Alright this morning if you have your Bible, would you look with me at Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 4 and Verse 1 it says and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience among whom also We all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us." And God is rich in his mercy. And there's four things there, four voices, and we're going to go through that. We have been discussing that we are in an absolute spiritual battle, even as things were going on this morning. I kind of chuckled and spoke to my wife. I said, Satan is trying to hinder some things that are going on this morning. And as those battles rage, we can find ourselves in a hole of no hope. And with that being said, hope deferred make it the heart sick. Our heart becomes sick because of the trials and struggles of life. All of us will struggle at times. And we have those two basic emotional needs, and when they are not met, we find ourselves again falling into the hole of no hope, security, and significance. But the truth of the fact is, and the matter is, that God and God alone can give me true security and true significance, and I need to find it in Him alone. If I don't, I will begin to fall into the hole of no hope and I may ask the question why. I might say it's just not fair or I might compare myself with others. I might go into bitterness and even so far as the thoughts of suicide. It's a dangerous place to be. We find ourselves also, the second set, we find a public world and a private world. The public world, you can see with your naked eye, and the private world is a spirit world. Now, as I have stated in the last few weeks, whoever controls your thoughts controls you. Who is controlling your thoughts? It could be Satan is controlling it, and with that, people have problems in their actions. We see wrong actions all the time. We wouldn't have a court system if people had right actions. People have wrong actions. We have addictions and habits and anger and other things that come up, but these are really just surface problems that are in a person's life. We begin to go even deeper than that and the actions, you look at the attitudes. Well, even deeper than the attitudes, there's other stuff, but actions, the outcome of how we feel about something. It's what's going on in your mind, your attitude. You can tell someone you love them, but in your attitude, or you could tell someone I'm sorry, or I forgive you, but the very body language with which you are expressing the sentiments of your words totally undoes whatever you're saying. because of your attitude. But again, these are surface causes. These are things that, attitudes are a result of being controlled by your academics. The way we learn and think about something always controls our feelings about it. Now, as you think about that, the way we think and learn. So your attitude comes from the way you're thinking and learning. And there's some root problems here. And we gotta, in order to get to those root problems, if we get to the root problems, we can deal with our attitudes, we can deal with our actions. If you can change the attitude, you change the action, but ultimately, if you can change the root problem, you can change a lot. Academics, your thoughts, the way you think about things are controlled by whoever becomes your authority. Whoever you're listening to, as I said, what voices are you listening to? And the soil with which you're listening, the soil of your life, the soil of your heart, What is growing in your heart? What's the authority in your heart? You said, I have my own authority. God is my authority. But if your actions aren't displaying it, it's showing that there's a sensor. Not sensor, your actions are showing, you know what, there's something in there. There's a root problem there that hasn't been dealt with. Until we get to the root of that tree, root of that problem in your life, you'll never uproot that tree from your life. You'll continue to have those actions that are not pleasing to the Lord. You'll continue to have attitudes that are just in opposition to the Word of God. And so we have to get to that. So the question I want to ask you again, who are you listening to? Whoever controls your thoughts controls you. Now, according to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 4, as we looked at, again, there's a society that's giving us things such as social media. As I had said, a challenge week. Can you go one week without social media? You said, I don't want to. Can you? I'm wondering if you have even the discipline or the ability to do it. You might say, Pastor, but the truth is, can you do it? If you can't step away from something, could it be called an addiction? I don't know. Only you know that between you and the Lord. Maybe ask God, is this something you'd want me to do? But society, their self, can you go, you listen to your own heart? I am my own man. You know, I follow my heart. Well, that's a foolish way to live. We find a lot of people following their heart, but it's not helping them any. It's leading them down a wrong path. We have a third voice, as we find here in Ephesians chapter 2, as it talks about a God who's rich in his mercy and living, listening to him. If I listen to God who is truth, then I will have truth. I can change the root problem. But many times we're listening to society's self and Satan and not listening to the Savior. And those three other voices, as seen here in Ephesians chapter 2, begin to inflict much damage and hurt in our lives. And our lives are afflicted in a great way. We are not subject to God. And we have a lot of tragedy that comes from that. The truth of the fact is, in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, "...in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them, which, believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them." Satan