Take for the preaching of the word this morning, we want to have our Bibles open to the passage in Deuteronomy 8. Last week, I preached, I mentioned that a couple of things come to my mind when I think about Thanksgiving, I think about thankfulness and we will address that and Especially next week, Lord willing. And we've addressed it in other things already in worship and last week and this week. But also faithfulness, and so last week I dealt with the faithfulness of. The folks in Hebrews 11 and. Which I think the pilgrims and their faithfulness, I'll give a couple of illustrations about that this morning as well. That they encourage us when we think about their faithfulness. The subject, though, of the sermon is economic adversity and a Christian response, and I don't intend that this response would be somehow an exhaustive response. I think an exhaustive response would be a response that takes the scriptures and open up the scriptures to show us solutions and answers and principles. for economies, and I believe the scripture has that, and I'll say more about that later also. But currently in our nation and other nations, there is economic adversity, and this is what the pilgrims knew their first time. It's what Israelites knew in the wilderness is what the pilgrims knew when they were here at the beginning, I mean. And we can even see that there is a global economic adversity if we watch CNBC or Check out the news page on Google or something else. For us and all that we have in our country, this is nothing compared to the problems in other parts of the world. We are very favored people, and there are other people who are going through a lot of problems that are a lot worse than what we have here. We have people out of work. We have people losing their homes. And we have some very sad consequences, and as Dave prayed, we need to be able to minister to these people as best we can. But there are other people who suffer in other ways in other places and it impacts them more than just economically. We had a letter from someone to whom we've given mission support in Zambia who writes to us a couple of months ago when things started to unravel about what is going on here and why are there these problems. Because I think he sees it not just impacting the money he brings home and other Christians bring home, but he sees it impacting the very philosophy that their country is going to try to proceed upon or has as they've been practicing or trying to move toward a free enterprise system or as he is out there pushing that. He sees things coming unraveled here. And he can see people then rise up and promote communism, socialism, and other such things. I did hear this week, though, I did hear someone, as convinced as they could be, tell me that everything is going to be over in January. So if all of us can just hold on another 30 days or so, Of course, I don't believe that. I do know the Lord can do things overnight. You got that story about the beggars outside the gate and and all the forces leave and, you know, they're starting to sell things cheap the next day. But I do know the Lord can pull off things like that. I don't really expect it to happen in January. And I was more amazed at that a person could believe that than at what they were saying. But anyhow. The principle today that I want us to address is economic adversity and how and not only how we can look at what was going on with the Israelites at that particular time, how we can think about it for ourselves when it comes to us, but take these principles also and apply them to any other kind of adversity that comes upon us. There are people who have adversity of illness. There are families that are going through adversity of relationships. There are people who have the adversity of dealing with sin in their lives, and there's adversity in numerous different things. And what I'm pointing out to us here is that as we see this illustration of what we could describe as economic adversity and life for the Israelites, we see principles, general principles, not exhaustive. There are others in scriptures, but general ones here. to which we can from which we can learn. And then next week, Lord willing, I want to address the other aspect of this chapter, and that is prosperity and how what is the Christian response to prosperity? The first thought we usually have is, hey, I can handle prosperity. It's the adversity I can't handle. But I think history proves in our nation, in the lives of the scripture, Folks in Scripture, that oftentimes prosperity is what people cannot handle and that they forget how to handle. And so there are all these things here given to the Israelites about how they were to handle the prosperity that God was going to bring them into. And then maybe other things will even grow out of this, looking at different economic systems and dealing with the whole philosophy behind affluence and such. In these troubled times, then, this is only a taste of all that we need as Christians. But we do need this. We are to be light and salt in our culture and the way we live and what we profess and what we believe. And we believe that the word of God is sufficient to teach and to address all areas of life. We have a lot of young people here, we have we have people of all different ages, and the thing that all of us should should understand and the From the word go, we should have in our understanding and the principle, basic principle that we act upon is that God's word speaks to all of life and that God's word has plenty to say about the economic conditions, the economic system that is best for us to follow as a nation or any other nation, and that God's word speaks to all of these things and gives us truth to all these things. We must not think that somehow the scripture is just this little devotional book that's OK to get us through some hard time, but that it speaks to the hard times. But it also speaks practically in as far as economic issues and questions. And