Would You Let Him Make You
Key Passage: 1 Peter 5:8-10
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to First Peter, chapter number five. I appreciate Brother Adam being good about it. He was going to sing that last Sunday night, and, of course, we had pipes frozen and busted and all those good things, so we did not have it. He was very good at delaying it a week or so forth, and I appreciate that. He did a great job over it. First Peter, chapter number five.
I was planning all week long, for the most part, on preaching something different. We will get to it sometime about Noah and the storm and after the storm and so on. But last night, this morning, I felt like the Lord kind of wanted us to focus on this. It has already been a chaotic service, amen, and it is going to be even more chaotic because it is not quite as planned as I like to be.
But we will see how it goes. It might keep you awake. That would be a good thing, amen.
We had just gotten back from a trip. We went to see the family. We were suffering for the Lord in Florida. It was a rough, rough job. We survived. Rough having to visit family in Florida. It is a rough life, I tell you. But we got in Saturday morning about 2:30 a.m. I said, “Hang the New Year, I am going to sleep,” amen. So I went to bed early.
But anyway, 1st Peter 5. It felt like the Lord wanted us to focus on this this morning.
The title for the internet is, “Would You Let Him Make You?” Would you let Him make you? We are going to start in verse number eight, a very familiar verse, verse number eight, and read just a couple verses. I look over here; I am proud of James. Out of all of our two buses, James is the one that came today. We appreciate that. That is awesome. Proud of James for that. That is a blessing.
Would you please stand as we bring God’s word together? 1 Peter 5, verse number 5, verse number 5, and verse number 8. If you are there, would you say amen? Amen. Good. Wow, you are awake. I like it. Amen. This is good.
Verse number 8: “Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, that hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Would you focus just for a minute there on that: “After that ye have suffered a while”? We will finish that verse out. Would you read it out loud with me, starting with “after”? Here we go: “After that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.”
Let us pray together that the Lord would speak to your hearts and my heart this morning. Lord, when I say that, I am asking them to pray that, Lord, I do mean that. Lord, would You speak to our hearts, Lord, to our minds, but more than just our minds, to our hearts this morning? Lord, give us a hunger, give us attentiveness to get something from You and from Your word this morning. Lord, help me to be wise with time and give me the attention, the hearts of Your people. Accomplish Your will, Lord, Father, please. We are asking that in faith, because we are asking for that. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Everyone goes through suffering. You say, “Well, preacher, you are supposed to preach a message that this year is going to be wonderful.” And it can be. I want to be honest with you up front: you will go through suffering. Everybody goes through suffering. I thought about this while preparing for it. Years ago, we had a funeral here. I cannot really remember the person it was, but it was a funeral here at the church. Some of the funeral home people, the directors, whatnot—one of them I know pretty well—he said, “Pastor, can I meet with you for a minute? I want to talk about something personal.” I said, “Sure.” We met in my office back here a little before the funeral. He shared with me that he is the son-in-law of a very wealthy, very famous person. If I mentioned their name, I think many of you would know who it is. Of course, we are in Nashville; a lot of music stars and all that. Musicians have voices just almost as good as your pastor’s voice, you know. It is one of those people. If I mentioned the name, many of you would know it. They are very wealthy. I looked it up this morning on the internet. The internet said they have somewhere—it is amazing what you can find out on the internet, you know—but it is not always that accurate. Anyway, they said they have a $20 million net value, and then some said up to $185 million. I will take the $185 million. So anyway, he said, “Everybody thinks they are great and they are millionaires and all that, but Pastor, I am married into the family, and it is a wreck.” He said their lives—they look so happy in front of everybody—all they do is fuss and fight. They have destroyed their grandchildren’s family, their lives, and they are working and split my marriage up, and all these stories. I say that to say, sometimes we think, “Man, they have got wonderful lives.” Friend, everybody suffers. Everybody has problems. We are no exception to it. Just because you are saved does not mean you will not have problems in your life. Saved or lost, everybody is going to have their suffering.
Here is point number one. It is very doctrinal, all right? We are going to go with the Bible, but we are going to use Tennessee vernacular a little bit here. Point number one: Don’t have a pity party. Amen. You are going to have suffering. You say, “Well, why don’t we have suffering? Why don’t we have a pity party?”
