WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.240 And we're going to think this morning about the two great tests that we find here in our chapter, 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:16.120 two tests that you and I will face repeatedly in our own lives, tests that will reveal a lot 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:24.300 about ourselves, about our hearts, about our relationship with God. These tests that may come 00:00:24.300 --> 00:00:32.299 sneak up on us by surprise. Just like this raiding party that came to Ziklag, we may find ourselves 00:00:32.299 --> 00:00:41.340 all of a sudden in the heat of testing where our very foundations are shaken. One of these tests, 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:50.320 we will see, comes connected with our pains, but one comes connected to our pleasures. David and 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:56.520 his men in the course of this chapter, they face these two tests. And while David's men fail, 00:00:57.159 --> 00:01:02.420 not just once but twice, we see David, God's chosen king, who passes the test. 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:11.099 So today we need to think about what are these tests? How does David pass the tests? And how can we? 00:01:11.099 --> 00:01:20.739 So what are these tests? There are two. The first is the test of suffering. And it's here in the first 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:28.639 six verses. Just to catch us up to speed with David's story so far, a number of months ago, 00:01:28.759 --> 00:01:36.359 he was anointed to be the next king of Israel. He has won a great victory over the giant Goliath and 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:42.819 over the Philistines. But then he finds himself being hotly pursued by his own king, King Saul, 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:51.680 because of jealousy. In chapter 27, things are so tough for David that he actually runs to the king 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:59.719 of the Philistines, discovering that it's safer to live with an enemy rather than to be near to King Saul. 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:06.780 In chapter 29, just before the one that we read, the Philistines were going to line up in battle 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:12.079 against Israel. And some of the king of Philistines' men said, we're not taking David with us. 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:17.659 And so he is spared from having to fight his own people. And he's sent back to Ziklag, 00:02:18.139 --> 00:02:23.240 interestingly, a city that was given to him by the king of the Philistines. Okay, so that's where we are. 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:28.840 And then we get to chapter 30. And in verses 1 and 2, did you notice that our narrator, 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:36.759 the storyteller, he prepares us for what's coming? There are things that we learn that David doesn't 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:45.659 know. So we learn, whodunit. We know that the Amalekites have come and they've raided and burned 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:53.939 Ziklag. We also know what has happened. We know that all the women and children have been taken, 00:02:53.939 --> 00:03:01.639 but none have been killed. So we know that there is hope. But David and his troops, 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:09.039 they don't have access to that information. So what happens is they make this 60-mile hike 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:17.939 towards Ziklag, and they are confronted in verses 3 and 4 with destruction and distress. 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:27.740 They found the city destroyed by fire, their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:39.780 men wept aloud, warriors weeping on the streets with the smell of the burned-out buildings confronted by 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:52.039 empty homes and empty beds. Everything is destruction and distress. Here is an extreme test of suffering. 00:03:53.479 --> 00:04:01.000 But it's true to say whenever we experience a measure of pain and grief, setback or disappointment, 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:09.139 some form of difficulty, we may find ourselves here. How will I face this? Where am I going to find 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:19.539 hope? How will faith help me in this moment? We see two responses to the test of suffering here in 00:04:19.539 --> 00:04:27.360 verse 6. If you look there with me, David's men. We discover David was greatly distressed because here's 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:33.500 how his men respond. The men were talking of stoning him because their spirits are bitter. 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:41.620 They're ready to stone the Lord's anointed. They have bravely followed David for months. They've been with 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:47.240 him at his side, but now they turn on their leader because their spirits have become bitter. 00:04:48.939 --> 00:04:52.860 It reminds us that when the test of suffering comes, 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:58.480 we have to think, will I turn to God and to God's King, 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:08.939 will I turn from God or even turn on God in bitterness? Remember the parable that Jesus told 00:05:08.939 --> 00:05:16.080 in Matthew 13 of the man who went out to sow some seed? And when the seed fell on the rocky soil, 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:24.540 the seed of God's Word had no root. So when trouble or persecution comes, those people fall away. 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:36.140 Suffering can reveal bitterness in our hearts. In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, we meet many hobbits. 