Relationship Restored — Duane Troyer

I think it was, I'm trying to think who it was, maybe it was on the Mount of Transfiguration where the disciples gathered there, or were there, three of the disciples were there with Jesus and they saw Moses and Elijah.

It's just a real good place to be. So much so that Peter said, let us build a few tents here and just stay here. He said, this is a good place to be. I think that sometimes when I'm with you all, like this is a good place to be.

We live together. Let's stand and pray. God in heaven, we thank you for your great love and your mercies, goodness and kindness. Thank you for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe and confess that there is no other name given among men whereby we might be saved.

We just want to be in you and ask you to teach us and guide us and convict us of all evil in all ways that were not perfected in you, Lord, for us to be formable. Your blessing here on this day that you would be with us and help our thoughts and hearts to be fully turned to you.

Pray for Brother Daniel and Harvey, keep them safe wherever they're at on their journey. I'm sorry I missed a good portion of the opening, apparently. I'll probably listen to it sometime, but I appreciate what I did here.

I'm not here today to bring you anything new or that I think you aren't fairly familiar with, but I just came across a passage last evening that I thought was pretty inspiring and I'd like to share some thoughts about it.

It's in Jeremiah chapter 15, and most of us, if we're at all familiar with Jeremiah, most of his preaching is, he's in this really dark time of Israel where it's just the last few kings that he's, I think he might have preached for 40 years, but the last few kings before the final destruction, or the destruction, yeah, I think it was Nebuchadnezzar who came in and destroyed Jerusalem and took them captive and they were exiles out of Israel for the next 70 years.

And Jeremiah had just been continually and continually and continually trying to, trying not only to warn the people, but at times he was saying, it's gone too far. You guys, God will not turn away from this again, no matter what you guys do.

What he says is going to happen, happens, and he's known as the weeping prophet. He lamented a great deal. At one place he says something like, oh that my, quote it better in German, but something like, oh that my head were a well and my eyes were fountains that I could weep day and night for the lost people in Israel.

But if you read the whole book of Jeremiah, it's not as if there's not promises. It's not as if there's not, it's not as if the conditions for us to be right with God aren't there. And that's what we see here in the end of Jeremiah 15.

After he says a whole bunch of those things, he laments, he even laments his birth and his mother who gave him birth earlier there in the chapter. But then here in verse 19 he says, therefore thus says the Lord, if you return, I will restore you and you shall stand before my face.

If you bring forth what is honorable from what is unworthy, you shall be as my mouth. They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them. I will cause you to be like a strong brazen wall to this people.

They will fight against you but not prevail because I am with you to save you, to deliver you from the hand of evil men and to set you free from the hand of pestilent men. I think in just those couple little verses there, you can almost sum up the whole message of salvation.

The whole message of what it means to be reconciled back to God. We see in these short little verses what we must do and we see in these short little verses what God does and what he will do. He says, if you return, I will restore you.

That if you return is already implying whoever he's talking this to, you're away from me. You're not where you need to be. And if you return, I will restore you. I will restore you. I guess there's not much other ways to say it except I will have you back to where you once were.

See, mankind in the beginning, mankind sinned and turned away. They were with God, in the presence of God, at peace with God, at one with God. There was no conflict between Adam and God. There was beautiful harmony until Adam sinned and then he was away.

And he was not just, he was not necessarily away physically. Um, but, but his heart was now turned away from God. In Isaiah 59 too, he says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear you.

There's this, there's this conflict between God and man, a conflict between God's spirit and man's spirit. And, and, and, and the purpose for that conflict on God's part is not just because he likes conflict, not just because he wants strife.

He doesn't strive with the spirit of man just because he likes to strive. No, his purpose for striving with man is to bring him back to harmony. When God says to Adam, where are you? He's not asking about where his physical position is.

He knows where he's hiding. There's no doubt in his mind where he's hiding. He's not asking about his position. He's asking about his condition. He's saying, you're in a state that's foreign to me. You're in a condition where, where you once were, something's not right anymore.

I think we can probably relate to that, to how God feels or felt about that. Any of us, probably all of us with any age, for sure those of us who are married or have children, like sometimes, sometimes something happens where some, some tension arises, some, some conflict arises between you and your spouse or between you and your child or between you and a close friend.

