A Genuine Faith

Mark: Goodness, so good to be together today. You know, I want to just say this real quick. ⁓ That video was wonderful. And you know what I loved about the Say Yes video today is that it was such a beautiful picture of the body growing by that which every joint supplies. And you look at all of those people that have said yes and are serving and you see what happens from that. The body of Christ grows. I want to tell you there's a person here today that doesn't have a supply in them. That's a good place for an amen. Every one of us, and the body needs what you have. sometimes we hold off and we wait because we think, I don't know about that or that. Just do something. If you're not serving in the church and this is your church, I wanna encourage you today, those tables are full of places that you can jump in, get involved, and release something that God has put in you, amen? All right, I wanna jump into the word of God today. ⁓ I have a message that I'm entitling a genuine faith, a genuine faith. There is no way to get through life unless you learn how to go through difficulties, unless you learn how to go through suffering, unless you learn how to go through trials. And there's no way to make it through the trials and the suffering. unless you're rooted and you're grounded in a living hope. Can I hear an amen this morning on that? The truth is every single one of us is gonna face moments in life where something happens and we think, what in the world was that? Where we think, what in the world is going on? Has anybody experienced that in your life? Okay, if you haven't, I'm not prophesying, but most likely you will. ⁓ Moments when just life hits us like a ton of bricks. Right in face, moments of loss, moments of disappointment, moments of pain that we never saw coming. And the question is, if those moments and those seasons are going to come, the question is, what kind of faith are we going to have when they do come? What kind of faith are we going to have when they do come? We had our pastor's retreat this past weekend in Branson. We tried to get away for a couple days each year with our pastors. and families, and it's just this beautiful, beautiful time to share life together. And ⁓ we have often moments and little sessions where we just talk about life, where we share the joys, we share the difficulties, we share the hard stuff. How many know that life is full of both? The good, the tough, the ugly, all of it. And what I've realized, not just among our staff as we talked, although it was very apparent there, but among people in our church family. ⁓ People I meet every week, honestly, people everywhere, is that life carries a lot of difficulty. Life carries a lot of hard. There is a lot of suffering that we endure. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we have to learn how to navigate the suffering. We have to learn how to navigate the hard. We have to learn how to walk through the things that hit us. unexpectedly. And to do that, we need a biblical Jesus centered belief system in us. So that not if, but when those things come, when the trials come, when the pains of life come, that we are rooted and we are grounded in a genuine faith that can stand the shaking of life. As a pastor over these past 30 years in ministry, I've walked with people through the best of times. I've walked with people through the darkest of times and what I've realized is that the real danger in life is not the suffering. The real danger in life is not the difficulties that you face, the hardships, no matter how dark they are, the trials, the real danger is rooted in unbelief. The real danger is rooted in unbelief. Unbelief that quietly grows in the midst of the trials of life. That begins to be revealed when a life gets shaken. How many know when things get shaken in your life, stuff comes out? People don't ultimately fall away from the Lord because of suffering or tragedy. Or what someone in the church did to them, or what a leader did to them, or because of what life dealt them. They may blame those things and often we do, but they're really surface issues. People fall away because of an unbelieving heart. Hebrews 3, chapter 3, verse 12 says this, it says, care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. I want you to look at that again. It says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall. away from the living God. You know what's interesting? The Proverbs tell us above all to what? Guard your heart. Your heart is leading you. An unbelieving heart will lead you to fall away from the living God. I want to ask you this morning, what kind of a heart is leading you? Where's your heart today? Where is it leading you? Verse 13, goes on, exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. I love how the message reads that first part. It says it like this, so watch your steps, friends. Make sure there's no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course. This is one of the most sobering warnings in the New Testament. And I believe that at its core, what it's saying is that unbelief is the very root of all sin. You think about it, unbelief is at the root of all sin, all the way back to the garden. And one of the greatest dangers to the believer is not hardship or loss or suffering. We often think it's those things. The greatest danger is what can happen to the heart in the midst of those things when the sin of unbelief gets rooted in there. Okay, the children of Israel, right? The children of Israel didn't perish in the wilderness because the desert was hard. They perish because they stop trusting God in the desert. Hebrews 3.19 a little further says this, so we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. I believe today and this is what I'm sounding an alarm I feel this morning that