In this sermon, the preacher discusses the theme of freedom and liberty. He emphasizes that accepting unfair and wrong things is not necessary, as God can work miracles in our hearts and minds. He uses the example of Joseph, who was able to forget the injustices done to him and move forward in his new life. The preacher also references Psalm 4, highlighting the idea of finding safety and relief in God during times of distress.

talking about freedom, liberty. It's where we began on Friday night and it's been the theme that's kind of run through the course of our session. And I want to continue talking about liberty, freedom, but I'm going to come at it from a different perspective. Let me make a distinction right from the start that there are bondages into which people come because of their foolishness, because of their sin, because of their willfulness, because of their rebellion. And I would suppose that there are many people sitting in this room who would say absolutely true. God had to set me free from mine. But there are things that come into our lives and we must be very, very careful that we do not say that those things are the result of what we have done. Jesus Christ is set free from the consequences, from the powers that can hold our lives. But do you know that sometimes God allows things into our lives which we could if we were not careful mistake for being difficulties or bondages and we could we could end up almost being persuaded in our minds by the enemy of our souls. Now there you are this has come upon you because of you did this that the other thing and this is now the it's caught up on you. Now let's be real careful shall we. We're going to take a look tonight at a number of lives. We'll take a look at the life of Joseph. We're going to take a look at the life of Jeremiah. We might get a glimpse of Job possibly. We might even catch a glimpse of maybe Paul in the New Testament and we are going to see over and over and over again that God brings things into people's lives in order that he might get hold of and make use of that life. I want to say before we go any further, I think I did it on Friday, God needs you my dear friend. He needs your life. He wants to demonstrate through you and through me what grace can achieve. Not what your will nor your understanding nor your strength of character may be able to produce but what his grace can achieve. Isn't that a wonderful thing to know? I'm not just a cog. I'm not just a numpler and I look around and I see there are some folks in the room who are a little older than me and you may think well I'm coming to the end of it but listen God wants to make use of your life as much as he does of perhaps the youngest man or woman in the room. I hear people laying emphases these days well it's the next generation you've got to reach. It's the next generation. There's three wonderful young folks sitting over here and whatever oh there they are yeah one there and one here. It's got nothing to do with it. Jesus Christ loves you whether you be 70, 80 I don't suppose I need to go any higher do I? Just as much his heart is toward getting hold of you and using you. Yes you may not have the uh the vitality and the strength that some of these have but let me tell you something you have a lot more wisdom than them and when you can combine wisdom with vitality and youthfulness what a wonderful combination you've got. Let me suggest to you you should go and read the little book of Ruth if you want to see how the generation gap can be bridged yeah you've got dear old Naomi and young Ruth and you will know that Ruth says to Naomi I'm not going to leave you where you go I go where you live I live where you die I die I'm with you and she was her mother-in-law many many years older a great generation between them and you see how God can temper together the old and the young and make use of them both isn't that great don't you think let's get shot of this kind of thinking shall we oh it's you know there's always got to be a generation gap who says who says young people don't understand the old fuddy-duddies and all the people don't understand the young people of the day who says Jesus Christ could reach right across all generations could he not and meet with and there's one of the greatest examples of it in the old testament Ruth and Naomi if you're not familiar with the little old book go and read it how wonderful all right now that's my subject I want to talk about um hardships not bondages but difficulties not the consequences of sin that we made by opening ourselves up to things brought on ourselves but the things that God allows and one of the greatest things that you and I are going to need to come to understand right from the outset is this that if you are a child of God then you are going to have to be led by the spirit you may recall that Paul writing to the Romans in the eighth chapter he says this and he is the most wonderful statement that betrays this man's understanding of what true sonship is I heard we've been prayed in the course of these last two or three days Lord I want to be like you I want to be a true son or daughter to my father well listen if you really mean that and you want to be a real true son of God then here's the secret to it you've got to be led by the spirit and that's what Paul says for as many as are led by the spirit these are the sons of God he doesn't even say those who believe in the spirit who've been baptized in the spirit who can speak in tongues and move in gifts and occurrences he says are you willing to be led which implies to me or I would suppose to you that you have to be mastered by one whom you recognize is altogether worthy to be served and the great response of your heart is Lord yet lead me we sung it in the 23rd psalm I think that rendering of it is lovely don't you he guides my way in the old a v it uses the word led lead and over and over again we touched on it did we not um was it this morning or this morning when we looked