Swift to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Wrath
First B Jackson
2014-03-16

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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I love the first line of the song, come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. God has given us so much grace. Would you agree? Amen. Let's sing of it.

Praise him.

We've got middle school youth group tonight at 06:30. That is gonna be just a normal middle school youth group. Usually, they meet up down the fellowship hall. They almost always eat every time they get together. That's just what we do.

Middle schoolers, this evening at 06:30 and next week, instead of the regular Sunday meeting, they are going to be meeting the middle schoolers are going to be meeting with the parking lot fundraiser out here. So, that'll be next Saturday night. So, we're not going to do the regularly scheduled Sunday meeting. Awana meets tomorrow night, Monday night just like every Monday night but tomorrow is fake injury night. Politically uncorrect, incorrect, but fake injury night.

We'll start at 6PM. There was some cute confusion and several bandage children came in last week, but fake injury night is tomorrow, 03/1714. And I don't know if this is a Saint Patrick's theme or a John Deere theme. Maybe he's talking about the sower of seed. Monday night, at first be meal, music, and message, 06:15 tomorrow night.

I'm going to throw a choir practice in there too. For those of you who've joined in with the choir, we're having a ball singing singing the Easter cantata we're preparing for. So, soprano and alto sections, that's happening at the same time as the connect hour downstairs, 10:00 on Sundays, tenor and bases are 06:00 on Tuesday evenings, and then the whole full choir practice is seven on Tuesday evenings. Men's fraternity still meeting Wednesday mornings. Good group there, great breakfast, good teaching.

Robert Lewis is winning at work and at home. Seven: 3zero am every Wednesday. In my office, there is a small prayer meeting and if it becomes a big prayer meeting, we move to a bigger room but it is the faithful prayer warriors of this church meet every 07:30 on Wednesday morning. It's a great group. Mercy Triumphs is a Beth Moore Bible study on the same book we're studying on Sunday mornings.

We're studying James and she is exploring it and she's going and pulling in all kinds of other books that come to bear on this. So, mercy triumphs, it's a great study. Monday evenings at seven and Wednesday mornings at 09:30. Precept Bible study is still happening this Thursday at 09:00 sharp. They're studying Hosea but they are going to take a couple of weeks off for spring break after this week.

High school, solid rock, high school group, the breakfast frenzy with Renzy is happening. It happened Friday. It'll happen next Friday at 07:30 in the morning And since he's here, I'm assuming he has another.

And just another quick announcement. Ray mentioned the parking lot fundraiser. That is going to be next Friday and Saturday, March twenty first and twenty second. And I do have a question for you. What do flowers and automobiles have in common?

Dave puts them in their place. Dave has agreed to help out once again with the parking lot fundraiser, and he's great at it. And so what we would like if anybody you don't even have to be a youth person, but if you would like to come join him and whatever crew shows up to help park cars that day, we would appreciate it. Last year, the Kenya ladies used this as a big fundraiser for their trip. And apparently, it is a youth fundraiser.

I found that a couple weeks ago. So, I'm pretty excited about it and and what it will do for our youth ministry but yeah, Dave is going to do it. He's great at it and it could be a lot of fun. So join in. It's going to be a good time.

Carl, don't look at me like that. Alright. That's

it. If y'all would, stand up and greet one another, and we'll bring you back together with a song.

From Psalm 92 verses one and two, it is good to praise the Lord, to make music to your name, oh most high, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night. Let's give praise to our God because he is holy. Let's pray together. God, we thank you. Thank you for another day that you've given us.

Thank you God for for breath in our lungs and, thank you God that we can use it to praise you. I thank you that you are everlasting, that you are an all knowing, all all powerful, and so much more. Thank you, God, for the qualities that you possess that we do not, that you are God. And, God, thank you for your wondrous love. Man, where would we be without grace?

Where would we be without mercy? And thank you God that you have made it so readily available to us through Jesus. In him we put our faith. Amen. Alright.

