Dependent Responsibility

Good morning all. Good morning. How is everybody? Fair and Blin and everywhere in between. Amen to that. OK, shall we pray? Our Godfather, will you come in Jesus' name this morning to your throne of grace to thank you for today and thank you, Father, for this time, that you've, set aside for us that we may, set aside everything else and, focus on you, who you are, what you've done, to praise and thank you and worship you for, for the grace you've given us and for a chance to fellowship with the saints. I do ask that you would be with us this morning as we go through this chapter. Pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit would give utterance and that you would be pleased and guide us in the right way. We ask the Lord for your blessing. this morning on us, help us to hold fast to what you've given us through Your word in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, chapter 7. Just a quick pop quiz, so If you read chapter who read Chapter 7. OK, what's 11 thing that just, anything that stood out? Communion with God. Communion with communion with God. I like that. Yes. How to hear the voice of God. How to hear it, the means of grace. Amen. Awesome. I like it. This is. Again, short, concise, but it's not pie in the sky, if, if you do this unidentified thing and this unidentified thing and this opaque thing, then all these wonderful things will happen. It's like, no, this is. God's truth, this is what really happens and here's, here's, ways that it functions or ways that we can enter, actually enter into it with in our life. And, so just real quick, book ends this morning to this end, the passage, to this end, I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. Colossians 1:29. Again, we're going to dive more into the synergistic aspect, I guess, of the work Power of the Holy Spirit. First thing first though, review of chapter 6, book number 2, The Power of the Holy Spirit, bullet 0.1 the righteousness of Christ does free and motivate, but in and of itself that motivation cannot supply the strength to carry it out. So even being excited and motivated and Lord, you set me free, and like Bunyan says in Pilgrim's Progress after he finally was shown that, his, his sins were taken away when he made it to the cross, and his burden fell off, and then I think it was faithful that asked him, what happened then? What would you do then? And he ended up saying, if I had 10,000 gallons of blood, I would gladly spill it all for him who died for me. It's just that response that comes out of what he's done and who he is, and it's just anything you say. But that that's, that doesn't empower what he wants us to do. It doesn't, that doesn't carry us through just the desire alone. 2 Timothy 2:1, it says, You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Literally be strengthened, and it's the passive imperative to be strengthened by someone else outside of you or other than you. Somebody had to take my sins on himself and make atonement for me, vicarious atonement, in the same fashion. Someone else has to give me the strength from eternity itself to be able to live a life here on earth with Christ. So Be strengthened by another and we looked over the disciples last week and the disciples in Acts chapter one were loaded up, fully loaded up as far as any, everything you would think you would need to be able to go out and be witnesses to the ends of the earth. They saw Jesus, they walked with him. They heard him speak, they saw his miracles. They saw his crucifixion. They saw his love for men. They saw his burial. They saw him resurrected more than once. It wasn't just a, I think I saw something. No, he came and he taught them. He worked with them for 40 more days. Now he's ready to leave. You would think on the natural scale that's all I need. That's all I need. He made the Old Testament alive. We get that now. We're ready to go. And he said, No, wait. No, you better wait here in Jerusalem because there's a piece missing, and it's a pretty big piece that's missing. Your knowledge is right. Everything's your experience is right, but you've got like a brand new car, but the battery isn't in there yet. And so you end up pushing that thing all over the world. You get tired and worn out and quit. You need the battery. You need that power to be able to enable you to go out. So we looked at that enabling and strengthening us, not only this is the role of the Holy Spirit, part of it was enabling and strengthening us daily, and I love the distinction he made between helping and enabling. Helping, you're like working at a factory and you're doing all the work and somebody's watching you and standing there and you, and you drop something and he runs over and picks it up and helps you out. Oh gee, thank you, and you're doing all the work and he's helping you. It's like that's just not how it works. Better word is enable us. He completely enables us, and it's interesting. I thought about the pair or the story of the loaves and the fishes. When there were anywhere from 5 to maybe 15-20,000 people out there and Jesus was teaching. You got it, sometimes you got to just pay attention to the disciples and their demeanor. They come up to him. I don't know which one or two or whatever it was, come up and go, Oh Lord. You need to send them away because they haven't eaten, and if they don't eat something, they're going to faint in the way. Like they're, Lord, send them away. 00, OK, I'm glad that you're here to instruct the Son of God as to what to do. They