into Ezekiel there will be one flock and there will be one shepherd and he will lead his flock do you constantly make that the cry of your heart Lord lead me I don't want to come up with good ideas I don't want to have grand suggestions that I can make to you I don't want you to fit in with my scheme of things I want you to lead me and writes Paul as many as are led they're the sons of God and my dear friend tonight you've got to face it as I must you're not a son and that's you being led now why do I say it because it's the testimony of the son you recall that we touched I think on Friday night that he came out of the out of the wilderness in the power of the spirit and he began his public ministry by stating that the spirit of the Lord is upon me and then we went into that Luke's gospel saw a statement made by Luke quoting from the Old Testament prophecy Isaiah chapter 61 he's come to set captives free to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and we looked at it saw it didn't we it was the year of jubilee the year sabbath the year of setting free how did he come to do that because he was led and he was first of all led into the wilderness by the Holy Ghost before he ever came out in power and you will not move in power and nor will I it will be an ideal that will never find fulfillment in our lives unless we're prepared to say tonight to the Lord lead me Lord break every atom of stubbornness of self-will of independence I want to be led by the spirit I want you to come and master my life I wonder whether you're prepared to do that you could almost stop them you know I just ask the Lord to come and examine our hearts but you know if you're prepared to be led you might be in for some surprises being led by the spirit can involve you and I in having to face some pretty tough things and I don't want to finish this weekend on sort of gloom and doom but you and I need to be realist do we not we need to have high ideals yes let's have them but all to be realistic and to recognize that God by his spirit will lead you and I in ways that perhaps we might not want to go do you recall in John's gospel right at the end of it Jesus prepared breakfast for the disciples you remember they struggled all night long and they got nothing why because they had been acting independently I'm going fishing says Peter when you read that little phrase in your New Testament the tense in which Peter speaks is I am going fishing and I'm going back to my fishing I am leading off my position that which was as a disciple because it's all come to an end I'm going back into business and the Lord Jesus had other plans for this man and uh having toiled all night you know they caught nothing don't you and he issues one simple word of commandment he says now you put your nets on the other side and sure enough they catch 153 big fish I wonder why 153 if anybody knows would you please come and let me know I'm not the faintest idea I wonder why the bible wants to specify the number but there was a whole lot of them and Jesus then gets into conversation with Peter and his conversation with Peter ends and Peter asked Jesus a question he says now what about him pointing to John you remember he said now what about him this John and Jesus said to him now listen he says don't you be bothered about him you follow me and then he tells him that when he was young he went where he wanted to go but when you are old he said others will take you and lead you where you do not wish to go and Jesus of course was talking about his death he was down the road a long way but nevertheless he told him you're going to be led by others and you would not choose to go the way they would want to take you but I'm telling you now Peter there will be leading directions in your life that you would not choose for yourself and every one of us in this room we've got to face it are you prepared to be led because if you are that is probably the greatest evidence of sonship that you will ever know in your life that God is going to take you up and lead you all right now we're going to take a little look at one or two of the leadings of God in the lives of some of these characters of our bible let's first of all go into a book which I would imagine is fairly seldomly read it's the book of Lamentations and again if you don't know where it is take a moment and find it Lamentations the very title is enough to put you off isn't it yes it works on the Lamentations the prophet is lamenting he's asking the question Lord what's going on let me begin with you in the third chapter and I want to read uh the opening three verses chapter three lamentations are you all have you all got it you're all there good it's nice to hear the rustling of paper chapter three here we go ready I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath he has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light oh boy this thing oh come on this is awful now here's the testimony of one of the great prophets of the old testament and you might wish to you might wish to to think well it's a shame this book ever entered into the canon of scripture let me tell you it's there for the most wonderful reason along with many others which we would wish were not there he has led me he has led me Lord I don't understand why do you lead in this kind of way because I want true sons true daughters who will allow me to lead them perhaps in ways difficult but I lead you in order you might come into a big wide place we're going to go into the psalms in a little moment or two and we'll see the psalmist saying just the same thing Lord I am the man who has seen affliction you led me into it made me walk in darkness not in light surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day now Jeremiah listen you've got it wrong because of what you're going through that's just how it feels that's just how it seems Lord you've turned your hand against me no he hasn't and the wonderful thing is this as we go through the chapter