I have plenty of books or I have some that can get us going in there. There are a lot of good Christian thinkers who have written in history that have addressed this, you can go back and look at the Reformation and how it was addressed and how the Lord blessed through all that. Well, let's go ahead and get into some of the things about adversity. Besides dealing with adversity, I want to just address the the other thing that is emphasized here at the end of the sermon about God's law and the place of God's law as it pertains to adversity and prosperity, since that's an emphasis all through this particular chapter. So first, in Deuteronomy 8, we have examples of economic adversity. Israel is about to enter into the promised land. The promised land is going to be a land of plenty and prosperity. They have been going through a wilderness experience of what we are, what I'm calling economic adversity as to how they have been living in the preceding years. And that is the whole comparison that is made, that they're going to be taken into a prosperous condition. In verse two, we read, You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years, that he might humble you, testing to know what was in your heart and whether you would keep his commandments or not. Forty years the Lord had humbled them. They had had no excess, as it were, in that time. They lived every day looking to God to supply manna for that day, to supply water as it was needed, to protect them from the nations and the elements in the wilderness that were all around them. In verse three, the first part, he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you manna, which you did not know. Verse 15, he led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions. and thirsty ground where there was no water. He brought water for you out of the rock of Flint. In verse 4a, it talks about their clothing, your clothing did not wear out on you. I think some people believe that that God miraculously even grew their clothing as you realize people grow, right? You grow during that 40 years. But I think the better part of wisdom would just be to envision sort of a traveling thrift store that here were these folks that were swapping back and forth the clothing that they were wearing, but somehow by God's miraculous power, their clothing did not wear out so that you have people growing up and there's this whole clothes swap thing going on. Their days were not predictable in that they did not know where they were going next. They did not put roots down so as to be a part of a place and begin to build and achieve stability. Day by day, needs were supplied, but still they lived with new and challenging circumstances that easily moved them to be afraid, to be fearful, to be anxious, to worry, to be confused, perplexed, to be frustrated, to be angry at times. They were moved to doubt, to envy other peoples around them and what those people had in their cultures. It was a time of economic adversity and other fears as well, like national security and the future of their children and what they would have. Now, how were they to respond? How were they to live? In that time, there were a number of things that they should think about, but governing them at this time, in this time of economic adversity, or times of economic adversity today, or any adversity, it is a time for us to trust the Lord. What happens when things don't go as we want them to go? What happens with us many times is what happened to them as well. We presume something is wrong. Someone or something is to blame. Something needs to be changed. Often it's not us. It's usually other people or other things. Israel at times in this wilderness and adversity thought it best to try another God, thought it best to ignore God's law, thought it best at times to rebel against his appointed leadership or any number of things. But when things were rough for them, their first concern should have been to keep on trusting the Lord. You see, what happens is people says, well, this isn't working. And so we have to try something else. And yet God was humbling them to see if they would trust him in spite of the fact that there was all this adversity. Trust the Lord, keep looking to him, gather the manna, pick up and move when he says to don't envy other nations and want their ways But keep constant in your trust in the Lord. In reading about the pilgrims, in John Brown's book on the pilgrims and what they experienced, he gives a good example of the adversity that they endured. And he gives a good example of the thankfulness and the trust that they that they confessed. I've got two lengthy quotes, so you all just bear with me on this is one of them and I've got another one later. Still though the planting season of 1623 was a time of busy industry and willing work, this could not alter the fact that by the time the seed corn was in the earth, their stores of food were spent. Many a night they went to rest without knowing whence the next day's food was to come. And how they were to live till the next harvest came its round, it was impossible to say. They said one to another that now above all people in the world, they had to cast themselves on God's providence and pray that He would give them daily bread. You see, instead of saying, forget Him and being angry, they say now we've got to trust Him more. Yet as Bradford tells us, they bore their hardships with great patience and a clarity of spirit. Though for two or three months together they had neither bread nor any kind of corn, and in spite of the scanty fare, God in His mercy preserved both health and life. In this hard time, while they trusted in God, they with their usual bravery and good sense vigorously helped themselves. In other words, they were down and out, but they weren't lazy. They were industrious. Having to trust entirely to the sea for sustenance, till the earth brought forth fruit, they divided themselves into companies of six or seven each for the purpose