MCG: Might, Care, Grace

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The good news is last night, I pulled these things up. Bad news is I didn't look at them. Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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My name is Mike Ebendroth. You can write me, Mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

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I'm thinking about going back to daily shows again, just not all videos, but just recording a little bit more.

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Some of you have been writing, saying we'd like more content. That's always a good thing, right? That's better than you writing me, saying every other week is good.

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Once a month is good. We don't really need that much. I was at my friend's,

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Chris Gordon's church building, United Reformed Church of Escondido, URC Escondido, and he's got a videocast now, and he has a variety of guests on, and I was in town.

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He said, why don't you come in? Walk into the studio there. He's got all this stuff. Chris Gordon, by the way, is one of my favorite preachers.

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Who do I listen to? I've done shows before on NoCo. Oh, who's on your iTunes?

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Who's on your iPod? iPod. iTunes. No, no, what is it?

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Podcast. What podcast do you listen to? By the way, I hate it, Mario's cracking up.

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I hate it when people are like, what pods are you on? I always think of the pods and that invasion of the body snatchers and the pods where they take over the people, science fiction.

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What are your pods? One of the podcasts I listen to is Abounding Grace Radio, AGR, Chris Gordon, and I think you'd be encouraged.

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Christ -centered, probably the best narrative preacher that I know, Chris Gordon, American gospel is not the name.

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Abounding Grace Radio is the name. So that was fun to do in California. What else was happening in California?

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Saw a lot of Redwoods, saw my grandson Amos, my grandson

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Eliezer, and my granddaughter Clara. And we just need more grandchildren.

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We just need to make that happen. Anyway, lots of interaction with my son,

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Luke, and his wife, Hannah. I got to go preach for Luke. Matter of fact, at Redemption Church, North County, that was exciting.

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And then hanging out with Haley and her husband, Marty, and then seeing my daughters,

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Gracie and Maddie as well. They went to Texas, by the way, my daughters,

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Maddie and Gracie, and they need husbands. This is not a show to get them husbands, but they need husbands.

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They said, dad, being in Texas, cowboys, tough guys, we want masculine men.

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As we say on the show, we love femininity in women. And so the men these days seem so feminized.

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I don't know how that all works, but that's not the show today. The show today is something completely different, except Mario said, why don't you talk about California?

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I don't, okay, I'll do it, but I don't have any idea what I'm gonna talk about. Thank you.

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Okay. What do you do when you have a trial?

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What goes through your mind? How do you process difficulty? So whether it's physical, whether it's financial, emotional, with friends, wife,

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I mean, there's all kinds of problems. I've been laid off before of jobs.

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I have had the doctor say that is your wife not gonna have that baby.

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You're gonna need to have a DNC. So a miscarriage. I've been there when the cancer tests have come back.

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You know, you have cancer, all kinds of trials. I've had to go through the death of a father and a mother, et cetera.

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I know you have too. What goes through your mind? Today on the show, I wanna just maybe call this alphabet theology, and that is using the alphabet

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A through Z to walk through attributes of God, the characteristics of God to help you think rightly.

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That is to say, I want you to walk by faith and not by sight. I want you to remember the object of your faith.

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I want you to say, like my mom, when she had cancer and bald and chemo, gray, she would begin to rehearse the attributes of God in her own mind.

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And she'd start off with A. She started thinking about everything that she could think about God that starts with an

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A. He's almighty, He's all -knowing, He's abounding in grace.

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Okay, is there anything more to think about? Well, all right, let's go to B. He's bountiful in His provision.

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He's beautiful in His glory. Jesus on earth was bold and courageous.

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That's the C. He's compassionate. He is caring.

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Okay, D, He's deliverer. He is, oh, Mario, give me an attribute of God that starts with a

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D. He's a deliverer. He's a deliverer.

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Okay, we'll go on to E. He's ever faithful. That is an E and an F. And so before you know it, you're not thinking about your own problems anymore.

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You're thinking about who God is because you're rehearsing. Here's who God is. And you're thinking about, you know, now we're up to P.

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He's powerful. And my point is, too often to use my grandmother's language, we gaze upon our problems and just glance to the

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Lord when everything should be switched around where we're glancing at our problems. They're real, they're true.

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They're hurting us. But we're gazing on the Lord. We're focused on the

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Lord. The answer to our problems is, I need to see them through the lens of our triune

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God. So today on the radio show, today on the show, on the pod, we're going to look at a passage and think about the attributes of God.

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And we're going to look up and talk about His mighty hand, His power. He cares for us,

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His compassion and His graciousness, His might,

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His care and His grace. And by the way, those three concepts that lead you to think about the nature of God and His character will help you.