wants to blind our minds, so he's okay with society, he's okay with self, he's okay with religion, but he's not okay with the Savior. Or he's even okay with you listening to him, that's the best. The truth of it is, we have a tachometer in our lives that help us. That tachometer is in the private world and the tachometer tells us what is going wrong in our life. And what is going wrong in a tachometer on your car is telling you what's wrong with your engine. But in the tachometer of our life, what is going on? You see, all of us, our actions are going to be judged before Christ. Romans 14 12 so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God now And it goes on to say in 2nd Corinthians 10 5 bringing into captivity. What does it say next every thought? Every thought to the obedience of Christ our thoughts many times are Manipulated by society self and Satan but not by the Savior And so with that, we are judged, we're chastened to the Lord, we're condemned. That chastening, that discipline of God is what many times we have in the hardships of life. Those days where you're really discouraged and down and you're struggling. I can't get up. I don't know where to go forward from here. Could very well be the judgment of God. because you're refusing his voice. But if I judge myself, then I don't need to be judged by God. I allow the Spirit of God to convict me to do what's right and to test my spirit and to display what's wrong and I can go forward. So with that tachometer, things that we need to look at in our life are your thoughts. If you look at Philippians chapter four, verse eight, pure, lovely, good, just, honorable, not honorable, but anyways, the truths there that it gives are your thoughts in that fashion. If they're not true, honest, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. are your thoughts. If your thoughts are not that, then there's something else that is the authority in your life. Your attitudes. What is your attitude towards others? What's your attitude towards authority? What's your attitude towards church? What's your attitude towards God? What's your attitude towards your employer, your spouse, your children? Whatever the case, what are your attitudes? And if our attitudes are sour, then what is happening is something else is our controlling authority. Your actions. How are your actions? Are your actions honoring to the Lord? How about your conversations? Do they please the Lord? And all of those are showing us that in our life, something else is controlling us. As I have stated a number of times, you hear water running and you hear problems in your life and you try, what do you do if you find a problem in your house? You rent a pump and you get the water out. In our lives, we like to install spiritual pumps. I need to spend more time in prayer. I just need to read my Bible. I need to do more church or I need to do this and I need to do that. And the fact is you're just heaping on things, but you're still listening to the wrong authority. Again, prayer life, church attendance, tithing, soul winning, reading your Bible, but they're empty. We teach people many times how to pump to survive. And as I had stated with the learning to journal Bible study, I want to teach people to look at the Word of God and find hope for themselves. It's kind of like teaching someone how to fish. You can feed them for a lifetime if you teach them how to fish. Teach someone how to glean from the Word of God if they're struggling. Then in a great way, you can learn to walk with God for life. We should be teaching others how to turn off the source, how to turn to the source, God, and how to turn off the source, Satan. So what does your tachometer say about your condition in life? In our public world, there are a lot of problems. It's confusing to God when in the same church you might find in your public and private life. It can be for us, from our perspective of God, it might seem confusing when in one church one person's praying and another person's praying for different things. But nothing comes as a surprise to God. The answer is God will do exactly as he wants to do. God allows things in our lives. Our public world is really God's world. What happens around you What is going on in your life in the public world is God's world. God's allowing things to happen. Yes, Satan is the prince of the power of the air. Yes, Satan has great power, but ultimately we have to understand that it is Almighty God that is allowing things in our life. Three things that I need to know about God and His function in the public world. We're going to look at those. Number one, God is all wise. We spoke about these last week. God is all wise. So now unto the king eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever God is in control. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Almighty Creator God is in control of life? So what is going on in our world in the politics? God has allowed what is going on with respect to the coronavirus God is allowed What is going on with respect to the hardship in your life? God is allowed and it could be the chastening hand of the Lord or Don't know I'm not saying it is or it is not But the fact of the matter is God is in control great is our Lord and of great power His understanding is infinite God sees the eternal picture God sees everything sometimes in in hindsight We said oh if I would have done this it would have been better 2020 is hindsight literally as well but anyways But God's wisdom knows what we need, when we need it, and how best to bring it about in our lives to conform us to the image of Jesus. Do you believe that? God's wisdom knows what we need. He knows when we need it, and how best to bring it about in our lives. It's like an infant child. You bring them home, the child starts crying. You said, oh, the child needs to eat. And I, when our daughter was younger, There's things I said, oh, she needs this, and my wife would say, no, no, she needs this. There's a mother's intuition that God gives with respect to children on that, and there's things that they know. But also, not only is God all wise, but God is love, and we need that. As I had stated, we need true security and significance. It comes from God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. The more I know God, and that's my desire, is that you would know God as you're spending that daily time in the Word of God, meditating on God's Word. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from what? The love of God. If you are a Christian, you can't lose your Christianity. You can't lose being a child of God. You can lose fellowship, but you can't lose God's love. You're a child of his forever. Is he disappointed? Absolutely. As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you. Continue ye in my love. That's what God tells us to do. Also, not only is God all wise, God is love, but God is also sovereign. He's total control. I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. God sees every thought, every deed, every action, every attitude. God sees the future, God sees the present, and God sees the past. When bad things happen in your life, it could be the judgment of God. But you have to recognize that Satan can only do what God allows. Do you believe that? God hedged a protection about Job. Job lived righteously and God protected him. If we don't live righteously, yeah, we do remove ourselves from the protection of God if we're not willing to move forward. In Job chapter 1 verses 7-12, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Ask thou not maid, and hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work on his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thine power, only upon himself. Put not forth thine hand. Satan went forth from the presence. of the Lord. So God gave permission to Job. We like to compare Satan on a same level to God, but that's an absolutely wrong comparison. Ultimately, Satan is a sheepdog, and his bite hurts. The things he allows in our life, they hurt, but God is in control. God will allow Satan to do things in our lives. He will allow him to hurt us, and Satan revels in it. I mean, he enjoys it. But the fact is, God sets up and takes down kingdoms. God can take down Canada. God can take down the United States. God can take down any kingdom or nation of this world at any moment, at any time, in a split second if God desires to. So what is going on politically, God is in control. It's written in the Word of God. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge. He putteth down one, and setteth up another. God sees and knows all things. He knows even the very sparrow that falls on the ground. If there is a single event in the entire universe that can occur outside of God's sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him. Either the evil acts or the unintended mistakes of people can derail God's sovereign purpose for us. Are there things that we have done that are wrong? Absolutely. So in Psalm 115, one to three, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. God's in control. I spoke about last week, there's one lady that allows the public world, this very soured, older lady, a sour lady, and she's just, I mean, she is, what's going on in her circumstances of life have caused her, she've allowed him to cause her to become sour. There's another lady, very sweet, and she's the roommate of this very sour person. Two people living in the exact same place, One person says, I hate this food, I hate the staff. The other one says, I love the staff and I love the food. The public world, these people, the first lady's allowing the public world to dictate her attitude. There's a problem, there's a root problem there. The second lady, very sweet as you find these two ladies here as you compare them. Ultimately, one is controlled by their public world and one is controlled by their private world. One has a sweet spirit, and not necessarily the greatest of circumstances. One has a very sour spirit in bad circumstances. We'll pick up where we left off last week. So picture with me a person standing at the bottom of the hole of no hope, looking up in an attempt to see light come from the top. And as he does that, as he looks up, one, in your handouts, the letter A, is hopeless. He looks up, and he's in the bottom of the hole, and he says hopeless. And the second one looks up, and he sees helpless. He feels like this is where I'm at. So in the public world, and we're going to talk about some of these things, and people who are in this hole and they're hopeless and helpless, they're thinking, I don't like that soured older lady. I'm hopeless and I'm helpless and I got a horrible room and I can't wait till she dies. I can't wait to have the room to myself. I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait till. You know, and she's just a sour lady in the public world. And these losses and these problems of life begin to get our minds into a place where we are so distressed with life that we sometimes, we even feign we have ourselves to despair of life. We can go through many losses and a person who has experienced loss in Roman numeral number two, what are some ways people have experienced loss? Number one is, or letter A is a divorce. Whether it's as a child or you have personally experienced divorce, it's painful. Or how about a job loss or sickness or death, molestation, rape, or robbery. And people that are caught in these, and maybe the list could go on, but they're in an emotionally painful event. Something in your life that is so emotionally painful, hurtful, and it's not necessarily just those. How do we deal with that? And the truth of the fact