[00:00:01 – 00:00:34] I don't know how many of you have heard of uh loggerhead sea turtles you know loggerhead sea turtles are massive Turtles um they can grow up to 300 lbs in size and turtles part of their natural life cycle they tend to come ashore to lay eggs and once they lay eggs they have they go back into the ocean which is their natural habitat so here was a [00:00:30 – 00:01:00] um park ranger in one of the parks where these loggerhead sea turtles come was trying to go after one sea turtle which had finished laying his eggs and instead of heading back to the ocean it was going the opposite direction towards the sand dunes so the ranger ended up going and lifting this massive sea turtle flipped [00:00:56 – 00:01:27] it upside down made it lie on its back and you can't carry a 300 lb Turtle easily so he had to chain its hands and its legs hooked it to his SUV and tried to ride the SUV towards the ocean and all along the sea turtle was on its back scrambling not really knowing what's going on and then when he went closer to [00:01:24 – 00:01:57] the ocean he untangled it flipped it around and the moment the turtle saw saw the oceans there was a happy turtle and went back into this ocean but what do you think was going on in the turtle's mind when it was lying on its back which is not its natural disposition it couldn't use its hands and its legs to go where it wanted to go and was being dragged in a direction and the only thing it could see was the sky above it [00:01:54 – 00:02:25] having no sense of direction or purpose sometimes that's how it looks for us when we go through a trial or a suffering that God allows in our life isn't it we don't know where this come from what just hid us where are we going what's going to come out of that so as we are walking through the [00:02:22 – 00:02:54] Bible we are taking our pit stop today in Genesis chapter 22 that was just read to us in a trial that God led Abraham to go through and we are going to extract some important life truths that we can apply to ourselves because I'm sure every one of us have either gone through some painful trials or suffering in our lives or perhaps some of you are going through [00:02:50 – 00:03:22] that right now or it's coming so these truths that we can learn from this passage today is something we can readily apply in our lives you know one of the blessings of walking through the whole Bible is not only that it will help us to understand the basics of Christianity and what the gospel is all about it also touches on a wide range of topics that can be applied to all areas of our lives [00:03:19 – 00:03:56] so we can have the whole counsel of God um affect us and influence us in the right way so we are going to look at today's narrative passage it's a narrative it's a story that unfolds we are going to look at Abraham's trial that comes to him then we look at Abraham's response in the second point and then we look at God's response to Abraham's uh response this whole the very first verse [00:03:52 – 00:04:23] uh gives us quite a bit of information about Abraham's trial in chapter 22 vers one it says after these things God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here I am it's a very simple verse but it's a very loaded one and it looks like when you first read this it says that God tested [00:04:21 – 00:04:53] Abraham you know sometimes when we have tests and suffering it's hard to understand that God is actually the one who is testing us he has allowed us God allows trials and tests into our life not to break us but to build us and it's very important to remember that but what is significant is in this very pregnant first phrase which says after these [00:04:50 – 00:05:23] things God tested Abraham you know the story of Abraham is one of the longest narratives in the Book of Genesis it's already 10 plus chapters right now but what were these things that God is talking about and why did God want to test Abraham now you know if you read uh the narratives before that in chapter 16 Genesis 16:1 15 you can see what Abraham did uh if you turn with me in your [00:05:20 – 00:05:51] Bibles to Genesis chapter 16 and verse 15 we see one of the actions that Abraham did was 15 and 16 and Hagar bore Abraham a son and Abraham called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abraham two things to note first is still his name is called Abraham not Abraham he's still [00:05:48 – 00:06:19] Abraham he's not become Abraham second is something that talks about what he had done you know we saw last week way before that God promised him that he's going to make him a father of many nations but for Abraham and Sarah what was very important for them was to have a child now that was a wonderful desire it's a Godly desire this absolutely [00:06:16 – 00:06:51] nothing wrong or sinful about it but somewhere along the way even after God promising an assuring them that he is going to give them child and not just a child many nations they just couldn't wait this became so important now they decided they have to take over God's timeline and try to push it and make things happen in their own way in their [00:06:44 – 00:07:18] own time so badly that we see uh Abraham caved in to it and has a relationship with his servant and through that was born a son Ishmael the consequences of that bad decision is affected Generations after Generations till today in the wars that are raging in the Middle [00:07:14 – 00:07:46] East you know if God tells something as parents you know if you tell your children hey I'm going to