For our scripture reading tonight, we turn in God's word to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis chapter 42. Genesis 42, beginning at verse one. Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look one upon another? He said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, lest peradventure mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence come ye? They said, from the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, ye are spies, to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. And they said unto him, nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. He said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come. They said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be proved. By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you. Or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. And he put them all together into a ward three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, this do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses. And bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. They said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother and that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. Reuben answered them saying, spake I not unto you saying, do not sin against the child and you would not hear. Therefore behold also his blood is required. They knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them and wept, and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way, and thus did he unto them. And they laded their asses with the corn and departed thence. And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he aspied his money, for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them, saying, The man who is the lord of the land spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, We are true men, we are no spies. We be twelve brethren, sons of our father. One is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men. Leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. Bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men. So will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. It came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee. Deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. He said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If mischief befall him by the way in the which he go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. We read the Word of God that far. The text for our sermon is verse 36. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this text addresses one of the great fears and the great temptations that the child of God faces. Fear and a temptation that the child of God faces in the reality of the hardships and the sorrows of this life. Fear, the temptation to believe, All of these things are against us. We're dealing here with the truth of God's providence. In these last chapters of the book of Genesis that detail the life of Joseph, one of the main themes is the doctrine of providence. The fact that God is upholding Governing and controlling all of the circumstances of our lives including the hardships and the sorrows. One of the things that were taught through this section of the book of Genesis is the way in which we are to respond to God's providential hand in our life. We're taught that through a contrast Contrast between aged Jacob and his favorite son Joseph and the contrasting way in which those two responded to God's providential hand in their lives. On the one hand you have the young man Joseph. He responded properly to God's hand in his life. Joseph's life was filled with a tremendous amount of hardship. He was hated and abused by his brothers who viewed him with jealousy and anger because he was the favorite son. They hated him so much that they were about to kill him until for their own gain they sold him as a slave into Egypt. He went down into that foreign land alone as a teenager, sold as a slave into Potiphar's house. He was falsely accused of Potiphar's wife, put into prison for years, remaining there because of the heartless forgetfulness of the butler. Joseph responded properly to God's hand in his life. He lived consciously before the face of God, acknowledging God's hand in his life. And he went forward in faith and trust in God. And thus Joseph was sustained in the trials that he experienced. In contrast to Joseph is the response of his aged father, Jacob. Jacob also had a life filled with hardship and sorrow. But Jacob responded in the wrong way to those things. He responded in bitterness and in anger. He responded with fear and doubt and worry and anxiety. He responded by walking by sight and not by faith. He showed weakness of faith in the response that he gave to God's hand. Sharp contrast between Joseph and Jacob and their responses to God's hand. God uses that to teach us. Give instruction to us as to how we are to respond to God's hand in our lives. The question is not if we'll experience hardships and sufferings in this life. It's a matter of when. It's a reality for us to one degree or another at one time in our life or another. Some may be more hardships than others, but a reality for all of us at some point in the Christian life. The question that we ask is not this. Is your life difficult? Or is my life difficult? Are there hardships that we're going to have to experience? The question is not this. How quickly can we get out from under those hardships? How can we escape those things? The first question that we have to ask ourselves is this. How do I respond properly to God's hand in my life? How do I respond in a way that honors God and glorifies Him? It's a temptation for us to believe what Jacob believed. The lack of trust in God to cry out that all of these things are against us. Responding in faith, responding in trust in God, looking to Him in confidence, depending upon Him. Come to know and are comforted that all of these things are for us and for our good. Call your attention to this text under the theme, All These Things Are Against Me. First of all, the fear. Secondly, the falsehood. And then thirdly, the faithlessness. Fear, the