In this sermon, the speaker starts by referencing the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace. He highlights that while they were in the furnace, something was burned - the ropes that bound them. The speaker then goes on to talk about inconveniences in life and how we often miss the lessons in those situations. He emphasizes the importance of trusting in God's control and not fearing, using the example of Jesus calming the storm on the boat. The speaker concludes by mentioning a personal anecdote about not knowing that oil needs to be put in a car, highlighting the need to seek knowledge and understanding.

Number 2, TS 81 When you're okay, when you're worried about something, you've got a problem. See, once we switch from nothing to something, then we're not biblical anymore. And so he tells us to worry about nothing. Now, I've seen some people that ought to worry. You know, you think. Because they get, they have some wrong ideas. But, you know, some people think, well, the way then is to live is with your head in the sack. You know, and you've seen mothers like that, haven't you? With their head in the sack. You know, they've got these kids and they're saying, ladies, do something. You know, and it's real interesting. You ever go to a pediatrician? You know, it's a pediatrician place where they've got all the kids that are sick and getting shots and all that stuff. You go in there and no one will claim who's theirs. You know, they'll have all playing the floor. And, you know, you just see these people, they just, you know, they're horrible monsters. These mothers will be looking around and finally they call and have to grab theirs out of the bunch and go in, you know. But they just kind of ignore them. Well, we're not talking about that kind of an existence. Living with our head in the sack. That's not real. God doesn't call us to live like that. God wants us to know what's going on and to face the issues. But he tells us there's an alternative to worry. So, worry isn't, in fact, I was going to share this starting tonight. And that is that God is more concerned about how we respond to what we go through than he is about what we go through. That's important. God is more concerned of my response to my crisis than he is my crisis. Because God knows there's always an alternative response. Two people can go through the very same situation. One comes through a strong Christian. The other one washes out. Same thing. Same God, same Holy Spirit, same grace, same everything. One comes through just great. Did you ever think of why God allows us to go through the fires? And so often the things that cause us to worry is what the fires. Isn't it? It's the thing we worry about. The fire experiences in our life. Or the things that cause us to get upset. Why does God allow us to go through the fires? Wouldn't it be easy if we didn't have to suffer? Now, I don't like suffering. I'm not out here preaching suffering. I don't like it. I don't want to suffer. I don't ever care to suffer. When I die, I want to go to sleep and wake up in heaven, and I know just exactly how I want it all done. I don't want to suffer at all. I don't like it. I'm not into suffering. But I know I'm going to have to. And God seems to know just what kind of suffering we need, and it's the worst kind. It's just the worst kind. If I could just suffer like you, I'd be okay. But I have to suffer my way. And God says, well, if you suffer like them, that's not suffering. And so we all have to go through the trials, because the trial of your faith is very important. And if you're not going through the trials, I wonder if you're going to grow. That's one way of measuring where you are in your Christian life, is what God allows you to go through now, and then how you're able to respond to these things. Maybe there's a time in your life where they just audit you to come unglued. But now you don't come unglued in that same situation. You've got a lot more resources now to go through those things. But you know when the children of Israel, those three kids, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and remember they threw them in the fiery furnace. Do you know that when they were thrown in the fiery furnace, something was burned? They know it wasn't. Oh, yes, it was. And if you don't teach that, then you missed the lesson. Something was burned. What was burned? The ropes that bound them. It was that fiery furnace, that freedom. And in the midst of the fiery furnace, those who were watching, what did they see? Oh, it looked like the Son of Man, who was revealed in the fire. Did the fellows in the furnace see Him? I don't know. But those on the outside watching, Do you realize that the trial of your faith is God's way of allowing people on the outside to see Christ revealed in your life? And they can see it because they know you've got something that works. Because if your faith won't take you through the fire, what good is it? If you're just going to collapse like everybody else, then why be a Christian? The fourth hint, God says, be careful for nothing. There's an alternative to worry. What's the alternative? It's called prayer. You ever heard of it? You can worry about it, or what? You can pray about it. You know what it says in 1 Peter 5, 7? Someone want to quote that verse? Good. Okay. Now, we can go down the lake and we can get a lesson in casting. That's what I do. I cast it on him. I cast it back on him. And I cast it again on him. You know, the French translate that verse real well. You know the word they use? It's the same word they use for dump truck. It's dump it all on him. Just let it slide all off on him. That's what that Greek word is. You know, we're just going to be dump truck Christians. You just dump it all on the Lord. Just let it all slide off on him. Isn't that wonderful? Just let it all just slide off. Why? Because he really cares. Isn't that something? You go and talk to someone, your heart's breaking, and they don't care. I mean, oh, they listen and everything, you know. And just when you're getting to the heartbreak, they are, you know, and you go, oh. Doesn't that ruin it? But you know, he never looks at his Lord. And the Lord never says, well, that's not, you know. Well, let me tell you one better. You know, that's nothing. I'm going to tell you what I went through. He never does that. He really cares. You can just dump it on him, and he cares. And that's super. And you need to look at those many different verses in the Bible on turning it over, rolling it over on him. So he says, worry about nothing, but pray about everything. And the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus. And that's the struggle of anxiety, isn't it? It's our hearts go wild. And we get beguiled. And, you know, women are more susceptible to beguilement themselves. And beguilement is when Satan puts a thought in your mind. And we have, in our culture, we believe because we think something that then it's automatically true. Just because we had a thought, we think it's true because we thought it. That happens all the time. Let's say that you walk down the hall, and one little lady quickly turns and goes up the stairs. I knew she didn't like me. You know, I've known it all along. Those people on the East Coast are funny anyway, you know. But that just shows you how much she doesn't like me. You know, you're just being beguiled all over the place. It says in Corinthians, be careful, Christian, lest Satan beguile you. Be careful about that because you know Satan can put thoughts into your head. We're going to see this later on. Satan can put thoughts in your head and in a child's head. That's biblical. Well, you just stick around. We'll look at it. It says right in the Scripture that Satan puts it right in. Satan can put thoughts in your mind. And just because you have a thought doesn't make it true. And that's where we begin to worry. We worry about the what ifs and the what mights. Don't we? What if this would happen? What if that would happen? You know, maybe this will happen. And you can just be way down the road thinking of all these things that could possibly happen. In fact, one of the things we have people do that have tremendous fears is to visualize the very worst thing that could happen. Just think it through. Think it through the way. The very worst thing that could happen to you in that situation. One of the worst things. And do you know what? When you do that, it's never so bad. Let's say that you think that Ryder Cowan is going to fire you. And here you are just, you know, you're an elderly person. And there you're going to be out in front. Out there on the street. On Highway M. With your few belongings clutched around you. Sitting in the snow. You know, because you just don't scrub like you used to. And then what's going to happen? Well, you'll slowly fire to death. And then what will happen? Then you go to be with the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Not that you can hardly wait to get fired. Can't you? But we need to think these things through. People don't. They only think