just think that what we reason, surely, that's what God would reason. That's what God would think. We expect God to make decisions that we would make. We expect God to act in ways that we believe are reasonable to us. We expect God to always make sense to us. Now, over the years, I've heard statements like this, I just don't think God would do that. People will say to me, I just don't think, I don't think God would do that to me. I don't think God would do that. Or they'll say something like this, I know what the Bible says, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Or they may say it has to make sense to me if I'm going to believe it. Can I tell you, I don't understand everything God has said in the Bible. I don't understand everything that I obey. I mean, some of the things that God has made real clear I'm supposed to do, I really don't fully understand it. The scripture deals with the reality that God does not think as we think. So if you would look at Isaiah chapter 55, and for some of you this would be a very familiar passage of scripture. And I want to thank the preacher for giving me my own personal adult sippy cup. So Isaiah chapter 55 in verse eight, it says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Whereas the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. God not only, he says, not only are my thoughts not your thoughts, your thoughts are not my thoughts. He said, you can't even comprehend how much we're separated. It's infinite how much we are separated in our ability to reason, to think. And he said, you cannot know all that I know. You can't comprehend all that I'm doing. And so let me just have a word of prayer. We'll get started. Father, I pray that you bless here tonight. Lord Jesus, thank you for this wonderful group. And Lord, it's always just a great spirit here. Lord, I thank you for that. I thank you for... Brother Hanks and Mrs. Hanks and all the work that they do, I thank you for the people here that are so diligent to do things so well. And Lord, I pray that you please keep your hand of protection on them, give them good health, give them good strength. And Lord, thank you for what you've already done for them. And Lord, I pray that you do it for this group that's in here tonight, Lord, that you would be here with us. And Father, that we would have your spirit. And I ask you for your spirit, that you would guide my mind and give me wisdom, give me direction. And Lord, I need you so much. I need you because my thoughts are not your thoughts. And Lord, I ask you to please to set me to the side tonight and that you would speak and that you would help us to face the truth and admit sometimes that we have pain that we don't want anybody to know about. We don't want anybody to notice. We want to keep it hidden that, dear God, I pray tonight that we would at least, we would open up our hearts and admit it to you. And so, Father, I ask you to do that, please, in Jesus' name, amen. Now, it's not God's job to have our mind, it's my job to have his mind. It's our job to have his mind. And he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It's an old saying, and so many of you in here, you've heard this, that you're either gonna get bitter or you're gonna get better. when you go through things in life. Now, when we try, listen to this, when we try to force God to perform to our mental standards, we will become bitter. When we try to make God bow to us, we're gonna become bitter because he's not gonna do it. And you know, I preached to our people a couple years ago, you know, one of the things that frustrates us, one of the things that will cause us to get bitter is when we want to control the uncontrollable. Can I tell you God's uncontrollable? Okay, so I can't I can't control what he does. I can't control his decisions I can't do that and I'll get bitter if I'm on demand if somehow I'm not gonna be happy until he's doing what I want When we accept God's will his purpose and plan we will become better. I When we just simply just say, God, I don't have to understand it. As you go through scriptures, I preached a message, it must have been 30 years ago, it's called Strange Instructions. Because you go all through the Bible, and it's amazing some of the unique things that God tells people to do. You ever think about it? I mean, it's really strange. You got God telling disciples, go catch a fish and look in his mouth for money. Think about it. If you were standing there with Jesus, and you're still human in your mind, and you know we got to have money, Jesus, what are we gonna do? He said, oh, no problem. Why don't you just go out there and go out to the pond, catch a fish, and look in his mouth. Oh my goodness, he's been in the sun way too long. I mean, that's really, what would you think? Now here's what's really weird. He goes and catch a fish and it looks in his mouth and there's money. That had to, as much as he's doing it, he doesn't believe a thing that's going on now, but yet he, then he looks at his, but you say, what'd he do? He ran back to Jesus with the money. Oh no, he probably cast again, man. Catch another one. Now the fact that the Bible's full of that, you know, go bury a girdle. Now go back and dig it up. You know, I just what what are these things go preach to the bones? Come on y'all sit up straight Listen to me now pay attention, you know It's amazing what God tells them to do, but here's