of fishery. And as they had only one boat and one net recently brought, so soon as one company returned tired and spent, another was ready to start, each company knowing its turn. There sprang up also a sort of honorable rivalry as to which company should bring the most provision for their waiting community on shore. And there was an unwritten law that no boat should return without bringing supplies, even though it should have to remain five or six days at sea. If the boating party were long, those on shore went to the sands at low water to dig for shellfish. Others, again, were told to range the woods in search of deer and other kinds of game. This time of stress and suffering was further darkened by the setting in of a disastrous drought of seven weeks in the early days of June. The younger maize plants began to wither and the older to mature quickly. Even before the time of harvest, famine began to play havoc among them. And Winslow tells us that he saw men staggering at noonday for lack of food. We read too of William Brewster sitting down to table with a meager wooden platter of boiled clams and a pot of water before him. Nevertheless, the grand old spirit was in him still, for over this fair he gave thanks to God that he and his were permitted to, quote, suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sand." So here they were, a grand example of folks who were trusting in the Lord and who were also trying to do what they can. And so this is what we do in times of any adversity, economic adversity or otherwise. We are to always trust in the Lord. We are to use the means at our disposal. We are to take steps to help and remedy our situation. We are to apply common sense and show initiative. But our trust is to be in the Lord. Secondly, times of economic adversity or any adversity, Are times meant for our welfare? They're meant actually for our welfare, Romans 8, 28. They're meant for our growth, our learning, our maturing. Times of adversity are not meant for Christians simply to be endured. I dealt with this a couple of weeks ago from Hebrews 12. A number of words and phrases here indicate this in the case of the Israelites. In verse two, he mentions that the Lord did this purposely to humble them. God was purposely humbling them, testing them. In verse three, he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know. Nor did your fathers know that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God." So He took away their food, and yet He commanded the food for them. They were living by the Word of God as God in His providence commanded that food. They had to live upon Him. He humbled them. He was teaching them to live upon Him, and He humbled them this way. God was making them understand that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God taught them they could trust Him, that He would supply their needs. He humbled them to live dependent upon Him, which is where we all need to live. They were humbled to realize that the great miracles, and remember, they'd seen all these great miracles of coming out of Egypt. They were humbled to realize that all the great miracles performed on their behalf in coming out of Egypt were all of grace. He was teaching them grace, not for anything in themselves. And now in the wilderness, they are in adversity. So they see it as God's grace that delivered them. It is God's grace that sustains them. He is teaching them these lessons of grace. God knew their hearts, but now they knew their hearts. And what they knew often wasn't pretty because their testing proved them to be weak and without faith and in desperate need of God's grace and mercy. One generation saw another generation pass away and should have learned from their mistakes and their sin and their rebellion and their unbelief. Here, Christ, we remember quotes from this third verse when he was tempted of Satan. But Christ would obey God first in that situation by keeping the law of God, by keeping his word. God commanded manna, not real bread, but such that sustained his people. So he taught them and so he teaches us that we live upon every word that comes from the mouth of God. That is that is your commission in mind. We are to live on every word. that comes from the mouth of God. And we do that in his providence as his word commands things into being, as he commands providence in our lives. And we do this by his revealed word in the scriptures. We live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And this is what Christ is doing. Christ knows that God will provide for him. God, his father, will provide for him in this temptation. He knows that he should not succumb to the temptation of Satan. He instead, he will obey the word of God. He is living by the word of God. Every mouth that proceeds out of the word of every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, even as we are to live. In adversity, we are tempted not to do this, we feel sorry for ourselves. We think that we have a right to be angry or cross or selfish or lazy or anything else, that we are exempt from being faithful to every word to God, for every word that proceeds from his mouth. But instead, we are to live upon his word and what happens when we do this, the Lord matures us, we not only profess Faithfulness to Him, but we live in that faithfulness. We are made stronger for future challenges. We come to appreciate His wisdom and His love and His care. We come to understand the depths of His grace better. But this learning applies not only to our personal lives, it applies to all other things that the church needs to learn, that society needs to learn. Here in this passage of Scripture, they are learning from their adversity, it is a time for them to grow. But there is also something here. There's a principle here is that they need to learn from their history as well. They need to learn, they need to remember their history and learn from their history. And this is what you and I should understand that God calls