Faith Lesson 9
Mike Doyle · Apr 26, 2015
Faith, No. 16
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492652337022

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're going to start on lesson nine today, right? Yeah. OK. By the way, we're having a deacons meeting afterwards and all of us get to put our wants and needs up. I put in for a whiteboard. What do you think? Yeah, but these old guys are going like this and saying, I can't read it. Jim, you have to get one for your room. When they take this one out, you can just take it home. Yeah, I like old school too. But is it when a whiteboard be more visible? Not if you use white chalk. We'll just get one and he can work over there. You can use it as a portable hot board. It doesn't rain because it heats it up anyway. Yeah, and flip it and do all that cool stuff with it. Alright, everybody had Lesson 9? Anybody not had Lesson 9?

Okay, we are moving into a continuation of the things of God. and kind of a long question. If these things are uncovered or unveiled, which means that they are revealed to us, and they are prepared for you, do you know what the things are? The deep things of God the humanly unsearchable things of God, do you know about all these things in terms of what they are? 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10, But just as it is written, Things which eye has not seen or ear heard, and which is not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him. For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. So, just to make it easy, would you say the answer to the question is yes or no? You're not paying attention.

We know a lot about what they are because they're revealed by the Holy Spirit to us. So would you say then that you know what these things are, the deep things of God, the humanly unsearchable things? Do you know what these things are in terms of what they are? I don't know what all of them are.

That's what I'm asking. But I have to take forever to learn them. I don't think forever is long enough. Forever is just until next Thursday. How many think, yeah? What's the question? The question is, do you know what they are? Oh. How many think, yes, they do? Do we know right now what all of them are? Yeah, we're talking about... All the unchangeable things, a God, all of them? That's right. Answer, no. Answers, no. Yay! You don't know what they are.

Is this part of sanctification? As we grow and learn? What's the word sanctification mean? Well, I know the idea of it is that when we're justified in sense, sanctification is like a slope that we, you know, try to conform until a rapture and then this meets our standing.

You know what I'm saying? Stand up. Come on. Come on with me. I want you to go out there and shut the door. I just sanctified him. What did I do? I just sanctified you. You know what I did? I separated you. Is that the same as holy? Isn't that what holy means? Holy means the same thing. It just means you get separated. unto God for his own use.

Yes, ma'am. Ma'am, see that? So then there's not a positional and a conditional aspect of the things? We're talking about the things of God. But it says here that he's revealed them to us by his spirit. Well, how come we don't know them? You know some of them. In my spirit? Do I just know part of them? Well, to know them means you've got to be able to articulate what they are. But I mean on a positional aspect, I'm in Christ. Yes you are. All the things that are His are mine. That's right. Isn't that true now? Can you give me a list? But isn't that true now? Positionally? Yeah. I have to say yes. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah, because it's not really conditional, because condition is what we go through.

The question is do we know the things of God, whether you have them or not. Do you know what they are? Not everything, because you grow. But it says that God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. Right. So, verse 8, no we don't have them. We may know some, but we don't know them all. Right. We'll get, well... And doesn't verse 11 say, for even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Yeah, that's right. Is God infinite? Are his things infinite? So how are you doing with knowing them? Right now our minds are finite, even though we're going to live forever. Infinite doesn't mean live forever. Infinite means he's unsearchable.

It seems like this is making the distinction between we can't know God as man. But we can know God as Spirit. No, that's not what it's saying. How does anyone know God? By reading the Bible. No. By the Holy Spirit. Who's the one that reveals Him? The Holy Spirit. And how does He do it? Through whom? Christ. That's right. He does it through Christ. Is Christ a man? At times He is a man. Yeah, He is. He's the Logos of God. member of the Godhead that his designated role is to reveal who God is. See that? He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

But in the Spirit, not in the natural man. And that's right. And the point that we're pointing to, the issue we're pointing to here is, how do we learn and know the things of God? If he's infinite and he's a spirit, how do we know? Okay, the Spirit chose us? That's right.

So, why does God then, we'll keep this in context hopefully, why does God then say He's uncovered them for us? They're all uncovered, but we don't know them all. Why does He say that? Well, it says that God has revealed them unto us as Aristantes, it's a done deal.

