I grew up in a Christian home. My parents actually worked at Pensacola Christian College. I was born down in Florida and then a year or so after I was born they moved back up to Vermont where they both grew up and were faithful in church their whole lives. I was born, I'm the third child of four. My youngest brother Aaron, I think he was down here a couple weeks ago, He was the baby. He kind of stole everything that was rightfully mine in being the baby. And then he came along. And I'm just a little bit bitter about that, but I'm getting over it by God's grace, right? And so I grew up in a good Christian family. I always went to church my whole life. When I was four years old, My older brother, Josh, he prayed a prayer to trust Christ as his Savior, and I saw how excited everyone was for him. My parents were all excited. They were telling everybody they knew that their son got saved, and I think my grandmother even gave him a little money, because she was so excited. I saw that, and I was like, man, I want that, too. But it was for all the wrong reasons. And anyways, I pulled my mom aside and said, Mom, I think I want to be saved, too. And she sat down with me, and she showed me through the Word of God what it meant to be saved and how we are saved. And I prayed the prayer and I knew it in my head, but I never meant it in my heart. And for many years after that, I struggled with the fact that if I was to die, I didn't know if I'd go to heaven or not. But I didn't tell anyone because I was afraid of what they would think of me. I went through most of my school years, even my teenage years. And it was about when I was 16 or 17 years old. We were at Camp Sunlight. And I don't remember who the pastor was, but he was preaching And he preached a message on hell, and it was a very, very convicting message. And I went forward to the altar that night, and my youth pastor came forward with me, and we went outside and talked a little bit, and he gave me some verses to read, and he said, I want you to think about these things, and if you still don't think you're saved, come back to me, and we'll make it right. And I went back to my cabin that night, and I read those verses, and I thought about them, All throughout the next day at camp those verses were in my mind just thinking about the fact that if I'm saved that I'm going to heaven But if I'm not saved I'm going to hell and I dealt with that in my own heart and mind and that night at Chapel I went forward again to the altar and I knew I wasn't saved and I my youth pastor came with me again we looked through the Word of God one more time and And on that night, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and I've never had any doubts since then. And that's the great thing about the grace of God in our lives, is once we truly accept Him, He washes away those doubts, doesn't He? He takes care of those things, and then we can truly follow Him by faith. I got married my freshman year in college. I was 19 years old. And some say I was dumb to get married that early, but I knew that's the girl God wanted me to marry, so we said, why not get married, right? And we got married, we finished college, and now we have three kids, a five-year-old son named Noah, a two-year-old little girl named Olivia, and then an eight-week-old little boy named Anderson. And we're serving up at Northside Baptist Church with Pastor Bruce Patterson there, and just enjoying the time that God has given us to serve him. So that's a little bit of my testimony. You know a little bit more about me. And hopefully I'll get to know a little bit more about you throughout the day. And I do want to say that I appreciate your pastor since he's been here. He came to Vermont just a little bit before I did to serve in this church. And we kind of hit it off right away and we've become good friends. And he is a great encouragement to me. And I just want to tell you how fortunate you are to have a pastor like him who cares about you and cares about leading the church in the direction that God wants it to go. You can turn your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And while you're turning, I'm going to open up in a word of prayer and just ask God's blessings on this day. So let's pray. God, we love you and we thank you so much for this opportunity that we have to be in your house. God, this is not something that the world has set apart. This isn't something that man has decided to do. But God, this thing called church is something that you started ultimately for your honor and glory. And so God, I pray as we come to this place today, it wouldn't just be to come and do our religious rituals and mark these things off of our list, but God, I pray that we would come here to meet with you. God, I pray as we come into this building that we would empty our hearts and minds of all the cares and worries that we're struggling with, and we would lay them down at the foot of the cross, and we would be open-minded to what you would have for us today. God, I pray that you would use your word to do what only your word can do, and that's change hearts. God, I pray that the words that come from my mouth would be directly from you. And God, if I'm going to say anything that's not from you, I pray that you would take that from me so that everything that we hear today glorifies you. We praise you for what you're going to do. We thank you for this time we have together. