Albert Mohler is the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky and the author of numerous books, including Atheism Remix and He is Not Silent. The following are my notes from Dr. Mohler’s opening session at the Bold Church Conference in Columbus, Nebraska on September 30, 2012 (paraphrased).

I want to set forth a few things for us to think about because this conference isn’t just about boldness in ministry, but boldness in ministry about a few key subjects.

Everyone in his or her own sphere has a responsibility to be faithful on these issues… but at times boldness falters because we haven’t thought deeply enough, biblically enough, so we don’t know what to say.

The three big issues I want to speak on are:

1. The defense of marriage and family
2. The defense of life
3. The defense of the gospel itself

There’s sufficient data to show us that younger evangelicals pay greater social capital in holding to these three areas… But tonight we’re going to be focusing on the defense of marriage and family. And one of the things we’ll see is that we’re ready to give an answer… the only problem is that we’re just not ready to give enough of an answer.

We’re expected to justify, to defend, everything. And the Christian preacher today is standing up and saying something that’s completely unheard of today. But, meekness matched with courage [boldness] is what we need today.

The world right now is talking about the legalization of same sex marriage. And it’s going to be a controversy for the rest of our lives—legalizing it isn’t going to change anything, anymore than Roe v. Wade changed anything in 1973.

In virtually any arena today, this issue is either being discussed or should be. I want us to kind of go backwards just a bit and consider how we’re to put together a framework for how we’re supposed to think about these kinds of things.

So how are we supposed to do that?  The best place to start is with Genesis.

One of the first things we need to recognize as we study this text, is that we are no smarter than the world. We didn’t come up with this. But by grace, the one true and living God has spoken and we know what we otherwise wouldn’t know.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ESV)

If God created the world, then the entirety of the world is his responsibility. If God created the world, then the entirety of the world is part of his plan.

So when we look at a question like this, we need to go back and look at what God intended.

In Gen. 2, we come to a crucial passage that tells us Adam had the responsibility to name all the creatures of the earth. “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” (Genesis 2:18 ESV). Notice that this isn’t followed by the creation of the woman, but Adam fulfilling his responsibility of naming the creatures of the earth.

Note that Adam didn’t note his own need—his Creator did. Adam didn’t know his own need yet. How does Adam find that out? First, through the act of dominion. He, the only one made in God’s image, names all the critters—they don’t name him.

God made one creature and one creature alone in His image, and that means to rule and we have the capacity to consciously know Him. The tiger, the giraffe, have the capacity to glorify Him, but not consciously. And God exercises this responsibility.

The Lord God had said, it’s not good for man to be alone. But what does he note? That there was not a helper fit for him [Adam]. Continue Reading…

From September 30-October 2, I’ll be at the BOLD Church Conference in Columbus, Nebraska, where Dr. Albert Mohler and Rick Holland will be speaking on a number of central—and contentious—issues challenging Christians in their public witness.

Recently, Pastor Justin Erickson, founder of the BOLD Conference and senior pastor of Highland Park Church, about this important event. In part two of our conversation, we discuss what excites Justin about BOLD and what he hopes attendees will take away from the conference:

There’s still time to register for this event if you’re in the area. You’ll also be able to follow along with the conference right here with updates after every session.

From September 30-October 2, I’ll be at the BOLD Church Conference in Columbus, Nebraska, where Dr. Albert Mohler and Rick Holland will be speaking on a number of central—and contentious—issues challenging Christians in their public witness.

Recently, Pastor Justin Erickson, founder of the BOLD Conference and senior pastor of Highland Park Church, about this important event. In part one of our conversation, we discuss the need for BOLD and why it matters:

There’s still time to register for this event if you’re in the area. You’ll also be able to follow along with the conference right here with updates after every session.

My notes on John Piper’s message on Jude 24–25 (paraphrased)

My message has two parts. In the first part, I will try to draw you into my amazement that I am still a Christian and perhaps you will find yourself amazed that you are still as well. In the second part, I would like to draw you into an analysis of how that came about as we look at the book of Jude, and in particular the last two verses:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25 ESV)

My amazement that I am still a Christian.

I still love the ministry of God’s Word, still love my calling as a husband and a father. I complete this year 60 years of being a Christian, 32 of being in the ministry… And this is a monumentous year for this will be the last year I’m at T4G as a pastor.

When I think about finishing these laps of my race, I’m amazed that I’m still a Christian. There were days when my marriage was under attack, days when my spirit was so dull that I doubted my faith… so I’m amazed!

If the decisiveness of my faith must come from me, it will not come at all because it is not there. I am amazed that I am a Christian, and still love the ministry. And I have this sense of wonder, that may be close to what Jude felt when he personalized it and said, “Now to him who is able to keep ME from stumbling and present ME blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…” I think he was amazed at that, at the keeping of God.

That’s what it took to keep me. It took glory, and majesty and power and authority, working before the beginning of time, until the end of time and working even now—and that’s what it took to keep me in the ministry.

This is how doxologies work: They ascribe attributes to God that account for the things we’re so excited about. They exude passion. That’s the way they work. The attributes account for the actions that we’re so amazed at.

There are three of them:

1. He is able to keep you from stumbling
2. He presents us before the glory of God blameless
3. He presents us before the glory of God with great joy

Those three things he has done. What accounts for that is a Savior, the glorious God, the Lord Jesus Christ, working on it before time, working on it every minute, working on it til the end of time—that’s what he’s amazed at. That’s what it takes to be keep us a Christian.

