you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you >> Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. We will now begin our service. ♪ ♪ >> It was the sin that drove the bitter nails And hung him on that judgment tree I will glory in my Redeemer Who crushed the power of sin and death My only Savior before the holy judge The Lamb who is by righteousness The Lamb who is by righteousness I will glory I will glory in my Redeemer My life He bought My love He owns I have no longings for another Unsatisfied in Him alone I will glory in my Redeemer His faithfulness my standing place Though foes are mighty and rush upon me My feet are firm held by His grace My feet are firm held by His grace ♪ I will glory in my Redeemer Who carries me on eagles' wings He crowns my life with loving kindness This triumph song I'll ever sing I will glory in my Redeemer Who waits for me at gates of gold And when He calls me, it will be paradise His face forever to behold His face forever to behold His face forever to behold ♪ Good morning, everybody.

I would like to welcome anybody who is visiting us for the first time. This morning, because it is a bit windy, we do have our welcome booth just right in the corner by the entrance. After the service, please stop by. We'll answer any of the questions you may have.

I'd like to highlight a few important announcements for us this morning. First, for those of you who would like to become members of the church or are considering it, the first class is going to start on January 26th from 9.30 a.m. in the Youth Chapel. It is an eight-week course that will cover the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith, but it's going to serve as a platform to talk about, and this is why our philosophy of ministry and how we run church is this way.

So you'll end up learning a lot about the church and its practices. The next announcement is that for all the members, the all-membership meeting for the first meeting of the year is going to take place also that Sunday, January 26th. So please make sure you look out for the emails giving you a reminder.

And if you know that you're going to be absent that day, there is a quick form you can submit to let us know. And also that day, there's going to be a college fundraiser. So for lunch, you can stick around. It's just $10 for an adult and $5 for kids.

You could even prepay for the event and then just come show them that you paid and then go in and get your food. The family ministry is going to be having several things happening in the month of February 1st. On February 1st, Saturday at 2 p.m. here in the main sanctuary, the family ministry is going to be having a workshop.

So there'll be some teaching, talking about the ministry. So please come to participate in that. There will be child care provided and refreshments as well. The family ministry also will be having a prayer meeting on Saturday the 8th from 9.15 a.m. in the youth chapel, which is across the courtyard there to gather together to pray.

So please mark that on your calendar and participate in that. The last thing I'll say is that while we're still going on, please make sure you sign up as early as possible once you know your schedule and how you'd like to sign up. We've been mentioning that we are going to be studying the hermeneutics and the study of how to approach the scriptures and the methodology of how to arrive at a correct interpretation.

So we are going to be practicing how to cover different genres of scripture, studying specific passages both in the Old Testament and the New. So make sure that you sign up so that we can put you into the proper groups. Okay. Then the last thing I'll mention is, again, for those of you who may have missed it, we have our same format of the offering that you can submit it both digitally on the app or through the link or we have the check.

But we did make a change at the beginning of the year. So if you tap on the app and it prompts you to submit a new form of payment or to reenter the information, please know it's because we changed the service of who handles that kind of transaction and nothing's wrong with the system, that kind of thing.

You'll just have to reenter the information there, okay? So let me take a moment to pray for us as we go into time of offering. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you so much. Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your presence in our lives, the strength that you provide, and God, the encouragement that you give to us every day that, God, you sustain us in this life.

And what's more, we're so thankful for the promises, for the plans that you have for us, a God that ultimately you desire a life of eternity with you in closeness and true harmony. And for all of that, we thank you and praise you. We ask, God, that the more and more time goes by and we look forward to your coming, we look forward to our future abode with you, that, God, our hearts would grow in anticipation, love, and affection for you.

And so even now, God, as we give offering, I pray that it would truly be the expression of our love. I ask, God, that it would be the expression of our gratitude and also just knowing that you truly own all things. God, everything belongs to you and you deserve every part of who we are.

And we also pray that, God, you would continue to do your work and pray that you would use us, this church and all of its testimony, the members, our time, our services, that all of that would be truly used for your glory. We thank you, God, it's in Christ's name.

Amen. (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) - Let us all rise and spend a few moments to greet the neighbors around us. (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music) Let's sing, Son of God.

(gentle piano music) ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Keeper of the stars ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ The dweller of my heart ♪ ♪ Mighty King ♪ ♪ How beautiful you are ♪ ♪ How beautiful ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ The Father's gift to us ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ We're broken on the altar of love ♪ ♪ Precious lamb ♪ ♪ Of freedom's in your blood ♪ ♪ It's in your blood ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, only one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiver ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Strength beyond compare ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ The darkness cannot bear ♪ ♪ Lord of love ♪ ♪ Your kindness draws me near ♪ ♪ It draws me near ♪ ♪ Son of God ♪ ♪ Prophecy of hope ♪ ♪ You alone ♪ ♪ Redeemer of my soul ♪ ♪ Come again ♪ ♪ And lead your people home ♪ ♪ Come lead us home ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, only one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiver ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ - You are worthy.

♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy of all my praise ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ I will lift up my hands and sing ♪ - You are worthy. ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy ♪ ♪ You are worthy of all my praise ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ You are beautiful ♪ ♪ I will lift up my hands and sing ♪ - Jesus.

♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, only one ♪ ♪ I sing to you ♪ ♪ Forgiver ♪ ♪ Savior ♪ ♪ I'm overcome ♪ ♪ With your great love for me ♪ (gentle piano music) ♪ O God, before the mountains were brought forth ♪ ♪ Or days of spring and summer filled the earth ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ We dwell beneath the stars in ancient skies ♪ ♪ A thousand years are nothing in your sight ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ And all our days are held within your hands ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ We rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ Everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ O God, when joy and tragedy collide ♪ ♪ And loss reminds us life is but a sight ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ And all our days are held within your hands ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ We rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ Everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ O God of light, our ways are known to you ♪ ♪ But by your grace you're making all things new ♪ ♪ So satisfy us in our number of days ♪ ♪ Establish every effort while we live ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ And all our days are held within your hands ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ We rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ Everlasting ♪ ♪ And all our days are held within your hands ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ We rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ Everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ God ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.