Okay? So you don't have anything to learn that's new of God, right? Well, we can't know them because we're so in our bodies. We'll know them when we're not. You know them now. Because it says, which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So, you know, if we knew them all now, that would just be weird. So the question has to be asked, when you go to be with the Lord, are you going to instantly know them all then? I would think, and then we get to live them out, maybe. See, I'm of a mind that you don't. That you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus for all eternity. But here's the point.

We're trying to figure out, through the questioning, is how do you know these things? What are the agents involved? And so we only know these things by the Holy Spirit, right? And why? Because what does He do according to these verses? What does the Spirit of God do? No, before that. Before that, what does it say?

He searches. The Holy Spirit searches. He searches out the deep things of God, right? And these things are the things that have been prepared for you and me. Okay, wait a minute. If he searches, then he's like me, I'm searching. Then he knows maybe a little bit more than me, but not all? Here's the point.

We were talking, I think last week I mentioned, how do I know Ralph and how does Ralph know me? He's a man, I'm a man. He has the spirit of a man, I have the spirit of a man. I kind of know what Ralph is all about because I have a spirit of a man and he has a spirit of a man, right? I kind of know what he likes and doesn't like and I know how men think and how they don't think. Undoubtedly his experiences of life are different. But not that different. Not that different. I mean, I know Ralph is hungry. I know Ralph is loves. I know Ralph is lonely. I know Ralph is disappointed. I know all of these things about Ralph that he knows about me because we're the same.

You don't know the in-depth thing that he's gone through. You've gone through some in-depth things too, but they're different. Well, he had heart surgery and so did I. But they're different. I know what it's like to suffer. He knows what it's like to suffer and I know that he knows what it's like to suffer. That's what I'm talking about. Now, Ralph lives a life, he doesn't live in my house. I don't watch him all the time. But you and I, we know each other because we're both men and we have the spirit of a man. And the spirit of a man knows what goes on with man.

Okay? Okay, so is the Holy Spirit still learning, like we? What do you think? No. No, he's not. But you said he's searching. That's right. I have a totally different opinion. Oh, I'm surprised. I think what the Holy Spirit searches for Which he totally knows. He knows everything about God. It's part of who he is, like he's talking about this man stuff. Okay, he knows everything. But he's the teacher. The teacher is looking for the things that we're ready to understand. That's pretty good. That's not bad.

Wouldn't 2 Corinthians 3.18 come into play?

It's like we're beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord and ourselves are transformed continually. We're transformed continually into the same likeness. So it's a continuing transforming to Christ. And it's a spiritual transformation. But it's not until we believe that we become new creatures in Christ that we have the spirit that that the Holy Spirit can end with us.

That's right. That's exactly right. Because the Holy Spirit, the searching is probably a misnomer. Like I know the spirit of a man and Ralph, I'm not searching him out, but I know, well who is the one creature, not creature, who's the one person who knows the deep things of God? It's the Holy Spirit. He knows them. And he knows particularly the things that God has prepared for us. He's the one. I cannot know them unless, one, I'm spiritually alive, and two, the Spirit reveals them to me. But the Holy Spirit does not wait until that point of time that we are saved.

He's constantly lulling us prior to us being saved. Yeah, we're just ignoring it, or excusing it, or rebelling against it. in us. So up until that point, I think he's just kind of like being a talking donkey or whatever he does. I think he works to show us, to reveal to us, our lost condition. Because we wouldn't know it.

We're going merrily on, smiling on our way to hell. I was going to say, what if the word search was one of these or examine or even investigate? Sure. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, it has a connotation that, well, he's working all the time because he isn't up to speed. Nonsense. Nonsense.

In John 16, 13, When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it.

See he misses a week and what happens? He jumps to question eight. But you're right, that's exactly right. The one hour of sleep I had last night is really working well now. So the point here is the fact that look what God has done. He recreated us in Christ, he made us spiritually alive, he gave us a capacity to know the things of God. It's a lot more important to him that we know them than we even think about early on. Now, as we've talked about in the past, what really are these things? Wisdom. No. Christ. It's Christ himself. It's him.

It's the faith, right? So that was kind of your definition of the faith is all those truths about God and Christ and everything. So I think the point here is that I think you have to come to the conclusion that only through the Holy Spirit are you going to know these things. And the point for the verse in 9 and 10 is to show you where the information is going to come from and how reliable the person transmitting the information is. It's the Holy Spirit of God.

