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[0:00] Isaiah 43, to read the first three verses or so, by way of warming our hearts to worship, thinking upon the Lord and who he is and what he's done for us, and the promises that he has for us.

[0:16] In many ways, we are people of the promise and of the promises. We are those who take God at his word, and though we know that his promises are faithful, many of his promises, the majority of the promises that we have in Christ, we take by faith and we'll only know the fulfillment of in coming days. We don't see them. We see some of them, but we don't see all of them. Many of them, we have to continue to walk by faith. So by focusing again upon the Lord, we rejoice in and us strengthen in our faith and those promises. Here's the first three verses of Isaiah 43.

[0:56] But now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze, for I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. What wonderful truths and promises for us. And they are true for us as God's people today. They have been true for and proved faithful to all the saints of God in all ages. And our first hymn reminds us that we are part of that glorious united people of God. For all the saints who from their labor's rest, 391, who they by faith before the world confessed, thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed. Hallelujah. The same Savior over all his peoples. Let's stand and sing. 391.

[2:12] Thank you for your carne as the began. Finally, the grace of God and his people 1600, that triumph operation beyond the marking for itself, they was created. It is this is a kingdom of God of hope. And all of us he who was fueled by the map of God and his people in 2011. Not any other Banker they were named to help. And all in this time, they wereicked by the kingdom of God and his people of God. The name of God and his people? They were、 he was released by the北 and the Father. And our work is called for the healing consisting of the people of God. And the time of God does keep them warm tonight waist gibbs Could Oh Oh

[3:38] Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh God's word We're going to turn to 2 Corinthians and chapter 4 But we aren't going to be Studying that passage We're going to be studying 1 Peter Where we've been the last few weeks again But we're going to read from 2 Corinthians 4 To give again some context And to see again just how The word of God is so Neatly bound together United of one mind It's not just a Gathering of disparate thoughts It is the very thought And the very word

[4:38] Of the one true God So 2 Corinthians 4 We're going to read From verse 1 To the end of the chapter Verse 18 Therefore Since through God's mercy We have this ministry We do not lose heart Rather we have renounced Secret and shameful ways We do not use deception Nor do we distort The word of God On the contrary By setting forth The truth plainly We commend ourselves To every man's conscience In the sight of God And even if our gospel Is veiled It is veiled to those Who are perishing The God of this age Has blinded the minds Of unbelievers So that they cannot see The light of the gospel Of the glory of Christ Who is the image of God For we do not preach ourselves But Jesus Christ as Lord

[5:39] And ourselves as your servants For Jesus' sake For God who said Let light shine out of darkness Made his light shine in our hearts To give us the light Of the knowledge of the glory of God In the face of Christ But we have this treasure In jars of clay To show that this All-surpassing power Is from God And not from us We are hard-pressed On every side But not crushed Perplexed Not in despair Persecuted But not abandoned Struck down But not destroyed We always carry around In our body The death of Jesus So that the life of Jesus May also be revealed In our body For we who are alive Are always being given Over to death For Jesus' sake So that his life May be revealed In our mortal body So then Death is at work in us But life is at work in you

[6:40] It is written I believed Therefore I have spoken With that same spirit of faith We also believe And therefore speak Because we know That the one who raised The Lord Jesus from the dead Will also raise us With Jesus And present us With you In his presence All this is for your benefit So that the grace That is reaching more And more people May cause thanksgiving To overflow To the glory Of God Therefore We do not lose heart Though outwardly We are wasting away Yet inwardly We are being renewed Day by day For our light And momentary troubles Are achieving for us An eternal glory That far outweighs Them all So We fix our eyes Not on what is seen But on what is unseen

[7:41] For what is seen Is temporary But what is unseen Is eternal And we thank God For his faithful word We're going to Swan Peter chapter 1 The last few weeks We've been beginning In the chapter Had an introduction Looked at the wonderful Description given In verse 1 and 2 And last week We thought about The incredible blessings For which we are To praise God In verses 3 to 5 So we're going to Pick up from verse 3 And read through To verse 9 Okay So verse 3 To verse 9 Of 1 Peter chapter 1 Praise be to the God And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ In his great mercy He has given us New birth Into a living hope Through the resurrection Of Jesus From the dead And Into an inheritance That can never Perish

