Principles of Position Finish Lesson 11
Courtney Hemenway · Jun 19, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 24
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926535171877

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we are in lesson 11 of the position class. Maybe I'll touch on first, not rabbit trail, but somebody texted after listening online last week, I think it was last week, regarding a couple things, maybe misunderstanding about doing good works.

The misunderstanding was, or the thought was, that we're not to do good works. And that was the impression through whatever was said. And I don't believe that's what I said. So we want to clarify. You're jumping on the bandwagon. No, it wasn't about doing good works.

I guess maybe the first question I wanted to start is, why do we do good works? maybe is the jumping off point. Why do we do good works? Because Christ is innocent. It's just a natural result of having the Holy Spirit. Okay. Others? To glorify God. To glorify God. Again, why do we do it? Why do we do good works? He's ordained good works for us to walk in. Okay. I like that. So the why part was because he's ordained them for us and we do them. And Christ is in us. Christ is in us. Okay. Any others?

Okay, there are a couple of them that, which, kind of touching on this, in Ephesians 2.10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Again, so that's one of the verses. The other, which, oh, that was part of the texting was, you know, that is God pleased with our good works? And I may have misconstrued this about pleasing God. Is He pleased with our good works?

Yes. Wow. Anybody want to refute that? It's a very aggressive yes. He's pleased if the source is right. Yes. The addendum to yours, yes. And that was the other thing is that I think I may have misconstrued that God is not pleased with us, but the misinterpretation of what I was saying is that if we're doing it to please God or to be accepted more fully by doing our good works, is that the right approach, a motive?

No, we're fully accepted no matter what. That's the point. It doesn't matter how many good works we do, we cannot be more fully accepted than being in Christ. And that's the point. And the motive is as nice as the source. If the source is Christ, and when you look at it, who gives us the power to do these good works? Is it possible to not do the good works? Maybe God is sort of, you know in your mind that God wants you to do something, but you're like, oh no, I'm not sure if my motivation is right, so I'm not going to do it. It will eventually come to happen, right, if it's God's plan.

I think Jonah found that out. What's that? Yeah, running the other way works. You know what, one, and maybe Maya can add to this one. I don't know if we disagree on this or have different opinions on it. One is that I think if you're looking at and focusing on yourself on all this, you're already wrong. And if it's the meter and the metrics and all that, you're wrong.

It's a life. It is not a work for. It is a life. And so I'm thinking the minute you start looking at, you know, am I doing this? You're already, you focus it back on yourself. Totally. And you know what? I think it's part of, for me, it's part of my Catholic background. You know, because you're not doing something you're supposed to be doing, so then you feel guilty.

Well, and I think under, you know, a law based, you know, a Baptist law and lots of stringent, There's that feeling. That's why grace is such a relief. The freedom that you have in grace is just astounding. If you've been under a law-based or legal-based religion, the freedom you have in grace, the burden's off.

The other thing, and maybe Mike, maybe this is something And that's kind of the lead-in of your question. Can we not do the works ordained for us? I think it was kind of when you started out. Yeah. I don't think you miss any of them. And I don't think you do one more. See, and that's where I'm there, kind of, but I just, you know, I don't, I think he knows, and he's ordained him, so I think there's that, that you are going to do this, and he's ordained it. I think the thing is when you come, And your thought is, oh, I missed that opportunity.

I think that's him working on you anyway. I go back to the all things. All things. Your failures, these are all things that he uses to bring you to the dependency upon him, to the focus back on him. All those things are used. So, you know, when you think you missed an opportunity, I think that's him still working on you in a way that is different than what you thought.

I'm supposed to do this great work and yet I didn't. Well, he's working on you. Could you say then that we sometimes do good works and we don't even know it? Oh, I think so. I think quite a bit, yeah. Again, if you focus on him, it's a life. I don't know, it happens. But I think if it's a life manifested, you know, it's like I go and I don't think about breathing. I think it's that sort of life. It just manifests that way.

