In this sermon, the preacher discusses how God uses trials and tribulations in our lives to teach us important lessons. He emphasizes the importance of surrendering our lives to God and allowing Him to work in our relationships and struggles. The preacher highlights that through these trials, God teaches us how to love, walk by faith, and develop character, consistency, and maturity. He encourages Christians to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to endure and overcome these challenges.

We'll stand while we read this. Romans chapter 5, I'll pick it up in verse 1 just to get the theme of it here. We'll actually be in verse 3, but Romans 5, 1, Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. Father, we thank you for your word and how grateful we are for it. And Lord, as tonight we also celebrate communion together. Lord, when the living word, our Lord Jesus Christ, went to the cross for us, and there the great sacrifice of your life for us, for our sins, the great offering of yourself, Lord, so that we may have fellowship with you, we may have communion with you, we may forever have a relationship with you, being loved and adored and accepted now and forever and ever because of the work of the cross, how we thank you for it. And Lord, we pray that the cross would not just be your glory that you had before the world began, but Lord, that it would be the glory that we would have long after the world has passed. Lord, may we love the cross, not just your going to it for us, but learning, Lord, what it is for us to go to it to meet and commune with you and with each other as well. So Lord, may you minister tonight to us each and everyone in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. You know, as far as the New Testament is concerned, there are essentially two types of Christians, I guess you could say. A carnal Christian and a spiritual Christian. Somebody essentially that is ruled by their own flesh and somebody that is ruled by their spirit. A Christian that is living and walking in the flesh and a Christian that is walking in the spirit. And essentially, it seems like one of the major differences between those two is that one of them really knows, I think wonderfully, you know, who they are in Christ, who their life is in Christ, what it is to be hid in Christ, to be found in Christ, and they love that. And the carnal Christian has not really grasped that fully. They don't really see the wealth, the fullness, the plan, the identity, all that the Lord has really done for them. And thus, they're still oftentimes left out there on their own, in their own devices. But for the person that does know who they are, for the spiritual Christian, the one that loves walking in the spirit, sharing the life of the spirit, for them, life is a tremendous excitement for them. They seem to know much of how to handle the issues of life as they come. As the trials, the tribulations, the struggles come, they see them. They even perhaps invite them. And they're determined they're going to grow in them. For those who really don't know who they are in Christ, who really are living and walking and sharing that life in Christ as they ought to, they don't really understand it yet. They don't seem to have the ability to interpret the pressures of life as they come. And they see a trial coming. It's just a trial. It's just a problem. It's just something there that's an obstacle. It's a problem. And it's a totally unnecessary thing. Instead of it being one opportunity after another to grow in Christ, to discover more of his life and his presence and his power, for that person, when the issues come, they just, why? I don't need it. I don't want it. I don't like it. One is becoming more and more like Christ through the trials and the tribulations of life. And the other one is oftentimes bewildered. And he's confused. One of them, you know, he's looking for heaven. And he loves the thought of heaven. And preparing his life for heaven. And letting God conform him to the image of Christ. And another one is still carnal. He's still earthly. He still so often interprets life as the abundance of things. As his, you know, his happy marriage, good kids, good job, good health, 401k, and, you know, pension program. And had once good friends. And once no traffic on the road. And the plumbing not to back up. You know, or whatever. And if life goes that way, it's okay. But let one of those things get in trouble. And he's just, why? Why does this have to happen to me? And they're upset. And they're taken off guard. And they're in trouble. And they oftentimes, they don't just simply have a trial. They have two trials. They have just the trial that comes. But they're all, but then every time that happens, they're having a trial about trials. Why does this have to happen to me? You know, what did I do? And they're honestly confused by them. They're honestly, seemingly take back and taken back and they're frustrated by them. Well, here in Romans five, in many ways to me, Paul is helping us to separate between these two worlds in between these two people. And, and, and for the one that really wants to, to go on in