For you this evening, and we thank you for the Word of God that we have to stand on and the the rock that it is. And as we open your word tonight, I pray that it will help us to establish that foundation. That foundation that holds us up so that when it rains. When the floods come. We are on a rock. And so, by the power and the presence of your Spirit among us, Lord, bless this evening. Bless our fellowship. Encourage your people. Speak to them, Lord, through the ministry of the Word this evening. For we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, I'd like to welcome you here this evening. Good to have you here. Good to be together again. We're going to finish up tonight this series that we've been on on the subject of trials. It is a subject that is very relevant to us because all of us go through trials, every one of us. have trials. We. If you're not in one now, you will be. And if you're just getting out of one, you'll be back in one. It's just kind of the way it is. Trials are our lot in this life. We were looking at how the Lord uses trials in our life. That is one of the big differences that believers have in the world. We all have troubles, but God has promised that he is using our trials. They have a purpose and we're looking at how trials work in our life. I've said this a number of times, and I hope I hope there's something I can't remember. Sometimes the last sermon I preach and if I can't remember it and I'm thinking, I bet you guys don't have a clue what I'm talking about half the time when I refer to another to another message. But I hope in this subject that there's some things that have stood out to you that you remember, and I have to believe that the ministry of the word is to be consistent and constant because it addresses the concerns immediately. But I'm hoping that we are establishing some things. One of the things that you have to guard when you're in the midst of a trial is your perspective. Your perspective is under assault. How you look at life, how you look at the situation, how you look at what the future is, you have to keep your perspective biblical. We talked Sunday about having a biblical worldview, and it is paramount that we have a biblical view of our trials, because if you don't establish a biblical worldview, trust me, Satan will help you with a worldview. He will be more than happy to provide you with a lens to view your trials. And it will be a lie, it will be deception, it will be darkness, it will be hopelessness. The Bible does give us a view of trials, how we are to look at trials. I've mentioned before, we cannot predict our trials, we can only prepare for them. And that is what this has been about. I'm so thankful that the Bible reveals some amazing things about trials. I was thinking about this today, ironically, while I was eating sardines for lunch. That's my I love sardines. They're just a little mustard on them and they're the best nutritious. But I've been so curious because I've always wondered, how do they make sardines? I mean, how do they get in that can? Do they cook them? Do they just seal them up? I mean, obviously, they chop the heads off, but other than that, they don't do much to them. I've looked on the Internet, you know. What's the process? How do they get in this can? Of course, I'm thinking all this. You just don't know that. And I was thinking, you know, there's a lot of things the Bible doesn't tell us. It doesn't tell us how you process sardines. There's so many things the Bible doesn't tell us about. Doesn't tell us how you go to the moon. Doesn't tell you how to fix a car. Doesn't tell you how to build a house. It doesn't tell you a lot of things. But there's some things it absolutely addresses. And I am so thankful it addresses the subject of trials. Could you imagine living life and the Bible didn't say anything about your trials? You just didn't know the random, you didn't know what they were. The Bible addresses the subject of trials and it is precious. It reveals to us amazing things about trials, the things, the common things that happen to us or what James says, the manifold different things. We all have these various kinds of trials and the Bible addresses them all. Count it all joy, James one. When you meet trials of various kinds, it is a matter of perspective of how you look at this trial, have a biblical perspective. And so just by a mere brief recap, I hope we have discovered so far trials test our faith. Trials Test the genuineness of our faith. Test what we really believe about God. What are we confident in about God? That God is good. God is sovereign. God loves me. These are things that are tested in trials. And James tells us, Proven faith is more precious than gold. You come through a trial and you do believe in God. You believe that Jesus Christ has reconciled you to the father and you hold fast your integrity of faith. It is more precious than gold. Isn't it an amazing thing that many Christians struggle with their eternal security? Am I really saved or not? One's security is forged in the furnace. In the furnace of afflictions and