[0:00] You may be seated. I will say just what, man, first I want to say thank you this week. I hear that amen.
[0:12] What a week it's been. It's been a crazy week, a hard week. For us, for those of you that don't know, we were out this week just because of a death, sudden, unexpected death of my nephew.
[0:28] And a very difficult time just being there with my sister and her family and my extended family. But, oh, I cannot tell you, even this morning as I just think about it, just going through that with my sister, you have never seen grief like you see from a mother.
[0:52] And it doesn't matter the circumstances of the law. I'm sure he would love to be way more prepared for a message than just a couple of days. But he did the one-man band last week in leading worship and leading out in the message.
[1:08] And I'm just so thankful. Thankful for all of you for the support and encouragement that you gave during the week. Just a crazy time. And then while we're gone, there's, of course, an E4 tornado that sweeps through.
[1:22] And so we're sitting there going, what in the world is going on? And so we do pray for those people in Barnsdall, especially just a terrible, terrible loss there.
[1:35] And a lot of destruction there. And for many of you who were inconvenienced here in Bartlesville, lost some things here. But we are so grateful because as I looked at the picture of that map, are y'all with me?
[1:52] The arrow of the map as it went through Barnsdall on the news, the map, the arrowhead is pointing at my house. So we're watching from Georgia.
[2:03] And I'm watching the news and I'm like, oh my soul, what is going on? And I'm literally, the line ends on my house where the arrowhead is.
[2:13] So I just thought, wow, praise the Lord that he brought in a storm cell right behind it. It took the energy, took the wind out of it. It skipped right over us.
[2:25] Otherwise, it could have been an incredible disaster right here in Bartlesville. And we should thank the Lord for that. We should. I think of that especially surviving those kinds of things.
[2:41] It comes to my mind every time about my great uncle. He was a merchant marine, which down on the Gulf Coast, he was in commercial shipping and those kinds of things.
[2:55] So out on the water a lot. He had this little, you know, curl, twisty thing on his mustache and kind of a tall guy, very dignified guy.
[3:08] And so he did in his big boat, wanted to save his boat in some way, not knowing what that storm would do. And so he wrote it out. And the only reason that I knew about this, now mind you, he was 80 years old at this point.
[3:22] The only reason I knew about this was because when a news crew was surveying the damage and they were trying to frame the shot of this, the rubble and destruction that the storm brought, where a very large boat had landed on top of a house and was sitting on top of all the debris so that the newscaster could stand there with that in the background.
[3:48] As they are filming the interview, my uncle emerges from the boat with no shirt on and is scratching his head and walking around the boat in the background of this news interview.
[4:06] And so the cameraman, of course, realizes somewhat into the interview what's happening. And then they end up interviewing my uncle on the news. And so I've got the link to that.
[4:18] I'll have to post it on Facebook so that you can see. But just an incredible scene that you could imagine, right? And some of you may feel that as you were hiding in your basement this week or this last week or in the closet or in the bathtub.
[4:35] And if you make it through something like that, the news people will ask you, like they do, what were you thinking? What did you see? Did you see the tornado?
[4:45] Did you see the hurricane? Did you see the surges come in? And what happened when it overwhelmed the boat when you found yourself there? How did you survive?
[4:55] What did you do? All the questions. How did you steer the boat? What would you tell others in the situation? If they find themselves in a similar situation? What would you tell them?
[5:07] What would you tell them? The declaration of Jesus being Savior, the Christ, the Lord there at the beginning and the opening of the letter. Just giving you just a glimpse of what is the foundation beneath his feet.
[5:23] Why is it that he's enabled to be so strong in the storms that have come in his life? And what advice is he going to give you as he's interviewed, so to speak, by the Holy Spirit so that we can have the account of what has happened?
[5:40] What is it that we can glean from this in this epistle of James, which is referred to as the Proverbs of the New Testament, the words of wisdom. And this is what we get, because he, having seen Jesus as Savior, turning from his sin and seeing him as Christ, the anointed one whom he believes in and as Lord whom he follows, he's speaking not just as a sibling, but as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[6:11] And not just as a saint, but as a satisfied customer. Right? Some of you are here this morning and you are facing storms.
[6:22] Some of those storms are on the horizon. Some of you have gotten a warning that there's a storm coming. Maybe it's coming this week.
