You're Golden

But meanwhile I do have a message in my heart for you tonight and I just want to encourage you.

This is just a Wednesday night encouragement and I hope you receive it like that.

And the title of my message tonight is when Trouble Comes, you Are Golden, and sometimes we just have to dig in and remember that.

Amen, we're golden through it.

And so I want to start reading out of 1 Peter, chapter one.

It says Blessed.

So I'm just going to start out with the good part.

You're about your inheritance.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again into a living hope.

Everybody say I have hope, my hope is alive through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven, far away from you.

No, no, that's not what it says.

It says Reserved in heaven for you.

So you have an inheritance and that inheritance will last forever and no one can take it away.

And meanwhile you are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

And then it says in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if needed, be, you have been grieved by various trials.

How many of you have felt the temptation to be a little bit grieved by what's going on in the world right now?

Maybe what's going on in the world right now has touched your finances, maybe it has touched your family, maybe it has touched you, and so there's a temptation to be grieved by these various trials.

But it says that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And having not seen you love, though now you do not see him yet, believing you, rejoice, Everybody say rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

So I just want to talk to you about purity tonight, about how gold is refined and we, our faith is being refined right now and I want you to remember no matter what you're going through, your faith is being purified and it is golden, and faith is really the most important thing, because with faith we know Jesus said all things are possible to him who believes, all things are possible.

So the devil is attacking your faith.

He is trying to mess with your faith.

He is trying to shake your faith, remove your faith, take it away, because he knows that your faith is what makes you invincible, because your faith is actually your trust and reliance upon your relationship and how intertwined you really are with God.

Your faith is how you access your the power of God.

Your faith is everything for you, and so the devil would love to attack that, and the main way he attacks it is by mixing it with the things of this world, by gold in its state.

When you just find it, it's got impurities in it.

It has to be.

There's one way for it to be purified, and people in the Bible understood this.

They put it in a furnace, they put it in a fire, they melted it down.

When they melted down that gold, the ugly stuff would be separated from the pure stuff and they could just skim off the dross, they could just take away the ugly and then what was left was completely pure.

And then that pure gold was used in the Bible throughout the Old Testament.

That pure gold was used in the temple.

It was used for worship, to make implements of worship in the temple, to actually build the temple itself.

We know that the streets of heaven are paved with pure gold.

So gold is not an issue for God.

He's got plenty of that and if we'll just let him purify our faith, then we can have that complete purity before him.

And then the devil.

I like this.

I like this verse that Jesus said you know, Jesus was pressed.

He knew what it was like to go through a fiery trial at the cross.

And right before he's talking to his disciples and he's telling them look, I'm no longer.

In John 14.30,.

He says I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.

The little R, the devil, is coming for me.

In other words, I'm about to have to go through a trial.

He said the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me.

And we say that when we face a trial, the devil is coming, but he has nothing in me.

Ephesians 4.27 says don't give place to the devil.

Neither give place to the devil.

We don't want to give any place to the devil and the more impurities that we have Now.

Listen, I'm not talking about.

Jesus has already bought and paid for your salvation.

I just want to clear that up right now.

You are already.

If you were a born again believer, you are completely righteous before him.

He sees no sin on your life because the blood of Jesus has completely cleansed you and wiped it all away.

So this kind of purification we're talking about has nothing to do with your righteousness, but it does have to do with your sanctification.

It has to do because that process of being set apart for him, of renewing our mind, of cleansing ourselves from the things of this world, that is an ongoing process, that happens every day.

So that's the kind of thing we're talking about tonight.

And so sometimes we've got to look at some trials and we've got to have a completely different mindset when we're facing a trial and Jesus had that.

First of all we want to make sure the devil has nothing in us, and usually these trials in life are unpleasant.

They can be very unpleasant.

But I found this scripture in Proverbs that it's very telling.

It's very interesting.

Usually the fire that comes to try us, to test us, that fire that's testing our gold, it could also be actually praise from others.

Listen to this in Proverbs 27, 21,.

It says a crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise accorded him.

So the devil can also get us off track with pride and arrogance and listening to the praise of man and he can get us off.

He can mix, draw us into our gold, and so we're not going to let him do that.

