A little bit farther back, let's go to verse 8. So, they're driving, they're passing different areas, it mentions where they're under Crete, they passed Thessaloniki. Verse 8, "...and hardly passing, and they came unto a place which is called the Fair Havens, nigh whereunto was the city of Lassia." Verse 9, chapter 27, it says, "...now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous..." I do think it's important to catch that phrase, or sailing is now dangerous, "...because the fast was now already passed." Paul admonished them, and he said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage. That's exciting. Sometimes in midst of trials and struggles in life, temptations, we find this. But he says, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of this ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Athenus, and there to winter, which is in haven of Crete, and lieth toward the south-west and north-west. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they thought, oh, things are going great, we're good. This is losing fence, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Euryclidon, meaning it's a big deal. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up unto the wind, we let her drive. And running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat. Which, when they had taken up, they used helps, ungirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, straked sail, and so were driven. And we, being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, and all hope that we should be saved was taken away." We're going to stop here for a second. There's a lot more we're going to deal with. But what we capture there is the mindset of things that everyone's gone through, and what they're thinking, what they're looking at. It's rough. They now are not only in the midst of a storm, not only is it dangerous, they've cast out the lading of the ship, they've cast out the tackling, the ability to fish. They're expecting now that they will die. And now they've not seen the sun for three days. That's not fun. Now I've not been in a storm, in the sea, so I really, I myself can't picture this. I've read books on it, I've tried to study some things using internet, but I've not been in it. So my perspective is limited, but I'm gonna ask, has anyone been in a storm in the sea? One, two, three. All right. So you guys know something about this exact type of situation more than the rest of us do. But there is a point of application that we will all understand. When life is difficult and you've gone through something where you see, I don't know how I will get through this. And so it's similar to a storm, be it different. I've not been through a storm physically, so I don't know what that's like entirely, at least in the sea. But when we go through a storm of life where it seems like there's no hope, And you might even consider, am I going to have sustenance? Am I going to have provision? You might think of it in a physical matter, am I going to have food if you go through a financial loss, a financial struggle? Will I be able to eat the next meal? Will I be able to eat this day or even this week? I'm assuming most people have gone through some kind of struggle. I understand none of us were in the Great Depression, but Some of us, some of you, not us, some of you were in that time where you were raised and you understand more of what that was like. I've only heard stories. I was very distant from it. But where you question if you're even going to live, that's the kind of situation. Some people go through that emotionally. They know, how am I going to get through this? They have these kind of struggles. That's the exact type of situation that's here. They don't know what's going to happen, how they're going to get through it. It is difficult. And they're wondering, Lots of questions would come to your mind. Is God going to provide? Is God going to care? Does He know what we're going through? These kind of things some people will question. But Paul gives us an example of what we're supposed to do, what we're supposed to act like, how we're supposed to be in the midst of a storm. So we're going to consider that next. But I want us to capture first the doom, the gloom, the hardships. We're going to pray now. I don't remember the structure, but I want to pray, and then we'll continue on the rest of the text here. Father, we love You and thank You for the time it is to open up Your Word, and at the time of Sunday School Hour, we do pray that You'd be honored and glorified, and that You'd bless the reading of the Word here, the teaching of it, and that our minds might be able to understand and apply the truth to the Scripture here. And especially, Lord, that we would capture the principle that trials are a part of life. We go through struggles in this life, but there is always a purpose, and we always can see how much that you care for us, how much you can provide for us, and the strength that you give to us. Lord, help us to rely upon you, to trust you, and we ask for your grace in this time. We pray in Christ's name, amen. All right, so, and they're in the midst of a struggle, of a danger. I'm just gonna read a quote here. Every trial is an opportunity for God to show His omnipotent power. It allows God to show Himself strong on our behalf, displaying what only He can do if we do not face impossibilities, we will never see God do the miraculous. So, just a situation that we've gone through