what Zach was talking about there. And I know I've been there before. I remember the very first time I preached and had a whole litany of stuff that I wanted to say. I probably had about 15 pages wrote out and delivered it all in about a minute and a half. And I think I ended it the way you do. Well, that's all I got. I got done.

But despite all that, I think the gist of what Zach was saying is true, is that God has a purpose through all that. It's actually quite amazing, brethren, the direction that God has brought us this morning. Brother Larry came in the door on his heart and on his mind, last few weeks now, but this morning came in and was sharing with us some things that he's a Lord's taking him through and not only taking him through but involving him in as far as persecution of people across the world Christians and and everything and the affliction that people are going through and everything and my thoughts was going that direction this morning. On mine, when Zach pulled me aside and said, hey, I'd like to speak this morning if I can and everything. And here's some verses. So we went down my desk and kind of seen what he was going to talk about this morning and everything.

And it was kind of almost the same direction I was going. And then the song selections this morning was The song selection that I picked, I didn't actually pick it because it had affliction in there. I picked it because it said, if the title was be still and know that I am the Lord, but then it was full of affliction. And then Lori count your blessings and everything that she chose and brother Larry's song and everything.

So the Lord seems to be directing that this morning. And so I'm thankful for the message, son. And again, to any of you brothers, anytime the Lord lays anything on your heart, just, I don't mind if we're here two, three, four hours, letting everybody talk. We're just, we're here for the Lord and we're here to worship. And if you have something that you'd like to say, you're welcome to it.

I would kind of like to continue on in the same train of thought that Zach has been talking about this morning. He'll turn to Joe chapter 36. Share a few share a few thoughts that I had on on the same. Subject matter. You know a lot of times. A lot of times the sovereign grace folks we generally don't. Talk about. everyday living type stuff very often. And there's a reason for that, and I don't want to get too sidetracked on it, but there's a reason for it because a lot of times when you get into that, you get into emotional, mushy, mushy, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, self-help type discussions, right?

It becomes an issue where we start talking about everyday living and practical living, and anytime you start talking about practical living, it's always gonna revert back to works, where the message of the church, the message of the gospel, the message of the gospel preacher is always to be Christ and Him crucified. He alone is our source. He alone is the author and the finisher. He alone is the one. who has accomplished all things and is in control of all things.

And so that's one of the reasons why you don't hear a lot of practical living messages like you do in a lot of modern churches. In New Testament churches, you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached and proclaimed. Now, with that being said, that doesn't mean that the exhortations and the admonitions and the encouragements like Zach gave this morning You know, it's good to know that, you know, we're not alone. You know, the Lord's people has been through all the things that we go through.

I mean, I didn't even think about the thing about Elijah and suicide. You know, I hear all the time Christians saying, oh, if you're a Christian, you'd never think about doing suicide. You know, you'd never think about committing suicide. Well, that's not true. That's not true.

You know, we're all susceptible to our emotions and our feelings and our circumstances and the afflictions of our life and everything. And look, Elijah was a man of God who had just come out of the men he slayed, was the prophets of Baal, where he had just came and proved God to be true and the false gods of this world to be truly false. And then after he made literally a spectacle of the people of Baal, he turned around and slayed all those prophets. Now, I don't remember. There was a lot of them there, son. I don't remember exactly how many there was. I think the Bible does say how many there was, but I don't remember.

But right after that, whenever threatened by a woman, he ran off to the juniper tree and wanted to die. This was a man of God, and again, God was directing his steps. The Bible says, you know, that man devises his ways, but God directs his steps. God directed his steps down to that juniper tree and put within him the thoughts that he had. But just like Abraham stayed in his hand before he sacrificed Isaac, he stayed Elijah's hand before Elijah did anything, you know, any further than that. But to say that we don't go through those things, really, and I've learned this as a pastor over the years. Pastors, a lot of times, they think, number one, that they have to have an answer for everything.

And sometimes we don't. And sometimes it's best to say, I don't know, than to just start blurting out things to either make you look smart or to save face that you don't know, okay? But a lot of times we start trying to talk people into and saying stuff. And all we do is we end up making things worse than if we just listen. Sometimes it's best to just listen and just be there and love the people.