so far. And then they get all worried about. And if you're going to start, go to the end. What's the very worst thing that could happen? And it's not so bad. And usually the worst thing is dying. And that's not bad at all. You know, there's a scripture verse that I think warriors really need to memorize. It's a verse that our church has claimed this year for our year verse. And it's Ephesians. And it's a verse that you all know. There's Ephesians 3.20. And we have to remember that God is able to do. That's important. God can. God is able to do. And when you are not. You tell me what you worry about and I'll tell you how big your God is. That's just how big your God is, what you worry about. And see, God is not only able to do. But He says that God is able to do above all. For God says He's able to do. He's able to do above all. In fact, it says He's able to do abundantly above all. In fact, He's able to do what? Exceedingly abundantly above all that we could what? Ask. And then we get through asking. He can even do more than what we can think. And He's asking us to trust Him. See, can you trust Him? What do you worry about? Well, you worry about what? Temporal things. A fellow said this and I think it's very important. He said this. I am trusting God for eternal salvation. I am trusting God to raise this body out of the grave. I am trusting God to take me to heaven in a rapture. If He comes before I die. Can't I trust Him for a dollar? If we have to trust Him all eternity, can't we trust Him now? We need to think about that. We're trusting Him. I mean, if you can't trust Him for a dollar, how can you trust Him with your soul? And for eternity. I just trust that Satan's not doing that. I had a man come in one time. I had two really strange people come into my life. And these fellows said things so differently. But they said it so well. This guy's sitting in there and this guy's having all kinds of moral problems. He's sitting there and he said, Chaplain, Satan's doing a number in my head. I'm like, that's well put. If Satan's doing a number in your head, you're just all worried about this, that, and the other thing. It's all I have to get through today. It's just as bad to give him the victory today as to give the victory of something else. And remember, women are more susceptible to worry than men. Just their very nature. A woman becomes concerned about things in the house when the faucet's dripping. The husband becomes concerned when the plaster falls. I mean, it's just different. Basically different. The guy, it just takes a whole lot to get a guy, especially about family things. A woman gets concerned about the kids and everything else long before a fellow does usually. And she just has to turn it over to the wife. If it's her husband's department. Because she can't worry about it. What I'll do, when we were doing the college, someone came in and said, oh, I'm a worrier. I said, oh, well, we help lots of worriers. The person wants you to put down, how much do you worry? How much do you worry? Well, two hours a day, four hours a day. No, I'm a professional. By eight hours a day. I worry all day long. So it's good to have a professional worrier. Then I have them write down all the things they worry about. What do they worry about? And I put it all down. And then I ask them a question. You hear they're sitting there writing all this stuff down. It's just not, it's a busy time. They don't know that. They're writing all this stuff. They worry about all this stuff. And then I say, well, what has worry ever accomplished for you? I've been writing this stuff maybe a half hour. They look at me and they say, what? I said, what has worry ever accomplished for you? Nothing. Now, what has worry ever changed? Nothing. Well, then why do you do it? I mean, if it doesn't work, why do it? You know, as long as it's not working for you, why don't you try a better way? There's got to be something better than that. You know, if it's not working out, if worry's working, fine. But if it doesn't do anything, maybe there's a better way. And we have to take them to the Word of God and show them. One of the most difficult things to deal with, and I know worry, you can buy a lot of good books on worry. I mean, not to worry, but how to handle worry. But, see, what we have people do is to put down what they worry about and then they'll work out plans. You know, begin to put some feet under it. Maybe there's things you need to do. Maybe there are legitimate concerns. You know, people say, oh, I'm just worried my kids are going to turn out bad. Well, that's a good motivation to start doing something with those kids now. What are you doing now? With them now, they don't turn out bad when they're teenagers. What kind of a program do you have? And then they start doing things. They don't worry anymore. So we have to realize there are legitimate concerns, aren't there? There's things we ought to be concerned about. But not to the point that we get sick over them, but to the point it motivates us to do and fulfill basic responsibilities. So you're going to give God your concerns, but you can't give God your responsibilities. You're responsible to raise children for Christ. You can't say, well, I've dedicated my children to God, and now it's God's responsibility. In fact, it's not my responsibility, it's your responsibility. You're responsible for those kids, and you've got to raise them. And you know one of the most tragic things? Is there's too many child evangelism workers that have crummy kids. You better believe that. Amen? That's right. Will it profit you to save all the kids and lose your own? Don't lose your own. You don't have to lose your own. Rich and children of the world. Don't you neglect your kids. That's for the devil. We know a child evangelism couple, and they were actually a missionary. And their kids were a mess. Capital M. The little boy was the terror of the town. The daughters came home from the mission field and were turned off from God. Now, I think they've been redeemed. But those girls went through sin and all kinds of things. That ought not be, and it doesn't have to be. But don't get so concerned about the neighbor's kids you neglect your own. God never did that. The most important ministry you and I ever have is right in our own home. If we reach our own children, then we know how to reach other children. But if you can't discipline your own children, how are you going to help others? That's their problem. You know, what you learn with your own becomes a ministry to others. So don't lose your children. Don't cast your children away for ministry. God never asked you to do that. And maybe your priorities aren't straight or something. It's a heartache. It's a tragedy to see something like that take place. But one of the struggles that people have are fears. Fears are worse than worry. But they come in there, don't they? They're under that category. And we can only do a little bit on fears. But the Psalms are excellent with fears. There's many Psalms that were written about fears. And one of the Psalms that I like real well is Psalms 23. And I would like you to turn there. There is a real problem with familiar passages of Scripture. They have a tendency not to speak to our hearts. Oh, I know that. And I know that one. And so when we read the Scriptures, and if we have in our mind, oh, I know that, we'll never get new insight. God is not able to give us new truths from those Psalms, or from that verse or whatever, because I know that already. And I don't have a learning spirit. Lord, speak to my heart. Show me a new truth from this passage. But there is a tremendous study that I think is excellent for people that fear the future especially. Just have a fear of, well, how do I know what I'm supposed to be doing? Three weeks ago. You know, I just don't know. I never know if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing or whatever. You know, they always settle. And Psalms 23.3, there's a statement here that's just outstanding. Well, this whole Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, and because He is, I shall not want. See, I will not lack anything that I need. That's a tremendous thing. When He's my shepherd. See, when He's guiding my life. It says, He maketh me to lie down in the green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul, and He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Now, I did a study on this, and this is so tremendous. And that is, He leads me in paths of righteousness. So you could translate that modern, very modern, and say, The Lord will lead me in the right paths for His reputation. It's not my reputation. It's His reputation. I'm committed to Him. I've given Him my life. I said, Lord, here's my life. You take it. You use it. You direct it. And now, it's His reputation that's at stake in leading me. Isn't that tremendous? And you can do a study. I don't know if you can see it in my Bible. But I hang up from the top here all the way down, verses all the way from Exodus on, wherever God's reputation was pleaded. Do you remember Moses? I