Well, someday the path he chose
for me, that scripture says all the paths of the Lord are mercy
and truth for those that fear him, all of them. But someday,
with all be understood and heaven's clearer light, we'll see and
know perfectly then It won't be faith then, it'll be reality. And we'll say all things did
indeed work out. I love Brother Scott Richardson's
statement. And he went through many, many
deep trials. He said, if you knew what God
knows, you'd order your life exactly the way you ordered it. You wouldn't change a thing,
not one thing. All things work together. That's
verse 28. Verse 28. We know. We know. We know this in our head. We
believe the Scripture. Oh, that I might really know
it in my heart. And oh, that I might act like
it. All things work together. Oh, if we just trust the Lord.
If we just trust Him. We don't need to know what He's
doing. We just need to trust Him. And
we do know this, that all things work together for good. Who to who? Who's this we? It
says in verse 28, to them that love God. To them who are called
according to His purpose. Look at verse 1. There's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. What's that mean? We ought to
know that by now. It means to be in Him by faith. It means to trust in Christ. You don't trust in yourself,
do you? You trust in anybody else. Anybody. But who do you
trust in? Christ. That's what it means
to be in Christ. Trust in Him. Faith in Christ.
Do you need Jesus Christ? Do you need Him? That's what
it means to be in Christ. Have a need for him. Do you love
the gospel of Christ? Do you love to hear Christ exalted?
Do you love this fellowship around his gospel with his people? Do
you? You're in Christ. You're in Christ. And verse 2 says, verse 10 says
that Christ be in you. The body's dead because of sin,
the spirit's life because of righteousness. You're in Christ,
and Christ is in you. That's our hope of glory. Christ
in you. That's his new creature. And throughout this chapter,
and I know there's some verses that trouble you, but don't let
them trouble you. Let them comfort you. It talks
about the body being dead because of sin, but the spirit being
alive because of Christ. A new creature. A new spiritual
person that wasn't there before. And it talks about him being
led by the Spirit of God. You're not led by the Spirit
of God. You're not healed. It talks about,
look at verse 5, those that mind are after the flesh. Are you really going after this world and the
things of it? Are you? Is that what you're
after? Is that what you want? Well, no. I can look around this
room, most everybody in here, and I know, I know you. We've
got enough of this world, and what we have gives us trouble.
We're not after this thing. And I know we have the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the covetousness. We
have all these things, but it's not what we're after. It's not
what we want to think about. We do. Do you like to think about
the things of God? Do you mind the things of God? Do you think on things above?
Do you? Sure you do. Why are you here? Some of you have been coming
a long time. Why? This is Wednesday. This is optional. You're here. You love to come
here, don't you? It's because your heart and your
mind are set on things above. That wasn't there at one time,
was it? It wasn't there. The Spirit of God came through
the preaching of the gospel, and boom, born again, a new creature
in Christ. Now there's a new man inside,
a spiritual person who loves the things of God. Christ loves
the gospel. There's an old man whose body,
there's an old man that just keeps tugging at this body. The flesh, the flesh, the flesh,
that old man, the flesh, it's all about the flesh. There's
a new man. There's a struggle, there's a constant battle in
us. Is that in you? You're led by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is in you. The Spirit of Christ is in you.
There's a new person inside of you. Absolutely, there was a
time, it was a time, Romans 6 talks about a time, it was a time when
sin wasn't a problem, it was a pleasure. It was a pursuit. The world wasn't a problem, it
was your pursuit. But not now. Rejoice. Christ is in you. The Spirit of Christ is in you.
The Spirit of God, led by the Spirit. You know what the Spirit
of God does, who the Spirit of God speaks to our hearts about,
don't you? Christ said this. He said, I'm
going to pray to the Father, and he'll give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth. Do you love
the truth? Do you hate lies? There was a
time before you fell for all of that. You don't want to hear
the truth. I didn't want to hear the truth.
Here we go. I do now. That's the spirit of
God. And he says, he's the comforter. You can get comfort in this gospel.
Verse 17, Spirit of truth, the world can't receive him, because
it can seeeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him,
and he dwelleth in you, Christ said. He shall be in you. Christ
said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. He's the
Spirit of Christ. And he went on to say, the comfort
of the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he'll teach
you all things. He'll bring all things to your
remembrance that I've said of him. And in chapter 16, he said,
he'll take the things of mine and show them unto you. This
is who the Spirit of God dwells in. When you hear the things
of Christ, when you come here on Wednesday, when you come here
on Sunday, what do you want to hear? Huh? Christ. I talked to a woman, I think
I told you this woman, that goes to that circus tent out on 220.