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And they'll have helped me as well. They have helped me. 1 Peter 5, verses six and following.

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Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time

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He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

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He's mighty, He cares. Be sober -minded, watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

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Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

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And after you've suffered a little while, so far we've talked about might and care.

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Now here's the G, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus will

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Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to Him be the dominion forever and ever, amen.

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So when we think about God, our problems are put in the right perspective. They might not go away.

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I mean, my mother did end up dying. The cancer diagnosis was true.

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The financial issues are real, but we need to see them through the lens of who God is. It's almost like a screen door.

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When you have a screen door on your front door, you can open up the main door.

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I'm looking at my problem still through the screen door, but if I focus on the screen door, I see it.

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And so I'm trying to see my problems through the lens of who God is. And here the passage is,

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His might, His care, His grace, MCG. By the way, you could memorize this

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MCG, micrograms, right? You pick up a supplement, for instance, you pick up a turmeric or something, and it's like MCG, how many micrograms?

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And so seeing things or try to memorize it, His might, His care, His grace.

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Before I even talk about anything else, if you've got a problem today, if you've got a trial that you're going through today, what would that make you think if God was not mighty?

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How would you think through your trial if you didn't think God cared, that God didn't give a rip?

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He doesn't give a rip about me. You have that kind of attitude. What would it make you think if God wasn't gracious?

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I've got a trial, God is weak. I've got a trial, God doesn't care. I've got a trial and everything's performance -based.

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By the way, that's what the world does. That's how the world thinks. You know, just a tragedy in Minnesota the other day, and everybody's blasting prayer.

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Prayer is not enough, and everything else acting like there's no God. The fool has said in his heart, there's no God. What would your trial be like?

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What would your life be like if God was weak, God didn't care about you, and you had to do everything according to your own performance?

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It's a bad life. Mario was shaking his head. But what if, and by the way, this is not a what if, it's true.

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How do you respond if you know God is powerful? He can get you out of the trial.

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He can sustain you through the trial and more. What if you think

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I'm in a trial and God cares? It matters to Him about me.

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I have a great high priest in Hebrews that sympathizes with my weaknesses because he, the high priest,

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Jesus Christ, the God -man is truly man. He truly suffers, suffered.

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He truly was tempted. He truly grew in wisdom and stature before God and men.

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He knows what it's like to be a human who's suffering, who's going through a trial.

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And on his way to Calvary, he goes anyway. And then lastly, what about the God of all grace and how we stumble and fall?

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God is still gracious. How we stand before God, not by our own works, but by the grace of God.

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It's not by our own merit. It's not by our own demerit. It's not by our own lack of merit.

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It's by God's merit and merit alone. And that's grace. God's riches at Christ's expense, demerited favor, receiving favor.

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God is powerful. God cares and God gives you favor. Now I can approach that trial in a completely different way.

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And so when it comes to alphabet theology, 1 Peter, think about what they're going through.

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I'm not saying our problems aren't real. Our problems are real, but they're exacerbated in Peter's time because they're on the run.

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They're getting persecuted. They're getting homes taken away. Some are gonna be martyred.

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You're like, what do we do? We're trusting in this Jesus. And then now it's like all hell breaks loose.

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And what do we do? And Peter writes to them. And he writes to them at the very beginning. He's saying, by the way, eyes up, eyes up.

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Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he's caused us to be born again. We have a living hope.

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We rejoice in the hope of glory. Eyes up. Chapter two, eyes up. Keep looking up.

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You're going through all these trials, but I want you to think about who Jesus is, the suffering servant, the example he sets.

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And for the prize set before him, he suffers, he accomplishes everything.

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Eyes up. Chapter three, any idea what he starts talking about? Jesus, the just dies for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

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Keep your eyes up. Problems down here, that's true. But in terms of just gazing on them, don't do it.

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Make your gaze set in eternal things. Chapter four, any idea what he does in first Peter?

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Eyes up. Same thing over and over and over. And in chapter five, he does the kind of final exclamation point of, remember who

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God is. He's mighty. He cares. And he's a God of grace.

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M -C -G. Sitting there at the cancer hospital, sitting there next to your sick child at night, think about who

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God is. When it comes to Jesus, and when it comes to thinking about Jesus, how do we think of him, the

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God -man? If I say to you, think about God, you'd say powerful, he cares, and he's gracious.

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But I also wanna specifically talk about the Lord Jesus. Powerful, caring, and gracious.

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So let's just kind of work through these just a little bit. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time, he may exalt you.

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When it comes to the trial you're in, God wants you to humble yourself under his mighty hand.

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What do you mean, Mike? Bucking the system, fighting against this.