Do you have any idea of the degree of the glory to get you alive and keep you alive until the moment you see Jesus? How would you talk about that? How would you explain it? Do we know the degree of glory and power and majesty that it took? No we don’t. We have no terms for measuring such things. How do we quantify the power or the force an eternal Spirit with no physical dimensions at all moving a created spirit into being and keeping it there?

Is it like pounds? Kilowatts?

God creates spiritual life when we are dead. We know that. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Once I had no spiritual life. Then God the Spirit acted and my spirit came into being, or spiritual life came into being. I am spirit born of the Spirit. This is not like a demon. This is Holy Spirit, God-sanctified spirit, brought into being by the new birth.

It’s not the kind of life you’d have if the Holy Spirit left. If the Holy Spirit left and you disunited with Christ, you wouldn’t be. There would be no life. Therefore, the life we’re talking about is having the Holy Spirit and being united with Christ (which are interrelated terms) . . . If he’s not there, I have no life.

So he creates that and then for 60 years, having begun before eternity and having been at work every second of my life and pledging to do so until eternity, he is keeping me a Christian. And if he didn’t, I wouldn’t be a Christian.

It is all a work of God. Which is why I said that if the decisive cause were to come from me, it would not come because it is not there. I bring nothing decisive to my creation. No more than the universe created itself, nor is it kept by itself, it is kept by Christ Jesus.

No Jude is clearly amazed by this—and he must sense what it takes. And it must be very great. So, how are you going to measure that, so you can join him in the amazement?

I can only think of two ways for you to measure that:

1. To think about the fact that creating and sustaining spiritual life is something we cannot do, but something God does. The difference between the nothing I bring and his action is infinite. The difference between nothing and something is an infinite difference. It is immeasurably great.

2. If all that just sounded confusing, then just read it in the text. What did it take to keep you a Christian? It takes glory and majesty and power and authority. And I assume Jude chooses those words to tell us that it takes just about all he’s got to keep us.  Though we can’t measure the kind of force, this text is saying it takes glory and majesty and power and authority from beginning to end to keep you a Christian. You should be absolutely stunned that you are a Christian.

How does he do it?

Now I want to draw you into an analysis of how that happens. How did God do that? How does God keep me from making shipwreck of my Christian life? How does he keep me when Paul’s strategies in 2 Cor 4-6 seem so far off? How does he keep me when I’m not depressed because there are false converts in my church but I fear I may be one? How does he keep me when he holds out a treasure to me that I want almost as much as anything and says, “You can’t have it”? How does he keep me alive, how does he keep you alive, being, loving, serving, fathering?

Notice that the book in verse one and ends (24-25) with a strong statement that God is decisively capable of keeping you.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ…(Jude 1:1 ESV)

We are called, beloved, kept. Where a person is called, they are kept. He will sustain you to the end, guiltless… when he calls, it means you will be kept.

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30 ESV)

This is the framework of the book—it is a book about being called and kept by Christ.

Now, sandwiched in there is this warning. Though he wanted to write about the glory of the gospel, he was urged to warn against those in the church—professing Christians who are not called and not kept, who crave physical sensation and not Christ. They don’t prize the God of grace, they prostitute the grace of God. He’s warning them about this people, this kind of error.

Then, after all these warnings, Jude tells us what we must do and what we should do not only for ourselves to be kept (v .20-21), but also what we must do for others to be kept (v. 22-23).

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God… (Jude 1:20-21 ESV)

“Keep yourselves…” Whoa. There goes your message. Or. Not.

“…keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

This message is all over the Bible. Keep yourselves in the love of God because GOD keeps you in the love of God. This is the mystery of not only sanctification but preservation.

Keep yourselves in God’s commitment to keep you!

How do we do this?

There are three verbs: Faith, prayer and waiting. Faith is the main one–trust more, be more reliant on God’s ability to keep you. The next is prayer. The last is that you wait. You’ve prayed and now you wait.

God has committed to keep you. Keep yourself in his commitment to keep you. Trust that he will keep you. Pray that he will keep you and wait for God.

This is so simple. I suppose as I’ve bent over the prayer bench in my prayer nook, I suppose the most common prayer has been “Keep me from temptation . . . help me!” You know what’s happening there? God is keeping me. . . . and I am amazed. How many days there have been where I’ve felt “I can’t do it, I can’t preach the sermon, I don’t know how it’s going to do!” But here I am and I look back and it’s God.

My praying and my trusting doesn’t rob him of any of his power and majesty and authority and glory—because it’s by the Spirit. My praying is a gift, my faith is a gift.

I keep myself by being kept. God keeps my by enabling me to do self-keeping things. And I must do these things—and sometimes they take effort. And in that effort, you say, “It’s of you!”

There’s a way to do effort by faith.

The glory and the majesty I think consist very much in the power and authority of God to keep you that way. What’s glorious and majesterial in God’s keeping you in praying and trusting? And his answer is his power and authority!

You don’t need to get this all sorted out in your head. You need to say, he’s got the power and authority to do it—to keep you.

One more observation: When he acts on you this way to keep you and to stir you up from within so you do the self-keeping work, he is fulfilling the New Covenant.

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:40 ESV)

That’s the keeping of the New Covenant. The terms of the New Covenant are that I have a people, I am going to keep them, put a new heart of flesh in them and keep them so they will not turn away.