I'm gonna invite my friend Gary up and you can have a seat.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Gary. I I read an article the other day that said that the offering has become the most awkward part in today's service. And in fact, in this article, it said that there are some churches to avoid the awkwardness of offering has put steel boxes in the foyer so that people can kind of discreetly put their offering in there to avoid the awkwardness of offering.

It kind of reminds me of a story of a little boy whose dad gave two quarters to, and he told this little boy, okay, son. One of the 0.25 goes into the offering plate, and the other quarter is for ice cream after the church. And so as this little boy walked down the sidewalk, he had the two little two quarters in his hand and one fell out and rolled down the sidewalk over the curb and into a storm drain. And the little boy walked over and looked down the storm drain and looked at the other quarter in his hand and then he looked up to God and said, God, that was your quarter. You know, that that is really the epic battle that we face.

Is it our money, or is it are we stewards of God's money? And I believe until we settle that in our hearts, our offering will always be somewhat awkward. So let's, let's pray, Lord. Lord, we do, we do come with a heart to present an offering to you, Lord, that will glorify you. Lord, may this offering be given with a heart of gladness and one that truly does, again, bring glory to you.

Lord, I just pray this in your precious son's name. Amen.

Alright. Good morning. I love that and my favorite part of the week, I think, is practicing with these guys and getting ready because we're praising God all through practice but I just love that. It's good to hear y'all just kind of spontaneously crank it up and give thanks with a grateful heart. We've got a message this morning from James.

Big surprise. We're we're just going straight on through. James, we got up to verse 21 last week and I told you about the webbing of the book of James, how he kind of keeps repeating himself and going back over certain concepts and I'm going to go back and pick up a couple of things. I'm going to read through just to get you back into the flow of the book. I'll start at verse 17 and I've highlighted a couple of things that I think are interesting and hopefully, they will come more interesting as we go today.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights. The father of lights, that calls Job up in my mind. I mentioned that last week how he said, where were you when I hung the stars in place when he was at the moment of creation? The father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. No variation, no shadow of turning.

God is, he was, and he shall be. He is the same forevermore. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. I mentioned last week that this is a book that James wrote to Christians. They were Jewish flavored Christians, Jewish background Christians but it was to people who had been as this verse states, brought forth by the word of truth, called out and they had recognized and accepted the fact that Christ is the Lord.

They'd accepted his substitutionary atonement for their sins. He, they had accepted the truth of God's word that he would send the Messiah, an anointed one. So, he brought us forth by the word of truth. That we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So then, my beloved, brethren, brothers and sisters, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. I didn't mention this last week but in a lot of commentaries, they they mentioned the Jewish rabbis talking about this concept and they say that the Lord gave us two ears and one tongue and we should be twice as quick to listen as we are to speak. He said, also, he surrounded our tongue by teeth and lips. We should hold back more than we do. Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

This is very introspective. If you haven't figured that out yet, he's talking individually to you about what you should do. You should be. We should be. My beloved brother, it's very pastoral.

Let every man, all of us need to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. You've seen parents that are trying to be forceful with their kids about you will love Jesus. You will do this. You can't force it on someone else no matter how good it is for you.

You cannot force that. The next verse, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. I went back and pulled up that implanted word. I wanted to hear what that really how is that? I take this without a doubt to be written to Christians.

There are so many other context clues. Is the Greek word there, and it means inborn, ingrown, congenital, natural, rooted, or implanted. So for me, I believe that that's a product of being born again. It is that our new birth, that's when that was gifted to us. It was that implanted word that's implanted into our life, and then we go with that based on his external word, the Bible.

The we go with that and and hone in on it and it's one of those things that can be somewhat hidden from us from the beginning. We're gaining on it a little at a time. It's a product of being born again though. It's in there and that's what's going to save our souls. Faith alone saves, right?

