Digging Deeper — 1 Peter 5

0:00 Now I was a little tardy, getting in here. I apologize for that. But I didn't catch if Scott gave any kind of update on the Michigan Ohio State game yesterday. Did he? Alright.

0:16 Alright. Well, certainly, a joy to be here this morning. And as we have opportunity to look at, God's word together here, we, let's let's pause and and pray once again as we get started here. Our heavenly father, we give thanks for, the scripture that we we have. We're thankful for the fact that, we can all have our own copy of it.

0:45 We're thankful for the holy spirit that indwells us. And father, we realize that this, book has much instruction for us. And, we pray as we live our life day to day that thou would, draw us closer to thyself. We pray that thou would, encourage us along, life's highway, so to speak, as we encounter different, challenges and difficulties. We pray that we would, find ourselves strong in thy strength, not our own.

1:17 And so this morning as we, have opportunity to look at the word together, we pray that that would give us good understanding. We pray that the holy spirit would be able to work in and among our hearts this morning unhindered. Father, we pray for all those that are are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that their, hearts would be encouraged. We pray for any that are here this morning and have not made a decision about their final destiny as to whether they would choose Christ or not. And we pray for them to to understand the the weight of that decision.

1:49 And so now we commit our time to thee. We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. If you would, I've got a couple of different passages we would like to look at this morning, and you can make your way to first Peter. First Peter, please.

2:09 This, we're gonna look... Just look at this passage briefly by way of introduction and and then, be going to another passage, but I'd like to have you turn to first Peter, please. First Peter chapter five. I believe, some of you have recently attended the, men's retreat in West Virginia, and, certainly a good, good time of bible study together. We at Mountaintop, we have a fall men's retreat as well, and, it happens very close to that, other men's retreat in West Virginia.

2:53 They're not meant to compete with each other in, you know, pretty much different areas. But we have a men's retreat as well that, we just had the November 1. And I was reminded, particularly this passage here, during that men's retreat because, there's a there's a bit... Something that's a little bit unique about this particular men's retreat. You get these guys together to study the word of God, but there's also, some dedicated prayer time that, that guys really for whatever reason open up.

3:30 Imagine that, you know, that that, that people start to become real with each other and share real prayer request. And, and so as I was at this men's retreat, the... You know, I came into the weekend. It's a Thursday through a Saturday. And I came in there kind of with a heavy heart dealing with some things myself, you know.

3:56 And so here we're together with these men. And as I started listening and hearing some of the things these other brothers were going through or dealing with, I thought, man, what my who am I to have problems? You know, like this guy, wow, he's really got a problem going on. And so have you ever had that experience? You think, man, I'm dealing with something tough here and then you go and you talk with another brother or sister or talk with somebody else, they real...

4:48 And that word, casting there in verse seven, it implies a continual casting, casting all your care upon him, God, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant. It means to to watch and keep watching because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the but the god of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

5:41 Amen. And so if you go back up to verse nine, this is this is the verse I wanted to draw your attention to. And there's a little phrase in there. It tells us first to to resist the devil. Right?

5:56 Resist the devil in the faith. But then look at this next phrase. It says, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Peter's writing to the church.

6:14 Peter uses the word brethren referring to brothers and sisters in Christ. And so knowing that the same afflictions... What are afflictions? Problems, troubles, trials. I mean, it's like a funnel category, afflictions.

6:27 Knowing that the same afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren, in your brothers and sisters in Christ that are in the world, that are in the neighborhood, that are in your church, that are on your street, same afflictions. And so, George, can I see your hand? Put down your glasses. Oh, yeah. I hope we haven't shaken hands yet.

6:48 I don't want to lose your glasses. But look, George has got flesh here. Okay? You see this? He's got flesh.

6:54 He's got blood throwing... Let me see. Yep. Blood is flowing through those veins. He's flesh and blood.

7:01 Right? He's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going through afflictions. I'm going through afflictions. We're in the world together.

7:10 We're human. So here, one one of these guys I was talking with, I think some of you would relate to this. He said, if I could just summarize this to try not to give a lot of details, this brother had taken... He and his wife, his his his daughter... Their children are out of the house.

7:41 He and his wife had taken on a foster child, an autistic foster child, who was a ward of the state, who who had previously been living with his brother, who had neglected him and abused him. And and so this guy and his... He and his wife had taken him on. The fellow, the young man, his name is Josh. Tremendous difference in his life.