Look in verse number eight right there. Verse number eight, we have already read it. He said, “Be sober, be vigilant.” Be vigilant; it has to do with you being ready for the attack. You are a soldier, willing to be a soldier. Be sober, be serious about it. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. You have an adversary, and he is going to attack. So do not have a pity party. Do not get all out of whack because you get attacked. It is going to happen. God tells us, be sober, be serious about this thing, be vigilant because there is going to be attacks. It is just part of it. I look out and see Brother Lord, he has surgery on Wednesday. Ms. Cook has surgery on Wednesday. There is someone else that has surgery, I believe, this week. It just happens. It is just part of life, and we are going to suffer. But do not let it take your joy. Remember James over there: “Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” Do not have a pity party. Do not go in the corner and suck your thumb—you will suck it off like Pastor did. Amen? Do not do that. Do not let it take your smile. You know there are going to be attacks.
What is the next verse? Look at the next verse, verse number nine right there. Verse number nine, he says, “Whom resist steadfast in the faith.” That is the devil resisted, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren. I think there he is talking about the nationality there, the Jews, the Gentiles, and your brethren that are in the world—in other words, lost people that go through suffering too. I remember a good lady, a lady I love, she really got reached by this church, and she moved away years ago, but she felt like, “Well, the more I live for the Lord, the more I get attacked.” Friend, you only get attacked because you are living for the Lord? Friend, it does not matter if you live for the Lord or out in the world; you are going to get attacked. I would rather be attacked for living for the Lord than, you know, my liver attacked because I drink too much. Everybody goes through suffering. So do not have a pity party about it. That is what the Bible means over in 1 Corinthians 10:13 when he says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” If you are not careful, we get into this mode: “Well, nobody knows what I am going through. Nobody knows how bad I have it. I have the worst. I have always had it bad.” Anytime anybody ever talks to you, it is always bad, bad, bad, bad. Friend, hey, join the crowd. Everybody goes through suffering. This is part of it. And do not go through a pity party. Everybody has suffering, and do not have a pity party.
Here is another reason why—number one, do not have a pity party because you already know the devil is going to attack. Number two, you are not the only one going through suffering. Number three, look in verse number 10. He says, “But the God of all grace hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while…” What is the next word? Hey, there is an end to your suffering. For a born-again Christian, one that is saved, one that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb, even if you suffer for a lifetime—friend, our lifetime down here is just a little vapor that appears for a little time. I would rather go through a little suffering down here instead of going to hell forever, never, never, even if I have what someone called a horrible lifetime down here. Friend, I am going to walk on streets of gold. I am going to have no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrow. I am going to be with Jesus. I have a wonderful life to look forward to. So do not have a pity party. If you are saved, friend, it is just for a short while. I understand it is easier to say those things. Someone said, “Easy preaching, hard living,” and there is some truth to that. Maybe you have chronic pain, and I am sorry for you having that. But, friend, even if that is your case, the worst thing you can do is get into a pity party, sympathy mode—poor me.
I remember an evangelist that came through, and he was talking about a preacher or pastor—I do not know if it was a preacher or pastor, maybe an evangelist—but he said that before he preached, he made sure he had those shoes on anyway. You know preachers always have to put their foot up when they talk about something, and it is just instinct sometimes, you know, your foot. He said he would always wear those shoes that had a hole in the bottom of them. He was trying to get that love offering. You know what I am talking about? He had better shoes built. Sometimes we just get into the pity, sympathy mode. And do not get there. Okay, you are suffering, and I am not trying to make light of that, but it is temporary.
Someone asked me a month or two ago, “Pastor, what do you think? Do you think suffering is always predetermined how long it is, or does it matter how we handle it?” That is a trick question because God knows how we are going to handle it, you know. I gave him a preacher answer, kind of a politician’s answer, amen. I said, “Well, there are illustrations of its time, you know, 10 days, churches murder, and so on, 40 days and 40 years, and all these different things.” But then, it does matter what we do with it. But the more I thought about it later on, I thought, you know, it just seems like God always has a predetermined amount of time. He knows how we are going to handle it. Even during the 70 years of captivity for the children of Israel, He is talking to them over in Jeremiah, and He says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” And maybe you are going through something, and I am not trying to make light of that, but, friend, there is an end to it. There is an end to it. Do not let that thing dominate your world where it takes your joy away.