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:42.280 One of those hobbits is Mary. At one point in the story, Mary finds himself near to death. 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:49.580 He is being exposed to the black breath of the ringwraiths, and he lies unconscious in the houses 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:57.659 of healing. And his friend Pippin anxiously waits by his bedside. But then King Aragorn comes to the 00:05:57.659 --> 00:06:07.379 houses of healing, and he encourages Pippin. He says this of Mary, his grief he will not forget, 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:17.180 but it will not darken his heart. It will teach him wisdom. What we see from David's men 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:24.519 is that their grief darkened their hearts. And maybe we recognize something of that in our own 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:32.400 experience. Panic and terror, darkness. Perhaps we turn inwards. Perhaps we lose hope. Perhaps we 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:40.939 look around for someone to blame. We know that Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble, 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:47.399 but take heart, I have overcome the world. But sometimes when suffering comes, we can't hear 00:06:47.399 --> 00:06:57.899 that, we can't believe it, and we lose hope. David is different. How does David show wisdom 00:06:57.899 --> 00:07:05.079 in the test of suffering? Look with me at verse 6, the last sentence, but, here's the difference, 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:12.500 but David found strength in the Lord his God. So remember, David the king, he's not immune. 00:07:12.939 --> 00:07:18.759 He has the same suffering. It's his city that is burning. It's his wives, his family that have 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:24.519 been captured. The same physical, emotional griefs belong to him, but David found strength 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:31.959 in the Lord his God. It's a lovely phrase. It's not the first time that we come across this phrase 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:40.459 in 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 23, we meet it for the first time. David has been on the run 00:07:40.459 --> 00:07:49.439 from Saul, and Jonathan, King Saul's son, risking everything, comes to David, and it says there in 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:56.919 chapter 23 that Jonathan helped David find strength in the Lord. What did that look like? How did this 00:07:56.920 --> 00:08:04.740 take place? And if we can learn this, then we learn important truths for ourselves, but we also learn 00:08:04.740 --> 00:08:10.540 something important about Christian friendship when others are struggling and suffering. Because what we 00:08:10.540 --> 00:08:18.600 discover in chapter 23 is that Jonathan directed David to God's word of promise, which for David meant, 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:25.400 remember, remember, David, you certainly will be king. Jonathan invited David to trust in God's mercy 00:08:25.400 --> 00:08:32.779 and God's faithfulness. Your enemies, they will not succeed. God will look after you. 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:42.440 And so strength for David is found in trusting in God's word of promise. 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:53.300 Charles Spurgeon, the famous 19th century preacher down in London, said that believers are to claim 00:08:53.300 --> 00:09:01.960 God's promises, and not only that, we are to learn to find just the right promise to suit a particular 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:08.200 occasion. It speaks to us of the value of knowing and meditating on the word of God. 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:14.800 Now, it's like going to the chemist or going to the doctor when there is something wrong with us. 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:18.640 We need just the right medicine. We need just the right prescription. 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:28.879 As Christians, when we have a wounded heart, when we know suffering in our lives, what is it that we need? 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:32.020 We need the medicine of the gospel. 00:09:32.019 --> 00:09:44.740 We need to have in front of us the glory of Christ Jesus, our great King, to recognize the beauty and 00:09:44.740 --> 00:09:54.720 the power of His saving love, to understand the reality of His steadfast love, to understand that 00:09:54.720 --> 00:10:00.879 He is present with us always, and that His power is for us. 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:11.539 We need the promise of the gospel. We need the promises of God's word for that first test, the test of suffering. 00:10:12.620 --> 00:10:18.659 Now, we need to think about the second test. It's very different. It's the test of success. 00:10:19.399 --> 00:10:24.879 But before we get to the test itself, we need to notice some details in the story. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:30.559 So, as the story begins, it continues, having found strength in the Lord his God. 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:37.200 What's the next thing that David does? Verse 7 and 8, David goes to God in prayer. 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:45.299 David said to Abiathar, bring the ephod. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue? Will I overtake? 00:10:45.299 --> 00:10:53.379 And the Lord promises success. What does David do in this crisis? He takes the crisis, he takes his cries 00:10:53.379 --> 00:11:05.379 to his God and Father. And he receives this answer. And it will be God's word that directs his steps 00:11:05.379 --> 00:11:10.919 and his actions. It's God's word that directs his response to the suffering. 