But saving faith is never alone. So, James is going to go on into saying some other things that we need to do but for this week, I'm going to go. So, this this verse right here, receive with meekness the implanted word. Hold on to that. This is what he's saying and then, he says, but in a lot of that translations, it's but.

I don't know why but can be and it can be moreover, indeed. It can mean all those things but it's fine. He's saying, but be doers of the word and not just hearers only. Don't just receive what's there. When you receive it, let it have action.

Let it grow in you to an overflowing so that there's action with it but moreover, be doers of the word and not hearers only. I have to say, it does say only. So, you need to be a hearer. You need to be putting yourself before good, solid teaching, and reading the Bible on your own because it you do need to be a hearer. You can't do without hearing.

So, be doers of the word and not hearers only. He's not decrying study. He's not decrying listening to people, preach, teach. But if you are a hearer only, then you're deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror.

This observing right here is interesting to me because I have taken this verse and just gone right past it and I took observing more in the in fact, in some translations, I've seen, it says, just looking at his face in the mirror or glancing at his face in the mirror. Most say observing or contemplating or the man in the mirror. This is not the Michael Jackson song, okay? It might come up but it's not the Michael Jackson song. So, scenario one is a hearer but not a doer.

He's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. The observing there is from Karanunti. It's the present active participle of I just love that. Sorry. Which means to notice or to observe carefully.

It's not a glance. It's not just looking at it quickly. It is a studying observation to look at in a reflective manner, mirror, reflective, James. Again, he's using wordplay. To look at in a reflective manner to consider, to compliment, to to contemplate, to think about carefully, to envisage, to think about, to notice, and when I read this this time rather than just looking at somebody like, oh, I got up in the morning, ran past the mirror, looked out and it's like, oh There's nothing I can do about it now because that's kind of what I had thought about it before.

Sorry. Tanya's glancing at me for using the word crap. A hearer but not a doer. This is someone who after conserious consideration and ample noticing decides that just the consideration alone is good enough. Just having considered it is enough.

That person makes no effort or attempt to actually change whatsoever. That's scenario one. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in the mirror for he observes himself, goes away, immediately forgets what kind of man he was. Receiving with meekness the imported planted words sets this up and then this whole passage is about self evaluation. You're not looking at somebody else in the mirror.

You're looking at yourself in the mirror and if you are a hearer, you're looking at it. If you're an observer, you're looking at it and you're studying yourself and you're seeing some things that you may or may not like. There might be some things you do like and you just feel, wow, praise God. That's a great thing about me but it's all you, every good and perfect gift is a butt from above. That's what James just got out of his mouth.

So, you can recognize that God's given good gifts but you also can thank him for that and then see the places where you just need help. So, it's about self evaluation. That that I mentioned was is from two words, Kata and Noi Noi actually. Kata is a preposition. If you look up what it means, it gives literally and I'm not joking 31 different prepositions of ours but the ones that it primarily means are above, over, beyond, or thoroughly.

And means to grasp or comprehend something on the basis of careful thought. So, it is going beyond careful thought. It's even more than that. It's an even more considered thing and when I was sitting there as a art person from way back, I started thinking about myself in school doing self portraits. To paint a portrait of somebody that's never going to see this portrait, no big deal.

Take somebody out of a magazine. Yeah, I can paint a picture. It looks like a person. Might not look exactly like that person but when you're looking at yourself in a mirror and you're trying, it's a it's an exercise artist have been doing forever. When you look at yourself in a mirror and you're trying to get the light just right and you're looking and you're looking at your warts and all, your moles, and lily hairs, and everything else.

You're looking at them and going, It is over contemplating this. It's you're really, really studying this fact. So, this guy is looking in the mirror and he's painting himself as he sees himself but he's studying and considering every bit of it. Scenario two is the next verse. 25 says, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and I put in there, that's God's word.

