Sermon on Suffering Well

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor, though I'd love to be,

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I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified, faithful, biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons, and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as, again, as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that He's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can, though, actually partner with Apologia Church as we proclaim the gospel and provide a defense of the biblical gospel all around the world.

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You can partner with us. And I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8.

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Romans chapter 8. Some people call this the gospel according to Saint Paul.

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I think that is a fantastic description of this letter.

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We call it the book of Romans, but this letter, the gospel according to Saint Paul. If you want to know what salvation is about, if you want to know what the story of Jesus is truly about, if you want it condensed down into its pillars, what is this story?

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What is this all about in its substance? What's the main thing? Romans.

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When we planted Apologia Church many years ago, our first study was a study through the gospel according to Saint Paul.

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It was a study through the book of Romans to make sure that our church body, mostly brand new baby believers in Jesus, would understand the glory of the gospel, who

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Jesus is, what has God accomplished, who is God, and what does he do?

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What does he do in this world? What does he do for his people? And so we went to the book of Romans, and today we're going to take a look at an important truth in scripture, the sovereignty of God in suffering.

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The sovereignty of God in suffering. You know today, of course, the title of the sermon is suffering well.

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Suffering well. Such an important, fundamental, important grounding that's necessary for the believer in Jesus Christ.

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If you know God, if you are reconciled to God, if you have peace with God, this is one of those pillars that you need to get right before God and in your life.

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If we don't understand God in suffering, then we will not suffer well.

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We will not experience joy in our tribulation and our trials and our difficulties. Because one thing is true, or this is true, we can have peace with God, we can be reconciled to God, we can know

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Jesus, we can not be condemned. But we live in a fallen world where there is difficulty, there is still death, there is sickness, there is disease, there is slander, there is gossip, there is backbiting, there is loss, there is hostility left remaining in this world.

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And we will face it if we are in this world. But it hasn't lost the grip of God, all of the suffering, all of the trials.

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And so to that we go today, suffering well. So I'm going to read to you a section here from Romans chapter 8,

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Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 18, Romans 8. And let's start in verse 18. And let's look at the

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Apostle Paul. As you get there, understand that the Apostle Paul has just laid down systematically the good news.

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Like, what does it all mean? What's the problem? Who is God? What has he done? How do we have peace with God?

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Like, what's the big deal about Jesus? Why does it matter? Okay, now that I'm in Christ, what happens now that I'm in Jesus?

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What was the purpose of the law? How does that actually play a role in the life of the believer? And then into Romans 8, where the

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Apostle Paul breaks out into this epic, epic moment, talking about ultimately the sovereignty of God.

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Isn't it interesting? It all leads to that. Here's your condition. Here's who God is. Here's who Jesus is. This is what God did, and it moves into now

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God's sovereignty. He's in control of all this. He was the one who initiated it.

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He controls it. He is the central reference point of it all. It's interesting that the Apostle Paul moves the entire discussion to be anchored in, believe it or not, the sovereignty of God.

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That's where his whole story moves towards. It goes to the sovereignty of God. God's the sovereign.

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He deserves all the glory for this. He's done it all himself. He's the one that holds it all together.

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And what does that mean? It means even in your sufferings, God is the sovereign.

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And so Romans chapter 8, hear now the words of the living and the true God. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from the bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

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For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

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For in this hope, we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees.

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But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

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But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

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For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?

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Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus our

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Lord. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word.

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What a gift, what a treasure. God, we thank you for this spectacular display of your graciousness towards us and your love, the revelation of your character and your sovereignty.

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Thank you, Lord, that you speak to us in our pain and in our suffering. Help me, God, to minister to your people.

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Help me to shepherd your people right, to speak to them, Lord, from your word.

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Truth, Lord, get me out of the way. Glorify yourself through your word and glorify your son,

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Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. It's amazing. Romans 8. Wow, that's a powerful passage, right?

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That's the kind of passage that they put on paintings and posters. These are memeable verses, right?

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These are the things that you share with the people you love when they're struggling and they're hurting and they feel like there's no hope and they're lost and there's nothing but darkness all around them.

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This section of scripture satisfies the soul of the child of God.

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If you are not aware of this section of scripture, if you haven't spent lots of time meditating here and pondering these verses and actually putting these verses into your heart,

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I want to strongly encourage you to do that. If I was on an island with nothing stuck there until the

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Lord took me home, I would want to have Romans with me. If I could choose one book to have with me, it'd be the book of Romans.

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And if you could break it down into sections, chapter 8 would have to be one of those sections I would have to have in my pocket.

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Romans chapter 8. So much is here. We could do a series on it. It might take us 20 years. But listen, here's what

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I want us to get from this today. Of course, this is just a one -off sermon today about a very important subject. So please hear me on this.

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There's so much I want to say to you, to lay down, to bless you, to encourage you as your brother and your pastor.

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But I want you to hear in this section of scripture that our hope in suffering is bound to the sovereignty of God.

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Our hope in suffering is bound to the sovereignty of God. You've heard, of course, the late

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R .C. Sproul say things like, there's not a maverick molecule in the entire universe.

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Such an amazing quote, such an important truth from an amazing man of God who's now with the

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Lord, who taught faithfully on the sovereignty of God throughout his entire ministry. The sovereignty of God is an anchor for the child of God.

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It's an anchor, not because it's something we've decided we really like this truth. It's when you see an inspired apostle systematically explain the gospel and the life of the believer.

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He moves all of the details to this reference point. God is sovereign.

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How come I know there's no charges brought against me? Paul's whole argument here in Romans chapter eight is this, who will bring any charge against God's elect?

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In other words, who's going to be brought before God's court to bring charges against you? It says this,

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Paul says, God is the one who justifies. Paul's point is, let them bring their charges.

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Try. God is the judge on the bench who is already declared righteous.