before, but whenever you go to a point where you're wondering, okay, I have these bills, and I have, say I have these bills, and I have this money. How do I get this money to match these bills? Well, I multiply it. But you have two days. You can't invest into it. You can't work hard enough to provide it unless you have a special job that provides that. These are situations that more than likely I'm assuming everyone has gone through. And I've gone through it before too. But you have these bills and you have this much money. You can't provide for it. Maybe you have this much of a health issue, but you only have this much resources, or this much for someone to help you. When things don't match the need, through that, we do find God's provision. We find that God can give us miracles. But miracles don't happen when we say, okay, this is hard, but I recognize if I just try harder, I can get through it. Well, if you get through it, that's not necessarily a miracle, because you might even say that you did it yourself. But when you know you can't do it yourself, and you know that there will be struggles, that's when you know God is the one that did the work. I'll give a very, to me, I see this as a miracle. I don't know about everyone else. But often, when two churches merge, there are fights, there's contention, there's struggles, because one thing that the church is supposed to have, according to Ephesians, is unity. But when there is not fighting, there's not contention, I would say that's a miracle. When two people can get along, when two churches merge together and can get along, that's one thing that we see evidently this is God's work. We can't do it. Brother Eccles and I were talking about some things in the past. I understand this doesn't have to do with the text. This is like a parenthesis. This is free time. But God gives us things that we have vision for, things we want to do. But when Brother Eccles and I were talking about some stuff, We have the same thoughts on some things. And we don't fight, we get along. And I like hearing him talk. I think he likes, he pretends like he enjoys hearing me talk. But we can just fellowship. And the fact that God has done that, I see as a miracle. I don't see it as just a thing that we can do ourselves. Because we're fleshly, we're sinful, we're very careless, we're very carnal, we can struggle a lot. But when we submit to God and we see something that God can do, He'll do a great miracle. He'll do a great work. Now that's just my thought. But also, health. Brother Nelson went through some health this week. There's a lot of us who have gone through some health issues. God can provide. He does provide, but sometimes we question if God will provide. So I wanna, this part is not for me, some alliteration here, but I wanna give some thoughts. So in the midst of a storm, not only do we see that we need to grow, that's what last week was about, But we also have the opportunity to see how God will show, show himself to be true, show himself to be faithful, but he also shows how much he cares. So I want to read a little bit more in this text here, how much God cares. Verse 21, so it seems like we ended there, verse 20, that all hope was taken away. Verse 21. But after a long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. Now, I'll be honest, the first time I read that, I thought Paul was saying, I told you so. Technically, he wasn't, maybe a little bit. But he's saying, guys, I told you this is going to be dangerous. but God's still going to care for us. So verse 22, he says, God stood with him amidst the storm. Now, if you've ever gone through a real storm, a real struggle, in any aspect, it could be finances, it could be health, it could be in emotions, it could be trials of life, amongst family, but I hope you can recognize that God is there. We know that there's the scriptures of Luke, I think it's three accounts, where God says that if we ask for him, he'll come. We know that God's always there, and if we knock, He's going to come in. He's always there looking for us, which we need to let Him in. We know there's some things that God wants to be there for us. He wants to come into our life to provide. But when we go through trials, sometimes we don't know how to look for God. But yet He is always still there. Even if we're questioning some things, God is always still there. So it says in this text, that verse 23, For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve. God is there with us, but it does help when we're in God's will. When he uses that phrase there, whose I am and whom I serve, this may seem like a side topic, but this deals with the text very much so. Paul is in God's will, Paul is serving God, and God provides safety for him. God provides comfort for him as well. And I think within the context, that fits very, very importantly. That's a very key part to it. Because if Paul is outside of God's will, Will God provide and still be with him? Yes, but sometimes God will also allow him to go through struggles, go through trials. We talked about last week with Jonah. Yes, Jonah was going to do what God said. He was going to physically serve God, but his mind and his heart was not necessarily there, not like it should be. But Paul was serving God faithfully. Not only was God there, but he was encouraging him because Paul was serving faithfully. Verse 24, here's what the angel said to Paul, saying, Fear not, Paul, for thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath given all of them that sail with thee, all of them that sail with thee. Wherefore it serves me of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. Not only does God care, but God can provide for us. Paul hasn't seen it yet, but yet God says to them, be of good cheer. Even though he's not seen it yet, he still makes that statement. Why? because he believes God. He has a confidence in God. And we see this in other times that Paul writes, I am persuaded that that which I've given to God, he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. He's able to control, he's able to provide for us, but we need to trust him. We walk by faith, may not always understand what's happening, but we can still walk by faith. God is gonna provide for us. It's not only does God care, but He can provide. And we have to have confidence there. So verse 25, it says, What happens when someone says, I believe God? I'll taste another thought that I have in my mind. I hope my mind's not too chaotic. But my kids are learning everything by me and my wife. They learn from other people too, but they learn how to behave, they learn how to act, they learn how to trust, they learn all these things from my wife and I. And that's natural. Between the ages of two and five, kids grow and they understand a lot of things about loyalty, about trust, about commitment. They understand some resilience in life. They learn that there is some safeguards in family. They learn all these different things that we're supposed to teach them to learn how to serve God, how to follow God, how to trust God. Well, here's the dangerous thing. If my kid sees me or one of them spill water, I'm not going to do it because I don't want to do that. I don't want to clean up after it. But if I spill water and my kids see me throw a fit, what do they learn? When there's a mess in life, throw a fit. Now here's my thought, you may not agree, but when you go to Walmart and you see a kid throwing a fit on the floor, what they are physically doing is displaying to everyone around what their parents do at home. That's what I believe. You may not agree, but that's what I believe. What kids do, ultimately, they learn a lot from us. So my kids throw fits. They probably learned it from me. Probably not my wife. When they're nice and sweet, they probably learn that from my wife. Not always, but sometimes. I'll move on. But our kids learn from us. Here's something that Paul's doing. I understand it's not a parent-child relationship, but Paul says this, I believe God. God's gonna provide, God has been with me, I understand His comfort, His presence, and I know that God's gonna have provision for me, and I believe God. What does that do? Well, when we're confident, when we're persuaded in what we say, it gives others a certain glimpse of that confidence, and they can trust us a little bit. and they can learn to trust God a little bit more. We have to be careful because in the midst of a trial, not only can we come out bitter or better, that phrase I used last week, but also other people can see us in the midst of a trial and they learn. There's a lot of times that I've seen people go through trials and I learn from it. I've seen Brother Lao and I would go door knocking a lot, and I remember driving your red truck, and we'd go house to house, because it was too far apart, not a neighborhood, we couldn't walk. We'd go house to house driving, and he'd leave the door open, and I'd close the door. I always wondered why he left the door open, and we'd go just knocking the door, and we'd talk to people, and had good conversations. We'd go back in the truck, and he may not be able to physically do that now. I think some of you know he makes phone calls. But I've seen some things change in Brother Lao's life, along with several others. And yet, still be faithful. Are we gonna make mistakes? Absolutely, yes, because we're fleshly. But still, in the midst of trials, in the midst of life that just happens, what we do, not only is it that we can trust God, we know that He cares, that He can provide for us, but others are watching, and others are learning. Just like my kids learn from me, if they have bad attitude, they probably learn it from me. If they're careful, and they're gentle, and they learn to say things right, Maybe they learned that from me, maybe they learned it from somebody else. But realistically, kids do learn a lot from us. And it's important for us to be careful, because here, when Paul makes this statement, I believe God. I trust God. Verse 25, wherefore it serves be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Others are watching. We've got to be careful. So trials give opportunity for others to know. To know what? Well, one, to know about a relationship. We know the difference between those two phrases, religion versus relationship. Well, relationship is not an act of things that I have to do in order to please God. Relationship means that there's growth. So just read some thoughts here. lost my point, here it is. When you rejoice in your trial and rely on the promises of God, others will observe the difference because you have God in the picture who is more than able to help you. Trials may bring struggles, but trials also show relationship and dependence. So like when we go through trials, my wife and I, our relationship together is seen by our kids. And if they see us fighting, if they see one say something like, OK, I believe God, and the other one say, well, I