all that they can and their relationship and their fellowship with God, when they have determined that they look at what Paul has to say here in the first two verses about a Christian, they're being justified by faith, having peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have this access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God here. Paul looks now all Christians, every saved person is in this verse, these verses, they're there. You are whether you're, you may be here tonight, not enjoying who you are in Christ. You may not be resting in who you are in Christ. You may not be rejoicing in who you are in Christ, but if you're a saved person, if you've given your life to Christ, you're in him, you're just not enjoying him. You have access into God's presence. As we looked at that word in our last study, we are actually introduced as royalty to God as his children. And as we're brought in there as Kings and priests before God, one person is overwhelmed by that to realize this is who I am. I can't believe it. And they're taken back. And with all their heart, they want to know more and more and more. I'm royalty. I'm a child of the living God. I am one day going to waken in his likeness, in his image. I don't think so. Look at me now. I'm a far cry from that. I mean, a long way to go before anybody would mistake me for royalty, you know, sort of a thing. And, uh, but that person, they look there and said, but if indeed I am royalty, I want to know more and more about it. And there, they find that that is somebody there that, that they want their life to be equipped and changed and transformed into that royalty. You know, suppose, uh, not likely to happen, but suppose this week I got invited to the White House by the president himself. One day he was having a state dinner and he wanted me to come. Not real likely. I don't think, but, uh, if such a thing had happened, I mean, I would obviously immediately be taken back, you know, by it. I'd be very confused perhaps by the whole thing. But then once the shock of the invitation settled in, and I actually went around, told her, but I'm going to the White House. And then I'd probably start thinking about it and think, why was the same thing? Everybody else immediately thought later on. I'd start, why, what in the world did he want me there to come to the White House for? I'd think, what would I wear? I mean, these people at the White House, the way they dress. I mean, when I go over there in my $79 suit, it's a night, look at this 79 bucks. Can't beat that. But when I go over there in my suit, I didn't, you know, they're going to, they're going to look at me and say, that's a $79 suit, isn't it? But anyway, or whatever else that, that they may think about the thing. And, but once I get in there, what will I say? How will I act? What do I do if the president turned to me and asked me something? Don, thank you for coming. Actually, we wanted to talk about the world economy. I'd like your input. Oh, it's in trouble. Yes, sir. What do you suggest? Fix it. You know, I then, you know, hey, well, what do you think about national security? We've got some real breaches of national security. You know, what do you think about that? Bad. Shouldn't happen. You know, I could maybe give some very broad sweeping things, but for any input on what would justify my being there. I mean, at the end of the night, the president, the cabinet, you know, and his advisors would be sitting around, what did you invite that idiot here for? You know, he didn't know anything. And I wouldn't. But here, essentially, you and I are about to be invited ultimately into something far beyond any state dinner. We're going to be invited into heaven and they're invited and introduced and brought in there in a sense there would, would it be something when I get there, would I reflect a maturity and a glory and a majesty? Would I reflect a character? Would I affect, would I represent Christian characteristics and maturity and qualities of which the Lord would look and say, and here's Don. And then, you know, have him sit down. And at the end of the night, people would say, wow, I know why you invited him. And, but yet I am going to be invited to just such a dinner. So are you, every one of us, we are, we have been invited and are being introduced as royalty. And when we realize that, you know, we've got to find her immediately. I would find myself within dress me. If I was going someplace, I'd be on a crunch course. Teach me everything you can about national security. Teach me about the economy. Teach me everything I can possibly find about economics. Teach me, dress me right, help my English. How do you, how do they talk back there or whatever else I'd want to learn every bit that I possibly could. And I wouldn't mind the pressure. I wouldn't mind the study. I wouldn't mind the crunching of time and energy in preparation for such an event. And in a sense, this is what Paul is talking about. Somebody who honestly and truly knows who they are and knows they're about to go to heaven. And there, when they get there to have something within them that represents the qualities and the