disappointments, when life isn't fair, that's where our security is forged. Trials we saw in various ways draw us closer to the Lord himself. How in the word he speaks to us. The word comes to life under trials. When you are at ease, when you are prosperous, we just read through the Bible and it doesn't speak to us, but when you are hurting, when You are persecuted when life isn't fair. You start reading the word and things start jumping out at you. It comes alive. The Lord draws us closer, not only as he speaks to us in his word, but we speak to him in prayer. Prayer trials cause us to pray more, to pray more earnestly. Prayer is something that all of us struggle with. We don't do it naturally, but trials, the Lord draws us to himself and it causes us to pray, to seek him. To call out to him, to pray more often, to pray more earnestly. Last week we saw that trials strengthen our faith. You've all seen the trees that grow inside malls, you know, and they're perfectly standing. But I've heard them say, if you were to take that tree and put it outside in the elements, it would die immediately. It has no roots. There's no strength in it whatsoever. It is the wind, the rain that strengthens a tree. So trials strengthen our faith. They make our faith stronger. They make our faith grow deeper. They make our faith more vibrant, more vital. Faith can be dead. Faith can just say this is what I believe, but that's not saving faith. Faith is active and vibrant and trials make faith come alive, activates faith. Faith really becomes trials, really become a barometer to our faith. So when you go through trials, what do you do? What happens when tomorrow morning you get the pink slip? What happens tomorrow when the doctor says that you've got, you know, I don't know about that lump in your leg, it's scaring me. So what happens? Trials are a barometer of your faith if you start. Freaking out if you start fretting, if you start worrying, if you start just, you know, filled with anxiety, I don't know what I'm going to do and run into and fro. It is just revealed you have very little faith. It's just tiny. What do you do, do you hear the news? And your heart skips and then it's grounded. I'm going to trust the Lord through this. You realize your faith is growing. As your faith grows, sometimes the furnace gets hotter. Because the Lord isn't just satisfied, oh, they've made this plateau. He's going to grow your faith, deepen your faith, and sometimes the furnace gets hotter and hotter. So we're at our wit's end. As we grow in our faith, we grow in God's pleasure. You believe that as you grow in faith, you grow in God's God is pleased with faith without faith, it is impossible to please him. Therefore, the more faith we exercise in him, the more he would be pleased in us because it is glorifying him. Last week, this is one of those things I'm wondering if you caught it. I wonder just like we got to guard our perspective. I said one of the foundations of trials that we have to secure right now, if we're going to prepare ourselves for trial, there's one area that you need to you need to go right now and build this foundation. And it was this trials do not indicate God's ill will, his displeasure towards us. Trials are proofs of his love. That's pious platitudes. We can say it. Oh, that's great. But when you are in a trial, do you really believe that? Trials are a proof of God's special care. Trials are not indications that God is after you, that God has ill will towards you. It is indicative of God's special care of you. There are so many scriptures, Psalm 73, the absence of trials and the presence of abundance and prosperity is a result of God's curse. So when you go into trials, this doesn't mean God's after me. It means this is part of God's special care for me. He loves me. I want to read a letter that a Puritan wrote. I have been struck again how important it is to read the Puritans. They are. They they just don't write the way the Puritans used to write, I know they're hard to read, but. If you want to learn about sin, you need to read the Puritans. I don't know of anybody writing today that talks about sin the way the Puritans did. If you want to learn about hell or heaven, you probably need to read something that's 250 years or older, because those guys, they thought about these. They thought about heaven a whole lot more than we do. They thought about hell a whole lot more than we do. If you want to learn about trials, you need to read the Puritans. But I have this letter that the Puritan John Berridge wrote to a woman who was suffering in just a very difficult trial. John Berridge was a he was a kind of a traveling evangelist. He was one of Spurgeon's what he called eccentric preachers, just a great man of God and very, very readable. But he wrote to this woman, and I just want to read the first paragraph. This is how he opened this letter to a Christian woman who was under severe trial. Dear Madam, I grant that your circumstances are very severe and difficult. But let me beg of you not to construe your afflictions as a token of God's displeasure or a sign of your