Knowing and Growing – Growing – what is the believers part?

Okay, so we have looked at, in April, we've looked at what does the Bible say about man, and in part the unbeliever, but also, you know, relating specifically and more importantly to what we're studying now, the believer. And so then we looked at being conformed, we looked at being transformed, and then we've begun looking at growing. In each case we started off by defining what is conformed, what do we mean by transformed, and we started earlier with what is growing, what does that mean?

And then the second part in each case was what's God's part in each of these processes? And then thirdly, and that's what we're into today and under the growing category, what is the believer's part? And why would we cover what's God's part first, and then the believer's part? Why do we choose that sequence? Yeah, in other words, let's ask this question.

Would there be any possibility of growing if God had done nothing? No. They just couldn't even hope to do it. God doing what he does, and being who he is, and what he has accomplished, everything about our position, all those things are God's doing. Without all of that in place, there wouldn't be anything to write about here.

What's the believer's part? So it is only because of who he is, and what he has done, and what he is doing, and will do, that we have a part. So that's important as context. So, one of the key things to look at, one way to look at the believer's part, and this is not just an optional perspective, is that the believer's part in growth towards spiritual maturity is summed up in faith. Now, is faith different from trust, different from belief? Pardon? Okay, let's ask the question. Is faith and trust and belief are those three different things?

Yes. They're related. Okay, so here's what it amounts to. This is almost a reverse of the usual. In English, faith and trust and belief have different nuances in English. And so if you answered yes, you're correct. Oddly enough, in Greek, and this is different from the usual, in New Testament Greek, those are the exact same words. But they can be used in a different context to have more of a difference in nuance than as we have in English. Most of the time, what we find is the Greek language has more nuance and difference In English, this is the reverse.

Those are synonyms. When we say a synonym, that doesn't mean that something is precisely the same. Yeah, synonyms means means there is some overlap in the meaning. It doesn't mean that this is precisely identical to that. Yeah, they're similar in meaning, but they're not necessarily, you know, identical in me. One isn't just to pull this out, plug this in. So similar in meaning means the synonym, not necessarily identical in meaning.

I can't take one word and just plug in another and call that good. So when we look at here, to the extent that we learn, know, and understand, but do not place our faith in Him for these things, that is self-dependence, we won't grow. Let's take a silly for instance.

Suppose we have these pews here, and we have church, and everybody comes in, and they stand up. the whole time. They won't sit down in the pews. Nobody will sit down in the pews. We've got pews, we've got pews enough for, I think the count is like 240 people will fit in these pews. But nobody will stand in them, if that were the case. So that would mean, why won't you stand in them? You don't trust them? I don't know.

But see, the point being, it's sitting down in them means you actually trust them and depend upon them. So I can have all the right answers, even what seems like deep spiritual answers about the Lord. But it's a different matter to actually trust Him.

And we do that by faith. So what do we do here at Holly Hills? We get together and we learn things about the Lord with the intent that we appropriate these things by faith. So it's one reason we don't just start off the first week with the believer's part.

It's because the believer's part centers on But you can't have biblical faith without knowing first. Is it possible to know without having biblical faith? Yes, yes, and that's exactly what we're talking about. That it is possible to have an intellectual understanding and not put one's trust, dependence, and confidence in what's being taught.

Years ago, there was a book written by Joseph Bailey called, I Saw Ghouli Fly. It sounds funny, this guy named Herb Ghouli. He went to a flying school. It's a school where they study flying and they study all the scientific principles and here's how it's done and all that, but nobody actually flies. And so his reason for writing this was to illustrate it's possible for us as believers to just study and study and study this, but the actual implementation of it, well, we never do that.

And so Gooley would, you know, say, I'm going out for pizza, open up the window and just fly, right? So, anyway. Okay, so one of the things we see here right in the middle of page one is take it personally. So God didn't simply design an impersonal process or system in which we simply follow a checklist or push spiritual buttons or flip spiritual switches.