We know the New Covenant was bought by the blood of Jesus. We see that in the Last supper. And when he shed his blood for his sheep, he paid for all of them. That’s what he’s achieved. So when you read verse 25, that’s what you should see when you read, “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.”

When the glory and the majesty, and the power and authority, are moving in to rescue my wavering heart, it’s coming through the blood of Jesus Christ—and when I am granted to awaken from my stupidity and allowed to see the glory and majesty and dominion and authority of Jesus, it’s through his blood.

Don’t underestimate the power of the gospel to keep you. He will not let your foot be moved. He keeps, he will not slumber. The Lord is your keeper, your shade upon your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep your life from this moment and forevermore because it has been bought for you by the blood of Christ.

Therefore, keep yourselves in the love of God.

My notes from Matt Chandler’s message on Revelation 21-22 (paraphrased)

One of the things that has really marked my own heart this week but there’s this kind of huge objective evidence in the room that God loves you and desires to bless you. IF you listen to the refrain of the week, there’s something in the air, it’s God saying, “I’m here, I haven’t abandoned you.” And I just felt like I’d be a fool if I didn’t remind you of this before unpacking Rev. 21.

So I want to continue with this theme and frame it this way: I believe that hope is necessary for all those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, but I believe that hope is especially necessary for those who are in the work of Christian ministry. We are in this strange position where we get to see the glory of Christ Jesus at work. We get to see marriages restored, watch people baptized and say “this is who I was and this is who I am,” seeing the spectacular work of regeneration. And yet we’re also sort of a spiritual first responder whenever tragedy strikes.

It’s a front row seat for the fallenness of this world. For pastors, we’re often in right after the paramedics. Sometimes we’re in before the paramedics because the damage doesn’t require them… so it’s unbelievably important for the man of God to have his soul anchored in the hope of God.

The first fruits of hope have already been sown.

The fact is, early on God already told us he’s going to fix this mess. There’s this refrain over hundreds and hundreds of years that this fix is coming, this freedom is coming, this hope is coming—and then he actually came in the person of Jesus Christ. He lives the perfect life, he dies on the cross, and he rises again to show the bill has been paid.

And then he came to get me. I wasn’t looking for him, but he called me. And he called in some really weird ways. Think about all the different ways he called—think about the ones we’ve heard so far. He calls, he woos, he rescues sinners. And I want to point this out because of the hope it brings. He didn’t ask my opinion, he didn’t wait to answer all my questions before he owned me. . . . When I feel that hope kind of slipping, I have to remember that he brought me to this place and the Spirit does not lead and ask me to own and carry it. The Spirit calls me to trust him.

And that takes us to Revelation 21.

Graeme Goldsworthy said that hope without time is a delusion. We’re not a delusional people—we’re not gambling. We’re not hedging our bets! But people on the outside looking in think we’re delusional. And that’s where you can contextualize to a fault, trying to make it so cool and people like it—but it will always have a stink of death if you’re preaching in your fullness.

And what I want to do is show you the finish line:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:1-8 ESV)

Now I want to point out just a couple things—that could be a year-long series. So we fly over some of this, but I want to point out that this is a beautiful picture of the world renewed. You’ve got a renewed heaven and earth. This is not ethereal, it’s not Tom & Jerry, with you in a robe playing a harp.

Isa. 35:1—the desert will bloom with roses

Isa. 65:5—the violence this world knows will be lifted

Hab. 2:14—For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

So much of the imagery in our text is all over Isaiah, Ezekiel… But not creation only, but also resurrected bodies! We have these bodies that are getting old, getting crickety and wasting away, but someday we’ll have resurrected bodies.

So here’s where I want you to get your head: There will be a day when looking forward to this day will no longer be necessary.

I love the way that C.S. Lewis puts this in the Last Battle:

…the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

But the angel just keeps going:

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:9 ESV)

Now why does that matter? We’re called to defend the bride, to protect her… and some day we’re going to get to see her.

So all this work, all this grace-fueled effort, we’re going to get to see the fruit of all of this! Surely this will be more spectacular than the day where the door swung open and you saw your earthly bride. And we get to see the bride:

 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. (Revelation 21:10-21 ESV)

The first time we see the church in the book of Revelation it’s in chapters 2 and 3, and it probably lines up with our ministries now. Ephesus had sound doctrine but lost their love for Jesus. In Smyrna, they faced tribulation and poverty. In Thyatira they loved the sensuality and sexual immorality of Jezebel, in Laodicea, they were lukewarm…

Some scholars say things like, “these are ages of the church”—I see it and say, “that’s Tuesday.” But this is where we find her in chapter two, but it’s not what we find in 21.

But where is everyone?

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15 ESV)

Looking out at the work, there are some that you can see and say, “that’s gold!” But so much is wood and straw that’s just going to be burned off. So you need to wait and trust and see what God is doing… So someday the Church will stop being the suffering servant and eventually we’ll see the Church in her glory.

But there’s more:

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:22-23 ESV)

Sometimes it feels like we’re dealing with shadows—experiencing glory after glory, morning by morning, but we hit a wall. There’s a time when there won’t be a temple, there won’t be a worship time, there will be a time when and we’ll experience glory in ever increasingness.

By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:24-27 ESV)

Eventually, there will be a time when all the nations will walk by the light of the Lord. It’s the fulfillment of what David was talking about last night. How much better for the redeemed will things be when all things are restored and put back together.