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:19.600 And it's wonderful to think of the way God directed. You know, David didn't know who was responsible. 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:25.299 He didn't know, should I go north, south, east, or west? But God directed his steps. 00:11:25.299 --> 00:11:34.659 That takes us to the pursuit. Having seen David's prayer, then from verse 9 to 16, we have the pursuit. 00:11:36.099 --> 00:11:41.199 And I think it's important for us as we consider the pursuit, just to think about the two different 00:11:41.199 --> 00:11:49.099 exhausted groups that we meet here. So, in verse 10, we find that 200 of David's men 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:56.720 were too exhausted to cross the valley. Some ways that's no surprise when you think about 00:11:56.720 --> 00:12:04.019 their physical, all that they've had to do physically with the big hike, all that they've 00:12:04.019 --> 00:12:10.980 experienced emotionally, seeing their city destroyed, their families gone. So, 200 are too 00:12:10.980 --> 00:12:18.639 exhausted and they're left behind. But they'll return to our story. But then in verse 11, there's 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:26.519 another exhausted man, there's an Egyptian who had been the slave of an Amalekite who was abandoned 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:36.240 because he was ill. And think again about the providence of God directing David and the 400 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:45.159 to meet this one guy in the middle of nowhere. God's in charge. And this man gives directions 00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:54.480 because he was part of the raiding party. But you know, before we move from this, just to recognize 00:12:54.480 --> 00:13:02.879 the contrast that our storyteller draws, did you notice how cruel his Amalekite master was? 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:09.299 This man got sick. So, he's abandoned. He's thrown over. He's good for nothing. 00:13:11.059 --> 00:13:16.840 But how does David treat him? He shows care, doesn't he? He gives him food. He gives him water. 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:22.840 He wants his strength to be restored. Remember, Samuel is pointing us towards the king 00:13:22.840 --> 00:13:28.840 that God's people need. We need this kind of king. We need Jesus, a good and gracious king. 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:36.200 So, we've seen the prayer, and then there's the pursuit, and then there's the plunder. In verse 16, 00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:43.300 there's the party of the Amalekites because of the great amount of plunder. But then verses 17 to 20, 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:49.820 the attention shifts. Now, if this was a movie, if this was being recorded as a movie, you can imagine 00:13:49.820 --> 00:13:59.460 the director changing his camera from being wide-angle to see the Amalekite troops spread across 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:07.100 the fields or the wide angle of David and his 400 men. Now, we've got a close-up. Now, attention is 00:14:07.100 --> 00:14:15.880 drawn on one man. And who's at the center of the story? It's David. Listen to how our author does it. 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:23.879 Verse 17, David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. Verse 18, David recovered 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:32.860 everything the Amalekites had taken. End of verse 19, David brought everything back so that by the end, 00:14:33.500 --> 00:14:40.240 his men are saying, this is David's plunder. The spoils of war, it's because of David. 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:48.340 David, they're not wanting to throw stones anymore. They want to throw a party because they've known 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:55.120 success. And this brings us to test two, the test of success, because we need to think, 00:14:55.620 --> 00:15:02.620 what will it do to David? What will it do to his men? What will it do to their heads and to their hearts? 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:11.299 Before we get to their response, maybe just to remind ourselves of a proverb, Proverbs chapter 30. 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:20.759 The wisdom of the author says, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 00:15:21.639 --> 00:15:28.720 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, who is the Lord? Or I may become poor and steal 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:36.560 and so dishonor the name of my God. In that proverb, the author is saying, suffering can be bad for my 00:15:36.560 --> 00:15:44.240 faith. It can make me dishonor God, but so too can success because it can make me forget God. 00:15:45.420 --> 00:15:53.100 Remember the warning that God gave to the nation of Israel after rescuing them from Egypt where they'd 00:15:53.100 --> 00:15:59.279 been slaves, taking them to meet with him at Mount Sinai, and then promising to settle them in the 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:05.300 promised land. He said to them, listen, when you are living in peace and plenty, when you're enjoying 00:16:05.300 --> 00:16:14.580 the good life that I promised you in the promised land, beware of pride. I'm saying, I did this. 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:21.779 We are the people, we deserve this. The danger that comes with success. 00:16:21.779 --> 00:16:29.699 Look at David's men, and we see the danger so clearly. Verse 21, and we got David coming back 00:16:29.699 --> 00:16:34.799 with the 400, back to those 200. They'd been so exhausted, so they had to stay on the other side. 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:44.419 David asked them how they were. David's a caring king. But all the evil men and troublemakers among 00:16:44.419 --> 00:16:51.120 David's followers said, because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder. 