We're going to let God just go ahead and burn out all the pride and arrogance and every evil way out of us in that fire.

But anyway, I just wanted to.

One of the most enduring fire stories in the Bible the most enduring and I think it's so perfect for what we're going through right now is in the book of Daniel.

You heard this.

If you were raised in church, you probably heard the story a million times in Children's Church.

Your mommy read it to you in your children's Bible.

But it's about three Hebrew men who were captives in Babylon.

Here they were, their faith and the faith of their parents, their entire heritage, their homeland, everything they knew.

They were ripped away from the land of Israel by the Babylonian army and carried away to Babylon as captives.

And here they are in captivity.

And yet there are three young men, four actually, Daniel and his three friends, who have decided I am not going to do things this the Babylonian way.

I am going to serve God and him alone.

I'm not going to eat their food, I'm not going to drink their wine, I am not going to live like, I'm not going to study like them.

I'm going to have different materials that I read.

I am going to live a devoted life to Jehovah, and for that they were persecuted, and not only for that, but just because they had a completely different mindset than all of the masses of people around them, and I know that I relate to them so much.

Many of you relate to them.

Right now, it seems like when we, when we there's any media that we have, you know, we turn on the TV for a minute, everything that we get is just like it feels like a pipeline of sewage just coming straight at us and so and so.

That's why I mean I want to exalt what is pure, what is holy, what is good, and I want to let God's, I want to make sure that what's in me is pure and holy, so that I can shine for Jesus and I can be a complete opposite of the sewage that we get in this culture, right.

So so here in Daniel 3, it says in verse one Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, made an image of gold.

How ironic that he used something so precious to make something so ugly, to make something so vile.

And you know he probably Nebuchadnezzar.

He was a conquering king, he was a dreaded conqueror and in that time he had plundered many, many other lands.

And so this gold that he got was the gold that he stole or got by conquest from other peoples.

And who had he just conquested?

Who had he just conquered Israel?

Where did he probably get this gold that he made this idol from?

He probably got it from Daniel's people, from his, from the people of Israel, from the, maybe from the temple itself, and yet he makes this idol out of it.

And he and it was 60 cubits high and he set it up in this flat land and he had, he issued the edict and to everyone, to the administrators, to the governors, to the counselors, to the treasurers, to the judges and the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, All the important people, all the celebrities, all the politicians will be at this very important event and they want everyone to come and they're not going to allow anyone to be exempted from their special party worshiping their idol.

And of course we know what happened.

Did Daniel and his, did Daniel's friends?

Daniel somehow was not involved in this whole thing, so he's not mentioned in the story, but his three friends sure are, and they sure were pressured and somebody tattled on them.

You know, they hadn't gotten their vaccine yet, they weren't complying with the mandates, they weren't bowing down and worshiping the gods of this world, and so the threat came out in verse 13.

Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring those three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

And so they brought these men before the king and he spoke to them saying is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image that I set up?

Now, if you are ready at the time, and now if you are.

If you are ready at the time, you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp and the lyre and the sultry and the symphony of all kinds of music and like in other words, I'll give you one more chance.

Here's one last deadline.

I'm going to play some music and when you hear it, I want you know, you got to fall down and worship this image that I made, but if you don't, then I'm going to immediately throw you into the burning fiery furnace.

I did talk to a woman today that I was working with and she did get her deadline and she did not comply with what was asked of her in a mandate.

And she was given a deadline and she did not comply, and so they're casting her into a burning fiery furnace right now.

I know it feels like that for her, for this single mom who's trying to care for her family.

She feels like she's in a burning fiery furnace.

But then, but they had something to say about it.

And so Nebuchadnezzar said mock them.

Well, who is the God who will deliver you from my hands?

I'm going to put you in that fire, and who's going to deliver you?

And then Shadrach, Meshach and Bendigo answered, said to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that's the case, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.

In other words, if you throw us in there, he's going to deliver us.

And if it's not the case, if you don't throw us in, we still, we still let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

We will not.

We will not, no, no, no, we will not.

Here's the God we worship, the living God, the one true God.

We worship him and him alone.

And so y'all know what happened.

They threw him in the fire, Nebuchadnezzar.

And so some of you feel like you're in a fire.