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That's the verdict. Not because you are, not because you've earned it, not because in and of yourself you have enough righteousness where that verdict makes sense, but God declares righteous the ungodly.

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That makes no sense from a human perspective, except for this truth union with Christ.

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You are in Jesus and he is the righteous one. And because you're joined together with him, the

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Bible teaches here in these in this section of scripture from six through eight, there is union with Jesus.

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His righteousness becomes yours. You're counted righteous apart from works, and you are not having your sin counted against you so that in God's court, because he's the sovereign, because he's the judge, he declares you righteous.

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And Paul's whole point here in Romans chapter eight is that God is the one who does the predestining.

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He is the one who does the calling. He's the one who does the justifying.

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He's the one that does the glorifying. And so Paul's point here is that God's chosen, his elect, his people receive all of these blessings, all of this goodness.

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They are filled to overflowing. And the glory and the power of this whole story is that this is not a temporary solution.

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It's not something that you've earned or you've purchased or done yourself. It's God himself in his sovereign will and plan with his sovereign power who's brought all this about and he carries it along to its ends.

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Paul's point here is that God's the sovereign. He's done it all. Your suffering, your trials as a child of God are within the hand of a sovereign

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God. He is the one that declares the end from the beginning and says yes to this or no to that.

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He's the sovereign so that we have a God, we have a God, we

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God's people, his children. We have the unique God that actually can tell you the future before it happens because he controls it and decrees the end from the beginning and he can tell you the past and why it happened the way that it did.

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I want you to consider that the religions of men cannot give you that all man made religions have a

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God who ultimately has to yield to his creation. His creatures are the ones controlling the story.

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He can look through time and see what might happen and try to respond to it. But the biblical God is the sovereign

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God so that Paul can actually say to God's people this. God causes all things to work together for good for those who love

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God. Do you hear that? God's the reference point there again, not just of our justification, not just the calling, not just the glorifying, but in our present sufferings, no maverick molecules, no meaningless pain, no meaningless suffering.

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God is the one causing all things to work together for good for those who love

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God. Those who are here it again, the called according to what his purpose.

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This is a sovereign God that does not look like the religions of men. It's a

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God that doesn't look like the idols of men. When we create gods, we make gods that look like us.

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Gods who have to work out things after they discover them. Gods that have to have a list, a plan and try to figure things out and work things out after their plan doesn't go according to their plan.

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They have to discover things, learn things. This is the unique and sovereign God, the only

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God, none before, none after, who actually carries everything along to its intended destination according to his will and plan.

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Nobody thwarts his purposes. Now you have to hear that as a child of God, as a believer, because listen,

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I want to say this very humbly. It's easy for us to take these truths as Christians.

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It's easy for us to take these truths and to just simply announce them, right? We can say this very easily here at Apology of Church.

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Well, we're reformed, right? We're Calvinists. We believe God is sovereign, right?

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We believe in, we believe in Tulip that man is totally depraved and he's unable to save himself and that God is the one that chooses and he brings about salvation.

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We know these truths. We can announce them all day long. But brothers and sisters, I'm going to encourage you.

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Listen, it's one thing to know these truths that are in scripture, to have read the reformed doctrine of predestination by Lorraine Bettner, to have read all the books on the sovereignty of God and to know the

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Westminster Confession back and forth or the 1689 back and forth. It's one thing to hold that together in your head and be able to articulate those truths.

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It's another thing to actually allow them to be so satisfying. It's another thing to allow these truths to transform your grossest and most ugly and most darkest moments into moments of joy and delight.

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You see, there isn't a hero in scripture, man or woman that didn't have to endure very difficult suffering in this world.

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I want you to consider for a moment this passage, Romans eight, the apostle

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Paul spending his life on the run in difficulty, in danger from robbers, from his own countrymen, from false brethren, false charges brought against him.

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He writes Philippians. It's about joy, joy, joy. And here's the guy writing it in a dark dungeon.

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He can barely stand up and talking about the joy we have in God. Here's a man who knew how to suffer well.

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He gives you Romans eight. Not from a mansion on a hilltop, not with a full bank account, not that there's anything wrong with those things.

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But he writes these truths in Romans eight as a man who ultimately had his head cut off for his faith in Jesus.

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A man who was persecuted, endured great difficulty, was constantly on the run.

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That's where these truths come from. The man who endured those things. You see, here is the point we have to get.

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When we know these truths as God's people, when we're good Calvinists and reform folks, when we can recite the

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Catechism and the confession about God's sovereignty and point to the Bible passages, it's not going to do us any good, brothers and sisters, if we don't know how to war against our pain and our emotions that lead us to look at what is seen and not what is unseen.

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You see, here's the difficulty. You can know these truths and they can have ultimately no impact because in the moment of difficulty in trial, the moment when everything collapses, the moment when you get that phone call, the moment when you enter that hospital, you can be tempted to see what is in front of you and now say, this is true right now, my inner monologue, my pain in this moment.

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We can be tempted in moments of great difficulty where we have fiery darts coming our way, lies, slander, bitterness, difficulty, persecution, death, disease, decay, whatever the case may be.

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All of it comes at us and our first response in our flesh is to see it all and to believe the circumstances, to believe our response, to believe the beating hearts that's out of control, to believe the thoughts that seem to be out of control.

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You see, that's what we tend to do. We tend to forget God's promises. We tend to forget his goodness.

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We tend to forget his plan. And we believe rather the person who's doing the persecuting.

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We believe rather the moment in the hospital where there seems to be only death. We believe rather the circumstances where we feel like there's no way out of this.

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This is all there is. All there is, is darkness. We choose to believe the voice of the enemy that says things like God has abandoned you.

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He's the faraway father. He's the absentee landlord. He's forgotten his promises.

