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Now go ahead and turn to the book of Psalms. We'll come back to Isaiah 53. Go to Psalm 119, right in the very dead center of your Bible. If you let it fall open, you should find the book of Psalms. Find chapter 119. And this is kind of my main text verse here. In Psalm 119, verse 71, it's a great verse. And I want it to really sink in this morning. It says in 119, verse 71, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I'm going to read that again. It says, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Now, affliction is referring to trials, tribulations, bad things that happen to you, pain and sorrow in your life. And David looks back at all the bad things that have happened to him in his life, and here he says, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Turn, if you would, to James chapter number 4. James chapter 4, toward the end of the New Testament. James chapter 4, while you're turning there, I'll read for you from the book of Ecclesiastes. 7, verse 1, the Bible reads, a good name is better than precious ointment. You're turning to James. And the day of death and the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better, get this, sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. Now you're in James, I'll get to James in just a second here, but he's saying in the book of Ecclesiastes here, mourning is better than laughter. Sometimes sorrow in your life is more important than the fun you have in your life. And then he closes it all out by saying, hey, it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. Now think about it. Sometimes when you come to church, for example, you hear preaching. And the Bible tells the preacher in 2 Timothy 4 to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. And a rebuke is basically when you tell somebody that they're wrong. It's when you point out something that's wrong. Now it's not always fun to be rebuked. In fact, no one likes to be rebuked. People don't like you to come to them and tell them that they're wrong. But God says, you know, if you're wise, actually that's better than to just hear the song of fools, to hear the rebuke of the wise. And the Bible even says that we were listening to the Bible in the car with Jerry. Yeah, we were in Jerry's car, he had the Bible on cassette. And we were listening to it yesterday on the way to soul winning. And it said, you know, if you rebuke a scorner, he'll hate thee. But it says, if you rebuke a wise man, he'll love thee. That's right. And he said, it's better to go to the house of mourning. It's better to go to a place where you're gonna hear the rebuke of the life than to hear the song of fools. It's better to be in God's house listening to some leather lung preacher, you know, rip, than to go to some rock concert and listen to the song of fools. And today people wanna go to church and hear the song of the fool instead of what they need to hear, which is the rebuke of the wise. Turn to James chapter four though. It says in verse six, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. That's a great comfort, but read the next part and he'll tell you how to do that. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. Be what? Afflicted. Remember David said it's good for me that I've been afflicted? Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. You see people today have this mentality that comes from the world that we need to be happy all the time. Every day we just need to be happy and people will tell you this about your marriage. Maybe you're going through a tough time in your marriage. Well are you really happy in this marriage? Are you happily married? And they'll say, because if you're not happy you need to get a divorce and find someone that's going to make you happy. No, we need to do what's right. Not just what's going to make us happy, but the world is just going to tell you oh it's just all about being happy and you should be happy. And if you're not happy every day there's something wrong with you. In fact here's a pill that you need to take and the doctor will come up with some disorder to describe your lack of happiness. That way they can give you expensive drugs and everything like that. Because if you're not happy you need to take this pill and then you get too happy. Then we got to slow you down a little bit, right? Give you a pill to slow you down. Pretty soon you're on 10 different drugs. Look, life is not about just being happy every day. God said the wise man isn't happy every day. He spends time in the house of mourning. He spends time in sorrow. He's not just chipper and cheerful maybe 24 hours a day because he realizes that humility comes from being afflicted, from being mourning. Righteousness comes from some of the bad things that happen to us in our life. And so our life should not just be about being happy and everything going our way. You know some of the most important events that happen in our life is when things don't go our way. If you look back and see what has shaped you into the person that you are it's often the bad things that happen to you. Not always the good things that happen to you. And sometimes the good things that happen to you can actually destroy you. How many people have you seen where they win the lottery and it ruins their life? It ruins their marriage. Or they become famous. Maybe they get into Hollywood and they had a nice marriage and everything was going well. But then