But this affliction that Zach was talking about, these occurrences that we experience in life, these things are common. to man. The Bible says that you're not gonna go through anything that's not common unto man. And that all these things, as Zach said, is nothing new under the sun. We're not experiencing anything new that people of God hadn't already done.

In Job chapter 36 and verse 15, we have this promise. He delivereth the poor in his, Notice that. He delivers the poor in his affliction and openeth their ears in oppression. Now, if you just kind of read over that quickly, you miss the one word used twice there that makes the whole entire verse work, makes the whole entire verse have meaning. In. He didn't say, he delivereth the poor from his afflictions. And he didn't say, and openeth the ears to not hear oppression. No, in oppression, in affliction. How does God deliver the poor in affliction? Brethren, whenever we go through strife, A lot of times that opens our ears, if you would, if you use the language here of this verse, strife opens the ears for us to be able to hear God when sometimes we won't hear God, whenever there's no strife.

You know, whenever there's no strife, we're just clicking along life, going around, hey, all's good. And what do we do? We become self-reliant. We become prideful. We become boastful. We just, you know, nothing's wrong with us. We're just clicking right along. But whenever God begins to speak through affliction to us, we get silenced all of a sudden, right? We'll be silenced.

And he says here, he delivereth the poor. So that tells me that there is something that we need to be delivered from. And in that delivering, God has chosen to use affliction and strife to do it. See, a lot of times whenever we are living under, whether it's monetary, or whether it's material, or whether it's even just spiritual prosperity, whenever we live with that, A lot of times our ears become dull to what God is teaching us or God is telling us. And so God uses that affliction. He uses that hardships. He uses that, uh, oppression to sharpen our ears, to hear about spiritual things.

I'm sure every one of us. And just like Zach said, you know, God bringing us through all these things and everything. and he's in control of everything. Well, that's one of the things that we learn as we come through these things. You know, you guys have heard Larry give his testimony all the time about what he went through with the state of Missouri and everything and what he's learned through all that. We've also heard him talk about all the belief systems that they've been involved in. Well, all those come with strife and all those come with affliction. and everything.

All of us have experienced that as we have come out of modern churches, you know, and God has brought those things to us because our ears don't hear whenever those things are absent from us. You know, we don't need God whenever everything's good, but whenever everything is tough, when do we start to cry out to God? Whenever things are bad. Well, whenever we do that, okay, God, you've got my attention. Now, remembering in all of this, God is sovereign over all of it. God has a purpose and predestinated it all for his purpose.

And so we see that this delivering through affliction and giving our ears attentiveness through oppression is the purpose of God. And affliction is a divine instruction to us. Deliverance is found not outside of our affliction, but it's found inside, as it says here. He delivered the poor in his affliction. So to be delivered from our self-reliance be delivered from our pride and arrogance and boastfulness and self-righteousness and everything, it has to be in affliction. Now, God is the most wise God, and he has chosen to do that.

Look if you would over at Isaiah 48 in verse 10. He says, behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen thee in, there it is again. I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. God has chosen to bring you into the furnace of affliction to refine you.

So think about it that way, whenever you're going through these and you see all these hardships and all these trials, that God is purifying me, God is refining me. Now, whenever I say purifying, I'm not meaning make you less and less holy, I mean more and more holy and less and less sinful. God is purifying you in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's bringing you to understand more of him and more of who you are in yourself and who you are in him.

Again, this growth that we experience in the Christian life isn't ever a growth in less sinfulness. Matter of fact, the more that we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more we begin to see and more we see of our sinfulness.

Okay. A lot of times affliction brings this up. That's why God brought Job through what he brought Job through. Okay. Job wasn't being punished by God for something that he had done. That's what all his friends was accusing God of. All of his friends was telling Job, Job, you've obviously, you've done something that's made God mad and God's punishing you for it. And Job is like, I've not done anything and God's not punished me for this. This is not why this is happening. And at the end of all this, Job did learn something. and realized something and God exposed something in Job and God exposed to Job himself. It was through that affliction.