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He's forgotten his goals concerning you. You see, we believe the voice of the enemy. We believe the circumstances and we believe the inner monologue in the moment of despair, in the moment of pain, instead of believing

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God and his promises. And the amazing thing is that he's the truth.

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You change. The world is unreliable. Christians are unreliable.

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We're fallible. We fall. He doesn't. He's not like you.

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He's not like me. This is why you needed Jesus, why I needed Jesus, because we are fallible, because we are sinful, because we are broken.

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He doesn't change. And the amazing thing is that we embrace the darkness and the pain rather than embracing him.

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And the powerful thing to think about as God's child is in the moment of darkness and despair and pain, when everything sets in in that moment, when it seems like God is absolutely far away and not concerned with your plight, we soak in God's presence.

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We despair. We flee from joy. We flee from delighting in God.

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We flee from all of that. And we soak in God's presence and we embrace the darkness all while God is singing over you, all while God's promises have remained unchanged.

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He remains the God that doesn't move. He's not moved by your enemies. He's not moved by your plight.

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As a matter of fact, the God that we're talking about is not the idol you've made him to be. He is the one that actually decreed your circumstances.

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And you might say, but why? Why? And the Bible says, don't look at what is seen.

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Look to what is unseen. God is sanctifying you, causing you in this fallen world to abandon your trust in the voice of the enemy, to abandon your trust in your circumstances, to abandon your trust in yourself and your interpretations and your own inner monologue.

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And he's calling you to trust in him and to be satisfied in him completely.

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And you have to see that the place where God gets a hold of the heart of the believer is almost always in the deepest place of pain.

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It's in that place where you feel like you have nothing left. It's in the place where you feel like God is so far away.

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God brings you to a place where you must start looking up and stop looking at yourself and your monologue and the enemy's voice.

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And he calls you to come to him in a completely new way where he teaches you to embrace his word, his promises.

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You see, I fear that oftentimes because we've experienced this amazing thing in knowing

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Jesus and God's changed our hearts and our minds and we have peace with God that we think at times with this romantic relationship, almost, we think almost like I'm good and there's not going to be any purging or pain or difficulty.

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And all the while your loving father says, just sit back for now. It's coming. What's coming?

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I'm going to teach you to rely on me. I'm going to teach you to pray. I'm going to teach you to trust me in the midst of chaos.

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I'm going to teach you about who I am in death and sickness and disease. I'm going to teach you to trust me for your needs.

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See, God will transform you and I. He will change us.

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And it oftentimes is the truth. He changes us in the place of pain.

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We have to learn as God's people that we can know these truths, we can recite them, we can recount all the verses.

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But if we don't know how to take these truths and to squash our inner monologue and to combat the circumstances, if we don't learn to take the voice of God that he's given us in his word and actually put down the voice of the enemy, we will never have joy in trials and tribulations because we're always going to believe ourselves or the enemy or our circumstances over God.

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This really comes, listen, please hear this. This really comes down to a point of humility.

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Do you know that if you think about it in reality, if you know the truth of God's sovereignty and his promises of blessing in your life and his promises of endurance, if you know all those things and you fall constantly face first into despair with trials and suffering and tribulation, we're engaging in idolatry.

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Because what we're saying is, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. I don't believe your promises.

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I don't believe that you're near. I don't believe you when you said that you'll never lose me or forsake me or that you cause all these things to work together for my good.

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When we succumb to the despair and the fear and all the rest and we don't have joy in our trials and tribulations, we are ultimately exposed in those moments, at least in some corner of our hearts.

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We're exposing idolatry. We don't believe them. We're saying that very pridefully.

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We're saying pridefully. I'm right. He's wrong. My circumstances are right.

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He's wrong. The voice of the enemy, that's right. He's wrong. Isn't it amazing that actually falling into despair is actually a display of pride?

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Pride. I refuse to believe God at his word. I refuse to see the world through his eyes.

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I choose rather my eyes. This 41 year old creature who has a long history of unreliability, right?

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Rather than believe in the eternal God who knows all things and decrees all things, the almighty, the holy

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God, the good God, the unchanging God. We have to look at what is unseen.

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You see, we can go to so many examples in scripture, but I wanted to try to keep it simple today in terms of anchoring.

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We need to anchor somewhere. And so I thought, where do you go? And I wanted to go to one of my favorite stories because I hope you know it.

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I think it's beautiful. I think it's powerful. It's in Genesis and it's the story of Joseph and his brothers.

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And many of you guys know this already, but I wanted to point something out and allow this to be something that is not merely a narrative or a story on a page, but it's something that actually we have to embrace as a real person with a lot of pain, a lot of hurts and a lot of damage that was caused to him.

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You have to allow yourself to feel Joseph's pain and not allow this just to be this record of this guy named

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Joseph who went to Egypt and rescued his family and all the rest. This is a real person with a real family, just like you, real emotions, who endured real hardship, who felt the sting of betrayal to the highest degree.

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Now, if you don't know the story of I hope that this is a blessing to you today. In Genesis 37, of course, you know the story, maybe some of you do, where Joseph has a dream and in the dream, everything's bowing before him.

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And so he goes, of course, and tells everybody, Hey, I had this dream. And it's clearly about his brothers, like submitting to him.

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And they're like, oh yeah. Yeah. And so then they hate him for it. They despise

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Joseph and Joseph, of course, the coat of many colors, you know, the story of dad and his favoritism and all those things.

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And those things are his brothers. They're sick of them. They're sick of their brother to the degree that Joseph is sent to help his brothers, pastoring the flock.

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And in verse 18 of 37, as he's going towards them with all that behind all this malice and all this bitterness, all this secret, deep hatred for Joseph, his brothers, it's his family.

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It's his family. The ones who are supposed to love you through everything. They despise him and they see him coming from afar.

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And before he came near to them, listen to this, they conspired against him to kill him.