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to teach on the subject of surrendering to the sovereignty of God. Surrendering to the sovereignty of God. We're going to read verses starting in verse 1. You can follow along as I read. It says, It is not expedient for me, doubtless to glory, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. such in one caught up to the third heaven and I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for man to utter of such in one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory but in my infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool, for I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. lest I should be exalted above measure. Through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong. This morning, I would like to look at this passage as Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and I want to talk a little bit about surrendering to the sovereignty of God. Now, if you're new to church, you may not know what the sovereignty of God is, and maybe even if you've been to church for a while, the sovereignty of God has always kind of been looked at in a negative light, but we have to understand this morning that our God is a sovereign God, amen? He is above all, He controls all, and nothing happens outside of His will and what He allows to take place. And so when we talk of the sovereignty of God, that's exactly what it is. It's simply stating that God is in control. God is in control. And for Christians, that's a very comforting thing, isn't it? It's comforting for us to realize that even though things look chaotic in this world, there is something in someone greater who is controlling or has all these things under his control and authority. God's sovereignty simply means that God is in control. Our God is in control of every situation in life and some people when they talk of the sovereignty of God take it to this extreme over here and they say God is in control and since God is in control therefore God chooses who will be saved and who will not be saved. Since God is in control, God determines and dictates everything and everything we do and everything that happens in our lives. And that's one extreme. The other extreme is this over here, that they say God created the world, but God has kind of left the world to its own will, and he has nothing to do with it anymore. And I don't know about you, but I find myself somewhere in the middle of all that, because I believe in a sovereign God, but I also believe that God has given us a free will, amen? God gives us a choice of whether or not we will accept him. He gives us a choice of whether or not we will serve him. So there's two polar extremes there, and I think the balance is coming somewhere in the middle. I know a lady who, I know her very well, actually, and her kids used to go to a very strong Baptist church that taught the word of God as we would believe it. And something happened in their lives and they decided to stop going to this Baptist church and they started to go to a Calvinist church that was several miles away. And while they were there, they began believing in this stuff of election where God chooses those who are gonna be saved and God chooses some to be damned to hell for all of eternity. And while they were there, they sat under this teaching and they believe in that one extreme of the sovereignty of God where God dictates everything that happens in our lives and we have no choice. And one day the parents, these people that left the Baptist church, they went out of town and they left their kids at home and they told this lady to come over and just check on their kids once in a while. And she came over, it was a Saturday morning, I believe, and she got to the house and she noticed that there was an unfamiliar car in the driveway. And she walked in the house and started talking to some of the younger kids who were in the living room. And then she noticed that the teenage girl wasn't there, and so she asked about her. And she finally came out of her bedroom, and a few minutes later, this girl's boyfriend also came out of the bedroom. This is a 16-year-old girl. And the grandmother was heartbroken. because she understood that her granddaughter had taken part in an inappropriate relationship and it broke her heart. And she said, I just want you to know that when your parents get home, I'm going to have to tell them what took place. And a couple of days went by and the mom and dad finally came home from their trip. She came over to the house and she was talking and she said, you know, I need to tell you guys something. And it broke my heart when I saw it. She said, while you were away, your daughter had her boyfriend sleep over and he spent the night with her. And the dad looked at this grandma and he said, well. That's out of my control. That's what God had planned for her. Now, would God have planned for a teenage girl who was not married to have sexual relationship with a boy that she wasn't married to? Absolutely not. But you see, the danger was that they started going to this church that was teaching a false view on the sovereignty of God, and now it's taken away all their personal responsibility. And so instead of saying, you know, I need to help my daughter make it through this, and I need to teach my daughter not to do these certain things, they just kind of throw it all in the air and say, well, that's what God decided. That's what God decided. And so as we think of the sovereignty of God this morning, it's not that extreme over there that says God dictates our everything that happens in our lives, including sin. But it's also not the extreme over here that says that in, in God's sovereignty, he created the world and that he's left it all alone. He has no, no governing power at all. We find ourselves somewhere in the middle. And I think that's where Paul finds himself as we look in this passage. So is God in control? Yes, I absolutely believe He is. But He doesn't control us as pawns in a chess game, but rather in His sovereignty, He's given us a free will of whether or not we will choose to live for Him and glorify Him. As we looked at the beginning of this