God's word is the perfect law of liberty. He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer but he is a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. So, there's one thing, scenario one is looking carefully at yourself and scenario two is looking into God's perfect law of liberty which is, let's say, the light of his word. We're looking into the law of liberty and notice, although James uses all those imperatives, he's not telling people a list of things that have to be done in order to be saved.

He calls the word God's perfect law of liberty. You can do whatever, liberty. James says it. Can you believe it? God's perfect law of liberty and you continue in it.

Honestly, continue in it. You're not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks that he is religious, thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart. This one's religion is useless.

I have heard this sermon preached many, many, many, many, many, many, many times because it's easy to talk about us not being able to control what we say because all of us know what that's like. You stick your foot in your mouth, we all do it, all the time. If you think you're religious and you don't bridle your tongue, you deceive your own heart. He would go on from here in another chapter to just talk about how difficult it is to control the tongue. No man can tame it.

I'm going to skip that part of the sermon. We're going to stick with the reflection, the self evaluation. This one's religion though, he says, is useless. If he thinks he's religious, doesn't bridle his own tongue, deceives his own heart, his religion is useless, and then one of my favorite verses in scripture. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their time of trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Ain't that beautiful? That says, there should be action that goes along with change of heart. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their time of trouble. Now, he's already told us to count it all joy in our times of trouble. He's already told us that there will be times of trouble but he's saying for those who are defenseless, go visit them.

Take care of them. Those Jesus, he got it straight from his big brother. You know, go see folks in their time of distress, in prison, when someone is needing clothes or when someone's needing shelter. James is reiterating that which Jesus has said many times over. Orphans and widows in their time of trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

So, this guy was the first picture I had up there. Same guy is this guy, the next picture I had up there. This is the same guy, the next picture I had up there. These are all the same guy. I mean, he looks kind of the same.

He's got a mustache, red hair, and he, they're all self portraits by the same man. He was looking at himself in the mirror and painting himself. He's studying what he looked like. But before he was an artist, this guy, he was a missionary. He had been drawing as he was growing up and he loved to draw with a pencil.

He always had pencil in hand, always doing charcoals, different things, and he drew for a long time. He was the son of a Dutch reform minister and the grandson of a Dutch reform minister. So, in his family history had been a fairly studious branch of Christianity, very studious branch of Christianity. This guy saw this pure and undefiled religion before God and father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their time of trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from world. He saw this as he was preaching.

He went from his homeland to England. His first sermon before a crowd was 10/29/1876. He stood up and he preached and while he was preaching, he it was not on this passage but while he was preaching for the next few months, he came across this and he knew it already. He used it in his letters. He used several verses similar in his letters but as this guy was praying over this and preaching is not easy.

I don't know if y'all know that. Preaching is not easy and there are a lot of people that told him that he wasn't very good at it. He felt filled up while he was doing it. He was fulfilling a call and he felt filled up what he's doing it but people said, you're really not good at it. You need to go to school for this and so he went and he studied theology which they brought out the Greek and the Hebrew and Latin at the time and so he was studying Greek and Hebrew and Latin and he was ready to go crazy.

He just said, I can't do this. Pure and undefiled religion is helping widows and orphans and the poor in their time of distress and so, he moved and started doing that. He went to a place in Amsterdam in in Holland. He he went to a place where he can minister and then after a while, he made some of the other folks who are ministering uncomfortable, some of the other pastors uncomfortable with his excessive zeal and so, he moved to Belgium where he worked in a mining community, ministering to miners mostly, potato eaters, people who would did not have much, did not have very much to eat. But he ministered to them and he got to the point where he had given away basically everything that he had.

He had shabby clothes because they had shabby clothes and he felt that in order to minister, that was the best way to go. So, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. So, this guy did that. He looked into God's word.

What he saw when he looked there said to him, now, this is a self evaluation. It's self reflected. I'm I'm not saying all of us today need to go give away everything we have and dress in shabby clothes and go serve supper at the mission for the rest of the month. I don't think that that's reasonable at all. I don't know if it's tenable at all but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty is saying, when you look into the Bible and you pray about it and you get a message from God, act on it.