[8:42] Spoil Or fade Kept in heaven For you Who Through faith Are shielded By God's power Until the coming Of the salvation That is ready To be revealed In the last time In this You greatly rejoice Though now For a little while You may have had To suffer grief In all kinds Of trials These have come So that your faith Of greater worth Than gold Which perishes Even though refined By fire May be proved Genuine May result in Praise Glory And honour When Jesus Christ Is revealed Though you have Not seen him You love him And even though You do not see him Now You believe in him And are filled With an inexpressible And glorious joy For you are receiving The goal of your faith The salvation Of your souls Well let's have 1 Peter open 1 Peter chapter 1

[9:46] And those verses Particularly The ones we read Just a few moments Ago From verses 3 to 9 There are some Things in the world That from time To time Make me stop And ask Why?

[10:03] Why is this Thing here? Why does it exist? What possible Purpose does it serve For good In the world? Wasps That's one thing Isn't it?

[10:15] What is the point Of wasps? They don't make honey They don't pollinate The flowers They spoil picnics And they sting you What is the point Stinging nettles The same What is the point Of stinging nettles?

[10:31] What good do they do? Don't have pretty flowers To enjoy I mean if you were To pick them And to give them To your wife To put this wild flowers For you dear She wouldn't be All that impressed I should think They don't grow fruit To eat All that they do Is sort of Make it difficult When you have to Retrieve the football Out the long grass Doesn't it?

[10:50] In case you get stung We could go on Couldn't we? Slugs Flies Golf I mean Pointless things Aren't there? I put that one In just a few months For those of us Who are Christians Of course And for the Christians Here to whom Peter is writing There's one big Meaningless thing That was ever present In their lives One thing that Really they struggled with Why?

[11:18] What's the point of it? What's the purpose of it? And that one thing Was suffering Suffering Here it is in verse 6 Now for a little while You may have had to Suffer grief In all kinds Of trials The whole purpose It seems Of suffering Of trials Is to stop Our rejoicing To stop us rejoicing In those great blessings That we thought about Last week In verses 3 to 5 God's mercy In his great mercy That new life He's given us That living hope That he's given us That eternal inheritance That we have These things That thrill our hearts This is what we've been Singing and thinking about Trials and suffering Just seem to Spoil them Make them Tarnish them All those treasures That are securely In heaven Awaiting Us To enjoy But not only do they

[12:19] Trials and suffering Dull our joy In the expectation Of what's to come And what we already Have received But they also make us Quite fearful Fearful that we may Never attain them They cause us to doubt Our salvation Trials and suffering Make us think Perhaps God no longer Cares for us Or loves us We doubt his promises We lose hope We feel like giving up At times Pressing on to the end Is something that Seems too hard Unattainable for us How can we ever get To those precious promises And their fulfillment But of course Peter aware Of these things Assures the believers That not only Is their inheritance Their treasure Secure and safe From depreciation Or loss As we saw there An inheritance Verse 4 That can never perish Spoil or fade Kept in heaven for you But also of course He assures them

[13:20] And us That we are kept As well Who through faith Are shielded By God's power That was the reassuring Truth we ended on Last week The blessings We have in Christ Are kept for us But more than that We too are kept For them So when we face Trials And difficulties Suffering Are we simply Meant to grin And bear it We simply Have perhaps Sort of a siege Mentality Sort of dig down Deep Hold out Until Jesus Comes back again Grid our teeth And press on I don't believe That is What Peter Or the scriptures Teach us Because the whole Theme that we've seen Already In these verses Is the theme Of joy Peter's encouragement Is that we should Praise God Verse 3 He speaks about The joy

[14:21] In which we rejoice In these things In verse 6 And he's going to Speak even more About the inexpressible And glorious joy That we have In verse 8 Now the whole Theme of Peter's Letter is one That we should Praise God And know And experience Real joy In the midst Of all situations Pain of course And suffering Is something Common To each one of us C.S. Lewis Wrote a book Entitled The Problem Of Pain But wherever we Look in the New Testament We find That pain Is dealt with Troubles Are mentioned James of course Well known To us all Says at the Beginning of his Letter Consider it Pure joy My brothers Whenever you Face trials Of many kinds Paul in Romans 5 3 We rejoice In the hope Of the glory Of God Not only so We also rejoice In our sufferings Here in 1 Peter And we could

