God's provision in testing of your Faith

Okay, well today we're going to have a third lesson in James. And actually, if you notice in the class schedule, I kind of have it in smaller chunks, if you will. We're only going to cover two new verses today. I'm going to go back and review two through four from last week. But we're going to do just two new verses.

But there's just so much in this section that I decided it was worthwhile going back Just, you know, amplifying a little bit. And actually, I thought Andrew did a great job last week. So this is no, you know, this is no reflection. It's just that there's so many good things in here that need to be said. So, all right. With that said, let's go ahead. So from last week, considered all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result. so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So if you notice, I've underlined the word for trials and testing. And as was pointed out last week, those are actually two different words in the original language. And that's actually going to be very helpful as we go through and look at this. And the Numerican Standard, I actually like the fact that they've used the word for trials.

Because trials, we're going to find out, talk about last week, that's something that comes into our life and a trial is something that is not the word that you use there, something that's not of God, so to speak. It's out from the world, the flesh of the devil, and it's something that happens to us in our Christian life that we probably didn't plan, we didn't have, it just happened.

But what God wants to do, he wants to use that as a test of our faith, verse 3 says. So that's what we're going to talk about more today than I was talking about last week. Just hopefully adding a few more points here. So that's where we're going. Trials come into our life and the Lord uses those trials to prove our faith and to build up our faith. If you have questions along the way, just let me know. Let's see where we are time-wise here.

Okay, not too bad. Alright, so So the first verse I'd like to kind of go back over is, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. So I reused some charts I had historically. I didn't have a whole lot. I didn't bring up the part on consider it all joy, my brethren. But just, you know, as was pointed out last week, you know, that's kind of an oxymoron.

How can a trial, how can something that's really tough, you know, we're talking about a lot of times these are life-changing things, you know, you lose your job, you know, something, some issue with your spouse, or some, you know, some big, a lot of times these are huge issues that, that you didn't really plan, but they came along.

So how can you consider it all joy? And that word consider is to think, and I like to, I like to use the idea of thinking, you know, thinking God's way, we're thinking, we're considerate, we're considerate as God would consider it. And he has a plan. in these verses. He has a plan for those kind of trials.

And then the second point I wanted to make about joy is that if you think about joy, that's one of the fruits of the Spirit. It's actually, I've got to be careful here. There are nine aspects of the singular fruit of the Spirit. And joy is the second one, right?

Love, joy, peace, and so on. So it's something that's out from the Lord, out from Christ. It's His life. being lived through us. So joy isn't something that we try to work up. It's something that we, by faith, enter into. It's His joy that is to come through, and that's a joy that's to fill our hearts and our minds. Okay, with that kind of said, let's go on and look at the other parts that I wanted to look at here. Let me see, consider, okay.

Alright, so So one thing that struck me here, you know, why does James, and this is a no-brainer, probably, why does James not use if, right, you know? And I think he wants to point out the fact that this is a normal Christian life. And many times we don't want to maybe accept that or we'd like to have a different life, but actually there's a verse that really helps here, I think. In Peter, it says, Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeals, that's the trials I think is being talked about here, fiery ordeals that come among you, which come upon you for the testing as though something strange were happening to you. So I think part of the emphasis here is the fact that, and why he uses when, it's in a sense it's only a matter of time.

Even though, you know, I taught this lesson before historically, I did have one gentleman about almost 15 years ago that said, he raises his hand and says, you know, I've never had any trials. And I thought, OK, well, praise the Lord. I guess it's praise the Lord, but maybe it's not so interesting.

Some people say they've never had trials. I don't know. Go ahead, Bill. What do you say to a guy to, what do you say to a person who believes that God doesn't give trials? God doesn't allow trials in your life. It's just circumstances. I know. God's standing back, and He's just letting things go. He's not even involved in the world. What do you say to a person? I don't know. I don't either. You certainly haven't read Scripture. Yeah.

And actually, this is such a beautiful... I want to go back. This is such a beautiful section, how God's going to take these difficult trials of life, and He wants to use them. He has a plan for them. And it's for your benefit. That's what's so cool about this. That's what's so neat about this. That's great, Jim.

Hey, Roger? Yeah, go ahead. A real quick verse here in Philippians 129 for it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Amen. No, that's great. No, I agree. That's another wonderful verse. Yeah. That's good. All righty. Okay, so Let's go on here. Mm-hmm. So It's it's to be expected.

