[Nick Lamoureux] I'd like to begin today by telling you a story, a story that took place in the year 1981. In 1981, a 21-year-old man named Yosef Ginsberg, Yossi for short, completed his stint recently in the Israeli Navy. An intrepid adventurer, Yossi Ginsberg was backpacking and hitchhiking around South America, from Colombia to Venezuela, and on to Bolivia. And he was lured there by the thrill of adventure and enticed by the possibility of discovering native tribes never yet discovered. Now, throughout his travels, Yossi befriended three other individuals. He befriended a man named Marcus, who was a teacher, a man named Kevin, a photographer, and then when he was in Bolivia, a man named Carl, who claimed to be a geologist. And Carl was on an expedition down in Bolivia to discover precious metals in the remote parts of the Amazon. And he enticed Yossi Ginsburg to join him on his expedition. And you can watch a movie about this story. It's called Jungle. And you can see these things depicted for yourselves.

On this expedition or prior to this expedition, Yossi was able to convince his newfound friends, Marcus and Kevin to join them in the Amazon rainforest in search of uncivilized tribes and, of course, gold. And during the next three weeks, as these four men explored the uncharted and the wild parts of the Amazon, they began to run low on supplies. They began to become hungry and battling starvation, had to start eating wild monkeys. Yossi and Kevin decided they should build a raft in an attempt to get home. And they split from Marcus and Carl because it turned out Carl had no swimming abilities. And so, Carl and Marcus headed back for civilization on foot while Yossi and Kevin took a raft. Well, Yossi and Kevin's hastily built raft, it ended up floundering, and they lost control in the river, and they became separated.

Kevin was able to make it to shore and he watched as Yossi continued on downriver with his capsized raft. And Yossi, as he floated downriver, heard this strange noise off in the distance. And then it got louder and louder until he realized it was a crashing waterfall. And Yossi in his little raft went right over the waterfall, and he ended up floating another four miles downriver. Well, five days later, Kevin was fortunately rescued by some local fishermen and he was brought to a rehab center where he learned that their friend, Carl, the geologist, was not really who he said he was, and he was actually an international criminal wanted by Interpol. It pays to know who your friends are. And so, Kevin began to organize a search party.

Now, Yossi was still out there in the Amazonian wilderness and he had no supplies. He had no equipment, so to speak. And he spent the next three weeks wandering around lost in the uncharted wilderness. And following this ordeal, he wrote an article for "The Washington Times," I'm sorry, The Washington Post, and he said that he could recount being endlessly pursued by wild beasts, even waking up one morning to a Jaguar breathing on his face. He said he was continuously attacked by fire ants, biting him all hours of the day, all over his body. Now, during the second week of being lost, he wasn't able to find any food. But after five days, he was able to find a monkey that had recently fallen out of a tree, which he was able to eat and he was able to forage some bird eggs and some berries. And during the third week, Yossi sank twice and almost drowned in two different bogs. And he said his foot began to, how does he put it, “rot from a red skin rotting fungus.”

Now, battling a high fever, Yossi began to hallucinate and he believed he was visited each night by a mystical woman whom he didn't know. And he later recounted that he often prayed that God would just let him die. And the only thing that was able to get him through and help him endure the hardship was this mystical woman who he hallucinated. And after three long weeks, overcome with delirium and bordering on starvation, suddenly, Yossi heard a sound coming from the river. And as he stumbled his way over to the river, lo and behold, who did he see but his friend Kevin, who after three days on a search mission was headed back to civilization. And he was able to rescue his friend, Yossi. Now, Yossi's friends, Carl and Marcus, who had gone off on foot, they were never seen from again. No one ever heard from them. And Yossi spent the next three months recovering in the hospital.

During this extreme story of survival in the uncharted, in the unforgiving wilderness, Yossi recounts that, well, it was the belief the existence of this hallucinated woman that gave him the strength to make it through a difficult situation. What about you? Are you mentally prepared to endure difficult trials, difficult persecution, or challenging times? On what will you rely during these challenging times? Will you rely on imaginary hope, on your own strength, or will you rely on God? I'd like to focus on and discuss a verse today, just one verse from which we will be able to draw hope and strength during times of trial, and during times of challenge, and during times of persecution. And having a better understanding of this one verse will help you to feel more comfortable relying completely on God for protection, for deliverance, and for assistance during times of trials. So let's go to that one verse now. Let's grab our guidebooks to life and go to 1 Peter 5.