[6:35] Some of you have found yourself in the eye of the storm and you're hunkering down for whatever reason in your life because there are things happening that are unexplainable and devastating.
[6:51] You might be asking yourself, even as you emerge from such a storm, why should I even hold on as you look at the destruction around you and the pain of some of those things?
[7:05] Why should I hold on? Why? What is there for me to hold on to? It costs so much sometimes just to go through life. Amen.
[7:15] Amen. Amen. But, and I think of that especially, I know my sister is probably watching this morning, and I think of that for her as she's going through this, as we walked through this together this week.
[7:31] And just the hurt, I mean the pain and the devastation in her life, and just asking herself, why, why, why? And even afterwards, why should I hold on?
[7:44] Why should I do what's right? Why should I follow Jesus? What's the benefit of this? This is so hard. The wind and the waves are pummeling you, and you're asking yourself, is it worth it?
[7:59] Why do bad things happen to good people? Sometimes there seems to be no good reason for it, but then we come to the letter of James. And my encouragement to all of us, including myself in this, is really to let God speak through James in this.
[8:17] Because this is the word of God. This is God revealing himself to us through Holy Scripture. This is not just advice from a counselor. It's not even just the testimony of somebody that survived.
[8:30] But God, through James, is revealing things about himself. Things that we need to hear, things that we need to be reminded of, so that in the storm, or as the storm's coming, or in the aftermath of the storm, you can be reminded of why it's important to hold on to Jesus.
[8:47] And I'll give three things that I'm gleaning from the text, because these times as we look at the Scripture are not just, it's not just me coming up with a great idea for a sermon.
[8:59] What I'm trying to do is extract from the text what the word is saying. And so the points of my sermon are coming from the text. And the text today is James chapter 1 and verse 12.
[9:15] So let's stand together as we read this. As we hear God reveal himself through his word, and as we think through how we can respond to that in faith.
[9:28] James chapter 1 and verse 12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.
[9:44] For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised, which God has promised to those who love him.
[9:59] Father, we thank you for your word. As we hone in on this verse this morning, we pray that as you reveal yourself through this text, that unbelievers will see their need for Jesus.
[10:15] They'll see that in this difficult life, in the trials and everything that life has to offer, the hardships, whatever, that there is an anchor that they need to hold through those storms.
[10:28] And for believers this morning, Lord, I just pray for all of us that we would be reminded to hold on to Jesus, that there are reasons for this in the text, that we hold on to you because you have something for us in this.
[10:43] And there's a purpose. We may not even understand this side of eternity. And so, God, we pray that you would just be with us to that end this morning.
[10:54] We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. And may we be seated. So three things that I'm extracting this morning from the text, and I'll give those things to you and then we'll come back to them.
[11:08] So if you want to take notes on your bulletin or in your Bible or whatever, and you want to write those things down just to look back at later, three directions that we're going to get from James about the trials that we're facing.
[11:24] One, you can lean into trials if Jesus is behind you. One, you can lean into trials if Jesus is behind you.
[11:40] Two, you can live through trials if Jesus is before you. You can live through trials if Jesus is before you.
[11:52] And this is important for us, I think, because we have to keep in mind that Jesus has never promised us that we would avoid every trial of life.
[12:27] We have to remind ourselves of that. He's never promised that. But what He has promised is that He will be with His people through those trials. Every test, every trial that you can experience in your life, God has promised that He will be with you through trials.
[12:47] He's been talking about trials. In this first section, He's been talking about trials.
[12:58] And in one quick reading, we could just read through this and be done with it. But if we look very closely at it, we can crawl through this over several weeks, right? And just really unpack it.
[13:09] So now we're coming to the conclusive part of this. Verse 12 is really drawing the conclusion of all these first verses after He established the fact that He is a servant of the Lord Jesus, that He sees Him as Savior and Lord, that He sees Him as Master of His life.
[13:32] And so verse 12 comes back conclusively after that example of poverty and riches and the challenge for all of us in that, that we can find joy no matter what the trial is, no matter what the situation is.
[13:51] Because something is produced in us when we go through trials that will not be produced any other way. Sovereign God knows what you need.
[14:07] And those trials and those circumstances of your life have to be seen from this perspective that God has allowed these things for a purpose. That's what we believe as followers of Jesus, that all things work together for the good of those called according to His purpose.