Something arises and there's a weirdness. There's a strangeness. They're, they're right there physically. You can see them. You could still shake their hand. You can still greet them with a kiss, but there's a weirdness, a strangeness.

Something that, something that's no longer quite in harmony with each other is not there. And you so, you so much want that. And that's how much God wants that for us. That's how much he wants that heart to be turned and he doesn't just want us physically.

He doesn't just want, he doesn't just want some service from us, but he wants us. In James 4, 5, there's a verse that says, he jealously desires the spirit which he made to dwell in us. You know, sometimes, sometimes like in a, in a family or friend situation, when, when that, that, that weirdness or strangeness is there, we can, we, we need to, we need to work on it.

We need to, we need to, we need to figure out how, how to bring that back, how to restore what was there or what should be there. I just remember, okay, and then, and then sometimes like when, when it's a child and you recognize that their, that their face is turned against you, their heart is turned against you, they're not really wanting to please you anymore, something's not right.

It manifests itself in their, in their disobedience or something and, and you spank them. Sometimes you get through to them and, and spanking is not the only method, but sometimes that's what it comes to and, and sometimes you don't get through to them.

And even though maybe you can compel them to say sorry, maybe you can even convince them that they've done wrong, like sometimes the, you, you can just, you can, you can sense that the heart is not turned toward you and you haven't come through yet.

You still don't have that, that thing that you're trying to, that you so, so jealously desire. I remember this one time, I, I, I don't want to say which one of my children it was, but um, I mean, I don't think they even remember for their sake.

I don't want to tell you which children it was, which, which of the children it was, but they were probably only, or this child was probably only two years old or something like that. And there, I don't even remember all the details, but there was some issue when it was time to go to bed and, um, she was being contrary, I guess I, I guess I revealed it was a girl, but that doesn't narrow it down too much in my family.

Um, uh, anyway, I had to spank her and, and I put her back in bed, but, but I could tell there was no, I hadn't gotten through. The same problem came up again and I spanked her again and I, I don't know what I did different that time, but I laid her back in bed and a few minutes later she called me and she just wanted to give me a hug and tell me she loved me and I, I just knew I got through and I, I just remember, like that's about all I remember is like how precious that felt when, when I knew I had gotten through and that, that heart was completely turned.

And I think that, that is what God wants. Um, he jealously desires the spirit which he made to dwell in us. And herein is one of the most amazing things, something that can stagger my imagination when I think about it, is that he's so jealously desires us, but he gives us the choice in our free will.

He gives us the choice to be there. Like he made himself so vulnerable because we are so, we are so, uh, uh, weak. There you go. We are so weak and he places this thing in us that, that this, this thing that he so jealously desires is, is conditioned on that thing.

And for the majority of the people, he doesn't have it. We know that in, in, in things that Jesus said, like few there are that be saved. We just, maybe sometimes we underestimate even how few, but we're, we could be very certain that less than half of the people, um, ever turned to God.

I think it's a very small group that is his real remnant and his people, but, but God made himself vulnerable. But, but, but what's so staggering about all that is, you know, it's the only way it would work.

If God forced us to love him, would it be love? If, if he gave us no choice, could he surely know that we were his? If he made us robots, what glory is that? No, he gave us that thing. Uh, and, and, and really it's, it's the mystery of love is actually in, in the fact that we choose it.

That's why the power of choice makes love the most powerful and the most fragile of all relationships. The will to choose is our greatest strength as well as our greatest weakness. Our will is like the governor in our lives, like, like the governor and God wants us to govern our lives according to his ways.

And, and so he has given us that will that has so much power. It is, it is of such great strength and yet of such great weakness. And he has given us that thing to govern our lives. That is why we must turn our hearts to him.

That is why he's saying here in Jeremiah, return to me and I will restore you. And I tell you, if you're, if you're in a setting where, where you never learn, where you never are taught or encouraged or find out that the hard true reality is, if you do not return in your heart and come to God, but rather, and, and, and, and, and take that will that governs your life and, and, and govern it according to his will.

Like if, if you end up in a setting that governs everything for you, you, we will find out that, that, that such a person never returns to God. Like he can, he can live some, some form of godliness and there's no power there.