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When God sovereignly puts you in a situation, you need to respond with humility.

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Oh, if you wanna try to alleviate the problem and get out of the problem, that's true, you could do that.

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But allowing yourself to be humbled in that situation. One writer said, voluntary acceptance of the humiliating circumstances that befall the readers under God's permissive will.

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The opposite to this would be, I'd run the world differently, I'd run the universe differently, I think this is all wrong.

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Jonathan Edwards, and I could differ with some of his theology, but when he died from a smallpox vaccination, his wife said, what shall

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I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.

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The Lord has done it. My God lives. He has my heart. We are given to God.

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That's interesting. In a trial and humbly submitting ourselves to the will of God, knowing that God's powerful hand could get us out, might get us out, eventually will get us out when it comes to glory and that he hasn't fallen off the throne, he knows what he's doing and that we can trust him.

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Voluntarily accepting the circumstances of the trial. He's saying that to the readers of 1

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Peter and he's saying that to you. Under the mighty hand of God.

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By the way, that mighty hand of God is a strong hand that delivers. It's used of getting

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Israel out of Egypt. And of course it's anthropomorphic, God doesn't have, father doesn't have a hand, he doesn't have an arm, but you get the idea.

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I can just see my dad, 6 '4", 240, got the big dragon tattoo that he got in the

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Korean War and his strong arm would just rescue and just could grab me out of the

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Missouri River if I was drowning, just rescuing me. And you think, okay, I'm in a trial and anytime

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God pleases, he can deliver me. Anytime God pleases, he can help me.

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Anytime God pleases, he can rescue me and therefore I should have confidence. I should have trust.

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I should be humbly receiving what God has done and that is he's put me in this situation for a reason.

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Maybe so I cry out to him, maybe that I'm not so self -dependent, maybe it's because I need to pray more, all these different reasons.

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We don't even need to know all the reasons, but we're in a trial and therefore we say, you know what,

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God, I'm gonna kiss the rod. I'm going to trust you even though you might slay me.

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What else am I going to do? When I had my biggest trials in life, whether it was losing my mom or getting the cancer or any of those things,

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I thought to myself, it could be worse. And here's how it could be worse.

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I can have cancer and I could be mad at God and then get chastened for that.

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I could have my mom die and then say, God, how could you? You know, I hate you, God. And then be disciplined for that sin of responding wrongly.

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Right, Job gets the boil, loses his children, all these other things. And he's,

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I'm not gonna say anything bad about God. I'm humbling myself before God and he's got me where he wants me.

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And you know what? I'm hurting. I'm sad.

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This is difficult, but I'm not going to then accuse God of something. I see it all the time, mainly in unbelievers, but sometimes believers will say,

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I'm mad at God. How could we ever be mad at God? What could we be mad about him for?

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That I'm in some kind of trial? I wanna make sure I think rightly.

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We are under God's mighty hand. We're not under his thumb. He's not doing this to us because he hates us or he's offended by us.

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Whatever trial we're in, well, you can think about the fall and how it's affected us, but also how

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God is shaping us. And think about James chapter one. You count it all joy, my brethren, knowing that the testing of your faith produces what?

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Endurance. And you say, he's helping me with endurance. He's helping me with patience. He's helping me with understanding that God's way is suffering, then glory, cross, then the crown.

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He is perfectly disciplining me because he loves me.

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I love the song that the children sing. We are weak, but he is strong.

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Yes, Jesus loves me. And he's got me right where he wants me. That he may, 1 Peter 5, 6, exalt you at the proper time.

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God is faithful. God will deliver. And at the right time, he will exalt us.

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That's pretty amazing. Psalm 27, wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage.

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Yes, wait for the Lord. Okay, let's make it super practical.

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You're in a trial now. What do you think about God in the midst of the trial? Are you thinking good thoughts, biblical thoughts, right thoughts?

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If you're in a trial right now, are you content to stay in that trial until God thinks it's best to take you out of that trial?

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Resting in God's providence and how he knows all the things that are best. Lord, I will humbly by your grace accept my situation because you know best.

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Spurgeon said, had any other condition been better for you than the one on what you find yourself, divine love would have placed you there.

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If any other situation would have been better for you to be in, that's where you'd be. But this is the best situation.

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So you're there. And I've been there. I've been there where I've had a couple children and all of a sudden you get laid off and you think, what is going on?

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But God is mighty and he is strong enough to sustain. He's strong enough to sovereignly rule.

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He can get you out of the trial. He can see you through the trial. By the way, he's so mighty.

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He could have kept you out of the trial. How did I get in this situation?

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God puts you in that situation and he's strong enough. And you think, well, I don't understand everything.