- As you guys know, the missions team to Korea, they're off on Thursday night, and we wanna be praying for them for an effective time of preaching the gospel. The Korea team, they're running English camps, they're setting up evening meetings, and we really pray that even though it's a short trip, that God would truly maximize the time, allowing them to be energized and continue to work.

And then right after, there's a good portion of the team that will go straight to India. There's five members of the Korea team that will go straight over, and they're gonna be spending time there visiting both the pastors and doing ongoing ministry, so let's lift that up in prayer.

And then what's more, you guys are well aware of the fires that's been happening, and because it's so close to home, I know that there are members of our church who have friends and family and parents or whatnot, and with the news stating that it's closing in our almost past 40,000 acres of land and so many different properties that were burned, and then even the death toll continuing to rise.

Let's really pray that God's comfort, God's hand would be experienced and felt during this time. Would you please join me in a word of prayer as we begin? Our God, we know, Lord, that you are mighty, sovereign, and strong. Therefore, God, we pray to you. Lord, in the situations like this of natural disaster, of great loss, people losing life savings, people losing family members, people in incredible grief, God, there is very little that an individual may do, but Lord God, we know that you can work mightily.

So we pray for your presence. We pray for your comfort. We do ask that as we have members also who are trying to provide aid, whether even working in the fire department, we ask that you'd provide strength, energy, and sustain them, God, throughout this entire time. We also pray, Lord, that in the endeavor, our desire to go overseas to reach the lost, to preach the good news of Christ, we ask that, God, you would provide the courage.

You would provide words to say. You would lead our church members to individuals where your spirit is working, breaking their hearts, causing their ears to be open, and illuminating, God, the truth of the Lord Jesus so that, God, they would hear, see, and believe. We pray, Father God, in terms of the fruit of the mission's endeavor, in terms of the results.

We know, Father God, that you are calling. We know, Lord, that you desire men to come to repentance and faith. And so we ask for that, God, that you would cause these meetings, the events and programs, God, all to be glorifying to you and successful in your sight. We thank you, it's in Christ's name, amen.

Please turn your Bible to James 1:1-4. And we are going to be hearing familiar words, I'm sure you guys have heard this passage, talking about suffering and what perspective we ought to have. And in James 1-4, it says, "James, a bondservant of God "and of the Lord Jesus Christ, "to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, "greetings.

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, "when you encounter various trials, "knowing that the testing of your faith "produces endurance. "And let endurance have its perfect result "so that you may be perfect and complete, "lacking in nothing." As we take a look at this passage, I want us to think about suffering, I want us to think about hardships, and even just your fears and worries facing them.

This New Year's, I had the privilege of preaching for our evening service, and what I preached was that we are a people beset with worry, anxiety, and fear. And so, in thought of last year, we want to evaluate what were the worries that burdened us, caused us to be stumbled, so that we can look at the New Year with hope, with a sense of purpose, et cetera.

But if you think about it, of course we have worries and anxieties, and it's normal to have them, because we live in a world that's decaying. You live in a body that's decaying. We live in a world that's corrupt, we live in perilous times where God has said that people will hate you just because of my name.

God has prepared us for a season of suffering, and maybe I should say it another way, God has prepared us for a life riddled with suffering. And my question to you is, do you expect life to be normally peaceful, mostly successful, and then once in a while you hit speed bumps, hurdles, and obstacles?

Or do you actually anticipate how the scriptures paint this life for us? And the reason why I say this is because, yes, there are all kinds of things happening right now. Again, my face is kind of glued to the news because there's so much going on, new fires popping up, et cetera.

But what's more, just internationally there has been threats of war, you know what I mean? Conflict, all kinds of stuff. And so if you look at news all around, not just local, countrywide, or even internationally, there is so much to worry about. And sometimes when I read the news, what comes out of my mouth is, "What's happening?" My reaction is, "Well, the world's going on!" You know?

I mean, it's just a natural response. But when I take a moment to think, it's like, but that's what scripture said. That as the days go by, and as the last days near, it's going to be more and more of whether it's moral kind of depravity and corruption, whether it's natural disasters, or even stuff completely just out of our control.

We are going to be living a life riddled with suffering. And so just jumping right into it, this passage challenges us and says not, you know, sometimes there is a time for everything, and once in a while, it's not really a matter of if, is it? It's a matter of when.

When the various trials come, consider it all joy. So to take a moment to meditate and think, the first point I wanted to have us meditate is the fact that we are constantly facing trouble, and trials are no surprise to us. We are constantly facing trouble, and trials are no surprise to us.

When James is speaking to the church, he wants this letter to be dispersed, primarily because he's speaking to those who have been dispersed because of persecution. He's speaking to those who've been displaced, have lost their homes, and they are on the run. And when you talk about suffering, they've already been scattered.

They've already been scattered. And if you think about just, you can imagine what it means to be chased out of town, be threatened for your life, have your property confiscated, and then you have no home to go to. You don't have a homeland. And he says to those who have been dispersed, consider it all joy.

So, in thinking about this very first point, I know in some sense, I don't want to overly repeat myself, which is in life you will face trouble, and that's just a truism. But I want to ask you, is that something that you have accepted, absorbed, and said it is true from experience and from the scripture, it's proven true, or is your response that you've been just fighting as tooth and nail as much as you can, avoiding as much conflict, troubles, or hardships as possible.

But meditate on this. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who told us in John 16, "These things I've spoken to you so that in me you have peace, but in the world you have tribulation." This is just one of many different passages where our Lord Jesus Christ was preparing his disciples and every disciple to come after them, that you should anticipate and expect that there will be tribulation in your life.