the key. Everything he told them to do succeeded. It worked. Now, we must realize God's mind is so far above our minds that I may at times struggle understanding the why of things. Has anything ever happened in your life where you just said, God, I don't understand why? Okay. This is one of those times I'm going to ask you to raise your hand just so I can see that there's life out here. Okay. Raise your hand if you've ever gone through something, maybe even going through it now, and you said, God, I just don't understand why. Anybody like that? Have you ever been there where you said, God, if I could just understand why, it would at least help me to deal with this. If I could just understand why our fifth daughter got married at 20 years of age, Got married to a young man that was 20 years old. And really, I really didn't try to make up girls. All my girls got married relatively anywhere from 19 to, I guess, Brooke was probably 22. But they all got married pretty young. But the fifth one, I knew it was OK that they'd go ahead. And I even questioned myself, what in the world you doing? I mean, this is moving way too fast, but something I just knew in my heart, this is what they were supposed to do. And two and a half months after they were married, he died. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I knew after he was diagnosed, I knew what God said. It's okay to move this up. It's okay. And then over the next two and a half years, he lived two and a half more years after being diagnosed. So they were, they were married just two and a half months. And I say that two and a half months, and then they, he was lived two and a half more years. And so they're not even married three years and he, he goes to heaven. But in those three years, God gave him an influence all over this nation. He's most, one of the most amazing young preachers you've ever seen in your life. You know, that's, when they're first, when he's first being died, you're thinking, why? This is a young man that loves the Lord. This is a young couple that wants to serve him. Why? This battle in our hearts and minds often leads to a subtle source of great pain and confusion. The things that are going on in your life right now. The things that are happening in someone's life right now. And you're sitting and saying why God? And here's your here camp and you play games and you sing and nobody in some cases nobody even knows. Your pain. It's a secret. The truth is, in some ways, you don't even let God know. Let me help you, he already does. But you're keeping it from him. Moms and dads are in here, I don't beg you. You need to have good communication lines open to your children. Because they often are carrying pain that you never realize. We were a blessed family, but our sixth daughter, she was married and there was something going on in her heart. Not with her marriage, but there was something, turmoil in her heart. So much so that I got the money together to send them to Africa because our oldest daughter and her husband were in Africa. Her husband is just very, I mean, he's very strong in what you call, I guess, spiritual warfare and really, really counseling and helping. And so I felt like he could help my youngest daughter. I didn't tell them that's why I was sending them, but I got the money together and sent them over there. We never knew her entire life. that there had been a pain. There had been a hurt. There had been a wound. When you saw her and talked to her, she smiled. When you talked to her, she was very intelligent and made, you know, it just, she would communicate and she would seem like she had it all together. She had a secret pain. that was about to kill her. That little girl is a missionary in Chile now because God got to the secret pain. I want to read to you, I want you to go to Mark chapter 1. And it's to me, it's one of the most simple yet revealing passages in the word of God. It says in Mark chapter one, look at verse nine. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John and Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. Look at verse 11. And there came a voice from heaven saying, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You understand God says here, He's my beloved. That word even goes so far as to mean that he deserves my love, but he says, I love him. He says, not only do I love him, but he pleases me. Doesn't just please me, but it's well pleasing. It's the, it's like an ultimate pleasing. Now anybody that's ever had kids, there's times where you're well pleased and there's other times that you just love them but you ain't pleased at all. But God says here, he's my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. But don't stop reading, look at verse 12. and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beast, and the angels ministered unto him. You see he's beloved and he's well-pleasing to God But right as he's God says I love him and he's well-pleasing to me the very next thing immediately immediately the spirit God himself sends them into the wilderness Now I want you to get this, so often because of our limited minds, we believe the negatives in our lives, the problems in our life are because one, God doesn't love me, or God is not pleased with me, or Satan is attacking me, and I want you to understand in this passage, none of that's true. We see God loves him, God's pleased with him, and watch this, he didn't