Now I want to be careful—I don’t want to put my mind in this place as a form of escapism.

This view needs to drive me today. We need to let this view drive us to be faithful today so that we can see that day. If my time’s up, then I want to go be with Jesus, but if my time’s not up, this picture drives me into being faithful. To drive me to protect the purity of the bride. It doesn’t make me want to escape, it makes me want to be faithful.

Here’s where I think at times—you’ve got to get over you. When our hope drains, it drains because we’re not high enough, seeing what God is doing. We’re hedging our bets. You kinda belief this, but you don’t really believe it. You’ve got one foot in this work, trying to get all this stuff just in case—you’re straddling two worlds and it’s not going to work. My encouragement to you is just sell out. It’s this view that has Paul calling this life “light and momentary . . . not worthy to be compared.” Paul’s not hedging his bets, he’s all in.

And I want to challenge you—some of you I want to sell out. But some of you I want to take some hope from you; you’re like Jeremiah, all excited until he gets beat up and says, “You seduced me!” And so you need to repent. But for those who believe this, we need to hold to this hope.

So hope is important for the man of God. It’s important for the man who shepherds the Bride of Christ. There is a finish line. There is a time when all things will be made new. The hard things will be remembered no more. We’ve been entrusted with this—God help us all.

My notes on Ligon Duncan’s message on 1 Kings 19 (paraphrased)

Discouragement is no stranger to the lives of faithful pastors and faithful Christians. And today, I want to give special encouragement to discouraged faithful pastors and Christians.

There are things we are meant to learn in our disappointment. Some of you start out in Christian ministry thinking, “If I am faithful to God, doing his bidding, trusting his grace, empowered by his Spirit, I will not have the crushing darkness as part of my experience.” And then it comes. And you’re left asking, “Why is this happening? What’s happening to me, O God? What am I supposed to do with this? I didn’t think it was going to be like this. I didn’t see this coming…”

What do we do with that?

God wants us to know that as we study our disappointments, we’ll see what we love. When the bottom falls out, you will learn things about what you love that you never knew before. And it won’t always be pretty.

You’ll learn what you believe when the bottom falls out. When the crushing disappointment comes. And you’ll learn where you really rest, where you find your satisfaction…

In our disappointments, we are tempted to forget that God is God and God is good. In every deep disappointment, in every deep discouragement, we are tempted to forget that God is God and God is good—and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been teaching people, you will still be tempted to forget.

And we are tempted to idolatry. We are tempted to think that there’s a greater treasure that is being withheld or taken away, a treasure greater than what God has already given to us.

First Kings 19 is not where you want to be in ministry; you want to be in chapter 18. That’s where Elijah defeats the prophets of Baal. That’s where you want to be in ministry. You don’t want to be in chapter 19. And isn’t it a total shock that you can get from 1 Kings 18 to 1 Kings 19? I’ve read it a thousand times and I still don’t get how we get there.

But that’s where we are today.

I wonder what are your greatest losses in life?

What are your unfulfilled dreams? Your unsatisfied plans and longings? Your hopes and dreams that you’ve had taken from before your very eyes?

I don’t’ ask whether you have them, I ask what they are.

And the question is, what do we do with them? What do we do with them. Because how we respond there, might be the most important thing we do in life.

I wonder what you do when you ask why, and you’ve heard no answer? Good things, you’ve longed for. Godly things… you’ve had them and they’ve been taken away or you’ve never had them at all.

I wonder if the Lord’s ever brought your greatest treasure before your eyes and said, “You can’t have it.” And if he’s brought it again, and he’s said, “You still can’t have it.”

The story of Elijah is the story of a ministry of power. No one since Moses had this kind of power. He hoped for great things, godly things, but he walked through his entire life knowing what it’s like to have his hopes dashed. He knew what it’s like to be disappointed, but he also testifies to the Lord’s unrelenting, ruthless grace in the pursuit of his glory and his minister’s joy.

Even people who believe in God’s sovereignty can fail to believe God

Elijah’s experience a powerful display of God’s power at Mt. Carmel. He’s just outrun a chariot. And he meets this messenger, and it’s a message from this woman, his enemy, who says, “You think I’m impressed . . . ? By this time tomorrow you’re going to die.” You might not expect this message. And you might expect that Elijah would say, “I’ll be right here—who are you going to bring? Did you forget what just happened?”

But what happens? It’s like he’s forgotten the sovereignty of God. This man, who faced the prophets of Baal, this man is a disappointed man. He has seen the entire dream of his ministry go unfulfilled. You see this in the wilderness when he says in verse 10:

“I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” (1 Kings 19:10 ESV)

His world has come crashing down around him. He saw his dream for Israel come crashing down around him—he hoped on Mt. Carmel that the nation would turn and trust in the Lord and God to be glorified in Israel. And in the wake of that, he gets this message, “You’re going to be dead by this time tomorrow.”

There’s no way a man can be discouraged like this who doesn’t love his message—he longs to see God glorified and when it doesn’t happen, his world almost comes to an end.

Maybe you long for conversions—and when they don’t happen, you’re disappointed. The church down the street has conversions by the thousands, and you have 65 people who can’t even get along. Or maybe you’ve been blessed with conversions and an edifying ministry, but your own son is a stranger to the Lord. There is a despair, a discouragement that comes to God’s faithful servants. And when it comes, you learn where you rest, you find where your satisfaction really lies.