passage, we see that Paul is describing a vision that he had. And the Bible tells us that he experienced some great and wonderful things. He heard things that he himself could not even utter. And as we make our way down to verse 7, we're going to look at five things this morning that will hopefully be a help and encouragement to us. in view of the sovereignty of God. We're going to read verse 7 again. It says this, And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. The first thing that I want us to understand, and if you're taking notes, there's five. The first thing I want you to understand this morning is that God's sovereignty includes trials in our lives. God's sovereignty includes trials. Who's been through a trial this past year? who's been through a trial every year since you've been alive. All of us have, right? We've all faced adverse circumstances. We've all faced challenging situations. And one thing that we have to wrap our minds around is that God's sovereignty in our lives includes trials that we're gonna have to go through. And we see that very clearly in verse number seven. Paul says, lest I should be exalted above measure, that God allowed a thorn of the flesh, infirmity to take place in my life to keep me from being prideful and conceited. Paul says God's sovereignty allowed trials in my life. The Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust, does it not? God's sovereignty includes trials. And there's false teachings out there that say, once you get saved, your life is going to be better than you've ever known it. And you're never going to face a trial. You'll never face a storm. And God wants you to be blessed and happy and live an abundant life each and every day. And can I tell you that if that's the truth, then I haven't experienced that. I haven't experienced that. A little over three years ago, my wife and I were serving in a church in Virginia. And, uh, We started out, we actually were attending the church and then they asked me to be the youth pastor there. And we came on staff for about three, a little over three years. And while we were there, some things took place that we didn't agree with. And we were just in a real trial in our life. We were torn in our spirit. We didn't like what was happening. We wanted to leave, but we felt that God wasn't calling us to leave yet. And so we kind of struggled through some dark times in our lives. And then finally, after some things took place, Pastor Patterson called and said they're looking for a youth pastor. And we thought to ourselves, man, this is when life is going to get great. It's going to get easy. We're going to move back home to where our families live, and all the trials are going to go away. You know, we were sadly mistaken because shortly after we got home, we were at a store one day and I got a phone call from my mom. And she said, your cousin's husband was injured in a logging accident and he's down in Dartmouth in critical condition. And so we went back home and packed up some things and went down to Dartmouth to where he was. And I was very close to my cousin, still am. She's getting remarried again in a couple of weeks, and I'm gonna take part in a wedding. And we were down there for three days or so, and it was a very difficult time. And after those three days, this guy who had only been married to my cousin for a year and a half or so, they had one little boy. This guy who loved his wife passed away in a very tragic situation. And as if that wasn't bad enough, my wife at that same time was pregnant, and we don't know what the cause was. We know that God had a sovereign plan at all. We don't know what the cause was. But in that same time, when we found out that her husband passed away, my wife started to have some issues with the pregnancy, and we went to the hospital. The night we found out he died, we found out that my wife had a miscarriage. And in that same time, my wife's grandfather was also in Dartmouth with some serious medical conditions that they couldn't figure out. And a little while after that, my dad had a stroke. And so here we are, we move to Vermont and we think, oh, life is gonna be great now. And we get up here and in a matter of months, all of these tragic events take place. And you know, I don't know the reasoning why all of these things happened. I think we're slowly figuring it out. I don't have an understanding of why God did certain things. But you know, as I went through those trials, one of the things that I could rest in is that my God is a sovereign God. That even though I don't know what's taking place, God does. And I came to an understanding in that time that God's sovereignty includes trials. We had a dear man in our church who's battled with cancer for 18 months. It's Ethan's grandfather here. And for 18 months, he knew that death was inevitable. We prayed for a cure and things just didn't go the way that our desire was. But we know that they went according to God's plan. And. What night was it? Friday night, Friday night at a hospital in Canada, Ethan's grandfather passed away. And you know that family is still facing a trial. And one of the best ways I believe to make it through those trials is to understand that God's sovereignty includes those trials. Just because these bad things happen doesn't mean that it's out of God's control. And that's something that we have to rest in. Paul said here in verse seven, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. So Paul is saying that These great things just happened in my life. I saw this vision. And to keep me from being conceited and full of pride, God allowed a trial to come in my life. Now we don't know what the trial was. Some say it was physical relationships that Paul had where he was being abused or put through persecution. Some say it