That's why we have when and so it's the idea is here considered all joy my brethren Your passage think about the one that this is the account of the Good Samaritan So the from Luke it says a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among and that's our word encounter Fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away leaving him half-dead So he didn't expect that trial right he didn't expect that and that's kind of the sense of this you're encountering you're going along and boom this happens and You say well Lord. Why didn't you prevent that why why me and the Lord says well? You know I have a plan for that. I have a plan for that.

That's what we're gonna see here as we go on Okay Also, so here's the word for trials. It's prosmos, and this is where the original helps so much, and this is the idea. This word can be, and as Andrew well said last week, most verses, most words can be used in a negative and positive sense, but in this case, I believe, it's used in a negative sense. It's a trial, it's a test with a view toward failure. went after this guy going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, they didn't have his best intentions at heart.

So it's bad. And there are situations where you're solicited to sin. Something happens and you may fall into sin. You may do something that you shouldn't have done. So this is something that wants to make you fail. This is a trial or test that doesn't come from the Lord. This comes from the world and the flesh and the devil. So you have a trial that you encounter. You fall among. And there's some verses that you can look at there.

So we're kind of answering this question of why should we be joyous in the solicitation to sin. And I think it's all going to revolve around God's solution or God's program or God's plan, however you want to say it, that he's going to show us. In verse 3 and 4, he has a plan for these trials that come upon us. He has a plan and a purpose for those. And it's amazing, he can take what was for your bad and turn it into good. And there's a cool verse that we all know well that talks about that. Taking something that was for your, something that was bad happened to you and turning it into good.

Okay, so let's go on. And if you were to look at the, you know, knowing is the rest of this. If you look back here, consider it all joy, my brethren. And just for, if you're able to look at the subject and verb and that kind of stuff, my brethren is the subject. My brethren considers the verb, it all joy.

Well, the word knowing actually modifies the word consider. So this is going to tell us how we're to consider these trials. first point is that Knowing it's conosco. It's to be taking in knowledge So we're the Lord was wants us to learn from these trials. He wants us to to gain knowledge or understand his plan and his purposes for us and he loves us and he cares for us and he has a plan and a purpose for our lives and he wants to take us through this trial and There's some other verses there Knowing modifies the main verb, but then there's a clause there that says, the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Testing here is the subject of this little clause. Testing of your faith produces something. God wants to produce something as a result of these trials. He wants to produce something in our lives. We're going to see that He wants to produce this thing, this testing of our faith. And the testing is something that He's about. God's about testing our faith, or proving our faith, if you will. He's about approving our faith.

And that glorifies Him. When our faith is approved, that glorifies God. And these are two different words. We have the parosmos, which is a trial to to take you down, so to speak, to make you sin. And he takes that, and he uses that trial to create a testing to prove your faith and to glorify him as you trust him through that. And there's some verses that we're going to see quite a bit more. 12, 13, 14, we'll all talk about these.

This is actually from, this is a noun form. It comes from documas. That's a verb form. And it also has a, when used in a positive sense here. It can be used negative, but this is a positive sense. So a couple of statements here. This is the idea of, we got the trials and the testing. So God takes the prosmas trials with a view to failure and uses that to test and to approve our faith. That's what he's about. So that's why we can be joyous. That's because we say, well, God is at work here. He didn't miss me. He wasn't asleep.

Many times people will say, people in really severe trials, that they just, they kind of lose their bearing sometimes, and they say, wow, where's God? He's just not around. He's just, our brother Hal did a lot of ministry in terms of counseling people, and he would relate some of his counseling things to us, and many people just can't, it's so hard in the midst of a trial to see where is God in this, where is the Lord in this? But he's there, he's working, He's working out his purposes in your life, and then I like and this is just kind of summing up so God has a plan He has a plan for each of these trials that that come at you that that overtake you or you fall into Okay Go ahead any questions so far. Yeah Sometimes it takes years before you you see what the Lord was up to Amen I agree with you 100%, and I can testify to that personally. And many times, you know, I think you may never actually see fully why this happened, why a particular trial happened in your life. You say, I don't see any purpose of this, Lord. Why did this awful thing have to happen?