the greatest danger to us is an unbelieving heart. Israel saw miracles, they witnessed all the things that God did, the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water coming from the rock. And here's what we understand in this, suffering, they experienced tons of suffering, lots of trials. Suffering and trials don't destroy faith, unbelief does. And one of the primary places that unbelief can grow, I said it a minute ago, but I want to say it again, is the soil of suffering. in the soil of disappointment, in the soil of hardships and difficulties and trials that we cannot explain. It's in the very fabric of life's tragedies and pain. In the midst of those moments, when we just don't understand what is going on. And this morning, I believe that there are people in the body of Christ. I believe there could be even people here. that are susceptible in this moment could be in real danger. And I wanna hit this head on today. Yeah? Are you with me? All right. I wanna see us as a church, you know, I look across this room today. I wanna see us hold our confidence firm to the end. At the end of the day that you are confident in the Lord. We're gonna be in a few places in scripture, but our anchor text is gonna be out of 1 Peter chapter one. We're gonna work through that a little bit. Peter's writing to believers that are scattered across the Roman Empire who were experiencing intense suffering here. ⁓ These guys had been driven out of their homes. They'd lost their land. They'd faced rejection, persecution. Most had essentially lost everything. I mean, these guys had been shaken. And Peter does something interesting here. He begins to speak to them. He doesn't begin by explaining suffering. He actually begins by anchoring their faith in who God is in the midst of their suffering. Let's look at this. First Peter, we're gonna work through these few verses together this morning. First Peter chapter one, verse three. No, Chapter 1. Somebody's Bible phone said chapter two. No, chapter one. All right, here we go. First Peter one, three. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I've got a few points I want to give you today. I think I've got four of them, which is a miracle. Extra anointed, because we're supposed to have three, but I've got four. Here's the first one today. Here's point number one. Genuine faith is rooted in what God has already done. Genuine faith is rooted in what God has already done. Our faith is not based on outcomes or whether life is easy or smooth. whether our prayers were answered immediately or whether we can make sense of our circumstances, our hope is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is why the gospel gives us something that suffering can never take away from us. Trials can never take away from us. Tim Keller said this, he said, if Jesus rose from the dead, then even the worst things are never the last things. has something to hold on to in the middle of whatever you're facing. If Jesus rose from the dead, and he did, we're celebrating it in a few weeks, what we celebrated every day. But if he rose from the dead, then even the worst things are never the last things. Christian hope, Jesus following people's hope is living hope. It's not wishful thinking. It's a faith that is anchored in the resurrected Savior who sits on the throne. So he has caused us to be born again, verse four, to an inheritance, get this, that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. And here it is, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Turn to somebody this morning and tell them, you have an inheritance. You have an inheritance. You have an inheritance. And guess what? We just read it. It's being guarded. Your inheritance is being guarded, it's being kept. It's being kept. Peter's saying, is coming is far greater than what is happening right now. Nothing in this world can destroy it. not suffering, not persecution, not loss. This future hope strengthens our faith in the present difficulty and the present suffering. All right, the second point is this genuine faith is strengthened by an unshakable future. Genuine faith is strengthened by an unshakable future. I'm telling you what, when you know that your future's unshakable, it strengthens you. It strengthens you. Sometimes we get so absorbed in what's happening in front of us that we forget to look out and to look up. I'm telling you what, church, your faith will be strengthened as you recognize that your future is unshakable in Jesus Christ. Verse six, he says this, in this you rejoice. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. This word grieved here could be translated probably a little bit better, meaning deep distress, heaviness. Though you've been in a deep heaviness or to be deeply troubled. In other words, your life feels like Like difficulty, it's imagery of a stormy sea that this word means, this word grieved. Peter's giving us a paradox, but it's not a contradiction. He's saying you're rejoicing and you're deeply troubled. They're both present. Have you ever experienced this? Rejoicing and a deep troubling. They're both happening. That's what we get as a believer. It doesn't say you were troubled, but now you're rejoicing. It says you are rejoicing now while being troubled, while you're grieving. This is at the foundation of our faith. See, real faith doesn't deny pain. All through scripture again and again, we see that believers feel grief. That we're actually affected by grief. We're grieved by a trial. We're grieved by what's going on with our kids. We're grieved by what's going on ⁓ in a marriage. We're grieved with what's going on with a friend. We're troubled by difficulties. If you've grown up in a church that said we shouldn't be troubled, I wanna tell you, that's not real. We aren't robots. We