Questions?

Well, praise God, all the wonderful things we've got to sing about, and I thank God that they're real. Well, I've had the usual questions, Lord, what do you want this morning? And I don't know that what I have is going to take all the time that we have, but that's all right too. I just want to try to give out some thoughts that I believe the Lord has helped to share with me. They're a little bit unusual in a way. I'm going to go ahead and start with Psalm 73. It's a psalm that we have used in another context. This is not what I'm talking about, but you remember the message where, you know, get your butt in the right place? This is where we, you know, we tend to use the word butt to contrast two things and whatever follows the butt is what's in charge. And this is a primary example of someone who was in a bad place because they acknowledged two different things, but the one that was really in charge of where they were thinking and feeling was not the good side of it. So anyway, this is a psalm written by Asaph. Now, Asaph was one of the worship leaders in Jerusalem. Remember when David finally conquered all the rest of Jerusalem, became the king and set up ... One of the biggest things he did was to set up a worship center. And he had people whose full-time job was to sing praise and play instruments and just basically praise God. So there was constantly this sense, this sound in Jerusalem of praise going up to God. And Asaph was one of the people in charge. And his job actually was to play the cymbals. So every time that there was a, you know, praise God, bang! Praise God in the highest, bang! That was his job, to sit there and play that. So you know, you would think that somebody like that has really arrived.

Man, no doubts, everything is just cool. I'm just flowing along with the Lord and everybody should be like me. The reality is we fight battles. There are battles being fought in the minds and hearts of people sitting right here and others who will hear this that no one else knows about. And that was what was going on with Asaph at this particular time in his life. And boy, he was in a bad place. Now he starts out with this, he said, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. I mean, you think, man, this is a worship leader, what a way to start. This is great. This is going to wonderful places here. But he had gotten in a bad place. He says, but as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. Now why was this? What was the problem in his heart and in his life at this particular time? Obviously he acknowledged in a general belief sense that yes, God is God and He's good and it's wonderful to serve Him and all of that. But somewhere along the line, his eyes got in a different place. Awfully easy to do. And so what happened was he said, for I envied the arrogant. These are people who not only weren't serving God, but they were boastful about it. Man, I've got it good, I'm doing fine, everything's right. I envied the arrogant. So why would a servant of God whose job is declaring the symbols every time God's praise went up have a problem like this? When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. You know, the reality is we live in a world that doesn't always conform to exactly what this says in the outward sense.

Things don't always look like we would hope that they would look. You remember Job, that was the problem with his friends. They had a, we've talked about this before, they had a very simplistic view of life that if you serve God and you're faithful to Him, He's going to bless you. If you don't serve Him and you start acting wickedly, man, He's coming down hard on you and your life's going to be miserable. Well, that's extremely simplistic, isn't it? It isn't that way. And many times, God's people are the ones who are going through difficult times and difficult places and you look out to some of your people that you know in the world and things are going great. And of course, the devil doesn't bother with that. He loves to drop little thoughts in our heads and in our minds. And that's what he was doing with Asaph. So he said, I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So that's where his eyes, that's where his attention was. That's why the butt was in the wrong place. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from common human burdens. They are not plagued by human ills. Therefore, pride. In other words, things are going good. Therefore, here's how I view things. Here's my attitude toward life. Man, I'm doing great. Everybody should be like me. Who cares about this God business? I'm just doing fine without him. And yet we know that that's the case in a lot of places. Does the devil ever point somebody out to you? That's what he was doing. Got quiet, isn't it? These are thoughts. The devil will attack every person in the world with thoughts that are full of doubt. Kind of started that way, didn't he? Has God really said? Did God really say? Here's what he really meant. I'm going to explain it to you. And the Lord has allowed the devil to have access to human beings because he wants a family that chooses right, chooses what is good and what is holy. And we're going to have to choose it at times when it doesn't make sense outwardly. And that's what was going on here. Boy, he was in a rough place. Okay? So here's the situation. They're just doing great and they're not serving God. Therefore, pride is their necklace. They clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity. You can see God allowing people to make choices.