[15:21] Look in other Places again And again But do you Notice once More that there Is this Mystery Almost in one Sense this Paradox That where you Find God's People writing About suffering And trials You also find Them talking About joy They seem to Be inseparable Consider it pure Joy when you Suffer trials We rejoice In the hope Of glory Rejoice in our Sufferings Here we have It as well In this you Greatly rejoice Though now For a while You've had to Suffer grief And all kinds Of trials It's puzzling Isn't it If we're honest It's confusing These two Experiences Seem to us To be Totally alien Opposed to One another And here in The scriptures We find that They are closely Linked together So is it So is it Possible For us to Do more Than simply Keep our Heads up When times Are trying Is it

[16:22] Possible for us Yes to Praise God In the midst Of pain To do that We need to See Suffering As Peter Reminds us To here To see the World With heavenly Eyes That's the Great thing About the Scriptures Is of course They give us That heavenly Perspective Of life One of the Troubles that We have Is because We are Living in The world The world's Perspective Of circumstances Of life Of trials Or whatever It may be Influences Our thinking And so We are like The We're like Those with Our noses Pressed against The glass Of the window We can't See anything Else Whereby When we Come to The scriptures As we've Seen already We are given A heavenly Perspective God's Viewpoint Which is The correct Viewpoint The big Picture And as we Thought as well Particularly We are to View life From the

[17:22] Battlements Of God's Refuge And castle That's that Phrase there We looked at Didn't we Through faith A shielded Fortress About By God's Power How are we To view Things And how Will that Help us Well 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18 we read That passage And the Very last Verse Says this We fix Our eyes Not On what Is seen But on What is unseen What is seen Is temporary What is unseen Is eternal So we fix Our eyes Not upon What the World Sees We fix Our eyes Upon the Heavenly Realities Well how does That help us Here How are we To view The trials The trials The suffering Of life The first Thing is very Clear Is that we Are to view Them as real We're not to Think of them As insignificant We're not to Think of them

[18:22] As of no Consequence Worst of all We're not At all To pretend That they Don't matter That's the sort Of the way We often deal With it Isn't it Somebody Meets us In the street And they Say how Are you Today And the World can Be falling Around our Ears And we Say I'm Fine But we're Not But we Don't want To be a Burden to Anybody And we Don't want To be Moaning Or complaining So we Say we're Fine We almost Ignore The reality Of our Trials That's not The way To deal With trials That's not The way To deal With suffering By pretending That they Aren't that Important Or pretending That they Don't hurt In the NIV Here There's a Couple of Places Where it's A little Bit weak It speaks About the Fact here You may Have had To suffer Grief That's Quite Strong But the AV Translate It You've Known The Heaviness The Heaviness Of Trials And the Truth is This That the Sufferings We bear

[19:23] The trials We go Through Do Weigh Us Down They're Like a Great Weight Upon Our Shoulders A Great Weight Upon Our Hearts We Express It and Talk about Having a Heavy Hearts We do Feel Them They Do Hurt Us When Somebody Breaks A bone In Their Bodies It's No Good Anybody Saying Well It's Just A Flesh Wound It's Not Going To Make It Better Is It It's Not Going To Heal It It's Not Going To Sort Out The Problem You Have To Call It For What It Is And We Need To Call Trials For What They Are And Sufferings For What They Are And Grief For What It Is There's No Shame In Feeling Grief There's No Dishonor In Shedding Tears Our Lord Jesus Himself Was A Man Of Sorrows And Acquainted With Grief Not Just In His Crucifixion But In His Life As He Looks Out Over Jerusalem Doesn't He Cry Out And Weep When He Stands At The Grave Side Of His Democracy

[20:29] And Doesn't Have Any Place For Us As Believers Trials Are Real Not Just Those Outward Ones Not Just The Physical Ones Where We Are Damaged Or Hurt Or Ill Or Sick But Notice That Those Trials Are Of All Different Types End Of Verse Six You May Have Had To Suffer Grief In All Kinds Of Trials Manifold Trials Every Sort And Variation Whether It Be Emotional Mental Yes Spiritual Anything That Weighs Us Down Anything That Causes Us To Grieve And To Suffer And So When We Go Through The Letter Of Peter And We Did This At The Very Beginning We Saw That This Is A Letter Written To Suffering Christians And They Were Suffering In All Sorts Of Different Ways In Chapter 2 Verses 18 And Masters