falsehood, and the faithlessness. Jacob's life was certainly a life filled with many sorrows and afflictions. Jacob's response to that here is to cry out that all of those things are against him. And what Jacob has in mind especially are the immediate circumstances of his life, the things that he was dealing with right at that time. But there's a sense also in which what he says here applies to the whole of his life and all of the struggles that he faced. Already as a young man, Jacob was hated by his brother Esau to the point that his brother wanted to kill him and was making plans to do so. So that Jacob was forced to run away from his home, from his parents, off to some strange land. There Jacob came to live in the home of his uncle Laban. That wasn't a pleasant place to be. His uncle Laban was a cheat, a liar, and a manipulator who was manipulating Jacob for his own material gain. Jacob experienced many troubles in his home and family, largely due to his own sins. He married four wives. You can imagine the bitterness and the jealousies that were there among those four wives. Added to that was the fact that Jacob favored one of those wives above the rest, Rachel, and then favored Rachel's children above all his other children. Joseph and Benjamin were his favorites and that created all kinds of jealousies, all kinds of conflict in his family. Jacob experienced the death of loved ones. His parents, Isaac and Rebecca, were brought to the grave. His favorite wife, Rachel, had died and was buried already at this point. Jacob knew sorrow because of sins in the lives of his children. His oldest, Reuben, committed adultery with one of Jacob's own wives. His daughter Dinah was raped by a man of Canaan. And then the next two brothers, Simeon and Levi, murdered the man who had raped their sister and then proceeded to wipe out the whole of that city. What in today's term might be classified as genocide. And the next son, fourth son, Judah, committed adultery with his own daughter-in-law, Tamar. produced children with her and committed adultery with her because he thought she was a prostitute. Jacob knew tremendous sorrow because of the sins that were found in the lives of his children. The greatest grief for Jacob was the loss of his favorite son, Joseph. The struggles and the problems that were brewing in his family life came to expression in the hatred of the brothers for Joseph. They were going to kill him, but then decided to sell him as a slave into Egypt and went back to their father with the lie that Jacob had been eaten by a wild animal. Jacob never forgot that. Jacob lived every day after that with the grief of the loss of Joseph. He says at that time, Genesis 37, Verse 35, And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. It had been now 20 or more years since Joseph had apparently died. But it was just like yesterday to Jacob. He remembered with grief the loss of Joseph. His life was filled with many, many hardships and sorrows and now added to all of those other ones that he'd experienced are a whole new set of hardships. There was a famine in the land of Canaan. No water, no food for the animals, very little for him and for his family. They were starving to death. And so Jacob sends ten of his sons down into Egypt to buy food there. To keep them all from dying and the family from being destroyed. When the sons go down into Egypt, the governor of the land, they don't realize it but it's their brother Joseph, the governor of the land accuses them of being spies. He puts one of the brothers, Simeon, in prison. Allows the other to go back. But says, in order to prove that you are not spies, come back with that other brother that you left at home. Show to me that you are not lying. Keep Simeon here in prison until you return with the youngest, Benjamin. That was a tremendous blow to Jacob when the brothers returned. expected them to return merely with food, but now there's only nine of the ten who've returned with very serious news to bring to their father. But then added to that is the fact that when they finally all open up their sacks where the food was placed, they find that their money is all there. They're afraid because of that. They're afraid because they're open now to the charge of theft. They hadn't stolen, but the fact that now they carried with them this food and their money means that they can be charged with stealing out of the land of Egypt so that when they go back, it's very likely that the whole lot of them will be thrown into prison because of the supposed charge of theft. This is all too much for aged Jacob. Joseph, he believes, to be dead for 20 years now. Simeon, in his mind, is as good as dead. The thought of getting him out of prison is something that Jacob doesn't even see as a reality. Benjamin, he believes, to be gone as well. Jacob responds These hard circumstances of life are crying out, all these things are against me. This response is a response of tremendous fear. The fear that all of these circumstances of life are not working for his good and for his salvation, but in fact all of these things are working against him. They're working his death. They're working his destruction. As he says at the end of the chapter, these things are going to bring his gray hairs down into the grave. They're going to kill him. Unspoken, but yet present there is the greatest fear. That God is against him. The God who before had made all of these promises to his father Abraham and Isaac and to himself. has forgotten these promises of blessing and His covenant. God doesn't care for him. God is making a mistake. Everything is going wrong. It's not what it should be. Because God is against you. There are other things we can say about the response of Jacob. His response is a response of Anxiety and worry. Simeon's in prison, but Simeon's not dead yet. Benjamin is still there. He hasn't had to go down into Egypt, but Jacob's mind is already racing into the future. He's imagining the worst possible outcomes of what's going to happen in the future. Simeon's as good as gone. Benjamin's as good as dead already. His response is one of self-pity. His focus is only on himself