the Bible says this, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But yet the bad things in our life are sometimes what strengthen us. David said it's good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn my statutes. You know we learn God's word sometimes through the difficult times of our life. That's when we're praying the most. That's when we're in church the most. That's when we're reading the most. And that is oftentimes God's will that bad things happen unto us. So that we can learn, so that we can grow, so that we can be strengthened. I mean here's a simple example. You think of fitness or weight training. You've all heard the famous slogan, no pain, no gain, right? Now if you went down to the gym and you had a personal trainer down there and he's gonna tell you, I'm not like other personal trainers. I don't want you to experience any pain. I mean you're not gonna get any discomfort at all in this. Here's your weight training. He'll put you down on your back, a bench press. He'll put a broomstick in your hand. Hey, hey, just let me know if this is too much weight. Because I don't want you to feel any discomfort, any pain. And you're like, wow, this is great. I really feel like I'm doing, wow, I'm doing great. This is easy, yeah, what's next, you know? And you get on the bike and there's no resistance. And you do that in just about 30 seconds. You know, we don't want to overdo it, okay? You know, just kind of walk around a little bit and then, you know, eat a bunch of junk food and everything. Look, that's not good. You're not gonna get anywhere like that. You're not gonna grow. You see the personal trainer down at the gym, and I'm not a big, huge fitness guy or something. You know, I mean, I'm a big, huge guy, but I'm not a big, huge fitness guy. I'm talking about metaphorically speaking now. What I'm saying is, you know, if you went down there and you really want to make some gains, you really want to grow, you really want to get strong, it's gonna be, ugh, it's gonna be pain, right? And it's gonna be a trainer that pushes you. Come on, you can do one more rep, right? He's gonna push you to do more. Put a little more weight on you. You're getting a little too comfortable. Come on, keep running, keep running. I mean, the coach that pushes you and everything, he's the one who's making you grow, who's making you gain, because you have to suffer in life. It's part of life. And it seems that today, people want to eliminate all suffering out of life. You know, oh, you feel just the slightest little pain, and it's just, oh, just take a Tylenol quick. You know, take an Advil, take an aspirin, just fat, you know. I felt a slight little twinge. And that's why our society gets so drugged up, because people just, over the most minor things, it's like they just want to eliminate all suffering. They want to eliminate all pain, when suffering is what strengthens them. Well, sometimes you can even think of this church, almost like a spiritual training ground. The Bible says bodily exercise profit a little. Exercise that self rather under godliness. And if you're gonna be spiritually exercising, spiritually grow, you're gonna have to endure some struggles. You're gonna have to go through some hard times. You're gonna have to go through some pain. And that's why God sends us trials and tribulations to strengthen our faith, to test us, to build us up. And that's what makes us stronger spiritually, so that we can grow in the Lord, and be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. But in James 4 here, he said in verse nine, he said, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. You're in James, just go back one book of the Bible to Hebrews 12, and while you're turning there, I'll read you a different scripture from 1 Peter chapter one. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1, 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. And listen to this, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The Bible says there that the trying of our faith, more precious than gold, when gold is purified, it's heated up, right? And when it's heated up and melted down, it goes through the fire, and all the impurities are burned away and separated out. The Bible talked a lot in the Old Testament about pots and pans and dishes that were made of metal. He said, if you want to sanitize those dishes, and this is going back thousands of years, God's explained to the children of Israel, if you want to sanitize your dishes, maybe they've been exposed to some sickness or germs, he said the best thing you can do with them is just pass them through the fire. He said heat them up, and that will sanitize things. He said wash them with running water, and then heat them up, because the trial of your faith is like a furnace, and sometimes God has to turn up the heat in your life in order to purify you, in order to strengthen you, in order to cleanse you, and so we go through hard times in our life, because that's a part of God's plan for our life. I'm not one of these prosperity preachers that's going to get up here and tell you, oh, everything's going to be great, and if you're right with God, you're going to have all kinds of money, and you're going to be rich, and your marriage is going to be great, and your health's going to be great. That's a lie. That's by a bunch of TV preachers. Yeah, their health's great. Their teeth are great. Their finances are great, because they're taking money from