Judg 2:21+22, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not." 
	We have spent the last two sessions looking at the fact that the Lord tests His Chosen as to their deepest commitment and dedication unto being His people. It is exemplified as the refinement of precious metal by the fiery blasts of His billowing breath which purges away all the dross and impurities of our selfishness and self-centeredness. The Lord works and works and works again and again through all the trials and the tribulations of this age to make us ever more pure expressions of His indwelling essence. 
	Let us be very clear on this, because there have been some who have given a perverted view of this whole process. We are not and never ever will become as gods unto ourselves. All of this refining is not to make us little deities who can stand alone in this world. 
Everything that we undergo is in order that we become the bearers of the light of Christ. He is the One Who is evidenced through more and more clarified and precise lenses as we reflecting His life emanating from within us. 
John stated this so succinctly in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease. The Lord is taking us through the process of that death to self in order that the life of Christ be so much more clearly and precisely and manifestly presented to this world in which we sojourn.
	We pick up here with the statement of the Apostle Paul to the church at Rome, in Rom 8:26-32. Please open to it in your Bibles. We are shown how the Holy Spirit is actively working within us to cause us to become more and more perfectly aligned to the purposes of God through all that comes into our lives.
	Rom 8:26-32, And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 
    	We have the Holy Spirit working so dynamically and keenly to show us the will of God in all that comes our way. Nothing enters into our lives without being part of His great plan of love for us! Everything comes to us only in the way in which it will serve the purpose of God. This is in order to cause us to more fully know Him in the increasing growth of our relationship of trust and honor and obedience. 
	The Apostle further details this in 1 Thess 2:1-4. He states the reason that we can so absolutely hold to the truth of the Word of God in our lives. It is not by the whims of man that this is being proclaimed. It is all the expressed Gospel of the Living Lord Jesus Christ, brought forth through the triumph of His resurrection power. This is what is preached and expounded upon to those who know the truth of His eternal life. It is all borne from the work of the Lord as He establishes everything that is truly spoken in His name! The ministry of the Good News springs forth from the reality of Who He is and how He works in the lives of His people. 
	1 Thess 2:1-4, For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts. 
       	As mentioned, we are looking at how the Lord works in our lives through all the trials and tribulations which determine just how much we truly are His people. It is as we go through all those fiery testings of our faith that we are established and grounded in our utter reliance upon God to meet our every need! He is absolutely made to be our everything! 
This brings us to the 11th and 12th Chapters of the Letter to the Hebrews. This is an awesome recounting of how faith is established, maintained, and strengthened through all the tribulations of this world. Please open to Heb 11:32-12:13 in order that we can be encouraged as we face all trials and tribulations in the knowledge that we are not alone in any of it! Those who have endured far greater torments, torture, and death are watching our struggles. They are holding us to the task of going forward, ever forward in our walk in Jesus Christ!
	Heb 11:32-12:13, And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. 
	Notice the key component of this whole process of our testings and trials. The Lord is treating us as we are, His sons and His daughters. He is working to establish our strength and growth into adulthood as His own family. He wants us to become men and women who are strong in our faith and our perseverance and our establishment and our glorification as His own beloved children. He has chosen us unto Himself from before the creation of any of the eternal ages were even put into place. It is such a tremendous thing to know that all that we undergo is never for our undoing, but only for our being built up into men and women of God who are living testimonies of His Love and His Grace and His Mercy and His all-sufficiency. 
	James describes the outworking of this establishment in our faith as it is refined through the fires of tribulation and put into action in our lives. This is recounted in James 1:5-12, if you would please open to it. There is a solid assurance of the hand of God operating in the lives of those who have been brought, by Him, through each trial and testing! Everything that is needed to bear up under the pressure and the strain and the demands of this walk is fully supplied in Jesus Christ as He works within us to establish and to maintain our onward focus upon His glory. 
James 1:5-12, But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. But let the brother of humble circumstances glory in his high position; and let the rich man glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and withers the grass; and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 
    	The Apostle Peter, then, in 1 Peter 1:3-9, brings this entire consideration to its climax. The fact is that all that we undergo on this earth is for the blessing and the glory and the praise of God on high. Everything needs to be focused onto the fact that it shows just how much God has given of Himself unto this work in His created beings, whom He loves with a love unending. He has done it all for the purpose of showing that He desires to establish this great relationship of love with and in those whom He has brought forth for the sake of His saving grace! He is working to share the magnitude of His so great love, in order to love a people unto Himself. 
	1 Peter 1:3-9, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 
	Everything we undergo on this earth, in the testings and the trials lead to the establishment of our ever more perfect relationship with God. This death to self is exceedingly more than worth it! Eternity will be insufficient for the full revelation of all that God has done to save us unto Himself. The entirety of the ages upon ages will only be adding to the glory and the praise and the worship of God as He is lauded by us for His great work of salvation and sanctification. We will be first hand witnesses of just how much it means to know Jesus - crucified, resurrected and glorified! We will all be adding to the songs of adulation by the heavenly throngs of those who have gone before and this also will come after us. 
	The glory and the blessing and the praise and the worship and the honor of the Lord are what are being developed and brought to the forefront of our hearts and minds! This is magnificently proclaimed as we are tried and proven wholly unto Him in this, His life, that we live today!
It was no accident of fate that we have been put on this earth right now to be those testimonies of the work of the Lord. He chose this time for us with all that is part of it in order to bring forth His praise and His glory and His declaration of purpose in us, His people! We may go through many things in our life time, but it will all work together for our good! We will give Him the praise and the worship and the thanksgiving for bringing us through it all. It is His grace and His mercy and His love which is reflected ever more brilliantly through His Chosen people who have undergone and been refined by the fiery power of His breath of loving purification. So be it!
I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Jer 7:23. "But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.' Amen.