depth and the maturity of God himself, the one whose image we are made in and whose image we are going to be conformed back into to realize, God, I do not have these graces. I do not have these characteristics. I don't have this maturity. I don't have this depth. And now, Paul, he isn't changing the subject here when he goes on and he says, and not only so in verse three, but he says, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation works. It does something. And here he looks there to somebody that realizes, dress me, teach me, train me, equip me, mature me, prepare my heart and prepare my life. And then when I, in that process of it, I want that character. God looks at, all right, we're going to have some trials. We're going to have some testings. We're going to have some buffeting. We're going to have some, we're going to push your brain, your mind, your heart, your life to new limits, new testings. We're going to ask more of your character than has ever been in it before. We're going to ask more depth of your love, more of your heart, more of your nature. We're going to put in the pressure cooker. But if I'm a spiritual Christian at all, I'm going to say, get on with it. Just so long as you can get me to the dinner on time, dress me for it, equip me for it, prepare me for it. That is a date that is set and I have accepted the invitation and I'm going to go. And I'm not ready. But the Christian, the spiritual one looks there and he begins, as Paul says, even so we glory in tribulation. He looks at it, at the fact that somebody would tutor him, somebody would take him, somebody would disciple him, someone would train him. Someone would take him aside and put him through the processes and the lessons of life. The Christian there, he begins to glory in it. Paul says, that's what it means there. He actually rejoiced the fact that God would take him aside. God changed my nature, changed my character. If you will, I want to listen. I want to respond and I want to learn and I want to grow. And you see the Christian, he glories in a sense. Paul is saying here in tribulation because he knows that the tribulations of life, the trials of life, it's a training ground, it's preparation ground, it's equipping ground, it's a dressing room for the married supper of the Lamb, for heaven, to be introduced as royalty and to be brought in. And therefore he doesn't mind what it is he glories, as a matter of fact, in tribulation. The word tribulation means affliction, trouble, persecution. It means oppressing together under pressure. In other words, God looks and he says, I'm going to take you and I'm going to push you to the limits. I want to find, you know, I want to, if I'm going to strengthen your character and make it deep and make it strong, I'm going to put you through something. And therefore the Christian, he looks there and he realizes as he looks at life and he maybe looks at this wonderful little marriage he's got or dreams he has or hopes he has, he looks at this marriage, he looks at these children, he looks at the work at the office, he looks at his boss, he looks at his friendship, he looks at his health, he looks at his 401k, he looks at all of these things out there and he says, okay God, here's all the marbles you got to work with. Here are the things and the relationships I have in life and you can work with them and deal with them and do whatever has got to be done with them to teach me how to live, to teach me. If you can teach me in these relationships in life, if you can press me in these, if you can try me and test me and push me to the limits and teach me new depth in the relationships and the issues and the struggles of life, take them, teach me. And he looks at the, essentially the ball field that God has to deal with in his life and the trials that he says, all right, I'm going to teach you how to love and I'm going to teach you how to walk by faith and I'm going to teach you depth and I want to teach you character and I want to teach you devotion and I want to teach you consistency and maturity and morality and values and I'm going to pour a lot of things in you, but in the process of it, there God, he wants to look and he'll may look and he allows trials in a marriage. He allows, you know, trials, raising children, allows all of these things in a family. He puts us into it and he says, now what do you want? How are you going to handle this when the miscommunication, the misunderstanding happens? Your marriage. How are you going to respond? In the flesh or in the spirit? Are you going to realize there that every time a trial comes, you now have an open door either into the flesh, I'll handle this myself, or there's something there where you're going to glory in the tribulation where you're going to say, no, I want the issues in my marriage to be handled by the spirit. I want God to resolve them. You look, they're raising your children and, you know, and watching these children, they come up and grow in the world, don't know Christ, are born outside of knowledge of Christ and God gives them to you. He said, now disciple them, train them, love them, and you watch them grow up