just had this boldness, ignorant boldness, if you will, and the Lord looked at him. He goes, No, you feed them. And that's a command he gave them. You feed them. They go, then it hits them. what? We can't do that. What do we have? And then they go through the natural thing. There's not enough Kmarts around here, to get a bunch of food. They said, We have 5 loaves, 2 fish, and you want to boil us down to it, we're about 5 loaves and 2 fish worth of vessel, right? And so we've got 5 loaves and 2 fish, but what is that among so many? He says, Bring it to me. So they bring it to him. He blesses the loaves and the fish. He gives it back. They actually do what he said. They carried out his commandment, go feed them. They actually did it, but there was that transaction in between that changed everything. The transaction was that the command that he gave them was completely enabled by him supernaturally. Then they could carry it out. So they actually did what he said, but a big pause in between. So enabling and strengthening us daily by his spirit is what he does synergistically and monargistically, synergistically working with us, working with us, and monarchistically just seeing things in us that he's working on for his purposes. Without our, sometimes, sometimes our knowledge, perhaps without our consent, he doesn't need our help. He just sees things to work on us. Did you ever get, I don't know about you, but do you ever get chastened? For no, like it seems like no reason, no reason. You weren't doing anything wrong. You're coming in fellowshipping and reading, and you haven't been mean to people and didn't kick your dog and you've just been pretty good, you've been fine, and all of a sudden it's like bam out of nowhere this what was that for? Well, the thing is, is God's chasing is is not strictly punitive. or disciplinarian. we think of it like that, like he's just watching and everything's just fine and we do something wrong. Now, now, now, and he comes up. It's like, no, no, no. You not only you and I not only do wrong things or don't do right things, there are things we, it's not just what we do, there are things that we are, we are that he needs to chase it. Not just what we do, but what we are. And you could go, there's a litany of things that we think, well, what's wrong with this? And he's working on things that he sees that we are not do or not do. So that's his work. That's his monoistic work. That's part of it as far as preparing us for eternity to be made in the image of His Son. Sometimes he whacks us for reasons we have no idea. And other things, sometimes there's no corresponding result here on Earth for things. I was going to get into, I'll probably get into this later, but for every Johnny, Ericson Tata. Went swimming, broke her neck. She's in a quadriplegic, and God turned that into a massive worldwide ministry of hope for people that are disabled, so there was a corresponding result from her trial here on Earth that is visible as you can see, which is awesome. It's a blessing. But that doesn't happen every time. For every 1 Johnny Erics, and Tata, there might be a million people who have suffered. They're quadriplegic and they're believers, and they don't get a platform. They don't get to see here, some great result from what happened to them. Sometimes there is no great result that we can see here. God works, but a lot of times that great result might not be seen until we're with Him in heaven. That all of this happened because of that. Remember, can I sit on your right hand and on your left? Oh, you don't know what you're asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink from? Yeah, yeah, we're able. Yeah, you're able to, but The ones who sit on my right hand and my left, and there's some corresponding element of suffering to it. That's up to the Lord to decide, but whoever is on his right and on his left is going to go through some hot, hard, hard suffering, and much of it, or maybe all of it, there's no good, earthly reason for it. It might all be locked up in eternity. So that's one of those things that's good to keep in mind when things happen and we have no idea why, and we don't see any good come out of it, go, OK, that one must be for, for, for eternity when we get there. So, number 1, dependent responsibility. Page 95, it says, So where does our responsibility come into the picture? That's a natural question. Where do we draw the line between what we are to do and what God does? So, we have in letter A, 2, we went over 2 Timothy 2:1 be strengthened. But then we have in 2 Timothy 2:15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God. Here we go, a worker. OK. Language is changing. Who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So there's this effort going on because I, I think MacArthur called it, sometimes, I, I, and by the way, I've done them both. I'm thinking, Lord, why am I teaching this class? He goes, Oh, good, because you have so many wonderful stories to tell, and most of them are not good. I have tried the let go and let God. Christianity where I don't do anything. I just float and let the Holy Spirit, so-called, just take me out, do whatever he's going to do and all that, and I just leave it alone. There's no discipline. There's no nothing, and I've paid the price for it. And then I've been the machine worker going, thank you, thank you, thank you, Holy Spirit, thank you, thank you, and then I've done them both. And The truth is they're actually both supposed to be going on. We don't find a place that we can go, go