8:11 You can imagine. From going from a rough environment, a terrible environment, and then to a nurturing, safe, good, Christian, wholesome environment. He's thriving, you know. And then the brother comes with the lawyers to wanna get the child back, you know. And it's it's gone to court and here it's weighing in the decision of a judge.

8:36 Does he go back with the brother or does he stay with this this new this new environment? And that brother was carrying that weight. Another another brother was was there and and he he said, pray for my daughter. She made her profession when she was young, but now now she's gotten... She went off to college.

8:55 She's... There's no fruit in her life. She's married a man that that there's no fruit in their life. They're gonna have their first child. That's weighing heavy on his heart.

9:03 We're going to see him. We're gonna be there for the birth of the child. Pray that I'll have opportunity with my daughter to talk to her about salvation. Talk to my my son-in-law about salvation. And so you you you start to hear these things and and you know what?

9:20 Some of the... Knowing that the same afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. And so we we've got these issues. Right? We've got these things that we're dealing with.

10:09 But, Isaiah forty one ten says this, fear thou not for I am with thee. This is God speaking. Fear fear ye not because I I am I am God. I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am thy God.

10:28 I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with the righteousness or with with the right hand of my righteousness. This, we we could... I thought about saying, you know, just to get us into the...

10:50 Just to get us going here and like, hey, raise your hand if you got problems. You know. But this message is not about problems, okay? And so everybody would raise their hands probably if asked that question, right? Raise your hand if you've problems.

11:04 Hey, raise your hand if you've got something in your life you're dealing with that's bigger than you are. Probably everybody raise their hand. You know, and we we we know that. We understand that there's ups and downs. And we know there's good times and bad times.

11:18 We know there's hard times. And there's these times when you think like, I'm invincible. You know, I can do anything. And, and then there's other times when you think, I can't do anything. Can't do anything right.

11:30 Everything I touch breaks. Everything I try fails. You know, we know that there's circumstances like that. This this verse here it says, when... In Isaiah Isaiah, he's writing and and he says, fear fear thou not.

11:50 We read earlier in Peter, it said to cast cast all your cares upon him. Anybody ever seen the the guys at the coast, you know, that are shrimping or are those casting throw nets? You know what I'm talking about? The ones that you kind of spin around and you throw it and it it opens up into a big circle and falls into the water. Everybody seen that?

12:10 Before you've seen that? Yeah. That's what I think about when he says casting. You know how you'd like... You hurl that thing and it it swirls around and falls in the water, casting all your cares upon him continually.

12:25 It says to fear not. A lot of times when we're fearing, when we find ourselves scared in our circumstance, we're not casting, right? We're holding on to it. We're holding on to whatever it is, the problem or the issue or the the thing that's outside of our control. We're waiting on the judge's, decision and we've got to wait a week for that decision.

12:46 We find ourselves fearing. It says fear fear not. Right? Fear not. I I am with thee.

12:55 I am I am with you. Isn't that incredible that that God is with us? Do we feel his presence? Do we understand his presence? Do we sense his presence?

13:08 We we were... We we drove we drove on Friday, part of the day and the rest of the day yesterday, Saturday up here from North Carolina. We stopped in the Amish country to take in the, live nativity, parade that was going on. And, this was in Berlin, Ohio. And they have all these animals, you know.

13:31 And I was freshly reminded of what it is to be yoked together. They had they had two cows that were as big as horses. I mean, these things were they were taller than I was. These two cows or they might have been oxen. I don't know.

13:46 How do you tell the difference between a cow and an ox? But they were big. They were big animals and they had this wood hewn yoke and both of their necks were right in that thing And this this little fellow was leading them, you know, with with his little, whip thing that that he that he had leading them. And those two guys were together. Those two animals were together.

14:13 One didn't get ahead of the other and one didn't leave the other behind, but they were yoked together. God says, I am with you. And so what a tremendous thing. Cast off the care, cast off the trouble, cast off the circumstance. Remember God's with you.

14:32 Remember God's right there beside you harnessed up together. Right? I am with you. I am with you. The next thing it says, hey, somebody...

14:41 And that's... What's the next phrase that it says in there? Somebody call it out for me. One of you young men, call it out. What does it say?

14:50 Be not... Not dismayed. Be not dismayed. Right? K.

14:54 Be not dismayed. Does anybody have a different word than dismayed on that in that verse? You're not anxious to look about you. Okay. Look about you.