and there as you do and the challenges and the pressures and the struggles and every time something happens in the marriage, happens with the children, there's two doors, the door of the flesh, that I'll handle this, I'll resolve this, I know what this kid needs. There's the door of the spirit where you back off and say, God, if you could teach me character and you can teach me love and you can teach me depth and you can teach me maturity, I want to learn it. And Paul says there that the Christian, he's actually begins to look at the issues and the trials and the tribulations in his life around and he realizes these are all the arenas that God has that he's going to work in to teach us whatever he has to teach us. Then we decide, am I going to run away from him? Am I going to give up on him? That's when the trials come, what do we do? Do we glory in the tribulation? Do we actually look at there almost like an invitation? That's what Paul says, the struggle in the home, the struggle in the marriage, the struggle with the health, the struggle with the career, the struggle at the office, the struggle in whatever it is, is there something there that the Christian man, Paul says he glories, he looks at it, he says, Lord, this is a great test because I don't have the equipment to resolve this. I don't have the answers. I don't know what this woman needs. I don't know what these kids need. I don't know what this boss is trying to do. I don't know what's going on. I don't have the maturity or the graces of the character to do it, but you do help me. And here Paul says the child of God, he literally glories in tribulation. He finds it's one of his greatest hours, it's his greatest opportunities to truly test the power of the risen Christ within him, to trust the ability of Jesus Christ to rule and reign within his own life and to transform him. And he finds there that he glories in it because you see, he knows even so we glory in tribulation knowing Paul says there for the Christian who's living spiritually that the word there, no, it just means fundamentally what, what we think of the word to know. It means obviously to intellectually know, but it also means to be skilled in when somebody knows his trade, when somebody knows, you know, as a surgery and he knows medicine, he is skilled in it. And this is the word that Paul means. He said here, he says the Christian with through tribulation, he is somebody that is, he's becoming skilled when he looks there at the trials of life, even invites them. And not that he goes searching for them, but when they come, they're welcomed in a sense. Okay, Lord, let's roll up our sleeves and teach me something about you. I never knew before something about your power. I never discovered something about your kindness. That's way beyond the limits of mind. Something to me about your gentleness, your patience, your nature that I have yet to discover, because I know I'm going to be royalty one day. I know those graces will be in me. Let's roll up our sleeves and get onto the business. Or do we run? Do we run from it? Do we find ourselves, the heat gets on and, you know, and out of the kitchen I go, I don't need this. I remember, you know, one time I came, my wife told me, we were discussing something and she was actually kidding. I better say this firsthand. But she told me, she said, listen, I want you to understand something. If you ever divorce me, you're taking the kids. I dropped on my knees. I said, forgive me. I'm sorry. I'll never leave you, you know, or whatever. But anyway, so often, you know, when a trial comes on, I just want to run from it. But there the Christian, he says, no, I want to head right into it because he knows. You see, that's one of the wonderful things about Paul. Paul, you know, the knowledge of what the Lord would come through and carry him through and give him a victory, though he always didn't know how or why it would work out. In the processes, there was one thing Paul was so steadfast in. Whatever else he knew, you know, you may not know for sure, but you knew, he knew the Lord would bring him through. He writes to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 480, he says, for we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Paul looked there and he says, you can do whatever you want to to me, I don't care. All I do know for sure is that in every trial, every struggle, it's an opportunity for his body, his life, his spirit to be made manifest in this mortal body. I'll experience something of him that I hadn't known before. And Paul knew that. He knew that the tribulation did this for him. So when a trial came and he could see something coming, wow, that's beyond me. This is exciting. I'm going to discover something about the Lord I didn't know. And here Paul, he gives us here a little outline of what it will do. He says, first of all, he says, tribulation, not only it works. I think sometimes it's almost good just to stop that verse right there. Tribulation for a Christian works. And most of us say, no, it doesn't. No, sirree. I don't, you know, it doesn't work for me at all. Well, Paul says it does. Tribulation works. It's