I said, why do you go there? Why do you go there? She said,
because he makes me feel good about myself. Huh. Makes me feel like a better mother
and all that. Why do you come here? What would
you tell somebody? Why do you come here? Because
he preaches Christ, and I've got to hear Christ. I feel real
bad about myself. Boy, I feel real good when I
hear about Christ. That's the Spirit of God. That's
what all is to say in here. That's what all is to say. All
right, look at verse 15. Yeah, verse 15. He says, you've not received
the Spirit of bondage. That's the law. That's the law. We're not under
the law. Is that plenty? That's fear and bondage. You've received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Makes you cry, Abba,
Father. Down in verse 21, the Spirit
of God does this. Verse 22, verse 22, I'm sorry,
verse 23, the Spirit of God, verse 23, makes us groan within
ourselves. The world, the only reason the
world groans is over the temporary troubles they have, and they're
just hoping all these troubles will be over so they can go back
to, go back in the world and just have a big party. Right? God's people grown in this world
because they're not of it. They're not of it. The sin in
it is vexed us like Lot inside of them. The sin in us vexes
us. We're grown. We're grown. We're
the first fruit of the Spirit. You know, there was a time...
This is why... Do you love Ephesians 1? Ephesians
2, do you? Everybody in here knows these
scriptures by heart. All right, here's what it said. And you,
Hathee Quicken, who were dead in trespass and sin, in time
past you walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, a spirit now that worketh
unto children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in time past, in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. Just like everybody else. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love, God's purpose to adopt us, to set His love on us. Even when
we were dead and trespassed in sin, here in His love, while we were
yet sinners, I started to bring this illustration
up Sunday and give it to you tonight. Brother Scott Richardson
once said, there's lots of books not worth reading, lots of movies
not worth watching, lots of things not worth doing, and on and on
he went. You remember that? Well, this was a movie that was
worth watching. Don't ask me the name of it. I don't want
you to ask me. I want you to remember this message. But many
of you now watch this movie set years ago in Ireland. And there
was a boy, a red-headed boy in an orphanage, among other red-headed
or dark-headed Irish boys, rough, bad, poor, just a sad situation. Well, a beautiful woman came
by that orphanage one day, red-headed, and she chose this boy, this
one boy, out of all of us, she could have had any of them, she
chose this one boy. And she set her love on him,
and she brought him home, brought the boy in and told him, you're
going home with this lady. What? You're leaving the orphanage. You're going home. She's chosen
me. Yeah, you're going home with
her. And she took him home, brought him home, and fed him a meal
he hadn't had in his life. Clothed him with the best clothes,
comforted him. He had his own room, had a room,
a place prepared for him. He couldn't believe it. He just
stood there. Remember that minute? He stood there. This is mine? Well, her husband was a stern
man. Or so it seemed. He was really
very, very, very kind. Loved him. And the boy feared
the man, feared him. But he was a very kind man. And
that man loved his wife more than life itself, didn't he?
Oh, he showed it, didn't he? He loved, she was his life, that
man, okay. And there was some adoption papers,
and the boy noticed the father hadn't signed them. And the father's watching that
boy. Okay. Well, that boy fell in love with
that woman, his mother. Oh, how he loved her for all
that she'd done for him. And one day, this was very touching,
they were sitting there looking out over the sea and he said,
can I call you mom? She said, yes. Well, she died. She got sick and died. Devastated,
the boy. Just devastated. And he was so
distraught that he got in a little boat and went out in the sea
and almost drowned with the father. Came after him and rescued him. Fell on his neck and kissed him and brought him
home. And seeing, here's the moral of that story, here's what
happened. The father saw how much that boy loved his wife. The father's wife. He signed the papers. He signed
the papers. He said, son, you love her, I
love you. You're mine now. Isn't that what
Christ said? Father loveth you as you love
me. And he prayed to the father.
He said, father, all mine are thine, and thine are mine. I
will that they be with me where I am. God signed the papers,
his oath and his covenant. We have a spirit of adoption.