15:04 You know what the word dismayed means? The word dismayed in there, that particular Hebrew word means to look around for help. Look around for help. Hey, God says I am with you. I am with you in your trouble, in your circumstance.

15:22 I am with you. Do not look around for help. I'm right here. And so that's a tremendous lesson for me because I have a tendency to want to... I gotta call this guy.

15:37 If I could meet with this person, I could I could do this. If if only I had... I'm looking around for help. What what am I doing? I'm looking around for help.

15:47 God is right there with me. He's got my solution. He's gonna he he's gonna go on to this verse and say, I will strengthen you. I will help you. I've got the God of the universe ready to help me and I'm looking around for help.

16:01 I'm calling the doctor. What do you think about this? I got a lump. It's getting redder as I touch it. You know?

16:07 I mean... So be not dismayed. Don't fear. Cast off your care. Don't look around in yourself.

16:41 Don't trust in might. Don't trust in power. Don't trust in your own wit. Don't trust in your your own strength. We trust in God.

16:50 We rely on God. So he's got three other, Isaiah's got three other promises in this that I've already already mentioned that I will strengthen you, I will help you, yea, I will uphold you with the right hand, that being a symbol... The right hand is a symbol of strength. I will write... I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness, God.

17:13 So even though we find ourselves humans, we find ourselves flesh and blood, we find ourselves... We find what Peter... Is it true what Peter wrote? Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Right?

17:33 And and would would every... How many how many generations do we have rep... Or how many decades do we have represented here today? We've got people that are probably... I don't see many kids in here right now, but ten ten to 20.

18:01 We got anybody in that age group? Ten to twenty? Yeah. We got a few. Twenty to thirty?

18:05 We got any in there? In that twenty to thirty age range? Abe, how are doing? Good to see you. Yeah.

18:12 Thirty to forty. We got anybody in that age range? 40 to 50. We got anybody... I can't count any higher than that.

18:19 You know? But, hey, if we surveyed if we surveyed every one of those age categories, would we all conclude that, yeah, I got I got things I can't handle in the in the thirty to forty range. And you know what? In the fifty to sixty range, I'm still dealing with stuff that I can't handle. Right?

18:44 And so I'm not trying to paint a grim picture that you're gonna have trouble all your life, but you know, when we're in this world, we're in this world, we're in these bodies of flesh and blood, sin is battling within us. Sin is battling in within the... With with my brothers and sisters. There's gonna be mistakes. There's gonna be hardship.

19:06 There's gonna be trial. And so every, yeah, every phase of life, every phase of life. I think that's the reason Peter wrote continually, casting all your care continually. I think that's why God said, look, I'm gonna I'm gonna plant here right beside you. Okay?

19:23 I'm going the whole way with you. I'm not going the first five years of your Christian walk and then I'm going to drop you. I'm going to go the whole way with you. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 47. Ezekiel chapter 47.

19:46 Here is an interesting passage that we find. Ezekiel is a bit... Is one of the major prophets. Right? He's one of the major prophets.

20:01 And so, here, this is at the end. This is the second to last chapter in in in the book of Ezekiel. So he's prophesied all these things. He's dealt with the the judgment of Israel. When Israel needed to be judged, the chastisement of the of the lord...

20:15 Of of god was on the people of Israel for their idolatry, for their turning their back on god, for them looking around for help when they should have been looking for God. And so here, Ezekiel deals with some things in the in the Jewish history. He also deals with some things in the future. His prophet... His prophetic statements deal in the future.

20:37 So... Or Ezekiel 47 that we're gonna look at right here. This is probably in reference to the millennial reign of Christ when these actions are taking place. But we're gonna look at it this morning to see how we might benefit from from some of the things that are told here. Chapter 47.

20:55 Everybody there? Alright. So 47 verse one. Afterward, this is this is God showing Ezekiel another vision. Okay.

21:04 I'll give you that part of context. So when it says he, this is referring to God. Afterward, brought me, this is Ezekiel, God brought Ezekiel again to the door of the house. The house is in reference to the, to the temple, the house of God. And behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward.

21:24 From... For the front of the house stood toward the east and the waters came down from under and on the right side of the house and at the south side of the altar. Then brought he, God out or or this this person in the vision or leading him. This is a vision from God. Verse two, then he brought me out of the way by the gate northward and he led me about the way without to the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward and behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

21:55 So if I... If we could visualize in our mind, we've got this house. Right? We've got this temple. And so it would be like, if this was the door right here, there was...