But that's where faith comes in. That's where trusting that God is about our good. We are his children. But I agree, it takes years. And many times in those years, you may be angry with God. I mean, that's just the way it is. I'm sorry. But he does care for us. This is such an important verse, keeping your mind and your heart. That's great. Great comment.

OK, then some more things about testing here. So let's look at the part that produces endurance. So the testing of your faith is to produce endurance. So he wants us to be buffed up, right? Not so much, I don't think buffed up. But actually, that combination of produce, endurance, that's a cool set of words, and we're gonna see that. Okay, so produce here is to work out, to affect, to produce, and it shows up in all those places there. And it's passive voice. Here's some thoughts from Hal. It's passive voice.

So the father, this is really so, the father is working out this temptation and test in your life. You're tempted to do something bad, to walk away from the Lord or to sin, and he turns that into something to test your, to be a test in your life for your good. So he wants to work out or produce endurance, and endurance is this cool word, upomone, to abide under. And it's rendered patience. And this is what he's about. He wants us not to be physically buffed up, but to be spiritually buffed up, so that we can handle these trials in our life.

That we can say, Lord, you took me through that one before, and I see what you're doing. I trust you. So Hal has a couple more comments here. Literally abiding under, or hupomone, is being at home, in a trial or test. And I would say that is, that's a huge step. That's a huge, huge step. Because many, many times we cannot really feel, how can I be at home with that awful thing that happened to me? Or to our family or to whatever.

So the idea is to produce or fully work out his patience and his endurance. And we're talking about his life. Remember, this is, it's his life. Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit. We're going to see here. That's so it's his life. It's his patience It's his joy Lived out in our life as we our part, you know, our part in that is to is to is to walk by faith You know like the first as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord so walking him so we received him by faith Would a walk by faith or to walk during these? Difficult trials in our lives by faith and and then he can produce that joy and that endurance in us And this is just what I was saying. It's not our patience, but his patience, the fruit of the spirit.

And this is really cool. If you look at, actually I want to go back, just for a second, let me just backtrack one sec here. Let's go back to produces. And this is where I just, you guys all know this, this is such a cool thing. In Genesis 50, 20, back under, what it says, passive voice, the father's working out the trials and tests in your life. So here's a cool example, and you all know this very well.

This is the end of Genesis here, and this is where Jacob had 12 sons, and Joseph was the one that his brothers hated, and so they did an awful thing to him, right? They tried to kill him, but one of the brothers prevented that, and they threw him into a pit, Long story goes on so this comes to the end of Genesis that account and the father Jacob has died and the brothers are scared They're afraid what Jacob see I mean Joseph's gotta take it. He's gonna now he's gonna get us and he says this beautiful verse Sorry Excuse me He says as for you. He's speaking to his brothers Genesis 50 20 as for you speaking to his brothers you meant evil against me But God meant it for good.

And it actually goes on to talk about to preserve life. If you look at that verse, look it up. It's a cool verse. But I think it really speaks to the fact that many times in trials there'll be situations where Bad things happen, and this is what the Lord's about. He wants you to come to the point where you see it, that it was for your good, and for the good of many people. Okay, and then actually, one last point here about this patience, the endurance part of this. Patience and endurance grows in trials.

We say, boy, I don't see how that can happen. Okay, there's another verse for that. It's in Romans, very familiar passage, first part of Romans 5, first three verses. And it comes down to verse 3, and it says, this is a Darby translation. And not only that, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulations works endurance. The same set of words. We have produces endurance. And in 5.3, same idea, that tribulation works endurance. So that's why you can be joyous. I mean, it's just amazing. All right. I want to cover a little bit in verse 4. Let's see, how are we doing here? Oh, boy. We haven't gotten to do verses yet here. OK.

So now, it says, let endurance, this staying under, abiding under power, have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So the purpose of this endurance is that you may be perfect and complete, spiritually mature, And we see there's a verse that kind of speaks about that. Paul's speaking to the Colossians. He's saying, we, Paul, proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. So that's God's desire, that we're perfect and complete and mature in Him.

So this is something to think about. We're already, right? Every believer is already complete. Right? We have every spiritual, but we're only complete in our position in Christ, our eternal position. But we need to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. So that's what it's all about. Lacking nothing, all your needs are supplied in Christ. Okay. That took a while. Okay. All right. But good. Okay.

Now, so now actually we're going to find out that James is going to continue on here. And it says, but if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. OK. So we're going to see that this but here really has more of the idea, this is more like the idea of an and. Here's some additional information. We talked about considering it all joy in trials.