[14:25] All things. The trials, the blessings, the good things, the bad things, everything. And we kind of get this, I think we get this, because we all understand those kinds of things.
[14:38] that's what we try to think. No guts, no glory. Pain is weakness leaving the body, right?
[14:49] I mean, that's what we try to tell ourselves. It doesn't last very long for me in the gym, right? Weakness, you know, that's just weakness leaving the body, right?
[15:00] And I'm like, man, I'm going home. james is indicating some divine revelation in this though that that that little nugget of truth that we say and those phrases that we throw around really actually is something that's revealed about the way god works and and so he says uh in in verse 12 blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial remaining steadfast under is actually just one word uh it means to stay behind to stand still to await uh to wait for something specifically in terms of a soldier waiting for an expected hostile attack to to stand back and be ready and then endure that attack so so it's you think of uh suffering through something bearing up under something uh so he says blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial uh it is a word that's used especially of enduring evils of all kinds so it's figuratively used that way a lot in classical greek and in biblical greek even to endure trials uh it as one commentator said it covers courageous active resistance to that hostile attack and in this sense it's being used here in the sense of expectation and waiting and enduring it like the alamo right and these guys uh santa anna's coming through with his forces and these people take a position and they expect it they're waiting for it and they endure it at cost right and and what are they enduring as he describes it here well he uses the word again trials trials uh he said in the first few verses there that these are not just persecution although they specifically are enduring religious persecution something that we should be prepared for as believers right but it's uh as he described not just that he said this actually applies to all kinds of trials so so that he said it in verse two count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various various kinds so so all kinds of trials every trial that comes into your life every difficult situation every hardship that you endure there is the possibility of doing that joyfully not because those things are joyful in themselves but because of what's on the other side of this what you're going to learn from enduring through this there's something you're going to learn from this the trial is a word that we use to describe uh uh sometimes a child having to listen to a preacher speak right uh sometimes it's the just difficult things that you're going through sometimes we use that word in medical terms right uh trial medicines experimentations to see if it'll work trial drugs our kids have gone through cancer and uh there are all kinds of trial drugs that they're trying to use to try to see what works and to see if the the person will endure it right to see if they'll make it through we don't know if it works or not i mean all the children on the floor above carly when she was at saint jude all i think all but one maybe the one that we knew passed away just recently but i don't know that any of those in the floor above her survived they're trying things they want to see it's a test a trial
[19:10] and when it works it's great and people will talk to the patient and say well what did you do how did that work what how did you feel what did you know what did it look like they do testing on them to see what what effect it had in their body and and what it was what it was good for what worked what didn't work and you make it through that trial and you're blessed right you consider yourself blessed you learn the blessing of god just just even as you make it through something like that and you're on the other side and all of a sudden you appreciate god a whole lot more right you appreciate life a whole lot more there's things that you've picked up there's things that you've learned because of the trial and here he says what is on the other side of this what you what you pick up is the blessing the the macarius of god the blessing from god happy circumstances now i'm i'm happy i'm blessed because i endured to the other side i i learned to endure through the hardship and because i endured through on the other side of this there was blessing because jesus is in my life he was behind me i have the foundation of christ in my life i have a relationship with jesus that's real and he carried me through i held on to jesus through the storm that came that what job said right in job 19 he's in the this is not at the end of his trial even he is having faith about halfway through in chapter 19 in verse 25 when he said and yet i i in spite of all my troubles in spite of all the difficulties in spite of all the hardships and the arrows of the almighty that have struck me my soul is poisoned etc etc and yet i know that my redeemer lives and that and that at last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh i shall see god whom i shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another i have faith that's matured and it's it's the kind of faith that enables me to hold on to jesus because that faith that i found in jesus is what i'm holding on to through the trial and now i'm testing him to see if the anchor holds and i have learned through through this and it's giving me grounds for rejoicing at the end trials are meant to test our faith it produces perseverance it leads to maturity and completeness of our faith that's why you hold on as hard as it is as difficult as it is as challenging as the storm is as you're hunkered down and you're like i am not going to make it through this i i i can't see any way out it's in those moments when you have come to the realization that you have nothing else in this world faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted the faith that's been tested so paul told the corinthian church even in a personal trial that paul was going through he said the lord said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore paul said i will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that christ's power may rest on me jesus is behind you