experience pain as believers. It's not something out there. We experience it. We see it all through the scripture. ⁓ Number three is this, genuine faith is refined through trials. Genuine faith is refined through trials. A powerful picture of this is in scripture in the life of Job. And I'm not spending very much time on that at all, but Job, as you will remember, was this godly, God-fearing man. And I was just reading in Job 1 the other day, and it just came back to me. But Job, you know, he receives this news all at once in Job chapter 1. If you read it, all of All his servants had been killed, wiped out. All his children were killed. They all died. All his wealth gone, literally like in a day. This is the most devastating moment. And what does he do? The scripture there in Job 1 says, says Job arose, he ripped off his garments, he shaved his head, and he fell to the ground. Sounds like a normal thing to do. Right? How many know that? That's this picture. mean, this guy, I mean, he's just he's overwhelmed by the grief of what's happening to him. How many know there's grieving in that moment for Job? He fell to the ground and it says that he actually he worshiped. He worshiped. For those of us who have been raised in church, you know, what would you think if somebody in the middle of a service did this? They just came to the altar, they ripped off their clothes. Well, that wouldn't be good, but you know what I mean? Maybe just I don't know, something PG. Ripped off their clothes, shaved their heads. I shouldn't have used that analogy really. It doesn't work, but you know what I'm getting at. Shaved their head, threw themselves on the ground in agony and grief. You know that there are 65 Psalms of lament? 65 Psalms of lament in Scripture. So I was thinking about this. Sometimes I wonder if our lack of lament in the church is actually keeping us from a mature faith. we can't be real with God and we can't be real with life. Real faith isn't plasticky pretend faith. It's faith that allows us to say I'm deeply troubled but I still trust God. I'm deeply grieved but I still will worship. Though I'm grieved, still I will rejoice. Because why? My future is unshakable. Think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's in agony there. He knows what's coming. His sweat, it says, like drops of blood falling to the ground. And on the cross, at the climax of his suffering, he cries out, right? We know this. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I want to tell you, God understands that cry. He understands our outbursts when... when grief or calamity strikes us. I feel like I need us to know this today. He understands that cry, ⁓ God, why? Maybe you've been in that place. I've been in that place before in our lives. Lord, Lord, I don't get what's going on right now. I don't understand this thing. I've sat with person after person, countless people, in moments that they were hit so hard they didn't know what to do and they said, ⁓ God. Church, we have to stand with those people in those moments until that grief works its way out. But here's what we see in Jesus. Jesus never let that question take root in him. He allowed the Holy Spirit to come and to comfort him. And then he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. This is where genuine faith is formed. Here's what I'll tell you guys, there's no way out of grief. If you came into the kingdom thinking that your life was gonna be just perfect and great because of Jesus, I wanna tell you it's not true. Inside, you have everything you need, but it doesn't mean the troubles aren't there. It doesn't mean the difficulties aren't there. There's no way out of grief. There's no way out of trials. There's no way out of disappointments. But you have to come to that place where you say, I will not allow this grief, this questioning to go on. I'm grieved. I'm hurt. But God's on the throne and that's enough. I'll put my trust in Him. Are you with me today, church? Look at this incredible illustration here. Peter goes on. He says, these trials have come, verse seven, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. tested by fire. Here's the fourth point. Genuine faith is proven through fire. Genuine faith is proven through fire. He's saying that the testing of your faith is worth more than money. It's more precious than money. Do know why? Because your money will not be redeemed on the last day. You can't cash your money in on the last day. But there is a substance that is relevant on the day of the Lord, and it's the tested genuineness of your faith. Hear this, the tested, everybody say the tested, the tested genuineness of your faith. This is what I sense the Holy Spirit is getting at today. And I sense it so strong, I often don't, I don't sense things this strong, but this is what I think he's really. wanting us to check today, to get into the depths of our heart today is the genuineness of our faith. He's after the genuineness of your faith. To know if your faith is genuine, it must be tested. How is it tested? By fire. By fire. I want to get tested another way. There's no other way. By fire, by fire, what is fire? Difficulties. What is, what is fire? Trouble. What is fire? Suffering. What is fire? The unexpected. The tested genuineness of your faith is more precious than gold. The fire comes not to destroy us, but to expose what is truly in us. I wish it could be another way, but I'm telling you what, it is usually only through the testing and the difficulties that we find out what is really going on inside of us. This verse is one of the most profound. explanations of suffering in the New Testament. Peter compares faith to gold. But gold does not become pure without fire. I was reading about this in the ancient world, a goldsmith would take raw gold, they would place