not belonging to him. This is an old temptation of Satan's with which he often assaults the afflicted Christian. But take the shield of faith that you may quench the fiery darts of Satan. This is the old temptation. God's this is God's displeasure towards you. What do I do to deserve this? Why is this happening to me? God, why are you after me? That was Job's natural inclination. Do not construe your afflictions as tokens of God's displeasure. This is an old temptation. Jesus said in Revelation 319, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. trials are God's proof is proof of God's special care. John MacArthur had a series called Benefiting from Life's Trials. He said, quote, Take heart. No matter what you're facing, you can be confident there is a powerful purpose in your pain. If you belong to God and illness. Unemployment. A fractured relationship, even the death of a loved one, happens for specific reasons, all wrapped up in God's sovereign, loving, nurturing embrace. And those of you that are familiar with John MacArthur, Johnny Mac, he is not your sentimental kind of guy. He's not into, you know, cutesy, warm, shallow stuff. And that statement is actually rather surprising coming from John MacArthur. He says they're all wrapped up in God's sovereign, loving, nurturing embrace. Is this just his personal opinion? I mean, why would why do you say something so syrupy like that? The death of a loved one and your pain, if you belong to God, whether it's an illness, unemployment, a fractured relationship, even the death of a loved one, it happens for specific reasons, all wrapped up in God's sovereign, loving, nurturing embrace. It's just not a feel good message, it is rooted in what the scripture has to say about our trials. That they are Lovingly designed by God and that belief is going to be under attack when you're in a trial, man, the life is going to be under attack. I mentioned before that trials are for the believer, I called it a super multivitamin. Trials are just like this multivitamin packed with goodness for the believer. There are so many good things that trials produce in our life. And we've looked at them. I just want to close this by looking at a few more, just trying to list some of these, like reading the label on a vitamin bottle. This is good for that. That's what trials are for us as a believer to say it a whole lot better, like the Puritans would say it. They would say it like this. Trials are a bitter root that produces much sweet fruit. A bitter pill you have to swallow, but it does amazing things for us or a bitter root that produces much sweet fruit in our life. Let me just give you, I think I have four or five more. Benefits. that trials do for us, that produce in our life, what the Lord uses trials for in our life. These are in no specific order. These are just things that I've had to think through, through personal experience looking at Scripture. One, trials help us to cherish our blessings more. Trials help us to cherish our blessings more. Trials give us a contrasting background. If everything is always good, it would be like this. If everything was always blue, everything would just bleed together. Trials provide the contrast that we appreciate, cherish, value our blessings. There's nothing worse. Than a child. Who has everything, just everything given to him. What's wrong with a kid like that? You see, they don't take care of their stuff. They don't value their stuff. Because this is just everything they have at all, they don't even they're not thankful, they're not full of gratitude. Isn't it interesting that the kid that has the least is always the most Grateful for what he gets, even if it's something pitiful. Trials. Cause us to cherish our blessings. Whether they be our health. Whether they be our family, whether they be peace, freedom, trials have a remarkable way to help us cherish our blessing. Another Puritan by the name of Thomas Case said, those filled with the blessings of God often neglect the God of their blessings. Very profound, isn't it? Those filled with the blessings of God often neglect the God of their blessings. Trials have a way for us to recognize the richness of our blessing. I have been reading in Psalm 65 and just meditating on Psalm 65, the God who hears prayer and how he blesses, he visits the earth and he enriches it. And I just envision what all that God has done for us, how he has enriched our lives. And he says in verse 11, you crown the year with your bounty, your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. What a poetic way your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The picture I see is a muddy trail with a wagon just loaded down with good things. And the tracks go deep in the mud because they're so it's just so overflowing with good things. And in our life, God has blessed us with so many good things that we just simply take for granted. We just don't even consider. We just presume upon. Trials have a marvelous way to help us once again appreciate the blessings that God has given us that we so often take for granted, whether it's our