Did God throw you in there?

No, God did not throw you in there.

The devil tried to throw.

He's throwing you in there, but God's using it and he will refine you.

And so the cool thing is, y'all know what happened.

These men, when they all, when it was all said and done, and they looked in, in verse 25, it says look, I see four men loose.

There was only three men.

They threw in Shadrach, Meshach Abednego, but wait a minute, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, there's another guy in there and they're walking in.

So they threw them in and they were bound, they threw them in and they were tied up and could not move.

But when they threw, when, when they looked in the furnace the second time, they saw wait a minute, they're walking around in the midst of the fire and they're not hurt.

And the form of the fourth one is like the Son of God.

I want you to remember that the fire did not hurt them.

It only burned off the thing that bound them, and Jesus was in there with them, like the Son of God.

And verse 27,.

All the the big, high sow and sows, the say traps, the administrators, the governors, the king's counselors, gathered together and they saw these men on whom, on whose bodies, the fire had no power, the fire had no power, the fire had no power.

The hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.

The smell of fire was not on them.

And so I want you to always remember this is time I have ministered this verse myself.

I have heard other people preach on it, but it is so appropriate right now.

I just want to want you to remember the smell of fire was not on it.

Their hair wasn't burned.

The only thing that burned was the ropes that bound them.

And so what?

What are we supposed to do?

How are we supposed to act when we get thrown in the fire, Whether it's the fire of circumstances, whether it's the fire of persecution, whatever kind of fire we're in, how are we supposed to act.

There's a mindset that we're supposed to have, and I'm gonna give you a hint.

It is not your first, it's not your first instinct, Cause your first instinct is to do all the wrong things, to have the complete mindset of defeat and sadness is our first.

That is just.

We're human still and we're set in that.

But I wanna read you out of James, chapter one, and this is a mindset we wanna be in.

My brethren, count it all joy.

Y'all knew I was gonna say that, didn't you?

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

But let patience have its perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives.

Listen to this liberally.

In other words, he gives you more than enough wisdom.

He is not trying to withhold his wisdom from you.

He's trying to give it more than you ask and he doesn't look down on you for it, and it will be given to him.

So all we do is ask God, but let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Well, let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord.

He's a double minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So there's some advice there.

There's some advice.

Then it goes on in verse 12 to say blessed is he is a man who endorsed temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

So when we look at that trial, will we see it and will we see the?

Will we see the pain?

Will we see the problem?

Will we see the mountain of difficulty and trouble, or will we see the crown of life that Jesus said we'd have?

We've got to count it all joy.

He said count it all joy.

So we've got to focus on something different than the fire itself.

We can't focus on that If Jesus is in there with us.

We can focus on him, can't we?

We've got to get our eyes off of the fire, off of the trial, and get them on Jesus.

So it says.

And then I'll go in a minute, I'll pick up right where I left off.

But there's my first point tonight is how do you act in the fire?

Well, number one you rejoice.

Count it all joy.

Count it all joy.

And then we read that in 1 Peter 8 earlier, that we have joy, unspeakable and full of glory, because we're just so in love with Jesus.

He's here with us in the fire.

We're not focused on that mess.

We're going to choose to look at this and we're going to choose to rejoice.

Choose to rejoice.

It's funny.

So where did I get the title of this message tonight?

And when trouble comes, you're golden.

I was remembering a story my dad tells and I lived.

We all lived through this in my family.

I was in the process of just about to graduate from A&M, so I was away at college when the big ugly, fiery financial trial really heated up 10 times hotter in my family and we had some financial struggles when I was a teenager growing up.

But God had really supplied.

He gave me a full scholarship to Texas A&M, which I'm still.

In awe that God did that for me.

It was a miracle.

It was a provisional miracle, I'm telling you awesome.

But so I'm already.

I'm feeling good.

I'm kind of insulated from this whole problem of financial hardship here with my dad, but he's a home builder and he has spent his career building houses for other people and at the end of his career he was building luxury, I mean fancy, nice homes for high level professionals were buying his homes and they were beautiful and they were highly sought after neighborhood and but his last inventory was foreclosed upon, could not sell it and there are some reasons for that and sometimes he'll go into that, but anyway.