buy you this gift or I'm going to get you this and then they end up stealing it from somewhere your response and my response is going to be one of anger but what is amazing is the grace of God it says after these things God's not telling Abraham you messed up Abraham Abraham and Sarah you're done [00:07:44 – 00:08:15] and I'm done with you it's over I'm going to go pick another couple and go what I want to do it says God actually goes and makes his Covenant what is known as the abrahami Covenant we read that in Genesis chapter 17 let's read through those few verses from verse one onwards it says when Abraham was 99 years old several years after this has happened the Lord [00:08:12 – 00:08:43] appeared to Abraham and said to him I am God allmighty walk before me and be blameless that I may make my Covenant between me and you and multiply you greatly then Abraham fell on his face and God said to him behold my Covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of Nations no longer shall your name be called Abraham but your name Shall be Called Abraham for I have made you the father [00:08:41 – 00:09:13] of a multitude of Nations I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into Nations and Kings shall come from you and I will establish my Covenant between me and you and your Offspring after you throughout their generations for an Everlasting Covenant to be God to you and to your Offspring after you and I will give to you and to your Offspring after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan [00:09:10 – 00:09:43] for an everlasting position and I will be their God you know you see what God is doing in this graciously going back to Abraham and giving him a second chance first of all he's revealing more of who he is to Abraham he says first I am God Almighty and that's the phrase El sh I says I am the god who makes impossible possible like we've seen in the weeks before he's reminding Abraham Abraham remember just remember who I am I've still not changed I'm still the God [00:09:40 – 00:10:12] Almighty for you and yet at the same time he remember reminds him that he is a holy God he says I want you to walk before me and be blameless and then he talks about the Covenant he is establishing and reminding Abraham our relationship is not a contractual relationship Abraham I didn't pick you to make a contract with you I picked you to make a covenant and it's a unilateral Covenant it's a covenant in which even if you're going [00:10:09 – 00:10:40] to fail I'm going to come after you and that's because I'm a gracious God I'm a merciful god and then as a part of him remembering this Covenant he gives a sign of circumcision that involves uh the cleansing and and shedding of blood which will keep growing as we we see through the Bible and gives him a new name a covenantal name he tells him you're no longer Abraham I'm giving you [00:10:37 – 00:11:10] a covenantal name you're are going to be called Abraham you know the word covenant comes four times in these eight verses and what we see now that is what is captured in this phrase after these things all this has happened Abraham messed up mess upop big time God went after him makes this Covenant with him a Covenant of Grace and redeems him gives [00:11:07 – 00:11:39] him a new name and he's now a new person and now at this point of time he comes and tells Abraham I'm going to test you Abraham I'm going to test you and he gives a very difficult command verse 2 to three the command was to take his one son his only son the son whom he loves and sacrifice you know the command to sacrifice Isaac is shocking isn't it [00:11:36 – 00:12:08] Isaac was a child of Promise the one through whom Abraham's descendants were going to come Abraham had waited 25 years for Isaac since the first time God told him and God is asking for the very thing that Abraham loves the most you know sometimes our trials or our suffering come in those things or areas or people whom we love and cherish the [00:12:04 – 00:12:35] most and God is always using those to do some deeper work if you see the phrase do you the the thing that he loved the most he comes later on in the New Testament to Peter when he tries to bring him back the same thing he's asking Peter do you love me more than these know trials or suffering are sometimes allowed in our lives for us to know who it is that we love the most in [00:12:32 – 00:13:02] our life and here we see Abraham's ready his response is the same here I am but when you look at it without knowing who God is without knowing what his plans are if you hear it just as an outsider it looks like God is a kill Joy why would god promise a guy that he will give him a child make make him wait for [00:12:59 – 00:13:32] 25 years and after the child is born tell him go sacrifice if you just take that snapshot and try to reconstruct a view of God it's going to be completely different than who God really is like but that's what trials or sufferings tend to make us do isn't it when we are hit by a sudden trial when we are hit by a sudden suffering time freezes for us we we [00:13:28 – 00:13:59] begin to doubt the character of God we begin to ask who he really is and we tend to apply this immediate shortterm glimpse of what we think God is like that we are inferring from this trial and make that the whole thing about God that is something we even wouldn't be happy if someone did for us if someone were to take one snapshot moment [00:13:56 – 00:14:30] of our life in our case since we are not gods and we tend to fall or fail if they