And for a time, it can look like those choices were the right choices. And folks, we're living in that kind of a world where we're going to have to have something that sees beyond the way things apparently are. Okay? All right? Their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, speak with malice, with arrogance. They threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven. Their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore, their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. You see the spirit of deception in the world? It is just selling the lie that this world is what it's all about. And if you just put your focus on that and just forget all this God business, that's where prosperity lies. And the devil will ... I mean, we think of the devil as a destroyer and all of that. Like, you serve him, he's just going to make your life miserable. Well, it isn't always that way. Sometimes it is. But the devil loves to feed into people's hearts and lives and experience prosperity in this world and celebrity and all these things. And it's easy to look at them and say, well, you know, all this God business, I'm professing all this stuff, but look at that. How does that make sense? I guess if I had to put a title on this, it would be a simple one, questions. Because the devil loves to minister questions to any one of us if he can. And he'll point out where you're at and what's going on around you and ask, is God really good? Does He really care about me? If He did, it would be different. The circumstances would be this way or that way. We sing songs about, I'm in beautiful land. I sure don't feel like I'm in beautiful land. But what we're measuring by is a very earthly, short-term view of things. Praise God. I've had so many thoughts. I'm just trying to focus in here on what the Lord wants to say. There's a simplicity to this and yet, do we need this? Is this part of the picture? Do we have to deal with questions? Is there anybody here who's never had a question like this come into your mind that just shows a doubt? Is this really true? Am I just wasting my time? And they say, In verse 11, is that where I was at? They say, they say, how would God know? Does the Most High know anything? This is what the wicked are like, always free of care, they go on amassing wealth. Boy, doesn't sound like it makes any sense at all to serve God and to live a life of

sacrifice and all that goes with it. So now, instead of, surely God is good to Israel, he says, surely in vain, I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted and every morning brings new punishments. So he's looking at that and he's looking at his own present tense circumstances, whatever was going on in his heart and in his life, and he's saying, boy, this doesn't make sense at all. Why in the world would I serve this mystical God who's somewhere, I can't see any evidence that he's real? And there's the opposite message going out right now. These people are not serving God and they're being blessed and having a great life. No one here has ever wrestled with that. See, that's one of the biggest questions, one of the most basic questions the devil likes to play in people's heart. What about evil? Why is there so much evil in the world? If God is good and he's all powerful, why doesn't he do something about it? See, God's purpose is being worked out and it doesn't always fit our understanding. We are in the process, in a process oftentimes we don't understand. And the Lord will allow us to come down to these places where we have questions. And they're genuine questions. And I don't see any evidence in this, by the way, this whole passage where the Lord is saying, what's the matter with you, you dummy? He realizes this is part of serving God in the world, is having to handle questions that really are deep and undermine everything you think you're standing. I mean, here he was, and when he goes on and talks about it, said, now here's the position I'm in. Praise the Lord. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Clang. He's going through all the motions of doing his job, but in the meantime, this is all going on in the inside. And he says, look, I can't talk about this. If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. So he's wrestling with what do I do with this question? How do I handle it? And then he says, when I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply. How many of you think that we can, with human understanding, answer all the questions that arise? Boy, I've encountered people, and maybe you have too, that you bring the message of the gospel to them, and they'll raise this question, and you answer the question, okay, but what about this? But what about this? But what about this? They're just, all their, the whole focus of their mind is just being open to the, being, just listening to questions. And the idea is, I can figure it out, all right? There's another scripture I'll get to later that really touches on that very specifically. But here he is, I can't talk about it, and yet, and I can't figure it out. I do not have the answer to this. What's going on? We're just in a very, very bad place right now. I hope nobody's here in that place. At the same time, if there is, God wants you to know that He understands, and He's there, and He's available. Praise God. Now, in this case, the Lord did answer his question. But when did that happen? He says, till I entered the sanctuary of God.