we will see God's thinking behind it all you will now need to read from verse four on go on down and as you read it you think oh it gets worse this is grim it talks about God firing his arrows at him he's broken my teeth he's moved my soul far from peace verse 18 I've said my strength and my hope have perished it's awful Jeremiah we feel so sorry for you you poor chap how tough it is and then we come to this now please will you read this with me he cries out and says remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood and the gall or the bitterness my soul still remembers and is humble within me and have you got the word in your bible in verse 20 that your soul sinks within you is that what you've got now that's most unfortunate because that's not a good translation and a better translation is the one I just read my soul still remembers and is humbled within me this I recall from my mind therefore I have hope what having come through all of that lot how can that be listen one of the things that you and I have got which makes us different from all the rest of the creation is that you've got a memory and one of the great things about memory it's got some bad sides and some books can never seem to get through because they keep remembering the things which are in their past they're going to take a look at that in a few moments and see that God can deal with that too but it's wonderful to have a memory and Jeremiah says my soul still remembers what sorry Jeremiah don't you want to forget the hard times don't you want to forget the difficulties don't you want to be bouncing around living in joy having wonderful wonderful wonderful times of kind of liberty and freedom in the Lord Jesus he said oh yeah but my soul remembered and I'm glad that he does because nothing brings me to humility quicker than knowing that Lord you led me into darkness you led me into difficulties and you brought me through it's humbling and here's one of the great needs of the human heart is to live in a place of humility I touched on it the other night we quoted from Isaiah 57 do you remember that says the high and holy one who inhabited eternity I dwell also with him who is of a broken and a contrite heart that I might revive the heart of the contrite that's where I dwell says God I dwell with him who's been through it and he's been broken in the going through and he looks back not with regrets doesn't look back and say oh God why did you do it he remembers it and his heart is humble oh how wonderful it is that God can take you and me into things bring us out the other end but what if he doesn't bring us out the other end ah listen my friend you haven't read the rest of the chapter let's just notice this verse 22 and 3 and 4 through the Lord's mercy we are not consumed isn't that marvelous Lord there were times when I thought I'd be overwhelmed by this but you by your mercies you kept me and we are not consumed because your compassions fail not hallelujah and how would Jeremiah ever have come to know the power of such compassion if he'd never been led into those things that God took him into and let me just make a comment that perhaps will be a balance to what I said that by please I do not want anybody to go from this room with a martyr like spirit in their heart oh yeah I'm going to I'm going to be a martyr oh I'm going to go through the trouble is so if you go like that you you do so and in the course of your going through like that you let everybody else know and everybody else has somehow got to suffer with your sufferings the best thing when you're going through something is to keep your mouth shut and say nothing and go through and come up the other end and know Lord I've been humbled and I can't think of a nicer place to be in all myself adoring and adulation all that I thought I had all that I thought I was going to achieve in my ministry it's all that's come to nothing oh what a wonderful place to be in don't you think yes no don't you think what do you think hallelujah it's not much of it about it there not an awful lot of it around and we can't manufacture it can we can we we can't can we it's God's decree that God leads us in ways that it is a circumstances and brings us into contact with people that somehow we think might have been better off not knowing you but it just chops the corners off it it roams us off we it gets us fit together with others we're not sort of out doing our own thing isn't it wonderful he says through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed amen and he's obviously aware that there are others who've got to go through the same thing as he because he does not say through the Lord's mercies I am not consumed but we are not he identifies the fact that if you're going to be a man of God a woman you love to go through things oh Lord I'll never cope well listen you haven't got to even think that way because he will not allow anything to come that you cannot handle he's so promised there are no temptations come that you are not able to deal with but he will provide a way whereby you can deal with it Lord your compassions fail not they are new as the most great is your faithfulness and in the end of everything you know that's what you're crying I do get a little bit fed up when I see people going through things and perhaps they spoken to me and someone has told them now go on you've got to just keep believing you get a bit more faith grip your teeth stick at it and I think what a stupid thing to say I do you might think oh that's a good thing to say the thing that they need to see is not that they require greater this greater that but they are utterly cast upon the faithfulness of God and it'll bring them through great is your faithfulness Lord I can see it now I couldn't quite see it then when it was darkness and I wondered when this would end and how will I get through Lord you've been faithful you kept me when I could not keep myself and there's nothing more wonderful than to be humbled into a