What's more, every apostle, Apostle Paul, I mean, you name it, he's gone through it. Loneliness, abandonment. He says, "Everybody ditched me in Asia. There's no one left." Whether it was people, you know, the false accusations, false trials, persecutions, being shipwrecked, having all kinds of stuff happening, going sleepless nights, and he names it, but on top of that, my soul is burdened because the weight of the church, the burden of my concern, I carry it with me.

Apostle Peter telling us that we have been left an example of suffering and we would do well to walk in them. Trouble comes and it's nothing of a surprise. And what's really interesting is in this passage in the book of James, it tells us that the trials are manifold.

The word for, you know, various, it can be translated multiple ways and it's used as synonymously as whether it's multifaceted, okay? Sometimes people make much of this, like in different sermons, that one of the ways this was translated in the Greek text is that this was the multicolored, you know?

You get trial of every flavor, that kind of thing. And what's more, the term for trial, which is parasmus, is where we get the word peril. There is danger all about. You are not in peaceful times, even if, yes, we can thank the Lord that our lives may be overall peaceful, but you know that spiritually the scripture has been challenging us.

You realize you live on a battlefield. You live in someone else's territory with the constant threat. And that's why scripture tells us that if you're confused, sometimes in counseling people always say, "But why? What's the problem? Where did this come from?" Well, scripture says it can come from every direction because you understand the world that you stand on, it is crying out and groaning.

It's groaning. And what kind of groaning is this? It's the groaning of birth pains, in sheer pain, intense pain, waiting for the day when this earth will be destroyed and when Christ will renew. And what's more, in Ephesians chapter 6, Apostle Paul describes, "You live not against just flesh and blood.

You live fighting against the spiritual forces." And it says, "The spiritual forkness of darkness around this earth, and the prince of the air, and the principalities that surround this world." Meaning the powerful forces at be. The tide and the culture and the generation. It's all dark and wicked. You don't live in a safe place.

And what's more, when we think about the depravity, the moral wickedness, you recall that the Lord said in Genesis chapter 6, at the time of the flood, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." In some sense, we could ask the question, is our generation any better than the flood generation?

Is our generation any better than the generation of Sodom and Gomorrah? When God looks down, does he see a people whose morality, whose moral sense and justice is actually any better than the days of old? We can make the argument just by statistics. How much corruption there is in every layer of leadership to the people.

How much grotesque immorality there is sexually. How much violence is done to the people who are poor, young, or weak. You can make the argument it's no better. And then King Solomon reminds us and warns us, "You understand that this life is wrought with vanity." And you wonder, "Why?

Where is the suffering coming from?" And he reminds us everywhere, "You thought you were going to have kids and it was going to be so blessed?" It is. God said to have kids is a blessed thing. To have arrows in your quiver, amen. But then King Solomon says, "But in a world of sin and depravity, sometimes the greatest pains come from your children." And he says, "I see this vanity." You pour out into your kid and you give him everything.

You give him your inheritance and he just curses you. And he talks about even the family and he talks about how he was king and he had everything and he thought, "If I knew and if I had wisdom, if I had money, if I had possessions and the kingdom was successful." He said, "Vanity.

All of it is just vanity." To the point in Ecclesiastes 2, verse 17, he says, "So I hated life. For the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me. Because everything is futility and striving after wind." And he was the one who said, "If you had hope anywhere, in yourself, in your money, or even the government." He would say, "You know what, I removed one corrupt guy and another corrupt guy walked in his place.

This is vanity." And he says, "I hate this." I want to take a moment to pause there and say, I know that right now I'm painting a very depressing picture. But in some sense, this is the reality to which God said, "It is wise for you sometime to go into the house of mourning and realize how much this life and this world is wrought with suffering." Right?

It is. The reason why I'm sharing this is because sometimes I take a moment, studying a passage like this, and I ask myself, I'm preaching hard. Was your expectation, your value system, how you generally just thought of life, in tune with this? Or, Mark, did you falsely assume that once you became Christian, it was just going to be joy, joy, joy, and fellowship, fellowship, fellowship.

And because, let's say I'm tracing my young adult life and I was thinking about, yeah, because I'm not just dating around, I'm in it for marriage, and I'm supposed to marry a godly, peaceful, beautiful woman. I did. But did I just expect that to happen in every circumstance? And because I studied the Bible, and because I came and served that church, and because I'm a faithful servant of God, what's supposed to happen is, I'm supposed to therefore have obedient children, I'm supposed to therefore be spared from all the suffering that exists in this world.

And when suffering comes my way, all of a sudden, I'm like, well, it gives, God. But why? And then it starts to reveal, I think there was a part of me that just simply assumed, if I'm faithful, of course, of course God is going to make my path smooth.

Of course God is going to make everything work. And suffering is not for me. So not true. And what's more, God has said multiple times that he is working in such a way that suffering is such a part of life that he is in control. Just meditating on this a little bit more, when we look at this chapter in James, I want us to go to chapter 1.

The suffering, when we talk about where does it come from, I mentioned everything in terms of the suffering that comes from the world that we can't control that comes to us. But actually, there's a lot of suffering that comes internally. And the book of James actually touches upon the majority of the suffering that comes because of you.

And so before, I used to actually read James and think like, that's interesting, he just jumps so fast from consider it all joy when you suffer to, and then you're supposed to ask for wisdom. And I realized, you know what? A lot of my suffering is because of my stupidity.

Because I lack wisdom. Because I can't make wise decisions. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to pray. The suffering we experience causes us to ask God for the wisdom we need. What's more, later in verse 9, he talks about how, yes, there is a brother who is in humble circumstance.

Suffering can come because of your deficiencies. Now, it's comparing and contrasting because of your poverty versus riches. But he talks about this idea is, you understand, we're all finite. And so the suffering comes because we're embedded with finiteness. Our lives are short. Our power is limited. And my knowledge of all of that is limited.

And so within that, my limitations produce my suffering. And then what's more, over in verse 13, he starts to talk about how when you are tempted, let no one say, "Oh, I'm being tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted by evil. He himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away, enticed by his own lusts.