This is what’s happened to Elijah. And so he runs and keeps running into the wilderness.

Even people who fight against idolatry can fall into it

Elijah had forgotten his name—this is a theological crisis going on. He has forgotten what he’s been preaching and the God he wants Israel to embrace. His name means “My God is Lord.” “The Lord—He is God” is his message and he’s forgotten it. It’s evident in his message and in the way God comes to him (v. 11-13).

He sends in a whirlwind, the mountain is dissolving, but God is not in it. He brings fire and an earthquake, but God was not in it. This is what Elijah wanted, he wanted a spectacular display that would turn the people back to the true worship of the Lord—and it does not happen. God does not answer yes to his prayers that he would operate in the spectacular. He operates in the whisper.

This is confirmed in the errands he sends him on. In verses 15 and following, he tells him that this is going to happen through the King of Syria, through another king of Israel and through another prophet. It’s like Moses, who at the end of his life, sees the Promised Land and hears, “You’re not going in.”

When you hear a voice that says you should have what you want be sure that it comes with a hiss. But when you hear a voice that says, “You see all this, it’s good, it’s wonderful—you don’t get to have it,” you can [joyfully] say, “That’s just like you Lord, that’s how you deal with your most faithful servants. . . . You ruthlessly crush their idolatries because of your compassion and grace because you want them to have a greater joy. . . . not because you’re not good, but because you are good. You wean them away from their desires so they are left with nothing but you.”

Elijah’s message to Israel was to give up their idolatry and return to the Lord and God refuses to let Elijah preach that message and not believe it himself. He will not let you preach a message that you have not believed and experienced yourself.

Elijah wanted God to be exalted, but he had a way he wanted it to be done.

Do you realize that when our Savior was in the garden, praying, “Father, take this cup from me . . . but nevertheless, not my will but your will be done,” that he is fighting a battle against idolatry and he’s winning?

God loves Elijah too much to let him keep his idol. And then what does God do? He puts him on the shelf. This is effectively the end of his ministry. He doesn’t end well.

Listen to the notes from the ESV Study Bible:

Is Elijah back on track as a result of his trip to Mount Horeb? The closing verses of ch. 19 suggest not. There is no mention here or in the upcoming chapters of Elijah’s ever meeting (or trying to meet) Hazael and Jehu (see vv. 15–16). One never reads of Hazael’s being anointed, while it falls to Elisha to arrange the anointing of Jehu (2 Kings 9:1–13). Even Elijah’s response to God’s command about Elisha seems less than wholehearted. There is no mention of his “anointing” of Elisha as his prophetic successor; he merely enlists him as his assistant (1 Kings 19:21).

The Lord is hard to his servant. See what happens when the Lord sidles up to Elijah at Horeb, what does he do? He says, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He’s not looking for information, he’s rebuking him…

Elijah is so despondent that when God says he’s going to show him his glory, there’s no evidence that he left the cave until the whisper. And when he did, he wrapped his face in a cloak. He just wanted to die.

So the Lord puts him on the shelf. And we don’t see him again until we see him again in 2 Kings 2:

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. (2 Kings 2:9-12 ESV)

You think God doesn’t know the greatest desires of his servants’ hearts? You think he leaves his servants on the battlefield? A call goes out from heaven and God says, “You bring him in fire and in a whirlwind!”

And why did Elisha need to see this? Because he had to give testimony to the inspired author of 2 Kings. Do you really think that God does not know the greatest desires of his servants’ hearts?

This is not the last time we see Elijah in the Bible. There comes a time again when God tells Elijah, I want you to go down to a mountain again. In Luke chapter 9, we read:

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:28-31 ESV)

Elijah here sees the glory of God—he looks into the eyes of the Savior of the world! That’s what Elijah saw. He saw, “Lord it wasn’t enough that all the Northern Kingdom would reject their idolatry and turn to the Lord, you wanted men, women and children form every tribe and tongue and nation to see the glory of God. It all makes now.”

And that’s how God works. He gets at our most fundamental idolatry and he crushes it in his unfathomable love and we go on in our lives understanding that

Don’t underestimate God. Don’t underestimate his ruthless, compassionate commitment to his glory or his commitment to your everlasting joy. He will pursue you compassionately and ruthlessly and rip out the idols that would otherwise consume you and destroy you.

I want to ask Elijah what the Lord said to him after his return from the mount of Transfiguration—and I want to ask him what he said. Because there we see the Lord give him more than we could ever ask or even think when we think that the Lord had taken away more than we ever wanted.

That’s the God you preach. That’s the God we proclaim. Don’t think that he will use you as his servant and leave you to writhe in your disappointments because he has a plan for your everlasting joy in your declaration of the gospel that gives everlasting joy to all in the nations who embrace it.

The Lord does not treat his servants lives as cheap.

Believe that. And as we live between 2 Cor 4-6, do not lose heart because at those very moments comes the greatest tests. What you do in those moments means everything. Can we not because of Paul’s instruction say we shall not be despondent like Elijah but say, “Lord, this is what you built me for.”

My notes from David Platt’s session (paraphrased)

I have one overarching truth that I want to communicate as clearly and as biblically as possible: A high view of God’s sovereignty fuels death-defying devotion to global missions. Another way to put it, pastors who believe that God is sovereign over all things will lead Christians to die for the sake of all peoples.