pick one failure and try to make that as our whole character for the rest of our life that would not be fair isn't it you know sufferings or trials reveal two things universally to all people who go through it first they reveal to us [00:14:25 – 00:14:55] who or what is really important in our lives secondly they reveal to us our true understanding of God and these two things are often at play what we love or cherish the most sometimes maybe even more than God and what are how we perceive God to be and when they two interact they bring about [00:14:53 – 00:15:24] four kinds of classic responses to suffering and I want to lay it out for us and you can try and imagine and and think which of these four typical responses is the one that you do and they are all starting with the F the first response is fight this is a response where we resist [00:15:21 – 00:15:51] and we begin to argue and fight with God and his plans the second response is flight where we just decide this is too much for me I don't think this is a good god why would a good God allow pain and suffering in my life and you conclude I can't trust this God anymore and you take flight you flee away from [00:15:48 – 00:16:19] him a third possible response to suffering or pain in our life is you freeze you just shut down emotionally you shut down spiritually you try to numb yourself because it's just so painful you don't want to go and explore or experience that whether it is a fight response or a flight response or a freeze response all of these come from the interplay of [00:16:18 – 00:16:50] these two things of a love a misplaced love and a displaced understanding of who God really is but what we are going to see God walking Abraham through and what he wants to see in your life and my life when he allowes suffering and pain is to see the big F response a response of Faith which is a trust in God's [00:16:47 – 00:17:17] character even when we cannot understand his ways and that's what Abraham is exemplifying here this sounds so absurd what do you mean God you want me to sacrifice the son he's not AR arguing not with God he's not questioning God he's just immediately obeying displaying the fourth response but it didn't get he didn't get to this right away it took him more than 25 years of Walking with [00:17:14 – 00:17:46] God and God doing his work of Grace in his heart for him to get to this place and God is Not only a gracious God he's a patient God isn't it and he trusted in God's provision you know Abraham's response reveals a changed heart a changed man who now knows his God and you see how God [00:17:42 – 00:18:14] provided in verse 7 and8 and Isaac said to his father Abraham my father and he said here I am my son he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb for a burnt offering Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a weren't offering my son so they went both of them together you know Abra Isaac notices something's missing where is the lamb and Abraham's response is [00:18:12 – 00:18:43] profound he has now come to a growing understanding of his God who's not only an elshadai God Almighty he has now come to understand that he is also a God who provides he is Jehovah Gyra God will provide a lamb you know Abraham is experientially experienced [00:18:40 – 00:19:12] God's provision but all this while he is thinking his walk with God was different up until this time Abraham was a different man up until God blessed him with Isaac and now he's taking him he was a very different man if Abraham was stuck beating himself living in [00:19:09 – 00:19:41] guilt thinking oh this is God punishing me because you know what I did not listen to God I went and tried a shortcut and tried to have another son through another person that God did not intend to be then he would have been living in guilt isn't it and here's a small digression I want to make in our sermon this is not directly connected to our main point that we're are talking about but a small marriage [00:19:38 – 00:20:10] Insight here you know you know the reason why Abraham pivoted from God's plan and wanted to try to do is there's a slight marriage lesson we can take from there where between a husband and wife this deep desire created a rift between them where the wife ends up Sarah guilt tripping Abraham into saying you are not able to give me a son so give me a son [00:20:08 – 00:20:38] in whatever way no matter what and the husband gives in to guilt you know as men we all have our shortcomings and God does not want to live and operate from a place of guilt in our wives Abraham was still responsible to be the spiritual head of his home and do the right thing even if he was guilty and in this case he was not it was not in his [00:20:36 – 00:21:06] prerogative and wives please don't try to Guilt Trip your husbands into doing things that God is not calling them to do we need to live not from a place of guilt but a place of Grace in our lives let's get back to our sermon here that was just an extra bonus point on marriage so you see God calling Abraham he's [00:21:02 – 00:21:35] calling him with a covenantal name so that he knows Abraham's reminded of this Covenant that he's a covenantal God who will not walk back on his promises and through this suffering he's experiencing a new dimension that God provides he is Jehovah chyra and he looks up that you don't hear any dialogue coming from Abraham he [00:21:30 – 00:22:04] takes a son they go up to Mount Moriah he looks up and there he sees God has indeed provided a lamb for Abraham and God has