Uh, if, if he is not, if, if he is not encouraged and left to that place eventually where he returns on his own and comes to God. And I just, I just want to be clear, like I'm not, I'm not like, I think we should get and we, we eventually, I think we will get there with all our children.

Like, the time will come when they will, when they will take that will that they have and they will choose whether, whether they are turned for us or against us. And I'm not, I'm not suggesting that, that we don't govern little children.

Like I tell my children sometimes when they, like they might have this habit of, of, oh, I don't know, there's some, some funny thing or some, some interesting little phrase or something that gets said or they hear and, and, and, and then it gets said and said and said and said and said.

I found out other families have that same problem. And I, I often tell them like, if you can't govern yourself in this thing, I'm going to have to govern for you. Uh, and, and that's the way we raise little children.

These, these, especially these little children, they're not, they're not made to make all these choices themselves. Um, but, but especially when we're talking about like as adults and, and in a church setting, like, uh, and, uh, but I would, I would even say though something like as, as elders in a church, like, I don't want to govern your lives.

I want you to govern your lives and yet I'm telling you like, if you don't, uh, I think it's my responsibility to do something about it. Um, and, and that's why it's just so important that we all, that we all learn to, to, to turn this governor in our lives and have him, have him come before the face of God again, return so that he can be restored and stand before the face of God as it says here in Jeremiah.

Can force people to do something, but we won't have that thing that we so jealously desire. We can talk, we can teach, we can command, we can rule. We can often establish some kind of order without that thing that we need.

And even if we do all those things, like I'm not saying those are bad things, teaching, instructing, commanding, and ordering, those are not bad things. Even if we do them in love and patience and understanding and gentleness and in a way that there's nothing wrong with it.

Like if that person doesn't turn his heart toward us, we still are missing that thing that we so jealously desire. And that's, I think that's the way God feels. That's the way God feels about people who, who do not return to him.

You know, a relationship, just by its very nature, takes two people, um, like there's something I've found kind of interesting in talking with evangelical Christians is like, it's pretty common for them to say it's about a relationship with God.

It's about a personal relationship with God. And, uh, I, I don't disagree with that. I might disagree with what some people think that relationship is, but, but I don't disagree with that. But, but however, then the interesting thing is that talking with this same group of people, you find out that they often don't believe that this relationship is, is hinged on what we do, but it's all about what Jesus did.

And that, that what he did, uh, is, is all that matters. It's the only thing that Jesus cares for. All that we could even do is worthless in the eyes of God and, and, uh, um, uh, like God does not, God only wants to, to, to, to, to look at us and see the blood of Jesus.

Because we believe in that and like, and, and, and that what we do doesn't, doesn't have a bearing on that. And something like that, it can be explained several different ways, but, but something like that's the impression you get a lot of times.

Um, brother, brother Thomas Holmes once did this really good message about, about the folly of that kind of thinking. Like just that, that's just not the way your relationship works. Like, uh, imagine, uh, imagine a marriage, imagine a husband and wife or, um, or, or a young man, young woman planning to get married or something like are having this relationship.

And then you find out that like the one, the one is also seeing somebody else and he's not faithful and he's, he's, uh, he's not really committed. You would never hear the other person say, well, that it doesn't really matter to me.

What I'm concerned about is the relationship with myself that I have with myself. It's not like God is not just interested in, in, in that he has a relationship with his son who came here and lived righteously and died.

No, he wants us. Like that wasn't the purpose for Jesus coming. Jesus did not come to, to, to, to change the father's mind about man. He came to change the man's mind about the father. A lot of people know that they need God and they even want God to some extent.

But instead of returning to God, they want, they want God to come to them. Right? Uh, and, and so they somehow tried to appease God and they try to try to, uh, uh, sacrifice for God and, and God, God is not pleased with that kind of sacrifice.

Uh, he, he has very little use for somebody's, somebody's money and somebody's sacrifice when their heart is not turned toward them. In fact, he hates those things. He says over and over. You see in, in, in the old Testament where he says, I'm full of your burnt offerings and I'm full of your sacrifices and, and, and your new moons and your feasts.