God's way of, you know, turning up the temperature, putting on the pressure for his child to bring out things within his own child, his own child didn't know were there, but he knew were there. And he says it works. And he says, what it does work is tribulation work with patience. And that word patience there essentially it means an enduring, a patient continuance. It's essentially an abiding in Jesus under pressure. Their patience, what it is all about is it's something that happens when the trial comes. And then I look there and I decide I want to go through the glory door. I want to go through the one Jesus where you live. I'm tired of the flesh. I'm tired of doing it my own way. I'm tired of my own resolutions. I want yours. You know, I think one of the most wonderful things, by the way, that ever happens to a Christian is they do get tired. One of the things I love about getting old is you get tired. The older you get, you get tired. And it's a wonderful thing. I think God built into us that we get tired. You know, when you're young and you could, you don't need God to fix stuff. I can fix it. God, I know how to handle these kids. Watch me. I know how to handle this woman. I'll tell you on a date. God, you were never married. I'm married. I know women, you know, or something. You actually remember those days guys, when you thought you knew him? Yeah. Remember vaguely, you know, and you actually thought, and so you are going to handle one or you knew how to handle children. The wonderful thing is, is, is time happens and you get tired and you roll up your sleeves and you go in there and you solve it. Boy, do you ever, did I ever teach them kids something today or whatever else? And all they do is keep on eating and get bigger. And then, and they multiply and then they come at you in numbers and you get tired and they're gaining strength and you're losing yours. And then as with time, you realize, you know, we got to find another plan and there's got to be another way of attack. And the Lord says, yes, there is. It's another door. It's called the door of the spirit. And when it's wonderful, when you sometimes get tired in your marriage, you're tired in your family, you're tired at work, tired of resolving your own problems. It's a wonderful thing because it's due tribulation is doing its work and its work is so often, first of all, just tires. And then as it tires us down and brings us to a place, is there a strength beyond my own? Is there an endurance beyond my own? Is there a power and a consistency beyond my own? And then Jesus raises and he said, well, I got a little, I got a little power. I created the universe, a few other things like that. You know, I, I, I'm available. I do love you. And if you'd like to abide in me, maybe the two of us can get through it together. Hey, great idea. And you begin though, to realize tribulation works and it works patience. You come to where Jesus helped me. If you'll get me through this Lord, I'll thank you forever. That's patience, beginning to rest in him, beginning to be dependent upon him. And there's something there. It is so wonderful. Sometimes when the Lord takes you and he, and he, and he has a way of just taking away all the hope, all the resources, all the strength, everything. Sometimes one of the most wonderful things that can ever happen when you're just you and him, you in there with the Lord, do you realize these, these trials, these tribulations, these struggles to where you need his strength and you need his power. And you depend upon him because here he says it, it works. It has a way of working. Some years ago, I went up to San Jose and actually 1991. And when I went up there, I took over a ministry that wasn't a Calvary chapel before, but it became one when I went up there. And at the time that I got up there, there was 388 people. And 75% of them were older, were over 60 years old, mostly dead people moving around. Just kidding. See if you're listening. But anyway, but I'm looking there and here, and then they, they looked at me and they didn't like me. I was very different. I looked at them and it was kind of mutual, but anyway, the, uh, but I'm looking at this whole thing. And I had, I took a board that knew nothing about Calvary chapel, nothing about the word, nothing about it. I had a staff. I didn't take a single person with me. And then there was no money, $8.1 million. And there, it was one of the most wonderful times in all of life because there was no human remedy, none, nada. And when morning by morning to get up and realize Jesus, I don't know how many times I told him, this is your church. This is your church. You, you, you, you birthed the church. You really gave yourself for the church. You love the church. You shed your blood for the church. Now go get them, you know, sort of a thing. But it was something there. There's a tremendous dependence in there and, and, and the elders, you can have the elders and you can have, uh, the staff and you can have the debt. You can have it all. But day by day, when there's nothing but the Lord, to get you through, it's one of the most wonderful times you'll ever have in your life. When