Holy Spirit that he brings to us. And I thought of this, it'd be like a loving parent who has a child say they're running or they're walking toward a parking lot or a road. We're not just going to yell from a distance, but we're going to take that loving hand and steer them back in the right direction. And I believe that's a, right here, as we keep reading, I believe that's a turning point in this scripture, the Lord's loving hand. And this is David, and if I'm correct here, this is with Bathsheba and that's when he was writing this. But it said, "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity." I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin." And then it goes on here, it says, "Let all the faithful pray." And it talks about the Lord being our hiding place, praise God that he is our hiding place. And that he will instruct us in the way that we should go. And then in verse 10, this really stands out to me, it says, "Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds." What a word that is. Love is always surrounding us. Surrounds the one who trusts in him, "The Lord's love doesn't come and go. It's constant." He isn't standing back with his arms crossed, waiting for us to mess up and then stepping away and not loving us anymore.

It's constant. So let's rejoice in the Lord, as it says. seeing all you who are upright and hard." So as I, you know, we can get in our feelings and we can the trials that we're going through has been mentioned this morning. We can get in that, but let's rejoice in who he is and in what he has done for us. I need this this morning for myself. I'm just thankful that the Lord does still speak to us. And after I read that scripture, I felt like the Lord gave me another one. So while I'm up here, I'm going to go ahead and share that. You don't have to turn there. It's in Hebrews 5, 7. And I read this last week in the men's meeting, but it says, "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears." And I sometimes forget that Jesus was in a body, in a physical body, just like us. Jesus wept, talked about Lazarus earlier. When he was there, he wept. He's having the same physical, the same kind of mind that we do, but he was still God. And I can't explain that fully, but anyway, you get the point. And it says, "He cried fervently. In Luke, it says that sweat became like drops of blood. And he cried out to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverent submission. And I believe that's just that Jesus trusted the Father's plan. He knew that him laying himself down as the sacrificial lamb without spot. And when he took our sin, that was the Father's plan. That was, but he submitted to that plan. And you know, he could have called twelve legions of angels. I think it says he could have gotten off of this cross. He could have avoided it. And he even prayed at one point. He said, "Father, if possible, remove this cup of suffering from me, yet not my will, but thine be done." Aren't you glad this morning that Jesus chose the Father's will? That he chose the mercy tree and that he was beaten and bruised for us. The lashes he took on his back, the crown of thorns, the spear on his side, all that he done for us. That's why we can shout for joy this morning. Praise God that he submitted to the Father's will and that he became the ultimate sacrifice for us. And you know, we're talking about trials this morning. Jesus had to face the same kind of trials, but on a much higher level than we do. And the reason that we can shout for joy is because of that submission. The only reason we were counted as righteous is because he took every bit of sin, of shame, of guilt, of trauma, of past hurt. He took all that on the cross for us. That's why we have a reason to shout no matter what we're going through. Without Calvary though, we have no hope, we have no righteousness, no joy, no eternal life. But through what Christ did, we have all that,

we have joy, we have freedom from sin, we have the ability to shout in the storm. And without the cross, there is no salvation, there's no peace, there's no rest. And I thought about this in Scripture. Without the fire, there's no refining. Without the blood, there's no cleansing. And without the test in our lives, there's no testimonies. I thought of Joseph, all he went through, how his brothers sold him into slavery. And we're going to leave him in the pit. But the Lord must say this, the Lord took what the inanimate for evil and he used it for good. And that's what he will do in our lives too. But Joseph, you know, all he went through, you want to slavery to Egypt. And of course, there was the famine. And the reason that his family was saved from dying in this famine was because Joseph was there, a leader in Egypt. See how the Lord works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. All things, even though we don't like some of these things. Praise God that even in the middle of our trials, if you're born again, you can shout and rejoice because we have a loving risen Savior and an assurance of eternity with him. And we've been saved from the dominion of darkness. I just praise the Lord this morning. Lord, we do have more than enough to shout about from what you've done on the cross. Praise you this morning, God, for the blood that was shed, Lord, for the forgiveness of sins. Lord, we just can help us to confess our need to you, Lord. We know that you work all things together for it again. Amen. Praise God. [BLANK_AUDIO] I was thinking, you know, sometimes the situations that we come up against, you know, sometimes it's a big thing. It's like huge in the moments, it has sort of out of left field and overwhelming and, you know, I think somebody already mentioned this morning about us, you know, sometimes being crushed or it's like so severe and intense in the moment. Those are some of the things that we face sometimes, but probably maybe even more often some of the things are things that part of the challenge is the time, you know, as time goes on. It may be not the magnitude of the thing, but as things go on and on and on and stretch on and we don't see an answer or we don't see a resolution or we don't know how it's going to work out, that's kind of the source of the challenge a lot of times that we go through.

