we're in the book of james tonight and uh... quiet a lease for me an important section here it is james one weird uh... down in verse nineteen and twenty james one nineteen and twenty tonight everybody got a spot y'all there it says Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. something I've tried to memorize and repeat to myself over and over again the wrath of man work if not the righteousness of God let's take a look at where we are in the study as we look back remember that we have dealt with the teaching concerning perseverance back in the first part of this then we went to the section dealing with wisdom then a section dealing with humility and finally with. with the subject of sin. where sin comes from we have been just finished and the contacts notice is the fact that every good thing comes down from god who has be gotten us with the word of truth and god's word is the immediate contacts in fact if you look at our verses you'll see in verse eighteen he be got us with the word of truth and then notice in verse twenty one where for put away all filthiness and naughtiness or wickedness or whatever, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. So the Word of God is bracketing this particular section that we're dealing with tonight. And it is His Word that births us and saves us, and what we are then seeing is that that Word demands a corresponding conduct on our part, that we are to shape our lives in accordance with that Word. And so let us look at how James begins this appeal. And he says, wherefore, or knowing this, some versions put it, my beloved brethren. And I thought that's interesting. You are my brothers. You're my beloved brothers. The appeal, you see, is not from someone that's cold-hearted towards his hearers, but he has a genuine concern and a love for them. They are beloved of him. They are his brothers. Adelphos, it means from the same womb. Of course, literally that's not true, but that's how he perceives his Christian brothers here. And so this is an appeal coming from someone that is genuinely concerned about the well-being of his hearers. And I think that's important. We can easily, especially teachers, we can easily preach down to our hearers that we're there to, sort of like with a rod, setting everybody straight. And we always need to remember that the way to approach instruction, whether it is for just to edify us or to correct us, is always to be done from a heart of love, a genuine concern for those whom we are speaking. My mentor, E.W. Johnson, over and over in his sermons would say, Now, beloved, Now, beloved, that was his favorite expression of dealing with the hearers that were sitting out there. Because E.W. could be rather cold sometimes, rather distant. He was not a warm guy in the normal sense. But I think that helped knock off some of those rough edges that you always had the feeling that deep down he was generally concerned about your soul And we're coming across as not as someone who has everything, and I'm certainly not, especially dealing with this tonight. Somebody that's got all our ducks in a row, and we've got this all worked out, and y'all just need to get on board here. But we're dealing with an area where we all struggle. and from the best of us to the worst of us. Our sanctification is still a work in progress. We got a long way to go and especially in this area. And notice the first thing he says the first part of this instruction is that we are to be swift. Tacos in Greek. We get our word tachometer. From that, tachometer tells you how fast your motor's turning. It's the idea. It speaks of that which is quick, that which is fast, that which is of short duration. And notice he, and I should have said this before I got this far, these three instructions, to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, more or less gives you, interestingly, a diagram or an outline of the rest of the book, basically. Because from this point on through chapter two, we're dealing with the idea of hearing. And keep in mind, biblically, to hear means more than just to hear. It means to not only hear it, but to heed it, to do it. and notice that's going to be coming in verse twenty two don't just be a here be a doer of the word and that is going to follow all the way now through chapter two to be slow to speak is basically the topic of chapter three. And then finally, slow to wrath or anger is the topic of chapter four. So this sort of gives you a roadmap where we're going, these three things. Now again, back to slow or swift, quick, tachos to here, quick to here. It means an eagerness, a readiness to hear instruction and to be corrected by it. It's to be receptive. It's being willing to consider what another is saying and not simply reject from a, what we would say, a knee-jerk reaction, rejecting what is being said simply because, number one, we don't like the guy that's speaking. sometimes we just reject people out of hand we don't like them so anything they say we just automatically reject or we consider uh... we rejected because it doesn't seem right to us of course if i'm being corrected it never seems right to me i think my way is right so uh... we've got to guard against those two things especially that we listen to the word of god and we allow ourselves not to just read it there are some i think that do daily bible readings and the only benefit they get is they move their bookmark a little further in the bible each time