[21:30] We're Told There About Those Who Are Harsh We Also Have Later On In Chapter 3 The First Six Verses Those Christians Who Are Married To Unbelievers And The Tensions And The Pressures That They Feel Then We Have Those Later In Chapter 4 Who Are Being Persecuted For Living Right Before God And Seeking To Be Upright In The Way They Do Things And There In Chapter 4 Having Problems With Unbelievers Who Want Them To Sin And Who Mock Them And Ridicule Them Verse 4 They Think It's Strange You Do Not Plunge With Them Into The Same Flood Of Dissipation They Heap Abuse On You They Won't Join In With The Crude Jokes They Won't Join In With The Drunkenness They Won't Join In With The Calling Of Names And The Gossip And All The Other Things That Go Around About Them And So They Stick Out Like A Saw Thumb And They Are Mocked And Ridiculed And Abused All Different Sights Sorts

[22:31] Of Suffering All Different Sorts Of Trials We Get The Idea I Hope The Important Thing To Recognize Is These Things Are Not Just A Matter Of State Of Mind It's Not All In Your Mind When You're Suffering In These Wales After All The Mind Is A Real Part Of Who We Are We Are Not Simply Flesh And Blood We're Not Simply Physical We Have A Mind We Have A Soul We Have Thoughts We Have Conscience So If We Are To Rejoice In These Sufferings It Is Not By Pretending They Don't Exist Ignoring Them Sticking Our Head In The Sand Like The Proverbial Ostrich It Is Recognizing Their Reality Acknowledging That They Hurt But To Rejoice In Them Is Also To View Them As Relative So We View Them As Real But We View Them

[23:31] As Relative That's To Say We Have To View Our Trials In Relation To Three Other Things Three Other Things Which Are Just As Real If Not More Real And The First Thing We To View Them In Relation To Is In Relation To Eternity There In Verse Six In This You Greatly Rejoice Though Now For A Little While You May Have Had To Suffer Grief In All Kinds Of Trials It Doesn't Feel Like It When We Are In The Midst Of Those Trials Are In The Midst Of That Suffering But The Truth The Matter Is They Are Only For A Short Period Of Time They Are Only For A Duration Yes That Duration May Be Months And Years But It Is Not For Eternity It Is Not Forever It Is A Fixed Time Even Lifelong Terminal Illnesses Have To Be Compared With Eternity Which Is Never Ending Now That Doesn't Belittle Our Suffering Doesn't Belittle Our Griefs But

[24:31] It Gives Us Two Reasons Of Hope And For Joy Even In The Midst Of Them The First Is This We Know That They Must Come To An End We Know That They Must Come To An End There Is Light At The End Of The Tunnel And It Isn't The Train Coming To Hit Us Paul Calls All His Trials And He Had A Lot Of Them He Had His Fair Share Of Trials Didn't He Talked About Being Beaten With Rod Stoned Shipwrecked Hungry Starving Naked Etc There In 2 Corinthians 4 How Does He Describe His Trials Light And Momentary Troubles It Is Painful In The Midst Of It But It's Not Forever It's Not For All Time It's Not Even If We're Honest Very Long In The Whole Scheme Of Life Second Thing Is This That Trials Can Be Rejoiced In

[25:31] Not Rejoiced About But Rejoiced In Because They Can Never Take Away What We Already Have In Christ Whatever Trial We Suffer Whatever Difficulty We Have Whatever Suffering We Go Through It Cannot Remove The Spiritual Blessings Which Christ Has Won For Us In His Death And Resurrection The Forgiveness Of Our Sins Is Ours Peace With God Is Ours The Love Of Heavenly Father Is Ours Nothing In This World Can Take Those Things Away And Nothing As We've Seen In This World Can Take Away The Future Blessings Which Are Ours As Well That's That's That's That's That's That's What We've Been Talking About Our Inheritance Or Fades Our Living Hope Our New Birth In These Things You Greatly Rejoice Though Now For A While Have To Suffer Grief In All Saks Of Trials So We View Them In Relation To Eternity Secondly We Have To View Our Trials And Griefs In

[26:31] Relation To Our Own Faith That's The Faith That We've Been Given In The Lord Jesus Christ And That Faith Is So Precious To Us Because It Has Brought Us Peace With God Forgiveness Of Sins Everlasting Life It's Brought Us The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit And It Is The Assurance Of What We Shall Have An Inheritance In Heaven Verse 7 These Have Come We Ask Why Are There Trials Why Are There Suffering Here's The Answer These Have Come So That Your Faith Of Greater Worth Than Gold Which Perishes Even Though Refined By Fire May Be Proved Genuine May Result In Praise Glory And Honor When Jesus Is Revealed When Compared With All The Earthly Riches When Compared With All The Wealth That People Accumulate In This Life Faith Is Far More Valuable All Those Things That