mean, you know, you remember him. But this was his time in Moses' life. Moses was down in Egypt, and then he came out with children of Israel, and they were murmuring and complaining. They had a lot of problems, number one, critical spirit and all that stuff. God came down to Moses, and He said, Moses, you know, He says, I'm going to let you in on a little thing here. He says, I'm going to destroy all these people. I'm just going to kill them all. And then I'm going to raise up a tribe. Instead of the tribe of Abraham, I'm going to call it the tribe of Moses, the children of Moses. And Moses said, You know, God, that has a ring to it. The children of Moses. I like that better than the children of Abraham. You know, it has a ring to it. Did he say that? No. He said, God, you can't do that. He said, What will people think of me if you kill all these people? What did he say? What will the Egyptians think of you? He pleaded God's reputation. What will they think of you? Not me. And you go through, Daniel pleaded God's reputation when he was praying. You go through some of the greatest prayers in the Bible, they didn't say, they pleaded God's reputation. God, your reputation is at stake. What are you going to do? And you go through, you do a study on that. It's an interesting study of all through the Scripture, how God's reputation was at stake. And His reputation was at stake in my life as a believer to lead me. So I don't have to worry about it. It's His responsibility. But let's go on. Yea, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Now, why didn't he fear? What kept David from fearing? He said, For thy rod and thy staff, they comforted me. And I thought, the rod and the staff comforted me. David, I don't get it. You know, two pieces of wood, a club and a long stick. Why in the world would that be comforting to David? You know why? The staff is what the shepherd used to lead the sheep and guide them. The club he used, the rod he used to beat off the enemy, the wolf. And you know what those two things symbolize? That the shepherd was in control. And David said, When I'm reminded that the shepherd is in control, what have I got to fear? Have any of you gone to the Verna Berkey thing? Successful workshops for women? She's a good friend of my wife. And what's Verna Berkey's byline? What is she telling women across America? Do you remember? God is the what? Do you remember? God is the blessed controller. She said, Ladies, stop pushing the panic button. God's in control. And that's what David said. Now I don't fear anymore because I know God is in control. That's tremendous. And that's one of the most important things that you can do with someone that has tremendous fears is to realize that God is in control. And when God is in control, what have you got to fear? Remember Jesus was in the boat? And the boat was filling with water? You know, it really doesn't make any difference how much water you put the boat in. It's how much water's in the boat. You know, that's where you got the problem. And they said, You know, there's too much water in this boat. And they said, Lord, wake up. Don't you care we perish? They said that. I didn't say that. They did. And they were bailing out like crazy. You know, the waves were coming in. This is working so hard. They were fishing. They said, We're going to go down out here. Can you swim? Not that far. Wake them up. And what did Jesus say to them? I'm so glad you woke me up. He said, All ye of little faith. You know why he said, All ye of little faith? Because he said, Let's go to what? The other side. And when Jesus said, Let's go to the other side, let me tell you, you're going to get to the other side. Twice he had a problem with that. Twice he had a fear of falling. He said, What are you guys afraid of? Didn't I tell you we're going to go to the other side? When I say we're going to go to the other side, we're going to make it. Isn't that true? You know, he's in control. And he's going to take me clear through. So what in the world am I afraid of? I'm afraid of because there's things that may happen that I don't understand. But he knows all about them. He understands. There's not one thing that's going to happen tomorrow that he doesn't know about already and he's in control of. Maybe the post will be burnt. Well, just scrape it and turn the burnt side down. You know, I mean, there's all kinds of things that could happen tomorrow. Couldn't it be the lights could go off? The plumbing not work? You know, all kinds of things could happen tomorrow. But, you know, we don't have to worry about it. Let's worry about the building could catch on fire. Well, I don't have to worry because it's not far from the first floor out the window. But you older ladies on the second floor, I'd worry. I don't know if I'd sleep tonight. Because, you know, it's possible it could catch on fire. It's possible. And it may snow. Now, we could be snowed in here. Maybe we'd run out of food. Probably do us all good if they did. But, you know, it's just possible. We may be here longer than what we think. And then, you know, it just may be when I fly home that the plane will crash. Maybe I'll have to walk. You know what I mean? We can just get ourselves sick just thinking about all the things that might happen. You know, maybe they'll re-elect Carter. Oh, no. But, you know, there's no end to it. Is there any end to it and you just want to let your mind just go? You know what the scripture says? Gird up the loins of your mind. You know what that means? It means to put a band around them. Boy, let me tell you. An idle mind is a devil's playground. And we're not just to put our mind blank. We're to set our mind on things above. And you've got to get a worrier in a program of scripture memory and meditation. And if you can find out what they worry about, give them some of God's promises to put in their mind. And so, when they're tempted to worry, then they knock that temptation out with the promise of God. If they're worried about the future, then the script. That's what the kids at Calvary are all worried about. You know, here they are. You know, 19 years of age. You know, where are they going to be when they're 40? Who knows? You may be dead, you know. Boy, you're 40. Who knows what's going to happen? But you'd be amazed what these kids are all worried about. You know, I'm 20 years old and I haven't dated. You know, I just see myself now. The spinster of the year. 19 or 200,001 or something. All these projections these kids struggle with. You'd be amazed. You wouldn't think college kids would do that, would you? Let me tell you. These college kids are just notorious worriers. Notorious. They don't tell you. They're just all inside wondering all these things are going to happen. The fellows are looking, you know, is anything going to grow here? All this stuff. Really, really struggle. But you can help a worrier. And if you're a worrier, you can help. God's word is the real answer for a worrier. We want to get now from anxiety to anger. Because that's harder to deal with. It seems to be harder to deal with. Worrier, hurt yourself. You know, if you don't have a book, None of These Diseases, then you've got to get that book and read it. Every Christian ought to read that book. And just see what worrying will do to you. It'll just literally ruin you on the inside. But let's look at this thing of anger. Because that is so devastating. You know what I mean? You can worry about the children in the club. That won't be so bad. But, if you lose your cool at the club, Kids, shut up and swear we're going to have a Bible in here! You know? And let me tell you, that happens. These kids drive me crazy! Oh, we're so glad to have you on the team. Right? You ever drive me nuts? Kids drive me nuts. But not far and not for long. Because I'll let them know I'm the boss around here. You kids shake up. Don't let them drive you nuts. But you know when you blow it in front of the kids? Boy, they're just like my dad. You know, dads are notorious. Mothers are notorious worriers. Dads are notorious angry people. They are. There's two things that teenagers hold against their fathers. One is, why is he always angry? And number two, why does he never say he's wrong? They just kill kids. They can't understand. I'm talking about Christian kids with Christian dads. Why is dad always so angry? And, you know, why can't he say he's wrong when he's wrong? And a dad thinks if he says he's wrong in front of his kids, he's going to what? Lose respect. And what the dad doesn't know is because he won't say he's wrong, he's probably lost it. Because the kids know he's wrong. So I remember, well, you know, I want you to know that, I mean I wish I could tell you, you know, I never said it. I'm the most perfect dad you ever saw. I really blew it at Christmas time. I mean a lot of times to blow your Christianities at Christmas time. But we had our two grandkids there. We had our missionary daughter was home. Our married daughter was home. Her husband came with her. She brought the two grandkids. Our missionary daughter's