1 Peter 5, and we're going to focus today on one verse, 1 Peter 5:10. Now, Peter wrote, 1 Peter 5:10, "But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." So let's unpack this verse today so that we can know just what kind of a God we serve, and why, and how we can put our trust in Him. Now we're going to break this verse down and unpack it, it begins by saying, "May the God of all grace." So who is our God? The God of some grace? No, the God of all grace. And that is the God from whom all grace originates. Adam Clarke Commentary says “God is the fountain, the origin of infinite compassion, mercy, and goodness. Grace is a gift of unearned, undeserved mercy freely given.”

Now, in trials, we have to remember it's from God. It is from God that relief from suffering comes. It's not by our own understanding or wisdom. No works or actions that we could do on our own can secure our safe passage through a difficult situation, but the God we serve who is merciful and who hears our prayers. And I'm reminded of a story of King Saul. And we don't have to turn there today. You can write down 1 Samuel 13. There's quite a few verses that you can read on your own free time. And I'll paraphrase it there for you. In the book of 1 Samuel 13, we're told of Samuel telling Saul, as he goes off to prepare for battle, he says, "Okay, Saul, go on down to Gilgal. I'll meet you there in seven days, and wait there for me seven days and I will come and bring the offerings in the sacrifices." Saul said, "Okay." So he went down to Gilgal, and day one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, “Don't see Samuel yet. Day seven's here, all right, Samuel.”

And as they were faced with the Philistine army, we can see in that chapter that we have Saul with 3,000 men and how many Philistines? Well, it said, if I remember correctly, 30,000 chariots, 6,000 foot-soldiers. And it says, "people as numerous as the sand on the seashore." Imagine just being a measly 3,000 people faced with that many Philistines. And rightly so, all of a sudden, it says, "These people started running away from Saul. They were hiding in the hills, hiding in holes, hiding in pits, hiding in caves." They were scared. And Saul said, "Well, bring me the sacrifices, I'll offer it. We can't go up to battle against these Philistines if I don't offer a sacrifice." What did Saul do there? Did he have to offer that sacrifice before fighting against the Philistines? Did he have any other options? Well, I guess he had a few. He could have prayed, could have fasted, could have sent out people to go down the road and look for Samuel. But he took matters into his own hands.

And if you read through that account in 1 Samuel 13, you'll see what happened. As a result of his disobedience, the kingdom was taken away from King Saul because God was seeking a man after his own heart. And the point here is that it's not by our own power that we can be saved. It's not by our own works or something that we do that we can be saved or delivered. It's by the grace of God. It's not contingent on our own abilities.

The next part of this verse, 1 Peter 5:10, says, "May the God of all grace, who called us…" When we're faced with persecution, which we will be, make no mistake, when we're faced with persecutions, or challenging times, or trials, keep in mind, Romans 8:28. And we'll turn there and we can read that. This is a favorite scripture of a lot of our friends from East Africa because they also know what it's like to experience persecution and to experience trials in difficult situations.

Romans 8:28, Paul writes here, verse 28, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called, according to His purpose." The one true God from whom all grace originates is interested in you and me. In fact, we are out of… I checked the facts this morning, 7.8 billion people on planet earth as of November 2020. Out of those 7.8 billion people, you're here. God's called you. He specifically handpicked you to be here for a reason, for the fulfillment of His magnificent purpose. We can drop down to verse 30, and it says, "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called." And the Greek words for called there is the same root word and it just means invited or called to come forth like Mr. Metzel mentioned in the sermonette. We're called to be part of something bigger. We're called to be part of a great work that God is doing.

Some people in the world might think that predestination refers to a God's pre-determined decision as to whether a person will be saved and live in heaven forever or if they're predestined to burn in hell forever. But in reality, predestination is about when. Predestination is about when because God determined in advance to call some people now. He determined… He predestined that there would be firstfruits. Some people would be called first for the purpose of being prepared to be leaders and to reign alongside Jesus Christ in the coming Kingdom of God. But how on earth can we possibly comprehend these magnificent promises that lay in store for us? Can we as human beings hope to understand God's plan without help? Well, no, of course, we can't. Not by any power on earth.

Let's go to the book of 1 Corinthians 2, and we'll begin in verse 5. 1 Corinthians 2:5, Paul here writing to the church in Corinth, breaking into the middle of a thought in verse 5, Paul says, "Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing." Verse 7, "But we speak the wisdom of God and the mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’" Verse 10, "But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

And finally, oh, not finally, but verse 11, "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God." And finally, verse 12, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God." Now, because God has called you and I, anybody here listening, God has called us, put out this invitation, and said, "Hey, I want you to be a firstfruit in the Kingdom of God." Because He's done this, He has not left us stranded. He has not left us without hope. That would be completely irresponsible. We do not serve an irresponsible God.