Can you do a good work from the wrong source? I think you can do what you think is a good work with the wrong source. And that's kind of what we're talking about, is I think you can do it with thinking it's good. I'm going to do this because it's going to make God smile on me a little bit more. He's going to be so pleased. Hebrews 13, 16, And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. He is pleased with good works, but the source is the key.

If I'm doing it to please him because he's going to love me a little bit more or that relationship or that acceptance is going to be a totally wrong source. That's total flesh. Flesh based. I think it gets back to you're doing it because it's who you are and you're not even thinking about it. You're just doing it because that's the life manifested through you.

I think this is addressed pretty openly in 1 Corinthians 3. where Paul is talking about the demon judgment, and he says, starting in verse 9, he says, For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, you are God's building. So we're the building and we're the fellow workers. Talking about the temple.

According to the grace of God which is given to me, so there's the source, it's God's grace alone. As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it, but let each one take heed in how he builds on it. So pay attention to how you build on it, and it describes it. For no other foundation can anyone lay that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So there's the source. It's either him, or somebody else, or something else. Now if anyone builds on this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, or wood-hanged stubble. They're burned up.

Each one's works will become clear for the day, which is the Day of Judgment. We declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work, what sort it is. If anyone's work which is built on it endures, he'll receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he'll suffer loss, but he himself will be saved through fire. So the works are going to get tested. And the testing procedure, or the criteria on the test is who did the work.

Is it the Spirit of God doing the work through me? Or was it something that I thought in my flesh would be a good deal? Either my motive was either myself or even because the need was so great that God didn't call me to go there. And I don't think you stay up late at night wondering who's... Because I think what the Lord does is that early on in a Christian's life, it's all about being and not doing. And the being's got to get in place first. before the doing ever commences.

Those were the verses we were looking at as far as the testing and the motive and which ones are by flesh, they'll be burned, they'll be gone. What was that scripture? 1 Corinthians 3, starting in about 9. That'll determine which ones are done by good works that were done by the flesh. wrong motive.

So I think that's real key to this. But again, going back to what you said too, if you're laying awake at night worrying about it, you're already wrong. You missed it. You're focusing on you and all this stuff, and it doesn't fit. Grace doesn't fit anywhere.

So again, the misconstrued from last week or something, good works, God is pleased by them. He's ordained them. But the real issue is, I think, kind of like what we're talking about consecration. I think consecration is not a major theme for the believer, but I think the reason why we talk about it is how it's misused. And I think this is kind of the key, too, is on good works. It's not as much that it's our focus, but it's how it's misconstrued, that it's not done at the source and it'll be burned up. With regard to listening on the tape and the text, I think that hopefully clears it up.

We're talking about the Pharisees wanting to stone Jesus to death because he healed somebody on the Sabbath. So you've got all of the Jewish foundation, you've got the whole system with the Pharisees and everybody, and they've got their whole deal going for Saturday, which is the Sabbath. And Jesus comes in the temple, and he heals the guy.

So, which one of those two parties are right? Is healing someone work? That you shouldn't be doing on the Sabbath and you should be condemned for that? Or, were the Jews of such a mind that grace was not permissible on the Sabbath. Well, it's law versus grace. That's the whole key right there. Are you under a law-based system and all this? Or are you under grace? Grace doesn't have that. One other thing.

The Lord Jesus said one place that there's none good but the Father. He's the only one that's good. So the source of your works better come from Him. And no place else, otherwise they're not good. Well, and again, it's kind of what we address in this, the old versus the new nature. What is good about the old nature? Nothing. Nothing. So anything that stems from that source has already been condemned, thrown away, done judicially, it's over. So anything done out of that, the flesh or that motive is gone, it's worthless.

Now we're talking about the new life, new life in Christ. That's the life, that's the manifestation that is only able to complete those works that he's ordained for us. So it's a manifestation of that life. So hopefully that clears up the misconception of last week or whatever I said. Okay, question five. of Lesson 11. What are the two main facts in why the self-life is unapprovable?