is, in Roman numeral number three, in their private world, those who experience a loss won't accept the reality and pain of the event. They don't accept it. The pain is too much. I just can't accept it, that it would happen to me. I am, as someone says, a bad incident happened to me. I am now defiled. I am discarded. I am no good. There's a pain. They're in denial. But on the other hand, their public world, they can't change the event. So in their public world, such as that soured lady, in her public world, there's losses and things that have gone on. She's very soured. In her private world, she won't accept these losses. She's now hopeless and helpless. So in the private world, the person says, I won't accept it. In their public world, So in the Roman numeral number four, on their other hand, in their public world, they can't change the event. If something painful happened to you in the past, you can't change it. And if you don't accept the reality, don't accept the event, you will fall into that hopeless and helpless situation. As we go on here, for instance, a divorce between a mom and dad will frequently plug a child into the hole of no hope. It'll place them there. The child will see. So the Roman numeral number five, if a person won't accept the event in their private world, but can't change it, change, accept the event in their private world, but can't change it in their public world, they will always fall into the hole of no hope. So Roman numeral number six, I'll get there here shortly. But divorce between a mom and a dad, tension grows. In a private world, he won't accept the hurt. The child won't accept the hurt and he grows and the consequences, he grows and the consequences come from seeing his family torn apart through a divorce. I've been there, done that. I know that we're going to be talking about specifically in a divorce. There's one illustration here and for my own personal life, this is stuff that happened to me. Scriptures warns us how important our heart is, and in Roman numeral number six, the condition of our heart will control our life. In Proverbs chapter four, verse 23, keep, guard, it means, thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life, your attitudes, your actions. That's what brings about your actions, right? Because there's a root problem. So your attitudes and your actions come because you haven't kept your heart. In Proverbs 23, 7, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. So a child's parents are going through a divorce in Roman numeral number 7. So when usually, as we're going to look at here, child's parents are going through divorce and the young child, potential divorce situation for the child's first thoughts are to be as good, Roman numeral number seven, to be as good as he possibly can, hoping not to add to his parents' stress. And that is exactly what I went through. I remember this very specifically. I'll be good. I'll be good. But mom and dad wanted to separate. But then when things seem hopeless, a child may act out or outwardly angry. Outwardly angry and defiant. Letter A underneath of that. And when none of these solutions work, the child will become verbally defiant. And even beyond that, the child, when none of it changes, I just can't change it. None of these attempted solutions work. he's dropped into the hole of no hope, or letter B. You can become so discouraged with an event of life. Someone's left you. Someone's abandoned you. Someone has... and that's an event that is hurtful. I mean it is deeply hurtful. Someone has maligned you. Someone has done something to you. Someone said something about you. And it drops you into the hole of no hope. Because you can't change the past. You can't change the words that were stated. You won't accept the event. You won't accept the reality. And so there's pain. I won't accept it. And realize even as for myself, I was stuck in that hole for many, many years. Painful. Hurtful. It was deeply hurtful. Someone who's gone through being violated, they might say it was my fault. Might say I'll never trust again. I'll forgive that person, but I'll never forget. They can't change what happened, and they said, I won't accept what happened. And as a result, they're dropped into the hole of no hope. Proverbs 14.10, the heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy. Your heart knows your bitterness. Someone said something to hurtful a long time ago. Someone did something to you a long time ago. Maybe it was even back in grade school, someone made fun of you. There was a situation in my life, it was one of my parents had said something and I grew bitter towards that. I was back in grade school when it happened. Realizing a lot of hurt comes. But I don't need, as I said, those thoughts, attitude, actions, and conversations, your tachometer, as those go awry. It needs to be an indicator to me, you know what? My thoughts are not what God says they should be. And many times the folks that have experienced a loss, Roman numeral number eight, those experiencing a loss shift life into neutral and let life pass them by. I'm no good. I'm discarded. I've had a mess up. I've had hurt. I'll just hope I can make it through life. It's a very depressing place to be. The reality is, how do I get out of the hole of no hope, Roman numeral number nine? Accepting, accepting what you can't change is the ladder out of the hole of no hope back into reality. Reality is real. Reality. Jesus, you know, obviously said in John 10, 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill and destroy. Stay in there. Say hopeless, say helpless. But I am come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. Abundant life is accepting what has happened and choosing to get out. Accepting what you can't change. I can't change the past. I can't change what they said about me, but I'm going to accept