us to do as well. We recently had our Reformation Conference, the Reformation Conference. It's not for a certain group of people in the congregation who sort of like to hear lectures on theology and have sort of an interest in history. That's not what it's for. The Reformation Conference is for us to remember this portion of our heritage as what we can learn, how we can be encouraged, what we need to apply today. They didn't have everything down, but there are things that they knew and learned, their struggles they went through. All of this should be profitable to us. in how we live today. And that's just one little segment of history. But here God is calling his people to remember their history and we're to remember our history as well. Just as the Lord reminds Israel of our history and stresses with her the importance of learning from it, so he applies the same to us. Another example of this comes to mind with the pilgrims and the economic system that they adopted. and adopted the better part of two years when they first arrived. With all the talk that we've had about socialism in the recent election, we do well to examine their experiment. Here's the second quote I was going to give you. Till the spring of 1623, from the necessity of the case, the colony had gone, on the communistic system for being under common obligation to pay back to the adventurers, their investors. They had to pay him back for this was this was a for profit enterprise. OK, this was not a parachurch mission ministry here. This was a for profit enterprise and they had to pay these people back and they go into the author here says communism. It may be more like socialism, but anyway. He speaks of their serious drawbacks, as it always must have, he says. It had been tried here at Plymouth under more than ordinarily favorable conditions, for it was tried in a community of sober, industrious and godly men. Yet it was far from successful, for it led to confusion and discontent, discouraged production and bestowed a premium upon indifference. Now here, what he's doing is, this author, I think it's about over 100 years ago, he wrote this book on the pilgrims. But anyway, he's trashing the economic system of socialism or communism, and he's doing it from a pragmatic point of view. And so we can, it doesn't work, it's not good, that type of idea. And while we can look at it and say, OK, it doesn't work, it's not a good idea, the better part of an argument for any economic system would be simply to draw it from scriptures. What principles do we see here? Now, they ended up with some of those principles, but that's the better part or the better way to argue your case. Because if we only argue from the standpoint of it doesn't work, then we've just nullified the first application I tried to make because they were in adversity, okay? So that's not, you can't argue that way. Anyway, he talks about what they endured. The strong and the able thought it hard that they should have to work for the wives and children of other men and share no more than those who could not do half their work. On the other hand, grave and aged men felt it to be somewhat of an indignity that they should be reduced to inequality and made to work in the ranks of the younger and meaner sort. Husband, too, rebelled at the idea of their wives having to dress the meat and wash the clothes of other men, feeling this would be the kind of slavery hard to brook. That all should be of an equality to have alike and to do alike and should be themselves one as good as another. Bradford says, did much to diminish and take off the mutual respect which is good to preserve in a community. It would have been worse, he thinks, with worse men and it is no purpose that the failure lies not with the system but with the corruption of human nature. And I would say it's also the failure with the system but our depravity just makes everything else worse. Well, anyway, here's how the story ended, all right? With this feeling prevalent, before the planting time of 1623, a modified departure from the communistic system was determined upon. Without making provision for inheritance, it was arranged to assign to each family for one year a partial land in proportion of one acre to each person, and as the land varied in quality and value, it should be divided by lot. This arrangement at once infused new life into the community, All now went to work with a will and planted far more corn than under the old system. Even the women went willingly into the fields, taking their children with them to help. Maybe there was a problem with the women going before. Anyhow, they had to do all those clothes for the other men, right, and dress the meat. But anyhow, I mean, that gives you a pragmatic example here of an economic system that doesn't work, and that's, That's what our friend from Zambia was saying. This is not the system we want. We don't want government control. We want private ownership and all these other things. But the sum here or the point here that I'm trying to make is that in our adversity and as Christians, what do we do? We look at history. We study the history that is given to us in the word of God. We analyze other history. from which we can learn, because our times of adversity are times that are meant in the providence of God for our welfare, for our maturing, our growing, our understanding, and all those things. Fourthly, times of economic adversity or any adversity cannot destroy or take away true happiness. Now, I'm not saying that people don't have to struggle for happiness in a time of adversity, and I'm not defining happiness like the world defines happiness, that everything is okay and everyone is all smiles. This happiness may consist simply in the peace of God that passes all understanding in the person who is enduring the adversity. Whether it was with the faithful few in Israel or the wilderness or the faithful at Plymouth or the faithful in Hebrews 11 or any other time, God's faithful