boyfriend was there. And we had a household. You know, day after day, day after day, day after day. And there's lots of things going quick. And you're supposed to be doing responsibilities and everything. And we were sitting at the table. And I wish I could. It was awful. Anyway, we were sitting at the table. And my wife said something to my son. And I didn't realize how much I'd let this stuff just build up. I'm just not one for confusion. I hate it. Now, I'm not the most orderly person. But I can't stand confusion. And this just was confusion in and out. And besides that, we're working on that puzzle downstairs. The ice cream cone. That's enough to get everybody nuts. But anyway, I can't remember. My wife said something to my son. You know, a typical teenager, he never heard. No, he sat there and didn't hear. And she said something else. Well, he said something back. And he said it. And I know now, he doesn't talk back. But it sounded like he was talking back. And I went to shove him on the shoulder. But I hit his face. And he looked at me and tears came down his eyes. And he said, Dad, you don't have to take your son. And there's all the rest of the family sitting at the table. I just went dead quiet. Tears were coming down his face. Because I really hurt him. I didn't mean to slap him. I meant to hit his shoulder. Because I wanted him to listen to his mother. And I shouldn't have done it. But I was saying, listen to your mother. And she's talking to you. I want you to listen. This is bad. Well, back to his room in the evening. He went up to his room. And I'm sitting in the bedroom justifying myself. I didn't mean to hit him. I'm not going to say I'm sorry. Go to someone else's house. Leave me alone. And I thought, this is awful. Because he went up to his room. And I never hit him. Now, I spanked him. There's a difference between spanking a child and hitting one. I can't remember the last time I ever hit Richard. You know, ever done anything like that. And I just felt terrible. And so I called him down. And he came down. And see, I had wounded his spirit. And you know, a wounded spirit, you know, it says a heart knows its own bitterness. A wounded spirit, who can bear it? A brother offended is harder to be one than a walled city. It would be easier for me to go in and take St. Louis single-handed than to try and work with my son when I wounded his spirit. To do anything spiritual with him because he would just close me off. And so I called him down. And I said, Richard, you know, I am very sorry. I want you to know I really did not mean to hit you. I said, I meant to bump you on the shoulder. And I shouldn't have done that. I did not mean to hit your face. I said, I missed. You know, I missed your shoulder. And just hit him like this. And he thought I slapped him. Well, he was a little bit guilty because he knew he wasn't listening to his mother when he should have been. And so I asked if he would forgive me. And I told him I loved him. And my desire was for him to be a boy that God would use. And I wanted him to grow up to be God's man. And when I failed like that, it was because deep in my heart, I had God's best for him, even though I was failing him. And I said, I'll probably fail you again, Richard, but I want you to know that deep in my heart, I only want God's best for you. And he cried. And I cried. And he forgave me. And so, you know, as Christians, it isn't that we don't fail. We do fail. We just need to, when we fail, know what to do to correct that failure. That, to me, is an immature Christian. It's not a Christian that doesn't fail. It's one who will correct his failures or knows what to do when they fail. Sometimes we don't know what to do. And so I want to share this thing of irritation. If you've been to the Bill Godfrey seminar, this is from his seminar, and this is probably one of the best, well, he has a lot of excellent things there, but this is probably one of the better charts that they have developed to really help us to understand how to deal with this thing of anger. So if you haven't gone, why look at it? And if you have gone, why, you might want to take a few notes down. But there are at least three sources of irritation. The first source is people. Just look at how many people can be irritating. The second source can be our environment. Our environment, you know, a squeaky door, a car that won't start. Boy, did I have fun. I was to fly down to Calgary Bible College to speak to the freshmen for a week. I ran out. The one car is down at the repair shop. The other car is in the driveway. Ran out, got in the car. I live an hour and a half from the airport, so I had an hour and 45 minutes. Got in the car on Labor Day. Stuck the key in and turned it over and nothing. I mean nothing. Well, the first thing you do as a mechanic, a good mechanic, is get out and kick the tires and then get back in and try again. You know, maybe bang the hood a couple of times, but that's the experience of my, maybe throw a wrench or something. You know, that's all I know about mechanics. I don't know anything about mechanics. So here I got a car that won't go, and I got an airplane I had to catch, and I got to drive an hour and a half to get there. And I only lost 15 minutes leeway. Oh, these farmers come in, they jump out of the pickup, and they threw up the hood, and they looked in. Ah-ha, ah-ha. It's a buffalo. Oh-ho. Then I got going. And, you know, and that can be irritating. Right? The environment can be irritating. So that's a source. Another source can be ourself, personal thorns, limitations that we have that really irritate us. Oh, if I only, you know, if I only didn't have arthritis. If I did, oh, I could, you know, it just gets to me, and we get all upset and uptight about it. So these things are coming to us all the time, and we never know when they come. They don't ever come at the right time. They always seem to come when we're out of, all out of steam. And then we're all out of spirits or whatever, and then they come. Now, there are three ways of handling these things. The first is to defend yourself. Defend yourself. I had a personal source of irritation. I had a man in one of my churches that felt that he should come and straighten me out, which was fine, except he came every Saturday to tell me what was wrong with me. At that particular time, I hadn't worked out my self-image, so I had a real crummy self-image, and this guy wasn't helping at all. And I would hear his car hit the gravel at the church, and when I'd hear this gravel crunch, my stomach would turn over. I'd go, oh, no. Another lecture. And then he would come and tell me all that was wrong with me. Didn't have faith. We should have this. Why don't we have a ball team? You know, this church used to have a ball team. If we had a ball team, more people would come. I'm like, oh. You know, what's going on? I'd preach like crazy on Sunday, and he'd sit over there, and I'd preach over here. You know, I just couldn't. And then I told my wife about it. She was picking up a reproach. She didn't like him either. You know, she was hurting her husband. He was hurting her husband. That's really devastating. We didn't know about Psalm 15. It says, you know, that's one of the ways to become unstable. There's 11 qualities for stability in Psalm 15, and one of them is, don't you dare pick up a reproach, which is to dislike somebody for what they did to somebody else. And a lot of wives do that. Your wife's shame on you. You know, you just pick up these reproaches, or these kids come to you. Oh, my God. Oh, that dirty, no-good bum. You don't tell him, but inwardly, you feel this way towards his dad. You never met him. You don't like him. There's three blocks down. You know, I wouldn't witness to him. He deserves hell. My sweetest kid like that. You know, let him go there. Terrible guy. And you know, sometimes you meet these dads, and they're as bad as what the kids picture them. You go to the door, waiting for this guy to come. You know, he opens the door. Oh, he's real nice. I think I got the wrong house. Your kid come to my club? Hmm. Then you find out. You know how it says? A fool believes one half of the story. But a wise person gets both sides. So be careful about judging parents by what some kids say about them. Because they may not be half as bad as what the kids are telling you. And they can be worse sometimes than what the kids are telling you. I know that, too. But defend ourselves. You know, this guy would come, and he'd... I'm not like that. You know, I knew it wasn't any good to defend him to him. But you know, it's him that comes to you. And our natural thing is to get out from under the pressure. You know, here this person's coming. They're really giving it to you. And we want to defend ourselves. And that's spiritual. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. My director did it. The president did it. Get him in California. I'm sure you can catch him. If you call quick before he flies back this way. You know? But we have a tendency to do that. Even here. Well, I didn't type it. Well, I didn't proofread it. It wasn't me. And then what goes along with it is to put the blame on someone else. You know, and that's going home and kicking the cat. You've probably heard that story. And it ends up, you know, they kick the cat. And you ought to go home and kick the cat first. But blaming. Put the blame here. That's spiritual. And the most spiritual way is to hold in anger. That's really. I'm not mad. You can't see it. To hold in the anger. And say, oh, you know, this person's coming again. They're going to give you some struggles. Yeah, I won't go that far. Give me an up cord and I'll hang myself. And so holding in anger. So many Christians do that. You know, the anger rests in what? A bosom of a fool. Don't hold in anger. Don't hold. There's a better way. And that's what I want to show you. What is a better way of responding to the irritations that come into my life? Someone said this. And it's such a blessing to me. And I memorized it. Just, I heard it once and I just memorized it. And it's meant so much to me down through the years. And that's this. God will not allow anything to come into your life which is beyond your control, which will ruin or hinder God's purpose. That's a tremendous statement. Let me say that again. It's an excellent statement. God will not allow. See, God's in control. Anything to come into your life which is beyond your control, which will ruin or hinder God's purpose for your life. Now, we'll get into, I hope, reproofs. Many Christians know nothing of reproofs today. It's a tragedy. It's like a whole section of truth of Scripture that's hidden. Now, reproofs are what comes into my life when I violate Scripture. I'll give you an illustration of reproof. I was in Los Angeles, lived on top of a hill, right at Pelham, where I live. And I decided I was going to buy a car. And we had been married and had two children. I thought, now it's time for me to get my first car. Well, a fellow where I work taught me how to drive a push-button Dodge. Remember the push-button Dodge that had that push-button on the side? Well, he taught me to drive on an L.A. freeway. I had my driving lesson on the freeway. It was the easiest place to learn how to drive. I would never teach anybody to drive on the freeway, but I didn't know. I never drove before, so driving on the freeway seemed a good place to learn how to drive. Los Angeles freeway. Anyway, he had a lot of faith, and I learned to drive on the freeway. I guess I figured I could drive there, drive anywhere. Well, I went to buy a car, and I had $100 cash, cold cash, $100. And I got a 50 Ford Special Deluxe, one of these, you know, car lots that had these low-priced economical cars. So, I got this car for $100, and the only problem was it had no push-buttons. It had a standard shift. I didn't know how to drive a standard shift. I had driver's license, but I didn't know how to drive it. So, this friend of mine drove it home on top of the hill of Los Angeles, which is a real steep hill. And it was two blocks on top, and every night I'd take my family for a little drive. You know, as I would jerk this thing around until I was getting low on gas. And when I ran out of that tank of gas, I better know how to shift this thing, because we had to get down to the gas station to fill it up. But I had to go up these hills. And you should see these hills. They're nothing but just, you know, two blocks straight up, you know, and you have to shift four times to get up them. You know, oh, well, I got the car off the hill, and going up and driving the car. And I'm driving this $100 Special. And one day I'm driving to work, and it's making a noise, a very strange noise. So, I went for a fire song. That doesn't mean a thing. I just wasn't on the accounting. So, I was going to Biola College. So, I went in, and I said, you know, I was driving my car. And it makes noises, but it made a different noise today. The guy said, what did it sound like? And I said, oh, strange. He said, is there any red lights on the dashboard? I said, oh, yeah, a red light came on a few weeks ago. What are you guys laughing about? I haven't told her that before. He said, you're kidding. I said, no, I'll drive the car. Don't drive it anyway, he said. He said, when's the last time you put oil in it? I said, what? I said, you put water in the front and gas in the back. What do you mean oil in it? He said, you put oil in the car. I said, you do. I said, you're kidding. You put oil in cars? Oh, I said, you're leading me. You're putting me on. No, I'm not. He said, you put oil in the car. I said, no. He said, we better go out there. So, he took the ditch stick. That's how I found out what it was. Pulled it out and it was little black curls. It was really nice. It was clean. Nothing on it. I thought, really good. He stuck it down in there again and pulled it out. Nothing. It took four and a half quarts. I said, I'll go drive it. He said, don't you drive it anyway. You run over there and get the oil and put it in here. Now, it's not fair because I didn't know that you put oil in the car. What did I know? whether I knew it or not, what? I had a suck of the reproof. And there are a lot of people who have red lights and they're clunking, but they don't know what's wrong. That's the truth. I'll tell you. That's the truth. Stick around. It gets better. But I'll tell you, it's so important. That's the thing that thrilled me about the school is we would go and help people to find out what the reproofs were. You know, what was going on in their lives. And that's what that thing is. See, there's things beyond my control, but there's things that's within my control. Do you know there's certain things that if you don't do for a child by the time they're certain ages, those child will have predictable problems. Do you know there's the quality of parents? And you know that you guys cannot be parents. Don't ever become a parent to a child. You'll never be their parent. You can't be their parent. You are just there to assist the parent. The Sunday school can't be parents either. The church can't be parents. All we are is to assist the parents to achieve what God wants them to achieve with those children. But the parents must do it. And that's where child advantage is frustrating. Because if the parents don't, so much doesn't happen. But if you have parents that cooperate with you, there's no end to what God can do in the life of a child when you get the mom and dad with you too. And you need to encourage. Somehow you need to put as much emphasis on getting the mom and dad behind you if you possibly can as getting the kids. But there's certain qualities. And if you don't build them in a kid's life, they'll have problems. There's certain qualities a child has to have by the time he's five. If he doesn't have that quality when he's five, he'll rebel when he's 15. Another quality if a child doesn't have them by the time they're 12, they'll have problems the rest of their lives. What's the first quality you build in a child's life from one to five? Basically the mother's responsibility. Obedience. And if a child does not learn to submit his will to his father and mother who he can see, he'll struggle submitting his will to his heavenly father who he cannot see. The quality of a child's life by the time he's 12 is loyalty. And if a child does not learn how to be loyal by the time he's 12, he'll struggle the rest of their lives. And we have a disloyal culture today. Don't we? Yeah. What about your teachers? Well, you talk to pastors. You know, somebody's got a better movie down the street. You know, they've got the Firehouse Five and their horses. So they're down over there to see the entertainment this Sunday night. You know, they're over here to see the entertainment over here. That's not loyalty to anything anymore. It's just bad. And we've got to turn the thing around. Well, let's go on here. The first thing that I need to do when these struggles come into my life, I need to do this. And that is, have I dedicated myself to God's will? And boy, we need to lead everyone to dedicate ourselves to God's will. And if I have dedicated myself to God's will and dedicated myself to God, dedication equals belong. You've been bought with what? A price. And you're not what? You're not. We belong to Him. See, I don't belong to me. I belong to Him. And that's the first thing that's right. Here's this conflict coming in my life. God is more concerned how I respond to this conflict than what the conflict is. And so I have to say, have I dedicated to God? Yes, I belong to God. The next thing I need to ask myself, is God bigger? Is God bigger than this conflict? Is God bigger than this situation? And if God is bigger than this situation that I'm facing, this frustration or whatever it is, then God could have stopped it. If He's bigger. God could have stopped it. Now, if God doesn't stop it, then I know it's what? God's what? Best for me. This is God's best for me. Why? Because there's purpose in it. And how do I know that? Well, there's a scripture verse that's absolutely fantastic. 