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This is beyond the family argument at the dinner table, right? This isn't the

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Facebook dispute, right? This isn't the nasty text message, right?

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You ever had conflict with your family? Well, here you now not only have one crazy family member plotting to kill you.

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Maybe some of you have experienced that, right? But now it's his brothers.

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They're talking and conspiring. Let's kill him. Hey, I got an idea. How about this? You want to punch his face?

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No, no, they've been there. You want to, you want to like, you like refute him in front of everybody.

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You want to, you want to argue with him, yell at him. How about we kill him? Let's kill him. Let's end his life.

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Like, how does this conversation start? At what point does the relationship sever to the point where everyone goes, that sounds like a good idea.

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Yeah, let's kill him. Kill the brother. And so they say, oh, here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.

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Let's kill him, throw him into a pit. Then we'll say that a fierce animal has devoured him. So now we have sin compounding upon sin, compounding upon sin in the heart, hatred, kill the brother, throw him in a pit, disregard him to the degree that he's dead.

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And we throw him away. And then we'll lie to dad. And we'll say to dad, oh man, it's an animal killed him.

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Oh yeah. It's horrible. The animal killed your favorite son. And this is what happens.

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They say, and we will see what will become of his dreams. Here's the sovereignty of God at work.

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Are you ready? Their hearts are wicked and they just spin out of control. But when

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Ruben heard it, that's where we get the name of the sandwich. He rescued him out of their hands saying, let us not take his life.

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And Ruben said to them, shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him that he might rescue him out of their hands or restore him to their father.

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Can you see this for a moment? Total darkness, total sin, total corruption. It's spinning out of control.

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And yet God and his sovereignty causes Ruben's heart to yield. Ruben doesn't go with his brothers.

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Had God allowed him, maybe he would have. God holds back Ruben's heart and Ruben actually preserves the life of his brother.

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They would have killed him. But Ruben says, no, let's, let's not kill him. He's our brother. Let's just throw him in this pit.

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And then of course, verse 23, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.

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Did you catch that? Stop and think for a second about the real dirty part of the story there.

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Hate their brother, want him dead, kill him, lie to dad. And what do they say? First thing they do when they get ahold of their brother that they despise and they hate so much.

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The first thing they do is they say, get that stupid coat off of him. The first thing to do is tear that coat off.

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It's a symbol of their father's love and favor in his life. And the first thing they want to get rid of so much malice and bitterness, so much in their hearts, it's get that stupid coat off Joseph.

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And so of course, we know the story. They took him in a verse 24, threw him into a pit. The pit was empty and there was no water in it.

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Then they sat down to eat. So dark, so dark, such disregard.

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Let me ask you a question. Have you ever, have you ever experienced people in your life that are so hateful towards you, so bitter towards you, that they disregard you to the degree that they disregard your humanity?

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They disregard everything about you in terms of affection, their goodness.

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They throw him into a pit and what do they do? They sit to eat a meal around the pit. Can you imagine?

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The Bible doesn't tell us every detail of the story, but what voice was coming out of the pit to the brothers? What was he saying to his brothers?

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Like, how many tears were shed? His brothers, give me the stupid coat, throw him into a pit, and then they decide to feed themselves around.

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That's how much hatred and darkness is in their hearts. While he's crying out of the pit, probably with tears. Guys, what are you doing?

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What's happening? Why are you doing this to me? He is suffering in this pit and they're dismissive to him, their own flesh and blood.

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And now as they're eating, they look up and they see a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt.

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Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the

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Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, for he's our brother and our own flesh.

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And his brothers listened to him. Then the Midianite traders passed by and they drew Joseph up and lifted him up out of the pit and sold him to the

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Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. Isn't it amazing?

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Such darkness, such bitterness, such hatred, such animosity that they're like, hey, it doesn't profit us just to kill him, you know, and he's our brother and all.

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So I got it. Instead of murdering him and shedding his blood, let's sell him and let's make some money.

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We'll sell our brother and let's make some cash off us. Now let's sell him into slavery now. So he's a slave in Egypt.

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Let's get rid of him. But at least we make to make, we get to make some cash out of this. So now they sell their brother into slavery.

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And then what do they do? They take the coat of many colors. They dip it in blood and they come back to dad and they lie to their father.

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They lie to their dad together collectively so much evil their dad.

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Oh my goodness. Your son, your favorite son, dad, look at the coat. It's got blood. It's the animals. They killed him.

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I don't know what to tell you, dad. It's horrible. I know. And their dad is so grieved moms and dads. Can you feel the weight of that?

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This is real history. It's a real story. It's real flesh and blood. It's real emotion.

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It's real hearts. It's real pain. Can you imagine your child? You discover your child has been mauled by a wild animal.

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And it's your, it's your own children that are conspiring together to lie and to tell you this story to be so dismissive to their own blood.

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And then they sent him into slavery. And you guys know the story. I can't do it all today, but of course, Joseph's now sold into slavery in Egypt.

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His family's disregarded his life, sold him into slavery. Now he's in Potiphar's house, sovereignty of God, the providence of God.

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He goes to Potiphar's house. And the amazing thing is in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife was apparently hot for Joseph.

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She wanted Joseph. And here's the crazy thing about this whole story. Be honest, have some integrity.

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It does not look like God is in this. Stop making him into a superhero.

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He's just like you flesh and blood. A man. He is a fallible human being who's experienced so much pain.

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And he's facing the same world and pain you and I are. And he has all these people after his life, his own family disregarding them.

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They're lying and selling them into slavery. And now he's a slave in Egypt away from his family.

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His family thinks that he's dead. And now think about it. Potiphar's wife. She's like, come lie with me.

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What would you do? What would you do when it looks like God is so far from you that he's abandoned you to the pits?

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What would you do? You know, many people do in the moments of darkest suffering and pain is they lash out at God.