place where you know Lord I'm not sufficient I can't do it I utterly need your grace and your faithfulness to meet with me and take me through amen not that God is talking to Jeremiah and sanctioning his sin or his failure that's not the point you did please don't think that if you're in this room when you know I've made a right mess of my life there are things in my life that shouldn't be there my dear friend you need to come and ask Jesus Christ to set you free from those things but listen if you're going through things and you're aware that somehow God's got his hand on you in it don't kick against it just see his faithfulness will bring you through it and he says the Lord is my portion says my soul what does your soul say I'm having an incredible time no one understands now poor poor poor me the outcome of it all for Jeremiah was this he says the Lord is my portion the Lord I don't want God to bless me I don't want his blessing I want to be able to say to Jeremiah you're my portion you Lord you're you it's you you that's what God's about in my life and yours he's wanting you to know to see that he's your portion not his blessing on your life not not not not somehow you know but you you you just about naked but he himself therefore I hope in you ah how wonderful do you want to be led yep do you want to be led by the spirit of God yes perhaps into the wilderness for the time for what purpose all that you should come out in the power of the spirit yes you sure now sure because it might not be the easiest thing in all the world but how wonderful that having come out of that place of wilderness you will be able to minister to those around and about you in the power of the spirit and minister freedom and deliverance to them because you've gone through in the opening chapter of the second Corinthian epistle Paul's writing about comfort and he says it's wonderful that we are able to go and comfort those who mourn and everybody would say well aren't they how wonderful how wonderful that is all to be able to go and comfort the brokenhearted wouldn't you say yes to that yeah it would not be wonderful just to be able to minister to needy hearts but listen Paul says I can go and comfort those because I have been comforted with that comfort that comes from God why did you need comforting Paul because my heart was all broken up my heart needed to be comforted God came and met with me so that I can go and comfort those who are in any kind of need no they're the real need is they're not in the preaching of the gospel to come off simply being able to present in words um the truth of the gospel it's very easy to kind of elevate the preaching and elevate preachers Paul discovered that the one great thing that can reach the hearts of people is when you can go and comfort them with the comfort where with you being comforted and here's Jeremiah I've been comforted God is walking through this wonderful all your faithfulness Lord it's great every morning your mercies are new the way it may be that during the time he was going through this tough time he thought boy it doesn't feel very kind of uh you know like I've comforted your mercies don't feel so new Lord but wonderful to have the ability to recall I recall to my mind my soul still remembers notice there's a difference he talks about the soul remembering and then the mind recalling what's the difference the difference is this that in the soul you can recall something of the feeling of the sense of the thing you've been somewhere and you um heard something or smelt something and it's reminded you of when you were a little toot um you know your mum used to make something that you really really really and you you were I don't know whatever you were and you you smelt that oh I remember that my mum used to do it my mum used to make it did you ever happen to you perhaps you've got to be over 50 for that to happen to you I don't know but do you remember that you do do you yeah oh good good oh I do have you heard any oh steamed pudding with custard or something like that mother used to make it sometimes with syrup poured over the top yeah fantastic yeah your mind has the ability to remember and you can recall you can't taste the taste but somehow your brain your mind can recall the the delight of the taste can it not yes or you can hear a piece of music and it can something happens in your memory in your recall and Jeremiah says Lord I'm so glad I can remember I can recall and oh what it does for me is it keeps me in this place of humility amen I want you to turn backwards with me and um you will be pleased to know we're not going to go on an awfully long time can't you please shut supporting one of the book of Genesis we come to another fellow and he is Joseph and um everybody in this room I would presume knows that Joseph had a tough time is there anybody who's unaware of the story of Joseph anybody at all who's got no idea of Joseph all right good and you know he was sold into slavery and he was taken into Egypt and he went through tough times he was treated unfairly he was treated unjustly he was in prison for about two years under false charges the poor guy had every reason to think to himself well if God is a God of love and care and grace he's doing a bad job in my circumstances he must have somehow put my case on the back boiler because everything's going wrong now I suppose there are probably people in this room who thought to themselves have just about sums up my life everything seems to be going wrong anybody had that happen to them now listen to this this is this is one thing with Joseph verse 46 of chapter 41 Joseph was 13 years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt and in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly so he he Joseph he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and he laid up the food in the cities he laid up in every city the food of the fields fields which surrounded them and Joseph gathered very much grain as the sand of