everybody else, preaching a lie, preaching heaven without help, preaching prosperity preaching without explaining the suffering, and the trials and tribulations that go with the Christian life. The Bible says in Philippians 1 29, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Did you know that if you start reading the New Testament in Matthew chapter one, just open up the New Testament, Matthew one, the first word that comes out of Jesus Christ's mouth, the first time Jesus speaks in the New Testament, the first word, if you have a red letter Bible that puts the words of Christ in red, the first word is going to be what? Does anybody know? Suffer. That's the first word. And yet we live in a day of prosperity preaching, the Joel Osteen, your best life now, and oh, if you just have the faith, you'll be healed, and if you just have the faith, your finance will be healed, and you can drive a gold Lexus like me and have rings on both your fingers and be rich and powerful and wealthy and mighty. Hey, the Bible says, had not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he had promised to them that love him, but you despised the poor. The Bible says that many that are poor in this life, hey, they have the greatest riches in heaven, and many of the rich in this life are the ones who blaspheme God, according to James chapter five, and they will be found in the depths of hell because they've not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, are there rich people who are saved? Absolutely. And there are many poor people that are unsaved. But the point is that God doesn't make you rich just because you believe on him, just because you serve God. And in fact, part of the reason why God's not going to make you rich is because it's for your own good. Because if you had too much money, you might not be able to handle it. God knows what's best for you, and sometimes God's going to put you through a lean time financially in order to help you to appreciate the things that you have. See, it's good to be afflicted. It's good to go through hard times. It's good to go through suffering. You know, in a marriage, sometimes going through a hard time together could strengthen the bond of that marriage than if everything were just going great all the time. And so we've got to go through hard times in our life. Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. How did he learn that? He learned it by being thrown in prison. He learned it by going without food. He learned it by being beaten with rods. He learned it by being shipwrecked. He learned it through the afflictions in his life, and by going through so many afflictions in his life, it made him appreciate the good things that God did give him. The people who are given everything, everything's handed to them, they grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth, they can't even appreciate the things that they have because they just take it for granted. It's just, of course I have all these things. Other people who've gone without food, boy, every bite of food tastes pretty good to them. You know, if you've ever gone through a time where you're pretty hungry, you're not a picky eater. You know, you appreciate food when it's given to you. You go without something to drink, well, you're going to appreciate drink. You know, you go without some of the basic necessities, you're going to be more thankful and appreciate those things. And unfortunately, because of our sinful flesh, sometimes God has to humble us and bring us down in order to make us appreciate the things that he's given to us. You know, we complain maybe about the quality of our food, but yet many people are just thankful that they have food. You know, you complain about that you don't have the fancy clothes, but you know, many are just happy that they have clothes, that they have durable clothes, clothes to keep them warm when it's cold, or cool when it's warm. You know, people are just happy with what they have because God has taught them to be content in whatsoever state they're in. And so we need to understand that a part of our life as Christians is mourning. It's weeping. It's sadness. It's sorrow. Are you in Hebrews 12? The Bible says in Hebrews 12, verse one, it says, we're foreseeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted on the blood striving against sin. So basically he's explaining that when we're going through the struggles of our life, when we're trying to endure some of the things that we have to go through, that God commands us to go through in our life, we need to keep an eye on Jesus and say, wait a minute. He endured the cross. He was beaten. He was spat upon. He was ridiculed, despised, rejected of men, hated, called every dirty name, beaten, killed, everything. And he had done nothing wrong. And yet he was mocked. He was despised. And we need to look at that and say, wait a minute, have I gone through what he went through? No way. And he said, when you consider that and put it in that perspective, you can understand that, wait a minute, if he could endure that kind of suffering for the joy that was set before him of saving us, of being the substitute and the atonement for our sins so that we could be saved and go to heaven, if he did that for us, we can pick up the cross that God has for us to bear and suffer through the things that we need to suffer through in our lives for the joy that's set before us. He says in verse five, and not only that, he's saying, ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now, scourgeth is a pretty strong word, right? That's a beating. He's saying, who the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. That means he disciplines. And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. That's a pretty strong word there, talking about God is gonna discipline us pretty hard when we sit in our lives. He's gonna be best. He's gonna scourgeth us. He's gonna chasten us. Not because he doesn't love us, but because he does love us. Amen. And the Bible says that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. So when you commit some sin in your life, or you're doing wrong in your life, and all of a sudden God's discipline comes down on you, you should be thankful and say, you know what? At least God loves me, that he's getting my attention there. He's not just letting me go totally off the deep end and just totally go off into sin. Hey, at least he's disciplining me and getting my attention. By the way, children, if your parents discipline you, that should let you know that your parents love you. Because the Bible says, he that spareth his rod, hated his son. But he that loveth him, chasteneth him at times. And so the Bible's telling us that if you love your child, you're gonna discipline your child. And if your parents love you, they're gonna discipline you. And so children, don't get angry about your parents disciplining you. The Bible tells you that's showing that they love you, that they care enough to do that and go through that with you so that you can grow up and be who you need to be. It says in verse number seven, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. Hey, for what time is he when the father chasteneth not? You know, that's a question that needs to ring out through America today. Bunch of children today not getting any discipline, not being spanked, not being chastened today, because we live in the Barney and Friends, in Sesame Street generation, or because some school teacher somewhere who doesn't even have kids, or some school teacher somewhere who has their kids shipped off somewhere is gonna tell me how to raise my children and you, and take little children aside and say, now you know if your parents pay, you need to report that to the government. You know what? The government has no right to tell me how to rear my own kids. The Bible has already told me how to rear my kids, and the Bible has put me in charge of my house, not some social worker, not some school teacher, not some government bureaucrat. God has given children of the mothers and fathers to raise their children, not the government. Today the government wants to run our life like we're living in communist China or something. Wrong. My house is my castle. That goes all the way back to the Magna Carta a few thousand years ago, and that's what we're living under today, the Constitution. It tells me that I have the right to rear my family and raise my children and run my own house without the government interfering in my religion and my family. And we need to get off this garbage where people will say, well, I want to spank my children, but I'm afraid to spank my children. Well, you know what? Fear not. I think Jesus said that a few times. Didn't he? Didn't he say fear God and keep his commandments? And the Bible commands us to discipline our children. And if we love them, we'll do it. If we don't do it, we don't love them. Any questions? That's what the Bible says. But he says here, he says, what son is he when the father chases him up? But if he be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. That's what the Bible says here. And so basically, I don't want my children to grow up thinking that they're the bastard son of Pastor Anderson. No, they're going to be spanked, they're going to be disciplined, and they're going to know that their dad loves them and cares about them and wants them to grow up and do what's right. And so the Bible says here that when God disciplines us, he should give us comfort to know that God loves us, that we're his children. Now he says, look, if you're without chastisement, he says you're not sons, you're bastards and not sons. That means if you're saved, or I'll put it this way, if you think you're saved, and you can just go out and do every wrong thing in the world, and this isn't to examine other people, it's more to examine yourself. He says if you're without chastisement, if you can just go out and live a life of wicked sin, and nothing bad ever happens to you and everything goes great, he's saying, wait a minute, are you even my son? Are you sure you're even saved? Because if you're saved, yeah, there are a lot of saved people who go out and do a lot of wicked things. But guess what? God chastens and chastises every single one of them. Look at King David. I mean, King David was a great man, definitely a child of God. And when he sinned, when he committed adultery, when he committed murder, God's punishment came down upon him and corrected him. Why? Because David was one of God's children. David was a son. David was corrected. He was chastised. And he realized that and acknowledged that in Psalm 51, when he explained that he was sorry and he realized that God was judging him for that. But let's keep going. It says in verse number nine, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, unless those fathers were influenced by worldliness and the timeouts or whatever, I don't know, Sesame Street