First, we looked at 1 Corinthians 2.14.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. And then if you look at Galatians 5, 17 and 18, For the flesh is set its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. So, everything in the first atom is unalterably opposed to everything of the last atom. Self is ruthless in its attitude toward God, having the very essence of the enemy. So, basically nothing good about the flesh, the old man.

We go into a lot of that actually in our identification. What we bring to the table in ourselves with what we bring. We bring sin, weakness, everything bad through the flesh. That's why identification is key. That's all dealt with, done at the cross.

I also have Romans 8, 7, and 8, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So remember, this is about why the self-life is unapprovable. What would be the second one? This may be a little tougher.

It's personal experience. one's daily life proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, the sinful, endemic source will never change. The awakened and honest believer must admit that self is as capable of sin after fifty years of Christian life as it was before it was saved. Sometimes it seems even more so. Does that sound like what you may have experienced? I think everybody experiences it because we have a sinful nature that we will always have until we see the Lord. Yeah, is there anybody who has not experienced this?

I mean, I'm amazed at things that I thought I've addressed years and years and years ago, rears its ugly head again. It's like, why am I dealing with this? To me, it's the union with Christ, the identification with Him, the focus is off Him. And when it's off Him, I'm able to slip back into the old man who is 24-7 trying to get me to fall back under his domain. And whether you think you've got something licked for 50 years, it can come back in a heartbeat. because the old man is, as we've read, diametrically opposed to the Spirit and Christ. There's nothing good. He's always 24-7, doesn't take a break, and he's always working to try and get you away from focusing on Christ. So, and I... I'm going to answer my own question.

Why is that? Why do we do that? kind of answer it, but your thoughts. Why is it that we can fall back into it after decades? I don't think we realize that we aren't walking with the Lord. At times you're so deep into it that, you know, you don't even think about it.

Okay. Don't you think? Yeah, I think, and that may be also, to me, the focus is off. You're focusing, you're gradually, the drip, drip, drip, and you're off, and suddenly you're over here. And how did I get here? But it's the focus is off Christ. I guess it's God's way then too to say, I think you had it licked. Here it is. I think you use, I go back to the all things. Right. He uses that. Right.

Say come on back. I think it's normal for us just not to notice the drift because we're used to all those things. They don't feel strange and new. You know, all the old ways. Yeah. They just sort of fit in with who we are. I think it's kind of the frog in the net. Who we're used to being. I think it's similar to the frog in the pot. Sometimes we gradually go and we don't know that the water is heating up. and we're slowly getting away from our focus and we slowly... and the old nature is methodically drawing us away. I think it's important to point out though that that doesn't give you a license.

Oh no. And the thing is that the Spirit of God is within us and he's got his desires against the flesh and he's the one that wakes you up to what's going on and causes you to be restored and so We learn to be dependent on him, even if we're going down that road, because without him interfering with the flesh, so to speak, to make us aware, we would never come back. So you have to trust him to do whatever he's been called to do and says he's going to do in every given situation, which has another positive consequence, is that he takes all the guilt away. Which is great, you know, it just takes us back to Christ, who we are and where we belong. Well, and I think that's, you know, sometimes too with that, is that taking us back through whatever, if we've fallen sin, getting us out of the beating us up forever, you know, he's got a big stick and all he wants to do is hurt me.

You know, I look at, we can't be separated from his love. So there's lots of verses about child training or chastening of us. There is discipline, but it's out of love. And he brings us back. He loves us with an eternal love. I mean, Romans 8, 32, whatever it is, we can't be separated from that. We cannot be separated from that.

So whatever you're going through, and he's allowed, that's where I derive the peace and rest, is because I understand that Whatever I'm going through, He loves me. And He's allowing it for His purpose. He's in control. He's allowed it. And that gives me great, great peace. You know, we talked, we went to the thing with the echoes on the American diabetes, and they were saying it's a life. You know, that diabetes is a life. But I keep thinking that, you know, and I talked to Bob a little bit about this too, that did God allow that? Did He allow that?