If you're flying an airplane, that's probably a good idea. And at least some kind of mental checklist when driving the car is probably a good idea. Before I back up, is there somebody behind me or something, right? So what happens is we hope that drivers sort of incorporate that at least a mental checklist of if you're backing up, you should look behind you, or look in the rear view mirror, or if you're driving forward, it's better if you don't have sunscreen on the windshield, right?

Things like that. So, faith is more than just believing spiritual principles, as important as those may be. What God intends is that we have fellowship with Him based on the relationship He has established with us. Any of our learning, or knowing, or understanding, or exercise of faith, otherwise known as trust, which is called belief, is personal. He wants us to personally depend upon Him.

At times I've had people say, well, can you give me a, essentially asking for a cookbook answer, give me A, B, and C. And one of the things that I do with that is I say, okay, Nancy and I are married. We've been married for 15,936 days. But, Nancy does not want to have a relationship with me that's A, B, and C checklist. Kiss Nancy 7 times a day. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Check. Alright. Now, give her 3 hugs. 1, 2, 3, hug. Check. Alright. Good. Is that the relationship she wants? Not so much. Does the Lord want that kind of relationship with us? Not really.

So we can learn all about the spiritual principles, just like we can teach marriage seminars and things of that sort. But, what the Lord's looking for is relationship lived out, which is called fellowship. The relationship He has already established. But the fellowship is moment by moment. And He's done everything on His part. This is where we talk about the believer's part. So God's written word, the Bible, was inspired and preserved so that the believer might learn, know, and understand. That's not just about data.

I have an extremely spiritual hard drive. It has a vast amount of spiritual information on it. I mean, just looking last night, I have 15,000 files in my commentaries folder. I have lots and lots of spiritual data in there, and that's just one folder. Just the pictures of Israel constitute something over six gigabytes. So lots and lots of very valuable spiritual information.

Does my hard drive go into heaven? Does the Lord want to have fellowship with my hard drive? No. Why? What's the problem? Christ did not die for the sins of the hard drive. My hard drive was not identified with Christ. It has lots of information about identification with Christ. My hard drive was not identified with Christ. He did it specifically with each of us as believers, as people. He identified us with Christ in those things. Not so that we could just put it all in our hard drive and have very, very well equipped hard drives. Remember that diagram that we showed earlier? Here's the body on one side and the brain, the physical aspects.

Boy, packing the brain full of stuff that God says, well that's fine, but that's I really didn't want to have an eternal relationship with your gray matter. That's not God's intent. So, the key thing here is that as we look at God's Word, it's not just... I mean, a lot of these pews here, not all of them certainly, a lot of them have a Bible in them or a Greek New Testament or something of that sort, but God doesn't want to have just a relationship with our text, but God's word is inspired so that we have a personal relationship with him that is continuing called fellowship.

So 2 Timothy 2.15, be diligent, and that's an imperative, it calls for an act of will. Does he intend that you passively be diligent? You can't passively be diligent. Be passively diligent. I'm laying in bed, I'll get up when the Spirit moves me. I'm not moving. Okay. Right? So this is an act of will to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

Okay, so now you have on the last page of your handout, or I sure hope so, this color printout. Everybody equipped for that? I think some of the last ones may not have gotten that, so I just want to make sure you have it. Okay, so on the top there, here's what we have of this color printout, the first slide.

Second Timothy 2.15 has exactly what we just put there.

So the Greek word is ortho-tomaeo. This is not an ortho-tomato, okay? This is ortho-tomaeo, and this Greek word translated accurately, handling, and the King James has rightly dividing. had a well-understood meaning to those like Paul the tentmaker and Timothy, who very often assisted Paul in that trade, both of them having walked many miles of Roman road. Ortho temeo means to cut, straight cut, literally, in that order.