you look there and there's nothing that can save your marriage, but the Lord, there's nothing that can help your kids, but the Lord, there's nothing that can work out the job situation, the health situation, the financial situation, nothing at all, but him. There is when you can step back and begin to realize that's the environment in which the Lord does some of his wonderful work ever, because he says tribulation work with patients and patients experience. And that word experience is a wonderful word. It means tried and tested, a tested approvedness. It means they're a tried character. What happens is, is that when you take somebody, they decide, I want to go through the door where Lord you do it. And I trust you help me. I don't know how to resolve this. I'm tired of my own ways. I want to depend upon you. And they depend upon the Lord. They, they, they yield over to him. And as they yield over to him and they begin to abide under pressure in Christ, he says that tribulation produces that patients and that patients produces a tested approved character. Something happens through this pressure cooker, through this trial, through this struggle, there is a specimen that begins to arrive out of it. That all of a sudden you admire it. There's a depth. There is a maturity. There is a stability. There is a consistency. It wasn't there before in trials of what do this. That's what that's their purposes. If you ever looked at your Bible and realize virtually every character in the Bible that you would respect every character, you admire the reason you respect them and admire them is because of their character and the character that was produced through trials. When you look at a Moses and you see the trials and you see the struggles and you see the backside of the desert and you see him grappling with his fundamental issues of life of learning to trust in God. And then you begin to see the man stand there before Pharaoh and say, let my people go. And there is a tested approvedness there. There is a character. When you look at a David and you realize started off a nice young boy, love God, precious heart, wonderful things, but far from the man that could truly sit upon the throne with depth and with character. So God takes him and he puts him through a pressure cooker, lets him have years under, you know, running over through every nook and cranny and hill and dale and valley and cave over all of Israel, you know, for his own life being hunted like a dog. And yet through this, he learned to trust, to abide under pressure and character began to be formed. And there began to be a depth that one day when God brought him out and brought him before the world and put him on the throne, there was character. There was royalty. There was a king you could follow, you could respect. When you see these qualities, when you look at a Daniel, when you look at a Hannah there in her trials and her struggles there with her family and with her children, but knowing what it was to cry out and to weep before God and to abide in him and let him produce character. You come along, you find a little Esther, you know, obviously a pretty face, no question about that, but not much more initially. But then when she finds herself in the book of Esther and the pressures and the trials and the struggles, and there what is called upon her, she had no capacity to do in her, you know, Mordecai gets a hold of her and tell you got to go before the king. She says, Oh, Mordecai, you know, and he's out there and he's sackcloth. And as she said, come on, get him in here, give him a bath. He's having a hard day. He's thinking really weird stuff. And then he's got to sit down with her. And he says, don't you realize, Esther, you are alive for a reason. God has created you for a reason, for a purpose. You have no inkling of it. You're just a pretty face. I got married to the king. You think, but you're far more than that. You're a woman who has yet to realize the capacity that God has given into your life. And God's going to deliver the people one way or another, either with you or without you. It's your choice, but you can rise to the occasion. And here under that sort of pressure in her heart and her life comes to grips with abiding and trusting a character comes forth where she sends a message back to Mordecai, tell the people to get ready. I'm going. And if I perish, I perish. And you look at that and say, where did she come from? Tribulation works wonderful things. They take somebody in tribulation, work with patients, patients experience and experience hope. The word hope is a wonderful word. It means to anticipate with pleasure, an expectation of a, you know, a fulfillment. There is something that there is now happens into this person that has gone through where they've allowed tribulation to do its way, its work. It produces patience, patience, character, experience, and who, and, and experience gives us stability. It gives a maturity. It gives a depth that gives a quality about somebody there that there's an unshakable hope. There is something there that absolutely knows within that person, God will come through. He cannot fail