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. That is a horrible verse. Isn't it a horrible verse? You ever read that verse? It says, in some things, give thanks. It's just possible it might be God's will for you. What does it say? In everything. Give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you individually. You know, we want to become like Jesus Christ. And we always shove away the tools. Scott, I don't understand. You're praying to be like Christ. You're bringing these tools in. You shove the tools away. I don't understand. What are you doing? Here I'm bringing these tools in your life that are perfecting character. And you keep shoving away the tools. And you keep praying to be more like Jesus. You know what? We didn't recognize the tools. That's the problem. We don't see the tools. And when we... See, we focus on the person instead of realizing they're in the hand of God. We need to see they're in the hand of God. And God is using them to develop and to refine my character. The second thing I need to ask myself is did I cause this? You know, is this situation down here something that is my responsibility? Now, the first thing I need to do is to thank God. If you and I refuse to thank God for any situation we find ourselves in, we will not have the spiritual creativity to deal with it in a biblical way. Because we'll get resentful. And when resentments spring up, you can't handle it in a spiritual way. So the first response to a situation is to realize that God has allowed it. I need to thank God for it. And then I need to feel, is God allowed this to happen because I have failed? And there's something that I need to do. You know what? Say this person is an enemy. You know what enemies are usually? Former friends. You and I are not to have personal enemies. The only enemies you and I can have are Jesus' enemies. Jesus said, they hated me and they'll hate you too. Because when we identify with Jesus Christ, not only do we get eternal life, but we pick up all his enemies. Isn't that right? We have God's enemies. That's the only kind of enemies we can have are enemies who cast him out and will cast us out too because they're rejecting him. But if you have personal enemies, that usually means there's people that you've hurt, people you let down, maybe someone you said something about to, someone you told not to say anything that told and they got back to them and now they dislike you. You said, no, I really don't think we ought to have it in her house because, you know, you feel like spraying the kids with Lysol when they come out. I said, yeah, I know, I realize that. I sat on the floor one time and tried to get off and I wasn't sure if it was just rhinestone and I couldn't get off the floor, it was sticky. You know, maybe just a little remind. To someone in very confidence, I said, you know why they won't have a club in your house? It stinks. I got it right from the director. You know? And then you're like, well, this person is not on your friend list anymore. You'd be amazed. You know, never tell anybody anything. The worst thing is don't write anything down. Don't write anything down you don't want the world to read. Don't ever put anything in writing you don't want anybody to read. Don't say, well, we've got locked filing cabinets. One day it won't be locked and the janitor will be in there and he'll know it all. You know, it'll slip out or fall out. Don't ever write anything down. That would be detrimental. And surely don't tell anybody. And be careful about saying anything detrimental about anybody to anybody. It can destroy your work later on. You can be sowing seeds of destruction in your work and then you'll reap it later on. So maybe God has allowed this as kind of a mirror that I realize I need to correct my attitude. You know, is this so that I can correct a bad attitude? Do I need to ask forgiveness? You know, have I offended this source here? Do I need to make restitution? You know, is this something I've done? I've done that. And I owe them. And when you do restitution, at least give them that plus interest. At least that. You know, it says if a man steals because he's hungry, people can understand. Now, here's a man who steals and he's hungry. He doesn't have anything to eat. And God says he has to pay back what? Sevenfold. Well, he didn't have anything in the first place. How did he pay back sevenfold? What he said. But we need to look at restitution in Scripture And the least that was ever required in the Old Testament was double. So if you owe somebody something, then you need to give it back plus. If they say, no, no, no, then that's all right, but you give it, say, no, I really want you to have it because, you know, I'm sorry, but I shouldn't have had it and so on. But let's say you can cross out number two, you're saying, no, this situation, I haven't done anything. Then I know that I am a hundred percent okay in this situation. And then this is going to be an attitude or a character building situation. That God is going to use this situation to develop in my life His purpose. And what is God's purpose for you and I? Why are we here? Huh? Right. Romans, what? 828, 829, as for, we know that what all things are working together for good to them that love God or dedicated to God, for whom He did foreknow, God foreknow, He did predestinate that we might be conformed, what? To the image of His Son. So what is God doing today? He wants you to develop the image of Christ in us. He knows the world needs to see Jesus today. Not on a flannel graph, not on a book cover, no matter how clever those things are. It's not the Christ that God wants people to see. He wants people to see Christ in our countenance. And so God will use these situations to produce the character of Christ in our life. And we want to show up here, Galatians 5, 16. And we want to show you in a situation down here, the different characters are aspects of the fruit of the Spirit that God can build in our life through this. Okay, if God wants to build love in our life, what will He do? How will He usually do that? He will build love in our life by bringing someone very unlovely in our life. And you may have to say, God, you're going to have to love that person through me. God, I can't love them. You know, it's just not in me to love them. I just can't. You're going to have to love them through me. Make me a channel of your love. There have been unlovely people that you've had to work with. Just difficult to love. And your tendency is just to avoid them. You know, just to be around them as least as possible. And God says, you don't want to bother them in your life, because I want to deepen your love. We've had husbands and wives. They just were, I mean, they were innings. You know, people say, I'm going to get a divorce. Why? I don't want my wife anymore. I say, that's no problem. What do you mean, no problem? It just shows you didn't have the right kind of love in the first place. What do you mean? Well, it says, God's love never fails. The love you had failed. You loved her once, yeah, and it failed, yeah. Well, then you didn't get the right kind to start with. You know, so that's no problem. You can't leave her for that reason. And I said, well, you know, you need to love her as, you can't love her as a wife. Then you love her as a neighbor. Love her as a neighbor. He says, I can't. It's too high. I said, would you think maybe your wife's, would you consider, I hate to say this, an enemy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can divorce her. No, Jesus would love your enemies. You know, so you start loving her like an enemy. That's what you do. Really, I'm being serious. You love her like an enemy. How do you love your enemy? Well, you meet basic needs. If your enemy's hungry, give him something to eat. You first give him food. You're meeting basic needs. You've got to start loving your wife and meeting basic needs. Then after you love her like an enemy, then you love her like a neighbor. Then you love her like a wife. You just start way out and move in. And it's amazing when they start doing. Love is not a feeling. Love is a doing. For God so loved that he sat down and he mowed it. No, he gave. See, God's love motivated him to give to the basic needs. And he's willing to sacrifice his son to demonstrate his love. Okay, joy. What are the situations that God will cause to happen so often if you want, and joy is a very elusive word. It's a very difficult word to try and get any kind of definition for. You know what God, how God so often builds joy through sorrow. Joy so often comes out of sorrow. Peace, you know how God developed the quality of peace in our life? You'll die. It isn't a little trailer on the lake. It isn't walking in the woods. If I take a walk in the woods, you know what happens to me? I'm going to have ticks. But you know, I walk across the lawn, tickers. But you know how God develops peace in a person's life? In confusion. In confusion. Go to the orient. A good lesson in peace. Patience. How does God develop patience? Well, you know there's something worse to pray for than patience? You