So his professional life had just gone up in flames and it was out of those flames that God spoke to him and showed him he was gonna be founding a church, and so we know that story.

He tells it often, but in the and not sure it wasn't very long after that, maybe six months to a year later, God began to deal with them and show him look, I wanna build you a house.

You've built, you're building me a house, God's.

You founded a church.

You've been building other people's houses all this time and God was gonna supply our family with a home.

And so dad found the home and it was a process and he tells the story way better than I did.

What I wanna get to is so funny.

He went to the bank to get a mortgage and he expected here we had been renting a house for probably nine or 10 years renting a house.

We had been through the financial fire of fiery furnace.

And he goes to the bank to get a mortgage and he's expecting I just know that he was tempted to expect the worst.

And so when the mortgage, the loan officer came back with his paperwork he said Mr Griner, you're golden.

You're golden, you're approved by this house, You're, credit is golden.

And so my dad just jaw dropped open a little bit I know he tried to hide his complete amazement.

He said golden.

Well, thank you, yes, thank you, golden.

And it was such a shock to him but he's just golden.

And he never looked back.

They still live in that house today.

It's a blessing to our family, him and my mom.

But it was such a story of God I mean the smell of smoke, what an honor.

We went through 10 years of financial hardships.

That's why I love my dad, because he's so real when he preaches.

He talks about his financial difficulties, he talks about some of his mistakes that he made in business or in the spiritual side, where he missed God, and we can all learn from that.

And he's not beating himself up over it, he's free of all of that.

But boy, that fire sure did burn up all those things that bound us and to that point where, hey, God brought us through on the other side.

But, man, we were able to rejoice and we're still rejoicing today.

And whatever you're going through in that fire, you are not alone.

Jesus is with you.

There is a fourth one in the fire and he's like the Son of God.

He is like this it is the Son of God with you.

And that fire did not hurt.

There is no record that their hair was not burned.

They didn't even smell like smoke.

You know, if you have a gold ring, I have my Aggie ring right here.

Aggies out there say whoop.

So I have my Aggie ring.

It is not pure gold.

It is not 24 karat gold.

Why is that?

Because 24 karat gold is malleable.

It actually doesn't hold, you know.

It holds the shape of whatever it was, but then you know anyway.

So my ring is not pure gold, but it doesn't smell like fire.

Smell your gold, Ladies?

Do you have a gold engagement ring?

Do you have anything gold?

Do you have gold jewelry?

Does it stink?

Does it smell like fire?

No, the fire does not hurt the gold.

The fire only hurts the dross.

It allows the dross to be separated away.

So, and it does when you put gold in a furnace and it melts.

It does make that gold soft and eventually liquefied.

And then what can we do with that gold?

Once it's completely, when it's pure and it's liquid and we've taken the dross out, what can we do with that gold?

Well, people pour it into a mold, don't they?

They pour it into a mold and it will take on the shape of wherever whatever it's poured onto.

So why can, how can we rejoice in the middle of the fire?

We're gonna, because we're gonna come out shiny and we're gonna be coming out in the mold and character and shape of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's, we're gonna be formed to His image.

That's why we can rejoice in the middle of that fire and we don't have to focus on the pain and hardship of it.

God will deliver us out of it if we'll trust Him.

Okay, so then?

Then, that's our first point is just in your mind, in your mindset, when you're facing this trial and you're in this fire.

I want you to rejoice.

Number one, number two I want you to let.

This is hard.

We just gotta do the word right.

He wouldn't tell us this if it weren't possible to do Number two.

He says in James, one chapter one, verse four but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete.

Lacking nothing, lacking nothing, you know.

Before you went into the fire you thought you had it all made, but when you're in the fire you realize you are lacking some stuff.

Right, you realize, wait a minute, I've got some shortcomings here, some shortcomings, but look, God's with us in it so we can rejoice, and and so that means we can take, I mean, the ancient of days is standing with us, he is completely unshakable, he is completely eternal, he is completely unmovable, and so we're going to be all entwined up with Him, and so that makes us unmovable, that makes us eternal, that makes us unshakable, and if we can, then we can last through anything.

Our faith says we have the victory now, even though the flames are still all around us.