Now, I don't know what all that involves, but I do know one thing. It involves a heart that really wants an answer, isn't looking for an excuse to say no. This is a heart that's genuinely reaching out to God and saying, God, I want to serve you. I want to believe this, but you see where I'm at? I'm struggling. Help me to understand. I'll tell you, we serve a God who can tell us what we need to know. He's not going to answer every question in your head. He's not going to explain the whole Bible to you, but He's going to tell you enough to know that you can trust Him, that He's got this, and He is working out a plan that we don't always understand. That's where He came to. That's the place He came to. But He had to go to God with an open heart and say, God, I'm at a bad place here. I don't understand, but I'm looking to you, Father. want to believe. I want to understand what I need to understand. I'll tell you, we've got a God who will hear and answer prayers. I guess this is an illustration, but I remember years ago, and I've used this, I've referred to this a number of times, and I was confronted with a doctrine that was different than what I had always assumed it was true. Everybody knows such and such. And my attitude was not, that can't be right, or it's right because so and so said it. But I honestly didn't know. There was a question, is this right or is this not? And so the only thing I knew to do was to say, Lord, I don't know, and however it is, it's fine. I'm not going to have a dog in this hunt. I'm going to look to you, and if you want to show me, you can. Well, he didn't just jump in front of me and say, okay, here it is. Some time went by. So what did I do? There was a question I couldn't answer, and I didn't know, and I felt like it was probably a good thing that I need to have an answer, but I was not going to try to figure it out. I knew it was something that I didn't have the power to figure out. And I said, all right, Lord, I'll just lay

it in your lap, put it on the shelf, different expressions, but just basically take my hands off it, give it to the Lord. If He wants to help me with it, to understand this and answer this question, He's well able to do it. And He did. After a period of time, it was just as clear. But what's the key to any of this is a willing heart that's genuinely looking to the Lord in the face of whatever questions arise. If a question causes you to say, well, I just ... I knew it wasn't so. I just reject this. I'm walking away from it. This is no good. A lot of people are looking for an excuse, but there are genuine questions that the Lord allows the devil to speak into these brains of ours. And He wants us to know how to handle them in a way that will carry us through. And so that's where Asaph was at this particular time. So then I said he entered the sanctuary of God. There was a time when he drew near to God and just had an open heart saying, Lord, here's where I might help me. And the Lord did. And he said, then I understood their final destiny. God gave him a little bigger vision. It's just not what you see right now. That's an illusion. The devil is being allowed to create for the sake of unbelievers who just refuse to listen. This is part of satanic deception. What you're seeing now is not what will be. And you need to see everything the way I'm seeing it. There is a destiny these people have. Surely you have placed them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors? They are like a dream when one awakes. When you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. Then he starts and looks inside. When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, do we ever get that way? I was senseless and ignorant. Wouldn't it be good just to be honest, recognize where we're at? I'm so thankful I don't see any condemnation from the Lord. This is just one of the battles of faith that we go through in life. I was a brute beast before you. Yet, here's another but in effect, in spite of the fact of what I went through and how I even felt about it at the time, yet I'm always with you. You hold me by my right hand. Thank God. If you're in a place like right now where questions are bedeviling you, I just pray that God will help you to have this kind of a heart that you don't really want to be that way. You're not looking for an excuse. You really don't understand, but you want to believe and you want to draw near to him. You do with an open heart and say, Lord, I'm in your hands. You help me in whatever way you want to help me. I'm trusting in you. I'm not going to allow this thing to turn me away from you,

even though I don't understand it. I don't even feel good right now, but Lord, I know you're faithful. This is what his experience and testimony was. We had a blessed ... funeral service yesterday for Sister Katie, and J.P. read a scripture that really applies to this. He talked about the great cloud of witnesses. Well, this is one of the witnesses. This is somebody who, in history, went through the things that you and I go through, and now here's his testimony of how it all turned out. He says, he's worth serving. You stand fast. This is Asaph's testimony. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you, and earth has nothing I desire beside you. Think about what he's just been in, what's been going on in his heart. He's been looking at the prosperity of the wicked who mock God and seem to have it perfect, and now he says, earth has nothing I desire beside you. You see what God's looking for? Is there anything down here that's worth walking away from him for? What shall it profit if a man gained the whole world and lose his soul? I'm so thankful that God reaches out to sinners because we're all in that category. We need him. Anyway, my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. See, he got his butt in the right place there, didn't he? Those who are far from you will perish. You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. I will tell of all your deeds.