know what's worse to pray for than patience? Faith. If you pray, God, increase my faith, you better duck. Because you know how God increases your faith? He lets the bottom drop out. I mean, the bottom's just gone. You know, I tell God, listen, God, I don't want a crash course in nothing. Just take it slow and easy. Inconveniences. You know, I'm the born loser at the supermarket. Today for lunch, I decided to have some unfat yogurt. And some guy got behind me. I said, don't get behind me. You'll be sorry. I said, I'm the born loser when it comes to these lines. Guy said, yeah, really? Guess what happened? Check stand thing broke down. It doesn't bother me. I just expect it. I go to the bank. You know, there'll be seven people here. And one person, I stand there with one person. You know what they're doing? They're making deposits for the year on their business. It's unreal. It really is. I tell my wife. I said, you get in that line and I'll get this one. That one will go. You know, I used to just be amazed. In Kansas City, I drove 25 miles into the college every day and 25 miles back, mostly on the freeway. And I will drive 55 miles an hour. Not 56, not 55 and a quarter, but 55. And there's certain people who think that that's wrong. And I get in the fast lane and stay there because the Kansas City to go to Calebaba College, it keeps you from changing lanes. You know, the freeway goes this way, that way, and everything. You stay in the fast lane, you end up at the school. You know, so I just stay in the fast lane. And I'll get people to come around me. They're on their way to work and I'm going, what a way to start the day. You know, I had one guy slam his brakes on the front. So I hit him. He was so mad. Because I was only going 55. And this guy wants to build patience in his life. Robert, do you know what God's trying to do in your life? Well, he wasn't listening. You know, inconveniences. And you know, don't we miss them? We get in an inconvenient situation and we're just off. Turmoil, we're just having fits and everything. I'm gone. I'm going to be late. Late, I'm telling you. My watch went out today. I didn't know what time it was. I thought I'm going to miss dinner again. I'm going to be the skinniest person around here. I thought they probably had a good lunch. They have a crummy dinner. I just know it. I just know it. Stew tonight. We're going to have stew and brussels sprouts. My two favorites, you know. And they probably had chicken for lunch. And I missed it. Maybe it was my yogurt, you know. Fat-free yogurt at that. Gentleness, but they didn't. But you know, it just seems like things just have a way of going. And we can miss everything. It's no wonder we don't have any qualities. Because we're flunking all the tests. Gentleness. How does God build gentleness in us? By bringing harsh people in our life. Boy, did I tell him a thing or two. It'll be a long time before they do that to me again. Probably. But you know what? If you shove away the tools that God is using now, guess what he does? He raises bigger ones. That's right. He uses a two-by-four than a freight train. I mean, why don't we just cooperate? God, I'll just cooperate in this whole thing, you know. And let you, because what? These qualities are important. They're the fruits of the Spirit. The world needs to see these things. God says, you don't know how desperately the world needs this. Let me do the work in your life, will you? And, you know, stop hindering it. Goodness. And that's a godliness or a godlikeness. How? In corruption. And boy, let me tell you, there's ever a time that the world needs to see some godliness today, isn't there? There's so much corruption today. Television's full of corruption. The films at school the kids are seeing, some of them are just horrid, you know. Faithfulness. This one will get you. You'll say, oh, child evangelism is trying to develop faithfulness in me. You know how God develops faithfulness? By sending us unwelcome responsibilities. You know, it's so easy to be faithful to do what you'd like to do. But not faithful in doing that which you don't like. And here's one that we haven't seen. Meekness. Meekness is developed in our lives when we're put in situations where we can either be angry or worried. That's the positive quality, is meekness. We don't have time to do a study on meekness. I wish we could. Just study meekness. Just put the word meekness down. Get out your concordance. Look it up. Read the verses out. And you'd be amazed at all the promises that God gives to those who have developed this quality of meekness. Those who will get rid of anger and worry in their life. Tremendous quality. And tremendous promises. And then self-control when we have wrong desires. So there are nine qualities that God wants to develop in our life. These are the tools. And those tools can be so irritating unless we see them in God's hands. You know, it's very possible that God is going to allow this organization to hire an individual whose main purpose will be on this whole place to develop most of these qualities in all of you. You say, oh yeah, I know her. She works over in Ohio. It's amazing though. Sometimes you wonder, how in the world, how did they hire this loser? How did they ever get through the screening and everything? You know, and you say, oh, why? And you know, I'm not saying go out and find one. But if God brings you one, then learn. Learn what God is going to develop in your life. The people here are sheltered. The ones who really get it are the ones out there. And these people come to be club workers. And you know, club workers, wow. And yet, you'd be amazed at what God can do in your life through these people. Let's put our chart back on again and see tonight. We looked at anxiety and anger, which is based on temporal values. We get angry or we get upset or we worry about things that only count for time. And the quality that God wants us to develop is the quality of meekness. Meekness is yielding all of my possessions and my personal rights to God. And we need to build an altar and give it all to God. Everything that belongs to us. And then, if God gives it back to us, realize it's only loaned to us by God. And that we don't own anything. It's all His. And that is a very tremendous quality to practice in your life. And to really get it down. And God will give us opportunities again and again to show where our heart really is. One time I was home. My wife and daughter had gone to the grocery store. We lived out in the country in Kansas City. We lived way out. And they were gone kind of a long time. And finally, Terri ran in the house. I had a long-distance call from the kid here. I was counseling over the phone from St. Louis. He was all messed up. And she said, come quick. Mom's been in the back. And I said, hey kid, I've got to hang up. Call me back before I spin around. Sure, Logan. Go ahead. So I hung up. We ran outside and there was some guy in the other car. And we drove down to where the car was. And my wife was coming this way down this highway out in the country. And the car was in the ditch facing the other way. And so the guy let me out of the car. And as I walked up to the car, I had an opportunity to do two things. And it would reveal where my heart was. I could check out the dance in the car. Or I could check out the dance in my wife. And whichever one I would choose to do would tell my wife what. What was most important to me. The car or her. Now, to my mind, you want to know, don't you? Remember that question about being nosy? Well, I passed that one. I checked her out. Because, see, it wasn't my car. It was God's. If God wanted his car all smashed into the rear end, that's his business. It was his car and it got all smashed into the rear end. The only thing I was worried about was the groceries in there. We hadn't given those to God yet. But I'll tell you, you'd just be amazed. You'd just be amazed at how many times during the day that we are tested in this area. Are we building our life around things that count for eternity? Are we really concerned about eternal things? Are we concerned about right now? And don't sacrifice eternal character for the right now. Don't do that. It's not worth it. You know, God wants to build a tremendous quality of meekness in your life. Don't worry. Don't. That's a sin. And if you don't have pride in your life, then you have the grace to conquer worry. But if you've got pride, you're going to flunk. Because remember, if God resists the proud, he doesn't give grace to the proud. So you've got to deal with pride. You get pride dealt with. Then, if you have a struggle with anxiety, you know that God will give you the grace not to worry. It doesn't mean he's going to change your situation. It's just that your response to the situations that are worrying about it will now be one of prayer and trusting. Instead of getting angry about a situation, you're going to try to identify personal rights. Because so often when we get angry, it's personal rights that we're upset about. What rights did they have to keep me waiting? You