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They say, God, where are you? I give up. I'm not obeying you anymore. I'm not following you.

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I'm not trusting you anymore. Why? Look where you left me in this pit. Look what you've done to me. And now all of a sudden, this beautiful woman wants to be with Joseph and Joseph does the thing that glorifies

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God. He's so focused in upon the truth about God and his relationship with God. This woman's like, come lie with me.

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And what does he do? What every righteous man ought to do in that kind of situation. And that is flee.

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He runs to the degree that ready. You go, Hey, how about some victory points for Joseph?

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Right. How about some blessing for Joseph? Like what does Joseph get as the reward? Cause to be honest, that's what most of us would be asking for.

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God, this is suffering. It is hard. It's difficult. I'm in Egypt. I'm a slave now. And look what

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I did, Lord. Look, look what I did. I had the chance to actually fulfill my lust with this woman and I obeyed you instead.

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Where's the blessing. Give it to me, God. Come on, give it to me. And what's amazing is this wicked woman actually takes his coat and she's like,

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Oh my goodness, look, he tried to rape me. So she lies.

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And you would think, all right, when's Joseph going to get an end to the suffering now? When is this going to stop? Come on now.

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Where's the blessing for obedience in the midst of trial and suffering? Where's the blessing? Oh, here's, here's the next part of the story.

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Joseph is accused of rape and now he's in a dungeon. So he goes from with his family slavery in Egypt to now he's in a dungeon.

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Now I want you to think about how many minutes went by of suffering, how many hours went by of suffering, how many painful days went by of suffering and more suffering and more suffering.

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Now, again, I can't tell you the whole story, but some stuff happens in Egypt with dreams and Joseph can interpret dreams and he comes and ultimately warns them about a famine that's coming and he rescues, listen, because he was sold into slavery into Egypt because he was in the dungeon, because in God's providence, all that darkness and wickedness and malice and pain went into Joseph's life and carried him along the path to where he ultimately rescued all of Egypt from a famine that would have completely destroyed them.

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And here's the glorious part of the story. Now the famine is so bad that Joseph's own family has to come into Egypt for rescue.

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Why? Because where's the food? Oh, it's with Joseph. Did you hear that?

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Oh, where's the food? Oh, Joseph's got it. The blessing actually was over here, but I want you to consider that there were years and years and years of pain and darkness and confusion and suffering and maybe even sleepless nights with Joseph to the point now where his brothers come to him to Egypt.

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And I want you to see the moment where it all breaks apart. And that is, of course, in Genesis chapter 45, go to 45.

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This is the moment where Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers. He is now second in command over all of Egypt.

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He's prince over Egypt, essentially. And this I want you to see how did Joseph endure this trial, this suffering, this pain?

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How did he endure the malice? How did he endure the lies and the dungeon?

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It says in 45 one, then Joseph could not control himself before all who stood by him.

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His brothers are there now. They're looking for rescue in Egypt. They're going to starve.

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And Joseph has control to rescue their lives. And it says he cried, make everyone go out from me.

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So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud.

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Did you catch that? All those years of pain. And in this moment, it unleashes.

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He wept aloud. All that pain, all that suffering, all those trials.

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And now is the moment of vindication. And all Joseph can do is weep.

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He weeps so much pain he was holding so that the

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Egyptians heard it. That's how hard he was weeping. And the household of Pharaoh heard it.

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And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Is my father still alive?

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But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. They could not believe what they were seeing.

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So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near. He said, I'm your brother,

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Joseph, whom you sold in the Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

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And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.

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So it was not you who sent me here, but God. How does

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Joseph endure this incalculable pain? How does he endure the onslaught of malice and slavery and dungeon and darkness and all these years?

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He actually says to his brothers, God sent me before you. Don't be angry with yourselves.

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It was God who sent me ahead of you. You sent me here into slavery. It was God who sent me here.

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He says later, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to things.

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Your intention was evil. What you wanted was evil, but God's intention in the same thing was for good.

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You see, this is a moment, one moment, one story of a child of God who endured great difficulty and pain.

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You asked the question, how does he endure it? How does he do it? How does he hold God's hand through the midst of this trial?

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And the answer is this, his perspective. He understood the truth. He said, you meant evil against me.

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God meant it for good. And you know, what's amazing about this is that, listen, this is, this is the crazy part of the story.

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We don't often highlight is his brother's sin, his brother's malice, his brother's wickedness and their lies.

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God allowed to do what? To save his brothers and their families.

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In this fallen, broken, hostile world, sinners do not thwart

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God's purposes. And there are times where God will even allow people's sin to not only bless his people, but also even to bless the wicked.

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To allow their sin to be the very thing that turns around and brings glory to God through his redemption of it.

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It's an amazing thing that God, that we serve his truth. And listen, here's what

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I want to get. When we think about these moments of trial and suffering and difficulty, there's not an inch, not an inch of our suffering that is wasted in our ordained journey.

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God has ordained a journey for your life. If you belong to him, he has ordained a timeline of events that he sovereignly wields for his glory and for your good, for his purpose, for your good.

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And there's not an inch on that timeline that is meaningless. There is not an inch that is meaningless.

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Everything that God allows in this world has meaning and it has purpose.

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And if you know Jesus, if you've turned from sin to trust in Christ, if you've been reconciled to God, the promise of God in your life is that he causes, listen, all things to work together for good.

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That means the loss of the child works out for your good, the sickness, the disease, the financial distress, the slander, the gossip, the persecution, the difficulty.

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God works it together for your good. He's the sovereign.

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The Bible says about him, Daniel 4, 35. Listen, this is the God we serve.

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All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

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And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done?

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Nobody can thwart God's purposes. God looks down and what he sees is nothing, nothing, no worthy enemies.

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He looks from his throne and when people try to cast him off, it says that he laughs.