Where does suffering come from? Because I can't even control the stuff that's going on in here. And my desires are producing in me this bed of death because of the sinfulness in my own heart. I hope by walking through some of these passages, we are sufficiently meditating on this idea that, yes, there is a host of hardship that come.

And just because I am in the church and just because I've been trying to live faithful, we dare not simply presume that I am going to be safe from all the sufferings that people experience. But sometimes we get surprised. And I want to go down some areas because I think people get surprised by loneliness.

You're in the church. This is a church, and we're supposed to have community, and we're supposed to have one another's backs, and we're supposed to have all this stuff. But I know that people regularly sometimes feel alone in a room full of 500, 600 people. We have 1,200 people, and I know sometimes because of other experiences, hardships, you may feel alone.

And I want to minimize that because that is a grievous thing. God doesn't expect you to just be like, "I'm okay." You know how with kids when they fall and they start to quiver? Sometimes the parents go, "You're okay. You're okay." And the kid goes, "I'm okay." That's not what God expects you to do.

We are realists. We can face this reality because of Christ. Now, sometimes people are shocked by that, but also, obviously, we have sometimes moments of great loss. We have moments of great disappointment and failure. I mean, you can literally do everything right. You can be the A student. You can be the obedient child who just follows things to the T, and yet you can suffer.

Amen? You can have a mounting burden, a stress, stuff you never asked for. All of a sudden, you're burdened with responsibilities that you never even wanted. Sometimes you just are burdened with your own weakness, and then sometimes you're shocked because there is a kind of pain as you get older where the pain doesn't come because someone inflicted you.

The pain comes because you feel powerless when the people you love are in pain, and you feel powerless to help them. And all of a sudden, there's this strange, multicolored variety of suffering. Yes? My question to you is, in the midst of that, how do you respond? In the midst of that, what is your initial thought?

This isn't normal. What's going on? Is God around? Is He paying attention? That's not us. We know the Lord has His careful eye on all of His children, and He never slumbers on us. Amen? So I want to encourage you with this passage. 1 Peter 4, verse 12, and on, it says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.

But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evildoer or a troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in His name." What a beautiful passage. It mirrors the passage that we are in now.

Saying, yes, there's going to be suffering. Do not be surprised. Do not think that something abnormal is happening to you, that somehow God has it out for you, that somehow He forgot about you, that somehow He doesn't see. But rather know the Lord is fully in control. He is testing you, and He is going to produce in you glory, and we're going to walk through that.

In point two, the challenge of the passage is to, rather than just simply react to the situation, rather than simply respond in your flesh when something bad happens, to consider the joy that God has given you, embedded not into your circumstance, but into your faith. And so what he says is, "Consider it all joy." What does God expect from us?

He does not expect you to just simply think, "Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts." He doesn't want you to simply fake it till you make it, and He definitely doesn't want you to simply go into isolation and say, "This is my slow death. I accept my fate." That's called giving up.

We have so many different ways that people react to suffering, but God is going to say, "I want you to walk this narrow path that leads to joy and blessedness." So in order to do that, within this idea of point number two, first He says, "Consider and know." At some point, you have to exercise a decision.

In this passage, He says when you experience the suffering or the testing of the various kinds, He wants you to consider it all joy, and then later He says, "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." So in your mind, you're making biblical conclusions. In your mind, you're making actual decisions.

When I counsel people, this is what I find as a tendency amongst people who have experienced a lot of suffering. A lot of times, sometimes people will tell me, "I just can't get over it," and then I'll walk them through the question. I'll just tell me then what was the process, what was the journey, etc., and then they always have questions.

"Why did this happen?" "What went wrong?" "Why would they do this?" Then we would talk about God has a purpose, God has a plan, God is sovereign, etc., etc., and then they just simply repeat the question in another way. "But how come this?" "But what was He doing?" "But what's the..." In the end, it's just, "But why?" "But why, but why?" Because they haven't made a decision to accept the fact that God was sovereign in this.

That's a decision you make. That's an end conclusion you make. It happened. Was God sovereign? And then a lot of times, people who suffer, and I don't want to make light of it because sometimes the suffering is so painful, you totally get it. You're kind of shell-shocked. You're asking questions.

You're trying to dissect and understand and process it. It totally makes sense. But at some point, the Scripture challenges us, but you have to make a concerted decision and accept the fact that God is sovereign, past, present, and future. Amen? And then what He's trying to do is say that within all the timeline of everything you've experienced, that there is joy embedded, not specifically just in the circumstance, but He's embedded it into you as the person.

And that's why He's able to say, "Consider the future joy." "Consider the future joy." Okay? What do I mean by that? The passage tells us that something you know by your faith is that God has called, God has justified, God has sanctified. So what He's doing is He is working in you to produce your faith of endurance.

And what He's going to do is make that endurance produce great, great glory. And there is a future joy that we know by faith, and Christ is the one who modeled it, who executed it. What do I mean by that? You recall in the famous passage, Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, verses 1 through 3, as an encouragement for you to be faithful, as an encouragement for you to not give up, keep on running.

Scripture says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses "surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance "and the sin which so easily entangles us, "and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, "who for the joy set before Him," did you catch that?

"endured the cross, despising the shame, "and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. "For consider Him who has endured such hostility "by sinners against Himself, "so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." He says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, "because you know that He is the perfecter of your faith." And He Himself looked at the future joy of what is to be accomplished, looked at His future joy of the work that God is accomplishing through Him to bring many sons to glory.

And He said, as He saw that joy, there was no joy in the situation. There are some people who think, like, Jesus was so powerful, God Almighty in the flesh, so nothing fazes Him, right? He kind of walks around like, "Whoa," you know? And He's got this, like, people are screaming at Him, doesn't say anything.

Now, it's true, did He revile in return? No, because He had so much composure, perfect composure. And people were threatening His life. Did He run for His life? No, He didn't, He had so much composure. But do not think that any of His suffering was so beyond Him. Jesus wept.