and that's about it There's a difference between simply reading the Bible and reading to be corrected by it, to be instructed by it, to learn, to heed it, to do it. It's a very different thing. Stephen Cole is a pastor out in Arizona, and I was reading his little account of when he was wrestling with the doctrine of election. And he said he would get through Romans 9 down to the part where Paul would say, who hath resisted his will? And he says, you're right. And he said, I'd get mad. I'd get mad at Paul. And I'm saying, you're not explaining things. He wants to explain this. And Paul doesn't explain it. He just says, who are you to reply against God? and he kept getting angry. He would work his way to that point and get angry, and then he realized that, wait a minute, God has given me the answer. I just don't like the answer. That's the problem. I'm not allowing myself to be corrected by the answer he's given. I'm not allowing myself to be satisfied with God's answer. And that's an interesting illustration of what I'm talking about. We're supposed to be quick to listen, especially to the word of God. One fellow put it like this. We would listen to the preaching of God's word like we would listen to an attorney reading a will that we think we're named in. it says can you imagine listening to attorney read a will that you think you're going to get something and you get all upset because you don't like his delivery he was too monotone he didn't give us enough illustrations you understand what i'm saying you would be on the edge of your seat listening because you think you're going to hear your name mentioned and you're going to hear yourself bequeath certain things there would be an attention to what is said, no matter how it's being delivered, because you think there's something in it for me. And he's pointing out this is exactly how we ought to listen to the Word of God, that we're realizing this is directed to me. I'm to learn something here. This isn't just killing time, but this is being spoken to me, and I'm to receive it that way, whether irregardless of the speaker irregardless of the ability of the one speaking if it's the word of god then i ought to give heed to it so that's the first instruction to be quick to hear and the second one is likened to it except the very opposite is to be slow to speak here's where the problem comes in. We are, as I said, in chapter three, we've got a whole chapter dealing with the tongue and the evil and the sin that comes from unguarded speech. But even before we get there, it's like James has run ahead of himself here. Look down in verse 26 of our chapter. He says, if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, But he deceives his own heart and this man's religion is vain to put a bridle on your tongue. That's an interesting picture. We know what a bridle does in the mouth of a horse that you're able to control the direction of the horse. Well the problem is are we able to put a bridle on our tongue. We're to be slow to speak. It means that now keep in mind this doesn't mean we speak slowly. They've got some folks that speak slowly. That's not what I was talking about. And it doesn't mean that we never speak. There is a time to speak. But notice that the speech that comes out of our mouth is to be deliberate, is to be thoughtful. It's not to be hasty or precipitous. God has given us two ears and one mouth. What does that tell you? Y'all do a whole lot more time listening than talking. And notice this is precisely the idea. It requires patience, it requires humility to be slow to speak. Have you known someone that you can't even get the words out of your mouth before they're already interrupting you, before they're already contradicting you or blurting out, do you know what I'm saying? There's a sense in which we don't like that. It means that someone's not taking what we're saying seriously. They won't listen to us. We know how that gets to us when someone just won't listen. Well, he's saying, don't let yourself be that. Let's read a few verses out of Proverbs. Oscar, you got your thing there. Proverbs 10, 19. You there? Say that again. Most of the time we go to talk in trying to get ourselves out of something. You ever notice that we try to talk our way out of something and what he's saying is the more words you speak the more likely is that you're going to sin before it's all over. Chris you got proverbs thirteen verse three. Yeah it's it's a very poetic way of putting that Chris what you got. Read it again. Again, just the warning of abundance of talk and speech. Michael, Proverbs 17, 28. Proverbs 17, 28. What's the old saying? Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. That's basically what this is saying. That the fool can be thought a wise man if he'll just keep his mouth shut. Isn't that true? So often we get ourselves in trouble when we open our mouth. If we just keep it shut, we'd be okay. Okay, Adam, you got a Bible there? Proverbs 29, 20. Twenty nine twenty. That right. OK. Interesting. More hope for a fool than a man who is hasty with his words and all of that. You think of all of those proverbs that we've read you lump them all together and you come up with what James has given us here. Be slow. to speak. Now that means that there clearly is a time to speak, but it means that we do it cautiously, we do it deliberately, we do it guardedly. There's a sense in which we can do more damage than harm, even when we speak the truth sometimes, when we speak hastily. when we don't shape and make it clear what we're saying and to make it certainly convene that we are, in a sense, we're on your side. We're not your enemy. We're your friend, even if we disagree. That doesn't mean into the world here all right and then the third admonition were to be swift to hear slow to speak and the third one is slow to wrap it is a greek word or gay and it's not the only greek word translated wrath or angry there's another one through moss but through moss is more the uh... knee-jerk reaction uh... flying off the handle i stand to think what what are some other expressions we use flying off the handle Blowing your top. Going ballistic. What'd you say? Losing your cool. You know, we got all sorts of expressions, and that's thumas. Orge, on the other hand, seems to be, as it's used, more of the internal seething. Anybody here know what I'm talking about? In other words, we seethe with resentment. We seethe with the feeling that we have been mistreated. We're boiling, raging under the surface. And externally, we may be fine. And that's the difference. Dumas, you've blown it. It's out there for everybody to see and hear. But Orge is different. It's sort of the internal thing that then erupts. We'll see a couple examples of that in a little bit. And it's implied that to do the first two of these things, to be swift to hear, slow to speak, will help bring about the third one, to also be slow to anger, slow to this seething thing. Now, is it ever right to be angry? I would say you're right. But give me chapter and verse. Be ye angry and sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath. Paul says that over in the book of Ephesians. So clearly, and notice, just like there's a time to speak, even though we're to be slow to speak, there is a time to speak. In the same sense, to be slow to anger means there is a legitimate time for anger. And yet, notice the way Paul puts it, be ye angry and sin not. Do you see the close association of anger with sin? That they're kissing cousins. It is difficult for you to be angry and sin not. Right. Notice here James has put the same thing he has said be slow to anger and then turns right around and says the wrath of man work if not the righteousness of God. It doesn't mean that there is not a legitimate time for anger and in fact we could say that there are certain people that if they don't get upset if they don't get angry about things there's a real problem. If you don't get angry at sin at injustice at unrighteousness. then that is saying something. If you can laugh at horrible crime, what is that saying about you? There's a sense in which even, let's take a look at Lot, who vexed his righteous soul. Remember, that's what Peter has told us with what's going on around him in Sodom. There's a sense in which, yes, we are angry at certain things, and we have what we might call righteous indignation. it is right to be angry uh... and i say that because god gets angry he's angry with the wicked every day is there a thing called the wrath of god you you bet god is harbors rack shall we say in certain situations but do you see the fact that it is a very very small step from being angry and sinning you are listening to you know that's is not going to produce christ like righteousness that is true yeah in you see the how how easy it is to get indignant about what what's going on and cross that line and so we become quick to judge there's the difference between being quick to anger and quick to wrath but it also becomes very easy to be quick to judge the and there's what you're talking about stepping over the line to legalism. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yet it's difficult for us to be angry at sin, not be angry at the center. I was thinking about an illustration a guy gave about his. This guy says, I hate my neighbors upstairs. They right above me said they were stomping on their floor till about midnight last night. The guy said, well, it wake you up. He said, oh, no, I was up late practicing my tuba. Yeah, and therein lies the problem, is that our judgment, our judgment is... Y'all just getting that back there, yeah? A little slow on the back row. It takes a while for the sound to carry that far. But you think about that. Yeah, these are obnoxious people, but the really obnoxious person is me, not them. And I'm producing the effect that is... That gives you an example of just how our judgment can be so faulty. Well, then we get to verse 20. And as I said, this is the thing you need to repeat to yourself over and over again when you're on the verge of losing your temper, is that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Even though there are occasions where we get angry, but notice this is not the wrath of God, this is the wrath of man. This is my anger, my wrath. And inevitably, what James is saying here is so true. Now keep in mind, these are proverbs. It's like the book of Proverbs. There are exceptions, no doubt. But 99 times out of 100, me getting angry does not bring about the result. And Oscar, you used that example a moment ago. That does not produce righteousness in the object of my anger. It's why, remember we had Peter say, add to your virtue temperance and to temperance patience. It's why those things have to be added, because those things are absolutely essential to anything good coming out of my anger. How do we talk to ourselves? when we get