and, you know. Somebody help me out. Where does this garbage come from? Dr. Spock? Somebody help me out. Where does this non-spanking mentality come from? Yeah, whatever it is. I mean, you go to the doctor now and there's like a sign up at the doctor. Don't spank your kids. I mean, the pediatrician. If you take your child to the pediatrician, they'll sit you down and explain to you not to spank your children. It's true. And so, you know, this mentality that says that you shouldn't, God says right here, we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. And you say, well, I think corrected there is talking about different kind of correction. Well, it says in Proverbs, it says, it says withhold not correction from the child for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Somebody else said, well, when the Bible says spare the rod, it's talking about the shepherd's rod where he would just kind of lovingly kind of guide the sheep. Well, but wait a minute. And they said, it's that one with the hook on the end. You know, where they kind of grab him and pull him in the right direction. And they say, well, that's the rod. Yeah, but it says, beat him with the rod. That's what it says in Proverbs 23. So all I say, I don't care whether you have a hook in the end of it or not. The Bible says to spank your children with the rod. You know, you can show me all different pictures of rods, of shepherds and whatever, but that's what the Bible says. And you know what? I wouldn't give you a dime for any preacher who tries to tell you that the rod is not spanking. When the Bible says, thou shalt beat him with the rod. Now again, we're not talking about abuse. We're not talking about, you know, pummeling or beating. We're talking about what the Bible says, you know, applying the rod of correction to the seed of learning. You know, the padded area that God created on children's bodies to receive that correction. We're not talking about just a total, you know, abuse or injuring the child. We're not talking about injuring the child. We're talking about punishing the child. And that's what this country was built upon. That's what this whole world has done for thousands of years. But today they say, oh, don't spank the child. You're gonna warp his mind. No, if you don't spank them, they'll warp your mind. If you don't spank them, they're gonna grow up and be criminals. They're gonna grow up and be monsters today because they didn't give any discipline. The Bible says, thou shalt beat him with the rod, Proverbs 23, and shall deliver his soul from hell. You know, because when you show your children correction and consequences for their action, they're gonna grow up and understand. When they hear about hell, they'll understand that that's a consequence for their sins. And they'll believe on Jesus Christ to avoid that consequence. Because the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Amen. But the Bible says, he that believeth and not shall be damned. And so they'll understand that. But children today, they grow up with no discipline, no punishment, and then you try to tell them that hell is real. They say, I don't believe in hell. Because their father on this earth never corrected them at all. So they think that there's just no punishment for their actions. Eat, drink, and be married. Tomorrow he died and go to heaven and everything will be great. But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says hell's a real place. You know, it's easy to be saved though. All you gotta do is believe on Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He'll give you eternal life, forgive all your sins, and you'll be a child of God. You never lose your salvation. But the Bible says in verse number nine, furthermore, we had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us. And when we were talking about our physical, fleshly father, they corrected us. And we gave them reverence. We respected them. By the way, children that aren't disciplined, they don't respect their parents either. You ever see kids in the store mouthing off to their parents? They have them corrected. Because the Bible says when you get corrected by your dad, you give him reverence. I remember when I was a kid going over to a friend's house, they'd tell their dad, I heard him say to their parents, I hate you. And I thought to myself, oh, never say that. Never would say that. You say, pastor, I said, did you ever say that? Well, you're looking at me standing here, right? Must have never said that. I never would have said that. I hate you, or just other, just disrespect. You know, just mouthing, I just, just, there's a respect that ought to be paid. Honor thy father and mother, the Bible says. That it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. He said, we gave them reverence, respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? He said, look, you respected dad, you really need to respect your heavenly father. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. But he, for our what? Prophet. Prophet. That we might be partakers of his holiness. So what's the purpose of God's correction in our life? It's for our prophet that we might be partakers of his holiness. He's trying to make us holy. He's trying to make us righteous. So when we do wrong, he'll bring bad things into our life as a punishment to correct us, to get us back on the right track. And that's why David said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn my statutes. Hey, I'm glad that when I committed sin, God corrected me, God chastened me, because that is why I'm living for God today. Because the sufferings, the afflictions, that's what got my attention and got me on the right path. And you know, even physically, I can stand up here and say thank you to my parents. I thank God that my parents disciplined me as a child so that I could grow up and do what's right. So that I wouldn't grow up and have no respect for them or respect for authority or respect for what's right and wrong or respect for God. Now look at verse 11, this is the key. Now no chastening for the present doesn't seem to be joyous, right? Nobody says, yes, I'm getting spanked as a kid. No one thinks like, wow, this is great. This is great, this means that five years from now I'm really gonna be living for God. You know, because I'm getting spanked today. Yeah, can you spank me again? Because in the future, I know this is really gonna make me stronger. No, it's not joyous at the time. But nevertheless, afterward, in the long run, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. God says, look, in the long run, this is what's good for you. It's gonna humble you. It's gonna strengthen you. It's going to build respect and reverence in your heart. And that's why God is putting you through it. Yes, physically, we have our parents that disciplined us, hopefully. And that chastened us. But we're chastened by God if we're saved. And that discipline by God is helping us. And so we shouldn't all, and you say, well, what's the whole sermon about? This is what the sermon's about. When bad things happen, don't get upset. Don't get angry. Don't get down in the mouth and say, oh, God's not blessing me. You know, a lot of people, some mad a lot of them say, well, God's not blessing me. This isn't fair. I did all these good things and now bad things are happening. You know, God's not blessing me. Man, this really stinks. You know, you see people have a bad attitude, right? You ever get around people like that just all, ah, this stinks, ah, you know. Just everything's negative, everything's bad. And then you'll say to them, you know, hey, this is a good thing that's coming up. And they'll say like, yeah, but I'm sure it's gonna get ruined and, you know, it's probably not gonna happen. Like, they're just always just in a bad, well, the way my luck goes, this will happen, you know. And sometimes, you know, it's just a pain in the neck when people are really negative like that because what it is is that they have the wrong expectation in life. They think if I'm doing right, everything's gonna go great all the time and I'm gonna be happy and smiling every day. But see, that might not be what God has planned for this week. God might have a battle for you planned for this week. You know, God may have some kind of a trial or affliction that's planned for you this week. God might have some kind of a struggle that you need to go through this week and the purpose of it is positive because the Bible says in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. The Bible says if we love God and we're serving God, bad things that happen to us are working together toward a larger plan for the greater good in our life to make us conform to the image of his son, to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. That's what Romans 8 teaches. Look at the book of Job. I mean, Job lost his whole business, lost all his wealth, lost his employees. His 10 children died. That's terrible. I mean, that's the worst part of all that happened to him. And then even his own wife just totally turned against him and his wife said to him, curse, she said, does thou still retain thine integrity? She's basically criticizing him for staying right with God. Does thou yet retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. How would you like your wife to say that to you? Or your husband to say that to you? Curse God and die. Look, Job was in a bad condition. I mean, his kids are dead. His whole business is shot. He has no money. All of his employees are gone. Everybody's blaming him and saying, well, you must, you know, they've been listening to too much prosperity preaching and Joel Osteen. They're like, well, you must not be right with God or all this wouldn't happen to you. You know, you must be wrong, Job. And that's why they spend the whole rest of the book just browbeating and telling him, well, you're living in sin, Job. What are you hiding? And he's like, I'm not donating the car. I mean, I haven't done anything. I don't know why this happened. Well, you must have done something wrong. God would have been letting this happen. Not only that, he's got physical sores all over his body. He got these boils. Who knows what a boil is? He's got boils all over his body and they started itching and he's scraping himself, trying to ease the itching and the pain of these sores. So he got sores all over his body, no money, no business, no job. His wife's telling him, curse God and die. His friends are telling him, well, you must be living in sin. So where are you hiding all the sinful stuff, Job? I mean, and yet God brought him through that. And you know what Job said while he was in the midst of that? He said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. And he said this, when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold. He said, I'm going to come through this and I'm going to show that I'm right with God. I'm going to