sit down and let God do all this work that He has called us to do. We, we have a treasure, but the treasure is an earthen vessel, and God takes that vessel, this vessel with all its limitations, and there's plenty. And he by His Holy Spirit, Him dwelling in us, Christ in us, the hope of glory, and then His Holy Spirit empowering us to be able to carry out his commands because these are things he wants, and I made a list of Of things that we are that we're looking at, we are both responsible and dependent. Colossians 1:29 to this end, I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily. So there's both going on. It's like this. Here's, here's our us, our works, or our work or our working or what have you, and then the power of the Holy Spirit is infused. Am I doing that right? Yeah, I think so. So it's, it's a constant thing going on like the Adam, that, that little thing that keeps spinning around. Diligent effort. Number 2, I made a list of some of the things he made a list of, and I like this. These are things that God has commanded just like you feed them, but these are, these are other things. One of them is Matthew 26:41. He tells his disciples, Watch and pray. Lest you enter into temptation, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So this was something that God told, and in this instance that the Lord picked Peter out twice. Satan wanted to have all of them and sift them like wheat, but Jesus said, Simon, Simon, he's after you. And then he says, can't you watch him pray for one hour? And he picks Peter out of the whole, out of the whole thing, because Peter's coming up to a very important, very critical time. He says watch and pray. So this is effort that he has given us to do or things that he's diligent effort that he wants us to take part in. 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 2, pardon me, 7, excuse me, 2 Corinthians 7:1. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's also a command that we are to follow as believers. Also, there's 1 Corinthians 15:58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. So there is again. A move toward labor always abounding in the work of the Lord. I had a something also from on the side, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Just a side note. Sometimes. Sometimes we think we're too busy for him, or sometimes we think we're we're doing too much, and sometimes we do. We're too busy about things. But God has a pretty high premium on what he's gifted us. He's gifted us as believers for his service to the body of Christ and perhaps to the lost. He's gifted us. He puts a pretty high premium on it. I think sometimes we don't appreciate it like we should. And sometimes, like for instance, let's say you get some bad financial News and you got to cut back on stuff. It's probably not a great idea to go, yo man, we've got to quit, we've got to lower our spending and cut it down. Let's see, what do we spend? OK, tithing. OK, cut that out. Starbucks, let's keep that, and on and on we go. It's like, do you really want to cut, service to the Lord out first, that's not a good idea. He's equipped us for it. He's also empowered us to do it, to do what he has called us to do. Do you want to make that top of your cutoff list? Oh man, we're short this month. Don't tithe. It's like, that's org, whatever you want to call it. Not a good idea. I would honor him. And then tell Starbucks to take a hike for a month or two or whatever it is and honor the Lord because he says those that honor me, I will honor not just in money, but also in service, in time, because it's our time, it's our energy, it's our body. He plugs His Holy Spirit into this existing body. Not a lot to work with up here anymore. They keep getting shorts, I'm sure there's the, the circuitry, there's, there's a few, he has to keep go fix it all the time. You can't remember what? Oh, he has to fix it again, but he's using this body. And he's empowering it with its limitations and with everything he's called it to do. I don't want to cut back or cut out or not appreciate what he has required and what he desires from me in the first place. Keep plugged into him. Keep him first. He'll show you what to do. Yes, a parallel, I think. Like, time. So, like, we're all really, really busy. Yes. And I'm really, really busy, so I'm going to cut out corporate worship, Bible study, I'm gonna cut out care group because I'm just so busy and, and, and I, I wanna be careful because there are times where we do have to make it and it, and it is a difficult choice, but to your point, where do we start? Do we start with our, our hobbies? Do we start with, our, our, Our other pursuits, just. what I'm trying to say. Oh yeah, yeah, video games and social media and screen time and, Hiking, whatever it, whatever it might be, because we're, we, we, God only allows us so much finance and resources at one time. He only allows us 24 hours a day, and it's, I think all of it is a hardship. Where's our treasure? Where is your, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That's an excellent, excellent point. And I would encourage you, and I am one of the most by nature one of the most undisciplined. bumps on a log that's ever walked the face of the earth. It's just, but the Lord has, there has been times that he has built by His grace fortresses. That sometimes you have to, you don't go, OK, if I, if I get up, I'll do it. I'll pray and read. If I don't, you don't, you don't do that. You don't say if, you don't say if. You, you never miss a meal usually. So