anger. I'm assuming that you're like me. There are things in this world that make you mad. Am I the only one that has a problem here? Are y'all with me here? Do you have a tendency to react? There are times I have to analyze myself. What's going on here and I want to give you two biblical examples of where that type of analysis is found one is in the book of Genesis go there if you would. It's in Genesis chapter four. Let me read the account. Genesis four starting verse one Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore Cain said I've gotten a man from the Lord again she bore his brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground and in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect And Cain was very wroth, angry, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? Why are you angry? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt not thou be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. That question is a question that every time we we get angry we ought to ask ourselves why are you angry if we ask ourselves let's ask Cain that question what's your answer why is Cain angry all right if God had not accepted both their sacrifices would he have been angry probably not maybe it God but Not Cain, I mean, not Abel. Is this rather interesting that he's, who is he angry at? Who is he really angry at? God. Who does he kill? Abel. In other words, you start analyzing this, isn't it rather strange that you take out your anger towards God on your brother, Abel, who really had nothing to do with what you think is the injustice that has been committed against you. Have you ever found in your own life that process happening that you are angry at people because of what God has done? Because ultimately, all of the injustices that we think have been done to us and towards us, God allowed it, permitted it. He's behind it, right? Everything that vexes me and aggravates my life, he has allowed. And yet, rarely do I find myself getting angry at God. I get angry at the target, at the instrument, rather than at the source. But my real anger is not directed at you, it's directed at God. Why did you put me in this situation? Why did you allow that to happen? Why did you let them do this to me? How come you put them in my life? Why couldn't you put other people in my life that are easier to get along with? Do you understand what I'm saying? Isn't that the way we react? So a good question to ask you when you are angry, why are you angry? And again, that's not to rule out that there are some legitimate times to be angry, right? But we always ought to be asking ourselves, why am I angry right now? And we sometimes like to clothe this, well, it's just righteous indignation when it's actually something very, very different. And that takes us to the second occasion. It's the book of Jonah, chapter four. This is right after Nineveh repents and is spared. Let me read this entire fourth chapter to you. He says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry that God spared Nineveh. He prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before thee unto Tarshish. For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." This guy tends to go to extremes, doesn't he? I'd rather die than to have you do this. Well, then said the Lord, doest thou well to be angry. There's the second question. Why are you angry? and are you doing well to be angry that's admitting there may be times when it is a good thing to be angry and you are doing well but this time are you doing well to be angry well so Jonah went out of the city set on the east side of the city and there he made a booth for himself and said under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city and the Lord God prepared a gourd made it to come up over jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief so jonah was exceedingly glad of the gold but god prepared or there's a lot of prepared things in this book god prepared a fish and now or is a predestined worm think about it god prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it's not the gourd that it withered And it came to pass when the sun did rise that God prepared, here's a fourth thing, he prepared a vehement east wind and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said, it's better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? In other words, notice the question is a little bit more refined here. And he said, I do well to be angry. even unto death. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand, and also much cattle?" This very pointed analysis of Jonah's anger And notice it is back to the he's he already has been angry because God spared the city. But now there is this second incident where the weed and it's just literally a weed a wide leaf plant that has sprouted up in a night to give him shade that then God sends the worm to eat it and it falls down and now he's exposed to the heat and God sends the east wind to blow on him. And and he is so mad he'd rather dies live. I don't know if I've ever been that mad. I may be mad enough to make you die rather than me. But, you know, that's pretty mad when you get to the point that I am so angry that I'm just ready to check out. But notice God's answer. And Jonah, he claims to be fully justified. I do well to be angry for the gore. I'm right. I'm just. This is righteous indignation. This is a horrible, horrible injustice that I'm enduring. And yet, God says, wait a