If you continue in it, you're not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word. This one will be blessed in what he does. So, this is that guy. He looked into the perfect law of liberty. He started serving the poor and this is a more familiar painting of all of these actually are are paintings of the same guy in order that in the order that he painted but started out looking more realistic and they get to be more and more stylized, I suppose.

This one actually is not him. This one's probably his younger brother, Theo, his main supporter, the only one who ever bought paintings from him. This is a companion piece to that. They're hanging right next to each other at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. So, this is Van Gogh as we know him.

And he just keeps on doing it. He keeps looking into that mirror. It's funny to me that when artists look at themselves in the mirror and they almost never paint themselves like this. Yeah. It's pretty somber.

They're not seeing great, wonderful, great things but he left behind eight ninety something letters mostly to his brother but to other people too and in his letters, he quotes scripture over and over and over again. I mentioned that he was Dutch Reformed and that he went one place and was kind of moved on down the line and when he was at that Belgian Bournaj, a representative from his church came and said, he had an excessive zeal and they did not like that and so they dismissed him from the church. That's communicated him basically from the church. So, he lost his home base religious foundation support structure as it were but he did not ever turn his back on God. There are a lot of art historians who believe that he did and look at different things and say, oh, there's no way that he could still hold on to faith after that.

Well, no. His letters say that he did all the way up to the very end. I'm going to use quotes. I've I've used so far white and yellow to be the Bible and the yellow is my own highlighting for whatever instructive purposes but I'm going to use a couple of quotes in here that are in orange. They will be Van Gogh's words.

So, as he goes on, did he fit scenario one as a hearer only or scenario two as a hearer and doer? When you came in here today and when I started reading about him years ago, I probably would have said, well, he's probably scenario one. He didn't seem to be very blessed in what he did. Never sold a painting. Did not you know, didn't end well is what I was thinking but I think that's some of that is a popular notion about how society views people.

The more I read, the more I was convinced of a couple of things. So, he's looking at himself in the mirror and he's seeing the truth, what is there, and he is trying to represent that. This actually looks more like Kirk Douglas. He who played him in the 1966 movie about his life. This is these are Vincent Mango's words because I shall have to suffer much.

James, count it all joy, brethren. When you fall into trials, temptations, especially from the peculiarities which I cannot change. First, my appearance and my way of speaking. He's a Dutch guy who spoke English and French. Not so good in the biblical Greek or Hebrew actually.

First, my appearance in the way of speaking and my clothes and then, even later on, when I earn more, he was always optimistic that one day that would happen. I shall always move in a different sphere from most painters because my conception of things, the subjects I want to make inexorably demand it. A lot of the guys he was hanging out with were painting differently. They were looking for rich clientele whereas he was looking for the poor. He said, if he dresses up enough to be accepted by the gallery, the poor think that he's already tardy and won't won't have anything to do with it.

So, he's kind of stuck there. On working with the poor, he said this in their regular surroundings. My ugly face and my shabby coat harmonized perfectly with the poor and their surroundings and I am myself and I work with pleasure. That's him being blessed. Looking into the perfect law of liberty, could've painted anything in the world.

He chose to paint the poor, the postman. Different types of scenes outside. He really love painting outside at night because it he said that it showed God. What is Psalm 19 say? Day after day, night after night, the heavens are telling the glory of God.

It's better to be high spirited even though one makes more mistakes than to be narrow minded and all too prudent. He's echoing what James is saying about if you think yourself religious but you can't control your tongue. You use your religion is useless. He echoes a lot. Those letters, there are lots and lots of em but he echoes a a lot of what he says.

If I do a doctoral dissertation ever, it's probably going to be on this. Ask you to indulge me as I keep going because I think it really makes the point. All of these are portraits of him in order. He did 34, 35 of em. Sometimes, it looks like he's degrading.