[23:12] proverbs 3 is is words of wisdom from solomon that told us uh in a similar way trust in the lord with all your heart do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths when you don't know what to do when you can't see what to do when there's nothing to hold on to you hold on to jesus you lean not on your own understanding you lean on him and you get the promises of scripture because christ is with you and he's behind you that isaiah said in 40 chapter 41 verse 10 fear not for i am with you do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my righteous right hand and so you you just think of just learning to trust him as you're going through trials because there's blessing on the other side and you've got to learn this you've got to endure it the blessings on the other side you can learn through trials if jesus is behind you number two you can live through trials if jesus is before you when he says in in verse 12 for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life or wins conditional statement right there is a crown for those that endure and this is this is important for us we have to remember as believers that first we're guaranteed to persevere this is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints we are going to make it aren't you glad right uh some people come to faith in christ and they're like well i just i don't as they're contemplating it they say well i just i just don't know if i could do it guess what you can't you can't you can't do it i i just don't want to i don't want to make that decision because i i may fail i may not be able to hold it up i may not be able to follow through guess what you're so right you can't you can't do it i promise you you cannot do it if you try to do it in your strength and try to maintain yourself in some way like you're going to preserve your salvation guess what this the scripture has some news for you you can't but jesus can jesus can it's a conditional statement there is a guarantee of my perseverance and at the same time there's another aspect of my perseverance that i am at the same time commanded to persevere so in our statement of faith even in chapter 17 it talks about in our 1689 those books are back there on the table even if you have lost yours you know uh but you might refer to chapter 17 where it gives some great clarity i read through it was just so encouraged in chapter 17 it's titled perseverance of the saints and it said we may fall into grievous sins and continuing them for a time due to the temptation of satan or the world the strength of corruption remaining in us and in so doing we incur god's displeasure and grieve the holy spirit graces and comforts become impaired our hearts are hardened our consciences are wounded but those who accept those god has accepted in the beloved called and sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect can neither totally nor finally fall from a state of grace they will certainly persevere in grace to the end and be eternally saved they will persevere and it gives the references of scripture to show that
[27:15] he goes on to say even though many storms and floods arise and beat against us yet these things will never be able to move us from the foundation and rock to which we have been anchored in faith the felt sight of the light and love of god may be clouded may be obscured for a time through unbelief and temptation of satan and yet god is still the same we will certainly be kept by the power of god for salvation where we will enjoy the purchased possession of it for we are engraved on the palms of his hand and our names have been written in the book of life from all eternity past oh man that's good man that gives you confidence that's the guarantee and yet because of that guarantee as i am in those situations i am commanded now to persevere and i have the guarantee of it i have the promises of god for it i've got i've got jesus behind me and i've got jesus before me it's the promise of god i'm going to make it through no matter how difficult it is hebrews 13 36 says not only do we have that promise to stand on but you need to persevere so that when you have done the will of god you will receive what he has promised not just in heaven but here the promises of god as you're sanctified as you grow as you find joy in suffering as you find maturity of your faith as you stand on the other side of trials can you all hear me to be on the other side of the trial and know that you have seen god hold you and you watched him carry you and some of you this morning have been through those trials where you were dragged through the barbed wire of it and just mangled and you got to the other side just barely holding on to jesus the whole way amen some of y'all need to amen a whole lot better than that because you know what you've been through you've proved him tested uh it gets the stamp of approval on it it has been tested now it is you can see that it's genuine this is this is the assurance of salvation right this is where you trust god and it's not you've been saved you know that but the assurance comes when you when you make it through these things and you get to the other side and you've proved him now it is the guarantee of your faith it's the it's the proving of your faith you've got the trophy of grace you've got a crown of glory because you made it through i mean i'm not talking about like covet vaccines right untested can i get an amen okay not tried and true we don't know we don't know if they'll work or not we don't know what the side effects are actually maybe i guess they did but whatever christian people running around telling you you're unloving because you didn't take a vaccine right and now all of a sudden mysterious deaths myocarditis all these things complications why because it wasn't tested i didn't know if that would work or not we're the monkeys being tested on right what what james is saying is when you make it through a trial and you get to the other side of the trial then you can put a stamp on it because a faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted when you drive over that bridge over 70 over highway 75 uh how many i don't know but i guarantee there were a hundred thousand tests they had to go through before that bridge could be certified