the sea until he stopped counting for it was immeasurable okay there we are God used this fellow he had him right in the right place at the right time but to get him there oh dear it was tough listen Joseph's sorry after Joseph were born two sons before the years of spamming came whom Athena the daughter of Potiphar the priest of on bore to him and Joseph he called his two sons this the one he called Manasseh and at verse 51 and the other he called Ephraim all right well there we are now why did he select those names and we're told something remarkable about this young man he spoke uh he called his his firstborn Manasseh and the name means just what is written in your Bible in verse 51 for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house now will you please notice three things first of all God has made me forget you will not be able to if you've been badly treated if you've been unjustly treated like this man was the power of the mind and the recall of memory would be forever a problem to you because you would blame those who have treated you so and led you into circumstances which were difficult difficult in on injustice son how do we deal with it when it's absolutely unspared how do we deal with the accusations of others which are not justified how do we deal with it well we fight or corner don't we of course we do but here was a young man who had no ability to fight he was a slave in a foreign land he had no rights to anything he just had to accept it how do you accept things which are unfair and wrong well i tell you what you don't not unless God comes and works the most remarkable miracle in your heart and mind and he joseph calls this son of his he holds him here and he's brought forth a new life and that new life is a life that does not dwell on the past it does not go backwards it does not recount the injustices the wrongs that were done to it he says God has made me to forget what a thing most of us love to remember the things that have been done to us we love to remember them because deep down in our heart we think my day will come mate and i'll get you just give me the opportunity to name your name in somebody's ear and i'll slander you for what you did to me isn't that right isn't that just how the world operates you don't feel i didn't get one single no you don't feel i do you you want to make sure that you get your own back he says God has made me forget your can you do that can you bring forth a new life in somebody so that i forget my very own brothers they did it to me what they put me through what they put my father through they deserve everything that's coming to them some folks think just that way don't they and he said oh this new life is here and this son of mine i am going to call him this what you want to call him that for why don't you call him revenge why don't you call him i'll get my own back why don't you call him new bitterness why don't you call him unkindness why don't you call him the lesser poor chap anyway yes because God has made me forget all my toil all the hardships all the difficult things God's made me forget why because out of it he has brought something that is altogether wonderful and the glory of what he has brought forth so far away what's gone on in the past i've forgotten it and i don't want to remember it so now you'll notice there's two positions here jerry meyer said i do remember what happens in jerry meyer when he remembers i'm humble and and joseph said i've forgotten why because there's a new life come forth and all that all that happened in the background i can see God has taken and he's woven it into my life and woven it into my circumstances so that i should be a means of bringing life to multitudes of men and women who are going to starve to death in egypt isn't that great he's made me um forget first of all all my toil and all my father's house why do you want to forget your father's house because my heritage is one of unkindness we have a word which is thrown around bandied around these days there's much legislation being put into parliament to do with abuse in my in in in wales not so very far from where your suit comes from they have to close down a house because there was abuse of boys who lived in that home over many many years abuse how about this he's a young man abused rejected how do you handle rejection how do you handle it these my own flesh and blood don't care for me they don't want me i've got something abandoned how do you handle it i wonder how many hurt people there are in this world who suffer from just that very thing and how did this guy deal with it he said god has made me forget i've forgotten my father's house all the things back there in my heredity all the things which were done all that gone and then he's got a second son another one along here and he calls he's praying in verse 52 for god has caused me to be fruitful where in the land of my affliction wow in that place and the trouble is if we're not prepared to go into that place we never become fruitful we live unto ourselves there's a strange little verse you know um in the the end of the book of genesis in chapter 50 and it talks about ephraim to a joseph and his two sons manasseh and ephraim and it says this that ephraim is a fruitful bough whose whose branches go over the wall what what's that supposed to mean they go over the wall well listen he does not he's not contained he's branching out and he's going out onto those who are on the other side of the wall and they can benefit from the fruitfulness of the life which is now his isn't that marvelous all to be fruitful and you may remember that jesus said do you recall in john chapter 15 my father is the husbandman i'm the vine you're the branches and my father's gonna come along and probably to have to tell you charlie harry bertie harry whatever he's gonna have to put the you will cut you right back oh no a little coke oh no please do it to him he needs it because he really needs it too but not for sweet little me