[27:31] We Have Are Temporary They're Perishing They Pass Away But Your Faith Is Of Far More Worth Than Gold Not Because Of Faith Itself But Because Of What It Purchases For Us Gold Is Valuable Because With It We Can Buy Lots Of Things We Like It Makes The Way Open For Us To Have Things That We Enjoy So It Is With Faith Faith Is The Means By Which We Gain And Enjoy The Blessings Of The Spiritual Realm The Blessings Of Christ The Blessings Of God Our Father Peter Compares Faith To Gold Which Though Refined With Fire Perishes He Doesn't Mean That It Rust He Means Basically It's Just For This World It's Just For The Here And Now It Doesn't Last He Says Later In His Second Letter If We Ever Get There At The End Of It That This World Is Passing Away All The Things That

[28:31] Are Made In This World Everything That We See Will Be Rolled Up Like An Old Scroll And Burnt There Will Be New Heavens And A New Earth We Don't Need Gold Or Money Fine Clothes Or Big Houses That's The Reality Our Faith Is More Valuable Than That Because It Is Forever It Is Eternal And The Things That It Buys Are Eternal The Joy It Brings Is Not Just For A Moment How Many Sad Stories Have Been Told Again And Again Of People Winning The Lottery And Millions Of Pounds A Year Or Two Down The Line Their Marriage Is Broken Up Their Children Have Deserted Them They They Are Bankrupt Homeless Friendless It's Just Foolishness To Put Our Hopes In Those Things But The Faith That We Have Is The Currency That Secures Every Spiritual And Heavenly Blessing In Our Salvation It Comes With Joy Unspeakable And Full Of Glory It

[29:33] Doesn't Pass Let Me Ask You That Just For A Moment Just Stop And Think About That For A Moment Amazingly This Year I'm Able To Say That I've Been A Christian 30 Years I Know For Most Of That Just Seems Just A Moment To Blink Of The Eye Let Me Ask You Though Dear Friends When You Were Singing That Hymn Just Before Or When You Sing A Hymn Which Speaks Of Jesus And His Salvation Doesn't Doesn't Your Face Light Up Doesn't Your Heart Light Up Have You Lost Have You Lost That Sense Of The Joy And The Wonder Of Your Salvation I Hope You Haven't Dear Christian I Know Many Of You Haven't But That's The Wonder Isn't It If We'd Have Bought A Brand New Car 30 Years Ago It Would Have Been On The Tip About The Last 20 Years Wouldn't It It Would Have Given Us Joy As We

[30:51] Tested In The Fire Is Indeed Bringing Us A Reward We're Able To Rejoice In Our Trials Because We See In Them God Rewarding Us And Bringing Them About For Our Good This Is The Place Where The NLV Is A Bit Weak Because In Verse Six It Says You May Have Had To Suffer Grief That Phrase You May Have Had To Is Really Expressing A Sense Of Necessity It Was Necessary For You To Suffer These Things You Had To Suffer These Things You Had To Go Through The Mill You See Again We Have Two Great Needs Which Trials Are Sent To Us To Meet The First Need We Have Is True Faith There's A Lot Of False Faith About In The World Sadly Today A Lot Of People Are Putting Their Hope Their Faith Their Trust In

[31:52] Politicians In Governments In Security Services In The Police They All Do A Great Job And They Do Wonderful Things People Are Putting Their Trust In A Recovering Economy Putting Their Trust In Their Own Skills In Science And Technology To Cure All The Ills To Find A Cure For Parkinson's Or For Dementia They're Putting Their Hope And Faith In Their Own Goodness That They're Nice People Good People And Therefore They Shall Get To Heaven They're Putting Their Faith In Religion Whether It Be Extreme Islam Or Anything This Religious Duty That I Perform This Will See Me Through They're Putting Their Faith In Crossing Their Fingers In Touching Wood In Killing Rabbits And Chopping Their Feet Off And Hang Them Around The Nex Putting Their Faith In All Sorts Of Things But All Those Faiths Are False Faith Itself Is Useless Unless It's True Faith In Other Words It's Faith In An Object Which Is Dependable