Jesus told His disciples, "My heart is troubled." Jesus kept on pleading to God. Jesus kept on praying. Jesus was disturbed. It was not as though Jesus was not, like, fazed by anything. And then He says, "Ultimately, the cross, which is truly the greatest suffering," we could possibly begin to fathom.

If we think about suffering, and it'd be weird to rank or measure which is the greatest degree of suffering, right? But do you know that something profound about the cross and the suffering of Christ has embedded into it every kind of intense and the severity of the suffering was truly unimaginable by man?

The sheer rejection, the shame, the humiliation, the true injustice of it all, the one pure Son of God, chastised, ridiculed, mocked by sinners, vile men who deserve to die, the Creator. Scripture says that there's not a thing that came into existence aside from Christ. So therefore, these individuals mocking Him are His little creatures, judging Him to the cross.

But to ultimately face the wrath of God? Unimaginable suffering, yes? But Scripture says, "See Christ, who saw future joy." And for us, we can do the same. Why? Because what God is doing in you is He is proving you. I'm not sure if you guys have ever heard that or thought about that.

But my next point, point number sub-point two, three, is consider the joy of God's approval. Consider the joy of God's testing. But His testing is not to fail you. Some of you guys are in the most competitive field. You're either in the financial field, you're either in the medical field.

And the school's purpose is to weed out the weak ones. And some of you guys have felt just that kind of pressure. Oh my gosh, I need to keep up with these guys because if I don't put in the hours and I'm going to fail. This is not the same kind of test.

The Scripture tells us that in James, chapter one, verse 12. Turn your eyes there. James, chapter one, verse 12. That blessed is a man who perseveres under trial. Now that trial, again, it can mean various things and it's been translated various things by context. But here and now, it's because God is working in you.

Because God is approving you, it is better translated or the idea, the trial is your testing. Literally, that God is putting you on the exam, on the purification. And then it says, "For once he has been," what? "Approved, he will receive the crown of life "which the Lord has promised to those who love him." This is future joy.

Future joy of the crown that God has promised, but future joy to the path that leads us there. And the path that leads us there, God has not intended your failure. But God has intended the purification of your soul. Right? Think about that. You guys are probably in a field, a good number of you guys are in a field where you have, we have engineers and we have software engineers and we have people who are producing product, et cetera.

What do you normally do when you have a launch, right? You have a stress test. Even if you produce a software program, you just get the whole team and say, "Everybody get on it, let's see if it crashes." And then you're like, "Oh my gosh, "we have so many bugs to fix, da-da-da-da-da." Right?

You build a structure, you're in architecture or something like that, you have to do stress tests. You build a product, you're in mechanical engineering, you have to do a stress test, yes? And if you do not, you cannot say, "It's proven to be reliable." Yes? In the same way, God is not trying to just simply break you.

He is in the work of proving you to be what? To be able to stand. To be without blame. To be without blemish. This is the amazing work of God in your life. And God has said that as he looks upon us, yes, any kind of pain is in the moment, suffering and sorrow, and we're allowed to cry.

But know this, there is joy embedded in this because God, in his wisdom and sovereignty, he has said, "Nothing has seized you, but it was common to man, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond what you can handle." Why? Because God is in this process of giving to us that which is the product of our endurance, which is a tenacity, which is a strength we had not before, which is a long-suffering, an endurance that we probably did not know we could have.

Why? In of ourselves, we are weak. And so, I want us to think about this idea that if ever we have been tempted to think that simply it's Satan who's just making me fail, it's other people who are pushing my buttons and pushing me to my limits, you don't have to be like, "Nah, that guy, I need to just get that guy out of my life." You don't have to be like that.

Why? God is testing you. You know what scripture says in Isaiah chapter 45? Isaiah 45, it says that God wanted men to know, and he says, "That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me, and I am the Lord.

There is none other. The one forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity. I am the Lord who does all these." Who does all these. So, I can't speak on behalf of the Lord things I don't know, but if you are going through hardship, and you're sitting there wondering like, "Is God involved in this?" 100% the answer is yes.

And then you wonder like, "Is God testing me?" Probably most certainly yes, because God says he is going to use every circumstance. I can't follow the trail of like, "And God caused this, and that's why this happened," because my wisdom is too limited. But for sure, God called you, and therefore he justified you.

He is for sure going to sanctify you, and he is going to glorify you. Amen? And therefore, I want to move to the next portion, which says that God is going to perfect us, and knowing this, we have joy embedded again outside of the circumstance of what he is doing in my life, which is he is causing me to be complete.

The passage in James 1.4 tells us this, "And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." It's like, "Wait a minute, but I don't have money." You lack nothing when you have the hand of God on you. "But wait a minute, I'm still crying." You lack nothing when God is at work maturing you.

If some of you guys have memorized James 1.4, amen. But I hope you don't go home with, "Consider it all joy, consider it all joy, consider it all joy," and you're experiencing hardship, and you're doing that awkward smile like, you're kind of throwing up your hands like, "I know I'm supposed to have a better attitude, but it just hurts." Right?

I want to remind you that you have to know verse 4, that you may not be able to go around the trial, but God for sure is causing you to go through the trial, because he is working in you perfection, completeness, and lacking nothing. Scripture says that God has such a goal for you, that you will be presented before him holy and blameless.

God has valued so much that your character would rise from previously depraved and sinful, to justified in Christ, previously still in the flesh, to maturing, and God is working in you to rise to the maturity and the stature of the perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen? And he desires in you such completeness, that he wants the maturities of the Lord.

He wants you to have the maturity of Christ's mind, of the way you think and the way you judge. He wants you to have the maturity of his heart and the way he feels, how he reacts to people, how much he has compassion, what he wants, and he wants you to react in every single way as Christ would, so that you would have the mind, the words, and the heart of Christ.

So that when Scripture talks about Jesus, who experienced all kinds of suffering, and therefore he is an incredible mediator, an incredible high priest, who sympathizes with the weak and come to our aid, God wants you to also mature to be that for other people. He wants you to have the perfections of Christ.