We aren't like Yossi Ginsberg wandering around in the deep uncharted parts of the world with no equipment and no supplies, and only our own reasoning to get us through. Instead, God has taken our basic carnal spirit in man with its basic carnal wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, and he has offered to join it with His Holy Spirit so that we can and we will have a hope, a relief, and something on which we can rely. And the next part of this verse, in 1 Peter 5:10, it says, "May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory," and you can reference, if you're taking notes, Ephesians 1:13-14 that tells us we are "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." We're given a guarantee of what God wants us to inherit. He wants us to inherit eternal life alongside Him, alongside the Word. That's the eternal glory, Peter is referring to here in 1 Peter 5:10.

But let's turn to Romans 8:14. Romans 8:14, Paul writes, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs— heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." And then verse 18, Paul says, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the difficulties, the challenges, the persecution, the trials that you're suffering right now in your physical human bodies are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” And God's Spirit, coupled with our spirit in man, it seeks to lead us, to prod us. And if we respond to the leading and overcome, as we're told in the book of Revelation, we're joint heirs with Christ.

Let's think about that for a second. Where is Jesus Christ? Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father. He's in the presence of God. Christ often said that He came to reveal the Father. We're told, "Work hard to overcome." We're told “Believe.” And then okay, now that you believe what are you supposed to do? “Repent.” Turn, make a 180-degree turn. You're going this way, turn, repent, Acts 2:38. And then get baptized. Okay. You believe, “even the demons believe and they tremble.” Take action. Have that act of faith. After you believe, repent, become baptized, have hands laid on you by the eldership, receive the Holy Spirit. Follow in Christ's footsteps, do things like love, justice, mercy, and truth. And if you do those things, you'll inherit eternal life. And that knowledge should invigorate us. It should fill us with passion, and zeal, and excitement. But we have an end promise of eternal glory.

Our citizenship is in heaven. And we don't have to worry. We don't have to stress out or be anxious about elections, or about governments, or about whether votes have been properly or improperly counted. We don't have to stress out about those things because that's not the end goal. That's not the eternal glory we've been called to inherit. Our physical bodies will be transformed and conformed to the same spiritual body that Jesus Christ currently has, having already been resurrected as the firstborn of the firstfruits. And 1 Peter 5:10, continues by saying, "May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus."

And we are called to dwell with the Father and the Son, only made possible by a perfect sacrifice to reconcile us to God the Father. Otherwise, we wouldn't be worthy to be in the presence of the Ancient of Days. We have an opportunity to be at a wedding feast, only made possible by the death of the Son. However, we also have some other benefits of which we can take advantage now. One of those benefits is that, hey, guess what? We have an intercessor, or a mediator, or a negotiator, sitting in heaven, right next to God right now able to relay and convey our thoughts, and our needs, and our desires, and our feelings because He's been there.

And Jesus Christ, He didn't just, I say just like it's not a light thing, but He didn't only endure terrible pain and physical suffering by having the skin literally ripped off His back for our sakes. He endured things like having one of His good friends who He had spent a lot of time with stab Him right in the back. He knows how that feels. And He can go to God on our behalf and say, "I know what they're feeling, Father. I had that happen to me." It's very probable that Jesus Christ lost His father at a young age. We don't see Joseph mentioned after a certain time in the Gospels. And so, He knows what it's like to lose family members. In fact, what happened to His cousin? And He had to deal with that. Imagine how heart-wrenching that would be to know that your cousin's head just got chopped off. And temptation, oh, Christ was tempted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness by the devil himself. He knows what it's like to be tempted. So we have an Intercessor. We have a High Priest, who is at the right hand of the Father right now who knows what we're going through and can intercede on our behalf.

So when we experience trials, or tribulation, or persecution, what should we do? What can we do? Should we just try to get through it on only our own strength and not involve God at all? Should we just take matters into our own hands and just eat proverbial monkeys and eggs or instead, should we and can we take hold of a superpower? I know there's a lot of superhero movies out right now and we have a way better superpower than any of those superheroes have. Another wonderful benefit that we can take advantage of right now is a promise that we have. And the promise is that we don't just have a negotiator in heaven but we can come boldly before the throne of grace with the ripping of that temple veil, which some scholars say may have been 6 or 8 inches thick of this thick fabric. With the literal ripping of that temple veil at the death of Jesus Christ, we can come boldly before the throne of grace. We can come before the Father. Jesus Christ placed Himself in the role of perpetual High Priest on our behalf. And so now we can ask for help in the name of Christ. That's amazing. What an awesome superpower.