and when it comes oh dear but jesus said my father's gonna do it my father's going to do it he's going to do it there's no point arguing about it he's going to do it why because he wants you to be fruitful and then to produce more fruit and to produce much fruit and it's his way and he's the gardener and the branch cannot object when he comes along and does what he has to do are you ready for it what do you think what do you think let the slip slip slip go somewhere else but lord don't hear and how wonderful to be fruitful and then to to branch out and the bowels go over the wall and hold on the other side and eat of it and enjoy the richness of the fruitfulness of unexplained fruitful but joseph knew full well that he would never have been so had he remained in his father's house he would never have been the man he became if he'd been allowed just to stay where he was he had to be taken right out of it and he brings forth these two friends and he says here they are i hold them up lord here they are my manasa and my ephraim you made me forget hallelujah you made me fruitful glory to god the two great things that i suppose every christian man in this room and every christian woman in this room would want would you not what do you want now be a little more positive if you wish don't you want that yeah how am i going to get oh i'll pray a little harder i'll read a bit more but lord oh what about the circumstances that you allowed to come into my life they'll all be for this end to make you and i such and you will know of course at least i think most of you will know that as joseph became the man who was to be as god to the people in the land of egypt let me turn you to the end of the book of genesis and just point it out to you it's a most amazing statement after um the death of uh of jacob the brothers who were now back on the scene they were scared to death they thought to themselves now that dad's gone joseph will get his own back we knew it all along we've been dreading this moment and he's gonna do it and um in verse 15 of chapter 15 when joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead they said oh perhaps joseph will hate us and they actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him what would you have done but you thought i knew if i knew my moment would come i'd have to wait a long time but i'll get i'll get you so they sent messages to joseph saying before your father died he commanded saying thus you shall say to joseph i beg you please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin for they did evil to you now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the god of your father and joseph wept and they spoke to him broke his heart why because he'd already forgiven he'd already seen that god had used the circumstances and he said he said then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and they said behold we are your servants and joseph said to them don't be afraid for i am in the place of god now listen but as for you you meant evil against me but god meant it for what a wonderful way to view the circumstances of your life to see that the things which have been perhaps the toughest to deal with that god has meant them for good how do you cope with difficulties it would be not like this you have one of two options here you either respond in the way that joseph did but i'll tell you what happens you become bitter and twisted and angry and that bitterness becomes like a cancer in your soul and it'll eat you up and it'll twist your thinking and you'll never be able to live as god intends you to not until you come to the moment where you see lord i forgive them i forgive them lord all the toil i've been put through i see your hand over it all lord it's all been for this purpose that i should become fruit and it's all for this purpose lord that i should have in my heart the ability to forget the things which have happened because you've made me forget them isn't that altogether wonderful let me ask you a question do you think that joseph was led into egypt or do you think it was one of those dreadful accidents of fate what do you think do you think he ended up in egypt and it was really an accident or would he let there was god overseeing and sovereignly governing his steps i guess you all say oh yeah the second one die has to be doesn't it yeah certainly god overseeing amazing that jeremiah could say lord you let me into darkness you let me into these circumstances but i've come out because of your faithfulness and i see lord your hand over all my circumstances all right how lovely to be led i can think of nothing more wonderful but of course it goes without saying but perhaps needs to be said that in order to be led i have to trust the one who's going to lead me i have to be convinced that he ultimately will do me no harm but i can lay all my weight upon him and be sure that his faithfulness will be absolutely sure to me i've got to know that he will never hurt me nor harm me but he will lead me in a way that will bring me into something bigger than i presently know i'm going to finish by taking you into the psalms i want to read just four of them i think i don't fall down i need just to point out a statement made in four of them which ties in with what i've said we're going to go to number four psalm number four which in my bible is described as the safety of the faithful isn't that lovely the safety of the faithful verse one heal me when i call god of my righteousness you have enlarged me in my distress now if you've got a new king james you may well have the word relieved yes now again that's one of those unfortunate translations you know really relief is one of those things where a lot of time and things get better and you think but that's not for me that's not the sense of this this is working something in the heart in the life of the one who is in distress and he says you enlarged me now i came here i think september last year and some of you were sitting in