it in a furnace and that heat would actually melt the gold. Impurities then would begin to rise to the surface under the heat, under the fire, and then the goldsmith would actually skim away those impurities, that stuff that needed to be out of it so that the gold would be pure. Here's what's so powerful. A goldsmith knew that the gold was pure when he could see his reflection in it. That's what Peter's saying, church. That's what he's saying that God is doing in the trial, in the testing. How many know he is like a refiner's fire? That's what the scripture says. Purifying us. How many want purifying? Then you're getting some fire. think about all the songs is if we want fire, fire, really? Set a fire down in my heart that I can, you know, really? Here it comes. Here it comes. ⁓ but it's good. ⁓ but it's good. ⁓ it's so. of God. James, he says this, think about this, count it all joy. James chapter one, verse two, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know this, that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Do you know what that word, that's endurance. And let steadfastness, let endurance, let it have its full effect. Why? That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. That's something right there. Count it all joy. Count it all joy. It's not that we enjoy the testing. It's that we enjoy what God is achieving in us through the testing. That's what we have to remember in the testing. What is God working out achieving in my life that's going to make me like Him? That we may be perfect, complete, lacking in, how many want to be perfect? Now you're like, no, I don't want it. completes, lacking in nothing. I want to tell you the only way you get that is through the testing of your faith, because that is what produces those attributes in your life. You know, we receive Jesus, He comes in, we get everything, but I'm telling you what, it's a life of testing and fire that brings out the reality of those things in our life. Telling you church, God will not waste a thing in your life. If you're going through fire, the fire of affliction, God may not have caused it, but I'm telling you what, God is gonna use it for his purpose. He'll use every single thing you go through if you look to him and you let him. I wanna tell you what, we shouldn't waste any trial. We shouldn't waste any trial by fire. Any difficulty that you face that you think is apart from God, how about you just say, you know what, I don't understand this thing, I don't know if God brought it. But you know what? I'm going to let God use it. I'm going to let him use this thing to make me become like him. There's no other way. Use everything you go through if you let him. Even the stuff the enemy tries to fire at us, to hurt us. Sometimes people blame things on God that just aren't God. But I'll tell you what, what I know about God is that if it wasn't from him, it was a work of darkness, it was a work of the enemy, I'll tell you what, he'll use that thing. He'll use that thing. He'll even use the stuff the enemy tries to harm us with, to destroy us with. God will use that thing. He'll use it for good if we will let him. Remember what Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22, 31. A friend reminded me of this this week, just randomly in a conversation. This is what Jesus said to Simon Peter. He said, Simon, Simon. This is just before his death and his resurrection. He says, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. when you've turned again, it's like Jesus already knew what he was going to do. You're going to fail here, but your ultimate faith isn't going to fail. And when you have turned again, he says, strengthen your brothers. Strengthen your brothers. So in biblical times, what does this mean? Wheat, other grain was sifted through a sieve or this large strainer. And do know what they would do? They would actually shake it violently. They'd shake it violently and that dirt and the other impurities that clung to the grain during the threshing process would actually separate from the good, usable grain. This is what Jesus is saying. Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. He wants to shake you like you've never been shaken. What was what was Satan after in Peter? is faith. after his faith. The enemy was after Peter's faith. He literally wanted to shake him apart. He wanted to break him down. Insifting Peter and the other disciples as wheat. His goal was to crush them and actually wreck their faith. I want to tell you today, the enemy wants to wreck your faith. The truth is Satan wants to destroy the faith of every believer. He wants to wreck your faith. He wants to come and kill you, steal from you, destroy you. He wants to try and shake your life apart. And the only way that he can do anything to you is if he can shake your faith. wants to shake your life apart, but I've got good news. Jesus is praying for you. You should have got a little happier on that. Jesus is praying for you. Our great high priest is making intercession for you. Just like he prayed for Peter, he's praying for you. And just when the enemy thinks he has you, you know what? Jesus says, no, they're mine. They're mine, you're mine. And what the enemy means for evil, Jesus actually uses to purify you. and make you like Him. See, this is the thing, we don't have to fear anything because we can know that He is ultimately going to use everything. Is this too simple? Are you with me? I'm telling you what, He wants to grow in us an unshakable faith, a faith that can stand in the midst of what adversity you face. I'm shocked how quickly faith is shaken in the body of Christ when things happen in lives. that aren't good. I want to tell you, he wants to grow us up. He wants to cause us to be firm and rooted in him. Church, we need to take notes