was health problems. Some say it was his eyes. Some say it was a multitude of other things. But whatever it was, Paul was facing a trial, but he was comforted in the fact that God had allowed this trial in his life. So God's sovereignty includes trials. Number two. God's sovereignty should lead us to prayer. Look at verse 8. He says, for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. You know what happens many times when we go through a trial in our life? Prayer is our last resort, is it not? We know that we should pray. We know that the Bible says to pray. But when a trial comes in and we're blindsided by this thing, instead of going to God, you know what we do? We get bitter and we start complaining and we say things like, well, I've just been trying to serve God and I've been trying to do what's right. And I've been trying to live life according to what the word of God says. And here this trial comes and here the storm is in my life. And here's this thing that I'm having to deal with. But Paul says God's sovereignty should lead us to prayer. Because when we realize that those trials are not outside of God's control, it should drive us to go to God in prayer and say, God, what is this thing? Why is this thing taking place? What is this thing that you've allowed to come into my life? Paul says that he went to God three times about this thing. It wasn't just one quick prayer and he said, well, God, I don't know what you're doing, but you need to take it away right now. No, God, Paul says he besought the Lord. He pleaded with God to give him some understanding when it came to what this trial was. So God's sovereignty should lead us to prayer. The Apostle Paul is one of my favorite characters in the Word of God, and he's one of the greatest missionaries that we've ever looked at in human perspective. And if the Apostle Paul went to prayer when trials came into his life, don't you think we should too? Don't you think we should go to God when we're facing a difficult time? Instead of trying to figure it out on our own, or instead of getting bitter, Paul says, I went to God about this thing, so that I could gain some understanding. So God's sovereignty, number two, should lead us to prayer. Number three, we see in verse nine, it says this, and he said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. The third thing we see is that God's sovereignty is for our good. God's sovereignty is for our good. Now, there's some parents in the room here, and As a parent, you are in control of your children, or we try to be in control of our children, right? Sometimes they get out of control. I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old. I know what out-of-control children look like. And I'm a youth pastor, so I really know. And so we try to keep our kids under control. And we set certain parameters and boundaries in their lives. And do your kids, maybe it's just me, but do your kids always like the boundaries that you set? I'll let the kids answer. Do you guys like the boundaries that your parents set? No. No, we don't. We don't. We think we know what's best. We think we know what we should be allowed to do. We think we know what's good for us. But as Paul is writing here, he prays to God, and then God responds with this. He says, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. God says, Paul, my sovereignty is for your good. He says, I'm teaching you a lesson. And though you may not like the trial, Ultimately, it's for your good and it's for God's glory. And so as a parent, we can identify with that because we set boundaries in the lives of our kids so that they don't get hurt. We set boundaries in their lives to teach them how to live and to teach them lessons. None of us let our kids go out and play in the middle of the road when they're two. Why? Because we know if a car comes by and strikes that child, then they're not going to make it. So we set boundaries for their good, and God's sovereignty is for our good as well. Some of my favorite verses in the Bible say this, in Isaiah 55, eight and nine, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As God is speaking there, he's letting these people know that you may not understand what's going on right now, but you don't have to understand, you just have to trust me. And as Paul is going through this trial and he goes to God in prayer and he says, God, I don't know why this thing is happening. God says, Paul, just trust in me. My grace is sufficient for thee. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. And sometimes it's hard to see the good in God's sovereignty, but God's sovereignty is always for our good. God's ways and God's plans are the best and we can rest assured in that. The fourth thing we see is found in the second part of verse nine in the first part of verse 10. He says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. The fourth thing we see this morning is that God's sovereignty should bring us joy. As we see Paul progress through this passage, we see that he goes from kind of questioning what God is doing, to now becoming a little more comfortable with the fact that God has a plan in what he's doing. And as Paul becomes more comfortable with what God is doing and the fact that God has a plan in what He's doing, we see that Paul begins to have some joy in his life. Look at the language that he uses in verse 9. He says, Most gladly, therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He says, Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities. I take pleasure. How can a man who's serving God with all his life, who has had a 180 degree turnaround from persecuting Christians to now winning people, the Lord, how can a man who's going to face severe trials as going to jail and being stoned and persecuted and mocked and tormented? How