show that I'm righteous. I'm going to get through this and it's going to be proven and I'm going to come through this just trusting God more. I'm going to be stronger than ever. And at the end of it all, when he got through the trial, he ended up with twice as much as he had before. Everything was great. He had double the sheep, you know, double the camels, double the oxen. That's how they measured their wealth back then. They didn't have pieces of paper that were worthless in their wallet. They actually had something that actually had value, you know, like sheep or camel or cow or pieces of gold and silver, you know. They didn't have like pieces of paper, you know. This is worth a hundred bucks, you know. Today, tomorrow it's going to be worth a little less, you know, as they keep printing more of it. But the bottom line is he had twice as much wealth at the end of it all. And then he had 10 more children at the end of it all. He had seven sons and three daughters at the end of it all. Now you say, well, why didn't God give him twice as many kids? Well, because he didn't really lose the children because they were in heaven. You know, he's going to see them again. But he got double because he had 10 more children added. You know, and by the way, children are a blessing. In case you didn't know that. That's what the Bible tells us. So he's blessed with 10 more children. God built him up his wealth again. God helped him out and got him back where he needed to be. But boy, he went through a really bad time that probably almost nobody's gone through anything that bad. And the Bible says he was the most righteous man living on the earth at that time, at that moment. He was the most righteous. And God put him through those struggles and trials. So when bad things happen to you, don't get upset. Don't get angry. Don't get mad. God, why are you doing this to me? You know, or maybe there's some good that you're expecting to happen and it doesn't happen. You say, why won't God bless me? You know what, God knows what he's doing in your life. And at the end of it all, when you look back over it, you'll say Jesus led me all the way. You'll say it's good for me that I was afflicted. You know, it wasn't fun at the time. Boy, I hated that affliction at the time. I hated that sickness. I hated that bad financial situation. I hated those problems that I went through. I hated that painful experience that I went through. But that painful experience, when you look back one day, you'll say it's good for me that I've been afflicted. It was good for me. I'm glad I got spanked as a kid. I'm glad that I suffer. I mean, the apostles and the believers, Paul, hey, they said it's good for me that I got thrown in jail. They said it's good for me that I was beaten. You know, it's good for me that I was arrested. That's what they said when they look back at their troubles and acts. They said, this is great. You know, this is who made me who I am. And let me tell you something. If you grew, if you were born into this world, just put on a little statin pillow and just pampered all day, and somebody's fanning you and putting grapes in your mouth all day, you know what? Nobody'd want to be around you by the time you got to the age you're at right now. You'd be a monster. You would, because of your sinful flesh. You wouldn't have any understanding. You wouldn't care about the things of God. You wouldn't love anybody. You'd love yourself only. But when you've been through sufferings, when you've been through tribulations, you'll come out of them a better person. When you spend time listening to the rebuke of the wise. You know, I'm sure you probably would have more fun, you know, going down to the IMAX or whatever and watching the latest movie where everything's so fun and exciting and the thrill. You'd rather go to the rock concert and it's so fun to go to the party and drink. But you know what? The world looks at this right here, this service right now, and they're going to say, why are you doing that on Sunday morning? Why are you sitting in there having some guy just get up and just scream at you and rail and quote a bunch of Bible verses at you? You know, you could be at the lake. You could be out riding your bike. You could be out at the gym. You could be watching TV. You could be listening to rock and roll. You could be out partying. You could be having fun. You could be doing so many other things. Why are you doing it? Because we're smart enough here to know that it's better to listen to the rebuke of the wise, the wise rebukes from the Bible than to listen to the song of fools. We spend a little time in the house of mourning rather than just always in the house of mirth and fun because we need a balance in our life. God has to put us through some negative things in our life to strengthen us, to build us. And you know what? Then we'll be able to even appreciate the good times. You know, I'm glad that when I first got married, I was dirt poor. Why? Because now when I do get anything nice or enjoy anything nice, I really appreciate it. You know, it really means something to me because I know what it's like not to be able to do things like that, not to have any money. I know what it's like to be poor, to be crammed in a tiny apartment and not have any chairs or couches or even a bed, just to have nothing. I know what that's like and that's why I can appreciate what I got. I thank God for that. At the time, I wished I would have had all the