Why should I not have a pity party? Well, we know the devil is going to attack. We are not the only one suffering; everybody else goes through problems too. And then God has it for a while—for a while.
Here is the last reason—we are not going to be done with the sermon, all right? Keep your shoes off for a little bit. We will be a little bit longer. But here is the last point underneath that point: God has a reason for allowing it. Let me word it this way: God has a reason for allowing it. Now, God does not cause the pain. Who is our adversary? The devil. And we give into the devil, part of it, but God does not cause the pain. But God, in His wisdom and His sovereignty, allows the devil to wreck and cause some pain down here. But God uses that pain that the devil brings to perfect us.
Remember Job? It was not God that brought the hailstones or those others down to destroy that cattle. And it was not God that brought the whirlwind. God had said, “Hey, Satan, I will let you have your way.” Now they blamed it on God: “The fire of God has fallen.” No, it was not the fire of God; it is the fire of the devil. But God used that to purge Job. That is important. Satan is a master; he causes the pain, then he points the finger at God: “It is God’s fault.” The pain is the devil’s fault in mankind. We fall into the snare of the devil. God did not do that, but God does use that to purify us, all right? So, do not have a pity party. God is doing something. God has a reason for allowing that in your life.
Let us look at these different words God gives us in this verse. Let us look at the bottom of verse number 10. Are y’all still with me this morning?
Why is God allowing suffering in our life? The bottom of verse number 10, He says, “After that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” This word “perfect.” Several months ago, we studied it, and it has been so helpful for me to learn. It has to do with God working the flaws out in us. We all have flaws. We all have errors in us. Some of it, maybe just because we have blood flowing through veins—we got that from Adam, the sin nature, the damaged nature we will call it. Sometimes we are trained; it is kind of like learned flaws. We all have flaws. All of us do. I think the older I get, the root flaws usually we do not even know we have them until years later. But they are there. These flaws, and God allows things in our life, and through those, God is trying to work out those problems, those flaws in our life.
Would you look over in Psalm 19, please? Psalm chapter number 19. I love this chapter. It has been one of my favorite chapters this year, 2022, last year. I want you to see this, Psalm 19. I love really from verse 7 down. Verse 7 begins talking about the Bible, how it will convert your soul and make you wise and all these things. It is just a wonderful chapter. Then it gets to verse number 12. I want you to see this: Psalm 19, verse number 12. If you are there, would you say amen? Good deal. Verse number 12, He says, “Who can understand errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” Oh, friend, I think we have flaws more often than not we do not even know we have them.
Maybe, let us just say, a child grows up in a home that is warped. Oh, I do not know. I did not plan on saying this part here. Maybe it is warped because of just me. When you say things to him, do not bite his head off. I mean, just mean spirit and sharp tongue. You grow up in that, and you think that is the norm. You have—you have no idea. That is where sometimes church and schools and things, you can see the outside world, but you just think that is the norm. So you grow up with that, and man, you just—anybody, “How are you doing?” Boom, you cut the head off. Well, you just think it is the norm. You do not understand that flaw because you grew up in that. Whatever it is, I am just trying to use something off the top of my head, but “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.” Maybe it is just a sharp tongue. You just grew up talking about everybody. If they walked, you talked about it. You do not talk about it. Some families are like that. The child grows up with that; this is what they are used to. He said, “Hey, who can understand his errors?” So often, we do not even understand the deeper issues. We do not understand what happened.
It is very interesting; look at the next verse. He says, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins.” Those sins, they just jump on you, and you will fall prey to those so easily. People with addiction problems usually have underlying issues, so often. And He said, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin; let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.” Now, friend, here is what I mean: you put these two together—1 Peter 5:10 over here and this Psalm 19. We have underlying flaws so often we do not even know we have them. You ever meet somebody who is a control freak? They have to be in charge, somebody, either openly or covertly, they have to be in charge. Am I right? And half the time, they do not even know they have that problem.
