turn in your Bibles again to the book of Proverbs. As has sort of been the custom, we're not really looking at an exposition of several verses in a row, we're looking at different ones throughout the Proverbs, but we are reading consecutively through it as prior to the sermon. So this morning we're in Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs 11, I will read the first 15 verses, sorry, of Proverbs chapter 11, beginning at verse 1. Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way aright, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust. When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes. The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead. The hypocrite, with his mouth, destroys his neighbor, and when the wicked perish, there is jubilation. By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his peace. A tale of error reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. He who is a surety for a stranger will suffer, but one who hates being a surety is secure. This is as far as we'll read for today. Before we begin our message, let us pray. Father, we again thank you for your word and this book of Proverbs that is so It gives us such clear instruction and application of Christ-like wisdom in our lives. Father, I pray that you would help us to take this to heart. I pray that you would open our hearts this afternoon as we examine from your word what you say concerning the trials and difficulties that we face in this life. I pray that you would give us to be receiving of this, help us to take to heart and to be encouraged knowing who you are how you are working in our lives, and that we would continue to press on for your glory. Father, we pray for your spirit, the aid of the Holy Spirit in preaching, listening, applying these things, and Lord, we pray that you be glorified. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. So, just by way of reminder, I guess it's been a few weeks, as we've looked at Proverbs, but Proverbs is given to us how it is we can be Christ-like in all these different areas of our life. Proverbs is not just good advice, good counsel. It's the wisdom of God, who is Christ himself. We saw this morning, he's the image of God and the express image of God and we follow after that true wisdom in our journey in holiness. Well, Proverbs tells us this is wisdom, this is what So we come to the book of Proverbs and we find there how we can glorify God in all these different aspects of life. It gives us these two paths, the path of the wise and the path of the fool. The fool, as we saw at the outset in chapter 1, when Solomon begins to teach his son this, he gives him this picture of the way of the fool. The fool is one who is living for himself. He puts himself first, either with no regard for others or at the expense of others. but he's very self-seeking. The wise man, he's serving others, he's blessing others, and in return, he's blessed by God because of that, but yet his desire is to serve and to bless others. to bless others. We saw that in Romans 12 this morning in our consecutive reading there as well. But that fool, the fool is the old nature, the old self that's in us. We still have that fool remaining in us that we are to be putting away, at least the actions that are consistent with that old self, those old foolish ways, we're to be putting on the new man, the wise man. of a victim versus a victor mentality, as this is really an underlying mentality that's at the root of a lot of sin in our lives, a lot of foolish activity, a lot of leaning on our own understanding comes from not understanding who we are in Christ, seeing ourselves perhaps as a victim. Now, a victim mentality is the idea that that all this bad stuff happens to me, that I'm a victim. It's an identity that we develop concerning ourselves, that I'm just the victim of all this bad stuff in life. Bad things keep happening to me, and I'm not gonna rehash it all, but we start to look through that lens, that life, and everything we see, we always focus on the how is this somehow negatively affecting me because I'm the victim. It's really, It's a very selfish, poor-me type of attitude, is what it is. And I've sought to go through Proverbs and several sermons to identify that this is not just, you know, oh, we shouldn't be like that or whatever. Proverbs describes these characteristics as wicked. as ungodly, as unrighteous, as foolish. The negativity that comes with it. The fatalism. The fatalism is sitting back and just letting life happen to you. That's the laziness, the jealousy, the entitlement that, you know, things should be going better for me because they went better for somebody else. That type of thing. Unforgiveness. These are just some of the characteristics that come with a victim. should not have this type of a victim mentality. It's wrong. And the reason for that is that identity is just simply not true. That's the thing. We are not victims. We'll see that in a moment. So we need to change The way in which we think about ourselves, the way in which we, rather than seeing ourselves as a victim, we have to see ourselves as what the Bible says. Proverbs 23 verse 7 says, as a man or as he thinks in his heart, so is he. The identity that we have about ourselves makes us to act in accordance with that, to interpret the world in accordance with that. So we need to change the way in which we are thinking about thought captive to Christ. We read in Romans 12 this morning, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We have to think different thoughts and in this situation we need to think different thoughts about who we are. Change from thinking ungodly, wicked thoughts that we are a poor victim of life. and all these bad things happen to us, but rather we need to see ourselves as what the Bible says. We're gonna look at a couple texts just very briefly here. 1 John 5, we've looked at these, but this is just kind of by way of reminder to get us back up to speed where we left off. 1 John 5, verse 4, for whom whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory. of the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So believers in Christ are overcomers. We overcome the world. And this is not just something future. We'll look at that in more detail in a moment. This is not just set for us in the future. This is right now. 