Straight cut. So it's a compound word. Now, something I better bring out. I've been this last week thinking about it. If I tell you it has literally the meaning straight cut, does that tell you everything you need to know? No. Very important, okay? That's a start, but let's get the full detail.

When they would lay out a Roman road, and many of those Roman roads after 2,000 years are still in very good shape, In some cases, what the modern engineers have done is simply put pavement over the top of the Roman road. It's that good, after 2,000 years. The Romans, instead of hiring a highway crew, they had the Roman soldiers build all the roads, and they had them work very, very hard at it. And they built enough roads to go two times around the globe, if we put all those Roman roads end to end.

Phenomenal accomplishment. And here is the section that they would use, right over here, in that third picture there. Three feet deep, 23 feet wide, paving stones on top, pebbles and gravel underneath, and then large stones and sand at the bottom part. OK, so this would be typical of their. building these roads, thousands and thousands of miles of them.

So here's the Apostle Paul and Timothy and those who went with him walking these Roman roads all over the place. And you see in the next one a map showing where they went into southern Britain, all throughout Europe from Central Europe on into Spain. and Portugal as we call them now, into the Middle East and into North Africa. Miles and miles and miles and miles of Roman roads.

And so to cut the road straight, so the Roman engineer would lay out the road grade and alignment, so as to cut it straight to make a good road to balance cut and fill, So you wouldn't have, boy, it's great that you told us to fill this, where are we going to get the dirt? And if it's from two miles away, that's not great, so you need to change your alignment.

So to cut it straight, the cut straight here is literally what it says, straight cut. Do they want all the Roman roads to be absolutely straight? Is that what that means? No. It means to cut it so that it curves properly, both vertically and horizontally. So instead of, here's a huge mountain and you cut right through the middle of it to go straight, you instead have this, you probably want to wind around the mountain. So that's the meaning.

Yes, it means accurately. When we say straight cut, that doesn't tell you the exact proper meaning. It means to accurately lay it out and cut the road so that the road has good alignment, curves vertically and horizontally. And it doesn't mean literally straight, straight, straight. But to lay it out so that the road is cut accurately.

So that would be part one. The next part comes out of the tent making trade. Here's the Apostle Paul when he would go to a new city to carry out ministry. He would often times support himself in the middle of that. And you can imagine, here's Paul and he's talking to Timothy while they're making tents. Okay, Timothy, get that piece over here and take that knife and cut this thing. And so what Paul would do is he would have his tools and he would have his patterns with him. And then he could go to the new city and buy up the material, leather or fabric material, and use his tools and use his patterns and use his knowledge to make good tents that he could turn around and sell. And as he did so, the idea is not that you would cut all the lines straight to make a tent, but that you would cut it accurately along the pattern line, so that when you put the tent together, you have no gaps or flaps. No gaps, no flaps. And that didn't mean a straight cut. Like absolutely linear, it meant to cut accurately so that there's no gaps and no flaps. Just extra hanging out.

So that's what this word means, and it doesn't mean what the individual parts break down to. But it means to handle accurately, and you can imagine, it's probably easier for most of us, me being a civil engineer by training, the first one with the engineer may be a little tougher to grasp, but the idea that if you cut all the parts of a tent, if you cut anything with a pattern and put it together, you know that this has to be done right. Doing sloppy cuts, is not going to make for a good assembly. It must be cut accurately. That's the basis of the word. Accurately cutting literally means straight cut, but it doesn't really mean straight cut as in absolute straight line. It means to accurately handle, to accurately cut, so that you can accurately assemble. the pieces of the tent.

And then once having done that, Paul could take a good pattern, and as they cut accurately along the pattern, he could then put the tent together and have a good saleable tent. And one other thing, Paul is a tent maker, where did he learn that from? The classic thing, not always the case, the classic thing is you would learn a trade from your father, right? And so that actually would explain several things that we'll be talking about later about why is it that Paul was a tent maker? Why is it that Paul was trained under Gamaliel? Why is it that Paul was born a Roman citizen? And there's reason for that. Okay. God had everything in mind and even used things that happened before he was born. Which is amazing. Yes? Yes, you could do it again and again. Alright, so here's the deal.