what you do is you fortress, you carve out a fortress of Bible study and of prayer time, and you guard it. Say, I don't care what happens, I'm there. Mine is weird. Mine's in the morning and then. This is rough. When I, when I shower at night, that's my sanctuary in there. I pray for you guys, and it's become a habit. It's about 12 years old, 13 years old now. It's a habit. It's a fortress. It's a no, don't and you don't let the devil be careful. He's really good at giving you words. Don't let him go, Oh, so you have to, oh, isn't that legalistic? Aren't't that legalistic? He throws that word around. He's really good at his phrases. Ignore him. Ignore it. Say no, I'm carving this out out of love and appreciation for Christ because this is a spot, this is a place where we, where I, I have committed myself to seek Him. It doesn't make you righteous or, greater or anything like that, but I'll tell you what, man, because it does turn into a habit and it can be protected. Spiritual disciplines need to be established hard. The spirit of God is not going to go, you're not going to be bumping along and go, oh, he's taking me to my prayer closet. Oh, this is great. It's not gonna happen. There is some warring going on. We're going to talk about war in a few minutes. Real quick, in a few minutes. where's my glasses? OK. See, see, even though I'm saved, I still can't see. It just gets worse, dude. First Timothy 4:7, but reject and profane old wives' tales and exercise yourself to godliness. And I love the author. He said, he goes out of his way to say, Hey, these are not little suggestions like, oh, don't worry, you're saved by grace, so you don't have to do any of this. It's like these are things that God says that Paul says very pointedly and not not very unequivocally, not that, oh well, you can decide if you want to or not. These are commands. exercise yourself toward godliness. 2 Peter, last one I wrote down, there's lots of them, but I wrote down these 652 Peter 3:14. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, and he's talking about the, the grace of God, be diligent to be found by Him in peace without spot. And blameless And I did not write down the one where he says, therefore, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the spirit and the flesh. And I lost the last part of it. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 1 Corinthians 7:1 sounds like it's pulled right out of the Old Testament. And yet that's what God says to do. So how does this all work? Alright, so let's take a look at it. So one of the scriptures like these not only expose the moral expressed, the moral will of God, but they also reveal our responsibility. They require diligent effort and hard work. On the other hand, all our hard work is to be done by us in dependence on the Holy Spirit. So, again, The apostle Paul says, I'm an apostle, and I labored more than all those guys, I think it's in Galatians. I labored more than the other apostles. Then he stops and pauses and goes, Yeah, yet not I. But Christ in me, the Spirit of God in me, labored more, the grace of God labored. So it's always back to the power source. Our power source is no good. His just keeps going. You don't have to plug it in every 340 miles. It just keeps going. So how is this done? Ways that we can experience this are the means of grace that God has, has laid out for us. One thing, one thing that came again as a side note. That God wants us. He doesn't want us in bondage. He doesn't want us locked up by either sin or the law or legalism or despair. He wants us free. Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. He has come to set Isaiah 61, to come to set captives free. That's what he did. He descended and when he came down and he, he died and he descended to lead captivity captive. He wants us free from all of that. We died to the old man in Romans 6 through the body of Christ. It wasn't us. Also in Romans 7, we died to the slavery to the law, living the law as a source of righteousness. We died to that in the body of Christ. Why? Because so that we could be married to another which is Him. And then we can bring fruit from the Holy Spirit out as opposed to labors of legalism. It just doesn't work out. So he wants us free, free but responsible to it, free but obedient, what I'm saying? Not legalistically whacked around a lot. wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So he desires these things. So all this needs to be looked at. These are the means of grace that he has given some of them. To like empower or to energize that which he has already done in 3, letter A, daily communion with God. read and meditate. With him, I thought of one thing. There's one, there's a difference. We do devotionals, and by the way, if you go a few days or whatever and you're just reading like this and nothing's coming in and you're just going through it, don't go, Oh, this is so profitless. I quit. Don't quit. Just keep going. One little phrase the Lord put on my heart is keep coming to me and then keep going. Don't stop, break down on the side of the road because you're not what you're supposed to be. Just keep going. Keep walking with him. but to meditate on his word, but to read, make it a habit. Try to read when you read scriptures or pray in the morning, that daily time, whatever it is. Try to read with him. Don't read apart from him. Don't read with him over there going, 00 Lord, I'm here now. I'm, I'm reading., time to go. Don't, don't do that. Read with him. He's the word of God. And you read a