22:09 Let's see. This this is is west. The door should be over there if we're going to follow this analogy correctly, you know. But the eastward, there there was water flowing out right there. There's water flow...

22:22 If there's a door right there, there's water flowing. Right? And so that's that's basically what we're seeing right here. There's water flowing out of the of the house of God, and it's running it's running out, and it's like in the form of a river running running out. Now notice what happens next in verse three.

22:37 And when the man that had a line in his hand went forth, this is like a measuring tape or, you know, some type of a measuring device, he he measured a thousand cubits and then brought me through the waters and the waters were to the ankles. Again, he measured a thousand cubits. I'll I'll interject there. He measured a thousand and brought me through the waters and the waters were to the knees. And he...

23:04 Again, it goes another thousand cubits. And he brought me through and the waters were to the loins. Y'all... Everybody following this here? You following what's happening?

23:15 The river's out there, they're going a thousand cubits. They're measuring the waters to the ankles the first time, then it's to the knees. Then they go a little bit further and it's to the waist or the loin area. Read again in verse four. And again, he measured a thousand and brought me brought me through the waters.

23:34 The waters were to the knees... Oh, sorry. I meant verse five. Verse five. Afterward, he measured a thousand and it was a river that I could not pass over.

23:48 The waters were risen, the waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. Verse six. And he said unto me, son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, the bank of the river, were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

24:12 Then he said unto me, these waters issue out toward the East country and go down into the desert, go down into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come shall live. And there shall be a great multitude of fish because the waters have come hither for they shall be healed. Everything shall live where the water... Where the river cometh.

24:44 Okay. So we got this picture, right? We got this picture of what's happening. Now, would you bible scholars agree? Would you bible scholars agree that water in the bible, we see it sometimes it means judgment, sometimes it means blessing.

25:04 Right? Both are symbolized in scripture. What is it here? Okay. Blessing.

25:11 Why do we know that? Why why do we know that? It brought life. It brought healing. It brought abundance.

25:17 It's this blessing. Right? So that's important to understand. We're dealing with here this river is going out and it's and it's blessing. What do we what do we make of this where, they go out?

25:34 There's an obvious progression in it. They step into the water at the first thousand cubits ankle deep. Then they go out a little bit further. They travel that river further and it gets a little deeper. They travel that further again.

26:12 Ain't it true? We talked about different age groups, you know, the youthful, the middle age, the older. And we understand that there's maturity that happens along all those age groups and it happens different rates. It happens different for different people. We all know that the girls mature faster than the boys.

26:33 You can agree with that or disagree with that, but it's typically I've seen that to be true. Girls are little bit more mature than boys. Boys, you know, boys will be boys. But in the Christian life, in the Christian life, we can have baby Christians at 30, right? I can be a baby Christian at 30.

26:54 I can get saved at 50. I could be a... I mean, there it runs the gamut. And so while we might say that, oh, yeah, in life, in physical life, the 30 year old is usually more mature than the 18 year old. You know, your insurance rates go down and all all this other kind of thing, but we...

27:18 That doesn't necessarily apply in the Christian life, does it? We know Peter writes as what, you know, desire the sincere milk of the word, you know, as babes. He's telling the babes to desire the word and the milk of the word. He says, take that milk first and then work toward meat, work toward something more substantial and you need it. Right?

27:42 And so here this... Here's another picture in in the scripture. A river. A river. The first time we're ankle deep.

27:52 Right? It's the beginning. It's the beginning thing. We're testing the waters. We're saying, woah, I'm up to my ankles here.

28:05 Anybody in here workout? Who... Devin? Hey. Happy birthday, by the way.

28:12 Did you just turn... Did you have a birthday? No. That was somebody... That was another d.

28:18 Oh, it was you? Happy birthday. Yeah. There's a lot of November birthdays. So Devin works out.

28:26 Devin, come up here. Come up here. Hurry. Come on. Be quick about it.

28:34 Be quick about it. We got to put you up on the stage even for this. All right. So what's your favorite exercise, Devin? It's not don't know if you're favorite.

28:43 Okay. Devin is 18 years old? Yeah. 18 years old specimen, you know, this fine specimen of a human being. I want to show y'all something.

28:54 Look at this. Look at those ankles. Look at the can you flex your ankle right there for me? Look at that. All right, sit down.