provided something more for you and I his own son Jesus Christ isn't it we'll come to that in a bit you know trials or suffering test our true understanding of God and our relationship with him God tested Abraham [00:22:00 – 00:22:30] not to break him but to build him God James chapter 1 verses 2 and three you read this it says count it all joy James says my brothers when you meet Trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing James is [00:22:28 – 00:23:01] saying you have to count it Joy it sounds very uh like an oxymoron isn't it what do you mean James when I'm going through a suffering you are asking me to count it as Joy well Paul reiterates the same thing in Philippians chapter 4 says rejoice in the lord always again I say rejoice when he is chained to a Roman prison in an underground in a dark chamber with rats rambling around him [00:22:56 – 00:23:30] trials are not obstacles but opportunities to prove and strengthen our faith for ourself God doesn't need that extra faith in us to bless us more or bless us less it is for us to grow and break free from the things that are holding us down from our self-absorption and from our self desires I'm not sure how many of you [00:23:26 – 00:23:57] have heard about coach herb Brooks there is an athletic drill called Herbies that's named after coach herb Brooks he was recruited to be the coach of the US Olympic hockey team in the Year 1980 when the US Olympic hockey team were The Underdogs and they were going against the strong and mighty Russian ice hockey [00:23:54 – 00:24:26] team but when her Brooks took over as head coach he inherited a team of extremely talented NCAA college players each of these players were the best in their team in their respective college teams and the idea was you bring our best guys together and make this dream team and they're going to go and get this [00:24:22 – 00:24:55] done but very quickly Brooks found out that most of these guys were rivals against each other in their NCAA college teams their rivalry combined with their excellence and you know the giftedness that they had came in the way of teamwork so the coach Brooks herbs Brooks knew that if they were to go have any chance of winning against this [00:24:52 – 00:25:23] dominant Soviet team they had to be completely reshaped physically mentally emotionally he knew they had to be broken down and built back up so in an exhibition game after he just let them play without intervening and let all their personal egos come forward you know their uh animosities between each other show up and fighting and they [00:25:19 – 00:25:51] lose Brooks made them do a famous conditioning drill which is called as heres for several several hours after the game Brooks kept repeating the phrase again over and over until the players were exhausted making them do drills back and forth on the skating ring there's even a movie you can watch this it's brutal you can see them [00:25:48 – 00:26:19] panting and almost coughing blood and you will think that Brooks will stop and say go he'll say again again and again because he knew he had to first break them down and help them see how their pride and their self-c constructed glorified image of themsel was actually preventing them from achieving something far bigger and far better not just for [00:26:15 – 00:26:47] them but for the whole country so his intense training pushed them beyond their limits and and and made them tough and eventually in what is term as the Miracle on eyes they went and shocked the defeating and defeating the Soviets and winning the gold medal sometimes a coach has to break down old habits push athletes past their comfort zones and rebuild them with [00:26:45 – 00:27:17] discipline resilience and a team first mentality isn't it and that's sometimes how God deals with us we have certain idiosyncrasies that are so deep that we defer to we revert to by default that sometimes sufferings are the way in which we can break free from them so let me ask you my dear friends today have your trials made you trust God more or [00:27:13 – 00:27:46] less what is your mode of going through suffering have your trials made God bigger and beautiful or smaller and farther have you reverted to fighting or have you taken flight or are you frozen because of some pain or suffering God allowed in your life God wants to use this story to [00:27:42 – 00:28:13] remind you that that is not his purpose he's trying to rebuild you into someone more beautiful and now we come to Abraham's response and how God intervenes you know Abraham goes ahead and put his son and takes his knife to sacrifice him no human father can do that isn't it but such is now the level of his trust and faith in God that he has grown into we read in verse 9-1 when they came to the place of which God had told him [00:28:11 – 00:28:44] Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son you know Abraham prepares to sacrifice his son but the Silence of Isaac speak volumes too even he demonstrates trust in his father you know the knife is raised and in that moment Abraham has given up everything holding nothing back from God [00:28:41 – 00:29:12] and verse two we hear says God said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing that you have not withheld your son your only son from him you know the word fear God in some context fear really relates to Terror and fright but in other context fear relates to honor and respect and awe as in the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom you know Abraham now just did [00:29:09 – 