Moving on to the next part of 1 Peter, 5:10, it says, "May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while." Now, like you said, in Romans, 8:18, the sufferings of this life, well, they're nothing in comparison to the glory which shall be revealed in us at the sound of that seventh trumpet. And we'll talk more about this in just a second. But in 1 Peter, 5:10, this focus verse, Peter concluded his short statement by saying that, "Well, after you have suffered a while," he said, "May the God of all grace” do four things. The first, may the God of all grace perfect you." I like Greek words. I'm sure there are some people who do. if you like Greek words, katartizo is the one for perfect, and K-A-T-A-R-T-I-Z-O, perfect you. And that means to restore or to repair. And it has the meaning in Greek or the sense of joining two things together. All right, joining two things together.

Now, as a reference, we aren't going to turn there. You can write down James 1:2-4. 1 Peter 1:6-7, we're told, "You're perfected through trials." You're perfected through trials. Now, what is the purpose of suffering? I'll tell you what it's not. It is not like those awesome YouTube videos where you have this big black and yellow hydraulic press, and they can put anything under that hydraulic press. And they want to see how much weight can something take before it breaks, or gets squished out of shape, or explodes. And they'll put cell phones, or piles of money, or different toys underneath these hydraulic presses. And boy, there's even a channel dedicated to this hydraulic press. That is not the purpose of suffering. And you might say, "What are you talking about?" The purpose of suffering is not so God can see how much stress we can take before we break. That's not the purpose. The purpose is perfection. The purpose of suffering is so that the end result will be us coming to the point where we praise, and we honor, and we glorify the God of heaven. And we can certainly see that throughout the book of Job. Job had to deal with that. And he came to the point of glorifying the God in heaven.

Now, when we look at this sense of the meaning of the word, the sense of joining two things together, that's two things that are being joined together are the spirit of man and the Spirit of God. Not that the spirit in man is anything without the Spirit of God. We're nothing in and of ourselves. And this is so awesome. The idea is that God wants to join these two things together. He wants to join your consciousness and my consciousness, our minds and who we are, He wants to join that with His Holy Spirit, so that we come to the point where He wants to join that with His divine nature and then purify our consciousness and our consciences to the point that we choose in and of our own free will to do what is right. That's the point here that Paul is trying to get across in this word katartizo of being perfected, that we could… I could still be Nick but everything that is wrong is gone.

And actually, there's a good Scripture that portrays this a lot better than I could. And that's in the beginning of Isaiah, Isaiah 1. Because God actually said this through His prophet Isaiah, way back in history. Isaiah 1:22, God said, "Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.” Verse 23, "Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don't defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before then." In verse 25, "I will turn My hand against you," God says, "and thoroughly purge away your dross,” what in the world is dross? Well, dross is the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal. It is comprised of the waste, or the foreign matter, or the impurities that are in that chunk of molten metal. The word in Hebrew is sig or sug, and it also could mean refuse. So, it's the undesirable parts of that metal.

There's an analogy of looking at God as the master silversmith. And God as the master silversmith is taking us in our lives. And if we're silver, well, He takes us and puts us in this steel, little cauldron. You don't hear that word very often, cauldron. Maybe a little steel pot, and He puts it in the fire. And He heats it up until that steel pot is red hot. But inside, the silver has turned to liquid. It's no longer just a lump of hard metal. And He takes His figurative steel ladle and scoops off the top, all that dross, all those impurities and imperfections, and foreign matter that is in us and in our lives until it's all gone. And then all you're left with is just this little pot or cauldron of molten silver. And do you know how the silversmith tells that that silver is done and that his work is complete is when he can look into that molten metal and see his reflection. And that's what God's doing with us. That's what this word, katartizo, is trying to convey and what Paul is trying to convey to you and me.