I was actually thinking about the example of Job, I mean, you know, the story of what happened, how God had given Satan permission to attack him and he had taken, you know, many things materially from him, even family and yet, of course, Job didn't charge God foolishly. He didn't sin in that and that will say, well, you let me touch him directly and then you'll see and God said, okay, but you know, spare his life. So he was suffering physically afflicted and, you know, you kind of, a lot of times you think when you hear the story, well, he, he praised God, you know, when he took everything else and then he touched when touched his flesh, you know, Job was struggling and you go through the whole book of him struggling only to, you know, come to know God better at the end. But really, the scripture says even after he touched him physically, that's when his wife said, you know, why don't you just curse God and die? He's obviously, I got it out for you, why don't you just, you know, curse him, be struck down and get out of this life and he said, you know, that's foolish. Even then, even when he himself was physically touched, he did not charge God foolishly in what he said, he, he still continued to confess the right thing. And then, you know, his friends heard about him being sick. They agreed together together to go with him and all that. I don't know how long all that took, but there was a period of time in all that. At first, Job was doing the right thing. He was confessing, hey, we, we received good from the hand of God, shall we not receive evil? By the time they finally got there, however long it took for them to organize and travel and all that, Job was doing ready to do some complaining because he's a human being just like us, just like we would have been. There was a time that goes on and you, you do the right thing and you set out and intend to do the right thing and there's a conviction behind it, but as it goes on, we need a strength that we don't have because we'll run out of the strength that we naturally have. And I think that time element is sometimes the challenge because we, we serve and we walk with and we're learning about a God who operates on an eternal timescale, an eternal

picture and all that we can know and experience is here, temporally, you know, the scripture in the New Testament, there's one place where it says a day with the Lord is this a thousand years and a thousand years is a day, he doesn't look at time the same way we do and that's part of the struggle because we say, we think of, you know, well, depending on the situation a day or a week can be a long time, much less a year or a decade or 50 years. You know, we have our own definitions depending on the situation for what a long time is or long suffering, but God's operating on an eternal timescale that a lot of times we can't see and that's where we have to go back to trust and but I know who he is, I know that promise that he will bring good out of all things that come, whether we understand it or not. But I was thinking about in just thinking about these things that this a lot of times is the real challenge is as time goes on and we don't see things change or we don't get the answer we want or we're hoping. I was thinking about, you remember, well, as I already mentioned in the early Israelite history, you remember the first time they were attacked after they had come out of Egypt and there was a battle there and Moses found that when he lifted up his hands the Israelites would prevail, right? They were defeating the enemy but when he dropped his hands the enemy would start surging in and so in a way that's a simple problem, right? We just hold your hands up, that's that's easy, yeah, but we can't hold our hands up indefinitely can we? Human muscles don't work that way. There's a there's a strength you have that you can intend to do the right thing and be all in but sooner or later that strength is going to start to help and in that case in that particular case God's solution was he had two other people who were there to able to help him hold his hands up. They were able to lend their strength and their effort to help hold his hands up and I was thinking this morning is, you know, with what Amanda said, what Steve said, you know, we know we all know we go through things, we all do and we know others are going through things but it is easy sometimes to, it's very natural, our nature to get self-absorbed, you know, but it just reminded me in thinking about all this, it is important to hold one

another up, you know, because these situations, because something we don't know, you know, what Daniel even said this morning about unspoken requests, I mean in a sense, yeah, at any given time there's something we're praying about that for whatever reason we're not going to make it a public thing with everybody but there are times just like what Joe said, just through something in a particular way, even if they are not free to share the details. But can I give us that burden to hold one another up, to hold up one another's hands in these situations because it's really easy to just focus on ourselves and where we're at. But we're made members want them another, aren't we? We're together and what affects one, affects another. So I just, that's the thought I had this morning as we are trusting him because, you know, much as we want to do the right thing, Peter, right? When God called him to get out of the boat. Yes, sorry. Yes, Lord. I'm not scared. You said it, I can do it. He jumped right out there and that's good. That's faith. That was responding to something the Lord had said in faith. That was great. But a lot of times it's the way things work. We get a little ways into something. The thoughts come, other voices come. The strength we had starts to add we need more than just what's in here. We need him in us to empower us and we need one another and he does that. He intercedes for us. Thank God. He does all the time, but he also intercedes for us through one another. He puts that burden or that thought or that. I think somebody even, I think Daniel might even say something about calling

somebody when you have a thought to or something like that. He puts that on our heart to encourage and build up. So as we're thinking about this, as we're trusting him, as we're rejoicing, let's hold one another up in these situations. And when somebody says they've got a particular unspoken request, let's hold that up before the throne with an urgency with a seriousness because somebody's asking for help in a battle and we can do that for one another. Praise God. Last time I had something pointed out, I got in trouble because I didn't say nothing. Um, I wondered how the Lord was going to work this thing in. And Benjamin did when he says, we're going through things and we're facing things, you get tired and get aggravated, whether it's family or your kids. You just get tired of it and I'm like, Lord, how are you going to work this thing? And then got up and he talked about things taking time. And it's like Steve's, they can take 30, 40, 50, 60 years in some cases, but there's always an answer. There's always a blueprint. There's always a freedom. Now, when you want it like yesterday or whatever, and this, I was sitting down there in the scripture. I kept looking at it and this is where the time comes in. Therefore we do not lose heart. They're absolutely, we're a way single way. And yet, we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles. Yeah, really momentary 30, 40, 50, 60 years are achieving for us eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on one is seen because you're not going to see what you want to see, you're going to see what you need to see. But what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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