There is nothing more valuable than to have the personality, the character trait, and the completeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is more valuable than a life of comfort. Amen? The Lord's character in you is more valuable than a life of ease, a life without suffering. And this is what God is doing in you.

An interesting passage in Hebrews 2, verse 10, Hebrews 2, verse 10, says, "For it was fitting for him," that's Jesus, "for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, "in bringing many sons to glory, "to perfect the author of their salvation "through suffering." That's a crazy passage that makes you think, like, what?

Jesus is perfect. Jesus was in perfect harmony with the Father. He only did the works the Father wanted him to do, and he only said that which the Father gave him to do. There was nothing deficient about Jesus, so how in the world does this passage say that it was only fitting that God would perfect our Savior, who was already perfect, through the suffering?

Why? The amazing truth about this passage is his purpose was to bring you to glory. It was only fitting for the forerunner, the one who's going to be both our example, our trailblazer, the one in which we abide, we get into, we have union with, we follow, and therefore, as he is entering into glory, we enter into glory.

And when I said just a moment ago, the value of Christ's character is so much more than anything you can imagine put into that statement, the glory of Christ. That's what he wants to give you. So when we suffer, we can make this consideration. God is building within me glory, and this glory is the glory of Christ.

And the suffering I experienced, Christ experienced. Name a suffering Christ did not go through. Earlier, I went through a laundry list of loneliness. Jesus was surrounded by like 20,000 people. Nobody understood him. And in the moment of his suffering, people denied knowing him, especially his closest friends. Think about being hurt because you felt like you were being judged.

Think about having somebody just have this animosity towards you. It's like, "I don't know why." You know, when I was a young Christian, I would read the Gospels, and then I would just be like, "What's wrong with you people? "Just leave him alone!" You know, like, I didn't get it.

Like, "Jesus is going around teaching and healing people. "Just leave the guy alone!" You know, like, that's how I'd scream at the passage, you know? Some of you guys have people who are in your life. It's like, "Just please leave me alone. "Like, why are you hurting me so much?" Name a suffering you experienced that Christ did not experience.

It was fitting for him because he is your leader, but he is your glory, that you too then are perfected through suffering, and you enter into his glory. Amen? And so in this, I want to say that there is a joy of loving him and sharing in his suffering.

When we think outside of the immediate circumstance and the hardships and how painful it is, we realize that God has so desired us to know that he knows us, and to know that we have the comforts because he is our helper. But then we also, through the suffering, we can sympathize with him.

And to know then my love to that greater degree, that's amazing. That's it. And that's why Apostle Paul says, "I know what it means to have everything. "I had power. "I had clout. "I had a future. "I had people basically following me and my leadership, "and they thought essentially I was going to usher in "like a righteous age of the Jewish people.

"I lost everything. "But I know the secret of contentment, "whether I had everything or I lost everything, "and it's knowing Christ. "And if I could share in the sufferings of Christ, "I count everything else rubbish." I want you to turn to a pretty profound passage. In talking about suffering, it's hard to not talk about the suffering of Job, right?

Go in your Bibles to Job chapter 23. In Job chapter 23, Job suffered in such a way where to most people, it just didn't make sense. And then to his closest friends, they're like, "Do you only think that makes sense? "You're a bad man. "You probably sinned." So Job, as you know, he suffered by first losing all of his riches and his cattle, then he suffered by losing all of his children, and then he suffered by losing his health, and it was pitiful.

He just sat there with boils on his skin. With the devastation of his home, he picked up broken pottery and just scraped his wounds. And then in some sense, he lost his wife. She didn't die, but she was cursing God and saying, "Why don't you just curse God and die?" He lost the support of his wife, and then he had even more pain because all of his friends were saying, "Well, for sure it's your fault.

"Stop denying it." He just kept suffering and suffering. And right now, we're thinking about this idea that when you experience suffering, can you trust God to such a degree where you know he's sovereign, but what's more, you know that you can experience his love and find future joy because you know what God's gonna do with you?

Does Job know all of that in the Old Testament? Well, take a moment to read this passage. Job replies, "Even today, my complaint is rebellion. "His hand is heavy despite my groaning. "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, "that I might come to his seat. "I would present my case before him "and fill my mouth with arguments.

"I would learn the words which he would answer "and perceive what he would say to me. "Would he contend with me by the greatness of his power? "No, surely he would pay attention to me. "There the upright would reason with him, "and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, "and backward, but I cannot perceive him. "When he acts on the left, I cannot behold him. "He turns on the right, and I cannot see him." Take a moment to pause there. I reviewed his suffering, but I want to highlight a different kind of suffering that I'm sure some of you have experienced and have counseled individuals who say, "This is the hardest part." The pain when you tried crying out and you felt like there was silence and no word from God, right?

Job understands. Your Savior understands. Yes? He says, "Okay." It's interesting that he says, "Yes, his hand is heavy upon me," but the bulk of his complaint is, "But I don't see what he's doing, "and when I ask him, he didn't say." But the amazing part about this text is that Job believes, "But if I were able to talk to him, "would he just crush me?

"Would he just demolish me and contend with me?" He says, "No, he would tend to me." Job believes in the kind-heartedness of God, and then look at this, verse 10. Job 23, verse 10. Take this to heart. He says, "But he knows the way I take, "and when he has tried me, "I shall come forth like gold." How beautiful is that?

He knows what God is doing, but he really doesn't know. But then he knows. All the suffering that I've been through, yes, I can't see what he's doing on my right and my left, but I know God knows me. And when he's done putting me to the test and he's approving me, then I'm going to be purified.

Then all the dross, all the dirt, all the impurities of the metal, he's going to refine. Yes, in the furnace it's going to be so painful, but God will deliver me. And this is so beautiful, you guys. And in this way, I pray that for us, we know the whole world suffers.

Non-Christians suffer. There are some horrendous stories sometimes you read, and you can't help but be in pain and ache for the people who have experienced so much loss. But for us as a Christian, we know truly that there is joy because of the love we feel and the experience of the hand of God as he is working in our lives.