You know, one of the reasons God allowed him to go through with this so he could share it with us, and we could see that, hey, this is not ... There's not something wrong going on when we have these kinds of experiences and when the devil wants to focus our attention in the wrong place and we're wrestling genuinely. God is not looking, as we said many times, for robots. We have been given minds and we think and we reason and we want to know the why of things. We want questions answered. And there has to come a time when faith becomes more important than having the answer to everything. Praise God. You think about all the people that had to go through stuff when it just didn't look like it made sense. I mean, people like Elijah. Lord, I'm the only one. Go ahead and kill me. It's over. I mean, he literally said that. That's a pretty low place to get. And the Lord just didn't pay a bit of attention, said, go do this. Go do that. Go do the other thing. By the way, I got 7,000 that I've reserved. Don't worry about it. You may not understand what's going on and the why is it like this? And of course, David and all the people we've talked about so many times and what the Lord brought them through to bring them to the place that He had for them. But if they had measured God's faithfulness and His purpose for their life by their circumstances in the moment, every one of them would have said, I'm done with this. God is looking for a people who have a faith that goes beyond that, that can see beyond the moment and see beyond the circumstances and say, I'm serving a faithful God. I stand on a firm foundation that what He has said is true.

And I am not sitting here looking for earthly blessings. He can bless if it suits His purpose. That's not what it's about. I want Him. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold and all of the things that this world offers. I thought about one other example from Scripture that illustrates this in a lot of ways. You think again of the prophets. Time and time again, Israel was going the wrong direction, embracing heathen idolatry, taking their children out and sacrificing them to demon gods, literally that was happening, and just abandoning any pretense of serving God and allowing wickedness and injustice and all kinds of bad things to happen. And the prophets are prophesying and say, God, what's going on? Can you imagine being called of God to be a prophet under those circumstances and in that kind of a culture? Actually, if you look around, not that hard to imagine, is it? But anyway, Habakkuk is a good example of that, one of the prophets you find later in the Old Testament. And he starts with a complaint. How long, O Lord? or must I call for help? You ever been in that place? But you do not listen, or cry out to you violence, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds, therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked, him and the righteous

know that justice is perverted. God, it's a bad situation out there. Why don't you do something? Well, look at the Lord's answer. Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed, for I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if somebody told you. Boy, the Lord's answer to all this was just totally opposite of what he could have imagined. I am raising up the Babylonians. Seriously? The ruthless and impetuous people who sweep across the whole earth, the seas, dwellings, not their own. They are feared and dreaded people. They are a law to themselves and promote their own honor and so forth. He goes on and describes how wicked and how just utterly godless these people are. These are the people I'm raising up. You want me to do something? I'm gonna do something that you haven't even imagined. So now, now he's got a real complaint. Not only are you not doing something, what you're doing doesn't make sense. Lord, verse 12 of chapter one. Lord, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, you will never die. You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment. You, my rock, have ordained them to punish.

Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves? And he goes on and on. God, I don't understand. This doesn't make a bit of sense. Why would you raise up the Babylonians? They're worse than we are. And raise them up to come and bring judgment. God, I don't understand. Help me, Lord. So anyway, then he says, I'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna wait and see what he says. Well, in this case, the Lord did give him an answer. And I wanna say this. The Lord doesn't always answer all of your questions or answer them the way you think he's going to or when you think he's going to. He's looking for a people who will believe him beyond having to have the answer to every little thing. All right, then the Lord replied, write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time. Does God, is God gonna do what's right? Does he have a time appointed for every purpose under heaven? He sure does, okay.

All right, an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. All right, see, the enemy is puffed up. His desires are not upright. Yes, there's gonna be a whole lot of stuff in the world that looks terrible and isn't right. But the, and now what do we do in the meantime? But the righteous person will live by his faithfulness or his faith. There's two different translations of the same expression there. And this is lifted up in the book of Hebrews, I believe. The righteous will live by their faith. That's what God is looking for, is for people who will see him in spite of whatever is happening down here. Will absolutely stand fast and continue to trust him. And God is gonna allow conditions in this world that will prove whether people have real faith or whether they're just trying to use God to get something out of this world. Or sell their own conscience and feel righteous because they go to church or they practice religion or something or morality. God is absolutely creating conditions, allowing conditions in the world. That's gonna prove those who are really his and those who are listening to the voice of the enemy.