If I go through and interpret the Bible, and I do it carefully, why is it, for example, that dispensationalists, who are supposed to be accurately handling the Word of God, have four different definitions for the Church's relationship to the New Covenant?

Are all of them correct? No. If there are four different explanations, at least three of them are wrong, right? And so somebody ought to be thinking, uh-oh, how is this happening? You know the amillennialists have one explanation and dispensationalists have four? What's wrong with that? Somebody's goofy here. So as we look at this accurately handling, it means that...

Here's Paul, he says, I got the same pattern but I have four different tent styles. Coming out of this? No, probably not. So, no, I got all the parts cut according to one pattern and that's going to make you one style of tent. One style, one size. Yeah, somebody did something wrong if I got four different kinds of tents coming out of one pattern. Something's not right here. So when we say accurately handling it, it means that doing it properly, we should all be able to arrive at the same conclusion, probably independently, and not have all these different opinions.

Okay, so now, let's go on to page 2, okay? 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All scripture is inspired by God, literally God breathed, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. Okay? So let's talk about this. Scripture is God breathed. What does that mean? Does that mean that every single author wrote exactly as God dictated that they should write? God just said, you're the secretary, take this down. Is that what that meant? No, the truth was presented.

In other words, in history, through different authors, about 40 of them, throughout the whole Bible, through history over a period of roughly 1,500 years, about 40 different authors, with a couple exceptions, all of them Jewish, with exceptions being Luke and likely Job. The rest of them all Jewish, right? Writing over 1,500 years and writing through each of them with different personalities and personal histories. And the vast majority of them not knowing each other. Did Peter know Moses? Did John know Isaiah? No. Did Malachi know Jude? No. So the vast majority of them not knowing each other?

About 1500 years time, how could they, right? So this is an extraordinary writing. So it's God breathed, but through those human personalities, and with the outcome and the intent that it's profitable for teaching. But what does profitable mean? Does that mean you're going to make a lot of money teaching? Probably not. As a matter of fact, if someone makes a lot of money teaching, then I've got to wonder. We'll be taking a look at that a little bit this morning. So, profitable for teaching means what? Financially profitable? It's profitable for the student. Alright, in what way is it profitable? It produces results in what realm? Spiritual results.

For reproof, what is that? And for correction? It's truth. That would be for correction of untruth. To put someone back on the right track, to correct what is wrong, what is untrue, what is not consistent with scriptural teaching, and replace that with what is.

So that the man, Anthropos, this is not Andros, which would mean the male, so that the person, if you will, by the way, person is not a good equivalent, right? What's wrong with it? Isn't the Son a man? Anyway, go ahead. So that the person of God may be what? First one is adequate. How many of you like to feel inadequate? How many of you like that? Get up in the morning, boy, I sure feel inadequate today. All day, for everything. I get in the car, I just don't feel adequate. And drive? Not up to that. may be, actually be, in reality be, adequate.

But our sufficiency comes how? Through Christ. So here we have spiritual informational adequacy. In 2 Corinthians he talks about having spiritual provision in other respects that make us adequate. Who's adequate for these things, Paul writes. Well, he is. I'm not. Equipped for every good work. Equipped for every good work.

So the next one, 1 Peter 2.2, which we looked at before, like newborn babes long for, this is an imperative, calling for an act of will, the pure milk of the word, so that by it, by what? the word, you may grow in respect to salvation.

On the day that you believed you were saved, as we talk about from Schaeffer's gone through and itemized the list, we have the unfathomable riches of Christ. We have all these things that are true of our position, and there's so many things we couldn't possibly cover it on a Sunday morning. It would take weeks and weeks and weeks. As a matter of fact, that's probably a good idea to cover an elective one time.