passage in the Psalms and you go, commit your way into the Lord. Trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass. Lord, what does that mean? Well, that's, that's like a promise. Well, it's a promise. Oh, it's something I can count on. So if I commit my way to you and roll it over on you, roll my burden off on you. That you'll take it and I can trust you with it. And then you'll bring it to pass, yeah. beautiful, thank you. Boom, read with him. Read with him. Talk to him about it. I don't understand these things. I, I love, here, here's a, like a, a picture. Remember when John the Baptist said the second time, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I think he says, behold the Lamb of God. Two of his disciples were with him. And they start following him. I have a comedic picture too, and they start following like And he stops and turns around. What are you guys looking for? And then their question is, where do you dwell? Where do you live? And he said, Come, follow me. And I get the picture. I'm going, here's the Messiah, and that's the best question we can come up with. Are you kidding me? What's wrong with you? But they keep following him. And he says they just asked, Where do you live? He goes, I'm dwelling over here. They went to work with him and they dwelt with him for hours. It was simple. Lord, I just come simply like a child. Here's a passage. I don't understand it. Lord, does it mean this? So you're reading with him. You're praying to him, but also with him. read with him, no. The gospel, that's the next one. I'm sorry, that's #1. Number 2, the gospel, and I think we've, these are ways, these are means of grace that God energizes us to walk in the power of the Spirit and to work in the power of the Spirit. The gospel itself. I think it's well known around here that it's the gospel that is preached to yourself, understood, and what, we are, we're wired in a really bad way. Our natural wiring is something happens. Do you ever have things reset on you and they're not supposed to, like your computer? You did all this stuff on it, then you shut it off, and then you come back. Oh man, it's back to where it was. Now I have to reset it all over again. That's me and you. There's something about when we go to sleep at night. Something happens when we sleep at night and then we wake up the next day, we're just like, I think Mike says, we go to bed Protestants and wake up Catholics. All of a sudden we're we're back to 0.0. We're, we're, things need to be re-energized or redone, it seems like all over again. And so the gospel, we are bent against it. You're everything you think and everything you do or say, everything inside of us by nature is bent against the gospel. It doesn't appreciate it. It doesn't believe in one part and it doesn't appreciate another, so the gospel can open our hearts up back up to the Lord so that we can by that means of grace that we can draw near to Him. By nature, we don't draw near to God because we think by nature there's something wrong. I don't think I can get too close, but through the gospel and sometimes it seems awkward and it seems like, OK, I'm saying this over and over again, but it opens that door back up to him. The gospel, wake up daily and we wake up with in a war almost, number 3 or letter C, all of scripture. All of the Old Testament. Those are means of grace. I was forced, and I look back at it now and I thank the Lord, thank Jesus so much now, but because of horrible doctrines and horrible church breakups, horrible things going on, I, I was, I wondered if I was even saved for a couple of years. I didn't know I was. It forced, forced me. To dive into the Old Testament. Mostly looking for life rafts somewhere, and I'll tell you what, man, there's a lot of life rafts in the Old Testament as far as spiritual strength. There's a lot. There are a lot of promises that aren't just to the Jews, they're to everybody. Rejoice not against me, oh my enemy. For when I fall, I, I will rise. And when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. That's a, that's a promise. That's a statement of fact. And your enemy is from within and from without. Don't, don't be, don't be doing any dances right now because if I fall, I'll get up because God is gracious to me. He's not going to leave me here. That's very comforting when you're in the dark and you're on your face spiritually. So all of Scripture, all of the Old Testament, not finding where Jesus is in the Old Testament, but also seeing the places where God wants to build up your faith. Hebrews chapter 4 says the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any what? OK. What are swords for? Gardening? Swords are for battles, right? So the word of God twice in Hebrews and also in Ephesians chapter 6, it's called a sword, the word of God, which indicates that it's to be used in some battle, right? OK, that's what we need. So we wield the sword of the Spirit against the adversary just like Jesus did. It is written. It is written, and he, and he, he wins the battle. We do also. So to see the word of God, a means of grace, but see it as a weapon because again, walking with the Lord, unimpeded fellowship and, and serving Him in the power of the Spirit. You think the enemy's going to sit by and watch? He's going to just let you go on in this, in this grace. No, you're crazy. You don't even get out of bed before. I've had some dreams before I wake up, I've had some dreams that are like, oh man, what was that? Where did that come from? And I'm assaulted before I even