[32:52] And Reliable Well How Do You Know Dear Friends If That Faith That You Have Is True And Genuine And Reliable You Only Know That When It Is Put To The Test Just As If You Had Gold Or Silver It Needs To Be Put To The Test A Diamond Do You See On The News That Massive Diamond They Found It's About That Big Huge That's Something Else Anyway But They're Going To Test It They Know It's A Diamond Because Of What It Is Because It Is So Hard And Durable And So Our Faith Needs To Be Genuine These Promises These Blessings Of Inheritance Of Eternal Life Of Peace With God They Are All Ours With Genuine Faith And Our Faith Must Be True Or Else They're Not Ours We've Been Duped We've Got Something Counterfeit And A lot Of People Have Counterfeit Faith Even People Who Think That They Are Christians Perhaps I'm Not Saying Perhaps

[33:52] Even You This Evening If It Is A False Faith Isn't It Better We Find That Out Now Rather Than The Day Of Judgment If It Is A False Faith Isn't It Better That We Find Out Now While We Still Have Time To Seek God To Give Us Genuine Faith And Save Us You Don't Nobody Wants To Cars With Test Dummies Before They Give Us Them To Drive In We Much Rather They Did That Than Say Look We Don't Know What This Car Is Going To Do In A Crash It Could Crumple Like Tin Foil It Could Explode We Don't Really Know But You Go Ahead And Drive It And If You Crash Well All The Best I Don't Think I Want That Car No We Crash

[34:54] These Airbags Will Go Off You Will Be Safe You Will Be Protected That Gives You Peace Of Mind It Needs To Be Tested And So It Is With Our Faith Dear Friends It Needs To Be Tested And When We Face A Painful Trial When We Face Suffering As Christians If We Find That Our Faith In God Is Lost We Find That We Turn Away From Him And We Have No Trust In Him Then We Know That Faith Was Never Genuine To Begin With But If We Pass To That Painful Trial We Find That In Spite Of All The Hammering That We Get And The Struggles We Face We Still Are Trusting Christ And Believing Him To Save Us Then We Know That Faith Has Stood The Test And Is Real And That We Are Converted And Born Again Of The Spirit So We Need True Faith Have You That True Faith Dear Friends Have You Faced Trials And Found That Again And Again In Spite Of Those Things You You Have Trusted Christ You Believed On Him You Have Not Turned

[35:54] Away From Him Or Denied Him That That That That That That That That When He Sat Around The Fire On The Night In Jesus Was Betrayed They Kept Coming Up To Him He Had Those Tests And He Failed Everyone Didn't He We Also Need Of Course Not Just True Faith We Need Refined Faith Or Strong Faith Pure Faith I Don't Know Much About Metallurgy But I Read A Few Bits Seen A Bit Of Telly Programs Basically Gold And Other Metals To Make Them Pure Have To Be Heated Up To Great Temperatures So That The Impurities Will Separate From The Metal The Other Metals That May Mix In The Minerals And Dirt And So On Can Mix In And The More They Heat It The More They Can Take Out Of Those Impurities And Therefore The More Pure The Gold Is And The More Valuable It Is As Well When

[36:55] We Face Trials And Suffering What Is Happening Is To The Surface We Know That Because Of Course We All Have Road Rage Don't We All Of Us I Don't Believe Anybody Here Doesn't Have Road Rage When Somebody Leaps Out Of A Junction And Cuts You Up Or Does Something Nasty To You You May Not Make Any Signs You May Not Shout At Them You May Not Be The Whole Of Them But Inside There's That Little Bit Of Road Rage And It's Just Showing That Dear Friends We're Sinful People All The Same And So It Happens With Our Suffering With Our Tests With Our Trials It Brings To The Surface Those Impurities In Our Heart In Our Faith Brings Up To The Surface Our Doubts Our Lack Of Trust Whatever It May Be And It Brings Them To The Surface So That We Can Bring Them To Christ To Be Dealt With That's The Whole Work Of The Holy Spirit Isn't It In A Person's Life Before We Become A Christian The