don't know. I got to work harder to provide. And they see some contention in what we believe and what we do, maybe contentions between us, our kids are going to learn from that. We have to be very careful to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, in our life as Christians, as a church, as Crimson Avenue Baptist Church, when we go through trials, which we will, so if you have not gone through one lately, maybe there's one coming. What we do through those trials gives an opportunity for other people to see And they can trust. But not only do they see that we have the certain looks, the certain attitude, but they see it as a relationship. It means there's a depth. Kind of like just when someone's growing up, they see more in life, but they also see some depth in life. They see the true depth that God cares for them, God will provide for them, and God has a purpose for the trial. That we would grow closer to Him, to reflect His glory, to become into the image of Christ. There's a purpose for all these things. God wants to do something through us. sometimes or first before He can do things through us He has to do some things in us. And that's what trials are doing. So verse 25 we read that, that He believed God. In verse 26 He says this, 26 Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country. They said that we're going to come to a certain island. Well, here's this island. So they were coming to a certain country, and they sounded, verse 28, and found it twenty fathoms. And when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms. And then, fearing that we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of their stern and wished for the day. So they were hoping that things would get better. They were waiting for that day. But Paul said, we're going to go to an island. They're seeing some things happen. Can we say, just trust God? He will provide. But we have to stay faithful because when we fail, what we're doing ultimately is we're not reflecting the character of Christ where we're supposed to. He never fails. So we have to trust Him and rely upon Him, not our own strength. And other people who are watching might see us being faithful, and they see the character of God displayed in our life. That is a tremendous gift. That is a treasure that God would use us to display His character to other people. I love that truth. That is a great privilege and honor. They see relationship, depth in our life and what we do. And they get to see the importance of the reliance upon God. When a non-believer goes through a trial, he has no one else to turn to but himself or the help of men. But we as believers have the greatest source of help available, the Lord Himself. When we rely on the Lord for grace, strength, and wisdom in our trial and trust in His purpose for it, others have an opportunity to see the significance of full dependence on the God of our faith. the God of all creation. When you go through struggles and trials, we see God is faithful, we know God is faithful, but others can see God's faithfulness in the life that He gives to us. We're given this life and we're supposed to steward it carefully. We're supposed to steward the manifold grace of God, the ministry of reconciliation, the things we're called to do as believers. But when you go through trials, that stewardship doesn't go away. We're still to steward the life that God's given to us. And it is a great gift because other people can see that we rely on God and God will always provide. Does He provide when we don't rely on Him? Yes, He still provides for us. But He does not get the glory like He wants to get. We want to give Him the glory through those trials. There's a hymn, I think I'm going to go ahead and just read a small portion of it. I'm just going to read the first part. "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." A Sunday afternoon in 1879, Louisa Steed, her husband, and four-year-old daughter, Lily, decided to have a picnic at the beach in Long Island, New York. I don't know if anyone knows the story of "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," but this is a portion of that backstory. This is while eating their lunch, they heard cries for help and spotted a drowning boy in the sea. Mr. Steed dove into the water to rescue the boy. In his desperation, the struggling boy latched onto Mr. Steed and pulled him under as well. Which, if anyone knows about how to properly do life safety in the waters, that is a dangerous situation, and you are supposed to be careful with that. But it says here, he pulled him under as well, and Louisa and Lily watched in horror as both the boy and Mr. Steed drowned. In the months following, Louisa faced deep poverty without her husband's income. But over and over she saw God's faithfulness. And one day after the Lord had provided a specific need in a special way, she sat down and penned the words to the hymn, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." just to take him at his word, just to rest upon his promise, and just to know, thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I've proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more. We have a lot of hymns, and there's a lot of, if you ever looked at hymnology, the study to a lot of these different hymns. I like It is well with my soul. That's when I love the backstory too. But through these, we have sermons. Through these, we have analogies. We have people who've written hymns and songs. We