You can cry. And the boy said this in the end of the movie,
he said, can I call you dad? Yes, son, you can. He called him father. He feared
him, but he loved him. Now, we know. That's who knows. We know. Those who are led by the Spirit
of God, those who mind the spirit of the spiritual
things, have their heart and mind and affections set on things
above, on Christ, those who love God the Son, love his truth,
love his gospel, love his people, love his kingdom. They love God
as God. They don't God's people love
God as God. Those that love God love God
as God. They love that He's sovereign
over everything. They love that. They don't question Him. They
love His sovereignty. Whatever He does, even to them. Job said, though He slay me,
I'll trust Him. God did slay all His children. Job still trusted Him. The Lord
gave it to them. The Lord took them away. Bless
His holy name. Now we know, those who love God,
are called according to His purpose. What is His purpose? Those who
are called, and it went on to say whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate, whom He predestinated, called. You've been called by
the gospel. I know you have. Still being called. You're still
answering. You're still coming. What is God's purpose? Well,
Christ says, this is the will of Him that sent me, that of
all which seeth the Son, believeth on Him, should have everlasting
life. And all do what? See the Son. See His glory. See their need in Him. Christ
crucified and worship Him and believe on Him. That's what He
said. This is the Father's will. This is the purpose of God, that
they would have eternal life. Christ said, I will raise them
up. I will. Our Lord said in the, well, in Ephesians, yeah, our Lord
said in Ephesians 1, Now this is the will of God. He's made
known unto us the mystery of His will, that in dispensation
of the fullness of time, He's going to gather together in one
all things in Christ. If you enjoy this now, and I
believe you do, you do it. It's all working together to
bring us all together Someday, together, around the throne of
our Lord, worshiping, singing, high. Does that appeal to you? That's His purpose. That doesn't
appeal to everybody. That doesn't appeal to everybody.
Now, we know. We know. We know His purpose, alright?
All things are of God. All things are for Christ. We know that. God made everything
for Christ. We love that. We love the Son.
He well deserves a praise. Everything. All things are for
His glory. All things are for our good. To bring us to Christ in this
game. All things. Good and bad. Evil. There's no evil. For God's sake, it's all good.
And he went on to say, didn't he say, nothing shall separate
us. Doesn't matter what it is. Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, sore, that won't separate us. Death,
life, angel, principality, power, things present. What is presently
going on? Is it going to separate us? No.
It's going to bring us closer. Well, things
to come. What's coming? Worse. Count them. You can count them.
Nothing. Nothing. It's all good. All good. Many things happen we cannot
see how this is going to be any good. No. I don't hardly, I don't
usually recommend my own preaching, but I can recommend this message
from Psalm 27. Where David said, I would have
fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. Wait, I said. Wait on the Lord.
Waiting for something good to come out of trouble. That was
the title of it. Waiting for something good to
come out of trouble. There are times when we think,
how can anything good come out of this? Well, we just wait. And you'll see. You're going
to see. Yeah, yeah. You'll see. And you're
going to think, why did I doubt him? Why did I doubt him? And
no reason, he gave me no reason to doubt him. It's all good.
Now, I told somebody this, Brother David Edmonds and I were talking,
John Chapman and I, I love John Chapman. We were talking on the
phone, we talked eight minutes. He's a man of few words on the
phone, and I don't like to talk long either. But we went from
Genesis to Revelation in eight minutes. But I said, John, I
think good preaching is here. And John rarely preaches over
30 minutes. I said, good preaching is about Christ, about 30 minutes,
about 30 scriptures quoted, and three good illustrations. That's
good preaching. So I'm going to give you three
illustrations from God's word. Okay. Three good ones. And Mandy,
I told her about this. She said, what about this? What
about that? I said, this must be 30 minutes. Okay. Do you know how many illustrations? Everybody in this book will attest
to the fact that it all worked together for good. Everybody. Starting from Abel to Adam to
all the way on. But the first one, Jacob. Go
to Genesis 42 with Jacob. You know, God calls Himself the
God of Jacob more than any other title. Jacob. There's only one person in Scripture
mentioned more than Jacob. It's David. Jacob. From Genesis 25 to Genesis 50,
it's the life of Jacob. Who's Jacob? Nobody. A sinner. Genesis 42. Old Jacob. A sinner. That's what his name
meant. Cheap. Surplanter. Sneaky. Sinner, but God. And what psalm
is it, John, that says, happiest either hath the God of Jacob
for his help? God chose Jacob. He chose to
love Jacob. Jacob have I loved. Esau? Esau ain't worth loving. Well,
Jacob wasn't either. But God. He loved Jacob. He chose Jacob. He made promises
to Jacob. Promise after promise after promise
to Jacob. Not, if you'll do this, Jacob,
I'll do this. No, no. He wasn't conditioned on Jacob. He kept telling Jacob, this is
what I'm going to do for you. You're going to do all this.