know, did you know breakfast was five minutes late this morning? Five minutes late. I waited five minutes for a three-minute egg. Don't they know who I am? Well, I'm from Brokenbone, Nebraska. After all, I've got a lever in front of my name. Do you see what I would do? Rights. What rights did they have to do that? What rights did they have to do this? You and I need to identify rights and give them to God. There's a wonderful book written by a child, not child evangelist, but China Inland Missionary. Years ago, it was called Have We No Rights? That book is as good today as the day she wrote it, and we don't have any rights. There's only one kind of right that a dead man has. That's kind of gave around here, and that's last rites. But I'm a dead man. I've been crucified with Christ. I have no rights. Because I'm dead. There's no rights. We have no rights. And so when you get angry, you trace that anger to rights. And if you don't get rid of that, transfer that right to God, you'll get angry again. Over the same issue. Again, and again, and again. We never learn. And then one day we said, God, there's got to be a theme here. And we deal with that right. We give it to God. And remember, what you give to God, expect Him. You know, people are giving things to God. A maternal came to the Church of the Open Door. Have you ever had a maternal speak? Man, he's spoken. You just want to give everything to God. And one of the guys there at church decided to give his business to God. Well, about three weeks later, he was to see Dr. McGee. Or about to knock the office door down. The guy says, you remember when the maternal was here? He says, sure. He says, you know, he told us about giving our business to God. The guy said, I gave my business to God. And he took it. He was mad. You know, we want to give it to God, but we don't want Him to take it. Isn't that right? You give God your money, and you're broke. You're saying, I don't like that. I want to be rich. So be careful. I'll end with one story, a good story. We had a lady in our church. She was married to a sloth. Well, not really a sloth, but he had sloth tendencies. And one of the tendencies of a sloth is get-rich-quick. And when a guy has get-rich-quick problems, you know, the Scripture warns about these get-rich-quick guys. They always want to take the minimal amount of effort to make the maximum amount of money. And so the newspaper is full of these get-rich-quick schemes. You know, meet Sam, knock three times on the hotel door, and tell him, you know, give the word, he'll let you in, and then you can invest in uranium deposits down in the town underneath the arch or something. You know, all these things. They go from town to town with all these deals where you just got a little bit of money, and you'll make a fortune. You're getting in on the ground floor of this. And all through their married life, this guy was always threatening to put all of their money into one of these harebrained schemes. And she would just panic, because they were getting older and older, and he still was going to get rich quick. Well, I bumped into her in a supermarket. And she was from Germany. She married this fellow, he was an American citizen. And she said, oh, Pastor Logan. She said, oh, I can't tell you what my husband is doing. It is just terrible. And I thought, well, what is he doing? What is he doing? She said, he's going to go to the bank and take out all of our money and give it to this fellow that's no good. I said, how do you know he's no good? She said, I don't know, but I know he's no good. He said, he's a crook. He's a crook. I can tell. And you know that a woman's intuition, a husband should listen to it. A woman is an excellent judge of a man's character. She said, I just know he's a crook, and we're going to lose all our money. And she was just, and she said, I'm so mad at him. And she said, oh, she's going on and on and on. And she said, it's not only his money, it's my money he's taking too, because she works with him too. It's all their money. And she was really mad. I said, you know what you need to do, Elizabeth? I said, you need to build a knowledge right here amongst the cereal. We were standing in a circle. I said, let's take some stone. You can build a stone over here, and you take all of that money, and you give it to God. So he's not going to take your money. He's going to take God's money and give it to the crook. And then I said, this crook may take it all, and you lose everything. And then I said, God is going to see where you're hiding. So you have to lay out for yourself treasures on earth, but treasures in heaven. And so you give this money to God, and you've got to let God take it. If God takes it, you'll teach your husband a tremendous lesson. But you have to be like Sarah and not say a word. You can't say, see, I told you he's a crook. See, I told you to listen to me. I said, listen, husbands learn more from God than they do from their wives. And if you keep your mouth shut, if he takes all the money, he'll come to you for comfort. But if you said, see, I told you, he won't go to you. I'll pass along a lot of money. I said, Elizabeth, you're going to give it all to God or not? I'll give it all to God. I said, now he may take it. It's okay. If God wants to take it, he can have it. So we prayed. And she took all the money, put it on the altar there in the store. I don't know if people thought we were doing it. I like to do this for an opening. I did it last night. But you know when I go to rest up sometimes and someone says, Would you lead in prayers? Well, you've eaten here before. So I was standing there praying over the cereal, you know. Before we take it there. And she prayed and she gave it to God. She said, oh, I feel for goodness. And now God has the freedom to do whatever he wants with that money. Whatever he sees would be the best and would be the greatest blessing. And, you know, and it doesn't always turn out like this. But, you know, we found out later on when we were praying in that A&P store. Her husband got second thoughts. And he called a bit of business bureau which connected him with the FBI that's been trying to get a hold of this guy. And they said, we'll come by real quick. We'll give you marked money. You go down to the hotel room. You just give him the money. You leave and we'll come in and we'll wrestle. This guy has been policing people state after state after state. And so he's been doing it in different states. It was an FBI type thing. So he went down to the hotel room with his marked money, knocked on the door, and the guy was gone. He just fell to rest. Which is really not the important thing. But you know, as far as I know, that husband has never, never again done that. But, you know, he could have just as easily lost it all. And then she could have revealed her real value system. Did she want God to teach her husband eternal lessons? Or was she going to get angry? And I don't know. I know that God is going to be teaching her a lot of things here. And I just trust that when we go through these things, we'll think back on them. Think back, what is God trying to teach in my life? You know, what quality is God trying to bring in my life? Maybe even this week. Maybe even tonight. You know, I don't have any idea what could happen. Just anything could happen. Something banging on your window all night? Or the radiator coming on and you just won't sleep. You look and it's coming on and blowing. And you say, why don't you stop blowing? And you turn it off and you lay there in the cold. So you put it back on and it blows. Or you take a shower and someone flushes the toilet next door and it comes out red hot. Or they run the hot water and it comes out cold. You know, all kinds of things. Isn't that right? Just all kinds of things can happen. Who knows what's going to happen? But we know what? That if you're a believer, God is in control. God is in control. And he's got a purpose in it to conform us to the news of his son. Let's cooperate, okay? Father, we just thank you so much tonight for this. Lord, we look back and I'm sure that those especially that have had people, volunteers, working with volunteers, have had so many disappointments. And yet, Lord, we have to realize that every single disappointment has been a divine appointment. And it was an opportunity for us to become a little more like Jesus Christ. And so, Father, instead of walking from here trying to avoid situations which we don't like, Father, may we welcome them. When all kinds of troubles come into your life, my brethren, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends, for they've come to produce in your life tremendous quality. We just thank you that portion in James 1. And, Father, how we so often shove away the very tool that will develop a deeper character that we need so desperately and the world needs to see. So we just pray that the lesson tonight may be written upon our hearts and that we might think it through again and again as we work and walk every day with you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.