So anyway, just everything about what God has done from the moment we believe. So what happens is we spend the rest of our lives catching up to what He's already done. And so here, what we have is that by the pure milk of the Word, so that you buy it, you may grow in respect to salvation, we're growing in respect to the salvation that's already been done and accomplished. That's our catching up to what God's already done. So when we put it together, what these passages tell us is that these grace-motivated imperatives, how many of these imperatives that are in these passages, how many of these imperatives are law-motivated?

Absolutely none. And what will happen if we try to use them under the law? What's going to happen? Will you be conformed and transformed and grow as a result of trying to implement those things under law? No. Absolutely not. It is like pouring a quart of sand in my crankcase. If I get out from here and I go out and you see me pouring a quart of sand in my crankcase before I head for home, will I go home? I probably will not get home. That will probably mean that's the last trip this car makes. Yeah, and so this is the effect of law on the Christian. That's huge. That's big.

Just like anybody can see, Vernon, it's not going to do any good for you to pour that quart of sand into your crankcase. It's not going to do any good to pour a quart of law, or any amount that you please, into the Christian life. You were never designed with that. Pick another analogy.

Suppose I say, hey, you know, my tank is not completely full. I think I'll top it off with some water out of the hose here. What's going to happen? Will my tank be full? Yeah, what's the problem? It's the wrong stop. It won't even go, right? and I can crank it over as much as I want, I can run the battery down and get somebody to jump me, it's still not going to go. So what happens in a lot of churches, what do they do?

They put sand in all the crank cases and they put water in all the gas tanks. And they say, see you next week. Yeah, tell me how it went. And we'll have cheerleading sessions and lively music and we'll even put on light shows and we'll have guys come up and tell a thousand jokes and have all sorts of very delightful things go on in order to send you home with your crankcase full of sand and your gas tank full of water.

And by the way, how much water does it take to mess up a whole tank of gas? Not very much. Not very much. You can measure it in ounces. And your car is done. Right? Your car is done. Okay. So, one of the key things we have in the middle here is a graphic. This is a great graphic.

The right food for the level of maturity. So if growing takes place, In the physical realm, one of the things that, you know, we've got these six grandkids staying at our house, and one of the things we've had to do is to regularly feed them, right? And they're all old enough, we have two four-year-olds, right? We're beyond the needing milk, but at one point they all needed the milk, right? At one point they all needed the milk, all six of them.

And so here are the words, this word that we just saw in 1 Peter 2.2, like newborn babes, that's this word brephos. So that's an infant. Newborn. Like infants who are newborn, is really what that's saying. And then nepios is an older infant but still on milk. Still on milk.

And then it goes into meat and solid food. And so this word is taetian, youth, and so that's used there in a couple of passages that are referenced. And finally, referring to maturity, again meat and solid food. So there is an age-appropriate diet, isn't there?

And when we have a newborn come into the nursery, We don't say, hey man, great to see you. Man, we've got the best steak dinner for you. We don't do that. Why not? That's for mom. Yeah, not ready for that, right? Yeah, that's for mom so she can provide the milk, right? So, yeah, fixing the best steak dinner is great. You know, we've got some, we've got really great hamburgers we've grilled and, you know, just got some great toppings to put on them and all that.

No, that's not what they need. Yes? So the word long form doesn't seem to be something that would be under an act of will. Yes, and that's different. I think one of the things to think about, you bring up a very important point. Think about that. One of the things that the Bible does is it puts an act of will in places that in our usual thinking about things, think about that, it's not normal. And let's start very early in our study here, we began in John 15.

I am the vine, my father is the vine dresser, right? I'm the vine, you are the branches. And he begins by putting in an imperative. Abide in me, and I in you. Imperative. How many branches of grapevines do you see struggling to stay connected to the vine? How many of them, several times, to go off and on and off and on, have you ever seen that? I've worked out in the great vineyards, not lots and lots and lots, but I have, and I've never seen that. So, Stan, you ask a very good point.