And here we see that God equates this or God uses as an example, refining metal. Whenever you take metal and you refine it, you put the heat to it, all the stuff that's not pure comes to the top cleaned out to where all that's left is just the pure metal, whether it's gold, silver, whatever it is, and everything. It's taken off the dross, what we call it is the dross, right? And so the turmoil that God brings us through, it refines us like the metal.

It's all the stuff out there that is not right for us to see and to know. We also know, as it says right here, that God has chosen this for us. So God has appointed us to this, and that it is not punitive. It is for our good. It's for purifying. It is for refining us.

And you know what affliction and hardships do? As it did in Job, it exposes or manifests the grace that's being wrought in our hearts. So if you remember whenever Job was afflicted, before he was afflicted, the Bible says that Job worshiped God and honored God, made sacrifices for his children often.

Now, whenever Job came into his trial, what was it that Job was being tried for? You all remember? Remember the conversation that happened between God and Satan? Satan came before God and accused God of harboring a shield around Job. The only reason that Job worships you, trusts in you, believes in you, hopes in you, is because you've put a hedge around him and have protected him and have prospered him and you've done all good to him. And the only reason that Job does that is because you have blessed him beyond measure. But if you would remove that, old Job would turn right back around to the old Adamic man and would curse you and die. That's what the accuser of the brethren said before God about Job. And God didn't, Let Satan have his way. God appointed Satan.

You can go down and you can take everything that he has. You can take all of his money, all of his household. You can take everything from him. You can take his health, but you can't kill him. That's the only thing you can't. You can't kill him. And Satan did. He took everything away. Give him all them boils that was all over him from head to toe. took everything that Job had, and he was like that for quite a while.

And the purpose of that was not necessarily to make Job better, even though it did, not to necessarily reveal God and who he is, which it did, Job said, hey, You know, he heard God out of the whirlwind and he said, man, I've spoken those things that I don't know nothing about. I repent in dust and ashes. It did do that. But what was the purpose of the trial of Job?

It was to prove God's faithfulness God's faith that he gives his people cannot be disannulled. It cannot be removed. It cannot be defeated. When God gives it to us and strengthens us in it, it stays, it goes. It was proof of the grace that God had wrought in Job. If God had not wrought grace in Job by giving him faith and hope, Job would have cursed God and died. He would have went back to that Adamic mentality. Poor old me. He would have been like Elijah on the precipice of giving in and giving up. But it showed God's faithfulness. It proved who God was.

So when God takes you through trials, He is proving not only to you, but maybe to those around you. He is proving his faithfulness in the grace that he has been writing into your heart. And he is building up on that. He is giving you grace and he's giving you faith and he's giving you patience and he's giving you endurance and he's giving you hope. All these things are the things that God is doing for you. So it reveals all the things that God is doing and exposes us.

But also, brethren, this is also a place where God brings us in for communion with him. Now, this is something that took a long time for me to really get a grasp on, is that affliction, hardships, trials, turmoil that we are brought through is the way that God brings us into communion with him. Again, just like, just like Zach was mentioning a while ago, you know, a lot of times we don't ever think about things until God does something like this. You know, sometimes we don't ever pray until God puts it upon our mind about something that, you know, I'm sure Zach this morning was probably praying before we got up here for the first time, you know, Whenever I know that something is happening to me as far as affliction and stuff is concerned, what does that do?

That drives me to commune with God. It drives me to commune with Him. Now, is God doing that because He wants our communion and craves our communion? No, God doesn't need anything. But God knows, God has determined, God has predestinated that our closeness to him, our drawing nigh to him, sometimes takes affliction. Because again, why? Pride, self-reliance, self-righteousness, all these things makes us think that we can fend for ourselves. And whenever we can fend for ourselves, we don't commune with God because we don't need God. We're doing all right. but it's a place that God brings us for communion. Look if you would at Psalms 119. Psalms 119. Psalms here in verse 71 says this, It is good for me that I have been afflicted. I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands, but how many of y'all said that? I've preached on this verse before and I still don't say that.