29:06 Thank you. Anybody work out their ankles? Hey, who everybody's got you do work out your ankles? How do you do that? Yeah.

29:17 Bends? Okay. Good. See, you're strengthening your ankles. Everybody's got ankles in here, right?

29:23 Everybody's got them. Everybody can flex their ankles. What are... What would you say if you had to narrow down a primary purpose for the ankle? What would it be?

29:38 Interface Interface with the ground. Okay. And if we put that into layman's terms, non engineering terms, what would you say that would be? Walking. Walking.

29:55 I heard that right. Walking. Yeah. Interfacing with the ground or walking, you choose. But the ankles are for walking, right?

30:04 I mean that's the primary thing, connecting the, we could sing the song, you know, connecting the foot bone to the leg bone in between is our ankle, right? He's ankle deep. He's ankle deep at this first initial thing. And, you know, hey, how many how many references do we have to walking in the scripture? We could probably rattle off, we've got to walk in love, walk in faith, walk in the unity, or walk walk worthy of the vocation which which you are called.

30:40 Right? Walking. We're we're all to walk. We're in this world and the world's around us, but in a relationship with God, I'm stepping into the water. I'm ankle deep.

30:54 I'm I'm there. So walking usually indicates life, right, life. Does anybody have a two year old child in here? Anybody got a... Well, who's got the child closest to two?

31:14 That would be Anita or Janelle. Oh, we got a competition. All right. What's your two year old's name? Isaac.

31:21 Isaac. And so Isaac, did he learn to talk or to walk first? And I'm not talking about goo goo gaga, you know, like communicate walking or talking first. Which normally comes first? Walking.

31:38 Walking comes first. Right? And so for a baby Christian, for a new believer, the walking comes first too. Ankle deep. Ankle deep.

31:50 I'm in the water. Talking is going to come along later. Walking also usually indicates a destination. Right? These guys are going with the measuring tape.

32:08 We'll just say thousand feet. Bam. Going further. Another thousand feet. Bam.

32:14 There's a destination. There's a destination. And so walking is life. It's action. It's growth.

32:33 What can... What do you think of when you think about the Christian life and knees? Prayer. Bending down, being before God in prayer. Hey, this is where this ties back in.

32:47 Okay? Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world? Prayer. I need to be on my knees. Step back in the water and and it was up to his knees indicating that being before God, recognizing my dependence on God.

33:08 You know that whole thing about be not dismayed? This is true in my life that I get so anxious about the issue that I don't take time to pray. I want to do something about it. I want to do something. I want to...

33:23 And so I can... I shortcut the prayer. I don't spend the time in prayer that I should. I got to be doing something about this. I got to call some people.

33:32 I got to make something happen. But God wants us to pray. Be on our knees. Pray. Seek him.

33:41 Wait for him. Let him defend you. Let him show you the solution. Learn the lesson that he's got for you to learn. It's a whole different subject, but you know, we could talk about the difference between punishment and chastisement.

33:57 Right? The the the difference between the consequences of your sin versus God developing you and and bringing you along and and molding you. Pray. God, what is it you want me to learn? What is it you want?

34:14 I need to be on my knees for that. So then it goes on a little bit further, right? The tapes out another thousand cubits and and so now we get back into the water and it's to it's to the loins, it's to the it's to the mid the mid area, to the loins, the trunk, the trunk of the body. I believe when we look at that, we can... We...

34:40 Well, other places in in the scripture says what? Gird up your loins. Right? And what's it talking? He's getting ready for battle.

34:47 He's getting ready for service. Doesn't that progression make sense? Walk with the Lord. One of the most famous walks that we have in the Bible is Enoch walked with the Lord and his his... All that he did was well pleasing in his sight.

35:05 Enoch had a reputation for that. And and so walking with the Lord, getting to know the Lord, being before the Lord on our knees, preparation, now service. Now service comes. In that river, service. The loins girding up, the strength, the work, the need the need for the body to work together.

35:36 We go a little bit further. And I want to look at that verse five again. Hey, do we have any swimmers in here? Anybody swim? Like on a team?

35:49 Anybody else on a team in here? Should really take up swimming. It's a good sport. See if Bob was here, he could raise his hand, right? He's a swimmer, kind of.

36:00 But here we got a verse about swimming, right? That's a good trivia question. Hey, does the bible talk about swimming? Yeah. Look at look at verse five.