And we're not just talking about positionally, we're talking about practical entering into the things of God that, oh, they're my things too. So how can the prepared things of God be known? See, here's the thing, is it one thing to know things objectively and another to know them subjectively?

As an example, and I've used this example a lot, if Donna wasn't in the room and nobody here had ever met her, I could spend two hours describing her and you could walk out of here and say, oh, I know who Donna is. Because you have a concept of who she is until you meet her. You know, you can study William Shakespeare and all of his plays and memorize them, you never get to meet Bill. You see that? You can say, well, I know that William Shakespeare, if he was going to write, he'd write this way, or he'd do this, but I never met Bill. Most of Christianity, and I mean most of it, is all about discussing Christ and all this stuff, but nobody ever tells you you get to meet him. You get to know him personally.

That's why the things of God are so important. The Spirit of God, like Courtney just read, what's His job? To reveal the things of Christ to the believer. What are those things? They're personal, subjective things. Like meeting a human being you've heard about, and then when you spend some time with them, you know them personally and intimately. And you could have read books about them. And maybe when you met the person, the book didn't line up with the person. We can go into Christian bookstores today and it's full of stuff that has Christ on the top, but not one of those authors knows them very well.

And that's really what it comes down to when you meet another believer. That's what I'm always after. How well do you know Christ? I don't care what your doctrine is. I want to know how well you know him. That's the issue. Shouldn't that be the issue? I'm just going to add one thought.

I think the words objective and subjective are tough sometimes, especially in Christianity, because there's a lot of people that tell us they know subjectively about Christ in a way that we don't know. It's like, hmm, I've never heard that. But the point I think you're trying to make is that there is objective truth found in the Word of God. And then that objective truth becomes subjectively known, and it's tied together. It's never independent of one another. But it does go beyond objective and it becomes personal. But it's always based on what the Word of God says and not one's personal experiences. Right.

And it's not like you can even explain that maybe to another person. Like even when you say, like, how well do you know Christ? You don't really, I mean, can you even know how well somebody else knows Him? I mean, I know you see see their fruit or see how they are, but you really can't know their heart. I think you can. You can? Yeah. Do you know how much I love Donna? I guess. I don't have to tell you. You just know. Do you know how much I love the Lord Jesus? Or how much I know you love Him? I can tell just by being around you.

Yeah, but I guess for me and coming out of being such a rebellious person, I guess I just don't trust people. You know, you think you see people and then all of a sudden you hear their life where they're... They're not what they seem. Right. So I guess I'm more...

You see these four things? The essence of faith is what? What are the essence things? the things of God. But then the THE faith points to a specific space within the essence, and you were talking about salvation, and the Spirit of God will take THE salvation things and reveal them to a person that he's drawing to Christ.

Personal faith is just resting in this. If you don't know what these are, how are you going to rest in them? And these things translate, what was it, years and years ago, I remember Miles Stanford, one of the first things he said that sort of knocked me over, he said, faith goes from objective fact to a love relationship with the Lord Jesus. You've got to learn facts first. And those facts, via the work of the Spirit, turn out to be a love and affection relationship with a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pretty cool. Pretty cool. And not from a standpoint of a king and a subject. It's same life, same nature, same everything as he is. You know, only God would come up with a plan like that. If we had to come up with it, you'd all be subject. But isn't that what we do with human beings also? How do you mean?

Until we know them, we can't really love them. We love attributes about them. And we could love the fact that we know them. It's like people that are intellectuals, they're in love with what they know about whatever the subject is. They're not in love with the subject, they're in love with the fact that they know some stuff. They want you to know it. And they want you to know it too, sure, absolutely. And there's lots of Christians that have that same kind of mentality. I'm in love with what I know about Christ because I've been to seminary. Alright, so question four is, how can one man personally know the things of another man? And that's what we were talking about with Ralph.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. You don't know what God's thinking until the spirit begins to show you. You don't know. You might think you know, but you really don't know.

So I can, and if you really want to get good at this, you become a psychologist. So as an example, circumstances come up in your life and somebody blames you for something. It's your fault, not my fault. The temptation that comes up first of all is to be defensive. I know Ralph is defensive. How do I know that? Because I'm defensive. We have the same spirit. We have the same sin nature. It's not me, it's somebody else's fault. Every single son of Adam has this thing called self-preservation desire. And it's even in the world system, self-preservation is to be admired. Not in Christianity it's not. Because if it was, why would Christ allow himself to go to the cross?