Often times in the Bible we will see something stated as an imperative like that, like John 15, and this is another instance, Do we see this act of will thing going on with a baby about nursing mom? A little tougher to see that. You may see some baby struggling with nursing in some way or another, but that's not immediately apparent and you're correct.

So why would Peter use this if that isn't what we see? Why would Jesus talk about, you know, I'm the vine, you're the branches, and then there's this imperative when in the natural world the branches are not struggling to stay attached to the vine, not making moment by moment decision. So is it more a thought of prioritizing? So what it comes to is we're not exactly in the same spot with Jesus and the vine and the branches. We're not in exactly the same spot as the infant.

So he puts an imperative there which appeals to the will. which we don't see going on with the vine and the branches, and we don't really see the infant going through the same thing. As a matter of fact, if you told an infant, hey you need to long for the pure milk, is that going to do any good?

No. And so what it says is, here is a natural illustration. but there is in fact an act of will in the spiritual reality here. And how do I get to a place of longing for the pure milk of the word? Do I just say, OK, I'm just going to long. OK, man, I got this longing because I decided to have a longing.

Is that how it comes about? How do you do that? How does that actually work? Yes? That's why I brought it up, because it seems like this is the Paraclete or the Holy Spirit working with the individual to come up with this, right? So it's kind of part of the relationship, part of the fellowship that this comes out of, and you need to be involved with it. You need to be prioritized along with the Holy Spirit to do this, right? So it's kind of a dual thing.

Yes. Isn't it a matter of choice? Oh, it certainly is. That's what the imperative is saying. Jessica? And that's what's so difficult, that it's a matter of choice to desire something that you don't desire, or desire something that doesn't come naturally. Yes, wait.

I think that the one way to understand it better is to understand that you need it. Ah. If you want spiritual growth, then you need to long for it. Yes, so it is, if you look at it, does the branch need, good way to put it, does the branch need to attach itself to the vine or is it sort of optional? It isn't optional, right?

So it is a recognition of absolute need. A recognition of absolute need. And we could call it prioritizing, but the prioritizing comes from what? A recognition of absolute need. Right? Yeah, Craig? I think one has to understand their position. Because if you don't, you kind of spin your wheels in the wrong direction. Yeah, here is a key principle, and we talk at Hollyhills about our position and our condition.

God has never asked us to do anything or told us to do anything which He has not already completely supported and provided for in our position. God has not said, well you need to do this, but there is nothing in your position that corresponds to that. So everything that he asks us to do, tells us to do, urges us to do in the pages of scripture come out of already providing for that in our position.

Excellent, good point. So recognizing our need is the basis for implementing the imperatives that otherwise don't seem to make natural sense. and recognizing that he's not asking us to do anything that he's not completely provided for in our position. One of the nuances that you will see in scripture is God has done this in order that you may do that. So that you can walk in it.

So God isn't asking us to do anything, He hasn't provided for it in our position, and the explanations often say, here's the position in order that you may, and so here's the provision for our condition, our daily condition. So these are very key things. And without learning those things, you're not going to grow. You can't do it. Somebody said, I've been trying for years to live out the Ten Commandments. It's too bad you didn't grow. The whole time. But I've been trying really, really hard. Yeah, I know. You put sand in your crankcase and water in your gas tank.

So could you say that reckoning into our position? Yup. Because no imperative will make any sense until you do. Right, because if we see that imperative and we start doing it by our own strength, we're going to fail every time. Yup. We'll be putting ourselves under the law. Yup. I think the desire for many of us is to grow and to be equipped for every good work. But I think where we stumble is how we go about doing that. And you talked about churches and programs and fancy lights and good music, but this is saying something completely different, something way more simple.