And that's why we're told every single year, we're told… We just talked about this yesterday at ABC in 1 Corinthians 11:28, there's a word dokimazo, and it means to examine yourselves. We're told every year, examine yourselves. For what? Well, to see if you're genuine, to see if you're pure. And we should be doing this, not just once a year before the Passover, right, but every single day, we should be going before God and saying, "God, help me to come to the point where You have perfected me and I become perfected. I want to be like You. I want to be like Your Son." We should be seeking to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

And now, the second thing in 1 Peter 5:10, it says, "May the God of all grace…” do four things. The second is establish you. May the God of all grace establish you." And that word in Greek is sterizo, S-T-E-R-I-Z-O, and it means to set fast or to confirm or to turn something matter of factly in a certain direction. What does it mean to be established? A good topic on which to meditate this week. I can think of it myself in two ways. I used to be a forester. So naturally, my first thought of being established is straight to the forest. So you can be established like a forest. If you take a new forest that has not yet been established, well, you think of it like maybe an overgrown field. You have some small trees, and they're not very big around, and they kind of have small weak roots, and they can't withstand the wind. They can't withstand the flood and flop over when any sort of wind comes by. And not only that, but they don't produce very good fruits or seeds, and no animals want to live there, and the soil underneath them isn't very nutritious, not very nutrient-rich.

What about an established forest? Oh, an established forest, you've got some big trees. You have nice deep roots that spread out, they say. The roots of a tree can extend one-third of the diameter of the canopy, past the canopy. So, the root system of a tree goes much further than the canopy of a tree. And so these well-established forests, big root systems, big trunks, they've experienced a lot of wind storms and they… My wife's laughing at me. I like trees. They can withstand wind. They can withstand floods and storms. You might have gone on a hike and seen the exposed roots of these trees where a flood has gone through but those trees are still standing. Well, those are established trees. Little trees like that, they're just going to flop over. They're not well established. Anyway, that's one way we can consider the idea of God establishing us. He is helping us to grow into this mature strong forest with strong roots.

Another way that we can understand this concept of becoming established is that God provides information to learn from, from which we can change and from which we can grow. And He is, as the definition of this Greek word says, He is the one turning us matter of factly in a certain direction. Of course, there's a second part to that. When God calls, we need to answer. We need to respond to that calling, to that information, and become spiritually mature and spiritually established. When I went through ABC a number of years ago, Mr. Antion was instructing and he said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." I also once heard from someone else in a sermon one time, "Our lives are like a construction site. And God, well, He's the foreman." He's always on the job. He'll never quit. He's there day, night, snow, rain, sleet. Sometimes the work is hard. Sometimes it's messy, maybe unenjoyable. But God never leaves. And we have to be willing to tough it out and not walk away from that job site because God never will.

Jesus Christ said something in Matthew 7:24. Maybe we can turn there. Matthew 7:24, this is probably a familiar scripture to many of you. There's also… I know there's a song about this, a Casting Crowns song, I think. Matthew 7:24, Jesus Christ said, "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house; and it didn't fall,” why? “Built on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and doesn't do them, I'll liken him to a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house; and” what? “Great was its fall."

Jesus Christ was a carpenter or as some translations render it, perhaps a stonemason. But in any event, He had some experience with building. He knew a little bit about it. And so, if I'm going to have a foreman on the job site, I want someone who's got some experience. Jesus Christ, perfect candidate. He's going to be my foreman, building, creating a work in me. If God is creating or conducting a work in us, are we willing to stick it out, are we willing to put in the time and the effort? It's not something that we can just accomplish on our own. We can't rely on our own abilities. If we want to succeed alone… If we try to succeed alone and rely on our own strength, we'll end up in a situation like King Saul did.

And then the next thing that Peter says in 1 Peter 5:10, he says, "May the God of all grace strengthen you." And that word is sthenoo, S-T-H-E-N-O-O. And it means… it can mean bodily vigor, but it means to add effort, to add energy, and to add enthusiasm. So how can God strengthen us? Well, He doesn't strengthen us with monkeys falling out of trees that we might come across. He strengthens us in ways like the promises we see in the 12 minor prophets, the promises we see in the 3 major prophets. Those are encouraging. He strengthens us with stories like this little ruddy and good-looking young lad, King David, going up against this gigantic, well, giant, his head would probably be hitting the ceiling right here. And who triumphed? King David, the little guy.

We're strengthened by stories like Elijah faced with 1, 10, 400 prophets of Baal, and then calling down fire from heaven, outrunning a chariot. Oh, yes, we have great stories from which we can draw strength. We're strengthened and encouraged. God adds energy and enthusiasm to our lives through stories that we get a lot of hope from, stories like Ezekiel 37. You lost a loved one who wasn't in the church? Great hope coming. We're going to see Him again. Talk about encouragement. Talk about strengthening us. Three times at the beginning of the book of Joshua, Joshua 1, God says, "Be strong and very courageous for the Lord is with you."