himself. I'm given to him. And for his purposes and for his plan, he will work. He will do it. There is a full assurance. There is a sense of wonderful stability. And he says in hope, make it's not ashamed. Where does shame just means put to flight? Words of shame just mean I got to get out of here. We're the word of shame. It just basically means the pressure gets on and I've got to find a way out. But he says, hope, make it not ashamed. Something there when they realize I don't need a way out. God has a way in and he's going to work his plan. Don't know what it is, maybe. But you see somebody like this, when they learn this, Paul looks there and he says, you want to be royalty. You want to be invited to the feast. You want to be introduced as royalty. You want to be sitting there, you know, in the White House. You want to go to the wedding supper of the Lamb. And you want to look there and you're going to be royalty. Don't you want to get dressed? Don't you want to get ready? And God so often, you know, puts things around us. And as he puts them around, he lets things shake and he lets them happen. And either somebody looks there and says, I don't need this man. I don't need this woman. Who needs him? I'm out of here. And they're shamed. They're put to flight or else something happens where they look there and say, God, you have an answer. And the problem isn't him. The problem isn't her. The problem is I don't know the answer yet. And I've got to abide in you to show me and to teach me and to help me put me in the pressure. I don't care. I know you've got an answer. We don't. You do. And whether it is with the children or with whatever else it may be there to find there that whatever to be able to rest and say, God, all I know is I have this wonderful assurance that you're going to come through and make it not a shame. And he says, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is given to us. The word shed abroad means to pour forth, to shed forth, to bestow or to distribute largely. They're this person. And once they've gone through the trial, they said, all right, God, I'm not running from the home. I'm not running for the relationship. I'm not running from the friendship. I'm not running from the health issue. I'm not running from the financial thing. I'm not in panic. I'm right here. Now, teach me. Speak to me. I don't care what you want me to do. I'll do it. And I care what you want me to say. I'll say it. So many times, you know, I don't know whether one of the things I'm very grateful for sometimes. I'm not grateful at all that I was rebellious growing up. But I but but one of the thing in my rebellion growing up, I was just I was some people are real nice people. Some of you grew up real nice. And I'm happy for you. That's that's great. But I didn't grow up nice. I was I was very self willed driven. And I was somebody I could I would I determine if there's something I was going to do, I was going to do it. Or whatever else I could be so stubborn. And that's it. And and that stubbornness could so frustrate you or exhaust you. You'd you'd be so driven and you'd get in it. It's a it does a great work in you. And you're so driven, but so often just by the flesh. That's all I knew. I remember one time my dad was driving down the street coming home. And I'm kind of in a fight with regular a lot of times a lot of boys on our street, a lot of fighting, not to murder, just just to maim temporarily. But you know, it's how we kind of grew up. And I'm in one. And my dad comes by. But the guy he's his name was john. He lived around the corner. And he came over and we're playing ball. And he was bigger than me. And then we get into a thing. And so I just kind of you know, I and I realized I'm going to lose this one. And so I just kind of graciously got out of it. You know, and I go home, my dad looks at me said, Did you just eat? She saw this thing. He says, You walk away from a fight. I said, No, I didn't know. He says it looks to me like you walked away from a fight. Now whether I'm not recommending this council, but my dad, maybe I don't know if he had his devotions that morning or not. But anyway, he looked at me and he says, Listen, I don't ever want to see you walk away from something. Well, I was so mad at my dad for sending me out there to finish this fight. I went out there and I beat the guy to a pulp. And I could everybody looked at me. How did he do that? With the adrenaline. It happened several times in my life. Actually, I found out you can turn on adrenaline. Have you ever noticed about you can if you decide you're going to do something with such intensity that you can push yourself to limits. All I knew it was in the spirit in the flesh, never in the spirit. But it's so tiring. And you can run your marriage like that. You can raise your family like that. I'm going to drive home my point no matter what I got to do. And you pay a big price. And one of the most wonderful things that happens is the day somebody learns that the day that somebody they realize, Lord, is there another door? Is there another way to live? Is there another thing to learn and to determine their Lord? I want