[31:19] and open up because we don't want to drive over bridges that aren't proven right oh i i don't i was in thailand uh with a friend and uh he was showing me where he was serving and we had to ride you know in a four-wheel drive through this area and he told me yeah there's sometimes i have to ride an elephant up this hill and there were times we would get out and he'd say could you go out and walk across that bridge like no he's like no no we have to you just if you'll just get out in the middle of it and just kind of show me the tension of it like absolutely not i am not getting out there he's like no it's we do this all the time you have to get out there because some of the bridges won't hold my car up oh good night when you have stood the test stamp and now i can drive full speed over that thing i don't even think about it i i can i can go over that bridge because i know that bridge is going to hold me up and i've heard the testimony of other people who have driven across that bridge and they've been on that bridge and and they say yeah i drove across it was really neat there's an extra lane on each side now it's really cool you can you can really zip through there now and get in your lane and it well i didn't even ask did it hold you up because they're telling me from the other side the crown so blessing is coming because jesus is behind me and there is a crown before me i'm jesus is with me and he's behind me and he's before me i'm coming through this life i'm guaranteed to make it to the other side and jesus is before me the author and hear me the finisher of my faith he started it he finishes it he began a good work in me he will complete a good work in me he's going to finish the work that he started he's going to carry me to the other side and i can trust him and when i do every child that i go through i can say praise jesus he's been proven again peter said first peter 1 6 in all of this persecution in all of this greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief of various kinds of trials peter said the same thing james is saying you've had to suffer various kinds of trials grief agony these have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise and glory and honor when jesus christ is revealed the crown hold on to jesus he's behind you hold on to jesus because he's before you even as we read in revelation not too long ago revelation 2 10 do not be afraid of what you're about to suffer i tell you the devil will put some of you into prison and test you test trial same word and you will suffer persecution for 10 days be faithful even to the point of death jesus said and i will give you the victor's crown jesus himself the victor the laurel wreath on the winner i'll place it on your head
[35:21] every tear i wipe away every tear every trial every difficulty every hardship because i'm lord everybody's not a winner right i mean our generation probably 10 15 years ago it was the ymca thing everybody's winner yeah everybody gets trophy nobody nobody feel left out so everybody gets the trophy it's not how things work that's not real life number one and and and just to be clear that's not how this works in heaven either there is actually reward perseverance is rewarded there's a crown there there's reward for obedience at the judgment seat of christ everything good and bad to be brought out while i'm here i've got to keep in mind that all that's coming hold on the you're riding on the airplane and the pat the pilot comes on this is your pilot speaking we're about to go through some turbulence you might want to put your luggage in the overhead compartment you might want to put your bag beneath the seat in front of you make sure your seat belts are buckled turbulence is coming and then when the turbulence comes you're like ah lord i'm so sorry you're getting your life right you're confessing every sin you're talking to the person next to you you're gonna make it through jesus is before you and so the psalmist can say king david even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i'll fear no evil for you are with me and that comes to that third point you can live through the trials of jesus before you you're going to endure you've got something to keep your eyes on and you can love god through the trials of jesus with you this is what mature faith looks like which god verse 12 which god has promised to those who love him you're going to make it through this is the promise to those that love god the promise there is to declare to do something with implication of obligation and carrying it out right our generation has forgotten what a promise is we don't we don't know what a promise is you look at marriage and our generation doesn't know what a promise is right uh through better or for worse right we promise and and worse comes and we're like you know it just springs apart god's promises are not like our promises there's an obligation of of carrying it out this phrase is often used in association with money in greek usage uh so it's talking about an obligation a promise like a promissory note that's a dollar bill is a promissory note it's based upon the guarantee of the united states government that'll scare you to death right sometimes i would run my mouth as a young person i mean i don't do that now but i mean before i mean when i was lost uh and somebody might say say something like don't let your mouth write checks that you're behind can't cash right something like that uh you you something