Because we too live in a world where God has deliberately allowed the enemy to have a freedom that he hasn't had since the cross. To go out and. Seek to gather the forces of this world against the kingdom of God. And we look at the world and say, why are things happening that are just the evil that we see every single day? The wars, all the trouble, all the injustice, everything that's going on, why? Why Lord? Why is it this way? God is allowing people to reap what they have sown. He is allowing the enemy to throw it all out there and do whatever he can to appeal. Because he knows that when people put their trust in him from their hearts, God will plant a life in a willing heart that has what it takes to stand in an hour of darkness such as we face. God is going to have a people that will stand, that will have faith because it's a supernatural ability that God gives. I don't have it. And I'm so thankful I don't have to have all the answers to every question that can pop into my head. Some people are going in one direction. Some people have just got to understand. They got to have their questions answered. But I'm thankful that I don't have to have every question answered. I know the one who has the answer. I know the one who is the answer. And I know that God's schedule, God is on schedule. He's not gone to sleep. He is here and he knows exactly what he is doing and when and how it's supposed to happen. So anyway.

So then the Lord describes all that's going to happen while the wicked rule, I'm not going to go through all of that. But anyway, it comes down to this, there's a pronunciation of woe to all these people. It says, verse 12 of chapter 2 of Habakkuk, woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice or anything you can name in this world. Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire? When you look at the world and the way things are going on, don't ever forget that I don't care what somebody accomplishes in this world, how great it looks, how successful, how celebrated it is, it's just fuel for the fire. Everything here is going to be burned up. Thank God. All right? He's determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and so forth. He goes on to pronounce there's more woe in many details. And he finally says, the Lord, verse 20, the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him. Now Habakkuk changes his prayer, he says, Lord, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time, make them known in wrath, remember mercy, Lord, and so forth. He goes on and describes many other things of what he's looking for, what the Lord did in the past. God, we need you now, don't we? We can still have the Lord at work in our midst, and that's what we need. I thank God for his presence this morning. Praise God. That reminds us, he's just not off somewhere, he's here, but he's looking for people who want him in here.

If you want him from the heart, he's there. He'll give you what you need to stand whatever's going on right now, whether you have a question or whether you're struggling with something, or blessed. Praise God. I mean blessed in an outward sense, all right? And so Habakkuk goes on and describes all the conditions and what's going on, but he says yet, that last part of verse 16, yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Okay, Lord, I get it. You're raising them up to deal with the evil that's going on here, and don't worry, they're going to get theirs, it's all going to come out right. You're going to resolve everything just right in the end. I'm going to wait, though the fig tree does not bud, recognize some of these words, and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive tree fails, crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Now I will, as we've said many times, that's a choice, isn't it? Whenever these questions arise in anybody's heart, we have a choice. We can choose to listen and wallow and question, is God really God? Is there really a God at all, considering what's going on? Does He care about me? Is any of this true? Am I just going through a fantasy or I believe in something because I want to? Well the devil will fill your heart if that's what you want, but I'll tell you, if you really want to have some answers that will give you rest in your soul, you reach out to God and say, God, I don't understand everything. I don't have to understand everything. I don't have to turn to some obscure passage of scriptures to explain this to me or else. Praise God. He's looking for someone that comes to him like a child, a child that doesn't need to

know it all but trusts the parent. I trust my Heavenly Father. Praise God. All right? So in spite of all, no sheep, no cattle, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to tread on the heights. Praise God. Praise God. You see what the prophets of old went through. We are coming closer and closer to a time. We're seeing it unfold before our eyes when God is going to ... God is looking for a people right now who have what he had in his heart. They know him. They trust him. The bottom line is that when questions arise in someone's mind, they're going to reach up to God and lay that question before him with a humble heart, not with a what's the matter with you kind of heart, and just trust him to steer us through and to give us exactly what we need to be able to be one of those whose faith carries them through and all those things. I started to refer to a principle, and I don't know if this needs to go on, but there's a principle that Paul enumerates in the beginning of Corinthians. I don't even think we need to turn over there. I think I can just refer to it. He talks about the gospel and the fact that it's foolishness to people that don't believe. It just doesn't make any sense at all, and God deliberately bypasses all of man's criteria for what he believes and what he's going to do, and he breathes life into words that have the power to penetrate a willing heart.