But he's going to talk about this idea of lacking wisdom. He's going to say, first of all, he's going to say, if any of you lack wisdom, and it's going to be what's called a first-class condition. It's assumed to be true. So it's the case. You lack wisdom. And Macaulay says, if you lack wisdom, and you certainly do. So we lack wisdom. So one of the questions we're going to try to answer here is, what is the direction of this wisdom? Is this just general wisdom and living the Christian life, or is it more focused? And I think it's more focused, and we're going to see that.

But if any of you, speaking of believers, lacks, is to be wanting or deficient, So it says present tense, so it means it's continuous. We continually are deficient, if you will. Continuous action, and it's reality. This is a real thing. We continuously lack wisdom. So I think it's going to kind of show us here that we really lack...

He desires to build us up in handling trials, and it's kind of what I'm... phrase it. He wants to, this wisdom is directed toward that. I'm going to answer the question that I kind of posed. Wisdom is Sophie here in respect to divine things, insight. So a couple of comments here. This is from a colleague. I like this.

Knowledge perceives truth and wisdom applies truth. So I was thinking about that, that think about this. We take in God's word, we take in knowledge, we take in divine truth, right? And then By faith, we want to apply that truth. And that's what that whole first two through four is about, applying that truth, counting it all joy, considering it all joy. We're applying the truth of that.

And he says that's wisdom. And he says that we're lacking in that. And I would agree. We are lacking. It's hard to see in the midst of a trial what to do many times. And he's going to talk about this, how you're driven around all over the place. Rejoicing and testing requires, Macaulay says, a big dose of wisdom.

All right. OK. Let him ask of God. But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Or let him ask is to make a request. It's a command, present tense. Continuously ask. So a very similar thing here in Paul to the Colossians again. We, Paul, have not ceased to pray for you, to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So Paul saw a need for believers to know that of God.

So how do we ask of God? This is the easy one, right? The only way we ask of God is in prayer, right? We ask God, we petition God. So it seems like here he's saying, if you want to have wisdom, you ought to be, you know, prayer is essential to wisdom, right? He says, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask or let him pray to God. He's encouraging prayer here, if you will.

We've asked of God for the ability to look at tests as we should. So I think this verse falls right along with two through four. The theme just carries right along. We're looking at trials. God is turning them into tests. And Lord, help me to see what you're about here, the ability to look at tests as we should. So now it continues on.

God, the one giving, giving generously to all, giving as a continuous action, generously. God desires to bless us, to give us, and how is he giving it? He's giving us, he's giving us his word, right? And so he's giving us, as we read his word and the Holy Spirit illumines our mind, we see the things.

So he's generously giving us, I think, by his word. Doesn't mean he's giving us necessarily physical things or money or something like that. He's giving us generously of his counsel. And he's doing it without, you know, there's no strings attached. He's not saying, he gives it because he loves us. He wants us to see that we have, we are blessed without reproach. He doesn't disparage us. He doesn't rebuke us.

In terms of terms of giving us he gives us freely of his knowledge It's wisdom will be given to him So actually this couple of comments from constable He's not he's not probably to give us a higher IQ right actually Andrew called me yesterday And he was worried that he had to teach today because he had left and gone off someplace, and he said Roger I don't teach tomorrow, do I? He said, no, no, no, I'm teaching.

He said, boy, and we were talking about these verses, and he said, you know, I really, that wisdom, I used to think that wisdom was just kind of general wisdom. You know, that's all about trials. That wisdom was about trials, Roger. I said, yes, it is. That's just what I saw, too. So it's kind of neat. We kind of shared that for a while. It's really cool. So God isn't pumping up our IQ here. He's actually settling us down. Here, this is what I'm about in trials. This is the wisdom you need to have. So Coswell says his last statement, God promises in this context of these verses is the ability to see the importance of enduring trials and preserving in them faithfully.

You know I thought just for a second I thought well what you know one question you're probably in the back of your mind you know we're all the same we're all the same way. What if I don't? What if I don't? And I'm not sure I can fully answer that but but we know that God loves us and cares for us.

And, you know, He's going to, like the years may go by, and this is where what Kathy said is true, maybe you don't. Maybe the first year of your trial, you don't. You don't see this. You don't have the wisdom. Well, God doesn't say, okay, I gave you one year, that's it. Next year, you're on your own. No. Next year, He just keeps on, you know, hanging out with you as you hang out with Him.