and his own circumstances. His response is to lash out at others. To blame others and try and pin his struggles on others. He says in the text to his children, you're the ones who've bereaved me of all of these sons. Jacob didn't know it. What he said was true. His sons had bereaved him of Joseph, but Jacob didn't have any proof of that. And it wasn't the fault of these sons that Simeon was kept in prison and Benjamin would have to go back. But in his fear and in his hurt, Jacob lashes out at them, tries to pin the blame on them rather than acknowledging his own sins that he created all these problems in his family by his marrying these wives, by his playing of favorites. He tries to pin it on his sons. Jacob's response is understandable. It doesn't mean his response is justified and right. It's not. We'll see that in just a moment, God willing. But it's understandable. We place ourselves in Jacob's shoes. Imagine how we would respond to something like this, and it's altogether understandable. We're given a narrow window into the heart and mind and life of Jacob right at the moment when he receives a terrible blow, terrible news. You see, raw emotion. Jacob's response to hearing of the apparent loss of his sons. We can understand how Jacob would respond in that way with such fear, such a raw, exposed moment of emotion. We can understand that because many of us have been there. We've been in some similar situation and faced the same fears, the same temptations. Hardships and the struggles that we see in Jacob's life mirror the experience of God's people today. Just as Jacob was hated, wrongly treated by his brother and by his uncle, So today a child of God can be deeply hurt by the sins of others against him. Things that others say about him. Things that are not true. Or can be hurt by others saying things that are true but that they shouldn't be saying and shouldn't be spreading to other people. Hurt by the selfishness of another. Hurt by the manipulation of another. There is a break of trust because someone close to us, a family member for example, sinned against us and hurt us in some way. A child of God today can experience many troubles in home and family life just as Jacob did. Struggles in marriage of one degree or another. Struggles with wayward, disobedient children. The heartache of a parent who sees the sins in the life of his child. The child of God can experience physical affliction. Just as Jacob and his family endured poverty, the child of God today can experience the great trial of poverty. The loss of a job, or the failure of a business, the inability to make ends meet, or some other physical sickness or affliction that besets him. The child of God may look to the future where there are all kinds of threats looming in his life. All kinds of fears and worries that he faces. What's going to happen to him in the coming days and weeks. As children of God, we know the tremendous grief and sorrow of death. Death of parents. Death of beloved spouse. The unimaginable grief of the death of a child. Jacob's a father here. He, as it were, at least in his mind, has brought his children to the grave. Unless we ourselves have walked that way, we can't imagine the grief, we can't express the grief of a parent who has to bring one of his children to the grave. God's way for us, very often, The deep, dark valley. The valley of the shadow of death. At times it may be for a child of God that it's just one trial that God sends that knocks us over. For others, it might be like Jacob where it's one after the other after the other. It seemed in Jacob's life as if there was no end of sorrow and hardship. It was one thing after another thing after another. One upon the other. And at times that's the case in the life of a child of God. It seems as if one child of God in his life hardly experiences anything. And the other child of God, it's an unending succession of hardships and struggles and sorrows. It's like being thrown into the deep end of the sea. In the midst of a storm and it's just one wave after another wave after another wave coming crashing down upon him. Struggling merely to keep his head above water. And another wave comes crashing upon him to bring him down. Or to change the figure, it's like being thrown into a boxing ring with a heavyweight champion. hits us with a left jab and a right hook and who's pummeling us with one blow after another, blow after another, and even when we feel as if we've been knocked over and knocked out, jumps upon us and continues to rain down blow after blow after blow upon us. Such is the experience of some of God's children. It's as if there's this unending succession of hardships and struggles that God sends upon them. And often we respond, as Jacob did, all these things are against me. We face what is one of the greatest temptations the child of God can face in such circumstances. Temptation of the devil to make us believe that all of these things are against us. These hard circumstances of life, they're not working our good. They're not working our salvation. These things are against us. They're working for our death. They're working for our destruction. They're going to utterly destroy us and overwhelm us. We face the greatest fear. The greatest temptation. God is against me. Not only all these circumstances, but God must be against me. The God who made all those promises before, who declared His love for me, has somehow forgotten about me. He doesn't care about me. I'm cut off and separated from the love of God. This is a mistake. There's something wrong. It's not going as it ought to be. All these things are against me. God is against me. It's a tremendous temptation and fear for the child of God. It's difficult for us to come down hard on Jacob then. Understandable that he would respond the way that he did. Coming to the life of a child of God. Right at the moment when they receive some devastating news. Right at the moment when they hear of the death of a loved one. Or right at the moment when they hear some painful diagnosis. And right at that moment, We can understand the response, the raw emotion. The child of God being tempted to