Along with the Journal of the Board and to know what it says in the scripture. I think it's also interesting that this comes from Peter and when you're talking about trials, well, that trial that Peter went through actually was pretty intense when he denied Christ and his longing for you know, looking back on that and then seeing his desire to know more and to be closer to Christ after that, I think longs for is really a Peter word.

So here's Peter. What is interesting to me is to see things in the Gospels and the Book of Acts and to look at how Peter wrote. It's amazing, the match-up. Amazing the match-up. Even what Peter is going to say in today's passage in Acts matches up with what Peter wrote later on. Simon, you know, you're silver. You're not buying nothing. And so what do you find out? Peter writes and says, you know, silver or gold, it's not going to buy anything.

So amazing the correspondence in scripture and the correlation between those. Alright, so let's continue on here. So we have the heading here, Through and Through. So we're not talking about bullet holes here, we're talking about our course as we encounter various trials. So the natural human inclination when encountering trials is often just to look for the exit. The written word of God makes clear that our approach to the trials is what makes the difference in whether we come through the trials as approved and having grown, which is what God has in mind, or whether we bypass the outcome God intends with some other result and outcome.

At times somebody will contact me and say, hey Vern, I want you to help, I want you to help here, I want you to help me get the rock out of my road. That's okay. I would be glad to do that, unless God put the rock in your road, in which case I most certainly don't want to mess around with what God's doing. If God put the rock in your road for a reason, then It ought to stay there and my taking it out of the way is not going to help.

So then, page three. So the trial is God's prescription for the believer. We are intended to take the full course of the medicine as prescribed. One of the difficulties with the use of antibiotics is people sometimes stop short of the full course and then get a reinfection, but also train the bugs, you know, how to survive more. And so take the full course of the medicine as prescribed. So here's James 1, 2-8 and 12-16.

So what we have here, so the insight for what if I need wisdom. But if any of you lacks wisdom, assumed to be true, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given 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. For the man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

So here's the positive path conveyed in the intended heavenly reward. So blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So here is the negative warning portrayed, verses 13-16. What we see here is that God has a purpose in things.

Does it mean that you absolutely must stay locked in on everything negative that's happening in your life? What's interesting, I had a number of relatives who fought in the Civil War. And at that time, the cannonballs actually were coming slow enough, don't misunderstand me with that, slow enough you could actually see them coming. It was considered cowardly to get out of the way. about that. So is it is it cowardly to get out of the way of something negative all the time? Yes. What is it? First or second, right? Or again, that says that he provides a way out. OK, so so there's his way out. OK, I would say that's probably appropriate. So so here's here's Paul.

He writes to Timothy and says, you know, you've got frequent stomach troubles. So what does he tell him to do? It's a little wine, but for your frequent troubles. Does he tell him, you know, God's going to cure that and you're never going to have that problem again. Does he tell him that, you know, you shouldn't try to get rid of the problem? So there is a place of dealing with things, but there may be circumstances we look at and say, no, the Lord has intended this, and there will be an out when the Lord wants an out. And to think carefully through those things.

And one other thing, every difficulty we have is one of two things. It's that simple. It's either discipline that the Lord is using with the intent to put us back on a path of fellowship with the Lord and with other believers, or it is a trial intended to grow us which may involve persecution. That's it. So it's not that complicated.

But it's up to us to ask, which one is it? Okay, so I hear a horn beeping. I see kids jumping up and down the window and people with their faces up, you know. So anyway, we better call it good here. But anyhow, let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you that as we look at this, we see our part.

Our part in this is certainly fate. And so we ask that you would teach us that lesson and also as we and encounter various things, we see that you have purpose in everything and learning that lesson is certainly a valuable one. But also that we have discernment to understand what is discipline and what is intended for us to grow from. And also the discernment to know when we can pursue solutions and when pursuing a solution is not the right thing. And so we commit these things to you, ask these things of you in Jesus' name. Amen.