wake up. So this is a war. So all scripture, which also bleeds over into prayer. So the sword of the spirit. Also, it is also part of our armor. Prayer is part of our armor. I have one of a couple of the things that can really get God's, that can really not get his attention, I'm sorry, but really snap us out of our funks and, and, and get us to enjoy His presence. By the way, we can't really live this. Life without that there is an experiential portion of our fellowship with him. We actually, there are some, I know I can't say this word too loud, sometimes you do feel, certain things. Don't say, wait, hold on, you might feel some things, experience some of the grace of God. I think we have, we all have, right? And but that's not going to be unimpeded. Prayer is one of the ways that that's maintained and open. And one of the ways we can, we can make sure that that's true, I'll tell you what, if you're in the middle of a funk, if you will, or just like down and you're just, nothing's going on, there's a couple of things you can do. One, I know it, it'll seem so weird at first. But it actually works when you start praying. Just pray out of the cold. Pray out of the cold. Oh, but it's not my prayer closet. It doesn't matter. You're in the yard. You're driving down the street. That's the best place to pray. By the way, it didn't say just pray once a day in your prayer time in your devotion time, and then we'll see you tomorrow. So it doesn't say that. There's prayer then and then there's spontaneous, like you would converse with somebody with you. I've had bosses call me in their office and I go, OK. And on the way to the office, I go, Oh Lord, please help me, because I know this is not going to go well. Please help me, Lord Jesus, in Jesus' name I need your help. He heard it. He was there. Yes sir. The first time. First Thessalonians 5:17, right? Correct. Pray without Ci. Thanks. I was going to have somebody look it up, get free popcorn, but you're the man, right? There's, there's spontaneous. Two things that can really And they, praise and thanksgiving. When the Lord, when the enemy reminds you of some evil thing you did in the past, just go, yeah, and then look at how the Lord delivered you out of it and blessed you and brought you through it. Start praising. Thank you Lord so much because you are, Lord, You are so good and you really are worthy to be praised. I thank you so much because this is going on. I thank you for this. I thank you watch you do that for a while and watch. Wow. Man, I actually feel like I had a couple cups of coffee and a little jog spiritually. It actually very effective to keep the means of grace open. Prayer, by the way, if you're praying sometimes for someone and interceding. And they're bound in some sin, and it's really, really dark and a little anger doesn't hurt. Be angry and sin not. Doesn't hurt. Righteous indignation. Sometimes I've seen it again. There's some things going on with family members and It's the enemy. It's got his hand all over it, and it's like, what, Lord, I'm not angry at God, but just, I pray that you'd help them. When you see things going on in the world and you pray and you pray with a little passion, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. God can handle it. circumstances. Oh, look at that circumstances. That he said that That God orchestrates often orchestrates circumstances as a means of grace. Sometimes, like when Paul said, I was taken up into heaven and I saw wondrous things, that you can't even talk about. And then all of a sudden it was like, huh, lest I be exalted above measure. there was given to me and graced, it's word graced, there was graced to me. a messenger of Satan. To buffet me with a thorn in the flesh. I'd like to open your birthday present and find that. Oh jeez, and find that's what you got for your birthday. A messenger of Satan to buffet you. It was that circumstance that drove him to a place where he said, I asked the Lord 3 times, get me out of here. He never asked that before, but God says no. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, I will glory in my infirmity. That the excellency of that the life of Christ may come through. So circumstances bring us into a place that until I was afflicted sometimes I went astray. But now circumstances have taught me he's faithful. When you, when the light goes off in life, you slow down, you run to him, so he uses them all as a means of grace as well. Objective communion with God is objective and subjective. There's reading His word and seeing Him objectively in the scripture and also subjective experience, experiential walking with God. He's there. And he, he can't live somewhere and not make his presence known, I'm saying? God can't live in your heart and live in you, and you can't, and you don't notice it. Objective and subjective and Psalm 63 1. earnestly, will I, can somebody read that for me? Psalm 63 1. It's the one I didn't write down. Oh God, you are my God. I shall seek you earnestly. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. And notice if you back, if you reverse, look at the Psalm and break it up into half. Oh Lord, I seek you. I thirst for you. I hunger for you. I desire you. Why? Because I'm in a dry and thirsty land where there's no water. So he puts you in dry and thirsty lands where there's no water, figuratively speaking, so that you'll yearn for Him, seek His face, long for Him, thirst for Him. So all those things are meant to what drive us to Him. And he works with us, in us, and for us as well, so.