the meetings then i would have asked you have not nine months that have gone by would you say that you have been enlarged you somehow got bigger there's a capacity within you i'm not talking about you know around here or i'm talking about an inward one a capacity to embrace and love and care for and somehow to be bigger than you were nine months ago you know when paul says to the ephesians you are to go on being filled with the spirit you heard the phrase in chapter four he said do not be don't confine my in his excess but be being filled with the spirit we need to be careful that we do not imagine that you have a container fixed sides that cannot increase and that has to be filled and then filled and filled that's not the thought that's not the idea fullness needs fullness unto expansion and then greater fullness unto greater expansion and greater expansion and that's why paul writes to the corinthians and says oh you corinthians our mouth is open unto you our hearts are enlarged father's thought oh i want to be bigger lord i want my bows to go over the wall i want to reach out i want to be expansive you have enlarged me lord oh in this wonderful fellowship wonderful it is so it should be you enlarge me lord because you you bless me with this financial help and that that that that material need lord in the midst of my distress and one of the great troubles i think with our western world and our materialistic society is that we've got everything that we can possibly need and somehow the idea of distress is an anathema to our thinking oh god no what will ever happen to me i've done it i wouldn't be surprised if one or two others in the room have done it amen distress that's where you have enlarged me would you turn on into the 18th psalm we're going to read from verse 16 down to 19 he sent me sorry he sent from above he took me he drew me out of many waters he delivered me from my strong enemy from those who hated me for they were too strong for me they confronted me in the day of my calamity and have you noticed when somebody has a day of calamity there seems to be those rather than about who've always got this kind of comment oh well we knew anyway we saw it coming you know he was always a bit of a dickhead you know it's not surprising what kind of grace and love and kindness is that they confronted me in the day of my calamity but the lord was my support he also brought me out into a broad place he delivered me because he delighted in me i'm wonderful to him i'm wonderful to him he's got his eyes fixed on me isn't that good isn't that marvellous do you ever think about that do you ever think about yourself like that how is your wonderful oh it's wonderful i'm absolutely wonderful to him he delights in me and the evidence is he takes me into a bigger place now son you see something of my greatness and then i'm going to take you into another set of circumstances i'll bring you through to get to an even bigger place and oh there's going to be a capacity in you to go on ever expanding and growing amen um psalm 31 we're almost done psalm 31 verses 6 7 8 i have hated those who regard useless idols but i trust in the lord i will be glad and rejoiced in your mercy for you have considered my trouble you have known my soul in adversities and troubles isn't that wonderful he knows and you have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy oh no no let him roar like a lion let him seek to consume me but lord you will not allow it you've not shut me up into his hand you have set my feet in a wide place a broad place a wide place an enlarging place in the midst of the things which are not easy and finally psalm 118 now we'll read from the beginning of the psalm which is a psalm of thanks giving to god for his everlasting mercy and goodness oh give thanks to the lord for he is good for his mercy endures forever let israel now say his mercy endures forever let the house of aaron that's the priestly house now say his mercy endures forever let those who fear the lord now say his mercy endures forever i've called on the lord in distress now here's a psalmist who is giving thanks he's saying the mercies of the lord endure forever and then he also said i called on the lord in distress i've come through and the lord answered me and set me in a broad place amen so when you do get some difficulties and perhaps i'm talking to someone who's sitting here and thinking i've got my fair share brother don't please don't hit any more of me i want you just to face and see it so if they're there how are you going to handle them are you going to allow the spirit of god to lead you as he led the son of god the evidence of sonship is i'm prepared to be led lord even when i would not choose this way even when i cannot see the outcome i'm going to trust you i want to bring forth in my life i want to bring forth that lord which will be evidence that you have worked and made me forget there's no bitterness no rancor there's no reaction that comes from my soul that says i've been badly done by i should never have been born into that household why is it that some are born with a silver spoon in their mouth why is it that some have got better education than others why why why lord it's not being fair my friend you live like that it'll kill you but oh to learn from joseph to see it to learn from jerry meyer to learn from the psalmist that god's got a great wide place for you and i to live in how are you going to react to his readings in your life how are you going to do that lord i'm going to absolutely think that you will be the only one i call in call on in my distress and i can be certain you deliver me you'll bring me through great is your faithfulness i want to be a son i want to be led and the leading of god will always be to create a wider place of ministry a wider place of effectiveness a wider place and you and i must be willing tonight and every day i guess of our lives that god should lead us just as he will call on him i was going to pray