have great stories of people who have been faithful to God. And how do we get them? because somebody went through a trial, and they faced it with God's grace, with his provision, with his care for them, and they showed his relationship, that he loves them. And what happens is God gets glorified, not only in the midst of the trial, but also after the trial. God's trying to grow us in all these situations of life. And honestly, what an honor. He wants to grow for us. He wants us to grow so we can glorify him. I want to read a little portion to the rest of this text here. So they head to these rocks on this island. It says the shipmen were about to flee out of the boat in verse 30, and when they had let down the boat into the sea under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the ship, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. So they listened to him. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting, taking nothing, having taken nothing. Wherefore, I pray you to take some meat, for this is for your health. For there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And that's an important part there. They gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat. And then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat. We'll stop there. We can continue the rest of the text here, but they're in the midst of the storm. They start off with saying he's a prisoner. We're not going to listen to him because he says, hey, be careful, guys. I think we should stay here. This voyage is going to be dangerous. They don't listen to him. And in the midst of this storm, not only does Paul go from a prisoner to someone that's maybe more careful, maybe someone precious to some of their eyes, but he becomes a preacher. In their mind, he goes from the prisoner to the preacher. Was he always a preacher? Yes. But through the trial, God did a work in the lives of those people. Did He provide for Paul? Yes. Was He there for Paul in the midst of it? Yes, He stood with him. But some great thing that God did was He did a work in the hearts of all those men on that ship. Because what He did in verse 35, He had thus spoken, He took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. When they had broken it, He began to eat. And then, verse 36, then were they all of good cheer, and they also took some meat. Their countenance changed. At first we saw in verse 20 that all hope was lost. They hadn't seen the sun for three days. Now they trust God. Tremendous excitement because God used him. Is God using you? Has God used you in the past? Anything about the situations that you've gone through in your history? And maybe you can think of some stories that God has done a work and he changed somebody's heart. Maybe towards you some, but particularly, because remember it's not about us, they changed their heart towards God. and He used you. It's not about us. We might be cast into the side of the picture and God uses our testimony so that someone grows in their relation with God. Maybe someone gets saved. They didn't even know God before. But what God does for us and through us in the midst of a trial is not always for us. Sometimes God puts us through trials, and this is a really hard thing, and I only understand a small portion of it, but God gives us some trials, so maybe even years later, someone else can get saved. Someone else can hear of it and get some excitement. I know there's people that, everyone in here is praying for to get saved. And there's family members who need to get saved, who are not saved yet. And the life that we live here now, might be what is used by God to see someone else get saved. Because they see our faithfulness, not really us being faithful, but God being faithful to us and working in us to trust Him. And what happens is someone else might get saved, maybe even after we die. And that's not always exciting. to say, okay, someone's going to get saved, and I want that, but I want to see the fruit. Sometimes we do, and God gives us the privilege to see the fruit. But God has some things for us to do. It's not always about us, but it is through us, and it is for us. He wants to do something for us. I have a few minutes longer, so I'm just going to finish up something here. I want to read 2 Corinthians, and I think you probably already know the text, dealing with what trials do, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. If you didn't know, you could probably just quote it, but I want to read it because I might mess it up. Again, I like reading context, but I won't. I'll start in chapter 1 of 2 Corinthians. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to start in verse 3. He says this, Bless be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. If you've had comfort here, it's come from God. We know He's given us comfort, He's given us peace, not like the world gives peace, but He's given us a different peace. But it says, The God of all comfort, blessed be God. In verse four it says, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. By the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounded by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation." Meaning this, you might go through some hardships just like us. May not be fun, but guess what? You're also getting the consolation. You're getting the comfort from Christ. You might go through some hardships. You might be going through hardships right now, but God will and can come for you. So what do