I hate in Micah. He says, well, I'd be pleased with a thousand Rams and 10 ,000 rivers of oils. It's not what he wants from a people who are not turned to him. It's as empty as when somebody gives you a gift, when they're still set against you.

And their heart does not return to you. Cain and Abel both, both offered sacrifices. And it's a, it's a common belief among commentators to say that the reason that, that Abel's sacrifice was accepted was because it had blood.

Uh, and, and yeah, Abel's and, and the reason Cain's wasn't, it wasn't. I, I don't see that. I don't see that in the text. Abel was a shepherd. He brought a sheep. Cain was a, a growing produce or whatever.

And he brought some of that. And the condition was that, that Abel's heart was toward God and Cain's heart was against God. I mean, God said to, to Cain, uh, why are you upset? If you do well, will you not be accepted?

If you do sin, if you sin, uh, if you do evil sin, rest before your door. And we see, we see just as it carries out, as the story carries out, like Cain was just set against God. He was full of evil within.

He, he, he, he found a good opportunity and he killed his brother. He hated him. And you cannot hate your brother and not hate God. Jesus says, or maybe John says that something like, how, how can you say you love God whom you have not seen, but, but, uh, not love your brother whom you have seen.

And, and, and that is the condition. Like, I believe that that is the condition on which God received Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's sacrifice. We see also in Cain, when, when God pronounced this punishment on him, like it grieves, it grieves Cain, but it doesn't grieve him because he wronged God or because he wronged his brother.

It grieves him because this punishment on himself is so severe. It's just a heart that is totally turned against God. Back here to Jeremiah, he says, if you bring forth what is honorable from what is unworthy, you shall be as my mouth.

The King James translation says, if thou take forth the precious from the vile, or some translations say, if you extract what is precious from what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth, or you shall be as my spokesman or as my preacher.

Um, and, and, uh, uh, and we see this thread through the whole scriptures of, of separating what is honorable from what is worthless. Or, or as it says here, what is, uh, yeah, what is honorable from what is unworthy.

It made me think of this passage in second Timothy that I'll read. Uh, second Timothy two, starting in verse 14, remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers.

Be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth, but avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness.

And their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place and they upset the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. Now in a large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and earth and wear and some of honor and some of dishonor.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the master prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.

The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

Here in this, in verse 20, where he says, now in a large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earth and wear some of honor, some to honor and some to dishonor.

And then he says, therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful to the master prepared for every good work. I'm not quite sure if I read that whole context, I think perhaps Paul is telling Timothy something like in a large house, perhaps talking about the church or an assembly, like that there are, there are things, there are people of honor and there are people of dishonor.

And he just got done talking about Hymenaeus and Philetus. That's one of the reasons why it kind of makes me think that, that, okay, we have, we have Timothy, who is, who is a vessel to honor. And then we have these other two men who are, who are going astray and bringing other people to ruin, who are vessels of dishonor.

And he's saying, cleanse yourselves of these things so that you can be a vessel to honor. Um, but regardless, I also think he could be, or he could, he could just be talking about the individual, uh, and, and that we should, we should cleanse ourselves from those things that are honorable to God and those things that aren't.

I think, I think it, it applies. Some of these things like separation of, of the honorable from the unworthy of, of the precious from the vile. It applies very similarly, if not identically, whether we, whether we think of the house or the temple as the body and that means us or, or if it means the church.

Um, the, the same principle applies and we have instructions on both. Um, it's described in so many ways throughout scripture, like gold and silver needs to be cleansed and separated from dross. The, the, the chaff needs to be separated from the wheat.

Um, he says in Corinthians to, to come out and be separate and to touch not the unclean thing. The wisdom in the wisdom of Sirach, he says, woe to the sinner who walks on two paths. And I also, also think that it is very likely the spiritual meaning of some of the laws of Moses where he's, where he's saying like, don't, don't plant two kinds of seed in one field.

Don't crossbreed some of these animals that are of a different kind or don't use different kinds of, uh, material for the same garment because he's, he's wanting to establish distinction and he doesn't want confusion.

See, confusion is never the result of, of only good or only evil. It is always the result of the two mixed together. Um, you never, you never look at a pile of dirt and dross and junk and, and, uh, that, that something that's totally worthless and, and are confused about it.