say, as Jacob did, all these things are against me. As understandable as that is, the response is wrong. The conclusion to which Jacob came was false. He wasn't expressing reality when he said, all of these things are against me. Jacob spoke falsehood on two different levels here. First of all, you have just the surface level. What Jacob says is not an accurate reflection of reality in his life. It seemed that way to him, but it wasn't an accurate statement of what was going on in his life. He was led to believe that Joseph was dead, but Joseph wasn't dead. Joseph was now the second most powerful man in the land of Egypt. Simeon wasn't dead yet, as Jacob says here. He was alive and soon he would be released from prison. Benjamin was still alive. He was there with Jacob, and although he'd have to go down into Egypt, he wouldn't be harmed in any way. Jacob's fears, Jacob's worries, were real emotions to him, but those emotions were not grounded in reality. Reality was, all twelve of his sons were still alive. That's on the surface level. Before we go on and look more deeply, we can make a few points of application here. There are times where we don't know all of the details. We don't know all of the circumstances and what is reality. There are times, of course, where we do know. Where a loved one, for example, has died and we've laid that one in the grave, there's no question about that anymore. There are other times in our lives where we don't know the details in the reality and our fears and our worries, although very real emotions to us, are not grounded in reality. It shows the folly of our anxiety and our worry. It's very easy for us It's, we would say, almost a natural reaction to these things that we face, but it reveals the folly of that. It doesn't change anything. At times it's not an accurate reflection of what is true. It's therefore wrong and even foolish. That on the surface level, Jacob says here simply isn't true with regard to his sons. They're still alive. Then there's the deeper, the spiritual level. Jacob says, all these things are against me. Understandable in the moment, in the raw emotion that Jacob felt, but a statement that's false, that's not true. All of these things in Jacob's life were not against him, but all of these things in fact were for Jacob and for his family and for their good. God was using these circumstances to cure Jacob of his distrust in God. That was a perpetual struggle for Jacob all of his life long. He was always trying to run ahead of God. He didn't trust God and God's promise is God's way, God's timing. He thought he always had to run ahead to get the birthright and to outsmart his father and his brother Esau to trick his uncle Laban. didn't trust God. God was using these circumstances to strengthen Jacob's trust in him and to cure him of that besetting sin. God was using this for the good of Joseph's family. Jacob's family was torn apart by strife, by division, By hatred one for another. God is going to use these circumstances finally to bring reconciliation into Jacob's family. To bring those ten older brothers to humility, to genuine repentance over their sin of hatred for Joseph. To finally bring about reconciliation and healing in his family. God was using this for the salvation. Jacob's whole family. If left in the land of Cadan, they would be devoured and destroyed by the famine there. God had arranged all of these details so that Joseph would rise to power in Egypt, have food enough to supply for his family so that Jacob and the whole family could come down into Egypt. There God would make of them a great nation and would deliver them up out of Egypt by a strong hand and a stretched out arm. lead them to take the promised land as God had given it to them. Joseph spoke of that to his brothers later on. Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph says, but as for me, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Joseph evaluated all of these circumstances and said, God is in control. God has ordained this and He's ordained it for our good to save the whole family. Which means that Jacob's conclusion was false. It seemed to him, with this eye, as he evaluated the circumstances of his life, This is all against me. How can any of this be for my good? Truth of the matter was, all of this was not against him, but all of it was for him, for his good and his salvation. What a comfort. That truth is to us. What a comfort to us in the hardships and struggles of this life. To know that all of these things are not against us. All of these things in fact are for us and for our good. The scriptures speak of that often. Romans 5 verses 3 and 4. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. Romans 8 verse 28, one we're all familiar with. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Here in that chapter, verse 31, what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? And verse 39, nothing shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And one more, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17, for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Again and again, the promise of the Word of God is that all of these things are for us. They're not against us. They're not working our death, our destruction, our everlasting condemnation. It's not that God is against us, that God doesn't love us or care for us anymore. These things are for us. Working all together in the wisdom of God for our good and our salvation both now and everlastingly. These things aren't expressions of God's hatred, they are expressions of God's love for us. Those whom God loves, He chastens. separated from God's love. These things are expressions of God's love for us. That He's with us. That He's for us. These hardships strengthen our faith and trust in God. They cure us of our distrust in God. They turn us in complete dependence upon Him. They draw us closer to Him and to His Word. Often like never before in our life. A child of God might say, as painful as these circumstances are, I don't wish them according to my own will, but I see the good in them. I've never been drawn more closely to God and to His Word than