So I think that's the cool part. If you don't see this initially, in time, He wants that you will see that. And then ultimately, if you know the Lord, then maybe you won't see every issue that you had in your life resolved in your mind, like I said before. Well, He keeps giving us opportunities. He does. He just keeps bringing more, allowing more and more trials, right?

Well, no different, yeah. Right. Don't worry, you'll have time to work on it, I guess. Okay. I have one more verse to go. I've been just kind of blabbing away here. Anyone want to share something that I haven't mentioned or should mention? I'm sorry. You can see that this subject is kind of, I wouldn't say dear to my heart.

It's just an amazing section, and it's been very helpful to our family, and me personally, too. Anyway, if not, we'll carry on with the first section. So here's the part that you said, now you have to put a guilt trip on me here, Roger, or James, or the Lord.

But we must ask in faith without doubting. You say, oh, come on. Can't I just doubt a little? Can't I have a little doubt? But we must ask in faith without doubting. Boy, this is getting tough. I can't have any doubts about it. OK. So he must ask or let him ask.

To ask, to make requests, the same as this idea of prayer again. Same as back in verse 5. Now we're told more about asking and more about prayer. We're to pray in faith, or if you take that word in, it's in the sphere of faith. In, in the Greek, in the sphere of faith. So we're to pray in the sphere of faith.

He doesn't want us, and that's where, and that's actually the key part of this, because doubt takes that, robs us from that, takes us away from that, because we have, well, in the back of our mind, you say, Maybe my faith isn't strong enough. Maybe you have all the maybes. No, he says, I want you to pray in faith, trusting him. So this is a couple of comments by a constable here. And see what you think about this. In scripture, asking in faith, that phrase in faith, always means one of two things. And I have not heard this before. And I appreciate your thoughts on this. It either means, God will, either means, asking in faith, either means believing God will do that which he has promised. So, you know, God has promised just a ton of things, right?

Think about all the spiritual blessings we have, the riches of God's grace. It means, and we believe we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We take that by faith, right? We believe and we're blessed with every spiritual blessing. He's going to take us to be with Him. There's a whole bunch of things He's promised He will do. And then there's the category. If He has not promised us, we believe that He can do that. If it's something we ask, He can do it.

But we're going to see as we get to verse 7 and 8, do we try to force God into a corner? We say, you've just got to do this, Lord. And we're going to see in verse 7, you don't want to go that path. So he can't, we believe he can do, you know, he will do certain things. He's promised to do certain things and he can do maybe the thing that you ask. But the question is, is that his will? Okay. So James teaches that faith is essential condition of prayer. So I thought that was good. Faith and prayer go together.

And that's why he's going to go in this whole section about doubting and why doubting is not helpful. Helpful to to praying and faith if you will Okay Or the one doubts is like the surf of the sea so without doubting so it's to be Hesitation or vacillating is the idea from Weiss there or the one who doubts The believer doubting as is to be in this to be in conflict if you go to be in strife with oneself to be in conflict to hesitate, to waver, and it's something that's called present tense. You're doubting. So now he's going to make a comparison. He's going to say, if you're doubting, but he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts, he's going to give us a comparison with something. He's going to say, it looks like, it resembles something. This is what a person doubting resembles. And that's the last part of the verse. This is what it resembles. It resembles the surf of the sea. So if you want to see what James is saying here, you're like the surf of the sea.

And the surf of the sea has two things that aren't too good about the surf of the sea. The surf of the sea is not in control, right? It's really not. Two things affect the surf of the sea. The surf is a picture of the doubting believer. is driven by the wind, where driven means, is tossed by the wind. The waves crash in, and then the wind will blow them up. They'll get high. They'll raise up the waves. Those are two things. So he's making a comparison. So in the context, when we do not respond in faith, we'll be like the surf, subject to be driven and tossed by the wind. So it's kind of an interesting picture.

Don't really think of yourself as like the surf. The surf has no, it just, it reacts. And also, as we know from other things, the surf is driven by the seasons and by the cycles of the planets and that kind of stuff, and the moon affects the surf. So the surf is just, doesn't have any, I don't know what to say.