go to the wilderness because Satan took him there, he went to the wilderness because God did. And listen to me, we get to the point we think this happens to us. I can still see my little daughter. When Matt passed away and the turmoil of her heart where she's trying so hard to hold on to God. And I can see the why in the cries in her heart and the tears that are coming. I can see even the weariness and the draining and the despair in her heart. And I know at times she thought, God, why did you do this to me? Do you not love me? Are you not pleased with me? What did I do to cause this and understand? God, he loved him, he was pleased with him. Yet he sent him to the wilderness. You know, when I was called to go to the Bible college, which I already mentioned, did I blow this thing out again? And we're okay? All right. I don't know if y'all know this, but I get intense every once in a while, so. Is that okay? All right. When I was called to go to Bible college, I had no choice. I'll be honest with you. God compelled me. He was a driving force. I believe that's kind of what God's describing here about the Spirit driving him. If there had been a choice involved, I wouldn't have gone. I just, I couldn't do anything else. I had to go. I had to move. I had to go now. It was something that was just like, if I didn't, I'm going to die. I've got to do this. I've got to go. And when we arrived, that's probably the four years of greatest testing in our lives. The working 50 55 hours a week going to school full-time got two children and three children and four children in fact, you know And and trying to take care of family and working one ministry and two ministries and and going seven days a week But you know who sent me there God And can I tell you sometimes during that schedule you think God why in the world are we even here What are we doing here? And is this really what you wanted? We see that when the testing continues, it's not a sign that God's not paying attention. First of all, God's not doing it to punish you. God's not doing it because he's upset at you. And God's not doing it because he's displeased with you. And he's not just backing away and not paying attention to what's going on. He knows exactly what's happening. God's involved, it's his design. 40 days and 40 nights is a long time to go without eating and drinking. The trials come through the spiritual and the physical. He comes to be tempted of Satan and it says, and he was with the wild beast. There's both a physical attack and there is a spiritual attack that goes on. Fasting and prayer I think is so important because it attacks the physical and the spiritual. God's always in control and will not put you through more than you can bear. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was well-pleasing to God, faced a very difficult, a very negative situation, but this was not a punishment. Now, I understand God may chastise us sometimes, but I'm here to tell you that often, we who are trying to serve God, we are trying to do right. Young person, when you're in your home and you're doing everything you can, I think of our second daughter, and she went through a time, a struggle in her life, and the whole thing was is that her older sister is 14 months older than she was, and her older sister won every award every year. It just seemed like Brooke won everything. I mean, from first grade, she won the little artwork contest. I mean, she did everything she did. She gets to junior high, and she's the princess in the junior high. She gets to the senior high, and she's She's the miss whatever of the class, you know, I mean and and but our second daughter right behind her one year behind her She makes straight A's, but she in her head. She can't see she's not winning the award. She's not getting the things She in her mind. She feels like somehow God and everybody else is displeased with her. She's a failure And she carries that torment of heart and And for a long time, again, it was a secret pain. And what we tend to believe is, so God is against me? God's not pleased with me? God plays favorites. He's for my sister, but he's not for me. And you say, well, don't they mostly point that to the parents? Don't they mostly, I'll be honest with you, it's any authority and it works its way right on up, whether it's school teachers, whether it's principal, whether it's mom or dad, whether it's God. It's gonna work its way all the way up to God. And it's because they believe authority are the ones who control, so to speak, everything that they're going through. And if things are, Hurting them if things feel like they're failing at things that they feel like they're they're unable to Live up to the standard that somehow in their mind they formulated that they believe will please me My daughter is looking at me and thinking I'm displeased with her when I think she's wonderful But the lie in her head is is that God's displeased with her mom and daddy are displeased with her leaderships displeased with her because she's not winning and And I'd sit her down and I'd tell her, do you understand? You know, one of the reasons that Brooke won things is because in her class she had no competition. So they're a bunch of renegades and rogues in her class. You got a bunch of good kids in your class. It's hard to get that through to their heads though. Once they start to believe that lie that has brought in that