amenities. At the time, I wished I would have had all kinds of money and everything, but looking back, I say, I'm glad I didn't have it. And since God looks at everything from eternity, he's always looking back because he knows the end from the beginning. And just like one day, you'll look back and thank God for the hard times and you'll love the hard times because that's what made you who you were. God's already there. God's already in the future. He's already looking back saying, yup, this is what you need. You'll be glad. You'll thank me someday. This is what's going to make you a better person five years from now. This is what's going to make you who you need to be. So hey, it's good for us that we've been afflicted. Last place we'll turn, we'll close the sermon, Romans 5. Romans chapter 5, the last place we'll turn. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Romans chapter number 5 is the last place we'll turn. It says in Romans chapter 5, verse 1. Well, here's a great verse if there ever was one. Romans 5, 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. He said, boy, isn't it great that we're saved? And isn't it great that we can rejoice about the glory of God going to heaven one day and enjoying all that? But he says, wait a minute, that's not the only thing we rejoice about. Not just about the glory. Not just about going to heaven. Not just the good things, but he says in verse 5, in Romans chapter 5, he says, in the glory of God we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. But he says in verse 3, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. He said, look, I'm not just praising God for the glory and for heaven. He says, I'm praising God for the tribulations also. He said, I'm praising God knowing the tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. He's saying tribulation is what builds patience. Patience in our life is what builds experience. When we've been through things, we have that experience under our belt that gives us hope, to know that we can go through the next trial. This is God's plan. You know, people try to teach today this false doctrine, like, oh, believers aren't gonna go through the tribulation. You know, right? Believers are not gonna go through the tribulation. They try to say that Jesus can come back at any second, which, no, the Bible says, let no man deceive you. He said, people are out there saying that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposed them, exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. Talking about the anti-Christ, you know, there's gonna be great persecutions in tribulation. Now, Paul said, we're already going through tribulations right now. He said, we're patient in our tribulation. He said, yea, and all that will of godly Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Jesus said in John 16, 33, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world, he shall have tribulation. But be it good cheer, I've overcome the world. And this doctrine that said, oh, believers will never go through any tribulation, you know. Or, well, they might go through tribulation, but they won't go through the big tribulation, you know. And then they'll try to say that the tribulation is God pouring out his wrath onto this earth. Wrong. No, we're not gonna be here when God's pouring out his wrath onto this earth, because the rapture, okay, but we will be here during the tribulation where we're being, you know, persecuted for our beliefs. And the Bible says that the greatest tribulations for believers is still coming before the rapture. That's still coming up. Read Matthew 24, you know, that's where it explains it. Out of the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. You know, a state to show thyself approved. Read Matthew 24 when you get home today. But, you know what, we oughta say, you know what, bring it on, you know, with glory and tribulation. That's pretty hard to say, right? I mean, the Bible says that when you're persecuted, he said when all men speak evil of you, he said in the Sermon on the Mount, he said rejoice and leap for joy. He said when they lie about you, when they slander you, when they attack you, if you're beaten for the cause of Christ, he said leap for joy. I mean, that's a pretty strong word, not just, oh great, oh wow, more rewards in heaven, cool. He said no, no, leap for joy, yes! Now look, that's pretty hard to do, right? And none of us is perfect, none of us are probably gonna be able to fully do that, but that is what Jesus tells us to do. He said when you're hated, despised, rejected, he said know that they hated me before they hated you. And he said, you know what, leap for joy. Isaiah 53 said Jesus was a man of sorrows, he was acquainted with grief. He wasn't always just happy and cheerful all the time, because he went through bad times, he went through pain and suffering. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, pouring out his heart to the Father with great sweat coming down his head like drops of blood, as he begged God, the Father, to let this cup pass from him. And so we need to glory in tribulations, not just be down in the mouth when bad things happen, just say, hey, I'm gonna get through this. God's working on me, God's strengthening me, maybe he's chasing me, maybe he's just trying me, maybe it's just a trial, not necessarily that you've done anything wrong. But it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Let's fire his net worth forever.