It's at the mercy, there we go, it's at the mercy of the wind. And the Lord doesn't want us to be at the mercy, if you will, of the trial. He wants us to be trusting him in the midst of the trial. So I think that's why he goes through this comparison or simile of that. Roger?

Yeah, go ahead. So the faith, the trusting, is that God knows what he's doing. Exactly. Exactly. You're exactly right. That's a conclusion you have to come to. And I think that's what he wants us We may not know his answer, but we ask it in faith, and we say, Lord. And that's what our Savior said, right, when he was in the garden. Thy will be done. He said, I only do what I see my Father doing. He said, your will be done. And that's where we're at in many times as we ask in faith. We ask for his will to be done. You're absolutely right. Roger, you have to believe that God is in control. Exactly isn't then we're just being drawn drawn and moved around by circumstance, right? Isn't that cool?

The Bible But but isn't this cool the surface actually a pretty cool way to think about that that's what happens when we when we lose that Mourning if you will if we say well, you know, we start doubting God Well, God, how can God you know, and it's a typical thing. Haven't you heard this hundreds of times? You know this happened. I can't believe God would have done that allowed that you know you and we Hundreds of situations, we say that. How can God allow that? Well, He does. And so what's our response to that? He allowed that and we're suffering for that. And what's our response to that?

Well, Lord, in a sense, your will be done. I didn't ask you. You and your sovereignty know what's going on. And these verses are to comfort and to see how that we can be driven. And I can think about times when I felt like I was driven, you know, something comes along and where I'm going this way and that way.

I'm trying to find a solution. I got to find a solution. You know, we've got to fix this, right? We've got to fix this today. I'm going to fix this today, right? Well, many times you can't fix it today. I'm sorry. We can't. I want to fix it. I don't care how many people you see, you know, how many doctors you see, how many, Counselors you talk to it doesn't matter. You know so at some point you say Lord You're gonna have to fix it cuz I can't fix it so anyway. That's so actually let me get the last chart here Okay, final thoughts Okay, this is from constable hmm.

He says what James just explained is divine wisdom That's what that's what we you know God's view of life. That's what we want. We might have his view on our view However the world which does not have or accept this real wisdom, generally fails to appreciate the value of enduring trials. The Christian is apt to take the world's view toward his or her trials, rather than God's, and try to escape them at any cost. And I tell you, that is how you feel many times. I want to be out of this. I don't like this. I can't. But God says, no, that's not. Consequently, the wise Christian is one who views life in the light of God's revelation, his written word.

So he's given us these passages to settle us down, to get us on firm ground, not to be driven by the serf. So it's just such cool verses. So we're going to get a chance, you know, I have these little small chunks. So we're going to, you know, Eccles is going to get a chance. Bob teaches next week. He's going to get a chance to do the next two verses, which are very close to these verses, and it talks about Not expecting anything from God. Whoa, that sounds kind of hard.

I don't know what scriptures I have for this, but I believe God tailors each trial for our benefit. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You may go through a similar trial, but it's different for you. And God tailors them all. I just believe that. Well, there's a verse that talks about we are appointed to trials. Yeah, there you go. And that was one of Hal's favorite verses. He would mention that many times. And we'll probably cover that here along the way. Of course, James is all about trials. We're going to see lots about trials. We're going to see the stair step.

You take the bait, and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Or if somebody sets a slide, boop. I think it was maybe Wayne that said that. What's cool is we listened to all the tapes historically. And when our brother Hal was teaching this, it would just be great. It's a slide. I slide down that slippery slope so quick.

So, anyway. Well, hopefully this is helpful today. Any last thoughts or comments? Actually, it's getting close to putting time here. Roger? Yes, go ahead. Well, sometimes it's just because God can see the bigger picture. And we just see one part of it, and He sees everything. And so, you know, if we're able to see everything, then we could we could see there's a purpose to it, but we can't do that. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. Yeah. All right. That's great. Okay.

Well, let's close in prayer then. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this, for your word, Father. We thank you for the blessings we have, just that, Lord, the marvelous truths about your plans and purposes. And what's, what's wonderful is, Lord, these verses have shown us that you're not leaving us to the devices of the the trials of this world.

You have a plan for each one. And as was pointed out, you destined us. You have plans and purposes for everything that happens in our life, Lord. And you don't plan evil, but you plan your response to the evil that happens to us. And that's to bless us and to settle us down and have us trust in you. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.