I've talked about how that ought to be the thoughts of our heart, but I still don't do that unless God brings me to it. But how does God bring me to that? How does God bring me to be able to say it's good for me that I be afflicted? Well, I have to be afflicted. I have to go through affliction for God to be able to give me the place and the grace to say it's good for me that I be afflicted. Why? That I might learn thy statutes. See, affliction is God's classroom for grace. It's where we learn His grace. It's where we learn, according to here, we learn His statutes, right? We learn His scripture. Scripture becomes precious to us.

You know, sometimes in the greatest afflictions that the Lord has brought me through, has drove me to search His word, and I find consolation. Because the only place, my wife is, you know, she gives great support, my kids give great support, you guys here at the church, give great support, friends and family. You know, they're very supportive, but nothing can support the heart like going to God's word and reading the promises that God has made. The things that he has said about what he is for you and what he does for you and how he brings you through these things.

Just like Zach, reading those verses to him, it may have probably seemed scattered. I know whenever I preach, a lot of times it seems scattered. First time I ever preached, it seemed like that did have no, I mean, there was no direction. It was just shotgun bullets everywhere.

It may seem like that, but whenever we come to God's word, all of a sudden, through affliction, we are drove back time and time and time again to be focused upon what God is doing for us, what God has promised for us. And all these afflictions and all these purposes that God is doing is, as we have learned many times, is for our good and for his glory.

Always for our good and for his glory. And so scripture becomes a precious place for us to run to And that gives us that comfort. It gives us that solace. It gives us that hiding place that whenever I come in, I know that God is for me and not against me. I know that God loves me with an everlasting love and that God has his thoughts towards me to do good for me and not evil against me. So Lord, please in this affliction, it seems like you are against me. Show me that you're not against me.

And we go to his word and his word reminds us over and over and over some of the things that Zach read, some of the things that I've read this morning, that these things are for our good, that he is bringing us closer, drawing us nigh to him. drawing us closer to Him.

And God's Word becomes illuminated through our suffering. It shines a different light on it than it does when we're not under suffering. And that trouble, it teaches what not being in trouble can never teach us. I can never learn these things if I don't come under these things. And so my pride and my self-righteousness and my boasting, all these things that we've been talking about, all of these things are highlighted whenever God brings me through affliction.

And it shows me, hey, Mike, you still have it there. You know, Paul continued in Romans 7. He says, you know, I keep wanting to do the good, but it's always the evil that I do. It's always there before me. The wretched man is always there. It's always there. It's always there. and it becomes a struggle and an affliction to our soul of who we are in Adam.

But yet there's the consolation of Romans 8.1. There's therefore now no condemnation. There is the sinner who is justified. There is always this tug and this tension, this tug and pull. There was always this back and forth that we're always gonna experience, brethren, And affliction is part of that. Affliction is this tug and pull that God does with us by putting us under these things so that it might refine us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Romans 5. Romans chapter five. If you would, verse one.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations. See, we're not just glorying in the high times. Hey, we've been justified. We stand at peace with God. but we rejoice in the tribulations. We glory in the tribulations. Why?

Well, because we also know that because of our standing with Christ Jesus and the peace that we've made with God, nothing is gonna separate us from the love of God. Nothing is gonna take away the hope that we have at the end. Nothing is gonna diminish that or take that away from us. but to enjoy and to know the God who has done that for us, to draw us into that deeper relation and view of who He is, He brings us into tribulations. He brings us into things that will teach us and grow us in things that we never could, as I said a while ago. And look what it says there, it said, we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh Patience.

Now, how many of us, and I know I have, I say this a lot, I wished I had more patience. I wish I had more patience. I'm not a very patient person sometimes. Whenever I get it into my mind that I want to do something, I want to do it, and I want to do it right now. I want to do it when I want to do it, okay? At work, sometimes I don't have a lot of patience. with my machinery that I'm working with, sometimes with the circumstances of the day, where I'm at, where I'm going, where I have to go next.