He determined it. So did he, for those with diabetes or whatever, did he not love them? No. He still loves them with an eternal love. And he's using it for his purposes. You know, I was saying with Bob, too. You know, he may not have been in the position he got into because he went after it because of his diabetes. And the position he has right now is unbelievable. But it was mainly driven by the fact that he had diabetes. Did he use it for his purposes?

Absolutely. Is the same true of cancer? I think... Is there anything that is out of his control? Well, this past week, I have to say I... one thing after another. I mean, in the world. And then the thing that really kind of pushed me over the edge was that little boy being caught by that crocodile. And I think, why? Why? With such a... And then someone who's more intelligent than I am said, well, that was, that was Satan. That wasn't God. That had nothing.

Did he allow it? Yeah. Again, that's where we kind of made the semantics with Mike and I. I know his purpose. Sometimes I don't know his methods, the exact path, how he's doing it. But it's ultimately for his purposes. And I rest in that fact. When you go through what went in Orlando or France or a plane that goes down or a car accident out here, I rest in the fact that he knows what he's doing and I don't. I mean, I don't know the method. But I rest in the fact that he's using it for his purposes in all these things.

And for anything that happens in my life, I rest in that fact and he promises me to guard my heart and a peace that surpasses all understanding. I think it's from that realization that he's in control and he loves me. It's tough for those families and he's maybe using unbelievable believers down there. to witness to families. We don't know all the ramifications of what's going on down there, or with that family with the child. I don't know all those things, but he does.

I rest in the fact that he does. And that's where I get my peace, in all these things. You know, I had a guy who I worked with, he was 50 years old, he looked 40 years old, healthy as a horse, did everything, came over and died of a massive heart attack at a meeting. And I But I rest that he's using it for his purposes. I don't know the methods all the time, but I know the purpose.

Because I don't know who he's infected and all those people that were related with him. Maybe it made 50 people in that meeting think about, I need to look into what happens to when I die. And he used him. Well, doesn't it say in the Bible that God raises up those he wants to raise? You know, that's his plan, like with the other problem we have. Who are we going to vote for for president?

Don't even go there. Don't even go there. That is one that I have no clue what God is doing. No clue. Now we can get to a point where the two most hated people are our nominees. That is definitely divinely ordained because I cannot figure that one out at all.

Okay, so I'm going to have to try to figure it out. Yeah, you figure it out and let us know. You know, I go back to even like the last election. By November. The last election. I mean, I cannot believe how we got a second term. It's just unbelievable.

But I rest in the fact that God's in control. In fact, we see in Romans 13 where he ordains all the governments and all this kind of stuff. Right. So I rest in the fact. And to me, if he's trying to get his coming by taking the United States down, hey man, bring it on, make it faster. So I'd just rest in all those. So we can't go wrong with who we vote for because it's all going down. It doesn't matter. I mean, I'd say vote still, but it doesn't matter.

He's going to be the one. Anyway, there's one that I wanted to read. Just have that peace understanding in those tragedies and everything that he's still in control. What do you say to someone who says, oh, it's Satan. I guess you can say, yeah, but God's still in control.

Yeah, he's allowed him. It's like with Job. I go back to Job. He allowed him to sift Job. He allowed him, but only as far as he allowed him to do it. So you can bring it back to Job and say, look, God allowed it. It wasn't that Satan had free reign. He allowed him to do that. A lot of people died in that deal. Yeah, a lot of family members went adios on that. A lot of things, but ultimately for his purpose.

I love in Job 2 at the end with the speeches that God has to him about, where were you when I created everything? Did I need your advice? So my plans are better than your plans? Put you in perspective in a hurry. So anyway, there was one in the Hungry Heart about some of these things.

It was 525. Stand where you are. In Ephesians, with some of these verses we did, God is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us has made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Believers are not occupying their position. At best, most are trying to attain a victorious position by means of prayer, Bible study, commitment, re-consecration, surrender, and so forth. But the answer is simply to abide where we've already been placed in our risen Lord Jesus Christ. Abide above and keep looking down.