So that's how I know Ralph, that's how I know you. Or, let's say you've got a family problem and they're not easy to solve. You know, Uncle Joe is a pain. And he's coming to visit and I'm not happy about it. Joe has always been a problem. And it's an impossible situation to solve. You just know it's going to be brain damage and uncomfortable. And once you come to the realization that you can't control it, how do you react?

You get angry. That's what the spirit of a man is all about. I know Ralph, in those circumstances, is probably going to get angry. Because I get angry. We're the same that way. Another example. Let's say you run into financial problems like David here. What's going to happen? Well, the temptation is to be discouraged. You can't understand what's happening. You know, my little nest egg is disappearing. The golden goose went somewhere else.

He's supposed to be in my backyard. And so as it builds up and David gets more and more anxious, he starts to worry about it. How do I know he's going to do that? Because I'd do the same thing. My security blanket goes away. What do I do? I worry. Or I drink.

No. Let's say there's a health problem in your family and somebody's really sick, you know, or there's a real difficult situation that you're facing. I had a buddy of mine call me this week and said, oh, he said, you got to pray for me, you know, one of those. And he said, I've got something wrong with my foot and I've got to have it operated on. And I started laughing. He said, what are you laughing about? I said, well, they're in heart surgery. He's my accountant.

So if you're facing something like that, you can get really bitter about it. Why me? How do I know that you're going to get that way? Because I get that way. See? So that's what I mean. So how does all that work? It's because this verse says the spirit of a man knows another man because all of these things are true of both of us. Okay? So how do I know you're going to respond to those circumstances in your life? Because I have the same spirit and I'm going to respond the same way. Okay? That's what I meant. So then, oh maybe you're going there.

So when you flip it around though, when the Holy Spirit's working with you, the Holy Spirit and reading the Bible or whatever and you hear, be anxious for nothing and don't worry about what you're going to eat or drink, you know, and then the Holy Spirit can give you comfort on those things which are spiritual. Alright, let's talk about that. The question five is simple.

Who's the only person who knows the things of God? The Holy Spirit and Christ, right? So, six, why did God give us His Spirit? 1 Corinthians 2.12 Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God, may know. Which things we also speak not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. So the receiving of the spirit is Aristense, which means it's a fact, and it's indicative mood, it means it's real. So reality and the Aristense means what? It's a fact. And it's ongoing? No, it's just a fact.

So, you put your trust in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of God indwelling you. The Word of God is talking about the Spirit of God who indwells you. That's a fact. You have received the Spirit of God. Now, in God's sovereignty and His love and His mercy, He gives us His Spirit.

Why? So we can have a relationship with him. Now think about what he's saying here, because we look to the Spirit of God sometimes and, oh, you know, my truck stopped running and my dog died and my girlfriend took off and I want you to comfort me. Is that what he does? No. No, it's not what he does. What does he do?

It draws you nearer to God. In terms of this verse, what does he do? It draws you to Christ. Not bad. But according to this verse, what does he do? He makes you think of God. He reveals to you the things of God. Now, remember when we talked about this?

When we talk about Hebrews 11.1 that faith is the essence or the substance of things hoped for, it's the absolute proof of the things not seen. What did we say our involvement in that verse was? Zero. Zippo. Because why? We're talking about the things of God. There's no emotion involved in that.

We instantly take personal faith and try to attach it here. But this in and of itself talks about the essence of faith and the things of God. We can take part of the essence of faith, like say the salvation truths, and talk about them as being the faith, a specific part of it. But then we get to personal faith. Now we're talking about these things that are the essence of God, and we've been given the Spirit, for what reason? We can start to know what those are. When I ask you your answers, you immediately went to, oh, he's going to make me feel good.

Is that what he's trying to do? No. What is he trying to do? He's revealing the things, these essential non-seen things that have to do with God. To me, and to you. He's showing us what they are. Do we have a subjective reaction to them? You bet we do.

But it's not based on whether I feel good about them or not. Because he may say to you, look, I work all things together for good because you love me and you've been called according to my purpose. I get all fuzzy about that. No. I can sit down and I can rest because I know that fact. I trust him. Do I get all slobbery about it? No. I just trust him. And I walk in that trust.