He had some form of epilepsy and had some form of depression and he spoke about it a lot because when he looked at himself in the mirror, he saw that. He saw that he was melancholy, saw that he was depressed but he also saw that God is good and he stated that over and over to his brother. The neck on the ear. That one's a famous story. If you knew anything about Van Gogh, you probably knew that.

He cut off his ear and he gave it to this lady. He did but then he was comforted in the insane asylum where they put him immediately. He said, it makes me feel better to know that there are others like me. There were reports of people who had nicked themselves or cut themselves. It makes me feel better to know that there are other people like me.

He had lost his support structure of his church. They cut him off completely from an excessive zeal. Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall though do I get up again. As we advance in life, it becomes more and more difficult but in fighting the difficulties, the inmost strength of heart is developed.

What does James say about that at the very beginning of the book? He says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials because trials produce in you patience and patience, perseverance, and perseverance. In most strength of the heart is developed. That's pretty good. That's pretty close.

Paraphrase there. Not always pretty to look at oneself. This one's very famous. This, he said, late in his life, I'm still far from being what I want to be but with God's help, I shall succeed. This was his last self portrait and he gave this one to his mom.

Never up for sale. He gave this one to his mama. He shaved. I think that's funny. He shaved to give a picture to his mom.

But this is the rest of that quote. I'm still far from being what I want to be. But with God's help, I shall succeed. I want to be bound to Christ with unbreakable bonds and to feel these bonds. What do we as a church do?

I had a deaf guy stop by this week and we talked for a while and he said, what I want more than anything is fellowship. As a church, I want to feel the love of Christ by the body of Christ. What I want is to be bound to Christ with unbreakable bonds and to feel these bonds, to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, to live in and for Christ, to be one of the poor of his kingdom, steeped in the leaven, filled with his spirit, impelled by his love, reposing in the father, and with the repose of which I wrote to you in my last letter. This was to Theo, his brother, to become one who finds repose in him, Christ alone, who desires nothing but him, Christ, on earth, and who abides in the love of God and Christ. In whom we are fervently bound to one another.

He felt the kinship with those people who called on the name of Christ and he felt the duty towards those who were outside of it. Because of self reflection. This is the only adult picture that we have. I have an 18 year old picture but this is him as an adult. That's a daguero type photo.

And he said, I know this may sound like it's out of context but it it holds true to the situation. He said, I wish they would only take me as I am. That counted for the church. It counted for society. It counted for folks in galleries.

It counted for everybody. I wish they would only take me as I am and if you look into that mirror and you see yourself, God does. God does. He sees you just as you are and he accepts you just as you are. That's the good thing about God.

He's not waiting for you to clean yourself up. He's not waiting. God does accept us just as we are. The that I mentioned earlier is to fully understand the graphs to comprehend something on the basis of careful thought. But meta no is the one that's the pastor's greatest hits.

Those are one of the ones that the guy always brings up when we talk about repentance. Metanoia always comes up because it's talking about after careful consideration, seeing myself in the mirror, I see that there are some things that do not line up with the perfect law of liberty. They do not line up with this. Things that I wish that I could do, that I don't do. Things that I do that I wish I didn't do.

I can't fix myself. Metanoia is the biblical word for repentance and it is a turning towards God and saying, I agree with you. When you come to God just as you are, he takes you just as you, just as you are, and the changes that need to be made will be made with the help of the almighty. Now, James says, put some feet to those prayers and do something about it but knowing that God is the one that's working his progress in you is a very very inspiring fact. I think that that's the last slide.

This message to me has pursued me all week long. After we get through for the benediction, I'd like for Tanya to get a second to talk about Africa but come on up and let's play just as I am. If you have been looking at yourself in the mirror and not liking what you see, I want to give you an opportunity. Listen to the words of this classic old hymn, this old song, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. It is about the cross of Christ.