I made an oath and a covenant concerning you because I love
you. Jacob. Well, Jacob deceived his
brother. Jacob deceived his father. Jacob
was hated by his brother, and his brother went after him, and
he ran from his brother, ran away from home. And he got married. He married bad. He didn't marry
the one he wanted. Married again. And what did he want? Well, her
father-in-law, their father-in-law, didn't like Jacob. And they had
a fallout. And he ran away from him. He
ran away from his father-in-law. Well, he had children. A bunch
of sons. Twelve sons. Ten of them were
no good. Ten of them. No good. Had a daughter. She got in trouble. Bad trouble.
Children. Gave him nothing but trouble.
And his wife he loved so much died. His wife died. Nothing but trouble at home.
His wife died. Ran from home. And then his 17-year-old
son, the apple of his eye, was killed. He thought. He thought he was dead. Okay,
so he's gone through all this trouble. And then there was a
dirth throughout the land, a famine hit. And they were desperate. The whole family was hungry.
And he sends his sons for food. And one of them was put in prison.
Right now, one's dead and one's in prison. And this is where we pick up,
okay? Genesis 42, look at verse 36. And they came back and told
Jacob, their father, said, that man on the throne, he's sovereign. And he told us. He said, if you
don't bring your youngest son back, you're not going to see
my face, Dad. He meant it. And Jacob said this,
verse 36. He said, Jacob, their father
said unto them, Me, have ye bereaved of my children? Joseph is not.
Simeon is not. Are you going to take away Benjamin?
All things are against me. It's all going against me. Nothing could be further. Jacob, most of what you have
gone through, you brought it on yourself. Jacob, most of what
you went through, you brought it on yourself, but God brought
you through it all. His grace has been sufficient.
He showed you that over and over again. All against you? No. Well, listen. Joseph, the son
he thought was dead? He lives. The one that Jacob
loved, he's alive. Jacob loves Joseph. Joseph loved
Jacob. Oh, what a picture that is. And
so the son he thought was dead is alive, sent word. Good news. What was it? I'm alive. Look
at chapter 45. Oh, this is wonderful. This is
our Lord's good news of the gospel. Verse 9, he sent news, said,
Haste, go up to my father and say unto him, Thus saith thy
son Joseph, thus saith the Son, God hath made me Lord. Isn't
that Philippians 2? Come, come to me, come unto me. No, Terry, come now. Why? You're going to dwell in the
land of God. This Egypt, it's mine. And I'm going to give you the
best place in it, Dad. Against you? Oh, no. See, we could have talked about
Joseph. All against him? Oh, no. Oh, I'm going to nourish you,
he said. Your children, your flocks, your herds, all that
you have, I'm going to nourish you. There's yet five years of
famine. It says he fell on his brother
Benjamin's neck, wept. They all wept. Oh, tears of joy. So Jacob went from, everything's
against me, to joy unspeakable and full of glory. And then the
son sums it up in chapter 50. You want to run over there real
quick? Joseph sums it all up in chapter
50, verse 20 and 21. He says this. He says, as for you, you thought
evil against me, but God meant it unto good. It's all good. Bring to pass,
as it is this day, save much people alive. Now, therefore,
fear ye not. This is Christ speaking to us.
I will nourish you and your little ones. I'll nourish you and your
little ones. And he comforted them and spoke
kindly unto them. I'm told to comfort God's people.
Comfort, comfort even my people. Tell them all things work together
for good. You want another one? I said
three. It gets better. No, it doesn't get any better.
I've heard of the little book of Ruth. Little book of Ruth. Give you time to find it. Ruth. The next person, we're going
to talk about a woman. It's not Ruth. It's Naomi. She's spoken of more than Ruth
in this book, you know that? What Boaz did, he did it first
for Naomi. Naomi was his kin, not Ruth. Okay? The Book of Ruth. Naomi. Naomi left home. You know the
story. She left home. She shouldn't have. Should she? She's dwelling in Bethlehem with
God's people. She left there and went to a
pagan land, Moab. Why'd she do that? She shouldn't
have left there. Plenty of people stayed there.