health. Our family. When we're at ease, someone said these are cheap things. When everything is going good, your health, you just we just presume on good health. We just presume our kids are always going to be there. Our husband's always going to be there. We're always going to dinner together or what are you just presuming? You just go about life. You're just so busy. You don't even pay attention to those things until something happens. Sometimes it's something happening to somebody else. And you begin to appreciate again the time you have. With your family, with your health, I think trials increase our capacity to appreciate our blessings. Otherwise, everything's just bland. To value them as gifts of God and thank him for him. So they help us to appreciate our blessings, number two. Trials help increase our compassion towards other people's sufferings. Trials teach us to be, how to be sympathetic with other people's suffering. Sympathetic, to join in with the passions, the sufferings of other people, to feel with other people their pain and their hurt. Trials increase our compassion towards others' suffering. The Lord is, I think of some of the ways that the Lord has wounded me in the past and how that has made me compassionate. When I was a teenager, I had a terrible complexion. I mean a terrible complexion. And it was the most humiliating, most dreadful, most painful thing I had suffered. And that's pretty pathetic when you look at all the suffering in the world. But for me as a teenager, and then to hear someone not know I was in the room and talk about it just was like a knife. And today, when I see a teenager struggling with acne or some other thing, my heart bleeds for them because I know what they're going through. I know that. I wouldn't know that if I had the perfect complexion that so many of our children have, and I'm thankful that they do. But it has made my heart bleed. When we suffer, we learn how to become sympathetic. And, you know, this is important because. We are going to be around hurting people. You're going to be around people who are going through very difficult trials, and it's always difficult, what do you do with hurting people? It's really important because sometimes what I think one of the big things we need to realize is hurting people. Probably more than anything, just want sympathy. They want empathy. They just want somebody to join in and share their sufferings. They're not looking for moralizations. They're not even looking for some profound answers from you. They just want sympathy. That was a huge relief for me to learn as a pastor, because I really didn't know that. You know, pastors are always called in and called into a family that just lost their baby, their infant babies. What am I going to say? They're expecting me to give them some answers, right? Tell them why God did this. Somebody lost their parent in a car wreck and and I'm going to come there and I'm going to have all the wisdom, right? You talk about credit. No. And there are times I can think back on numerous occasions go in and I didn't say anything because I didn't know what to say. And they said, thank you. Thank you for being here. I never said anything, I just shared the sorrow with them. Isn't it amazing that hurting people, oftentimes they just want sympathy, which is interesting because why is it that our evil heart, sometimes its natural inclination is not to be sympathetic? We don't want to be sympathetic. Husbands, if there's a lesson for us, We need to hear that sometimes our wives, they don't want the answer. They don't want moralizations. They don't want profound words of wisdom. They just want sympathy. Wives, sometimes your husband just wants somebody who shares in his hurt and pain. The best ministers, and I'm not talking about preachers here, I'm just talking about people that minister to other people. The best ministers are sympathetic. They're compassionate. Romans 12, 5, weep with those who weep. Just. Join with them, share their grief, share their pain, how do you do something like that? You learn that through your own trials. Your trials increase your ability to be sympathetic with other people. I want you to see this in Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. This is referring to Jesus Christ. Verse 16 of Hebrews 2 says, Surely it's not angels that Jesus helps. But Jesus helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore. This is connecting it now, therefore, to help the offspring of Abraham, which is you and I, because we're spiritual offspring of Abraham. Therefore, to help the offspring of Abraham, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people for because he himself has suffered when tempted, this word could be tempted into sin or it could be tried under tribulation, either one. And it's probably both when he himself has suffered, when he was tried. He's able to help those who are being tempted. It is such a comfort to know that our high priest is merciful and compassionate, and he enters into our suffering with us. He knows our trials. And if the Lord has done that with his son, if