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians comes after 1 Corinthians, which comes after Romans. Chapter 2. Verse 14, now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. So God leads us in triumph in Christ, victory. Romans 8, Romans chapter 8 verse 33. Well, let's just read from 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. So he's speaking there of the trials of life. Tribulation, distress, persecution, for your sake we're killed all the day long. We face all these trials, all these difficulties. What are they saying in verse 37? Yeah, in all these things we are more than conquerors. Remember last time I said that the Greek word uses the word hooper or hyper, it's how we would translate it, hyper-conquerors. We are hyper-conquerors through Christ. who loved us. So that's what the Bible says that we are as Christians. We are overcomers, we are victors, we are conquerors, hyper conquerors. Not because we did something so victorious. That's the key here. Not because we made Christ won the victory and because of that union to him, this is what we looked at this morning, that union of the branches in the vine, that was chapter 15. Would chapter 16 say that, be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. That's how in this world you will face tribulation, you will face oppression. we are victors that is how we are overcomers how we are conquerors because of Christ because of him that's the mindset that we need to have in Christ we have a new identity we are no we are not a victim we are a victor because of him That is your identity. When you are grafted into Christ and union with Him through faith, you are now a victor, now a conqueror, not something in the future. And that is, that is, all these writers here are giving us that that these things to, so that this is how we're gonna get through the trials of this life. As I said, it's not just in the future that, oh, I'm on the winning team, so to speak, and I'll get the, I'll be in heaven, and it'll be great, and there'll be no more evil. No, this is how you're going to get through with the mindset that you are a victor because you are in Christ. Now, the difficult thing is to apply that to everything in life. That's the hard part. You know, I think last time I told you about the dentist bill situation, my wife came home and put a quote from the dentist, some work that needed to be done. My first thought was this is, you know, my bank account was emptying and I said to my wife, I wish we were Syrian refugees because this would all be free. Like what a, you know, that's a victim mentality. It's the entitlement and all of that. Rather than thinking, okay, how can we overcome this? What can we do? Maybe we can go to Costa Rica on a dentist. What do they call that? Dental tourism or something like that? But it's a different mindset. We can overcome this somehow. And overcoming success is going to be different in in every trial. Sometimes it's very tangible. In the case of a dentist bill, it's going to be you've paid off the bill and the lights are still on, your kids are still fed. That's success. It's very tangible. Sometimes it's not going to be as tangible in that way as success and overcoming. Perhaps the loss of a loved one or certain diseases or something like that. The overcoming in that situation, you can still overcome. But maybe it's just simply the ability to be completely submitted to the will of God. And we'll see at the end of the sermon how to use that to glorify God. These types of trials. But either way, the mindset that we need to have is that we are overcomers. We can overcome, we can get through the difficulties of life. is the victor and all who are in him are victors as well. So we need to live that, we need to apply that to everything in life. And it's difficult, it really is, but yet we must. Now, This is a fast review. I think this is probably four or five sermons in one there. There's a lot to be said about all of this. There's mountains of books that are written about this. There's mountains of books that are written about this type of mindset stuff from a worldly perspective. And we like to call that self-help. And because the world likes to try and borrow from this type of a Christian worldview and say, if you can give yourself the mentality that you're a victor, you can go far in life. And that's true, it's reality. but it's borrowed from the Christian worldview and therefore when they, but they leave Christ out of it and you're trying to get people to go on their own steam and it works. Some people have a bit more steam than others, you know, but if we realize that Christ is the only reason that we're in Christ, So that's a whole lot different. That's not self-help. That is, as I said in the past, this is not a self-help conference. This is realizing that we do this in Christ. We are not abstracting this victor mentality from Christ. If we do so, then it becomes self-help. But Christ is the reason we're victorious. to get through the trials. That's what we looked at last time, which was a few weeks ago there, but the source of our strength. We're victors, not because I did something so great and I'm so victorious, but because Christ conquered the world, therefore I can overcome with the help of my hero, my victor, my leader, my head, Christ. He's gonna enable me to overcome. All those verses that we read about Christians being victors and overcomers and conquerors, what did they all say? Thanks be to God who leads us in triumph in Christ. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. What does Paul say to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13? Probably a very familiar verse, but do we really understand it? Do we really take it to heart? I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And that is what we need to understand. This is not a, you need to pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps. This is a, this is a, you know, this is not just get out there and do this. This is, no, you, you can weather the storms of this life because Jesus is with you. Think of the disciples going through the storm on the sea. Christ was with them in the boat. That is what we need to realize and need to understand. We saw it in Isaiah 40 last time as well, that very familiar passage in Isaiah 40. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord. This is verse 27. And my just claim is passed over by my God. Have you not known, have you not heard the everlasting God, Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth? Neither face, nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. So Israel is saying, it seems as if God doesn't care. All this bad stuff is happening to me. He's not looking. He's not watching over me. He's not there. And he says, don't you know who your God is? He's the creator. He doesn't grow weary. He doesn't faint. His understanding is unsearchable. He knows everything. He knows exactly what you're going through, verse 29, and He gives power to the weak, to those who have no might. He increases strength. Even the youth shall, or it's probably better, even the youth may faint and be weary. Young men may utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So even the youths, somebody, as I said earlier, some people have a lot more esteem than others. The youths, the young men, they got a lot of esteem. If they try to go on their own, they're eventually gonna run out. They're gonna faint and be weary. Young men, they're utterly gonna fall. But those who wait on the Lord, who trust in the Lord for the strength, He will renew their strength and they will that they will mount up with wings like eagles. Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. That's 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12. And that's what we need to realize, as we go through this life, we struggle. Life is hard. We all face different trials, different struggles in life. Proverbs 24, verse 16 says, a righteous man may fall seven times, but he will rise again. but the wicked will fall by calamity. Why does the righteous man, he falls seven times, he gets knocked down, but he gets up again. Why? Because he does so in the strength of the Lord. The righteous man knows his strength comes from the Lord. The trials keep coming, he presses on in the strength of the Lord. So kids, this is one for your worksheet there to write down. rely on the Lord for strength to get through trials. So trials, kids, trials are just difficult things that happen in your life, bad things. Somebody says something mean to you, somebody steals your toys, somebody hurts you, whatever, whatever the bad things in life that happen, we must rely on the Lord for strength. And we need to be constantly reminded of this, that we're looking, we're getting our strength from the Lord. That's how we're going to be able to employ a victor's mindset. That's why before we're looking at any actions that a victor takes, we're looking at these things first. We need to get our strength from the Lord and That's what we need to understand. We're truly victors. That is our true identity and we are that way because of our Savior and He gives us the strength and the ability to overcome and persevere in the midst of trials. Now, what we're gonna look at today is in helping us hold on to this victor mentality and let go of any type of victimhood that we might have is to understand the purpose of trials in this life. That's going to help us to banish this victim mentality. We can realize that there's a purpose behind this. This is not God beating you down because he's just having fun doing so for some reason. No, God has a purpose for this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. We're gonna spend some time there. I know this is a series on Proverbs, but Hebrews chapter 12, he quotes from Proverbs 3 and then explains it. So we're gonna look at that. Spend some time here. Proverbs chapter 12. This will hopefully by the end of this will help us to see the purpose and how we can use trials to glorify God in our lives. So verse 1, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin." So first he tells us that we must be looking to Jesus. This kind of goes with what I've already talking about. he entered glory but this was but this was a way this was Look to Christ. He went through that and suffered much more than you ever will so that you too can overcome. You too can eventually enter glory to be with Him. We have to consider that. Victory is certain. Christ has won the victory. Victory is certain. Look to Him and He will give you the strength to endure in the race. But then moving on, verse 5. You've forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. Now here's the Proverbs 3 quote. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with a son. But what son is there whom a father does not chasten? then you are illegitimate and not son. So verse 80 is saying if you have no discipline, no trials in your life, that means you don't have a father in heaven. You're illegitimate, essentially is what he's saying. The point being, the trials in this life evidence that God is chastening, is disciplining you through this life. So that's what we, What the author wants us to see here next. So first, we look to Christ as we go through this, but then we need to submit to the discipline of God. He says here, kids, this one is for you to write down as well. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. Chastening means disciplining, same idea. Do not despise the chastening of the Lord. We've seen in the context here, Hebrews 11 What the discipline of God is, is a trial in this life, in one way or another. Every trial we face, it may come at the hands of wicked people. That may be the means that God uses for the certain trial that you're facing. Not always, but it may be. But yet, ultimately, it comes from God and it's part of God's sovereign plan for us. And he tells us here that we are to submit to that. And he says in verse 5, look at verse 5 at the end, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. Not to be discouraged. That's easy to say, isn't it? But that's hard to do. Another thing in life again, oh we feel like we're getting knocked down again. But he says here, don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged by that. And that's easy, but we need to have our eyes on Christ and looking to Him, but then we also need to see the purpose of the trial, and that is going to help us to not be discouraged. And that's what we find in verse 10, or 3, verse 9, because we sort of left off. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us, as seen best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained First of all, trials are there for our profit. That's the first thing to understand. We have a God in heaven who is not trying to knock us down and not having fun like a cat and mouse, you know, hitting us every time we get up again. That is not who our God is. Our God is is there for our good, it's for our profit, this is for our benefit. Somehow, in some way, we need to, we might not see it right away. We sang that hymn from William Cowper, number 21 there, that in time he'll make his ways plain, but we might not know. And I would say sometimes we'll never know until we're in glory, perhaps we can ask him. But we need to realize it's for our profit, But what we do know, we do know the purpose. We might not know the specific thing, but the greater purpose here comes at the end of verse 10, that we may be partakers of His holiness. What does that mean? Simply that we're more like Him. As I said this morning, we are to manifest His holy character in our lives. We are to image Him. And the trial then, the purpose of the trial is so that we image him more so that we are more conformed to his image. Every trial in life serves that purpose. Here's another one, kids. Every trial in life has the purpose of making us more like Jesus. Every trial in life has the purpose of making us more like Jesus. is going to be a direct result of our sin. We saw that a lot when we were in Proverbs 3 several times there. Think of Proverbs 3 verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord, excuse me, with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him or know him. That means to employ the knowledge of God in your actions in all your ways. Employ the knowledge of God which is his holy character. Do things his way. and he will make your path straight. What's the implication? If your paths are bumpy and twisty and turning and all these things, that could be an indication that you're leaning on your own understanding. You're doing things your way. You're living the fool rather than God's way. going well for you. I use this example all the time, I know, but it's a simple one. Let's say you keep losing your job, you can't hold down a job, and you've got financial difficulties, and it's a trial, it's hard, but maybe it's because you're not working hard, maybe it's because you're not showing up on time, maybe it's because you're not employing the Christ-like work ethic that we find in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere through the Bible, that the trial is a direct result of your of your sins. So if you take that trial to heart then and you realize, hey, I can't hold down a job. Things are hard. Is this maybe perhaps because I'm not working like I ought and hopefully we change and therefore we're more conformed to Christ. And say you have no friends or you keep losing friends. You meet people and pretty soon nobody, they don't want to hang out with you anymore. You're lonely and it's hard. It's difficult. It's a trial. But perhaps it's because you're not a nice person. Maybe you're nasty and nobody wants to be around you. sin, and that's causing the trial. But a lot of times in life, the trial is going to be something totally out of your control, and not a direct result of your sin. You know, the loss of a family member, let's say, or a forest fire burns down your house. A lot of people facing that now, I think, potentially You know, those things might not be directly, or not a direct result of your sinful actions, but yet, either way, the trial is there to conform us to His image. We need to understand that. We need to remember that. With that in view, that will help us then to submit to that. If the only good that we might see is our increased conformity to Christ and our conformity to the image of God and manifesting His glory in our lives, that is a positive thing. That is for our profit. That means we are fulfilling our purpose as image bearers of God and glorifying Him. more and more in our lives. That's going to help us. Understanding this is going to help us to not be discouraged by another trial in life. He says at the end of verse 5, to not be discouraged when you're rebuked by Him. Understanding this is working to conform me to more like Christ. If some of you have