My friend, there are underlying issues in our lives. So God allows these problems through the devil. God uses the devil as His pawn, and these issues come into my life. God allows them, and through that, God is trying to make me perfect. He is trying to correct those flaws and mend those issues in my life, half the time that I do not even know I have. But these issues I have, these errors and these flaws, make me very vulnerable to sins. See, that is why that next verse over there in Psalm 19, he said, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” So when you have that suffering in your life, wait a second—I do not want to get down in the dumps. God is trying to perfect me. God is trying to mend; He is trying to get a flaw out of my life. He knows everything, and He knows my root issue, and He is trying to mend and correct that thing in my life. That is what He is doing. Sometimes we get mad; I get bitter at God: “Why are you doing this?” It is like a parent bringing their baby to the doctor, and that child needs a shot just to get past some sickness or whatever illness. That shot hurts, and that parent allows that for the good of the child. That baby might think, “Mom and Dad, why did you let them do that to me?” Mom and Dad cannot explain it because the child does not get it, really, but He is trying to help you here. God allows suffering in our life until the day we die and go home; He is trying to perfect us.
By the way, these four words—it is a cycle. God gets something out of us, and there are more things. He will be doing this until the day we go home. But the first thing He starts off with: God is trying to perfect us. I do not think—listen to me—I do not think Job knew. I do not think Job knew. I think Job was the best Christian around. Job probably thought, “Man, I have it together.” But as you read the book of Job, if you have never read it, this would be a good year to read it. As you read the book of Job, you realize, man, Job had a lot of self-righteousness in him. Job, chapter 29, 30, 31—“I, me, me.” “When I walked down the street, everybody looked at me.” That is a good Christian right there. It was all about Job. Chapter 42, it was not all about Job being all that. He said, “I abhor myself.” Man, I have issues, God; He is the big one. I do not think Job knew he had self-righteousness, but God was perfecting him so in the end he could bless him twice as much, you know that.
Let us go to the second word. Help me out. Class, what is the first word? Oh, my goodness. Brother Anthony passed. These four words—I am sorry. That was a pop quiz. You were not ready for these four words at the bottom of verse number 10, 1 Peter 5, verse number 10. What is the first thing He is trying to do to us? Yeah, make us perfect. Perfectus. What is the second word right there? What is the second? Help me out. What is the second? Establish. This word “establish” has to do with you being set in a direction. You do not get off course so easily anymore. You are going somewhere, and you cannot be deterred. I have set myself; that is the way I am going. There will be problems, but I am going that way. It is like—can I make it personal?—you are saying, “I am going to live for the Lord,” and nobody else does. I am going to live for the Lord. If it is popular, if it is not popular, I am going to live for the Lord. If I am rich, I will live for the Lord. If I am poor, I will live for the Lord. If I am healthy, I will live for the Lord. If I have sickness and I have problems, I am going to live for the Lord. I am just going to serve the Lord. It does not matter what the news says; it does not matter what our government says. I am just going to go to church. I am just going to serve the Lord no matter what. That is what it has to do with “Establish.” I am determined; I am going that direction.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is when children do not want to go that way to serve the Lord, and a parent says, “You know what? I do not know what my children are or are not going to do, but I am going to serve the Lord.” That is established. I am set in my direction. I am going to get hit from every angle in the world, but that is all right. I am just going to keep serving the Lord. That is established. My direction is set. I like what Joshua said over there in Joshua 24. He said, “Hey, you choose who you are going to serve, but as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.” That is established. He perfects us. Then He establishes that I am going to serve the Lord. If everybody loves it, great. If everybody does not love it, still great. I am going to serve the Lord. If my friends are going that way, great. If my friends are not going that way, I am just going to serve the Lord. If everybody sees it my way, if nobody sees it my way, they have the world. That is all right. I am just going to serve the Lord. That is established. So help me out. Help me out. Here we go. Here we go. The first word, He is trying to make us what? Then the next word He is trying to what? I am just going to serve the Lord.