I want to show you this in Revelation chapter 5. And I want to be clear on a few underlying premises so you can understand where we’re going and hopefully defuel some objections:

Local mission and local ministry are totally necessary. We should never neglect this at any point. There are hurting people, broken marriages in our churches. We must not neglect local ministry to the body, nor should we to the body. I want to encourage ever member of our body to make disciples in our local community.

Global missions is tragically neglected. I was near Yemen not too long ago—it has approximately 8 million people in the northern part of the country. How many believers are there? They estimate no more than 20-30. There are more Christians in our Sunday Schools than in the entirety of Northern Yemen. They are among the 2 billion people globally who are unreached—they have no access to the gospel. They’re not just lost, they are lost and have no Christian, no Church to share the gospel by which they might be found.

Pastors have the privilege and responsibility to lead the way in global missions. To the pastor belongs the privilege and the responsibility of the missionary problem—George Pentecost. It is the responsibility of the pastor to feel the weight and fan the flame of global missions in every local church.

Pastors love people. They want to see people  be saved and worship the living God. That is Global missions.

What drives all of this—rock solid confidence in the sovereignty of God over all these things. And I want to show you that in Revelation 5. From this text, I want to show you four theological truths and four practical applications.

Four Theological Truths

Our sovereign God holds the destiny of the world in the palm of his hand. The palm of his hand contains God’s sovereign decrees for the final glorification of all believers and damnation of all unbelievers. It is all in the palm of his hand. Nature, the sun, the stars—he is sovereign over all. There is not a speck of dust that exists apart from the sovereignty of God. Our God charts the course of countries. He holds rulers in the palm of his hand. Our God is sovereign over every single world leader—over you, me, everyone.

He creates all things, knows all things, has authority over all things. He has all the rights! Christian, you have no rights. God along has all rights. He has the right to save sinners and he has the right to damn sinners.

What about human responsibility? Man makes decisions, God is sovereign over them.

Tozer:

Almighty God, just because He is almighty, needs no support. The picture of a nervous, ingratiating God fawning over men to win their favor is not a pleasant one; yet if we look at the popular conception of God that is precisely what we see. Twentieth century Christianity has put God on charity. So lofty is our opinion of ourselves that we find it quite easy, not to say enjoyable, to believe that we are necessary to God. But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God’s free determination, not by our desert nor by divine necessity. . . . Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his listeners, not only for the heathen but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of younger persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today.

Brothers and sisters, God does not need you, he does not need me. He does not need your church or mine. They all could drop dead and God would still make his name great among the nations. He involves us not because he needs us but because he loves us. But be sure of this, that our sovereign God holds the fate of all things in his hand.

The state of man before God apart from Christ is utterly hopeless. (Rev. 5:2-4) The fate of all things are in these scrolls—who is able to open them? The silence of heaven testifies to the state of man. John is weeping. There is no one apart from Christ who is worthy to open the scrolls. See the need. Apart from Christ, man is separated from God, condemned by God . . . Thomas Watson said thus it is in hell that they would die but cannot. Do you see why John is weeping? This is no casual matter. We say things like “You have a hell of a time” or “you played a hell of a game” and it just shows we have no idea what we’re talking about.

Just pause for a moment and contemplate the state of the unreached in the world. People who exist before God apart from Christ who have never even heard of him. Now they have heard of God, or rather have seen him (Rom. 1). Every unreached person has knowledge of God—even if they haven’t heard the gospel, they have seen him, have knowledge of him and rejected him. People ask me about the innocent man in Africa who never hears the gospel—what happens to that guy when he dies? That’s easy: He goes to heaven. The problem is, there’s no such thing as an innocent man.

There are over 2 billion people in the world whose knowledge of God is only sufficient to damn them to hell. Forever.

They know he exists.

They’ve rejected him.

They deserve his wrath.

And that’s where their stories end.

They exist before God apart from Christ and they are utterly hopeless in their state.

But there is hope.

The greatest news in all the world is that the slaughtered Lamb of God reigns as the Sovereign Lord of all.

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the Branch of David has come and he has conquered and we need weep no more. Men have come, women have come, generation after generation, every single man and every single woman succumbed to death. But then came another man, unlike any man before or after. This man did not fall prey to sin. This man was not enslaved to Satan, this man would crush that snake.

How has he conquered? Isaiah prophecies that the Lion would suffer as a Lamb, being crushed for our sins. He is the slaughtered Lamb of God and yet he stands. He has not only defeated sin, but he has defeated death. The one who has defeated death bears the marks of death.

In verse seven we are astonished to read that he is the one to take the scroll from the hand of the one who sits on the throne. Jesus walks up and takes the scroll. The slaughtered Lamb rules as the Sovereign Lord over all. God doesn’t share the spotlight with just anyone—he only shares the spotlight with himself.

[Jesus] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:7-11 ESV)

The atonement of Christ is graciously, globally and gloriously particular.

Follow this:

            And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)

He has ransomed you—he has purchased you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6 ESV)

Christ purposed to purchase you—you! Don’t forget this. Before the sun was even formed, before a star was even put in the sky, before mountains were ever established on the earth, almighty God on high set his sights on your soul and he purposed to save you. He sent his Son according to the purposes of his will to save you.

We’re talking about unreached people—and we need to remember that you and I had nothing to do with where we were born. God the Father purposed that we would be born in a nation where we would be reached.