learn That though they be in adversity, yet because the Lord is with them in it, governing it for them, loving them, they are not deprived of true happiness, which is better than great wealth and health. I'll tell you something. There are Christians right now. who in the last couple of months have lost jobs and have faced uncertainty and have humbled themselves, and this morning they are worshiping God. They are delighting in Him. They have a peace and a joy. They don't know where they're going to get a job. This is happening. Now, I'm not saying all have, but I'm saying that I know beyond any doubt that there are those who have come under hard times who have humbled themselves and sought the Lord, and they have more happiness, maybe more peace, maybe more joy, than some folks in here who have fat back accounts and full security in their work. Christ, in His lack and with all the ugly opposition that He had to endure, still enjoyed perfect peace and happiness in and with the Lord. When Brewster gave thanks that he and his were permitted to suck the abundance of the sea and the treasures hid in the sand, he was a happy man. But to all outward appearances, he had no abundance and he had no treasure. God is so great that no matter what our adversity, he can give us happiness in him that is worth more than all the total smiles of all those who do not know him. This is the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension. which guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And so we are to seek him whatever the adversity in which we find ourselves, and he will give this. Finally, as to adversity and prosperity, we need to know the ever-present and universal relevance and importance of keeping God's law. Now, I want to address prosperity from this chapter later, but there is such an emphasis here on the law of God throughout that it needs to be there needs to be something said about it. And so as to adversity or prosperity, we need to note the ever present and universal relevance and importance of keeping God's law. God addresses his people here under two different times, two different circumstances, adversity and prosperity. But in both times, there was to be the faithful keeping. of his law, obedience to God's law has a positive effect leading to prosperity. Now, in verse one, the Lord tells him to keep his commandments and he tells them that there will be a blessing that they are entering into. And in chapter seven, you go back and look at chapter seven, verse twelve and thirteen. There are particular promises and blessings that are tied to the keeping of God's law. Now, there are other things that follow. That I don't think we can necessarily say that would apply today. I'm just pointing out here that there is a principle that there is a principle here of blessing as attached to the keeping of God's law. But more than that, that this is a principle that even attaches to economics. I think you could take this principle and you could go through Proverbs. It has so much to say about money and work and business, and you would see that there is prosperity. tied with wisdom and in the keeping of God's law and the keeping of his way, that this has something to say to nations. And I'll prove this under the second point that I'm going to give. It is true that there can be very godly and faithful people who keep God's law, who are not spared from adversity. I'm not saying that, but generally among men and nations, among whole groups of nations, a whole group of people, when there is the emphasis or when there is the prevalence, the dominance of the keeping of God's law and the respect for his law and his truth, then you would find that prosperity would in time come to that nation. Now, I believe that on two accounts. Number one, I believe it because I believe this is a biblical promise in reference to God's law. But secondly, if you don't believe that, I think that secondly, it is true even because of the very nature of God's law operating in a society. All you have to do is think about this for a moment. When God's law is operating in a society, you have all these good things for business to thrive, for people to be respected. Secondly, then disobedience to God law ultimately leads to judgment. While God is slow to anger, still he will judge Israel, his church, any nation that will not submit to his law. Don't give me examples of prosperous nations today who reject God and who are dominated by false religions instead. Look at the testimony of Scripture. I'm talking about what God does over time in history and what he says he does in reference to nations who do not keep his law. It is very clear what God says. It's not just that his law is given for Christians or just for certain people. He is the creator. We just made this statement in our confession. His law applies to all peoples, all nations, and he holds everyone responsible. He is slow to anger. We dealt with that a couple of weeks ago. But still, he is a God who brings his judgment. Consider what goes on in a culture that forgets God's law. We just read about it in Romans 1. When you forget God's law, that's the kind of culture that you're going to produce. Not overnight. It may come in time. But when you forget God's law, that's the culture you produce. What's the story that we get back from missionaries a lot of times? and of people in other countries and how they cannot thrive or how they cannot do this and that, because the standards of morality do not practice in business and the economy are not such that it allows for things to thrive or grow or anything else like that. Cultures that do not recognize God and his law or the truths of his law run the risk of giving of him giving him up to their own sin. Think about it. Besides the loss of respect for any culture, when you lose respect for God, you lose respect for men who are made in the image of God. When you think about sexual sins, sexual sins are not respecting persons. Think about if you