Let us get the third word in here. We are moving along quickly. Amen. Because there is food somewhere, and we have got to get it, get it, get it, amen. Here is the third word: Strengthen. It really has to do a little bit with—man, you have been through it, and it has perfected you, but it has taken some out of you. I mean, you go through problems for a while; it wearies you if you are not careful. It can just wear you out. You do not have a whole lot of energy left, and yet you are going to serve the Lord, no matter what. God comes along, and He says, “Man, that person there, they are allowing Me to perfect them, and they have already set their direction.” Now God says, “They are going to strengthen them in walking that way.” It is like when you are walking alone and you just feel like you are about to give out, you cannot go anymore, and you are tired and weary, and God comes along, and it just gives you a second wind. You are like, “Man, that is not for me because I know me. I am tired and worn out.” He strengthens you in that. You say, “I have problems, I have issues. I know God is trying to work them out, and it hurts when God whittles on you. He cuts on you. That is hard, and it can drain you.” But you said, “It does not matter. I am going to serve the Lord.” And God comes along in His time, and He says, “Now let Me give you some extra strength.” Oh, it is wonderful when God comes along and He puts some wind in your sails. Sometimes you just feel like there is not a breeze anywhere, and I cannot really sail for the Lord, when God comes along, and He is the one that controls the wind, and it brings life to you.
Look over in Psalm 27; there is a wonderful verse along this line. I love it. It may be a verse for you to memorize. Psalm 27, verse number 14. Psalm 27:14, a wonderful verse about God strengthening you. If you are weak and you are just tired, you are out, do not give up, do not give up; He will strengthen you. Psalm 27:14: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
You have been through it, you are suffering, do not have a pity party, do not lose your joy, do not go into sympathy mode, do not do all that. You say, “I am going to serve the Lord no matter what.” God, in this time—you just keep going, you just wait on the Lord; He will give you strength. You may feel like sometimes I have nothing left. I am out of everything. Even my desire to keep going is really—it is almost gone. I am just out of everything. That is when God comes in and gives you strength. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage: and he shall strengthen thy heart.” And then He adds the emphasis: “Wait on the Lord.” He gives you what you need when you need it.
Now here we go. We are back over here in 1 Peter 5, verse number 10. Four things He is trying to do in us. Trying to make us—help me out—here we go. Number one, He is trying to what? Perfect us, right? Then He is trying to… yeah, and then He what? Oh, praise the Lord, He gives us strength. And then look at that fourth word: He settles us. This is amazing. “Settle” has to do with a foundation. Years ago, we changed our platform around, and I cannot remember everything. I think maybe two-by-twelves underneath here, the foundation of this platform. Down underneath here, it is concrete, it is concrete, it is a slab. It was poured. We had it poured. But it is our foundation. And on top of that, we build a house, the church, the house of God. God says, you come through this cycle. God says, “I am trying to work out the problems, the flaws in you. And then get the direction settled. Then I will give you some strength.” And God says, “Now you are getting a foundation that I can build a ministry on top of. I can build a good family on top of that. I can build some good kids and a good marriage on top of that. I can build a lady that has influence for the Lord at her job, and other ladies look and find out what a good, godly lady looks and talks and acts like. I can build a good dad on top of that. I can build a good relative that has influence on the family and influences the family for the Lord.” He establishes you; He gives you—He makes you into a foundation. God said, “Now I can build something on top of you.” God is always looking for people that He can use, and in order for God to use us, sometimes He has to take us through this thing, and it is a cycle, by the way. It will always be going through the cycle. We never arrive until we get to heaven. It is called sanctification. You can call it a lot of different terms. God is always trying to grow us. He is trying to perfect us, establish, get our direction set. He will give you strength in the middle of this thing, and He is trying to make you stable. People are not good at following somebody that always jerks the wheel, jerks the wheel, jerks the wheel. Many people go, “Whoa.” God says, “I am going to make you a sure foundation, and I can use you in people’s lives.” I require my stewards, those that I am going to entrust My greatest—by the way, people are the greatest riches God has, besides His love and Himself, you know. But He said, “I am going to entrust you with some riches.” But He makes us perfect, and then He settles our direction, He strengthens. And He says, “I am getting kind of calm a little bit of you.”