It is gloriously personal, but it’s also globally particular. There are over 11 thousand people groups in the world—and God has purposed to save men and women from among all of them. The atonement is globally particular. Matthew 28:19-20 is a command to make disciples of all the nations. And if there are people groups that are unreached, then we have missed the point of the atonement. Particular atonement is driving global missions.

If we believe that God has purposed to reach people from among all people groups, what drives passion to reach them? Guilt? No, it’s glory–it’s our belief that God has purposed to reach people from all people groups!

In his sovereignty he has ordained to make for himself a kingdom of priests from all peoples and nations. (Rev. 5:11-14)

This is what we live for, this is what we die for.

Four Practical Applications

Let us lead our churches to pray confidently for the spread of the gospel. God’s sovereignty does not negate prayer. God’s sovereignty necessitates prayer. Pastors, let’s teach our people to pray, “Your Kingdom come!” Tell them about Matthew 24:14 and tell them to pray for that! Show them how to pray for Saudi Arabs and the Brahman of India and assure them that every one of their prayers is piling up at the altar of God and one day God will bring about his kingdom.

Let us lead our churches to give sacrificially. Christians in North America give about 2.5 percent of their income to their local churches and the local church gives about 2 percent to global missions. That means that for every $100 we earn, 5¢ are given to global missions. By all estimates, we are the richest people to ever live—why? I’m convinced Psalm 63 has the answer. The Sovereign God has ordained that we be wealthy so that he may be glorified in the world.

Let us lead our churches to go to unreached peoples. We must lead our people to do wise short-term missions, mid-term and long-term missions. There’s no question that in the New Testament that we see Timothy-types and Paul-types. There are men and women in your church whom God is calling to pack their bags and spread the gospel through unreached people groups. Are you encouraging them? Are you taking time to speak specifically to them, leading your church to fast and pray for them and just waiting until he answers? Are you listening to see if he’s calling you to this?

Let us lead our churches to die willingly for the spread of the gospel to all people. Pastors with a high view of God’s sovereignty will lead people to die for the spread of the gospel. We’ve already seen how the gospel compels us to go, but we are also confident as we go because we know that nothing can happen to us apart from the sovereign will of our good and gracious God.

Do not dread suffering, God has ordained suffering. We must embrace suffering. We should not seek suffering, but we should embrace it. How did the gospel spread from Judea to Samaria? Through the stoning of Stephen. Satan’s attempts to stop the Church only serve to spread the Church.

Will we lead people in our churches to embrace suffering as God’s means for spreading the gospel? Will we lead them to die willingly?

Pastors, let us be finished and done with puny theology that leads us to paltry approaches to global missions.

My notes on Kevin DeYoung’s message on 1 Corinthians 15:10 (paraphrased)

In my perception, I believe all the good we see in this new resurgence—and there is much that is good that ought to be celebrated—we are known, I hope, by our commitment to the Scriptures, to biblical manhood and womanhood, to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, to the doctrine of justification by faith and to the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These ought to be celebrated.

But there are two areas in which I believe that we need to grow. The first is in global missions, in calling young men and women to go to the outermost parts of the world with the gospel.

The other is personal holiness. We are to strive for progressive, personal, actual holiness without which we will not see the Lord.

Is there anything more important than this? Do you not want to see the Lord? Because there are some who will not be in his presence. If there is not a desire and fight for holiness, you have to wonder if you are saved.

Those most passionate about the gospel of God’s free grace should be most passionate about the pursuit of godliness. The question in this message is not about why, but about how we grow in holiness. What will we do to help and say to those we serve to grow in itty bitty steps toward godliness?

In 1 Cor. 15:10, Paul writes:

 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Here he says two things that seem contradictory, but are not. If we are to grow in holiness we must hold these two things together. He says, I’m working hard—but all that hard work I’m doing, it’s the grace of God in me. So we need to know two things:

1. We need to work hard
2. We need to experience God’s grace working in us

Growth in holiness requires Spirit-powered, gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort.

So what do these things mean? How does it work?

We use these phrases all the time, but we don’t communicate how it works—“bathe it in prayer,” “soak in the Spirit,” and so on—some are biblical, but they become clichés when we don’t explain what they mean.

Spirit-Powered

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is power. (Eph. 3:16:“…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being”)

The Spirit, Romans 8 says, this Spirit that dwells within us is the same that raised Jesus from the dead. This is good news! Defeatist Christians who do not fight sin are not being humble, they dishonor the Holy Spirit who strengthens us with spiritual power.

The Spirit is light. He reveals sin. (John 3) He will expose the world’s sin—he turns on lights! This is what happens when you really preach with power and conviction—rats are going to scurry. Sinners do not want to walk in the light, but when you preach part of what you’re doing is shining a bright spotlight onto people’s sin. The Spirit works to reveal sin and to reveal truth.

He throws a spotlight on sin and truth but he also draws our attention to Christ. When the Spirit converts and regenerates the heart of the sinner, it is never apart from throwing a spotlight on the glory of Christ—causing them to see Christ!

We become what we behold. We look at Christ to become like Christ. And when the light comes on and you run to the darkness, the Bible causes that resisting, quenching, grieving the Spirit.

Spirit powered sanctification shows us our sin and shows us our Savior.

Gospel-Driven

Good deeds flow out of the good news, but how? How does it work?