Now we're told all of these things, and all these things are written. We have 66 books of the Bible written for our example. So we can know that, hey, you're not the first to have to deal with trials, or with heartache, or with the death of a loved one. You weren't the first have to deal with temptation. As a follower of Jesus Christ, we're actually given five tools of the Christian faith, right, prayer, Bible study, fasting, meditation, and the fifth one, which is found in Hebrews 10:24-25, we don't have to turn there, it says, "Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together… but consider one another to stir up love and good works." Fellowship is the fifth tool in our little spiritual toolbox that God gives us to deal with the trials and the challenges of this life. Fellowship, meet together. And He says, "Hey, I'll make it easy for you. Here's 52 days I want you to come together this year." That should help.

1 Peter 5:10, it says a fourth thing, "May the God of all grace settle you, themelioo." Almost rhymes. May the God of all grace settle you. And that word is T-H-E-M-E-L-I-O-O, themelioo. And it means to lay a base, to lay or put a foundation, or to settle the ground. And we talked a little bit about this when we looked at that word for establish. What is your foundation? If we're going to make it through storms, whether they're figurative storms or whether they're literal storms, we need to be anchored. Mr. Myers gave a message about to what are you anchored a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago about Jesus Christ being our anchor point. What are we anchored to? What grounds us? We have to be firmly grounded in something that is unmovable, something that is completely unshakable. And, of course, we know there's no other name under heaven by which we may be saved. The only one we can rely upon is that one who has experienced pain, and experienced suffering, and challenges, and can empathize with us, yet that one who has lived a perfect sinless life and wants us to follow in his footsteps.

As Paul wrote in Colossians 2:7, he said, "We need to be rooted." We need to be rooted. And that kind of harkens back to that idea of being established, right, like a nice, mature forest. We need to be rooted in the Word of God, in Jesus Christ. When we encounter a difficult situation… and hopefully, none of us ever have to endure something as challenging as Yossi Ginsberg. What a harrowing experience? Hopefully, when we encounter a difficult situation like that, we can pause momentarily and remember why it is we do what we do and we can remember scriptures like Matthew 6:25, that says, "Don't worry about what you'll eat, about what you'll drink, or about what you'll put on. Your heavenly Father knows you need all of these things and He'll take care of you." What do you need to focus on? “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That's our first focus. And then God says, "Hey, I'll provide everything else. Don't worry about that stuff. Worry about seeking first My Kingdom, My righteousness first."

So the question is, are you mentally prepared to endure extreme trials? How about persecution? On what will you rely during challenging times? Yossi Ginsberg was temporarily spurred on by a make-believe woman that he hallucinated. Will you rely on imaginary hope or strength in yourself that is just fleeting or will you rely on God? The trials aren't pleasant. Of course, they never are. But, you know, we're told over and over again that they're going to keep coming. They're going to intensify. They're going to get worse, right up until the return of Jesus Christ. But remember what happened to Paul and Silas? They were doing what they were supposed to be doing. They were preaching the Word of God, all of a sudden, they got thrown into prison.

And then when they were in prison, what were they found doing? Crying? Were they worrying about, "Man, I haven't eaten all day. And here I am in prison. What am I going to eat?" Were they worrying about, "When am I going to get out of prison? Am I going to be killed tomorrow?" No, what were they doing? They were praying. They were singing hymns in the middle of the night. Talk about a witness to God. Talk about the right attitude. On what were they focused? From whom did they draw their strength? Now, they may not have known the words in Peter's letter word for word, but they sure knew them in their hearts because they were drawing their strength from the God of all grace.

And just as a last scripture, let's turn to 2 Corinthians 12, there is a 2 in there. 2 Corinthians 12, Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, well, the second letter that we have in the Bible recorded for us. 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul quoting Jesus Christ said, "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:10, "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Now, during his many trials… and they were many, Paul gives us a list somewhere where he talks about being stoned, left for dead several times. Can you imagine having someone standing over you with a big rock or even throwing rocks at you until you fall down and come to the point where people think you're dead, or being beaten, or shipwrecked, or locked up in prison? So during his many trials, Paul was focused on not his own comfort or needs, but on bringing glory and honor to God because he knew he had the promise of something better to come, spending eternity with the Ancient of Days and the Word who became Jesus Christ. I'd like to end just by quoting 1 Peter 5:10-11, which says, "But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."