heard of Elizabeth Elliott before, her first husband's name was Jim Elliott. He was the one who was with a group of missionaries killed by the Alka Indians. I think they have a different name for them now, probably not Indians, but they were in Ecuador. The Alka tribe, they were trying to make contact. He flew in there, 28 years old. They had been married for three years or so. killed by this tribe that had never had any contact with the outside world before. She lost her husband, 28 years old. She went on to continue to work there. She was married with the Alcas. Eventually went there and actually made contact and met them. She got married again. She lost her second husband. And trials, trials. in life, and she actually, she has a series that is on, she's passed away several years ago now, but on Ligonier has a series from her called Suffering is Not for Nothing, something that I highly recommend that you listen to, but in there, I think it's in there, but she talks about how she was accused by people for not being sad enough, for having faced these trials, for having lost a husband twice. And people say, you're not sad enough. They expected her to sit at home and to cry, but she knew that this trial has a purpose. There is a purpose in here. Somehow she could trust that. She didn't see herself as a victim of God's unexplainable decree in sending these trials in her life. She knew that it served a purpose. She knew God was doing something there, even if it was just making her more Christ-like, so that he could be more glorified in her. Turn ahead to James chapter 1 for a moment. James chapter 1. Verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Count it all joy, he says, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That's the idea there of being complete, being conformed back into the image, reaching your goal as an image bearer of God. The trials are working for that purpose. So he says, count to all joy when you fall into various trials. That is the faith that we need and that is the faith that we must cling to. and understand that our good God in heaven is working it out for this way, so that we might be, these things in our lives, so that we might be more like Him, so that He's glorified through this. So that is the ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is conformity to Christ. Sometimes it's you just identifying a certain sin in your life and getting rid of it. Other ways, especially for these types of trials that we're just discussing here, it's conforming to Christ, it's you persevering in this, and it's the outworking of that purpose. I think that's gonna also be to understand, and that's what we see, go back to Hebrews again in verse one, I sort of jump over verse one, but he says, therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and let's run with endurance, let's persevere. Why? Because we're surrounded by this cloud of witnesses. Who's he talking about? Everybody's talking individuals, and let's just look at verse 32. What more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others had trials of mockings and scourging, of chains of imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were tempted, slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise of God having provided something better for us. But they should not be made perfect apart from us. They all, they all were, they suffered. They were examples, he says here, of faithful perseverance. And they are examples and they are testimonies of God, of how God brought them through, both sides here. God's faithfulness in giving the strength to those who through faith persevere, those who through faith continue to press on to get through these trials, to overcome. and a testimony of their perseverance. We have these witnesses, these testimonies. And the purpose of all of these trials is so that they could be witnesses, they could be the testimonies to others of what faithfulness looks like. And so that they could teach others, this is how you get through these trials in a Christ-like manner. That's what they were, a cloud of witnesses. And that, it's the same thing for us. The trials, the difficulties of this life are to shape us, mold us into God's image, And as we persevere in them, we press on with our eyes focused upon Christ, we become examples for others to follow. Others see our lives, others see these things, they see God's faithfulness in our lives, the perseverance. One of my favorite things to do is to talk to people who have been Christians for many years. decades and decades to listen to how God, as they discuss and teach you and show you and tell you of these times, the trials they went through, but how God brought them through and that testimony of God's faithfulness, it is incredible. And that is the purpose of the outworking, maybe I could say of this, of the trials in our life. Kids, here's another one for you. In our life, show others that God always will bring his people through them. Trials in our life, show others that God always brings his people through them. It's a testimony to others, those who submit, those who have their eyes upon Christ that we can persevere, you can overcome. Somebody else going through that same thing, maybe a different trial, but they've observed in your life, you persevering, pressing on, It becomes an example for them, an encouragement for them. I know a family, they lost a son. He was, I think, around 16 years old or so, maybe a little bit older in that mid-teenage years. And their submission to the will of God and their faithfulness, their trust in God in that was amazing to behold. And I commented on that. I said that to them. And their answer, I'll never forget, they said, we want to be a faithful testimony to others who might go through the same trial. like that part of that cloud of witnesses