You see that? And it's based on who he is and what his things are. And you got his spirit, so for what purpose? He's going to show them to us. Not so that you can feel warm fuzzy, so that you can believe him and trust him and rest in what his provision is for you. Isn't that why, Mike, when you hear these life-challenging episodes where you get the serious case of the why-me's, as you gain a historical perspective on those particular situations that you've been taking through, that over a period of time, even though they're still breath-shattering, you somehow just gain that perspective of just resting that God's in charge of this deal and somehow He's going to take me through it. And I think, well, I'm thinking subjectively, that we kind of lose sight of the idea that God is also not only using that for the person, but God might be using that same thing for other people too. You know, God might be taking you through something so someone else might benefit spiritually somehow from it. The deal is to end up where you trust in.

There's an example of a house is on fire, the dad's down on the ground and his six-year-old son is up on the second floor. It's at night and he can't see and his father yells to him, jump, I'll catch you. And he jumps. Why did he jump? Because he trusted his dad. Because his dad has caught him every other time. No matter what it was, dad was there.

Do you think God works with us the same way? Absolutely he does. He does not give us a situation, a historical situation, that it isn't going to work out the way he wants it to work out. Now it may be a failure from our standpoint, but it's going to work out so that we trust in more. We trust in more. And the more situations that you go through, the more child training you go through, the greater you trust you have in him.

You know, that I have to trust the Lord has come to that. Well, guess what? It's got to come to that. You've got to be put into situations where you have not an answer. And your emotions won't get you through. And, you know, calling the 47 Christians you know to all pray for you isn't going to get you through. It isn't going to change.

You have to go with him. He's the one. He stands fast in the gap. He's the only one that stands fast in the gap. He's the only one that's been to death and back, and he's the only one that can walk you through that. Nobody else can. Everybody I know that died, they're still gone. The Lord Jesus isn't. He's back.

The revelation of the things of God are designed to get us to settle down by faith. and to trust him personally. You see that? So that if we pray, what do we pray for? We pray for Jane who has cancer and we pray for David who may have a financial issue and we pray for Mary. What are we praying for?

That through those circumstances the Spirit of God would do his job. He's going to do his job. and that they would settle down on the things that are revealed to them by the Spirit of God, for what reason? So that their faith really does work. It really does work. No matter what the circumstances are.

I wonder about my faith. So do I. After last week, there have been so many things that have happened in my family, just like in everybody else's family. And then when that thing happened with Mary, I lost it. And I realized that was... and I don't ever want to do that again.

So that's where faith comes in. Trust. It has nothing to do with how upset I may be. Well, and then you, as time goes on, and the Lord continues to work with you, you find that you're not so upset. And you begin to be a person that functions and lives by faith. Now what are you qualified to do? Benefit others. That's exactly right. You can come alongside somebody else and walk with them. Not give them a bunch of advice, just come alongside and walk. I hate it though when I go through something and tell someone and they don't care. Who cares? And it's hard to get to that position when something happens to you to say, I don't care. Who cares?

Because you still have to try even in different situations to do the best. So what? I would say this, that as you go along and the Spirit of God is revealing the things of God to you, You pretty soon discover that your best isn't good enough. Because only God is good enough. And so he will put you in circumstances where your thinking you're good enough doesn't work out so well. You still should try, shouldn't you? Try to do what? Put you in a circumstance with Wanda and Mary. When does Wanda open up her mouth and say anything to Mary? When Wanda decides it's the right time? Or when the spirit of...

Well, that's probably not a good example. Let's say somebody comes to you and says, look, I've got a real spiritual problem. Can you help me with it? And if you're like me, I've got an answer for everything, right? Because I've got the spirit of man. Ralph is laughing because he knows he's the same way.

But you listen, you listen, and you listen, and when do you start to talk? When do you start to say something that is specifically directed to comfort them or to help them? How do you know when to open your mouth? I would say right away. Me too. How do you know? See, that's more profound because the longer you're with somebody, what do you learn? You don't necessarily learn what to say, you learn what not to say. And you get out of the way of the Spirit of God to do his job.