the reality of it. We get many times, if you will not live in the world of reality and accept the events that you cannot change. Here's the Roman numeral number 10. If you will not live in the world of reality and accept the events that you cannot change in your public world, then you are destined to be held captive in a bitter pretend world of what ifs and if onlys. So that you cannot change in your public world, then you are destined to be held captive in a bitter pretend world of what-ifs and if-onlys. What if this didn't happen? What if they didn't say this? What if this person didn't do this? What if this person didn't leave me? What if I had been smarter? What if? No, that's what God allowed. So I'm going to accept it because God's ultimately in control. Then I'm going to move forward. I'm going to live in reality. I'm going to accept it. Is it hurtful? Yeah. But okay, pastor. Okay. I'm going to wait for everything to be perfect. I'm going to wait for this person to totally make things right. I'm going to wait for this to happen. I'm gonna wait for this to transpire. No, my friend, you can't wait for everything to be perfect. Roman numeral 11, you can't wait until everything is perfect before you get on with your real life. as Ecclesiastes 11, 4 and 5. He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. I can't just watch the clouds. I just can't wait for the clouds to move forth. I have to actually go out and sow the seeds. As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the bones are grown in the womb of her that is the child. Just because I don't understand it, doesn't mean I quit living life. Just because I had a very emotionally hard and difficult trial of life, I get to the place, I accept what happens. And I'm going to begin to deal with it. I'm not just saying, pass over it, skip over it, jump over it, put it under the rug. That's not what I'm saying. It goes on here in Ecclesiastes 11 verse 5, Even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. Just because God is in control. And many times a person who's experienced this loss, turning over to the second page, Roman numeral 12, maybe because we didn't want a divorce or death or other painful event of life to happen, we fall into a pit and have a pity party. Pity party is your fill in the blank. And in a pity party, we feel sorry for ourselves. I felt sorry for myself. Why did I have to be in a family where my parents divorced? I felt sorry for myself. Woe is me, my life is so bad. I even had relationships where I looked for others to heal the hurt. I'd lean on them, but it never healed it. I'd lean on someone else. I would have dated and other things before and not a godly thing to do, wait till God brings you your spouse, but I did and leaned on them for healing of my hurt, but it never worked. And when two married people are hurt and trying to lean on the other person for healing, it's going to lead to great disaster, great hurt. We have that pity party. Other people need to heal my hurt. They need to feel the pain that I feel. But many times, because we're waiting for that hurt to be healed, we miss out on genuine, wonderful, lovely relationships with other people. In the situation here of missing this, the young child who saw his parents divorce, they end up remarrying and they have other spouses and God has a very clear direction on that. But irrespective of that, the child misses out. I'm never going to love them. I'm not gonna love my parents' spouses. I'm not gonna care for them. And they miss out on new relationships. I have friends and other family that have come into my life. No, I'm keeping them out. I'm going to miss relationships because I'm in that pity party. because I won't accept it and I reject what happened. Many people act as if God's on vacation out of town when the tragedy occurred. Otherwise, if he was in town, he wouldn't have allowed it to happen if he would have been there. Many people have missed a wonderful relationship with maybe a substitute mom or dad because they were bitter at the events of life and would not give them a chance. We like to run from our pain and fear. There's people I've met in the past, and they say, I just can't trust. They'll run. They run in pain. They run in fear. I can't get anyone close to me again. I'll never do it. If I get too close, there's a pity party. I'm not trying to neglect or demote the pain or the hurt. I'm not saying that at all. But in our emotional life, in our spiritual life, I run from pain and fear. Anything that might be confrontational, anything that might be a little opposition, I just totally jump from it. I run. I can't handle it. There's something in the past, a painful, hurtful event. I've experienced a loss in the past of security or significance in the past, and I just, I can't deal with it. But ultimately, a pity party is running from God. Running from reality, letter E, running from reality is really running from God. God's biblical solution is not to run from the pain and fear, but to run towards the pain. Here's Roman numeral number 13. God's biblical solution is not to run from the pain and fear, but to run toward the pain. How? In faith. I'm going to run to him. Psalm 61.2 talks about when my heart is overwhelmed. You go to the Lord. And so there's several things. By faith, believe that God allowed that event to happen. Whether it was a judgment of God, the chastisement of God, or whether it was just a trial to bring you to the next step spiritually, either way, whatever the case, God allowed it to happen. So believe it by faith. Number two, letter B, by faith, believe that God never wastes pain. Are you telling me that the pain I'm going through? It's for my good. God doesn't waste the pain. God wants to do something with it. There's a purpose. God doesn't like it when we're in pain, but he doesn't waste the