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Your enemies appear to be giants to God. Your struggles, your difficulties appear to be insurmountable, gigantic.

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They cannot be overcome. They're obstacles that cannot be broken through. And it says that God looks down and it's accounted as nothing to God.

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No one can stay his hand and say to him, what have you done? That's the God that we worship. It says in Job 42 too,

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I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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Second Chronicles 20 verse six. And he said, oh Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not

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God in the heavens? And are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you.

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Job 9, 12, were he to snatch away, who could restrain him?

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Who could say to him, what are you doing? Isaiah 43, 13, even from eternity,

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I am he. And there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act and who can reverse it.

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Isaiah 45, 9 through 10. Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker and earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth.

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Well, the clay say to the potter, what are you doing? Or the thing you are making say he has no hands.

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Woe to him who says to a father, what are you begetting or to a woman to what are you giving birth?

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Good verse by the way to use in our ministry. God is the sovereign and he causes all things to work together for good.

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Brothers and sisters, I want to point you to just two quick stories. You know, most of these truths today is again, just a sidestep into a truth we need to have anchored into our souls as God's people.

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But I'm going to talk to you just briefly about Jesus and Paul and just point out things that we often miss.

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I think because we read the Bible at times as Christians and we fail to see the pain.

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We fail to embrace the pain on the page to recognize what actually was endured.

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Jesus met us in our pain because he became human. The incarnation is a glorious truth that has mysteries and power and depth.

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I don't think we'll ever fully plumb, but Jesus took on flesh.

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He was glorious in the presence of the father from all eternity. In the beginning was the word.

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He was always there and he was with God in face to face intimate relationship with the father and the word

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Jesus was God and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us.

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This glorious God, this eternal son of God takes on flesh and it's crazy.

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This week in my house, we're doing our advent together.

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So we light a candle and we sit and we read through this advent book and we talk about different truths related to the incarnation.

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And one of the things we're supposed to do for one of those nights this week was read through the story of the virgin birth and the conception of Jesus.

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And so read the story of the angel Gabriel coming to announce, right? He's the one that tells Daniel it's this many weeks till Jesus, and here's what's going to happen.

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And God sends Gabriel to Mary and he's the one that announced us to marry highly favored one. And you're going to carry

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Jesus. And she's like, I've never known a man. And you'll be overshadowed by the Holy spirit.

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All that's there. And one of the things that the book said to do was to get a picture of an ultrasound, right?

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To get a picture of an ultrasound and to ponder that with your family, that God, the eternal

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God, the one who created the entire universe, we can't even begin to see the end of it.

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That God condescended into the womb of a young girl.

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And there was a point in Jesus' life where he was, from a human perspective, a defenseless baby in a mother's womb.

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You've seen those pictures of ultrasounds of this little baby in the womb, right? Making funny faces and this teeny tiny precious little child growing in a womb, fully dependent upon Mary.

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Have you stopped to think about this? Jesus, who is God fully, truly God, he needed

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Mary to breastfeed him or he would die. Have you stopped to think about the fact that Mary cooked meals to feed

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Jesus so that he would have strength? Have you stopped to think about Mary would lay

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Jesus down at night as a little boy and maybe sing songs over him and comfort him and help him go to sleep at night?

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Like this is the condescension of the incarnation and we miss it sometimes.

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Think about this in Jesus' life. He's a little defenseless baby from a human perspective. And the very first part of the story, do you know what it is?

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The very first part of the story is people seek his life to murder him.

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So God enters into humanity to take on the sin debt of his people, to live the life that they've failed, to give himself up for them, to sacrifice everything on their behalf.

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And the first thing the world tries to do is kill him, kill the son. They try to murder him as a baby.

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Think about this in Jesus' life and ministry. How many times did people try to lie about Jesus? You struggle with that in your life.

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People have lied about you, tried to slander you, mischaracterize you.

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Jesus endured that. You say, God, where are you? When the slanderers are there, the liars, all those people are out there firing their arrows over God.

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Where are you? You must be far away. You must not be concerned with my life, God. And yet you have a savior who knows what it's like to have people lie about him, to twist his words.

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They attempt to trap him, right? Like, you know, the story we read in Matthew, we were just there, where they come to Jesus like, hey

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Jesus, we know, we know that you're like this and you would, you never would do, you never would do this.

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I wonder, Jesus, like the coin, like the whole story about taxes.

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Should we pay taxes? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? Hey Jesus, what do you think? What are they trying to do?

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Trap him so that he is in trouble with the law. They slandered

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Jesus. They twisted the story. Jesus is eating with sinners because he's trying to love them and reach them with the truth.

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He's trying to give them life. And what do people say about Jesus? He's a glutton and he's a drunk and a friend of sinners.

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You see, they lied about Jesus and they actually twisted him eating with sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, trying to bring them to life.

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They lie and they say, oh look, he's drinking wine. Ah, he's a drunk. He's a drunk.

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Jesus is a drunk and he's a glutton. That's who this is. That's your Messiah. Oh, I know

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Jesus. Are you talking about the drunk guy? The guy that goes to parties all the time with the sinners? Yeah, I know about Jesus.

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Oh, that's your Messiah? What, the drunk? Do you know they actually call Jesus a drunk and a glutton?

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His best friends abandoned him. His best friends, the night when he needed them the most, they abandoned him.

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Judas, the person that walked with him for years, Judas is the one who actually betrays

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Jesus and turns him over. The person who walked with him, Jesus was loving to Judas.

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Jesus was caring to Judas and Judas betrays Jesus. I want you to consider the false witness brought against Jesus in court.

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Jesus is brought before the court and what does he have? He has false witnesses coming to actually bring charges against Jesus.

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Their stories don't match, but here's the point. When God became a man, he had to endure the loss, the abandonment, the betrayal, and the accusations that all of us at some point in our lives will have to face down.