we learn from this? What's our application? We know that God can provide. Let's just go back to the beginning. Trials are given to us so that we might grow. But also trials are given to us so that we might know. Know what? That God can provide for us. That also God cares for us. He's there for us. Just like we saw with Paul. He was there with him. He stood with him in the night. And often we know in the night sometimes are the greatest fears that come upon us. But rather than having fear, Paul had faith. He trusted God. But not only does it stop there, God uses trials to show something. Show to us that his strength is there, his presence is there, his provision is there, but also it shows through us the relationship. As we trust God, he gives us not only a strength in our relationship to trust him, but other people see the dependence that we have on God. And we have what the Bible calls a joy that's unspeakable and full of glory. We have a great peace, a peace that passes understanding. When someone looks at us, I'm like, why do you have peace? Why is that you're comfortable in the midst of this trial? God, what does that mean? God is great, God is gracious, and God has given me His presence. And I can't explain it, but I have peace through this trial. All I need to do is just trust Him. And some of you know more of this than I do, because I've only gone through a little bit. I'm still young. But what I do know is it is true. The Word of God is true. Sometimes we struggle, but we need to trust it and have dependence upon it. Because God does something in us, but also he wants to do something through us. He wants to show himself to be faithful, to be true, but he also wants to show a dependence in a relationship. And I say this, but the difference between a religion versus a relationship, God's gonna grow. He's going to grow us, He's going to grow our trust and our relationship with Him, but He's going to also grow other people's trust upon Him. So someone else might get saved through the work that we're doing. God has a great work to do through us. So the trial you face might be the best and only opportunity to win someone to the Lord or to demonstrate the power of God in your life. Why can we count trials a joy? This is back towards James. How can we count trials a joy? Because we know that God is working in our lives for our good and for the good of others. So embrace God's promises and count your trial a joy. How do you count your trial a joy? You have to see the greater depth. It's not about us. It's not about the shallow thing. But there is a great depth that God is working in us and through us. And you always have a purpose. Do we always know? Certainly not. I don't know, Brother Phillips, you've probably gone through a lot of things that I have no idea what it's like, but there are some trials you've gone through. Do you know fully what all of them are for? I wondered, I was kind of hoping that might be the answer, I wasn't sure. But there's some things we go through we may not always know. I've seen that through some situations in scripture where we don't always know what's happening. But God has a purpose. Just like Israel went through Egypt to learn some things. And one of the great things they went through in Egypt was some oppression, some struggles, but they saw a great deliverance from God when they went through the exodus. And they got out of Egypt and they went through the Red Sea. God provided for them. But he showed some great mighty work, because the one who has oppressed them, who is stronger than them, was overtaken, not by them, but by God. They saw his great miraculous work. It's a better way to say that. His great miraculous work. We see that sometimes because of trials. We need trials. Not always fun, no. But we do need them. Now here I've taught about this and so I'm assuming there's some things that I might get to go through. But the Word of God is very true and very faithful. We need to trust it. And the trials He gives to us are for a purpose. Let's just trust Him because He might want to see someone get saved through the trials that we go through. I'm going to pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, we love you. Thank you for the time you've given to us to get in here today to know more about your word and the people that have trusted you in times past and even the hymns that have been written through the midst of trials and people who have trusted you. They've longed for your presence and they've been hoping and looking for the glory of your appearing to see you face to face. And God, I pray that you would help us to look at these trials that some people face, maybe the trials that you've allowed us to face, and to see that there is a purpose through them. We may not always understand it, we can trust You knowing that Your presence is always there and that You will always provide for us. Lord help us to depend upon You, to trust You, not to be strong in our own strength, but to trust You and to lean upon You. And Lord help us to see that there is a great work that You want to do in us and through us so that other people might be saved. For Your honor and Your glory. And I pray that You would bless this time here that we have to separate our ways that we'd have for this next service to have a mind and heart that's attentive and ready to hear the preaching of Your Word. And we ask it for Your honor and glory, in Christ's name, amen. Alright, you may be dismissed. th th