to win this in your spirit. You may have some in your marriage. I want out here with your kids. I want help. You may go to work. I don't need this. And when the Lord says, Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You just don't need it because you don't have the answers, do you? But when you find they're in a relationship or something else, Lord, help me get me through this. Teach me. You see, every trial to me, it has two doors. It has two ways, you know, you can go into it. And one is the door of the flesh. We're all handle it. And the other one is it's a trial. It's a test. It's their Lord. Can you help me? Will you come through where he says, Of course I will. But you've got to want to go through it. You've got a glory in it. You've got to look and say, Lord, let's roll up our sleeves and let's get on with it. And, you know, the wonderful thing is, is that once you begin to see life that way, I believe you become fearless. You become immortal. You have a hope that you don't care what happens. It means nothing to you. Even your own life. A few weeks ago, I went home, as I do every day. But I went home and I'm laying in bed there after church. And as I'm laying in bed, I get a pain in my chest. Well, I never had pain like that. And this is a real pain. And it went on. And next thing I know, I'm talking, I said, Honey, and we start talking about this thing. And she starts describing her dad was a doctor. She says, You're having a heart attack. I said, No, I'm not having a heart attack. She says, I'll bet you're having a heart attack. And I said, I don't think so. But my blood pressure, I could tell it's high and my pulse is racing. And she says, You've got to go to the hospital. I said, I'm not going to a hospital. So I took an aspirin. Aspirin cures heart attacks. So anyway, so I took an aspirin. It didn't go away. And it's just there. And so finally, she's begging me, We're going to the hospital. We've got to go to the hospital. And I realized what it is. She didn't want me to die there. She did. She just remembered the body right there. And the thing in it would ruin her house. I knew. But anyway, so she's so finally okay. So we go. And I get in there. And as I come into emergency, they say, I got pain here a little. And they said, They checked me out. Next thing you know, they got guys out. They throw me in this thing, wheel me back there. They're shaving my chest, put all this stuff on me, running machines all over. You ready with these pallets? Okay, is he dead yet? You know, I want to try them out or whatever. As they're doing this, I'm wondering, hey, they think something. What's going on here? And they all night long, the entire night, they sonogrammed my whole, they went through my liver. They said, Have you ever had a sonogram in your liver? It's something. It was my kidneys. I had two kidney stones sitting in there. I've had 12. And now there's two more ready to come. But anyway, I didn't want to know that part. But then they're going through and they sonogram everything. They get to my heart and say, Hey, your heart's unbelievable. They took a one hour sonogram, every valve, every muscle. They said, and nine o'clock in the morning, after all, finally, the pain's all gone. I just stopped the pain so I could go home. But anyway, the pain's gone. And they determined that I had a terrible heartburn that mimicked a heart attack and gave me some peptid AC, peptid AC, and charged me $3,377. Got home, took a shower and shaved. I was only an hour late to work and nobody missed me anyway. Never even told anybody. I knew, you know, where you been? Oh, trying to die, but I couldn't finish the job. But when we determined, Lord, I don't care if I live or die means nothing. If I can glory in who you are and I can go to the cross and take your marriage, the cross, take your family, take your heart and say, Jesus, teach me something of you. I didn't know before. Teach me something of your character. I didn't dream of. He'll be there. Father, we thank you for your love. And I thank you, Lord, for the trials and the tribulations. Lord, I pray instead of despising them and running from them and avoiding from them and fleeing, Lord, that you would put something within us where we glory in them. We almost would invite them to say, Lord, bring them on. I want to go to that wedding feast and I want to be royalty. And I want to be somebody that at the end of the night, they say the love of God was just pouring out of their heart. It was shed abroad by the Holy Spirit who was given to them. They had character, they had depth, they had stability, they had keeping power, they had maturity, they had character. Lord, teach us these things. And Lord, as you teach them in our home and in our marriages, help us to know it isn't the husband, isn't the wife, it isn't the child. Lord, they're just glorious opportunities to go through a door to discover something of you we hadn't known before and wouldn't know unless in your love and mercy. Yet you allow these things to happen, to bring us into a greater dependence upon you. Teach us these things, Father. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.