And God teaches me patience through tribulation. But guess what? That patience will never be tried or refined had I not been taken through that tribulation. If the tribulation didn't exist, I never would know more patience. Which by the way, everyone talks about the patience of Job. It isn't Job was able to wait it all out. That's not what the word patience meant. The word patience, whenever it talked about the patience of Job in the scriptures, it talks about the endurance. That's what God was doing in Job is proving that his divine faith in Job would cause Job to endure.

God has promised you the faith of Jesus Christ. If you are his child, that he has given you the faith of Jesus Christ and that faith and that faith alone, not your tenacity, not your wits, not your abilities, But the faith of Christ alone that has been divinely put in you is what will cause you to endure. That's where your promise is, brethren, if you're a child of God, is that his faith in you and his grace for you is sufficient.

That's what he told Paul when Paul prayed, take this thorn from my side three times. I don't think it was like a little prickly thorn in his side. He was talking about circumstance that God was bringing him through, a tribulation, a trial, something that he was taking Paul through, and Paul was having to deal with this, and he wanted it gone. God three times didn't take it away, but told him, my grace is sufficient.

Why? Because you have the faith of Christ that will cause you to endure. Like Job, the patience of Job was God's gift of faith to endure to the end. The Bible says those who endure to the end, they will be saved. Why? Because the faith of Christ has been given to them and they only are the ones who will continue to endure and not curse God and go away into apostasy.

So tribulation here, work of patience and patience, experience and experience hope. I share with my kids all time experience that I had growing up, what God has brought me through. I wouldn't have ever known that if I wouldn't went through that tribulation. But now that experience is mine. I have felt that experience. I've went through that experience. And now through that experience, I can help others and encourage others through those experiences.

But it says here, and patience, experience and experience, hope and hope maketh not ashamed. because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given us. So hope is not a natural thing, it's divinely given. It's forged in us by God through tribulation. Whenever Job was put under all those things, he had a hope that God would deliver him, that God would come to his defense.

He had a hope. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. I know that I shall see my Redeemer in the flesh. He had a hope. Well, that hope didn't come from nowhere. That hope came from a divine work of God in him. And he did that through and in tribulations. He give him endurance through that, that anchored his soul. And that was because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. See, we grow through those things that we never would have chosen. I never would have chosen the hardship. Would you have chosen to have gone through what you did with the state of Missouri? If they give you an option, hey, Larry, hey, there's a good experience opportunity for you here. Would you like to walk through this? No, but what has happened? brought you through that.

He's taught Larry something through it. He's taught other people through that. There was testimony, not only of God's grace and mercy, but of God's gospel through all that, right? And that definitely separated sheep and goats in the midst of it. See, there was something that, and I keep using Larry, and I hope you don't mind, brother, using that. It's just, it's a big one that is easy to use.

That experience has been a catalyst that the Lord has been glorified through. The Lord has glorified himself through that. To those who are true believers in God, we see what God has done. Now to those who are false Christians and false gospel people like that, they didn't look at it as that. But here we are on the backside of the trial the backside of the tribulation, something that Larry never would have chose to do, but God brought him through something, showed him something.

They probably came closer to the Lord through all of that, drew him in because of all the prayer, the angst and the, I mean, especially Sister Rosetta, I bet she was too, because she's part of it too. It wasn't just against Larry. I mean, the whole family, it was involved, right? In all of it. So that tribulation was purposed for eventually comfort. It was purposed eventually not to comfort at the moment, but to comfort in what God had done and is doing.

One last one, let's look at Psalm 61. Psalm 61 verse one, hear my cry, oh God, attending to my prayer. Man, how often have you prayed something similar to that in desperation? I mean, you know, a lot of times we think of these things. I think a lot of times we're maybe a little slanted on things because of TV shows that we watch about Bible characters, you know, And we're thinking, you know, that David here is on his harp, he's just playing away and, you know, singing some upbeat tune, you know, here am I. No, this is a cry of desperation. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer.