00:29:41] not intellectually believe about God his faith was real it came deep down from his heart it took a while for him to get there he had to go through so many Falls so many failures big colossal blunders but every time he tasted the grace of God and the love of God it helped him to slowly trust God more and more and more he doesn't say anything in response he believed there will be a ram and [00:29:39 – 00:30:13] there was a ram and he sacrifices and he's now experiencing God's provision God actually provides the Lord will provide because he knows God has just made that Covenant and he never goes back on his word you know we read a description of what went through Abraham's mind all the way in Hebrews you turn with me in your Bibles to [00:30:08 – 00:30:41] Hebrews 11:1 17 it says how Abraham did what he did or why Abraham did what he did it says by faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offer offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac shall your Offspring be named he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead from which figuratively speaking he [00:30:38 – 00:31:10] did receive him back wow you know Abraham knew that even if he were to sacrifice his son God will bring his son back alive there's the gospel faith that Abraham displayed the resurrection was not going to happen until to several thousand years later but God had shown Abraham what the gospel is that he's a gracious God he will go after us and [00:31:08 – 00:31:38] death is not the end and he is going to conquer death and sin within us that making us self absorbed and he's going to come alive and he's going to raise all us all of us up you know when you go through trials or suffering my dear friends don't let that pass without you coming to A Renewed fresh experiential understanding of God in [00:31:34 – 00:32:08] your life Mark those dates those times those places give it a name if you will God often does the most profound things in our faith life during our most painful darkest times Charles puron has this beautiful quote about God he says God is too good to be un kind let me reiterate God is too good to be unkind and he is too wise [00:32:04 – 00:32:36] to be mistaken when we cannot Trace his hand we must trust his heart isn't that beautiful when we cannot trise his hand we must trust his heart and God Reveals His heart in his Blessing right after that we read in verses 16 to 18 He says by myself I have sworn declares the Lord because he have done this and have not withheld your son your only son I will surely bless you and I will surely [00:32:33 – 00:33:03] multiply your Offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you obeyed you have obeyed my voice he receives the covenantal blessing again he uses the phrase I will surely bless you two times there are three promises that God is giving him reiterating for him [00:33:01 – 00:33:33] reaffirming his Covenant a promise of blessing a promise of Victory and a promise of global impact a promise of blessing he says his descendants will be as numerous as the stars and they were a promise of Victory his offspring will process the Gate of their enemies and the Israelites when they are hearing this and reading this and just before entering Canaan they are going to realize that they're going to need this God as they approach their enemies and they're going to fight those Wars and wage those battles that they are not [00:33:31 – 00:34:01] going to be able to win those battles by their power or by their might or by their strength they need someone bigger than themselves better than themselves they need elhai the God Almighty they need jeova Gyra the God who provides who is going to bring down the walls of Jericho who is going to raise up another Joshua who is a prefigure of Jesus Christ and who will literally possess the Gate of the enemy they're going to see that in and blood and eventually in [00:33:59 – 00:34:32] eternity Jesus Christ will fulfill that for us and he gets all that in one snapshot how amazing is that isn't it and because of what Christ will do he says in your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed you know one misstep of Abraham to satisfy his need for a child in his own way CA grief and [00:34:29 – 00:35:01] pain that affected him and has affected many generations but is one Act of Faith willing to give away his only son that God gave and what a transformation that is from wanting a son no matter what to being ready to give away his only son only God's spirit can make that change in us he now receives this covenantal blessing he's not just going to have one son not just have all off Spring but [00:34:59 – 00:35:31] there going to be as many as stars and of heaven and sand on the seashore because Abraham was willing to give his son away there was something more beautiful that was going to happen later on that was just a small illustration or a foraste of God our heavenly father who will give away his son on the cross [00:35:28 – 00:35:59] unlike Isaac whose life was spared and a lamb and a ram was given our heavenly father will not spare his knife on his son on the cross when our children our loved ones make a mistake which has devastating consequences like Abraham did it makes us angry isn't it sometimes of simple things that makes us feel so bad there [00:35:56 – 00:36:27] are times I go home from work after a long day and I enter the house I see my children's room if it's in a mess it just gets me real mad and I lose it and then I quickly recollect myself why did I get angry