It drives us to good deeds out of a sense of gratitude (Romans 12). It is not a desire to repay God, but a sense of gratitude for all that he’s done. Gratitude—the kind of experience of humility that comes with gratitude tends to crowd out the unseemly attitudes. If you have an anger problem, you can be sure you’ve got a gratitude problem. The gospel drives us to godliness out of gratitude.

It drives us to godliness by revealing to us who we are. If we are dead to sin, why live in it? If we have been raised with Christ, why continue in it? If you have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places, why live in hell? Here’s where you must do Spiritual warfare with the Sword of the Spirit and remember that there is no condemnation in Christ (Rom 8:1).

Here, I think is the central motivation for holiness in the New Testament: It’s to be who you are. To understand your union and identity in Christ and be who you are.

Our culture resonates with an idea that is true: You cannot be someone other than who you are. “We’re just born this way,” as the song goes. As Christians, we come along and say, “You’re right, but the gospel tells you can be born again. You cannot be who you are not, but if you are in Christ, you can be like him.”

Faith-Fueled

Here’s where we have to be careful—we’re saved by faith, but we’re also sanctified by faith. But we have to understand what we mean by saying “by.” We’re justified by faith—it’s not anything we do. We come along and say, we’re sanctified by faith and it just confuses people. It’s better to use the language that Scripture uses, that we’re sanctified as we believe in the promises of God, as we look to our identity in Christ… and we live in them. Look at the Beatitudes:

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Here, Jesus gives a promise. Be meek, inherit the earth. Jesus says, “if you want to be great—be meek. I don’t know if you’ll have a big church, a big house, but I’ll give you the earth.”

Faith fueled sanctification believes the promises of God, believing with all our hearts that God’s promises are true and living as if they’re true.

Effort

I’m not saying that we’re justified by faith and the work is just our own apart from it. The call of Christian preaching should never be to make people better apart from the faith, belief—but we must not let “effort” become a four-letter word in our vocabularies.

Luke 13:24, 1 Cor. 9:24-27, Phil 3:12-14, 2 Pet. 1:5

Christians work. We work to kill the flesh and be alive in the Spirit. Ryle said that the child of God has two great marks about him: His inner peace and his inner warfare. We are at rest with God and never at peace with sin, and the flesh.

Is sanctification monergistic or synergistic? Those are the wrong terms to use. Who sanctifies you, you or God? Yep. God sanctifies me as I work out my sanctification. We cannot simply say, “Look to the Lord.” We can’t simply say, “Get gripped by the gospel.” We don’t want to fall into “let go and let God.” Sanctification is not by surrender, but by divinely driven toil and effort.

Let me drive this down to us and apply it—how does this work?

Pastors, you know and have been hearing that being a pastor is hard work. We work long hours, weekends, we don’t have the luxury of knocking back early Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday evening. We work hard. Sometimes you do have to leave the vacation early. Sometimes you do miss the soccer game. Sometimes you’re working on a sermon and it’s a labor of love—but sometimes it’s a lot more labor… The people who get bored by their sermons first are the pastors. They’re the ones who are always introducing new gimmicks. But we’ve got to be working hard as we preach. We’ve got to toil. Struggle with his energy. To proclaim him and present others to him in Christ.

It is not possible to work too hard, just like it’s impossible to talk about the gospel too much. But you can approach work in a very truncated way. So no one here is in danger of working too hard—we’re in danger of working foolishly.

Work hard at fighting distracted. Work hard at resting. Work hard at being present at home. Work hard at guarding your day off. Working 80 hours is easy—working 40, 50, 60 takes effort. You have to guard your time, to schedule. It’s the easiest job in the world to be an unashamed workaholic and be totally lazy.

What does it mean to give this vision to our people? I think many of us are getting scared of telling our people that the Bible would have them do some stuff and not do some stuff. The Bible’s full of commands. If we’re not teaching our people to obey the commands of Jesus, we’re not fulfilling the Great Commission.

People talk about the dangers of legalism and anti-nomianism: On one side, you have to do all of these things on the other, you have these folks who say, it doesn’t matter how you live. But here’s what I think is plaguing our churches: The world looks at us and the world is very concerned that we’re homophobic. I think God’s much more concerned that we might be nomophobic, afraid of the Law. We might be afraid of the third use of the Law. We need to get a grip on this.

We’re good with using the Law to convict and lead to the gospel—but then you could say that the gospel leads to the Law. We should not be afraid to say that the Bible insists that God’s people obey its commands.

If you preach on David and Bathsheba, and you don’t preach about the problem of sexual sin, you’re not teaching the text. In Luke 18, Jesus shares a parable encouraging people to pray and not lose heart. There’s a way to preach this so that everyone in your church feels guilty for everything in it. You don’t preach legalistically—so what do we do? We need to infuse the gospel into the command.

We preach not just the content but the mood of the content. You cannot assume that everyone in your church only needs a kick in the pants or only needs a hug. If it’s not gospel of me to exhort these people to obedience, I just shouldn’t say it. Making an effort is not somehow sub-holy. Don’t give people have a Savior, don’t give them half of grace. Give them the grace that will change how they live.

These issues matter because some of us here and some in our churches are stalled out in their sanctification because of lack of effort. They need to toil, fight in Spirit-fueled, gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort. Without this, it’s like teaching pigs to fly. When it comes to sanctification, holiness does not happen apart from trusting and trusting does not put an end to trying.