[39:23] you can't fulfill you're saying things you can't fulfill uh brandy used to work in the hot checks division at the uh you know in lawton in the da's office you know people wrote a check they don't intend to fit they don't intend to to pay for it they know there's not money in the account they write a check they give the check to you as a the grocery store or as a some kind of merchant you get the check it's a it's a promise that you're going to pay for what you have just bought and and thousands of drawer drawers of thousands and thousands of checks hot checks all over the city written all the time because people write those things with no guarantee and what james is saying is god's not like you aren't you glad promise trials aren't easy hard sometimes you're left in the aftermath wondering why should i hold on my sister who's probably watching this morning i know she's struggling through this but she's holding on noel my nephew's girlfriend struggling why should i hold on some of you going through things in your life right now and you're like why should i even hold on battling addiction say i can't beat this thing you can't beat that thing jesus can beat this thing he can't he'll carry you through he'll get you to the other side you you keep laying it at his feet it is it is a terrible thing that's happened in your body where drugs or alcohol or sex or whatever it is that you've gotten addicted to has broken the connections in your brain they're broken and i'm telling you medicine is not going to heal that but jesus can heal that and i've seen people get through these things and make it to the other side of the bridge and they're saying i made it to the other side there's a crown on this side i'm telling you keep holding on to jesus don't let this storm get you going through a relationship breakup of divorce or whatever it is and you and you know i can't make it through this i can't go through this this is so hard and you get to the other side of this and i'm telling you i know people that have made it through this and they held on to jesus and and and in their life there's a stamp proven over and over so god's revealed something to us this morning you can lean into your trials and learn from them because jesus is behind you if you know jesus you can live through trials if jesus is before you if you know christ you can keep loving god through the trials because jesus is with you in the middle of it i have so many promises to stand on i just went through it just was thinking through what are the what are the things that i stand on that are promises of god well my eternal life right i've got eternal life in christ jesus a promise from god he's going to hold on to me uh john 3 16 god so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have have have everlasting life i have it it's a promise from god i'm holding on to that i've got forgiveness from god if we confess our sins first john 1 9 he's faithful and just to
[43:29] forgive us and cleanse us and purify us from all unrighteousness it's a promise from god well i failed you got a promise hold on to him through this get to the other side of this grow through this let your your faith mature through this he'll prove himself to you again and again i've got his presence with me deuteronomy 31 6 reminded us be strong and courageous do not be afraid or terrified because of your enemy for the lord your god goes with you he will never leave you nor forsake you he's with you you're not alone i feel so alone in this i feel so by myself you are not by yourself not in your sickness not in your loneliness even it's promised peace jesus said john 14 27 peace i leave with you my peace i give you i do not give as the world gives do not let your hearts be troubled do not be afraid i give you peace you're troubled by depression you're troubled by all these things anxieties that just overwhelm you guess what jesus brings peace he'll get you to the other side of this strength and help in times of trouble isaiah 41 10 do not fear i'm with you do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you i'll help you up i will uphold you with my righteous right hand even victory over death thanks be to god he gives us victory through our lord jesus christ first corinthians 15 57 nothing there's nothing to keep me from him what shall separate us from the love of christ paul said romans 8 35 shall tribulation is that going to separate you shall tribulation now why don't you why don't we do a little responsive reading here okay i'll say shall this and you all say no okay all right let's do that okay so what shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation shall shall distress shall persecution shall famine shall nakedness shall danger shall sword nothing nothing no no no no no our kids are looking at one no and all these things we're more than conquerors through him who loved us for i am sure paul said that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height or depth nor any other thing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus we're gonna make it hold on to jesus through the storm it's what faith enables i'll close it with this i i was thinking of a song as i was as i was wrapping that up a song a lot of times songs will come to mind you know as i'm thinking through that what do we sing that really just you know touches on that there's a there's a song immediately as i was wrapping it up this the song he will hold me fast came to mind he will hold me fast when i fear my faith will fail christ will hold me fast when the tempter would prevail christ will hold me fast i could never keep my hold through life's fearful path for my love is often cold he must hold me fast
[47:30] those he saves are his delight christ will hold me fast precious in his holy sight he will hold me fast he'll not let my soul be lost his promises shall last but by him at such a cost he will hold me fast for my life he bled and died christ will hold me fast justice has been satisfied he will hold me fast raised with him to endless life he will hold me fast till our faith is turned to sight when he comes at last can i get an amen father we come to you this morning we just need to hold on to you pray for my sister annie chuck and aaron noel everybody really directly affected and all the rest of the family i pray for them god that they would just hold on as the questions come that they would hear revelation from you remind them that they can learn from this through the storm because jesus is behind them you can learn you're going to lead them through it you're before them and they can love you through the storm for everyone suffering everyone struggling everyone challenged today i pray lord that you would just remind them that it's all because of jesus so if some don't know you today if some have not