Boaz stayed there. She left. Opportunity went out
in the world. Oh, she got bad, didn't she? Got bad. She's young. She's rich. She leaves. people of God. And it goes on. Verse 2 of chapter 1, the name
of this man she was married to was Elimelech, and the name of
his wife was Naomi, and the name of her two sons, Malon and Chalion,
they eat the fruits of Bethlehem Judah. That's the Lord's country. They came into the country of
Moab and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband,
died. Her husband died. And she was left with her two
sons. Well, they got married. Who did they marry? Two unbelievers. And in verse 5, both of her sons
died. Now back then, women didn't have
rights to anything. Talking about women's rights?
They didn't have rights to anything. Men owned everything. So whoever
you were married to, He said, that's a good typing. We're joint
heirs with Christ. We get everything. Well, she lost it all. She lost
everything. He lost her husband and his women
in here know about that. He lost her sons. Women in here
know something about that. Now she's alone, lonely, she's
suffered all this loss, and now she loses all her earthly possessions. She has nothing. It's bad, isn't it? Can it get
any worse? How can anything good come out
of this? You're smiling because you know
the end of the story. Oh, that they were wise and would consider
their latter end. She didn't know that, though.
Imagine how she felt. Well, here she comes. Chapter
1. She came back, verse 19. They
went to Bethlehem. Back. Going back. Oh, the Lord
brought them back. And it came to pass when they
came into Bethlehem, verse 19, oh, the city was moved. Now she's
an old woman. I said, is this Naomi? Is this
that young girl that left? Had the world by the tail, had
all these things, and now she's poor and needy and destitute
and old. How old was she? I don't know,
maybe 60 or 70. She left her home once and went
away, and now she has to leave Isn't that awful to have to leave
your home? Well, she shouldn't have left,
but she did. And now, is that bad that she has to leave? No,
no, no. No, no, no. She needs to leave
that place. She needs to go back. But she
thought, am I ever going to be settled? I'm 70 years old. Will I ever
be settled? Will I ever find rest? Oh, yes, Naomi. You're about
to meet a man who will not rest until you find rest. Chapter
2 begins this way. Naomi had a kinsman. I hollered, Sunday. I'm ready to
holler right now. Naomi had a kinsman. His name
was Boaz. Blood kin. Only one who could
restore everything she lost. Only one. She didn't know him. Now, you
know the rest of the story. Look at verse 16. You remember
when Boaz said concerning Ruth, let fall handfuls of purpose
for her? What about Naomi? Oh, yeah. Handfuls. Basket loves. Like Jacob's sons. Wagons. They went with baskets and came
home with wagons. And Jacob still said, it's all
against me. Oh, no. Baskets more than they deserve. Wagons? It's all handfuls of
purse. All handfuls of purse. And then
chapter four, look at this. So Bo asks, after you know the
story, that Naomi sent Ruth to Glean, and she just happened
to light on the field that belonged to the only one who could buy
back everything that they both loved. Only one that would give
them rest and peace. Only one. She just happened to
land in the place where their camp had been redeemed. How many so-called churches are
there in Franklin County? Verse 1, it says, Boaz went up
to the gate and sat down in the gate. Our Lord is seated in it. And behold, the kinsman of whom
Boaz spake came by," and it's the law, represents the law,
and he said, "'Ho, such a one! Come here, I got something to
talk to you about. Sit down.'" And verse 3, he said,
"'Naomi, I want to talk to you about Naomi.'" Now, she's lost
everything, and I'm here to buy it back. I'm here to buy everything back
and give it back to Naomi. He said, you have to buy Ruth,
too. Buy her, too. In fact, I want to marry her.
That's mine. She's mine. Naomi, what do you
want with that old woman? She's mine. See, this is about
Naomi as much as it is Ruth. Now look at this, in the end,
verse 13, Boaz took Ruth, she was his wife, went into her,
the Lord gave her conception, she bare a son. The women said,
Naomi, blessed be the Lord that hath
not left thee. They were saying, Naomi, you're
blessed. Not left thee without a kinsman.