From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Have you been overwhelmed? Has your life ever been overwhelmed by things that are going on? I was overwhelmed this week. I was overwhelmed by a bunch of things. A lot of stuff going on. Personal life, work life. Since when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

I know Zach read these, but I'm gonna read them again here. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of thy wings, Selah. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. Thou wilt prolong the king's life and his years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. Go prepare mercy and truth. which may preserve him, so will I sing praise unto thy name forever that I may daily perform my vows.

But look back in verse two. He says, lead me to the rock that is higher than us. I always talk about whenever we preach, no matter what it's on, let's find Christ in it. But one of the main things that affliction and turmoil does is it leads us to Christ.

The overwhelming is not the end. God's purpose in overwhelming you isn't the end of his purpose. It isn't the end of his plan in the moment of what you're going through. It's not for the overwhelming. Matter of fact, the overwhelming is just the leading. It's leading you somewhere. Whenever you become overwhelmed, God is leading you out of your dependence upon yourself and into dependence upon Him.

A lot of times whenever we have our hearts broken and overwhelmed, it brings us back home, right? A lot of times whenever you hear, you know, children may run out and run from home, Well, prodigal son, good example. He had some wild oats that he wanted to sow and he wanted to get out. He wanted what was his. He took it, got out, went out and did all those things. It wasn't until his heart was broke that he realized, hey man, I've got a place back home to go.

Whenever we wander and are overwhelmed by the things of this world, by our own sinfulness, by our own selfishness, whatever the case might be, brethren, God will take those times of affliction to break our heart so that we might turn ourselves back home and come back to Him, come back to Christ and come back to the things that He has promised us. And so Christ becomes clearly seen whenever all else fails. Now, I say that we should live in the look to Christ all the time. But unfortunately, as children of Adam, when all else fails, we go back to Christ. But still, God has purposed that. God has purposed that himself. Terminal brings us into that communion with him.

So brethren, from what Zach said, And I'm trying to sum up and I don't want to put words in his mouth, but from what I gather, he was trying to get at. Strife is not sovereign. God is. Turmoil. It's not purposeless. It isn't just willy nilly dished out upon us by some despot in the sky. No, God is letting grace be a work in us. That's why we're going through it. And here's the hard one.

Affliction is not your enemy. Not your enemy. Affliction is the servant of God's eternal purpose in the child of grace. To teach us and to grow us and to bring us closer to him. So while it may not seem good as we're going through it, always know that the Lord has a purpose in it and it is for your good. And that in that time, seek him. Go back to his word. Look at his promises. Look at what God is saying this affliction is for. And think on those things. The Bible says, think on those things that are good. and holy and righteous. Think upon those things.

And then that will, in and of itself, as we are being brought through this by God's sovereign hand, it will grow us in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It will bring us closer to understanding who he is and continually revealing who we are, not only in Adam, but who we are in him. and everything. All right, anybody got any questions or comments? Corrections or reviews? Anybody got anything you'd like to add? The Lord's good, brethren.

I know sometimes it doesn't seem like he is doing good to us, but he is. Just like Larry was talking about this morning, All these Christians that are being persecuted, these people around the world that are being persecuted and everything, we have a good here in the United States, at least for now. But at the end of the day, God has a purpose in all that. It doesn't mean that it doesn't stop the hurt, it doesn't stop the evilness of men's hearts, but God has a purpose in that. It's easy for people, especially those who are outside of Christ, to look and say, well, what kind of God is that?

It would allow that to happen. But see, they've not been given the spiritual understanding to see what affliction does. Listen, one of the shows, I don't mean to keep going on and on. One of the shows that I love watching on TV is a show called Forged in Fire. guys making knives and swords and things like that. And it shows them. You ever watch that? I watch that a lot. Yeah, man. It's one of my favorite shows.

Did they have to put that steel in the fire and let it get hot, hot, I mean, piping hot so that it makes it malleable so they can form it the way they want it formed. And then they put it back in there and they get it hot again and they bend it, press it down more. until they get it the way they want it. And then they quench that thing in there and it makes that lousy steel so hard that it can't hardly even break. It has to go through those processes. It has to go through those processes of refinement, of pressure, of beating and pounding.