Our faith allows us to see the victory now, so that that our patience is assured, our patience is built in right.

So let it have its work.

Let it have its work.

You know, we had one of our sweet church members I love so much, a family in our church.

This happened about two.

Well, it's been two and a half years ago now, Our little Lana Marie was born here in the church and she was premature.

Her mom was carried her to 26 weeks gestation out of 40 weeks, you know, for a full-term baby is born at 40 weeks.

This is, and this mom is 26 weeks in and Lana Marie was born.

And I remember I was on vacation when I heard the news that this family had given birth.

And of course we are praying, we are, we are touched, we are battling for the life of this precious child.

And the scripture that came to my mind is she's perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

She's perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

And I kept saying that in my prayers, that she's perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

And then I was.

Then I remembered the first part of that verse and I went let patients have her perfect work, let patients have.

And then I knew, and I hoped I was wrong, but I knew, okay, this is not an instant, this is not one of those instant potatoes, this is one of those things we're going to have to, we're going to have to bear it out.

But it got me in the right mindset for the battle, where I prayed and I knew I saw the end of that and that's easy for me to say, but I I mean the family also I felt that strength coming from them and they had.

They had the strength to go through that, to go to the hospital every day, to to watch that baby battle through the various surgeries that it took, and today she is a healthy, happy, thriving young lady and we're still letting patients have her perfect work.

But what a work in progress is Lawnmere, and she's beautiful and she is such a blessing and she is the sweetest temperament, she is such a blessing to the church and to her family and so loved, and the devil could not steal her life and there's a call of God so strong on her.

So, but we got to let patients have her perfect work that we may be perfect and we want perfect and complete.

Right, we all want perfect and complete, lacking nothing but the patients part.

We got to get that down.

So that's just a mindset, right, Just a mindset.

Just weave ourselves into God and we can have it.

And then, and then it says it but look, in the middle of all this trial, you're going to wonder if you're doing something wrong.

You're going to wonder what you're missing.

You're going to have questions.

It says if you lack wisdom.

Ask of God.

So simple.

Can we just ask God?

We, sometimes we go to our best friend and we have to vent to our husband, or we have to vent to our doctor or accountant, or what can we do oh, this trial is so bad and just ask God, make him first, go to him first and ask him for his wisdom and he will give it.

But a lot of masking, not doubting.

So don't doubt.

If you, if you ask God for wisdom, you better believe that he's giving it to you and then not make that your confession.

So when the next time somebody asks you, well, what are you going to do?

You're facing this big ugly trial, what are you going to do?

Well, I believe you know.

Well, I have wisdom.

God's showing me, he's showing me the way I know.

I know what to do, I'll know exactly what to do when it's time to do it.

And so we just we start confessing, we start saying that we have that wisdom of God.

I have the wisdom of God on that matter.

I'm not going to say I don't know anymore.

I'm going to say I have God's wisdom on it.

Just, my spirit knows.

And then you know, privately, I can be praying and the Holy Ghost till what?

So what is in my spirit?

God already showed me the answer somewhere down in there, but I got it.

I got to get it up into my brain so I can do it Right.

So I'm just praying about that.

God's wisdom.

Let it rise up, Let it rise up in you, Let it rise up till you know exactly what to do, and and, and.

You're going to be right in the center of God's will and getting in, finding your way of escape.

And then okay.

So we ask for wisdom, we rejoice, we let patients complete us.

We ask for wisdom.

Number four we trust God and we don't blame God.

We trust Him, we don't blame Him.

So, because it says verse six, James one six, let Him ask in faith, with no doubting, Don't be a doubter.

If you're a doubter, it you're.

Now.

You're like oh, it says, you're like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

You're double minded and unstable If you're going to pray to God about something and then doubt Him at the same time.

Don't allow doubt and unbelief a foothold, a stronghold in your mind.

One of the re.

Let this fire go ahead and burn out all unbelief.

Let it.

Go ahead and take that away while while it's there, why don't, why don't you let it burn out the unbelief?

Because that way you can just clean to the Lord, knowing, trusting in Him, that he's giving you wisdom, that he's giving you the way of a state, and then don't blame Him for the trouble itself.

I see that all the time.

I know you do too.