36:10 Look at verse five here. It talks about swimming. Afterward, he measured a thousand and and it was a river that I could not pass over. For the rivers were... Waters were risen, waters to swim in.

36:25 Now, you know, it's not ankle deep anymore. It's not knee deep anymore. It's, not waist deep anymore. It's over the head. The only thing I can do is swim.

36:35 A river that could not be passed over. And so if we follow our progression, we say, God, you got to hold me up here. You got to hold me up. You... I I...

36:56 While no one in here acknowledged some... Or, you know, fessed up to being on a swim team, you've all seen people swimming, right? And so what is the part in fact, Jim, I'll ask you this question. I know, but you're just primed for this. What is the part of the body when you observe an Olympic swimmer?

37:20 Freestyle freestyle. What is the part of the body that stays out of the water the majority, if not all of the time? The head. Right? Everybody agree with that?

37:30 The head. So just think about this analogy if you will. Here is... We're we're in this world but not of it. We we encounter God and say, yes, God, I want to walk with you.

37:45 God, I know you've got a good and perfect will for me. I know you've got a purpose for me. And so, God, I want to be before you on my knees about this purpose. What would you have me to do? How would you have me to serve in in in in this life?

38:00 And then God reveals that to us and he brings us up to the waist and he says, this is what I want you to do. This is what... And I'm gonna be right there with you. And and so here here we are. And and then we find ourselves swimming.

38:16 Right? Swimming. And yeah, the hand comes out of the water every once in a while, but the head the head is always evident. The head, God gets the glory. Christ is our head.

38:30 My body is totally covered up. Right? I'm in the service of the Lord and there's the head going through there. Christ gets the glory. Ephesians chapter three and verse 21, to him be the glory, to to to the father be the glory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

38:48 Right? So the head is seen, all the members working together. God gets the glory. Man gets no glory in that. Man, man recognizes his dependence on God.

39:00 God's holding him up. Man stops. All he can do is tread. Right? He...

39:08 Man stops. The body doesn't work. He starts to sink. When he's treading, he's not making any progress. But when he's swimming, waters to swim in, that's when he's making progress.

39:22 He's going. And so God gets the glory for that. You know what? There's some more waters that are mentioned in this chapter 47. Look at look at verse 11.

39:41 The water we already said was a place of blessing. The water, we we've made some analogies here to the Christian life and and the progression of it and the maturity of the Christian life. And... But notice in verse 11, it says, but the miry places, what is that? The muddy places.

40:04 The the miry places and the marshes thereof shall not be healed. Wait a minute. These are waters of blessing. Why aren't they being healed? They shall be given to salt.

40:18 They're cast out. It's the shallow. It's the shallow. God wants us to take in more. He didn't want us to stay waiting.

40:34 Right? He doesn't want us to stay ankle deep. Those waters will become not sufficient. He doesn't want the baby Christian to just drink milk all the time. That'll become insufficient.

40:49 You need the meat. You gotta have the ankle deep. You gotta have the knee deep. You gotta have the waist deep. You gotta have the swimming.

41:02 And so the miry places, the marshes, you'll stagnate. You'll become bitter. You'll become rotten. You'll become of no use. And so we want to continue in the waters.

41:19 I'll close with a a little poem here. It says this, when God wants to drill a man and thrill a man and skill a man, when God wants to mold a man to pay to play the noblest part, when he yearns with all his heart to create so bold a man that the world shall be amazed. Watch his methods. Watch his ways. How he ruthless ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects.

41:53 How he hammers him and hurts him and the mighty blows convert him into trial shapes of clay which only God understands when his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands. How he bends but never breaks when his good he undertakes, how he uses whom he chooses and which every purpose fuses him, by every act induces him to try out his splendor. God knows what he's about. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we give thanks for the word.

43:19 Father, we pray that thou would do a work in our life to where, yes, we would be totally dependent on you and that the Lord Jesus Christ would receive the glory for it. For we know, father, that you do uphold us. We know that you are the one that is holding us by your by your right hand of righteousness. And we have this analogy here where the waters are deep, the river is flowing, and yet we're instructed to swim. And so father, we know it's only by your strength that we can sustain and swim and stay and go.

43:57 Father, help us to have the the the discernment to know what is important and what is not. Help us to have the the ability to freshen and enhance our relationships with other believers. We pray these things, Father, as we commit ourselves to thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.