And therefore, I want to say to you as point three, in the response and the expectation of what is to be our reaction to suffering, is that God desires for us to have a willing and submissive spirit. The Lord is regularly asking us, "I know you want to follow Jesus, "but to what degree?

"If you say, 'I want to follow Christ,' "to which steps?" Because every step in which Christ walked was suffering, was sacrifice, was giving, serving. Can you continue to give and give and give in the midst of your heartache and pain? Are you going to demand, like, "God, I want to follow, but I want to make sure "that my time is manageable, "I have my rest days, I have my introverted moments "of when I have time to myself, "and I don't want certain kinds of people." Do you have parameters, conditions, and demands?

Or do you have a willing and submissive spirit? "Lord, I want to follow "and take the steps you have for me. "But I know that it will require endurance." You see, in James 1, verse 4, the scripture says, "And let endurance have its perfect result." Expecting you to have a submissive spirit so that God would allow, that you would allow God to have His effect on your life through that hardship.

Are we gonna say, "No, no, God, this can't be. "You were supposed to be there for me. "You were to make sure this wasn't supposed to happen." Or would you say, "God, as painful as it is." And you're allowed to ask, "Is there some way around this?" But that you're willing, submissive.

And sometimes we can know whether we have a submissive spirit or we don't, because we can see various things come out of us. And I realize, I'm reading James in a different way. I used to think, like, James is a book about tests of your faith. You know, weak faith that has no works is dead.

Test one, you're supposed to not be so quick to anger. Test two, you're supposed to watch over your mouth. But I realize, in the theme of suffering, what are the ways in which we are unwilling to suffer? Typically, first and foremost, we react in anger. You know, anger, I've said many times, is a control tool for you to get a grip either on people or their circumstance.

Now, there are moments and times when we exhibit righteous indignation or we're upset about the situation, and it's not as though every outburst of anger is just rot sinful. But if we're suffering and our natural reaction is just, "No, no," and we're just angry about the situation, we need greater endurance and a willing spirit.

What's more, the book of James has much to say about your tongue, and I realize when we suffer, we get squeezed. It is the wine press. It is the test. And what comes out are words of bitterness, great, great bitterness, hurtful words, critical words. And so in the book of James, it says, "Is your mouth filled with curses and witness, "and sore?

"Are you exercising spirit control of your tongue "because you can entrust yourself to God?" Now, obviously, the passage and the challenge for us is to make sure that ultimately, we just don't give in and don't give up. And I believe that's why the book of James has so much to say about make sure that you don't just hear, but you do.

Because the heart that's discouraged by suffering is like, "I already tried. "What's the use? "I'm still going to suffer." It's not working, right? For those of you guys who are experiencing incredible heartache and pain within your family, and you have said like, "This so-and-so person, "my brother, my sister, my parent, my child, hopeless.

"I've already tried it. "Just fight, fight, fight. "Conflict, conflict, conflict." And you lose the hope to continue. I think this is why this book is so full with exhortation. Do not give up obeying the Lord. Do not give up heeding his word. And that's why your faith will need to continue to exhibit itself.

Because in the midst of suffering, you can be so discouraged. If God is not so concerned with the outcome of your circumstance, but God is so concerned with the character that you develop, you can persevere. And that's why even in 1 Peter 2, it tells servants, "Be submissive to your masters "with all respect, "not only to those who are good and gentle, "but also to those who are unreasonable.

"For this finds favor, "if for the sake of conscience towards God, "a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly." Did you catch that? We are so fixated on fixing the circumstantial problem. God delights in producing in you glory. God delights in producing in you a kind of faith that perseveres and is not reasonable.

When you love somebody who is your enemy, it is not reasonable because it's so hard. But when you love beyond your capacity and beyond rationale and beyond what makes sense to your self-preserving, logical mind, you glorify Christ in the same exact way when you suffer unjustly and you bear under hardship beyond what you're capable, beyond what's rational, and what seems to be in your estimation, you glorify God.

Amen? So I want to encourage and challenge you guys that God is doing such a work. I don't know what all suffering you're experiencing, but the Lord is giving you something so valuable beyond money to help with your problems, beyond health to help with your pains. God is testing you.

God is bringing endurance. And 1 Peter 1, verse 6 says this, "In this you greatly rejoice, "even though now for a little while, if necessary, "you have been distressed by various trials, "so that the proof of your faith "being more precious than gold, which is perishable, "even though tested by fire, "may be found to result in praise, glory, honor "at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

"And though you have not seen him, you love him. "And though you do not see him now, but you believe in him, "you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible "and full of glory, "obtaining as the outcome of your faith "the salvation of your souls." Amen. God is giving you something so much more valuable than money, power, health, and a life free of pain.

God is giving to you a proven faith. God is giving to you the glories of Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that even in the midst of circumstances and situations that seem so difficult and also are confusing, you make sense of it because we know that we can trust your wisdom, we can trust your sovereign hand, we can trust the intent of your heart, and we know what you're doing because you've told us.

We thank you, God, that we do not live this life aimlessly or purposelessly, but, God, we have this goal to know you and love you and to experience you. We recognize that that path involves so much heartache, but, God, nevertheless, thank you. Thank you, God, that you do not leave us on our own.

Thank you, God, that you treat us like your children and just like every child needs to be both weaned, every child needs to be disciplined, but also every child needs to be trained in righteousness. Thank you, God, that you do that for us. We praise you, Lord, this day.

It's in Christ's name. Amen. Let us all rise for our closing praise. Christ is sure. Christ is sure in steady anchor In the fury of the storm When the winds of doubt blow through me And my sails have all been torn In the suffering and the sorrow When my sinking ropes are few I will hold fast to the anchor It shall never be removed Christ is sure.