minute. This obviously was your creation, right? No. It was your creation. This was a guilt, wasn't it? This is grace. And I have now sent the worm to take it away. And notice, is this a valuable plant? just sprouted up in a day gone in a day. In other words at the end of the day who is Jonah really upset about. Is it the gourd or is it himself. In other words the problem is not that he loves gourds. He's not one of these tree huggers that loves plant life so much Jonas problems he loves himself. And so notice the insinuation here is, Jonah, you will have mercy and compassion on a weed because it's shading your head, but you won't allow me to have compassion on a city, this great city in which 6,000, 4,000, that's 120,000 that don't know their left hand from the right. thought that was females for a long time. I think most say it's children. That's my misguided. Yeah, boy, you see the reaction here. Don't know their left hand from the right. Anyway. But it apparently is children that are too young to know their left hand from the right. So notice the insinuation. I'm beginning to think, Jonah, the only reason you got mad is that you want it your way. You want mercy for you. You don't want mercy for anybody else. well he's waiting on the fire to fall he's sitting over there hoping god will change his mind and zap him because you think about that had been his argument i mean that's that was his message in forty days none of us shall be overthrown that's it it's a message of judgment and then when everybody repented from the king down to the cows god then repents at least that's the anthropomorphism It's like he's waiting for the last moment to see if God will go ahead and send the fire down and consume them. And you think about here. This is the first foreign missionary in the Bible. How would you like to have him as your missionary? How would you like to have Jonah as your pastor? Angry, because God doesn't incinerate you. And yet that's his message in 40 days. But clearly, and this is the mystery of these God-repenting passages, that you start analyzing this and you'd say, wait a minute here. Why would God send Jonah to Nineveh in the first place? I mean, do you realize where Nineveh is and where Jonah starts? He's literally sent close to a thousand miles to preach to Nineveh. Why would you send a missionary? Why would you send a prophet to warn them if judgment was what you had in mind? Just do away with them and notice Jonah understands that that's what he's saying in the first few verses here. I knew this is what you was up to. I knew you were gracious. I knew you were merciful. He's mad because God's gracious. Think about it and you know this is what I thought you would do. This is just like you got to show too much mercy. Now that's the first missionary. we can find in the Bible a Jewish missionary. Oh yeah he has won over the city I mean this is a strange story but how true to human nature that we will love we will be gladly God's instrument of judgment but to be his instrument of mercy on those that we detest those that we hate. That's another story. Well clearly none of them would become the great enemy of their Dukes going to do some heroic. Horracious things to Israel. And yet you would think that you would be overjoyed if God. Has granted repentance because that's ultimately what's gone on here. When the people everybody from the king down to the cows heeds the word of God you've got to say there's something else going on here this is not the normal reaction of people to the preaching of God's word. So notice those two examples in the questions and this is what I'm saying as a. Well I'll say remedy but as a help. in dealing with our own inner rage and the seething that goes on under the surface. We need to ask ourselves those questions. Why are you angry? And notice back in Cain, he goes on to say there is a remedy, Cain. If you do well, you'll be accepted. You can bring what Abel brought. and and yet kane digs in his heels as it were and then murders the brother who is not who is really the innocent party here so in other words why are you angry when that guy cut you off in traffic well i'm just trying to think of what are the things in our lives that causes this seething And it's injustice. We were not treated like we thought we were supposed to be treated. I was not recognized like I deserve to be recognized. You remember I said before that you're called to be servants, right? And how's that going? Well, a good measure is how you react when you're treated like one. When the world treats you like a servant, how do you react? Well, most of the time we don't like to be treated like servants, and yet we claim we're the servant. We're the servants of Christ. What a strange thing. And so why are you angry? And then secondly, doest thou well to be angry? And we could add that for the gourd? In other words, we ask ourselves, getting cut off in traffic compared to what Christ endured on the cross? Come on! There's no comparison. This is not an apple comparison here. What are the things, let me just go around the room, what are the things that tick you off? Preachers asking questions like this. Yeah, I'm taking names. But I mean we all wrestle with this, don't we? Do we? I do. What is it that ticks you off besides being cut off in traffic? Drew forgot his library books. So what did that do? It's inconvenience, right? How could you be so thoughtless? And we start analyzing that. Where