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Okay, fine. We don't have to understand everything, but you can't understand who this God is.

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Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that at the proper time, he may exalt you.

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That's what we're after. Well, not only that, he's mighty, but what's the second one?

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He cares. You're in a trial and you're thinking, who cares? Nobody cares. There's millions of people in this world.

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They could care less. Does God care? Since God is mighty, we're humble. Since God cares, we don't have to worry.

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We can cast our cares on him. And that's what 1 Peter 5, 7 says. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.

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Now, different Bible translations translate that differently. Let me give you a few. Give all your worries to him because he cares for you.

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You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him for you are his personal concern.

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Our shoulders aren't big enough to carry the weight of these trials. So we cast them on the

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Lord. We throw them on the Lord. Pride says, you know what? I'll do it my way.

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I can do it by myself. I can work through this. No, we want to cast our cares on him.

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Make it practical. What cares do you have in your life now? What are you going through?

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What are the difficulties? Have you said, Lord, help? Lord, would you take them?

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Cast your burdens on the Lord. And I want to do that. I'm sorry I haven't done that.

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I'm doing it my own way and I realize it's not right. I think

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I could probably put my finger on a problem that I have and I bet you have, and that is anxiety.

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Have you ever been worried? I know Mario never worries, but some other people, maybe they do.

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So you think, okay, worry. It's really kind of a form of pride, is it not?

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I'm going to do these things on my own. I'm going to trust my own instincts, trust my own resources, instead of just saying, you know what?

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I can't handle these things and I'm just going to have to give them to the Lord. And I'm just going to have to cast them on the

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Lord because He cares for me. I have four children and when they were little, if they were worried about something, would

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I want them to be worried? Daddy will take care of it. Daddy's here. Daddy has the resources.

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I don't want you to worry. I could think one of my children biting fingernails, right? Because you're just worried.

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I don't think the Lord wants us to do that. You can trust the Lord with your eternal soul.

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Can't you trust Him with job, money, people, health, all these other things.

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That's my stomach. It's - I thought that was me. I remember that show,

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Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, you can't handle the truth.

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And you know what? Why don't we just say, I can't handle all the cares in this world. I just have to give them to the

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Lord. I mean, what are the other options? Insomnia, ulcers, getting tired.

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Proverbs 12, anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.

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Here's a good word. God cares. Christian, God cares for you. You're in a trial. He's mighty.

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He can see you through. He's faithful. And He also cares. I mean, it'd be one thing if He was mighty.

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It's another thing, He's mighty and He cares. If He wasn't mighty, we're in big trouble. And if He didn't care, we're in big trouble enough.

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And if He cares enough to give you His Son, the Lord Jesus, won't He give you everything else? Every smaller gift?

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And the answer is yes. That's Romans chapter eight, verse 32. Casting all your cares.

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All means all. Every one of them. I want to kind of keep this for myself.

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No, no. Everything that we have, we cast upon the Lord. Every care.

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Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still.

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And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?

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All the problems. One writer said, what grief do you bear today? What disappointment?

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What hurt feeling? Whatever the burden, go to His throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace by casting it upon Him.

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For He does not want you to carry that burden. I like that.

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That's good for me to know. And if you're not in a trial now, there's one coming around the corner and you think, I need to remember

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God is mighty and God cares. And lastly, God is a God of all grace.

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God's not just mighty. God doesn't just care. He is mighty and He does care, but He's the God of all grace.

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Verse 10, and after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who's called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will

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Himself restore. He does the work. Confirm, He does the work. Strengthen, He does the work.

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And establish you, He does the work. Grace, don't you need grace?

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I mean, do you want justice? No, no, you want grace. You're in a trial, you're dealing with issues, and you think

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God is mighty, M, God cares, C, God is gracious. You mean

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I don't have to do things in order for God to love me? No, no, God's a God of grace.

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Grace initiates. Grace doesn't respond. Grace is something that, yes, people say

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God's riches according to God, sorry, God's riches at Christ's expense.

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Easy for me to say, G -R -A -C -E. But it's, I want you to think about initiating, moving toward, not saying, you know, you did this, therefore you get that.

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You did something wrong, therefore you get that. No, no, it's grace and by grace alone.

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When it comes to grace, let me just read a few verses to remind you about the grace of God. But God, you are a

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God who's merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Psalm 86.

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Romans chapter five, the law came in that grace, the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

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Micah chapter seven, who's a God like you who pardons iniquity, passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession.

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He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. You're in a trial, that's the

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God who you trust. When you're in a trial, work through the alphabet, but don't forget

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M, mighty, C, caring, and G, gracious. Mike Cavendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.