Christ is sure in steady anchor When the tempest rages on When temptation claims the battle And it sees the night as one Deeper still than goes the anchor Though I justly stand accused I will hold fast to the anchor It shall never be removed Christ is sure in steady anchor Through the floods of unbelief Hopeless somehow, oh my soul now I will rise to Calvary This my ballast of assurance Seen as love forever proved I will hold fast to the anchor It shall never be removed Christ is sure in steady anchor As we face the wave of death When these trials give way to glory As we draw our final breath We will cross that great horizon Clouds behind and life secure And the calm will be the batter For the storms that we endure Christ the sure of our salvation Ever faithful, ever true We will hold fast to the anchor It shall never be removed Amen.

Let's pray together. Our God, we again want to praise you that you have given to us incredible hope that is unshaken by the circumstances of this world. You give us this hope in Christ, who was never deterred, who never wavered, but his face was set to his suffering, but also he accomplished everything that he set out to do for salvation.

Thank you, God, that you are the true strong tower in the midst of our storms and in the midst of our suffering. Thank you once more, God, that in all of this you say that you are able to come to our help because you can sympathize with our weakness.

We pray, Father God, that you will continue to be merciful to us and we thank you truly for the work that you are doing to build us up to the stature of Christ. Now, to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless and with great joy.

To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. ♪ God sent his Son ♪ ♪ Then called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there ♪ ♪ To put my Savior's lips ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ When I fear my faith will fail ♪ ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪ ♪ When the tempter would prevail ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ I could never keep my heart ♪ ♪ Through life's fearful path ♪ ♪ For my love is soft and calm ♪ ♪ He must hold me fast ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my Savior loves me so ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Those he saves are his delight ♪ ♪ Christ will hold me fast ♪ ♪ Precious in his holy sight ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ He'll not let my soul be lost ♪ ♪ His promises shall last ♪ ♪ Bought by him at such a cost ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪ For my Savior loves me so ♪ ♪ He will hold me fast ♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Before the throne of God above ♪ ♪ I have a strong and perfect plea ♪ ♪ A great high priest whose name is love ♪ ♪ Whoever lives and pleads for me ♪ ♪ My name is graven on his hand ♪ All right, let's do the last song first, so we can get through that.

I have it in D. What do you got, Sarah? D? What do I, C sharp? It's either C or B. C. Let's do C then. All right, on you. You don't have to do the whole intro. Just give me an intro, and then we'll start. ♪ In the fury of the storm ♪ ♪ When the winds of doubt blow through me ♪ ♪ And my sins have all been torn ♪ ♪ In the suffering, in the sorrow ♪ ♪ When my seeking hopes are few ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And it's a sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ While the tempest rages on ♪ ♪ When temptation claims the battle ♪ ♪ And it sees the night as one ♪ ♪ Deeper still than goes the anchor ♪ ♪ Though I justly stand accused ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ It's the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ Though the floods of unbelief ♪ ♪ Hopeless somehow hold my soul now ♪ ♪ Lift your eyes to Calvary ♪ ♪ This my ballast of assurance ♪ ♪ See His love forever through ♪ ♪ I will hold fast in the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪ ♪ - So you're not going to do that?

- Do what? - ♪ Da, da, da ♪ - Oh, we're doing that version? - ♪ Da, da, da ♪ Yeah, yeah. - Okay. - Yeah, yeah. So in the transitions, we're going to... ♪ ♪ Yeah, we're not following the melody style. We're just keeping it the original. ♪ ♪ So I was like, "Oh, I hear you." ♪ ♪ All right.

So you can build, Matt, build on three. Like, yeah, verse three should be big, and then verse four will pull out. ♪ ♪ So let's go from... ♪ This my ballast of assurance ♪ ♪ See His love forever through ♪ ♪ I will hold fast in the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ This the shortest steady anchor ♪ ♪ As we face the wave of death ♪ ♪ When these trials turn way to glory ♪ ♪ As we draw our final breath ♪ ♪ We will cross that great horizon ♪ ♪ Bound behind and life secure ♪ ♪ And the calm will be the better ♪ ♪ For the storm that we've ridden through ♪ ♪ Lord of our salvation ♪ ♪ Ever faithful, ever true ♪ ♪ We will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ The anchor shall never be removed ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - Who's still playing music?

- Huh? - Who is still playing music? - I think Matt. ♪ ♪ - Um, for... So we're gonna come back out and then end it like that. End it kind of with a-- we're not going all the way out. Yeah, first chord, fall out, and then go back in, and then we're all gonna end it normally.

- Um, for the chorus, third line, the first chord is C, right? - Uh-huh. - Everyone playing C, third line. - ♪ See His love forever through ♪ ♪ I will hold fast in the anchor ♪ ♪ The anchor shall never be removed ♪ Okay, that's the chord I was playing.

I was like, "Why is that an F?" - Yeah, all the way to C. - Okay, all right. All right, to the top in G, or in A, right? No. In A, right? It's A, right? ♪ ♪ All right, we'll do verse 1 and then call it. And then we'll repeat the last part.

♪ ♪ Hold on, hold on, hold on. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Okay. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Yes, did you follow where I went?

Okay, so it's... ♪ My space forever to behold ♪ ♪ Space forever to be outdrawn ♪ ♪ ♪ My guitar's out of tune, but we'll deal with that later. So, outro. ♪ ♪ All right. It's, uh, F-sharp. No, no, F. No, we said F. We said F. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh God, before the mountains were brought forth ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ O'er days of spring and summer felt the earth ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We dwell beneath the stars in ancient skies ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A thousand years are nothing in your sight ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All our days are held within your hand ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh God, when joy and tragedy collide ♪ ♪ And loss reminds us life is but a sigh ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All our days are held within your hand ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ Rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Rest within your plan ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh God, our ways are known to you ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ But by your grace you're making all things new ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ So satisfy us in our numbered days ♪ ♪ Establish every effort while we wait ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ You are God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ All our days are held within your hand ♪ ♪ Your perfect love and favor have no end ♪ ♪ Rest within the wisdom of your plan ♪ ♪ From everlasting ♪ ♪ God ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