secret pain. Jesus Christ, the son of God, who was well-pleasing to God, faced a very difficult and a very negative situation, but it wasn't a punishment. Being sent to the wilderness wasn't even a satanic attack. That came later. So what can we learn through this? Well, Jesus went through the testing, the temptation, I believe is an example to teach us. Do you know that what you're going through Maybe God's allowing you going through because he knows you can. God believes. But. When people have hardships and we can get bad about this, we start to kind of judge and think they must be. There must be some kind of secret sin. If all this is going wrong for them. You know, if they're really going through the fire, it just might be because God knows that they can handle the fire. And if everything's going smooth for you, it just might be that God knows it has to right now, or you won't make it. Hello? Some of the things that we went through 20, 25, 38 years ago, I was here a few years ago, I mean, eight years ago, I almost died in a hospital. Some of the things that we've gone through in the last 10, 12, 15 years of our life, I don't know how I would have handled it in the first few years. It may have broke me. But God brought us to the point where he said, This is a time. I think you're ready. To go to the next step of purification. Go to the next step. To be someone. They can help others. See that there's a way through this. Some of the things we one of the common things that we have said to us in these these latter years is that. Just the fact that we kept going through some of the things that happened to us. Well, that's nothing about us. That's God. I think you went through these things that teach us that we'll have testings and trials in our lives. So don't think you're getting, you know, don't think God's against you because you have them because everybody's going to have them. And if you're ever going to grow, you're going to have to have them. Number two, that we have, he did this to teach us that we have an answer available to us through the trials. As Jesus went through the trials, went through the testing, the temptation by Satan, I want you to understand, he had an answer for every one of them. He went through it to teach us that we will come under temptation when we're growing spiritually. We'll go through some of this because we're growing spiritually, not because he's displeased, but because we're growing. Jesus went through this so that scripture would be fulfilled and we would know that we have a mediator. Do you understand Hebrews 4.15 says, for we have not in high priesthoods cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. We get, he went through this and we see that he went through it and watch, he went through it even though we know God was well pleased and God loved him. So that means if I'm going through it, then bless God, I can just hang on to God. He's well pleased and God loves me. Now, what else we learned? We learned that there's a depth to scripture after we go through the trials ourselves. And this is one of the things that God has just opened up and just made so wonderful. And this is one of the things you ought to praise God for the trial. Praise God that you're going through what you're going through. Young person, don't let the trial be wasted. Don't let what you're going through be wasted. And you say, listen to me, what I mean by that is, is that you can learn a depth of scripture like you've never known when you go through the trial. James 1 verse 2 says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith work of patience But let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Listen that but let patience have her perfect work. You know what God is doing many times Yes, I understand there may be chastisement. That's not my point to judge, but I'm telling you this most the time I believe with good Christian people What he's doing is perfecting us. Being on a spiritual path does not prevent you from facing the darkness, but it teaches you how to use the darkness as a tool to grow. And the scripture says in verse 12, we'll read it again, immediately the spirit drive with him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts. And listen to this, and the angels ministered unto him, God will not put you through more than you can bear. Helps on its way, so you just hang on. He's there, God's with you as you go through it. He's not doing it to hurt you, he's doing it to help you. He's gonna use it to mold you. I said, my daughter, my youngest, she had this inside, she had this battle. We sent her to Africa and she was there. The last night there in Africa, they went for hours in counseling and she found victory in there and now, Because of the victory she found she's able to go to the mission field herself and now they're helping others the same way We see what Jesus was To endure was clearly from God. It was clearly from God. It was this is not a satanic attack This is not because God's upset. This is clearly from God to use you to build you the testings that we face revealed us more clearly what God wants us to learn and Then we read the passage and you know when we when we read the passage Uh, we we we learn when we we see what jesus did and what he did We learn and one of the things we learn through the testings of jesus the the temptations of christ We learn that the word of god as a whole the word