But the purpose of that is that blade maker has a beautiful piece that he wants to make for a specific use. You know, they make all these different kinds. You know, one is for a camping knife and one may be for a fillet knife, one may be for whatever, you know, chopping knife. He has a purpose in mind for that.

Well, brethren, we're no different. The Lord has a purpose for us. And he is forging us, as we read in that one verse, in that refining fire through these afflictions. And it's through that that we become Stronger in our experience. Stronger in our love for the Lord. Stronger in our reliance upon Him. Stronger in our confidence in the promises of God.

That through each trial He has taken me in, He's brought me out. And now I look back and I see, whoa, going into that thing, I thought it was all over. Going into that thing, I really was kind of a little upset with God. But now that it's all over, you know, I really see God did something through all that. I didn't know that.

The old illustration that I used to use a long time ago, hadn't used it in a while, but it's like those old Persian rugs. Have you ever seen a Persian rug? Boy, those things are beautiful. Detailed, I mean, they are beautiful. Well, if you look on the backside of that thing, it is just a bunch of snaggy strings and it looks like, so if I would have laid that carpet out somewhere, someone looked at that and said, man, that is the ugliest thing.

Well, it's kind of like how we look at the bottom of that, but God sees the top. He's made it a perfect piece, but all we see is the underneath of it. Well, same thing with our afflictions. A lot of times all we see is the hurt that we're going through, but we don't see the refinement that's coming out on the other side.

And so may the Lord give us grace and give us mind to trust in his promises, giving us faith to endure to the end if we are his people. And he will, because he said he would. I have confidence in that. All right. Anybody else got anything you'd like to say? All right. And as always, brethren, when you're going through those, always come. Your brothers and sisters in Christ care for you, love you, will pray for you.

I mean, we don't see it here often, but if you have a burden that you want and we want us to pray with you about, Let it be known. We'll stop right here and we'll pray for it. We'll be glad to pray for you. The Bible says whenever someone is sick, call upon the elders of the church. Let them pray for them. If you have something that you're going through and you're sick physically and everything, hey, prayer is there.

We come to pray together. I don't think it's some magical voodoo-y thing that we do. The Lord has told us to do that. Come and let's pray together. If you're afflicted and going through problems, the best place to go is the Lord, and the second best place to go is His people. So bring your cares to us, and we'll try to bear those loads with you as you go through them. Right? Anybody?

Father, we thank you once again for your love and your grace and your mercy. We thank you for the message that you've given us today everything that you have placed upon our hearts. Obviously, affliction is something that you have placed upon our hearts. Lord, we just ask that you would, that you would be a guide for us as we are brought through these afflictions by your sovereign mercy and your sovereign grace. Lord, we just pray that you would help us, that you would teach us, that you would reveal things to us that we never would have known.

Thank you for all these brethren that are here. Lord, we do pray for all these Christians around the world that are experiencing this persecution. Lord, you know who they are, where they're at, and what's going on. It's all part of your predestinated plan.

Father, we do lift them up to you, and we pray that you'd give them grace. We pray that you'd give them mercy. Lord, we pray that you would show them mercy and compassion. Lord, we pray for those governments and those evildoers that are persecuting them, Lord, we pray that you might deal with them, that there might be judgment that comes upon them.

Lord, we just ask that you might glorify yourself in all of it though. Lord, we know that through these things that you will be glorified, that even in the death of your saints, you're glorified. So Lord, we pray that you would be with these brethren, that even though they might be martyred for your name, that your name would be glorified, and that their faith would be strengthened. Father, Lord, help us to understand these things and to be mindful of all these things, to remember in prayer those brothers and sisters in Christ that are less fortunate than us, that are under danger, and Lord, that you would bring aid to them however you see fit to bring aid. Seek to bring aid, Lord. Lord, we do want to lift up the brethren here.

We ask, Lord, that you'd be with them this week as we leave this place, that you might guide them, direct them, strengthen them, Lord, and that you might bring us back together again safely next week as we proclaim your name. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.