Our Father has taken us over Jordan and placed us in Canaan, but the reality of it is never known until by faith we accept the fact on the basis of having died with Christ and therefore heaven is our place. and we know it to be our place now, and that this side is not our place, and we know that it is not. The more we abide in the Lord on the other side, the less disappointed we will be here. For when we are there, we import new joys and new hopes into this old world from an entirely new one, and we therefore in every way surpass the inhabitants of this lost world. You must abide in Christ in heaven before you can descend with heavenly ability to act for him down here.

The great secret of all blessing is to come from the Lord. Most Christians go to him. Christian experience is our measure of apprehension of that which is already true of us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians, or I'd say Galatians, stand fast in the Lord. So again, I think a lot of times it's a perspective. There's another one where we always try and bring Christ down to us rather than us going to Him in His heavenly place. There's a couple good Hungry Hearts. There's also one other one that was 528. Just a thing out of which I liked. And this maybe goes to what you were kind of saying.

In the first stage of our Christian life, we seek to bring the Lord Jesus down to our level for our use. Later on, we learn to take our position in Him at His level for His use. And I thought that was pretty good. In the beginning, all we're doing is, Lord, bless me. Help me. Lord, Lord, bring it here. Help me. I'm in this world. It stinks. But as our focus goes on, where is our heavenly place? Where is our citizenship? Heaven. And that's the true source of good words. That's the true source, exactly. So, anyway, a lot of good things in The Hungry Heart in the last month, especially there were some really good ones. So, moving on.

The believer has two natures. What are they and which one is to be consecrated? Easy. Easy peasy. So, what is the answer? Old and new. Old and new. And which one is to be consecrated? New. Yes. Our life in Christ. Moving on quickly. What is true spiritual consecration?

This is what I deferred from you last week, Roy. Give a verse. Do you remember? 6-11. That's a long time ago. That was way cool. What day of the week is it? Alright. Actually, Wanda, you may have had it. What was it? What did you have? We'll count ourselves dead to sin. but are lied to God in Christ. Okay, and actually beyond that is Romans, so that's Romans 6. What? Romans 6, 12 through 14.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you may obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be mastered over you, for you are not under law, but under grace." So again, we're presenting our members as instruments. And the key verse in there is those alive from the dead.

Again, our identification, our death, barrel resurrection with Christ. Yeah. I don't know if this can be said correctly, but I'll try. I've been mulling over the word body and flesh, and the scripture seems to make a distinction between the two in this way.

The body is all that you are, and the flesh is that part of us which is fallen. It seems to be a continual theme. So when it says here, your members, we're talking about all we are. And it's not the old man, not the degenerate man, but it's the new man of all we are. Right. The spiritual side of us. In looking at the scripture, there's one that stands out in my mind. When we have the Lord's table, He says, this is my body. This is all that I am. presented as the final thoughts. That's our Lord Jesus presenting. I think that goes in body, soul, and spirit, I think, in the division thereof. I'm just giving you that as a thought. Because sometimes you get confused. I mean, here I've got a physical body.

But this is talking about much more than that. This is all that we are in Christ. As Christ himself gave all that he is as God. Yeah, I think it's being used. with the Holy Spirit manifesting Christ through this body for good works. And I don't know if this was from the green letters, but this means very much to me. Being consecrated does not mean having to do something, but to rest in what God has already done. And ever since I've been in this church, I keep hearing about rest, and I think I'm just now beginning to understand. Amen. And it's a process, a spiritual growth.

And I think that's been one of the things I've really grabbed onto, is the rest and peace. The world cannot give us rest. And there are some scriptures that say that we get rest, and Matthew is, take my yoke upon you and I'll give you rest. It also, in whichever is, the peace that surpasses all understanding. He'll guard your hearts and give you the peace that surpasses all understanding. Those are the things as we realize who we are or understand who we are in Christ, and this is by knowing him, focusing on him and knowing him, that's who we are. And that's where peace comes. In all this crud that happens in this world, that's where our peace comes from.