God has done it with his son as adopted children, be sure that we have trials so that we can be compassionate to brothers and sisters in Christ. Are your trials producing in you compassion towards other suffering? Should. Thirdly, It's hard to imagine somebody going through a lot of trials and being hypercritical of other people, being arrogant. Suffering people are going to be compassionate people. And if we're not compassionate towards other people, we probably just need to suffer. We need to be tried. Three trials teach us Submission to the will of God. Submission to the will of God. It's in trials we learn the art. The virtue of submission. Submission to the will of God. How would we describe what is a Christian? What is a believer? We should say it's one who is submitted to the Lord, submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We're under his lordship were surrendered. We're trusting him. So what does it mean to submit to the will of God? How do we do that? Well, one is obedience to the word. I submit to the Lord by being obedient to his word, and I honor his word and establish his word is my rule. I submit to it. But the other way that we submit to the will of the Lord is as we surrender to his will in our trials. submission under trial. We learn how to submit to the will of God. This is only true if, in fact, trials are from God himself. Our trials from God. If they are from God, then we should submit to them, surrender under them, say, Lord, this is the burden that you have placed on me to carry. I'm not going to buck and bronc and and fight, and I'm going to surrender to what you are placing on me. And I'm not going to be like a mule that I have to yank down because I don't want this and want to buck and get rid of it. I'm going to submit to what you are doing in my life. Trials teaches submission to the will of God. James four seven. Submit your selves, therefore, to God. The whole idea of submission is to place yourself under. Place yourself under the will of God as you see this trial that you did not ask for, that you did not run to, that has met you, that you have fallen into. You understand this trial is under the sovereign work of God and you submit yourself to God under this trial. Turn with me to first Peter five, six. So much of man's rebellion to his Creator is because man wants to rule himself. Man wants to be self-determining. Man wants to be the master of his own destiny. And when God confronts a man, there's only one master. He is master. And he teaches us to submit to him, to surrender to him. He is our Lord and our Savior and trials Our way in which we learn to submit ourselves to the will of God that we are not the masters of our own destiny. We submit ourselves to the Lord. First, Peter five, six. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. This phrase. under the mighty hand of God. What does it mean to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God? The context is clear that God's mighty hand is at work in the troubles that you're going through. He is at work. In the trials, it is his mighty hand. Look, look at what is connected to that verse, verse seven, casting all your cares your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Verse nine, resist the devil being firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Verse 10, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. The mighty hand of God is the hand that is responsible for the trial in your life. Humble yourselves under that mighty hand. Surrender yourself. Humble yourself under God's mighty hand. These trials teach us submission. Hebrews 5 tells us that Jesus, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. Suffering. Has an amazing way of sanctifying us. Has an amazing way as we surrender ourselves, conforming our will to God's will Thomas Case again said, None murmur so much of suffering as those who have suffered least. None murmur so much at suffering as those who have suffered least, but then he went on to say, See how many times those who are most patient have the heaviest burdens on their backs. You squirm, murmur, complain when you suffer. When you sense God's mighty hand on you and you just want to start kicking and bucking and doing everything you can to get it off your back. Crying out. None murmur so much at suffering as those who have suffered the least. See this in our families. See it in my kids. You know, life has changed a lot. We all know back in the olden days, you know, everybody worked real hard. Hard labor. I mean, you go out and you wanted to heat your house, you had to split firewood by hand. I mean, hard stuff. Today, you tell your kids, empty the trash. Oh, come on. Have you ever seen that happen? Oh, empty the trash. It's true, but that's us, too. That's us. Life is so easy and we get a little discomfort. Oh, come on. Why is it some of the people that are the most patient are those that have the heaviest burdens? And you know, when I read Thomas Case, you know who I thought of? I thought of Milo and Rob. I thought of John and Judy Worley. I mean, these People are suffering. And