of god is the answer that we can find the answer to to the testing inside the word of god But listen to me, when you go through the trial yourself, what you do is God will show you specific promises. It takes you to a new depth. At one point it's like, okay, the Bible is the answer, and then you go through the trial yourself and you go, oh my goodness, here's my answer. We read about the temptations of Christ, and we see the importance of the Word of God as a whole. When we experience the testings ourselves, we learn the importance of knowing specific promises in the Word of God. We see that we need to trust God by faith to get through the trials and testings of life. We see that we are to desire and worship God above all, and the Word of God gives us the truth. Trials take us into the truth and submerge us into the deeper reality of the truth. You see, the Word of God shows me the truth. The Word of God gives me the truth. The trials of life take me into the depths of the truth. Religion is information. Truth that trials bring forth is what transforms us. It's transformation. I believe that trials take you from I believe it's true to I know it's true. So I don't know what you're going through tonight, but I know because of working with people and because of my own life and because of my own family, I believe in many ways we were blessed beyond measure. But when you watch A daughter's struggle at 12 or 13 years of age was just in recent days that she opened up to the despair that she was in at 12 or 13 was so extreme that she had one night had planned to take her own life. We were a good family. We loved each other. And this is why we, as a people, need to rally to people that are going through trials, not trying to figure out why they are, just go to them to help them. Go to them to encourage them, go to them to support them, rather than label them. rather than to ostracize them or consign them to hell because they're going through a trial. Or maybe, listen to me, maybe even that they have an apparent attitude. I didn't know what had happened to my daughter fully. I didn't know what was going on in her heart. I didn't know that. I watched the outward appearance and I judged it as a rebellious appearance and I hurt her at first rather than helping her until finally God worked in me and I had to understand. I can still remember the night We've gone about a year, and I've never seen her cry. I've never seen her anything but a hard shell on the outside because of the pain that was inside of her. And I can remember the night that I got onto her one night, and then one more time, she just seemed to have that attitude. I sent her to her room, and I went back there, and I was frustrated, and I had no answers, and I don't know what to do. And I started to walk away from her room, and something inside me said, go back. And when I went back to the door, I grabbed the door, And I started to open it, but I could hear inside a muffled cry. And I opened the door very quietly, and there's that little 12-year-old girl with her face in a pillow. I had not seen her cry in a year. She wouldn't show it outwardly, but she had her face in a pillow. The door creaked a little bit and she saw me and immediately she threw the pillow away and put on that same face, that hardness, that defense mechanism, that wall. And this time I walked over to her. I sat down beside her on the bed and I put my arm around her and I began to cry. I said, baby, you've got to tell me. I can't read your mind, please tell me what's going on. And for about five, six, eight, 10 minutes, I don't even know how long it was, she laid her head on my shoulder and she cried uncontrollably. When she could finally get her breath, she said, Daddy, all I've ever wanted to do was to please you. And all I've ever done was wrong. That was a lie from hell. But I hadn't helped it. I'd hurt her. And I began a journey of recovery. A journey of mending. A journey of trying to help her see that the things that she had gone through. Young person, listen to me. Please believe me. I know you've been hurt. I know that things are not what you want. I know sometimes you're very disappointed. I know sometimes you feel like people mistreat you, but I want you to understand, People all over around you are feeling the same things. And God is not trying to hurt you. The devil has lied to you. And this I know, God loves you. He loves you. And I'm begging you tonight, please. Please. Begin tonight that journey of help. The journey of recovery. It costs. I don't have money because me about I think 3000 $4000 to send my daughter and her husband to Africa. Would I'd spend that a hundred times over a thousand times over for what happened for There's hope and I'm telling you God loves you and what you're going through It's not because God's displeased with you I It's a secret sin. No, it's a secret pain. It's a secret pain. Would you let the Lord help you tonight? Let somebody help you. Everywhere we go my wife This is what we what we do is try to help you the last two months They've flown in one girl flew in from New York one flew in I don't remember Michigan or Minnesota or someplace just to spend a few days with her to help We want to help you we don't have all the answers But I don't this God does And Jesus gave us the great example. It's right there in the Word of God. Father, I pray that you'd bless. Dear God, please help tonight.