in our trials. If you're going through a trial, get a journal. Take notes in the testing. If you're being tested, get a journal and write about it in the sifting because just like Peter, he's going to use what is being worked in you to help others to strengthen your brothers. See, we get so selfish in moments where life feels like it's falling apart, but we need to actually go outward in those moments and say, I got to write everything down because I'm going to help somebody else. That's good preaching right there. It's gonna flow through you what he's doing in you. I'll tell you this today, church, if your faith is in a better season to come, you're gonna be crushed at some point. But if your faith is in a risen Savior, you're gonna be anchored forever. Testing trials, difficulties, they don't disprove faith, they reveal where our faith ultimately is. See, sometimes God allows the shaking because He loves us too much to our faith rest on fragile things. And we discover what we've truly been leaning on. You he's saying that I put my faith in Jesus. It's all great while it's a song. until you walk out there. Faith that has never been tested is faith that's never been proven. Testing reveals what we trust. Testing reveals what we cling to. Testing reveals what we believe about God. And it's through the fire that God is refining faith until the image of Jesus is reflected in us. See, here's the thing, the challenge, the challenge with seasons of trial and testing is that most of the time we can't see it for what it is. Are you with me? You go to all these other places, ⁓ this is this, and you fight in the natural, and you fight against this, and you think it's this, and this, the other thing, and it's like, no, no, no, no, you gotta see this for what it is. And I'm praying that the Lord would help us see and recognize that that trial, that testing, that suffering is actually producing something. That hardship, that moment when it feels like your world is falling apart around you, it's being used to produce actually a genuine faith. He's like, you're gonna become more beautiful. How many wanna be more beautiful? Everyone's like, no. How many want to be more beautiful? Okay, the faith is rising. It's gonna be a genuine faith. How many of you would love to not be rooted, your faith not be rooted in your circumstances? What me would love for your faith not to be rooted in your mood? ⁓ or your feelings. He loves me today, things are going good. He loves me not tomorrow. You know? Some of us are like, ⁓ I would never. You do. in subtle ways you do. faith that's rooted in the one who actually sits on the throne. that loss, that devastating circumstance in your life, that thing that, I tell you that God cries with you over, that you're going through. I wanna tell you, that thing that hurts so bad today that you're sitting here with is producing a genuine faith, an unwavering faith if you will turn to Him and you will let it. And that is what we have to remember, church. These tests, these trials by fire are going to, look at this, verse seven, the second half, result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now for years, I didn't see this, I didn't get this. I want you to get this. This is huge. This is part of it. This is how your faith gets established and rooted. The praise and the glory and the honor that he's talking about here isn't the praise and glory and honor to Jesus. That obviously will happen. He's talking about the praise, honor and glory that we are going to receive from Jesus on that day. say, sounds crazy. We're going to receive. Rewards. We're going to receive praise from Jesus. And do know why? Because he loves us and because he's put everything we've already talked about inside of us, that living hope inside of us. And when you overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony and you stand before him, he's going to say, I saw that moment. I saw that trial, I saw you turn to me. I saw you in the midst of that thing, I saw you. I saw that unbelievable blindside thing that happened in your life. And I saw how you turned to me and you didn't turn from me. I saw you weeping, I saw the grieving, I saw the pain, I saw it, but I saw you turn to me. don't give up. That's what I just wanna say to you today. Don't give up. Feel like there are people giving up. There are people losing hope. I wanna tell you, don't give in. There are people giving in. Don't give in. Don't let up. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. In the midst of what you're facing, don't give up into one ounce of unbelief. Don't give into the doubts and the voice of the enemy. Don't give in one inch to the lie that God is not faithful to you. It's okay to say, Father, why? And you cry out and you shave your head and you, well, don't do that, but fall to the ground, whatever you need to do. Shout, scream, whatever, he can handle it. But don't turn from him, turn to him and don't give up. Don't give up, don't give up. Don't give up, I feel that today. Don't turn on him, turn to him. Don't be surprised when the trials come, Peter said. Look at what he says in chapter four, a few chapters later, says, beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery trials when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. See, if you're going through a hard time in your life that you can't make sense of, He's saying, don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. If your world's being shaken right now, shaken apart, you feel like you're in that strainer being just shaken. Strengthen yourself in the Lord today. See, Israel's unbelief was fatal. cost them everything. An unbelief, if it's not dealt with, quickly destroys and it causes a shipwreck of so many people. So many believers. I know of many people that When