[37:55] Holy Spirit Has To Show Us Our Sin Before We Can Receive The Forgiveness We Need The Holy Spirit Needs To Show Us That We Are Under God's Judgment And His Anger Before We See Our Need Of A Savior The Gospel Cannot Be God Loves You Everything Is Okay Trust Him The Gospel Has To Start With You Are A Sinner Before A Holy God But He Has Sent His Son To Be Your Savior You Have To Accept Both Parts And So It Is With Our Growing In Faith We Want To Grow In Faith We Want To Be Strong In Faith We Want To Be Men And Women Of Faith But The Only Way That We Can Have That Faith Is To Go Through Trials To Be Refined That's Why We Can Rejoice The Pure Our Faith The Stronger Our Faith And The More Valuable It Is To Us Because The More We're Able To Enjoy The Blessings That Are Ours In Christ That Only Can Be Received By Faith If You Read Pilgrim's Progress I Haven't

[38:55] Comment Did On Pilgrim's For A Long Time I Must Get Back To Reading It Again But You Have People Like Little Faith And Weak Faith And They're Always Fearful Aren't They And They're Always Crouching And Hiding And Always Scared To Friends As Christians If We Want To Be Free Of Fear Have Faith It's A Simple Antidote We Want To Enjoy The Blessings Of God If We Want To Live For Him And Be Useful In His Hand Then It Comes By Faith And Strong Faith Comes By Testing And Look At The End Result What Happens When God Tests Us When He Refines Us In The Fire This That Our Faith May Be Proved Genuine And May Result What's The Result Praise Glory And Honor When Jesus Is Revealed Wow Why Does Why Does The Sprinter Train And Train And Train Seven Eight Hours A Day Why Does He Train For The Olympics Because He Wants The Honor And The Glory That Comes At The End Why

[39:57] Do You And My Dear Friends Go Through Trials And Struggles Because We Have A View In View The Glory And The Praise That's At The End The The Goal The Winning Line The Podium Finish As We Stand In The Presence Of Almighty God Yes Says Peter It's All There But It's Yet To Come When Jesus Is Revealed It's Not Revealed Yet We Haven't Got There Yet As A Church And As Individual We're Not Ready Yet But We're Crossing Off The Days Of The Calendar As We Approach That Anniversary That Special Birthday That Day When Christ Comes Again Paul As He Writes The Romans Reminds Them This Our Salvation Is Nearer Now Than When We First Believed Isn't That Wonderful However Long You've Lived Dear Friends However Long You've Been A Christian Do You're Closer To Seeing

[40:57] Jesus And Being In Heaven Than You Were Before Closer Than Ever We've Never Been This Close Wow It's A Living Hope It's A Confidence It's What Sustains Us Paul Was Confident He Wrote To The Believers In Philippi I'm Confident Of This That He God Who Began A Good Work In You Will Carry It On To Completion To Fulfillment To Perfection Until The Day Of Christ Jesus When Everything's Going To Be Revealed When All Those Questions That We Still Struggle With Why Lord Does It Have To Be Like This Will Be Answered When What What What Was The Point Of That Where Was The Purpose All Those Things Will Be Revealed When Christ Is Revealed And We Are Revealed What A Day Of Praise Of Glory Of Glory And Honor Let's

[41:58] Pray Together Thank you Father in Heaven that You've not Finished With Us But You are At Work In Our Lives To Test And Refine Us For Your Glory And For Our Blessing We Know That The Trials And You Know The Trials We Face Can Be And Often Are Hard You Know The Trials And The Struggles That We're In At The Moment Which At Times Seem To Overwhelm Us And Be The Only Thing Upon Our Minds But We Thank You That You Do Not Want Us To Be Those Who Are Ever Dwelling Ever Worrying Ever Concerned With These You Want Us To See Them For What They Are The Means By Which You Long To Bless Us

[42:59] And Prove Us And Oh Lord More Than That That You Want Us To See That They Are But Temporary But The Blessings We Have In Christ Are Now And Eternal With More To Come And So We Pray Help Us Lord Not To Deny What We Go Through But Rather To Bring Every Circumstance To You In Prayer And With Faith And Work In Us And Change Us Oh Lord And Make Us To Be Those Men And Women Of Faith In A Faithless And Godless Day And May Oh Lord We Be Those Who Again Are Able To Speak Of The Hope Which Is Real And That Is Lasting And That Is Certain Grant Us Your Help In This Coming Week To Be Such People For We Ask It In Jesus Name Amen May

[44:00]  The God Of Hope Fill You With All Joy And Peace As You Trust In Him So That You May Overflow With Hope By The Power Of The Holy Spirit Amen