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:57.860 We recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go. What do we see in their hearts? 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:08.000 We see greed. We won't share. We see pride. Now they're no longer saying, this is David's plunder. 00:17:08.099 --> 00:17:15.660 They're saying, this is the plunder we recovered. And they're dismissive of their brothers. They'd fought 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:23.860 side by side by side. But now it's like, take your family and go. We don't need you. Success had tested 00:17:23.860 --> 00:17:32.360 them, and they failed the test. Compare their response again with that of David, the anointed king. 00:17:33.360 --> 00:17:41.180 Verse 23, he honors the Lord. No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. 00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:51.019 He has protected us. He has delivered into our hands. He's not full of pride. He gives glory to God. 00:17:51.480 --> 00:18:00.440 He shows grace as well. He says in verse 24, the share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.279 be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. Everyone gets an equal portion. This king 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:12.559 wants to be generous with what he has. Remember Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyards, 00:18:13.180 --> 00:18:19.599 the guys that worked in the heat of the day, all day. And then with just a few minutes to go before 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:26.619 knocking off time, some other guys are employed to come and to work. And the owner of the vineyard at 00:18:26.619 --> 00:18:31.539 the end of the day deliberately pays the guys that just worked a little first and pays them the same. 00:18:31.539 --> 00:18:40.039 And when the grumbling comes, don't I have the right to be generous, to show grace with what is mine? 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:46.960 And we see how David practices generosity in the rest of the verse, because he sent some of the 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:53.379 plunder to the elders of Judah. Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord's enemies. He 00:18:53.380 --> 00:19:01.660 doesn't hoard it for himself. He spreads the joy of victory far and wide. For the king after God's own 00:19:01.660 --> 00:19:10.940 heart, what we see is generous grace and not greed. For the anointed king, it's mercy on display and not 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:19.680 malice. What's the difference? How does this happen? It's because David found strength in the Lord. 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:26.620 David had his eyes firmly fixed on the Lord. He won't take the spotlight. Success won't change him, 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:33.100 and he will deliberately point his men away from himself and towards the Lord as God. 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:40.500 Since we are in Olympic season, it seems very fitting to talk about Eric Liddell. You've probably 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:48.799 noticed even in the coverage from the BBC, there's lots of connections with 1924 when the winners get 00:19:48.799 --> 00:19:58.180 their medals. They also get a poster with a retro 1924 theme to it. But the 1924 Olympics are sometimes 00:19:58.180 --> 00:20:05.240 known as the Eric Liddell Games. His story has become so famous, and there's loads of podcasts and 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:12.419 people who are writing books and articles about Eric Liddell, who famously wouldn't run the 100 meters 00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:19.779 on a Sunday because he wanted to honor God rather than to have sporting success. But who then ran the 400 00:20:19.779 --> 00:20:28.900 meters, never really ran it. He won the gold and broke the world record. Did success go to his head? 00:20:29.420 --> 00:20:36.480 As the world watched with a sense of wonder at Eric Liddell, success didn't go to his head. He was a 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:44.819 Christian man, and he would leave that success behind and do so gladly to spend the rest of his life 00:20:44.819 --> 00:20:54.240 sharing the good news of Jesus in a Christian war camp, sharing the good news of Jesus with boys and 00:20:54.240 --> 00:21:03.839 girls. And it's amazing to read testimonies of how his Bible teaching, how his singing of psalms and 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:14.339 hymns of how his godly lifestyle had a huge influence on so many children in that camp. He was described by 00:21:14.339 --> 00:21:26.319 one child as Jesus with running shoes on. He found strength in Jesus as Lord. So Eric Liddell was able to face 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:37.519 the test of success and the test of suffering in a war camp, doing both looking to Jesus, finding strength 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:46.559 in his Lord. It takes us to the last thing, the last question to ask ourselves, how can we pass the test? 00:21:47.099 --> 00:21:54.980 So we've seen in this chapter that on these occasions, David, the future king, represented a model of 00:21:54.980 --> 00:22:02.000 true faith. But to know the story of David, the king after God's own heart, is to know that he was not 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:13.259 perfect. There would be a time when success in his story led to ease and leisure, which led in its own 00:22:13.259 --> 00:22:22.819 way to adultery and then arranged murder. For you and I, when suffering comes our way, 00:22:22.819 --> 00:22:32.259 when success comes our way, we need to understand that we are being tested. Will I turn to God? Can I be 00:22:32.259 --> 00:22:42.099 thankful even in this