don't respect people, then you don't respect their property. You don't respect their ownership of that property. You don't respect their rights like the commandments teach. Think about the fact that you're governed by coveting. You're governed by greed. It's not important for you to keep your word. It's OK for you to steal. It's OK for you to lie. It's OK for you to be on the phone promising someone something about this product or promising someone that this stock will go up or this is a good investment and all this other kind of stuff because after all, you're out for yourself. It doesn't make any difference. about the law of God or the truth of God. See, when a culture is based on that, and when justice and everything else allows all that, then there's self-destruction. When we look at the events of the last couple of months on Wall Street, we already know that there's greed everywhere. We know that people are falling. We don't have to go to Wall Street. We've got it right here. We see corruption and coveting. We can find dishonesty in everything else. We see selfish power hungry elected officials making laws and corporate executives only too happy to go ahead in many times and do those things in agreement with those laws because what happened was you have governing officials and you have those people who are pulling the strings and doing the things in investments and stuff such that they have thrown out the window basic principles of economics and the morality of God's law. that is given to us in the scripture. It really shouldn't surprise any of us, what should surprise us many times is that things are not worse. Now, this doesn't mean, now see what happens is people will say, yeah, that's right, all government is bad, all business is evil, liberation theology, right? You want to look at sin? Look at business. Deal with that another time, but the point is, it's not that government is wrong. We see God ordaining government in his word. It's not that business is wrong. We see God. We see God instituting different all kinds of different occupations and callings and all these things and people thriving in them and all that. Well, finally. Obedience to God's law by God's people is our response to God's love and to God's grace. I've got a couple of verses there that you can look up and read. And there's another one you could add, John 15, verse nine and 10. But I just think that this is the point. When we think about God's law, I know a lot of times we think, OK, you know, we think about God's law, we think about rules and, you know, we maybe go back to clean up your room and all this other kind of stuff. But the deal is. The way that God presents His law to us and how we should see it is it's in the context of love. It's in the context of grace. It's in the context of God loving us and knowing what's best for us. It's in the context of God giving us things. It's in the context of God delighting in blessing us. It's in the context of God maturing us to be more like Him, to be thinking and strong and all that spiritually and mentally and all that. Look at that verse six, therefore, you shall keep the commandment. But look at what look at what's on both sides of that commandment. The idea in verse five that God's treating you as a father, as a father who loves his child. Therefore, you shall keep his commandment. And then what is said in verse seven, for the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good land. Here is his grace. Here is his mercy. Here is his love. And it's in the context of obey me. Look at verse 10 and 11. When you have eaten and satisfied and you've blessed the Lord your God for the good which he has given you, you shall bless the Lord. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances. Be appreciative of his grace and of his mercy. Disobedience and pride, that pride, it's our pride. It's our pride that forgets God's law. It's not because there's something bad with God's law. It's because we are a proud people when we rebel against his law. Look at verse 14, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord, your God. Look at verse 18 and 19. It shall come about if you ever forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods and serve them and worship them. And then he talks about judgment. It's not that God is hard. It's not that God is unrealistic. It's not that God is, you know, some caveman mentality that here and everything is old and bad and everything else like that. And it's not that there's the absence of love and grace and all that. We can't handle it. We cannot handle God's love and grace. He's a God who is full of love and grace. And the only response that you and I can have is to worship him and to love him. And still we are reminded of our sins. We're reminded of our failure. And here we are in worship. And what else are we reminded of? We're reminded of Christ. And what has God done for us? He has given to us something greater than that promised land, greater than those brooks and all those houses and the honey and the olive oil and the wine and all that. He has given us of Himself. He has forgiven us of our sins. He has given us an eternal home that excels that land. to which He is taking us as His people. And it is coming here, and we're here, and in the meantime, we are to be His faithful ones who trust Him, who deal with adversity and prosperity in a way that would please Him, who know what it is to enjoy Him and to delight in Him. God help us. Let's pray. Lord, we love You, and we're pretty We're a pretty sad bunch at times, but we thank you that you are gracious and patient with us. We thank you for the forgiveness of sins. We thank you that you're a force. And we pray now that you'd help us to live unto your glory. Lord, help us to be a friend to those who are under adversity. Help us to really have a compassion for them, kindness toward them, minister to them. And Lord, help us to be faithful ourselves when we are under it. In Jesus name, Amen.