That's what God's looking for. When he speaks, there is power, there is life, and if your heart is willing, it can go in here and make a change, an eternal change, and it bypasses everything that man uses. And he lists two kinds of people that don't really get this, and you've got some, boy, they want a sign. They want to see something. If this is real, show me, and by show me, they mean some kind of miracle, some kind of sign, some kind of something that you can see and feel and touch, and they're going by that. That's just unbelief. You're believing because of something that you can see and touch, and a lot of people just want to believe because of this or because of that. Other people, and because of prosperity and a lot of things, but a lot of people, they seek after wisdom. Oh, that's what I need. God made us, if there even is a God, he made us as intelligent beings. We know how to ask questions. We can think. So if he really wants me to follow him, I got a bunch of questions, and if he's just willing to answer all my questions, then I'll consider it. You got a whole lot of pride and self-will, and somebody who's just trying to hold God at arm's length and make him come and bow down to me and convince me that he's worth following and believing in. God help us to not fall into either category, but to be one of those that just opens his heart and says, Lord, I'm trusting in you. I don't understand what I'm experiencing right now. I look at my brother and my sister, and I see, boy, they're doing good. They got it good. Their circumstances are good, and mine aren't. So something's wrong when God is looking for people who will trust him in every circumstance,

trust him with the timing of every part of his plan for us and for the world as a whole. Because I'll guarantee you, we serve one who will make everything right. Every evil deed will reap its reward. There is nothing the human race is getting away with right now that it's really getting away with. What the Lord told these men of God in the Old Testament and has witnessed down through the ages, He is faithful and there is a judgment when everything will be set right. And I'll tell you, I can stand there on that day, not because I deserve it, but because Jesus paid it all to Him be the glory. I'm willing to trust Him. I could sure come up with a gazillion questions if I really wanted to and say, Lord, please, You got to answer this. I just can't. I can't have any rest unless I get an answer to this. Don't fall into that trap. If you need an answer to something and you just humbly lay it before Him and trust Him, He knows how to answer what you need. He's faithful. He can give us a rest in the midst of all the stuff that happens in life. But I'll tell you, the enemy is going to do his best to invade the minds and hearts of God's people. I guarantee you there are people right here, there's stuff going on in your heart and your mind that nobody else knows about, but God and the devil who's trying to work. But God wants you to know He loves you. He has the answers that you truly need. He's looking for you to trust Him, to seek Him, not to run to the world and not to sit there and say, I've got to figure it out before I can do anything or just, Lord, I'm coming into your presence. I'm coming with a humble heart, Lord, I don't know. Who am I to think that I can figure out everything?

You're the one who knows it all and you know me and you demonstrated your love. I don't have to, I don't have to feel it, right, this second. I know you love me because I look at the cross and I look at your word and I look what you said and what you did for me at the cross, Lord, I'm just cast all of my questions at your feet and trust you and look to you because I know that you're faithful. And I want to be one of the ones that stands there, not because, again, not because I deserve it, but because Jesus paid it all. And I want to be one that stands here no matter what He allows, what you allow to happen in this world as wicked men, people who reject God and are turned over to the power of darkness. The devil's going to torment some and he's going to make others seem prosperous and successful. And all of it's a deception, but God's word is still true. And I believe, I believe I'm also speaking to a pretty good bunch of people that love Him and want to trust Him. So if there are questions in your heart, what do you do with them? Bring them to Him with an honest heart, not with a what's the matter with you kind of heart, but Lord, I just, I'm trusting in you to God be the glory. Please go ahead. Just have had a thought that's kept coming back to me as Phil was speaking here today and something we've talked about before, but it just came back to me again is, you know, when we're, when we're little and you're starting to learn or maybe a little older, you're starting to learn about English and different things and you learn what you call the interrogatives, the questions, the what and where and how, and, you know, those are the things we ask to find out about events. It's how we learn about things. You know, we ask questions. That's what science is based on. You ask questions and you try to pursue answers to those questions, but you know, all of those basic questions, uh, like the what and when and why and where and all of that, there will be times in our walk with the Lord for every single one of those questions where we will not have the answer.