He lived the only perfect life that has ever been lived. He had complete liberty to do whatever and knew that and he followed step by step exactly what God had for him. So, because he lived a perfect life and gave his perfect life sacrificially for us, those who put their trust in him belong to God. Would you stand with us and sing?

Okay. I'm gonna read a verse that has been pursuing me for years, like thirty two years. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Though whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produces perseverance. And perseverance character and character hope.

Now hope does not disappoint because a love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. I could stand up here for the next fourteen days and tell you exactly how that verse is ministered to me and never stop talking. This time, I'm grateful for the concept of just as I am because we can put our feet to it just as we argue don't have to be perfect to go to Kenya, to go to Limaru, Africa. God accepted me and called me to go just as I am, and I'm grateful for it because I know I'm far from the perfection that that we talk about and that James calls us to be. In Kenya this year, we had an incredible time.

It was much different from our report from BBS because that, in fact, was not my job. My job this time was to go into the school system that Roseanne has been in for a while, has prayed have prayed for, and that we all have too. In my case, VBS that was led by the ladies that went last year wasn't is was not my calling exactly then. I was so thankful that they did it and for all of our experiences, but this has been from the beginning for me. I'm following in Roseanne who is clearly following Christ.

The school, has so much hope now and so much awesome things happening because of, a lot of prayer and a lot of contribution and thoughts and working together with the school board in Togony with some people that are working together here. And I got to see a lot of those amazing things in action through some things that were not fun. Lots of things that were not fun. There's pain and growth. There are tribulations, and we're hoping that all of us together with our prayers that produces the perseverance and the character and the hope that Romans talks about and James talks about and Christ promises.

So I don't exactly know what to say except that the school has an amazing amount of things. However, right now, their tribulation is that four days after we got home, a fire broke out in the slums in Togoni shopping center and burned 70 people out of their homes, all alive. But they lost their homes. 20 of those spaces were legal spaces. So you talk about hope.

I came home all excited, and some of these families are seven of these families are in the church, and, three of the families were in the school. And I was with those children last week, and they were in their uniforms, and they had their textbooks, and Monday morning, they went barefooted. Because when they left the fire, they left. And had they not, of course, that zero fatality would not would not have been happening. And the conditions they live in are honestly easy to get out of because it's condition.

So I've sent letters and emailed and talked and asked about the civil responsibilities. The Red Cross is there right now, but because they were illegal slums, there's no promise of a building. What we can pray for and hope for in these children and adults and families is the love to feel the love of the church. They're staying in one of the churches right next to it in Tigone right now. But to feel and know and be accepted as one of that and have the body of Christ love and surround them and let them know that they are one is my biggest prayer because from here, although I think I wanna fix everything because that that is one of my jobs.

I'm a fixer. I can't help it. But I'm also super protective. And while my job, I want to put my feet to it right now, God has for me to pray and see where that is led. If you wanna pray with me and if you wanna put feet to that with me, I'm not quite sure what that's looking at right now.

I'm in communication, but I don't know what that means. I'm thankful for the school. I'm thankful for those children. I'm thankful for the textbooks that First Baptist Via have provided. I'm thankful for some totally awesome teachers that we have just, helped them to put in place and interview processes that we've prayed for for a long time.

So there's the hope, and then the tribulation comes in actual fire. So we pray for that hope and peace, and I'm thankful for y'all that some of you have prayed so much with me and all of us that have been there and fallen in love with these children for this. I'm thankful for what possibly could be our feet to this calling. If you would maybe share that with me.

Would you stand up, pray with us? God, thank you for for introducing us to this opportunity and and for introducing us to the people more specifically, lord, to Patricia and pastor Kamau and Ruth and God, would you let them feel how they are bound to you, lord, and let them feel that. Let them experience God in the middle of all these trials and God show us what you would have us to do. In Jesus name, lord. Amen.

Go and be blessed.