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Jesus, even on the cross while he is dying for the sins of his people, is being reviled.

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He didn't die this glorious death that you see in the paintings and the pictures where, you know, the very solemn and, you know, sort of like heightened, glorious, like people are sobbing, you know, oh, it's the son of God, the eternal

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God. No, no. He died a death where he was surrounded by evil people who were saying, yes, in your deepest moment of physical pain and blood and broken body, they were like, come on down from the cross.

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You're the Messiah. Come on, save yourself, Jesus. He died hearing railing, false witness, slander, all in the midst of deep, deep pain that none of us will ever touch.

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That's what Jesus endured. And I can, I want to say this to us as a church.

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Jesus endured false witnesses throughout his ministry, false witness in his trial, false witness at the cross, and you get this little insight in 1

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Peter chapter 2 that's glorious. 1 Peter 2, it's a glorious insight. Peter gives you something that's not in the gospels.

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Through inspiration, Peter says that when he was being reviled, he uttered no threats.

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He kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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How does Jesus not respond in the place of deepest possible pain to threats and railing and false witness and accusations?

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It says that he did not utter any threats. He kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously.

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Here's the point. Jesus knows, my father knows the truth. My father knows the truth.

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My father knows the truth. Jesus was condemned to death for no reason, betrayed by the covenant people.

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Did you hear that? Can you stop and think about it in context? Jesus was betrayed by the

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Jewish people. Jesus was betrayed by the church. Do you feel the weight of that?

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That hurts. That stings. Jesus was tortured and murdered.

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Jesus would have been whipped to the cat of nine tails. He probably would have had organs exposed, his back torn to shreds.

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He had a crown of thorns smashed into his head. He was beaten. He had his beard pulled from his face.

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He was forced to carry this cross down this dusty road, and then he was nailed to this tree to bleed to death and to suffocate and die.

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That's what Jesus endured. And I want you to hear this one verse in Acts 4 .26.

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It says, The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

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And here's the prayer of the church in Acts 4. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

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Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to occur.

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That's the sovereign God that we worship. Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel, the Gentiles, all having very different motivations and sins within their own hearts to come against Jesus.

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And what does it say? That they all did these things to do what? To do whatever God's hand predestined to occur.

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Listen to this. All the evil, all the wickedness, all the malice, all the slander, all the false witness, all the murder in their hearts.

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It says this. God predestined that. Not that God made them sin.

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They would have done worse to Jesus, and if they could have killed him as a baby, they would have.

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But God restrains their evil through the life of Jesus until the moment where God says, now for my purpose in this moment, for my purpose, for my people,

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I'll release you to kill my son. God predestined the murder of Jesus to do what?

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To save his people from their sins. I thank

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God for the murder of Jesus. Have you stopped to think about it in that way?

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That's the sovereignty of God at work there. I thank God for the murder of Jesus. You might say this. How, Pastor Jeff, can

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I thank God for my pain, for the loss of this child, for the loss of this family member, for this suffering and these lies and all of this catastrophic stuff in my life?

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How can I possibly praise God and take delight in all this suffering and evil?

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I want to say this. Praise God for the murder of Jesus. Do you see? God decrees the end from the beginning so that even the murder of Jesus is something that I can say as a child of God that is a wicked act, and I delight in the

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God who predestined it to occur. Because why? His intentions were good, theirs evil.

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And they did not thwart his purpose. They didn't stay his hand. They didn't stop him from acting to redeem his people.

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And in your life and my life, our suffering, our trials, our darkness, in the end, we will be before the throne of God saying,

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God, I glorify you for every moment of my suffering, every moment of that difficulty, every pain, every loss.

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You're the good God. You always do right. And God, you intended it all for my good in this broken and evil world.

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God, you have the victory. Nobody stopped your plan in my place.

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Paul, just briefly, Acts 9 comes to Jesus.

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You're like, yay, Paul kills Christians and now converted, right? So blessing, blessing.

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They can't even get the Christian church to like let him in the door. He's got to have like a hype man next to him like, no, he's good.

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He's good, right? He's got to bring a guy that's like, no, I can vouch for him. He's for real. He's the real deal.

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But when he goes in Acts 9 to reason, he starts reasoning, people are taking oaths to kill him, right?

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They're like, I'm going to kill Paul. Paul had to endure false charges in a court,

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Acts 25. And I want you just to see this, and maybe we can finish here today.

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In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, I want you to see how

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Paul addresses these difficulties he endured.

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Look at Paul, the one who tells us God causes all things to work together for good.

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He has to endure people who are false Christians, false brethren. He has to endure danger constantly.

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And this moment in Paul in 2 Corinthians 11, it's just this moment of transparency that I love.

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And he says in 2 Corinthians 11, 16, he says, I repeat, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little, right?

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All these people that are trying to attack Paul's ministry, you just read above that, you'll see these people who are attacking his ministry and his message.

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He says this, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.

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What I'm saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would, but as a fool, since many boasts according to the flesh,

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I too will boast for you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves for you bear it.

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If someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on heirs or strikes you in the face to my shame,

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I must say we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I'm speaking as a fool.

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I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am

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I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one.

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I'm talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death.

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Five times I received at the hands of the Jews, the 40 lashes, less one.

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Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.

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A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

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And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

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Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to fall and I am not indignant?

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If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. So here's this moment where Paul is giving you this insight, right?

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All right, you want to talk about this? All right, let's talk about it. Do you know what

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I've endured for Jesus? Do you know what the Christian life has done for me?

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Where's this story? Where's this story in the propaganda from all the people today that talk about prosperity and health and wealth and, right, like you know

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God really is into you if like you have all this stuff and bigger houses and bigger cars and like that's what the gospel is about, right?