can that man say, I'm going to glory. And these trials, how can he say that? It's because he understood that God's sovereignty should bring joy to our lives. When we come to the understanding that God allows certain things to take place in our lives, to teach us and to stretch us and to grow us and to make us more mature and to make us more like Jesus Christ, it should bring us joy that God is working in us. Now, I don't want you walking out of here today thinking, well, every trial in my life is just God trying to teach me a lesson, because I believe with all my heart that sometimes God allows things to come into our lives based on the choices that we make. So not every trial is God ordained that he is doing this thing, but there are things that God allows sometimes based on the choices that we make. But Paul says, I'm going to find joy in the sovereignty of God. Paul surrendered himself to the fact that God was sovereign. And when he surrendered himself to that fact, he began resting in Him. And many Christians, I believe, never have true joy in their lives because every trial they face is filled with complaining. Every trial that comes into their life, instead of saying, oh God, teach me what you want me to learn. God, stretch me and mold me into that person that you want to be. And instead of having a joyful attitude through the teachings of God, they have that negative attitude and they say, well, you know what? This person's not going through that and they're not living for God like I am. And we have this negative attitude and we'll never experience the fullness of God's joy in our lives. I heard somebody a while ago say that they didn't believe that God wants us to have a joyful spirit all the time. They believe that that it's okay for Christians to walk around angry. Then you tell me why the Bible says rejoice evermore. I believe with all my heart that it's God's plan for us to be a joyful people. What does the world think when they see people who call themselves Christians out in the world and just living with a horrible attitude and always upset about life and mad about circumstances? Does that look like a very appealing life to somebody who's lost? Absolutely not. But when we are filled with the fullness of God, and the Spirit of God is working in our lives, and we surrender ourselves to the fact that God is sovereign and God is in control, then no matter what trial we face, we can have joy. And that's what Paul figured out here. He said, God's sovereignty in my life is bringing me joy. Even though I'm facing this trial, I can have joy through the trial. I can remember when I was a kid, my grandfather died when I was of nine or 10 years old. My grandfather was a great man of God. He loved God. He feared God, served God. He also worked at Pensacola Christian College for quite a while in his life. And I can remember when my grandfather passed away that my dad was very upset about the situation, just in grieving over the loss of a loved one. And he went to work after my grandfather passed and the funeral took place and he went to work and God began to do a great work in his life and just show him the joy that he could have even through the trial. And he went to work that day and he works, he's a carpenter so he's around construction people and if you know anything about construction sites, they're not always the most conducive to a Christian. They're filled with people most of the time that don't really care about God. And so he went to work and he was just acting like his normal self, just thankful to have a job, thankful for the ability to work. And there were some painters on the job that were working, and my dad had gotten kind of close to them through the years. And he looked at my dad at the end of the day, and with tears in his eyes, he said, you have something that I don't have. He said, your dad just passed away, and you still seem to have joy in your life. And my dad took him aside and he said, well, let me share with you why I have joy even in the midst of the trial. It's because Jesus Christ lives inside of me. The Spirit of God lives inside of me and I can rest in the fact that God is sovereign. Paul says that God's sovereignty should bring us joy. He's going to glory in his infirmities so that the power of Christ can rest upon him. He's taking pleasure in these infirmities and these reproaches and in these necessities and persecutions and these distresses. He has joy in the midst of a trial. And then the final thing we see this morning is found in the last part of verse 10. The Bible says this for when I am weak. Then am I strong for when I am weak, then am I strong? The final thing that I believe Paul learned in this lesson was that God's sovereignty. Should bring a strength. God's sovereignty should bring a strength. Have you ever been through a trial in your life? And you just become very weary. And the burden seems heavier and heavier, and the trial seems deeper and deeper. And it's almost to the point where you can't bear it anymore. I believe that Paul may have been approaching that before this passage took place. And now, instead of saying in this trial, I'm getting weaker and weaker, Paul says in the midst of this trial, that's when I'm finding where my true strength is. You know, for us Christians, our strength does not lie in our physical abilities. It doesn't lie in our mental capacity. It doesn't lie in our bank account. It doesn't lie in the amount of possessions that we own. Our strength as believers is found in Jesus Christ. It's not found in what I can do or what I can afford or the places that I can take myself, but rather my strength is founded in the person of Jesus Christ. And Paul says, as I'm going through this trial, God's sovereignty is bringing me to a place where I have this new strength