circumstances? Will my heart show pride or humble trust? Will it be bitterness or 00:22:42.099 --> 00:22:51.839 contentment that controls me? And truth be told, and our own experience I'm sure probably tells us that you 00:22:51.839 --> 00:23:01.659 and I can never perfectly pass these tests. We can never be obedient enough. We can never pursue God's 00:23:01.659 --> 00:23:12.679 glory enough. There will be points where we will and we do fail these tests. So then where does our hope 00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:29.140 apply? Well, we have this wonderful clue from our chapter? We need to look to the king. Not King David, but to the true 00:23:29.140 --> 00:23:41.180 and greater king, to Jesus, God's anointed king, who passes every test in which we fail, the king who shares his 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:52.380 grace and his victory with us. It is remarkable to recognize that Jesus is the son of God, the king of glory, 00:23:52.759 --> 00:23:57.480 and yet he is also described as the suffering servant. 00:24:00.700 --> 00:24:04.100 No one understands the depth of destruction like Jesus. 00:24:04.099 --> 00:24:13.619 Jesus, the creator who came into his creation, who saw a world and saw image bearers being ruined, 00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:25.059 defaced, destroyed by sin. Jesus who wept in the face of death and unbelief. Jesus whose own body 00:24:25.059 --> 00:24:31.099 would be torn apart in order for him to save a people for himself. 00:24:31.099 --> 00:24:43.480 Knowing you distress like Jesus, the suffering servant rejected by those he came to save, 00:24:43.899 --> 00:24:49.839 abandoned in a time of great need by his friends, betrayed by one of his inner circle, 00:24:50.439 --> 00:24:56.599 suffering the agony of a Roman cross, and in the depth of his distress, crying, 00:24:56.599 --> 00:25:07.679 my God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus knew the distress of bearing our sin, 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:23.500 of experiencing hell on earth as the only way to save us. And all the while, Jesus found strength in the 00:25:23.500 --> 00:25:31.079 Lord, his father in heaven. To read the gospels, it is to meet Jesus, the man of prayer, who prayed 00:25:31.079 --> 00:25:38.079 often to enjoy his relationship with his father, and in those crucial times of temptation and testing 00:25:38.079 --> 00:25:45.460 and trial. We discover in the gospel, Jesus, a son perfectly committed to his father's glory, 00:25:45.579 --> 00:25:52.299 leading him ultimately to go to the cross as God's way of salvation. He is the savior who entrusted 00:25:52.299 --> 00:26:01.019 himself into his father's hands. Into your hands, I commit my spirit, confident in his victory, 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:07.879 confident in the promise of resurrection life. Jesus, who for the joy set before him, 00:26:08.919 --> 00:26:17.659 endured the cross and scorned its shame. Because Jesus came on a mission. Jesus is the king 00:26:17.660 --> 00:26:30.720 who came to lovingly pursue his bride, the church. From heaven he came and sought her. He took on our 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:40.380 debts. He paid the price in full, and all his riches are given to us, and we are redeemed. We are rescued. 00:26:40.380 --> 00:26:47.920 We are ransomed by his blood. Jesus is the king who defeats and plunders his enemies. 00:26:51.260 --> 00:27:00.780 Those enemies, the dark spiritual forces, Satan, sin, and death, defeated by the cross and the 00:27:00.780 --> 00:27:08.120 resurrection. The spoils of war for Jesus are his own people, taken from the kingdom of darkness, 00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:19.879 brought into the kingdom of light. Because Jesus died and rose again. The Olympics has some amazing 00:27:19.879 --> 00:27:27.639 comeback stories. This week's had some wonderful stories. The puncture and the BMX, the downhill 00:27:27.639 --> 00:27:33.159 biking on the Monday, Alex Yee and the triathlon on Thursday, if you've been watching. There is no 00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:41.400 comeback story we will ever witness, like the comeback of Christ Jesus. He came back from death to eternal 00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:49.460 life to take the throne of heaven, the conquering Savior King who will come back one day to make 00:27:49.460 --> 00:28:01.220 everything new, to live with his people forever. Jesus is the king who graciously shares his victory 00:28:01.220 --> 00:28:11.140 with his people. Without him, there is no way we can, we ever will, pass God's test. 00:28:12.579 --> 00:28:20.360 The test of suffering, the test of success, we will fail. But by his grace, his perfect record 00:28:20.360 --> 00:28:26.720 is credited to us. We are forgiven of our failures. We enjoy life with our good and gracious king. 00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:34.960 And when those tests come again, because they will, we find strength in our Lord. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:44.299 We look to him as the one who supplies grace to us, who invites us to look to him, to rest in him, 00:28:44.600 --> 00:28:53.440 to trust in God's word of promise, to lean in by prayer that he would be our strength as the Lord's, 00:28:53.440 --> 00:29:04.820 our God. In the two great tests of life, we must trust Jesus. We must keep his victory central to our 00:29:04.820 --> 00:29:13.960 lives, to our story. We must look to him and to his strength always. Let's pray for help to do that. 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:17.400 Lord, peace of prayer. 00:29:19.400 --> 00:29:25.500 Let's pray for help, so thank you, everybody. 00:29:29.500 --> 00:29:29.640 Let's pray for help. 00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:31.319 Please pray for help. 00:29:32.460 --> 00:29:32.640 Thank you for coming. 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:35.220 Oh, thank you, everybody.