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Riches and wealth and health and all these different things. Charlatans. Here's a man who says,

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I've come to Jesus and this is the cost. Countless beatings. I've forgotten how many times.

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There were these times that I was given the 40 lashes minus one. I've been beaten with rods, constantly in danger.

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Here's what I've accepted to follow Jesus. Suffering. Trials, beatings, difficulties, dangers even from false brethren, false

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Christians, people who are attacking him, difficulties. And he's saying this and there's a constant anxiety that I have to deal with my concern for all the churches, all these difficulties and my anxieties for the churches.

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And then Paul later goes on to say about all this. He calls this this life of difficulty and pain.

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He says this. It is a light and momentary affliction. It's light and momentary compared to the glory to be revealed to us.

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What? You sound like a madman, Paul. You sound nuts.

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You do. Because who would take all these things and not abandon

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God? All this pain, all these persecutions, all of these things that seem completely out of control to God.

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Paul says this. Don't look at what is seen. Look what is unseen. It's a light and momentary affliction.

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God causes all these things to work together for good. All these things, all my sufferings, all my trials, all these difficulties.

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God is using it. It's in his control under his sovereign plan and will so that Paul actually has the mindset in Philippians.

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He actually says very clearly in the midst of all the difficulty in the dungeon and the darkness, not being able to stand up and hungry and anxious and all the beatings and trials.

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He says this to live as Christ, to die as gain. That's the truth.

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That's the summary of all of our stories to live as Christ and to die as gain.

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He even has this moment in Philippians where he says, I'm hard pressed. I don't know what I want to do.

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He says this to remain on with you means fruitful labor, right? It's blessing for you.

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I don't know what I want, but to depart and be with Christ is far better. And so I'm hard pressed between the two.

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I don't know what I want. Can I ask you a question? If you had to endure all these difficulties, all the slander, all of the backbiting, all the beatings, could you say that?

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Like, I don't know if I want to stay or go because like staying means fruitful labor. God's going to do something with that, but to go and to be with Christ is far better.

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I just don't know what I want. His perspective, knowing the sovereignty of God is this, all of this, every inch, every atom ordained by God, the trials, the beatings, the suffering, the malice, the bitterness, the slander, the gossip, the lies, all of it,

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God causes to work together for good for those who love him. Brothers and sisters, we are going to leave here hearing these truths and soon, sooner than we think, sooner than we're ready for, we're going to face death.

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Some of you guys have been here for a long time. You've been to the funerals.

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You've stood over the bodies. You've faced that with us together. We've wept together.

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We've grieved together. Soon and very soon, we're going to somehow face down poverty in some way, some fashion, some form.

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As a church body, we've faced that down more times than I can even remember, and I thank

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God for every moment of it. We needed that as a church. We needed it.

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Early on, an apology of church's history with babies, baby Christians, we needed the afflictions.

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We needed the moments where we had to do church discipline. We needed the moments of poverty.

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We needed the moments of pain because God allowed those things to shape us as a church and to draw us nearer to him.

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Everything you see here today is because of the foundation of pain behind us, pain that all of us can ultimately say,

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I thank God for that pain because it's what he used to accomplish in me what he's done.

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We're going to face down at some point in our future suffering through factions, gossip, slander.

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Here's the truth. God's sovereign over all of it. We deal with that all the time as a church.

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When you agree with God, I'll obey you, God. I'll lay my life down. I'll do the hard ministry. You become a target for Satan.

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When Satan knows your name, you become a target. And because we do difficult ministry and apology of church, we've been a church, a very small church, does a lot of damage by the grace of God, but also has had a lot of targets on us as a church.

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If you believed all the reports online about your pastor, you would be looking at a demon -possessed homosexual.

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Some of the stories I've seen online are really rather incredible things about yours truly.

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But here's the thing. All of this scripture tells us to see as light and might. It tells us to see as momentary.

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God uses these things to draw us close. He uses these things to sanctify us.

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And so can I just end with this? As we talk about the big stuff, right? Death, disease, suffering, slander, gossip, difficulty, factions, all the things that Paul dealt with.

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But I think we have to also bring that down a little tighter and look at even moments like, for example, in our marriages.

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For those of us who are married in this room right now, you can say all day long, husbands to your wife,

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God is sovereign. He caused all things to work together for good. But are you acting like that in your conflict with your wife?

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Do you believe that God's allowing that sin, that conflict, to purge something from you both, to transform you, to make you new, to draw you nearer to one another and to God?

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Yes, even the suffering and the sin and the difficulty in your marriage is doing something.

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It's producing something. Are you allowing God's truth to set into your marriage to see that, you know what?

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Maybe the answer is not divorce because God's out of control and my wife is out of control or my husband's out of control.

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This wasn't supposed to be and so we're gone. Or maybe as two of God's children, you should see that that suffering, that difficulty, that conflict is actually

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God allowing sin to be revealed so that it can be sanctified, changed, purged.

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Do you see? Do you allow these truths to get not just to the macro things but to the micro things that all suffering is meaningful?

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Suffering as a single person. What's God teaching you? A single woman. Where's my husband, God? Can I have my husband?

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Please send me a husband, God. Are you seeing that maybe in your suffering and in the trial you're in right now and the prayers and the waiting that God is doing something in you?

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Have you stopped to think about the fact that maybe God is allowing you to have to wait like you are because he wants you first and foremost to delight in him and to be satisfied in him above all else before he brings along the husband?

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Do you see God is sovereign over those macro things and the micro things? All of our suffering, all of our trials have meaning before God.

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He causes all things to work together for good. Brothers and sisters, I pray that that truth stays underneath us, above us, in front of us, behind us and that as a church body we rest in the sovereignty of God in our suffering.

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Let's pray. Father, please bless the message that went out for your glory. I pray that you'd use it to shape us, to change us, to strengthen us, to guard us, to protect us, to bring us joy in you.