It's confusing when it's mixed in with the gold and, and, and, and there's something just not right, right? You never look at a pile of chaff and think it's confusing, but when the chaff and the wheat are all mixed together, it's confusing.

It's a little bit like, um, you look at a, it's not that confusing when you look at a horse to, to identify it as a horse. And it's not that confusing to look at a donkey and identify it as a donkey. But when you see a mule, sometimes you're just not sure which one this is supposed to be.

Um, and that, that's what confusion is. And that's why God is not the author of confusion. In him, there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And yet the devil is the author of confusion and he is continuously mixing truth and lies together.

And so in our personal lives, we need to be, we need to be, uh, uh, we need to be extracting the, the, the valuable from the worthless. And yeah, sure. Which is, which is something that God will ultimately do at the end.

Like heaven would not be heaven. If God would not come here and he would separate the sheep from the goat, the weeds from the tares, the good fish from the bad fish, like heaven would not be heaven. It would not be a pure and holy place.

We'd still have all this confusion. And when it comes to, uh, like purifying the church or sanctifying the church, like when it comes to the hymenaeus and the thaletuses, like we, we need to practice extreme care and wisdom.

Like we stand a risk any, anytime we have, we, we, anytime there is a judgment to make, like we stand a risk either way, like whether, whether, like if something is, is not right or questionable, like we stand a risk if, if we don't, uh, excommunicate it, we stand a risk if we do.

The, the, the risk is in whether it is the right kind of thing to separate over. It's, it's, um, like I come from a setting who, who practiced the principle of a pure church, but my complaint and a lot of the brother's complaints that, that, that left there was that like, we're not doing right.

We're, we're excommunicating people who you, you don't find fault in their life, except that they're breaking the traditions of men. And, and yet we're in fellowship with people who are immoral and covetous and people who should be excommunicated.

And, and, uh, and that's not right. That's, that's how, that's how systems can go. Um, and, and, and the, the solution is not to just reject the whole idea that the church should be pure and kept pure, but, but to get back and to return to God where we stand before his face and we can discern what his will is and figure out what are the things that God wants to, that God separates over and what are the things that he doesn't.

We need to judge rightly what the fruits reveal that the heart is made of. You know, when we, when we evangelize some, yeah, I think that's where it's at. Um, you know, sometimes when we go evangelizing in these big cities and sometimes you see, you see people that just look so bad and, and their appearances, I don't think that I ever think about some, I was taught to raise to never say this about somebody and I don't think I really think about people as worthless.

Um, but, but sometimes I have seen people who's just, whose appearance just left me with very little hope for them. They just, they just act so bad and they look so bad and, and, uh, uh, and it's kind of easy to dismiss, um, the potential value of such a person.

Um, and sometimes I remember as, as some of the brothers here and abroad have told me about their life when they were young and how they looked and, you know, brothers who, um, again, I'll, I'll spare names, but brothers who, who told me how they had blue dyed mohawks and dreadlocks and just kind of told me the appearance of what they were when they were young and that it, it helps me sometimes when I'm out there and I see some of these people that think, you know, that person has the potential of being the next, the next brother so and so.

Um, I, I have brothers who I'm in fellowship with who looked like that at one time. Um, and I, I don't think, I don't think at all that, that that means that kind of appearance and action is, is, is okay.

I'm pretty sure you think, you realize that, um, you know, when a, when a person comes to his right mind, he closes himself. When a person, uh, repents, his, his outward, um, his outward actions and appearance changes with it.

We can't, we can't change the heart without changing our whole life. And, uh, it, it, but it helps me. It helps me when I'm out there sometimes when I see these people that just have the right, the right heart toward them to think those things.

Um, and, and I think it's also, okay, so, so in that person, there already is, uh, at least some or the potential of this, of the, of the honorable things that, that if, if he returns to Christ, that'll be separated from the worthless, right?

They're all, it's already there, at least the potential of it. Um, like, uh, um, it, it, it's why, it's why sometimes you meet people who, I met somebody on, I think, Friday night who, who said, you know, I just, in, in Springfield who said, you know, I just like to go around and look for the good in everybody.