yet, have you seen the demeanor on these people? Just the contentment, just the sweetness. Just the resignation, this is where I'm at. Man, doesn't that provoke us to say, we are spoiled children, aren't we? We get a little something under our saddle and don't, you know, come on. That's just how immature we are. That's how spoiled we are. Trials teach us submission to the will of God. Micah 6.8. What does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly before your God. Just submit to Him. Walk humble before Him. Fourthly, trials teach us dependency upon God. This isn't in any new, because this is probably way up on the top of the list. Could you imagine having a pill that would do all this? You could just have a pill. It'd make you compassionate towards other people. A pill that would cause you to be compassionate towards other people's suffering. Teach you submission to the will of God. A pill that would teach you dependence upon God. It just doesn't come that way, does it? But trials, the bottle of trials. These will cause you to be dependent on God. We have to be taught that. By nature, we're self-sufficient. By nature, we're self-determining. By nature, we want to be in control. That's just our nature. Only a fool doesn't want to be in control. The very nature of a trial, this is so important, the very nature of a trial is to tax or surpass our abilities to extract ourselves from it or to solve it. A trial renders us helpless. It's not a trial if we can fix it. If we can just make it go away, it's not a trial, or if we even know, you know, oh, I know what to do here, that's not a trial. Last year or so, my son, we had a 97 Saturn, wasn't running very good at all, just kind of rough. And I thought, you know, it needs new spark plugs, new wires. I can do that. Anybody can do that. Who can't put in new spark plugs and wire? So I went to the place, bought some spark plugs, wire, opened up the hood, popped off the wires, Put in the new plugs, that was easy. Turn the car, and it wouldn't start. I mean, it just wouldn't. I said, what in the world? Must be bad plugs. So, took off the plugs, put the old plugs back in, put the wires back on. Now I have a trial. I don't know what else to do. I've done everything I know what to do. I can't fix it. I've done it. Why wouldn't it started before? And then I start monkeying with it. And now we'll start. So I have to call someone else, Kevin Bush. And you have to put the wires in a certain order on the plugs. I didn't know that. But it's not a trial as long as you've got it figured out. Oh, yeah, I can do this. It becomes a trial when you can't figure it out. When you can't fix it, when you can't make it go away. That's the nature of a trial. Why is that the nature of a trial? Because trials are to tax our self-sufficiency, our ability to fix things ourselves so that we depend on God. So that we call on the Lord to come so he can supernaturally help us. That's one of the dangers that you need to avoid when you're in a trial. One of the dangers you want to avoid when you're into a trial, unless it's fixing a 97 Saturn, don't always run somebody else. Don't always call somebody else. It's good to have Christian brothers and sisters, but there is a danger in a trial that you run to a man or to a woman to fix your trial when what you need to first do Is run to the Lord. There is no substitute when you bring a trouble before the Lord and he fixes it. If he intervenes, there is no substitute in the world for that. Now he may use brothers and sisters as you seek the Lord. He brings someone along who helps meet that trial that happens, but just don't run to people. Don't be dependent on people. Look to the Lord. God designs trials to teach us to be dependent upon him. Because he wants to provide for you. He wants to work. Think of it. He wants to work supernatural things for you. I don't know if you really believe that or not, but I've seen the Lord do that. He brings you in places where you're beyond your wits end and then he does something supernatural. Look at Deuteronomy 8, too, for a moment, I was just reading Deuteronomy 8. What a great passage of Scripture. You should remember, verse 2, the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. If there's one metaphor for trial in the Old Testament, it's wilderness. You've been in the wilderness for 40 years. You've been in trial for 40 years that he might humble you. That's his purpose. You're not going to be dependent on yourself. You're not going to be dependent on anyone else. He's going to humble you, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep your commandments. And notice what happens. He humbled you. Verse three, he lets you go hungry. And he fed you with manna, provided for you. So that you will learn that man doesn't live by bread alone. The man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He lets you get thirsty so you could see water coming out of a rock. Know then in your heart as a man disciplines his son, trains him, the Lord your God disciplines you. Notice verse 16. He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end. What