does that anger come from? And some of it may be legitimate if Drew is probably in the habit of not bringing his library books. But you think, why does that get to me? Because it inconveniences me. Yes Steve. Yeah I was going to bring up politics. Yeah yeah. Who do you suppose is putting people in the White House. You say well I am it's my vote. Oh no it's God's got his person there. He's the one who puts raises up and puts down remember. And yet we we get angry at the stuff going on in our culture and and again is there some righteous indignation there. Sure. But it's oftentimes mixed with a whole bunch of selfish indignation. How dare those people do such things. What were they thinking. Bunch of fools. We understand where the quick to judge comes along with quick to wrath. All right. Any other anything come to mind. I mean I'm running late. bugs you. I sure am. Because I'm assuming it wasn't your fault that you're running late. This time. This time. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly right. And hey, I confess in my marriage, having some of those moments myself, of how come on here. And we start thinking about it in the grand scheme of things, is this, this is like gourds. It's like weeds dying. on in the grand scheme of things. This is small potatoes. And that's why I'm saying this analysis helps to say, why are you angry and are you doing well to be angry? You get so angry at something so minor, so inconsequential. Yeah. In other words, should there be a proportionality? Yeah, I see what you're saying. In other words, let's always keep our mind on the big picture rather than on our little inconvenience. Yeah. Main thing. Yeah. Okay, any other confessions here besides that? Parker, yeah, grandkids. Kids, kids. There are certain things that tend to push our buttons. And the Lord knows those things and doesn't seem to care whether they push our buttons or not it's it's like that's part of the sanctifying process but unfortunately it seems like so much of the time we spin our wheels we finally get over it and then it happens again and we're we're just as bad second time around and I think again these questions to ask. Are you. Why. What what what's really at the bottom. of your anger the words if you honestly say yeah well do we are is there a righteous indignation towards those things I think so but there is a problem when we we forget that in this wicked world God could snuff those evils out like that. for whatever reason he allows them and the problem is they're not in our power it will be different if it were in our power to determine the outcome if we could put them out we would but the fact is is that in spite of everything we might do God has allowed this for whatever whatever reason and so we got to keep those things in balance or we can't we'll wind up we can't function In this world and the same thing is true we're dealing with external things out there the same thing is true in here I knew a guy and saw him again recently that he was one of the most bitter people to be around till I realized that he was as hard on himself or harder than he was on you and problem was is that he could not come to grips with his own sin with the presence of sin in his life. that that was going to be a fact. And he just couldn't come to grips. Well, you're doing the same thing out here in the world. If you say the evil out here then forces me to give up my, what we say, give up my religion. Well, the same thing in his case was happening in here. The fact that he would, that he would not be able to perform perfectly, ate him up. And he's gotten a whole lot better in his old age. I'm happy to report. But but that is a problem that I don't know. I don't know how he ever came to grips with it. I don't know. I didn't. Yeah I'd sort of like to know the same thing myself. He I didn't see him for a long time but when I finally saw him everything had changed. His whole temperament was different and that was gone. That see you know just seething anger. And like I said most of it was rage in here that then spewed out to you. What were you going to say. Well and this is the thing we ought to be progressing here. We ought to be getting better. Well anyway tonight. Think about me. Think on these things and when you find yourself seething. Ask those questions. That's helpful in saying wait a minute. Is this really this big a deal? And after all, I'm in an imperfect world. And that's Jennifer. We're dealing with imperfect people and we're dealing with imperfect saints. And so we've got to make allowances that people are not where we want them to be. That's the fact. Does that mean we're happy about it? No, but that's the fact. And we can't we we can't ever love them. if we can't somehow come to grips with that fact. And it's not just people. Sometimes it's circumstances. It's just things don't go my way. The weather doesn't go my way. The wind doesn't blow my way. Notice Jonah. The wind direction is part of the problem. I mean, it's anything. And yet who's behind that? God Almighty. Well, OK. Yeah, Jim. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's true. Slow to anger is the big one, isn't it? Over and over again. That's Moses on the mountain. He's long-suffering. That's right. That's right. That's a good way of putting it. Yeah. And notice again the context here. All of this sandwiched in the sense that the Word of God and its importance to us. Well, let's go to prayer tonight.