There's good in everybody and I just like to look for the good in everybody. And, and, um, he's right that that's, that that's true. And usually when somebody says that, I get, I get this confusing signal that, that there's still a whole bunch of mixture of, of the honorable and the dishonorable of, of the, they're not trying to extract the precious from the worthless, but, but it is right that there is something there.

There is something there that's valuable. It's kind of like, um, it reminds me of this story that I read just a couple weeks ago on, in a news article. I, I found it pretty interesting. Um, CNN had a, had a, had a news article that said there was a, a Virginia family was just trying to get out of the coronavirus blues by taking a long drive when they found what turned out to be nearly a million dollars in cash in the middle of the road.

The car in front of the Schantz family had swerved out of the way of what appeared to be a big bag, bag of trash. Major Scott Moser of the Carolina County Sheriff's Department told CNN, the Schantz family, however, didn't have time to do the same.

So they ran over the bag and instead of leaving the trash in the road, they stopped, picked it up, threw it in the back of the truck. They saw another bag in the ditch nearby and picked that one up too.

And after they arrived home later that evening, they were going to throw away the trash, away the trash from both bags. And when they did it, it appeared to be mail. And then when they went to further investigation, it was a whole bunch of cash money.

And, um, and then the story went on to say how they called the, the Sheriff's Department and with, with their help, they started trying to find, find the rightful owner. At the time of the article, I don't, I don't think it mentioned whether they had found it yet or found the rightful owner yet or not.

But I just find that pretty interesting. When you see two bags that look like bags of trash and you, you pick them up, throw them in the truck, take them home, plan to throw them in the trash can, and you just about threw away a million dollars worth of cash.

Um, and, but, but that value, the value of a million dollars was in there all the time. And at the same time, if nobody ever would have picked it up, if it would have stayed out there and the, uh, it would have rained on it and the mower would have went through and shredded it and it would have been worthless.

Uh, but, but once it, once it's returned to its rightful owner, it's very valuable. Um, um, and, and I just think that's something how we can, how we can see a lot of these people. It's similar to, I've thought about this on the parable of the lost coin, the woman that had lost a coin and she, uh, I don't know if it says what the coin was, let's say it was a dollar coin.

She had lost this dollar coin and she swept her house and she cleaned it and she looked and she looked until she found it. Now, that coin in, on one hand was always worth a dollar, even when it was lost.

Uh, at, at the same time, it was pretty worthless until it was restored to the owner. It was, yeah, it was not useful until it was restored to the owner. And that's just the way it is with all these people who have not turned their heart to God.

Like the potential value is there, but unless they return to the owner and come before his face, they're pretty worthless. Um, okay. Back to Jeremiah here. If you bring forth what is honorable from what is unworthy, you shall be as my mouth.

They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them. When we turn from this world, we leave all the obstinance and the pliables and the worldly wise men and the legalities and all the people of the city of destruction.

Uh, don't return to them like, and, and again, it's, it's probably talking more about more about the condition than the position, but don't return to being obstinate and being pliable and being worldly wise and legalistic.

Like don't return to those things. Um, or, or in the sense of like the, the true reality of, of, of relationships that had to be broken in order to follow Christ. Jesus tells us that this has to happen and that a man's foes will be those of his whole household.

That's a big subject that I almost thought to give a whole teaching on, but I won't get into it too much, but that's just the true reality. It's, it's, it's linked with bearing our cross that those things will happen.

And if we're unwilling to bear it, we're unworthy to be his. Um, but anyway, even in that sense, like let them return to you, but don't return to them or don't return to their condition. Um, and then he goes on to these promises that he has in verse 20 and 21, I will cause you to be like a strong brazen wall to this people.

They will fight against you, but not prevail because I am with you to save you, to deliver you from the hand of evil men and to set you free from the hand of pestilent men. See, there's the, there's the part that like, uh, he, he's asking us to return and then, and then to separate the, the, the, the honorable from the worthless.

And he says, I am for you. I am here to save you. I am here to protect you from the evil tyrants. I am here to, I'm here to keep you. So if we, if we return and we separate the honorable from the dishonorable, we're as safe as, as a lamb in a shepherd's arms.

That's how safe we are. So safe, even that no man can pluck us out of his hand. Like no, no external force can take us away if that's, if that's where we want to be. But if we forsake him, he also will forsake us.