pain. Paul, the apostle Paul was in pain. Paul would basically say he does it to keep me humble before the Lord. Letter C, by faith believing that God will work it out for good. Whatever's happened in your life, whatever's happened in the past, God will work it out for his good. Letter D, by faith believe that there is a blessing, a blessing behind it all. I have to believe that even with this coronavirus, There's a blessing behind it if we'll be faithful, if we'll do what God wants us to do, if we're willing to accept the events we can't change. Do I like it? Absolutely not. But I believe that there's a blessing behind it wholeheartedly. God's working. But we have to understand where the real battle is. Satan has a secret. That real battle is in the most powerful part of our being. This is where the real battle is. The part of our being that has to be persuaded to change before any change can occur. It's the part that keeps us living in a pretend world of what ifs and if onlys. Before anything can happen, this part has to be persuaded to change before any change can occur. It is the part that makes every effort to change the public world if fights against accepting reality. It's the part that makes the public world that which cannot be changed and fights against accepting reality in the private world. God gives us a key to unlock this mysterious door. What is this key? What is the most powerful part of our being? Roman numeral number 14, imagination. That is the most powerful part of your being, your imagination. In the imagination, letter A is defined as forming mental images, concepts, or thoughts of that which is not present to the senses of reality. Have you ever gone somewhere? I know I myself and I've had many times a battle for many years and you think, oh man, this person has it out against me. When in reality, it's totally not the case. But in your imagination, you believe it true. You believe that that person has it out for you. You believe that that person's speaking behind your back. I mean, there's many things that we can think of in our mind, and we don't need to go there, but the Bible reveals how powerful our imagination is and the consequences of its misuse. We're going to talk a lot more about imagination next week, but God, here's this truth, God destroyed the entire earth because of what? A man's wicked imagination. Turn with me to your Bible. Here in Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, Genesis chapter six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every, every what? Imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Letter B, God destroyed the entire planet with a flood because of man's imagination. Most powerful part of our being, 2 Corinthians 10 5, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ. Casting down imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing to captivity every thought, the obedience of Christ, your imaginations. I'm not going to accept past. I can't change it. You have to understand, I can't change what happens in the public world. I can't change what is going on in our world now. I can't change what happened in your past. You can't change what happened in your past. It's absolutely impossible. And so our private world, when we say, I won't accept it, I won't accept the hurt that happened to me, I won't accept what was done to me, I won't fill in the blanks. My friend, If we won't, then we go years and years and years in emotional turmoil, hopeless and helpless. We're going to be dealing more of that next week. So the first thought and the truth of this week is, look at your past. Maybe there are some painful events that happened. And just say, Lord, I accept that I can't change the past. Ultimately, Lord, you're in control. I submit it to you. And in your private world, say, Lord, I really don't want to accept it. Would you help me to? I'm struggling. That person that hurt me, that person that defiled me, that person that did whatever to me, that said that about me. Lord, I'll accept it. And my friend, when you do, you can get out of that hole of no hope. You can begin to live the abundant Christian life. Because you're letting your understanding that God is in control. God, who made this earth. God, who allowed the tragedy in Job's life. But God, who also greatly blessed. There's a blessing behind it. Do you believe it? If you're in the hole, many times you think, oh man, no way. We've got to get back to the truth of who is God. My friend, if you'll accept what you can't change in your public world and in your private world, you're willing to accept the pain and the hurt. You can have emotional freedom. You can have spiritual freedom. Let's go to the Lord and ask for his blessing upon this time, and I trust that you'll take these truths, you'll apply them, and God will do a work in your heart and mind. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this day. Father, I thank you for the truth of your word. Lord, keep thy heart with all diligence. Lord, I pray that that would be true. Lord, all of us have known pain and hurt, some to varying degrees. but irrespective of how painful it was to us. It's not a comparison between other people. My pain hurts more than your pain. Lord, it's all an action of sin. Whether others towards us or our sin, irrespective of that, Lord, it's sin. And Father, would we look to you who are in control? Father, would we Seek your face. Lord, I pray for those who are struggling that they would be willing to understand they couldn't change the past. And they'd accept the reality of that pain that was done against them. And in that accepting of it, Lord, they'll find the freedom that comes in you alone. Father, thank you for being such an amazing, loving Father. And Lord, as we go forward this morning, I pray that you'd be glorified in Jesus' precious name, I pray.