for anyone else who may go through the same thing. That is the reason for that. That is how God can use these trials in our lives where we can be a testimony to others who may go through that same thing. They persevered. They used different means to persevere and to continue to persevere. I remember the husband, he had in his wallet, he had little Bible verses written out on little cards. Anytime he was really struggling and doubting and questioning, he would pull out his wallet. He would read those things and he was reminded again. He used different means to persevere. to press on there, but he was such a faithful testimony of enduring, persevering, and overcoming in one of the most difficult trials that we could ever imagine in this life. And he would be someone who, God forbid any of us ever face that, he would be the person to talk to having been there. He's that example. Now he's had that trial, and now he can use that trial to bless others and to help others. And for each one of us, that is our situation. God gives us all sorts of trials in this life. We all face different kinds, different set series of trials and things like that. Not because we're victims of his sovereign plan, but because he wants us to conform to his image, And He wants us to be able to help others who are going through those same trials that we've experienced, to help them to be able to grow in their faith and to show them how you can respond in a Christ-like manner to this trial. That's another one kids, here's another one for you to remember. God sends us trials so that later we can help others who have the same trial. Very, very important for us to remember. That is how we can use the trial that God, that is how God wants us to see these trials so we can overcome, so we can help other people. Turn to Proverbs 10 for a moment, verse 21. Proverbs 10, 21. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom. I want to focus on that first part. The lips of the righteous, literally it says, the lips of the righteous shepherd many, or they lead many. Those who submit to these trials, those who persevere, you know, and are conforming to Christ through these trials, that's what righteousness is. You become more righteous can lead others, can help others who are going down that same path or going through that same trial in life. When you go through that yourself, you can teach them how they can do so, the same thing in a Christ-like manner. Everyone receives different trials in life. That means that everyone is uniquely qualified in a different way, but yet for this same Maybe you've never lost a child and you can't help somebody in that same way as someone who has. But you have other things in your life that are preparing you to help in a different situation. Remember that. That is what God is doing in your life with these trials. Conforming you to Christ. and enabling you then to take that knowledge, that wisdom you've gained, and that example for others so that you might be part of that cloud of witnesses for others who go through the same trial. You're a witness of the faithfulness of God that he brings his people through. And you're a witness of faithful perseverance. We know it's not about you. That's not the point. It isn't. But yet you are to be an example of bearing up, of overcoming trials in life. We think of maybe big things like losing a family member, and think those are the big things and I've never had that so I don't really have anything I can help. That's not true. Every situation, kids, for you, somebody's mad, mean to you, somebody says something mean to you on the playground, that's a trial. How do you deal with that in a Christ-like way? And then what happens when that person's friend, or when your friend, that person says something mean to them? You know that you can help them how to respond in a Christ-like manner that way. We can apply that to every situation in life. That is why God is sending these trials. If we can truly grasp that, that will make all the difference in seeing how that we are not victims. We're victors. We're overcoming for this purpose. See, God does love you and have a wonderful plan for your life. But every son whom he loves, he disciplines. That's the reality of it. And the wonderful plan is that you become more like Christ and that you can help others to become more like Christ through there. And you can bless others. That's the reality of it. If we can truly grasp that, that is the way, like James says, to count it a joy when we suffer. Don't be discouraged, but to actually The victim says, poor me, it's another trial, something else bad again happening to me. This is so unfair. The victor says, I can get through this with Christ. God has chosen me to be the one to persevere in this trial so that I can be an example to others. Why did he choose me? I don't know, but I need to trust that plan. I can get through this with Christ. who strengthens me, I can use this to help others who may experience the same trial, the same difficulty. You see the difference? The victim, the victim is the way of the fool, back in chapter one. Poor me, or put it this way, me first, no regard for others, self-centered. The way of the victim, wise man, serving others, how can I use this trial to glorify God and to do so by serving others. You are not a victim of God, you are a victor. God is sending those trials because He knows, He has chosen you, He knows you can, you will overcome in His strength so that you will be more like Him and so that you can lead others down the same path. So let us Let us, may God give us the grace necessary to do that. Again, we don't do this in our own strength. We do that in the strength of the Lord, but let us have that understanding in our mind. This is why we suffer in life. It's not for me. It's so we can overcome.