We won't know and understand in a moment why something is going on any more than Job understood why his situation was going on when it was, we, we won't understand the, the how long or the, the, when will something change? When will those prayer bowls be filled up? We won't understand the, you know, the what, what's happening or what's going to happen or, you know, all of those things, there will be moments when we won't have the answers to those questions. But there is one question we will always have the answer to, and that's the who. And that's why it's so essential that that is our foundation, that we become grounded in that because that is the one and only question that we will always have the answer to. That's why when the enemy came to Eve in the garden, that was the very question he attacked was to who God really is. What's his answer? actual motive here. Who is this character and how is he and why is he interacting with you? Well, that goes to his nature. He's trying to deceive you. He's trying to subjugate you. He's trying to keep something good from you that could be yours if you would, you know, strike out and take it. He undermined the question of who God is, his character. And that's why it's essential. I was thinking about this scripture. We can turn there if you want, but it's one we know very well. It's in 2nd Timothy, in chapter 1. And this was, you talk about a time where I'm sure Paul had some questions. He was in prison at this point and this was the time when he didn't get out again. This was, he was essentially on death row awaiting execution. Some of the later things that he wrote was this letter to Timothy. And, you know, no doubt he was wondering, why can't I be out there continuing to serve you, Lord, doing these other things? But, of course, there was a piece with where he was at that he just wanted to do what God had for him to do. But in writing to Timothy, he was talking about, I'll just start there in verse 9, where he says, So here he was in the eyes of the world, a condemned prisoner, somebody you would look at, as the government says, you need to be removed from the world to make

society a better place. You're a prisoner, you know, that's a low place in society. But Paul says, I don't feel ashamed about where I'm at. What was it that led him to that conclusion? It's no cause for shame because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted him unto that day. You see that? Because I know the whom, all of the what, when, where, why, how. He said, I can entrust that to him. I know I can trust him to keep that for an eternal purpose, because I don't understand in the temporary here and now why everything is unfolding the way it is. But I know there's a God who has an eternal purpose, and because I know who he is, therefore I can entrust unto him all the other questions, all the other things, and I can rest in that and stand on that. And that's why God wants to make himself known to us. And there's a lot of ways that he makes that who more and more real. He makes that the who, who he is, real as we spend time with him in prayer. That's one of the ways we find out who God is. We talk to him, we commune with him. He speaks to our mind and brings us words of, you know, when we're in a place of need, when we're in a low place or a discouraged place or a frightened place or whatever it is that we need, and he brings a word to our mind in due season. He's showing us who he is. He wants to encourage, build us up, bring us peace. So we learn about him as we spend time with him. We learn about him as we spend time in fellowship with one another, as we experience Christ in one another, and we hear testimonies from others about what has God done in your life, what has he spoken to you, how has he been faithful to you, what has he proven to you this week or shown you or taught you or made more real to you. And as we share that, we again, we get to know him better. As we spend time in his word, we see who he is. We see what the purpose of all of this is. What's the goal? Where's it all going? The future he has for us in eternity. New heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. And all of these avenues he's given us as we spend time in worship and praise like ASAP. We go into the sanctuary of God, there's a getting our eyes off of everything else and back onto him, and there's a refocusing, there's a clarity we gain. And all of these ways that he

has to help us get to know him because that's the one anchor that's going to hold and we don't have the answer to any other question. So just God help us today to take this as an exhortation to dig deeper into who our God is and let that be our foundation and our rock when the other answers aren't there. Because we can do just like Paul, because I know whom I've believed, therefore I can entrust everything else into him and I know he's well able to keep it for an eternal purpose.