In the end, I said, Job, twice as much money. Money is not a bad thing. The love of money is the root of all evil, not money. Love money. Job, I bless you twice as much, but not just financially, but another family, another 10 more kids. I do not know everything about it, just kind of maybe some little insights. I do not know that his first set of kids were the best in the world. He felt like he had to offer sacrifice every day for them. I do not know why, but he did. But he has 10 more kids, and boy, the Bible gives us the names of those three more daughters. And, boy, those names are just awesome—the sweetest, prettiest, friendliest girls you ever met in your life. When God said, “Job, I will give you another,” man, He blessed him with a great family. Not in the first one—I think they are saved—but He gives him twice the influence. Man, you have friends coming all over to give you things. You have twice as much—just a reputation, the influence for the Lord. But Job had to go through that to get those blessings.
Now, here is the thing. Here is the thing about it. Would you look at verse number 11? We are almost done, verse number 11. We have got to get this last truth in here, 1 Peter 5, looking at verse number 11. Are y’all still out there? Verse number 11, here we go. He says to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. When you are truly grown, He gets the glory. Because did you notice He makes you? You do not go through the trials and think, “Well, I made myself all this.” It does not work like that. Going through the trials, God makes you. He is the one that makes you perfect, settled, and strengthened. He is the one that does those things. And at the end of the day, that is why you say, “Praise the Lord.” Glory. You do not go through trials when God has made you perfect and—oh, I keep forgetting the second word. Help me out. Establish, thank you. He makes you perfect, established, and then strengthened and settled. He does all that. At the end of the day, you do not say, “Look at me. I have been through so many trials, and look at me; I am doing good.” No, no, no. God made you like that. You say, “You know what? It was God.”
Job did not go through it saying, “Look at me, I have been through the trials.” Oh, no. Nobody—can I just say this?—nobody passes the trials 100%. Nobody does. So when you go through the trials, you do not come out saying, “Boy, look at me. I came through the trials.” Look at Him. I did not even understand what He was doing. I did not even understand my fault, but He was making me perfect, and He was establishing me, strengthening, and settling me. He gets all the glory.
I was thinking about this the other day. We were talking about this some other day, and Philip Bliss, he was a great songwriter back in the day. They say when Philip Bliss was young, he was known for singing, “Oh, how I love Jesus.” That is a wonderful song. He did not write it, but he was known for singing that. But this says as he got older, he did not like to sing about that that much. The song he wanted to be known for when he got older, one that he wrote, had a part in writing it, a song that goes like this: “I am so glad that my Father in heaven tells us love in the book He has given. Wonderful things in the Bible.” I say this is the dearest: “That Jesus loves me.” You see, as he got older, the focus was not so much about what he did for God, how he loved God. It was more about how much God loves him. God is truly making you perfect, and He is establishing, strengthening, settling you at the end product. Oh, look at me. He was doing a work.
Friend, if you are not a born-again Christian, man, I pity the world that goes through sufferings with really no reason apart from God trying to get them saved. But as a born-again Christian, you have a heavenly Father. He is taking you to the doctor’s office and allowing that shot because He wants to help you. Friend, if you are not saved today, it is a great, great, great day to get saved. It is Sunday, the first day of the year; it would be wonderful to be born into the family of God through Jesus Christ. Then all these things—there is a reason for God allowing them in your life.
Father, thank You for Your goodness. Thank You, Lord. We can trust You. We sang it this morning already in new grace. You have all the grace we need going through the trials. And yes, Lord, would You make us what You want us to be going through it? Bless these few minutes together. We thank You, Lord, for what You do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Do not lose your smile. Do not lose your joy. God has a plan. He is doing something. I do not understand it. I usually do not understand it either. But, oh, friend, He knows. He knows the flaws I do not even know about, and He is trying to perfect us. Lord, have Your will. James says, “But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” You have to let it. Let patience have a perfect work. Lord, all right, would You make me perfect? Would You establish me? Would You strengthen me? Tell Him that as we are singing. Just as I am, will dwell. You are in that cycle somewhere in there. That is a good thing. He purges those that are bearing fruit, and that is a good thing so you can produce much fruit. I am glad you are in church this morning, the first Sunday of the year. Wow. You made it through, too. What about that? My goodness. You are still breathing. Amen. That is a good thing.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - Would You Let Him Make You - Sunday AM 112023