in these hard circumstances. We have the good purpose in loosening our grip on this earth. Too easily we hold on with a tight fist to this earth and the things of this earth. Going through these hardships, God loosens that grip on the things of this earth. He cures us of our worldly mindedness. Makes us more and more seek first the kingdom of God. In those circumstances, We're brought to examine ourselves, to confess our sins, to turn from every evil way, to live gratefully before the face of God. All these things are not against us. That's a false conclusion. Understandable when we're evaluating things with the eye of the body because to the outward eye it seems as if it's all against us. The truth of the matter is that all these things are for us. We know that by faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob reached the conclusion that he did because of a weakness of faith. Not that Jacob was an unbeliever, he was a child of God who had faith. This was a moment of weakness of faith where he was not exercising his faith. Jacob took his eye off God and off God's promises. How is it that we know that all of these things are for us and not against us? By looking to God. Remembering who God is. Keeping our eye upon the absolute sovereignty of God. Keeping our eye fixed upon the perfect wisdom of God. Remembering that God loves us for the sake of Jesus Christ. Remembering the promises of God to us in his covenant. With our eye upon God and knowing who God is, we know then that all of these things can't be against us, but that they're for us. It's when we take our eye off God, in the time of the weakness of our faith, that we come to the conclusion, all these things are against me. Jacob took his eye off God. Jacob evaluated God. God's love for him in the light of his earthly circumstances. Rather than evaluating these circumstances, first of all in the light of God and God's love for him, he had it turned around. Weakness of faith. He forgot the amazing promises of God to him in his covenant. Jacob took his eye off of Jesus Christ How is it that we know that all things are for us and not against us? Because of the love of God shown in the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who stood in our place and who truly experienced that all things were against Him. Who felt what it was to have the Father against Him, truly to be forsaken by the Father. So that all things would be for us and for our good. It's only in Jesus Christ and His cross that we know all of these things are for us and who can be against us. Jacob lost sight of that. In the face of the overwhelming circumstances that God ordained. He forgot that among the sons who were gathered around Him, There was still Judah. Sinful son. Son that showed the weakness of faith often. But Judah, the one from whom would come Shiloh, as Jacob himself would prophesy later in the book of Genesis. From Judah comes Shiloh. From him comes the Christ, the Savior. In the face of the loss of his other sons, Jacob lost sight. Judah, and more importantly, Shiloh. And therefore concluded that all of these things are against him. We can almost, almost excuse Jacob's lack of faith. Almost, I say. Jacob didn't have the promises of the New Testament like we do. Couldn't open the Bible and read Romans 5, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 4 like we just did. He lived back in the time of the types and of the shadows. Whereas we stand in the clear light of the New Testament and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We can almost explain away Jacob's lack of faith. Much less than we explain away our lack of faith. We have these things. We have the promises of God in the Scriptures. We stand in the clear light of the New Testament and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet we confess, humbly, that often our faith is weak. Cry out, God I believe, help thou my unbelief. We don't always walk by faith. We walk often by sight. We evaluate God and His love for us in the light of our circumstances rather than evaluating these circumstances in the light of God and of His love for us. We lose sight of God. absolute sovereignty, His perfect wisdom, His unconditional love for us. We lose sight of Christ and His cross. And the fact that He was forsaken so that we are never forsaken. We respond in the wrong way. God's providential hand in our life. So our prayer to God tonight is that we learn. Learn from Jacob. Understanding the weakness of his faith, knowing our own weakness of faith, we learn and cry out to God to strengthen our faith, to cure us of our distrust, our unbelief. God would strengthen us to walk by faith and not by sight. To keep our eye on God and His power, His wisdom, His love for us. Never to take our eye off Christ and His cross. To evaluate all of these circumstances. First of all, in the light of who our God is and His love for us in Christ. And we're strengthened to endure. Able even to rejoice in adversity and to be thankful to God. As one man put it, to kiss the wave. that throws us onto the rock of ages, Jesus Christ. The wave of adversity that slams upon us. We learn to kiss the wave, to be thankful in adversity knowing that it doesn't work against us, but it's throwing us onto the rock of ages, Jesus Christ. Beloved, all things are not against you, your Christ. Whatever it is that God sends into your life and mine, no matter how difficult those circumstances are, and they are difficult, God's love for us, all of these things are for us. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, We believe. Help thou our unbelief. We're thankful for the gift of faith, and yet we recognize we are at times so weak. Tempted to doubt thee by power and wisdom and love, tempted to take our eye off of Christ what He's done for us on the cross. Strengthen our faith. Strengthen our trust in Thee. Give to us that childlike trust and dependence upon Thee, our Father. Strengthen us in this coming week. Whatever it is that has called us to do and ordain for our life, we might do so. honor and the glory of Thee our God. Forgive our sins for Jesus' sake. Amen. Let's sing Psalter number 210.