that I've never had before. He says, when I should be weak and suffering and pulling my hair out, Paul says, now I'm feeling strong and strengthened by the Spirit of God himself. He says God's sovereignty should bring us strength. I believe with all my heart that Paul would have never made it through some of the trials he faced in his own strength and power. But when he did it through the power of God, he did just fine. And I believe that's the same for us as well. We will face trials, we will face struggles, we will face storms. But if we surrender ourselves to the fact that we serve a sovereign God. Then even in the midst of that trial, we'll find strength that we don't understand. Paul wasn't making light of his situation. He wasn't saying this trial is no big deal, but rather he was saying, I'm going to overcome this trial through the power of God. in my life. God's sovereignty should bring us strength. Last night as I was preparing, finishing up preparing for today, I was on the internet and I noticed a friend of mine had posted something and it was a poem that he wrote. And I want to share that with you because I think it goes along with this lesson very well. It says this. Jump right in and make a way. Do your best and seize the day. This the advice that they all say, but how I'm just a vessel of clay. What if I try and then I fail? What if there's suffering along with this gale? You say blessed are the weak and so are the meek, but I'm just a vessel in desperate need of keep. You say, follow me by faith, I will see. I follow and stumble and try not to flee. But through failure and trial, I'm reminded that I am not promised victory just because I try. What if I stumble? What if I fall? How will I ever answer the call? I need to keep pace to finish the race, but so often I seem to just fall on my face. In desperate need, I look at your word. It reminds me I'm weak, but also it stirs truth in my heart that brings me to light. It's not up to me. This isn't my fight. All along, you've been present, and now I can see by your own work, a miracle in me. I may not win, but you've chosen to stay to glorify yourself through this cracked vessel of clay. You see, as Paul was going through the trial of this thorn in the flesh, he didn't understand everything as to why it was taking place. He didn't understand the full outcome. He didn't understand what was going to happen 20 years down the road. But Paul understood that if he surrendered to the sovereignty of God, that God would in turn be glorified with his life. Paul realized that he was just a cracked vessel of clay But isn't it amazing that God can even do great things through a cracked vessel of clay? Paul realized exactly what this poem was saying. He was weak, but in Christ he had strength. He was weak, but when he surrendered to God's sovereignty, God could do great things in him. I believe that we get overwhelmed with our trials and difficulties when we forget that God is a sovereign God. When we take our eyes off of who God is and we place our eyes on our trials, we forget all that God wants to teach us and all that God wants to show us. And when we do that, we're placing ourself in a dangerous situation. But Paul says in the trial, I'm going to look to God and I'm going to trust that God has a plan and I'm going to trust that God has a purpose. Paul learned to surrender to the sovereignty of God. I know a dear lady who is dealing with a horrendous sickness. She's only been given a few years to live. She's a pastor's wife and she's served faithfully by his side for many, many years. And one of the hardest places in America, I believe, to have a church and to see a church grow. And she's been given this diagnosis of just a few years to live. And you know the only way she's making it through it is because she believes that God has a plan. And she believes that God is in control. Now does she understand right now why God has allowed this sickness to come into her life? Absolutely not. She doesn't understand the weight that this trial is gonna put on her. But she understands like Paul that there's a God who's in control. And when we understand that, we can make it through the trials. Let me encourage you this morning. Don't let your trials get the best of you. Don't become defeated by the things that you're facing, but rather join with Paul in surrendering to God's sovereignty. And when Paul did this, it changed his attitude. And I believe it will change our attitude as well. Surrender to the sovereignty of God. Let's pray. God, we love you. And we are grateful for this opportunity that we have to come to your house this morning. God, sometimes we come in to church, and as I said earlier, God, we come in just to do the thing that we know is right to do. But God, I pray that as we're here today, that it would be with a desire not to hear what Dan Frost has to say, but God, it would be with a desire to hear directly from You. And so God, I pray as we think about this passage that Paul wrote as he was facing this trial and he was going through this adverse circumstance and we see that in the end he was trusting in you. God, I pray that whatever trials we find ourselves in, that we too would have the strength with Paul to stand and say, it doesn't matter what the trial is. I'm going to trust God through the, through it to the end. God, help us to understand that you are in control. And this doesn't give us excuse to let life go the way that life wants to go. And it doesn't give us excuse to go and live how we want to live. But God, it does give us some assurance in the fact that you're with us each and every step of the way. God, help us. Help us to be a light in darkness. Help us to be surrendered to your will, whatever that may be. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.