Not from the world. The world rejected Christ. And they'll reject us and all the trash that goes on here. But we are a citizen of heaven. That's where positionally we are today. And all these things. So that's what gives us the peace. And all the trash that goes on is a result of our sin. It's a fallen world. It's just the way it is. It's never going to get better. Exactly. No matter how hard we try. There's always going to be stuff going on. Deaths and marriages breaking up. It's all just a result.

Alligators eating kids. He allows all of this. That's the key. He's using it for his purposes. His ultimate purpose is to glorify him. To draw people to his son. But in his world, God's sin-free world, there won't be alligators eating little kids. I also had Colossians 2, 9-14.

For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete. And he is the head over all rule and authority. leaders and all that. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, and the removal of the body of flesh by circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgression.

So it is the new life, our Christian life, the life that is already hid with Christ in God, Colossians 3.3, that we are to yield, to consecrate, to set apart unto our Father. It is the only acceptable life, the life that He's already accepted in His beloved Son. Question 8. What is spiritual consecration based on? Reckoning. Faith. In Romans 6, 8, 11.

Now if you have died with Christ, we believe that you shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.

And then Galatians 2, 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me." And then I always link all these together, the Romans, Galatians, and also 2 Corinthians 5, 17-17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.

Galatians 2.20 and 2 Corinthians 5.17 don't make any sense. I always wonder how I read those without knowing the identification truths, how I bypassed that. You know, for 20 years I did it. But I look at it now, it's like, how do you make sense of that if you don't know that you, the Romans 6, that you've been co-crucified? You know, it is not, I've died, you know, and I'm a new creature. How'd I get there? Where'd I get a new creature? What? So, anyway.

What does true, and I think you missed a word in here, what does true spiritual consecration call on the believer to do? Rest in what's already done. Perfect, perfect. Like getting ready to go home. You know, I am ready any day, any day. You think, you know. When you put that in perspective, people are worried about death or anything like that. As we talk about, it's the second best day of my life. Just think, if you go home, I don't have taxes, I don't have politics, I don't have to make a mortgage payment, I don't have to fix my car, I don't have to mow my grass, I don't have to do any of that. Why am I worried about going home? I want to go home.

Anytime's ready. The Lord has other works, I guess. Okay, quickly, the questions. Everything of the first Adam is sometimes opposed to everything of the last Adam. True or false? False. And I put in red sometimes. It's always. The Holy Spirit gives us, in our condition, what we commit to Him from our position. True or false? False. And the... Is that a lie? Yeah.

We'll give you the dictionary of unapproved words or bad words for Holly Hills. And one of those, usually sometimes, because it's usually all or nothing, so sometimes is the operative word there. And what is the Holly Hills unapproved word in question two? Well, there's two words.

We commit. Yeah, okay, I put it as that. Those are two that I read it out on here. We commit. Do we commit under grace and do we commit anything? No. It was a gift. Yeah. And then last one, our sanctification is not only the will and the work of the Father, but it is in and through the Son. True. Perfect. We're done. We'll get to Lesson 12 next week. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time. Again, anytime we can open your word in just a fellowship. We thank you for the fellowship we have here. And it's the common thread of your Son living in us that gives us that fellowship that just the relationship that we have with each other here as one body.

And we thank you for that, and we thank you again just for the thought that we live in grace, where there's nothing we can do to improve our position, to make us more accepted than what we have in our position in Christ. He is fully accepted. And again, as we realize that you have an eternal love for us, that we, as the Scripture says, as the Word says, we can never be separated from that. Never.

And we realize in the trials that we have here, and in the blessings, that you are manifesting your love to us. Many times we don't understand the methods, but we know what the purpose is. And it's to draw us to you, to glorify you, and we thank you, even in the trials. Even though you take us through these things and allow these things, at the end we derive the peace and rest and understanding that is from your hand, and you're using it for your purposes. And we just thank you for the upcoming meeting. We pray for Vern as he brings us the word again to prepare our hearts to receive it. And we thank you and ask for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.