It's like Paul talking in Corinthians about that these Corinthians were his epistles for all men to read. Well, you know what's cool about an epistle? It's a non-verbal communicator. If I send you an email, you don't hear my voice. You read it. Or if you're walking around as a living epistle or letter, people are reading about the things of Christ. You haven't said a word. And that's the big tendency in the flesh is to run your mouth and get it fixed. What if God says, you know, you just walk with Him and don't say anything. I'm doing my job.

Isn't that the whole point of prayer? I mean, every time we have one of these classes, we're always praying for this need and that need, and we're telling God how we want it fixed, when in fact, God creates these needs in us to bring us to Him and let us rest in the fact that He's going to work it out in our way. Most of the time, it's not the way He wants it done anyway. And without those kinds of experiences you have no idea how God works, what his things are, that he loves you. You don't know anything. But that's the whole point of laying the need before him. Acknowledging that only he can take care of it. Just no human way of...

Well, Paul the Apostle was a good example, you know. He had got the thorn in the flesh and what did he do? He went to God three times about it. Three times. And by the third time he kind of got the message. Not that you have to go three times, you can only go once. But what did he say? He said, my strength, God's strength is made manifest in your weakness. Boy, that goes against everything that's in me as a man. Like I've got to get in there and help. No, I don't. Unless I'm letting the Lord to do it.

Well, I think that if you are like with what happened to Mary, just for you to have been there was already supportive to her. Yeah, and was that an accident? That Wanda was there? No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't, and I mentioned that to you. There was a reason for you to be there, and even though you may not have said anything, it's a very consoling feeling to know that there's somebody else here. I'm not all alone. Yeah, but I did say lots of things. You know, I said, like, you're my family, blah, blah, blah. And I don't feel good about that. Us not being your family?

We feel good about it. No, but I mean, I want to learn from that. I want to grow. Sure. But it's always my... feelings. I got to get this straightened out. This happens, that happens. Isn't that part of growth though? It's like unless you go through that, how do you know then that you want to grow? Yeah, you don't know. And that's why you have to look at the circumstances that show up in your life as sent from God. Specifically for you to know, to learn and know the things of God for what reason? So that you can just rest in Him.

And it's painful. Growth is. It's not like you go like, wow, I handled that great. Whoa, I got that one down. The thing is, when we're in the Colossians study too, that's where we're in Colossians 1. In him, he holds all things down. And Helen, I get, you know, those.

I just realized no matter what goes on, he's in control. My ism is God never says he looks. He's always in control and he's using it for his purposes. And that's why you realize no matter what, he's using it You know, I go back to all this, you consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials. What? Once you start to understand, he's sovereignly in control. You have such more peace and rest, understanding that it's not, oops, how did that happen? There's some reason, and that gives you an understanding.

When we pray, it isn't always to get out of the circumstances, it's just that they may grow in those circumstances. I think there was that song, sometimes Lord take me out of the storm and sometimes leave me in the storm. because that's what you want for me to grow. You know, sometimes you take out, sometimes he leaves you there for the purposes of growth. And, you know, again, that cheat that I went at with, you know, once you understand he's sovereignly in control and that he loves you with an eternal love that can't be separated. In all these things, that gives you peace and rest. Because no matter what you're going through, he is in control. I mean, just understand that. You may not understand why he's doing it. But you have an underlying piece because he's in control.

I would say that next week the first question we're going to talk about is the difference between knowing these things objectively and knowing them personally. The problem with classes and stuff like that is you get all this objective information, but it's more than that.

I went, I'll walk out of here. I got a flat tire, a nail in my tire, you know. But, I mean, thank God it happened here. And a couple of brothers came out and took care of us. I bet you said it was a blessing because I was gone last week. She didn't want to mention that. I know, that was the corollary of that. I just... Thanks anyway.

About the Wanda situation, it seems like because we are flesh, My very best friend in the whole world falls and it's just natural. I love that person and I'm going to be concerned and I'm going to call 9-11. And so I don't think it isn't like she did anything wrong because she was... No, no. No, I'm not thinking I did anything wrong. I'm thinking... Other people did them.

Father, how we thank you for your grace and for your sovereignty and that we are continuing to grow in the knowledge and grace emphasis on the knowledge and emphasis on the grace of your son the Lord Jesus and we thank you for your spirit that searches out the deep things of God and reveals them to us. We can continue moving in that direction. We thank you, Father. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.