Verse 15, he's a restorer of your life, a nourisher of thine
old age, and your daughter-in-law who loveth thee better than seven
sons. Verse 16, so Naomi took the child
and laid it in her bosom, and she nursed it. How could an old
woman? She did. And the women, her neighbors,
gave it a name and said, this is the son born to Naomi. It's Naomi's son. Who is it? Obed. Father Jesse. Father David. Grandpa. Naomi. Yes, all things work together
for good. One more, okay? Act 16. One more. It's been 30, I'm sorry,
38 minutes. But this is good. Act 16. Acts
16. I'm sorry, I don't mean to wear
you. Do you remember what old Paul
said he went through? Now here's another man in the
New Testament, Paul the Apostle. Nobody went through more than
him, except our Lord. The only person that went through
more was our Lord, Paul. Listen to what all Paul went
through. And he's the one that said things like, it's our light
affliction. He says, it's not worthy to be compared with the
glory of the shining. He said, I forget it. I'm going
to forget yesterday's troubles. Here's what he said in 2 Thessalonians
11, let me just read to you. He said, I was beaten five times
with forty stripes. I was beaten with rods another
time. That's six times. Beaten. Beaten. Stoned. Took rocks and tried
to beat his brains out. Three times a shipwreck. Don't
you know, a night and a day in the deep, laying, hanging on
a piece of wood. How's anything good going to
come out of there? A night and a day. Journey is
often perils of water, perils of robbers, perils of my own
countrymen, perils of heathen, perils of the city, perils in
the wilderness. We're not in any of those perils. Perils in the sea, perils among
false brethren, weariness, painfulness, watching, hunger, thirsting,
fasting, cold, nakedness. Beside all the responsibility
of all the people who were pulling at me, all the churches everywhere,
trying to travel, go preach the gospel to them. He said, who's
weak and I'm not weak? All right, Acts 16. Another one
of those times. where he was in this city just
preaching the gospel. Just preaching the gospel. And
down in verse 22, the multitude rose up together against him
and Silas, and the magistrates ripped their clothes off and
commanded, Beat them! And this was a mob. And they
took them and laid many stripes on them. They jerked their clothes
off and beat them within an inch of their life. This is a mad
mob, and they're not sparing those. And his back is ripped
to shreds. Okay? How can anything good come
out of this? Is God behind him? Yes, he is.
Wait. Hang on. We're going to read
the end of the story. I'll say now, in verse 24 or
23, they cast him into prison. They didn't, you know, usher
him in. They threw him in there. In verse 24, the jailer received
the jailer, who was a rough, gruff, mean fellow. He loved inflicting pain. He thrust him into that prison. And now Paul's hurting bad enough,
he put iron on his flesh. Who's doing this? How can this be good? All things
work together. How? Well, Paul woke up at midnight. He said, Pilate, he didn't sleep. He's too much pain. But he punched
Silas. Silas, let's pray. Lord, we don't
know what you're doing, but we know you're doing it. Lay not this sin in their jars.
Lord, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. This jailer, he doesn't know. Lord, this jailer doesn't
know what he's doing. He's just like I was, Lord. I did the same
thing to people. And this jailer did it to me. I deserve it, Lord. I deserve
worse than this, Lord. Lord, forgive him, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Silas, let's sing. Let's sing. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. And what happened? An earthquake. The bars came
up. Chains fell off. You know, had
a jager come running in. The jager come running in. What's
going on? Look, oh no, oh no, your chains
are off. They thought all the prisoners
are gone. And if a man loses one print, they're going to kill
him. So the jailer said, I'm going to kill myself. Paul said,
don't do it. Don't do it. We're all here.
Here you are, aren't you? He said, would you tell me about
this Lord you were just calling on? And he brought him out, brought
him in home, washed his stripes. The Lord saved him and all his
house. The Lord started the church there,
the church of Philippi. How can anything good come out
of this? Paul says, if you ask Paul,
would you go through that again, Paul? Would you be beaten like
that again for that old jailer? I sure would. It's worth it all. You see, we know all things work
together for good in the love of God. All things. So let's just trust Him, okay?
And let's just wait. And we're going to see. And we're
going to shout to high heaven. Thank You, Lord. Thank You. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You. Oh, thank
You for Your wisdom and Your love, Your mercy, Your grace,
Your kindness to us in Christ. Would that we believed you more.
Would that we trusted you more. Forgive us, Lord, for our unbelief.
We believe. Help our unbelief. Forgive us.
Forgive us. You're too wise to err. You're
too good to do wrong or evil. Too kind not to show mercy. Everything is mercy and truth.
All you've had. Mercy and truth. Lead us to Christ.
Bring us to Him. Let's just trust you. Let's just
follow you. We pray. That's our prayer. Thank you
for your word. Thank you for your people. Give
us peace. Give us comfort. In Christ's
name, amen.