a precious promise. He's humbling you so that He can do you good in the end. So He can work in your life. When you come to realize that trials tax our abilities to the limit, trials bring us to the end of ourselves. Sometimes it's a medical trial. The doctors, they can't fix it. It could be a relationship trial. It could be a job. There's just so many ways the Lord can tax our limits. You don't know what to do. There are no easy answers. You don't know how to behave. You don't know what step to take next. Turn to James, because this is so important, because this tells us that really the nature of trials, this is the nature of trials. To tax you to the ends of your abilities. Verses two through four have told us about trials. When you meet trials of various kinds, they're testing your faith, they're producing fullness. Verse five, this is not disconnected. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. We so short circuit this verse, we just We are full of trials, but do we do we connect trials with seeking God for wisdom? I don't know if we do. We talk about, oh, we need to seek God for wisdom. Oh, we have trials and Lord's teaching us things, but they're connected in James. When you're in trials, you don't know what to do. Seek wisdom from God. Go to him. And what is wisdom is not some mystical matter. Wisdom is the answer. Wisdom is the next step. It's the right thing to do. Seek God for wisdom, who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him. I hope you'll do that. Or give me wisdom. I don't know what to do here. Guide us. Help me to give me the skill to handle this difficult situation. Fifthly, and I'll close with this, trials have an amazing way to prepare us for heaven. It's not an accident that Americans, the most prosperous and rich people in the world, don't really think about heaven a lot. That's not an accident. It's not an accident that Christians in third world countries that don't have anything, sing and talk about heaven all the time. Trials have a way of doing that. Trials have a way of weaning us from the world, reminding us this world is not our home, that this life is short. Trials remind us how life and transient this world really is. That's one of the things I don't like old age one bit. I honestly feel like I'm fighting it every day. And it's a losing battle, isn't it? You just can't fight it. You just get older and older. But if there's one thing that I can say that is good about old age is it does make you long for heaven more. It really does. You just you realize. This life is short. And it prepares you for heaven. This Puritan, John Berridge, in this letter that he wrote to this woman who was afflicted. He said, we are too apt to settle on our lees. I'm not sure what that means. too apt to be absorbed with the vanities of this passing world. We are now chastened that hereafter we may not be condemned with the world. Ah, happy afflictions which wean us from this wretched, dying world. They are a means to mortify our corruptions, to teach us to live more constantly by faith in Jesus Christ and to fix all our hopes and expectations on the eternal world of glory. Sanctified afflictions are a thousand times rather to be chosen than unsanctified prosperity. Paul said for this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. We will quit looking at the things that are seen under trials and start looking at the things that are unseen. Well, these are the things that trials do. They test our faith. I mean, you start going through the things that trials do and how good they are for us. We grow spiritually. We mature spiritually. We mature and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through prayer and understanding His Word. We become more compassionate towards other people and their suffering. We learn to submit to the will of God, weans us from the affections of this world, all these things done by trials. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. God humbles us. so that he may do us good in the end. That's a beautiful way to end this. There is a purpose in our trials. God works all things for good to those who love him, to those who are called according to his purposes. That's the bedrock of our faith and conviction as we face trials. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this study. And again, I am thankful that your word informs us and teaches us about trials. Let. This testing have its perfect work. It produces in us patience. And then we are complete. Full from the workings of trials in our life. I just pray father that each of us will have our hearts guarded so that when we meet trials of various kinds, our perspective will be different, we will be armed. We'll be ready. None of us want trials, but when they come, let us be prepared to meet them with our perspective and our foundation and our understanding that these trials are working for our good. It changes everything. Lord, bless your word. Because we have to live on it more than bread itself. So bless it, Father. Make it real, substantive in the lives of your people. In Jesus' name, Amen.