for a messy room it wasn't even worth it feel terrible and guilty about it it's just a small thing perhaps you're a mom you know being with your children the whole time [00:36:25 – 00:36:55] there are times you get angry and and upset when they do things they ought not to do or even otherwise you know but God can and should be angry at Abraham for doing something he did not ask him to do and having another son but he withheld his anger from Abraham he would have been perfectly righteous to let Abraham sacrifice his son he would have still been a righteous God but [00:36:52 – 00:37:22] instead of letting his anger righteous anger come upon Abraham and take his son away God withheld his anger from Abraham and in the same way he withheld his anger every time you and I get angry or sin and do all the other things he withheld his anger every single time each of us sin collectively and unleashes it on the cross when the time comes and his son [00:37:20 – 00:37:57] Jesus is there his wrath unrestricted Wrath the collective wrath upon every single one of us that he would have been perfectly righteous to unleash because we have sinned against a holy God he withholds and withholds and withholds and waits for his son to come into this world and go to the cross and just unleashes it so that you and I will not be [00:37:53 – 00:38:28] consumed and because of that because Jesus was better than Isaac because Jesus was our ultimate savior he took that patiently on the cross and God accepted that sacrifice and raised him up and that is the grace of God and that is what is revealed in a seed form in this experience we see that Abraham got a [00:38:25 – 00:38:56] glimpse of that Hebrews tells us and you and I we living in the reality of that experience in this current dispensation trials are meant to expand our views of God trials are meant to help us experience the grace and love of God and trials are meant for you and I to express our faith in God so my dear friends as we close let me ask you where [00:38:52 – 00:39:23] are you in your walk with God if you are fighting and and resisting and arguing God and his plan perhaps Abraham's experience would have hope I hope it would have encouraged you to stop fighting and start trusting maybe you can reach out to someone who has gone through a trial or suffering like you did and ask how God encouraged them ask how they helped them [00:39:22 – 00:39:52] and be open or perhaps if you're someone who has gone through that experience before and God has helped you to graciously come out of it you can identify someone who is experiencing that in their life and commit to mentoring them for three months it's not just one coffee conversation that's going to help that isn't it you can share how God has been faithful to you in your own journey through your own trials and walk with [00:39:50 – 00:40:22] them if you are someone who is in the flight mode you had a tragedy or a suffering or a pain which has caused you to run away from God concluded that this God cannot be trusted I want to encourage you to come back and would you consider exploring this Jesus again maybe you can begin reading the Gospel of John over [00:40:18 – 00:40:51] the next month and ask someone to read through with you or just read it by yourself and see who Jesus is what he taught the Miracles he did his passion weak how he died and he understands pain he understands suffering and what he means for your life would you consider doing that please and if you're someone who is still in a freeze mode and you have shut down emotionally and spiritually remember God understands [00:40:47 – 00:41:20] your pain he didn't go hard on Abraham even when he messed up big he's a God who is compassionate we will pray for you and if you know someone who was in that mood and they are still hurting would you pray for them we don't have to always go and talk to them but you can pray for them and reach out to them and let them know that you're praying for them you know God reached out to Abraham isn't it and we can reflect that by reaching out to someone who is going [00:41:16 – 00:41:50] through a difficult time I want to close with this illustration a little boy was on a plane one day and the plane was experiencing a violent turbulence you know it was going up and down and all over the place and there was a old lady lady sitting next to him uh this little boy she was terrified every time turbulence would happen and things would vibrate and rattle but when she turned and looked at this little boy [00:41:45 – 00:42:15] he was so engrossed in playing with the things that he had brought with him on his flight in his little bag you guys take your little bags with you in your flights isn't it the tur abulance didn't seem to bother him at all in fact it was more fun for him and the plane went up you would Rejoice with that it went down it was even more fun and it just got onto the nerves of this old lady that after a while she looked at that little [00:42:12 – 00:42:45] boy and he said little boy stop it stop having so much fun how can you have fun when the plane is going through this the little boy put his hand on the lady hand and said lady my daddy is the pilot when your daddy is the pilot you know he can handle this turbulence because you know he's got it under [00:42:41 – 00:43:01] control you know suffering is meant to bring us home to our Heavenly Father through the work of his son Jesus when we know that our father is the pilot of Our Lives we can trust him even in turbulent times let's go to Jesus shall we