tough times hit, they turned from God. The root wasn't the lust, the root wasn't the pornography, the root wasn't the addiction. It was this sense that God, I tried to do right, you didn't come through. Like you weren't there for me, you didn't answer me. You didn't guide me, you didn't come through. You allowed the enemy to chew me up and spit me out. And church, this is serious. Hear me, hear me this morning. This has to get dealt with at the root or it will destroy you. Little by little, it'll infect your entire being. We walk by faith and not by sight. God has a purpose and he doesn't always show us that purpose. Have you recognized that? Sometimes he allows us to be blind to it so he can prove our faith. Sometimes we have to walk in what feels like total blindness and we just have to take his hand and say, Lord, I don't understand this, but I'm trusting you. Whether I live or whether I die, I'm gonna trust you. the midst of what you're facing, church, lift your eyes to Jesus. He's the author, he's the finisher, he's the perfecter of your faith. Verse eight and nine, we'll close it here. Though you have not seen Him, He says you love Him. think there's gonna be a greater reward for people like us who actually didn't get to walk with Jesus. Cause they got to walk with Him and see Him with their eyes. We haven't seen Him with our eyes in the natural, in the physical. says, though you've not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible, filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your. ⁓ souls. Church, one day Jesus is going to return and on that day, hear me, the faith that you held onto in the middle of suffering is going to result in praise, honor, and glory. Peter says that honor will be given to the believer. Close with this, 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, God made him sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Church, it's through Jesus that we receive everything that Jesus deserves. Jesus took what we deserved so that we could receive what he deserves. I think that's a pretty amazing deal. And on that day, the Lord's going to look at us, his redeemed people. And he's gonna delight in us. He's gonna honor us. He's gonna rejoice over us. And knowing that that day is coming, it actually enables us to endure the trials and the sufferings of today. How did Jesus endure the suffering? says for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. What was the joy that was set before him? You and me. You and me. We're his joy. In the middle of that trial, you can count it all joy, because you know that you are His joy. His joy was being with us forever. We are His joy. So knowing that you are His living hope is what makes Him our living hope in the midst of what you're facing. Our living hope is in a mansion in heaven. Our living hope is our King. Our living hope is our love. Our lamb who was slain, who at the end will with his arms wide open receive us and treasure us and will utterly change us forever. In this we greatly rejoice church, though for a little while you're having to suffer. We gotta get out of the temporal and get our eyes on eternity. We gotta fix our eyes on the lamb. We gotta fix our eyes on that day because it is the strength for us. in this moment. Stand with me this morning. We gotta close. Close with this. 1 John 5, 4, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Here it is, our faith. Jesus has overcome the world. His blood has paid for all of it. But church, our response to that is what matters. Even our faith, even our faith in the midst of what you're enduring right now. Maybe you're in a great season of life. You have no trials. I hope it lasts a long time. It may or may not. But in the midst of what we endure. Here's the truth, we overcome. We overcome. Turn to somebody, tell them, you overcome. You overcome. Our faith is in its circumstances. Our faith is in the resurrected one who is on the throne. Come on, let's lift up our hands and can we just offer praise to the Lamb of God right now? Come on, just thank Him right now. ⁓ Just offer up praise. Maybe you're in that really hard place in life right now and you gotta make a sacrifice of praise. Come on, offer the sacrifice of praise. Come on, right there in the middle of the grief, offer up the sacrifice of praise. Come on, just offer up praise to the Lord. In the midst of the storm came the I'll stay with you Come on, lift your hands and declare that. ⁓ Save me to clear that again. was built on you I'm saving you So sing that again, I'm Cause I'm standing strong on My house is built on Cause I'm standing strong on Jesus says, will never leave you or forsake you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Never, never, never, never. I hear him just say, have prayed. I have prayed that your faith may not fail. Father, I thank you. I thank you for building our faith up. I pray that we would be a people that are firmly rooted. We look to Jesus, the author, the finisher, the perfecter of our faith. And when we don't know what to do, we turn to you in the midst of whatever we face. I know that there is grace upon grace upon grace. I pray for the one who's been doubting right now. I pray that you would turn a corner right now and you'd say no more, no more. I'm looking at you, I may not understand it, but I am rooting my heart in you and the truth of the word of God. I pray that this church would be a church that when the winds come and the rains come, that we would be so rooted, so firm a foundation in you. And I pray that in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Can we give the Lord just one big clap and shout of praise this morning? Yeah, come on. God bless you. We love you. Hope you're strengthened by the Word of God today. Have an amazing week.

Job 1 · chapter mention