It is not consistent with God's character to tempt you, to give you problems.

It would not be a good parent that taught a lesson to their kids by abusing the kids.

Right?

Your parent provides guidance for the child when they're in a difficult situation, in the form of advice, in the form of, you know, loving guidance.

But we don't abuse our children, and God is not a child abuser either.

Listen to this James 1, 13,.

Let no one say, when he is tempted, I'm tempted by God.

Stop it.

Stop saying God sent this.

Stop saying well, God won't put on me more than I can bear it.

No, no, he didn't put it on you, the devil did.

Don't say I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he Himself tempt anyone.

Where does temptation come from?

But each one is tempted when he has drawn away by His own desires and enticed, Then the desire has conceived.

When it gives, desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death.

If we've got death working in our life, sometimes we can look in the mirror and say I missed God on something.

I followed my flesh, I got into the lower nature and I failed to live up to God's higher nature.

And I'm sorry and we can repent and we can go the other way.

But do not blame God for your problems.

I would much rather look in the mirror and say I have something to do with that.

I have something to do with that.

You're not tempted by God.

That's not consistent with God's character.

When Jesus was tempted, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Remember the Bible says he was tempted of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights.

That's consistent with the devil's character to tempt you, to draw you away, to cause you to sin.

God loves you and that's not consistent with His character.

So he didn't sin this fire, but he will use it to refine you.

Amen, Don't blame Him.

Just that way you can trust Him through it.

And then my last point is out of 1 Peter Again, we're going to flip back there.

We started in 1 Peter Again.

The gold.

The gold can't be, it's in the fire.

It can't be harmed by the fire, it's just the dross is removed, but it sure does get real shiny, and I want you so.

The last point tonight is just shine If you're in the fire.

Shine with the love of God.

Shine with the love of God.

In 1 Peter 1, 22, it says since you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere love of the brethren, everybody says sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently and with a pure heart.

There's that word pure again.

Now our hearts are pure, our love is pure, Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

So God's word is eternal, it's forever settled in heaven, the Bible says.

And so we can trust God.

He is incorruptible and His love is now being perfected in us.

So we've been through a trial.

Now we can love people who are going through them, we can have compassion on other people, and I have noticed that that is sometimes when we're in a fire.

Let's just admit, sometimes we are tempted to be selfish, to have that little note of self pity in there where you know I'm going to meet somebody over there and they look like they have their life pretty well set, and so maybe we're tempted to not love them or care about them or see their problems, their difficulties, have any compassion on them, because we're too busy feeling sorry for ourselves.

And that is not the way.

That is not the way to win in the fire.

Go ahead and let the love of God still shine through.

You Know that other people are in the fire too.

They either came out of the fire or they're about to go in one, and they need the love of God to be shown through you.

You can.

You can do that.

You remember.

You're shinier now because the dross is being removed and so you're just reflecting more and more of the love of God and his face through your character.

So keep that in mind.

First, Timothy 1.5 in the Berean Study Bible says says this Paul tells Timothy the goal of our instruction, the entire reason we teach people, the entire goal of this, of the Bible here, is love that comes from a pure heart.

There's that word again a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith or faith unfaith.

The King James says faith that is not mixed with any doubt, love that is not mixed with any impurity, a conscience that is completely clear and clean before God, knowing that we've done everything we can do to serve him.

That is the goal, that is the end of this fire that we can have, the end of our and it says it in 1 Peter.

We're receiving the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

There is an end to this fire and it is in salvation.

It is way back where we get united with all of our inheritance that Jesus already bought and paid for us.

It includes, it is a complete and finished work, and so when we get through this fire, we're going to enjoy all of that inheritance.

So let's not be focused on the trouble right now.

Let's be focused on the end.

Amen, Because we know we win.

Then we know we win, we can have that joy through it all.

Amen.

So I hope that.

I hope that encouraging tonight.

We're all going through something.

We've been through some stuff these last couple of years and yet it's only fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.

Paul said, and so that's what it is.

It's the furtherance of the gospel in my life, in your life, in this church, in this ministry.

When scrutiny comes, when fire comes, when persecution comes, the devil has nothing in us and we're just shining brighter for the Lord, amen.