Look to God for answers on how to deal with burdens.

Pastor Aaron 00:00 Well, hello Cornerstone. How are you doing? My name is Aaron, and I'm the campus pastor in our old town Scottsdale campus, and I'm thrilled to be sharing part of our morning here with you. Hey Scottsdale, representing you well this morning and then it's Larry in San Tan. Thanks for joining us this morning. You're awesome. You're doing great out there winning people for Christ in the San Tan valley, and then welcome to everybody else and everybody online. We're so glad that you're joining us here in week four of the series Dumb things Christians say; and if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab that and open it up to II Corinthians Chapter One. If you didn't bring a Bible that's totally cool. You can just steal the one from the guy or girl sitting next to you and now you have one and open it up to II Corinthians. Or, you don't have to do that. That was supposed to be a joke. You don't have to steal that, but you can open up your phone and you can pull up a Bible online at II Corinthians Chapter One in just a second. Last Sunday was a normal Sunday, or at least it started that way for the people at Sutherland Springs, Texas. In the middle of their worship gathering terror ensued immediately, and half of their congregation was lost. A little over a month ago there were thousands of people gathered in Las Vegas at a country music festival. They all joined there to honestly just have a good time. Families went, and friends and groups of people went to enjoy a night out and just to constantly forget about probably life and then terror intersected their world. Rewind a few months prior to that, our coast of Houston, Texas. The coast of Houston was hit, and Florida and Puerto Rico was just land blasted with hurricanes, and people's worlds were literally turned upside down. Rewind even further than that in this year's history, so to speak, chaos ensued in Charleston, Charlottesville, Virginia, sorry.

Pastor Aaron 03:03 It's almost like these types of things are just more normal and more normal and more normal, and for many of us we can have this interesting reaction to that, that we don't have hurricanes in Arizona and that doesn't happen in my neighborhood and that doesn't, that hasn't happened to me and it's almost like we depersonalize it a little bit, but those are very real people. Businesses that were started, homes that were built, that were then wrecked. Families that got up excited and put their Sunday best on and showed up and some didn't go home. These are very real people on the end of very real human drama where they literally felt that, in that moment, life had given them a lot more than what they can handle. Have you ever had one of those moments before where life was too heavy, and it was more than you can handle it? Anybody ever had that happen to them? Man, all over the room.

Pastor Aaron 04:08 One of my moments was a little over two years ago for our whole family. It was literally like we were stringing together one significant trial after another. The whole process started when we were back in Oklahoma, and there was a group of people that were looking to hire a new senior pastor in Texas. I tell you, this was the dream job for me. Honestly, I was way too young for the big opportunity that God put before me, and I still can't figure out why that happened and we're sitting there excited about the dreams and the hopes and the visions of reaching more people for Christ. I mean, the vision was just so fun to sit in the room and talk about what God could use us to do with this group of people that wanted me to come be their pastor.

Pastor Aaron 05:00 So, a few months go by, and we go down there, and we moved down there, move our whole family. And man, I was fired up. I was so excited as you probably would be on your first day of your dream job; you couldn't wait to get going. So, we start moving in and we started doing some things and it's almost like I couldn't get the wrapping paper off the gift yet. It was still on there. Problems began to unearth right under my nose that I didn't know about. I thought everything was going great, but apparently for a few it wasn't. Some of the same folks sat in my living room and heard of the dreams and visions of what God could do. Well, it got pretty ugly. One night it kind of caps itself off. We were cooking dinner, and my wife was eight months pregnant with our fourth child. Three was fine, four's a crowd. It's tough. If you have more than you, like we went from a man to man defense to zone quick and it was a lot. My wife was eight months pregnant. It was a lot. That, in and of itself was a lot, and this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back because it was just so intense what we were walking through. And, she turns around in the kitchen. Something happens where I think a plate drops. It doesn't, my memory's a little fuzzy. But I remember that being a moment where she rushes off, and I thought she was going to the bathroom or whatever. I'm a guy. I thought of two things: clean the kitchen and get the kids food. That's all I can think of. So, I did that and then I went to find her, and she wasn't in the house. She was actually in our driveway between our two cars. She was sitting on the ground and she was literally crying so hard and like she couldn't get any air. I'd never seen her like that before. Aaron it's just too much. It's too much. How can it be like this? I thought God brought us here. I thought God led us to this moment, and this is more than we can handle. What in the world is going on? Through much prayer and honest to goodness standing before people defending my decisions and my character, I just felt like it was best for us to say, "You know what? I think I'm a square peg in a round hole."

Pastor Aaron 07:16 So, June 1st a couple of years ago, my son was born, and we wound up moving. As soon as he was born, we packed up a moving truck and, and we did what every 33-year-old man dreams of doing. We move back in with mom and dad. I'm extremely grateful for that, but that alone was intense in and of itself. It was like another burden that I'd now heaped onto my mom and dad that they didn't necessarily need to carry that. And as we're there trying to navigate our next steps and praise God, it wasn't long, honestly. That moment wasn't long, but around every corner, another curve ball and other trial, something else came to us. We go to the doctor and my wife we found out was diagnosed with cancer. If you ever have one of those moments where you just keep throwing it on you man. It's like I felt like I was at literally a salad bar and I just kept getting more thrown on me over, over and over and over again. Well-meaning Christians will come and say, "hey, just remember God doesn't give you more than you can handle." And I'm sitting here thinking, really? Are you kidding me right now? Like I feel like God is not even aware of what's going on in our world, let alone does He even care, and I can't breathe. I've got to provide, and I feel crumbled because of what life has thrown at us. You see? I think you get this too.

Pastor Aaron 07:16 You've walked through something. Maybe you want to work. You would love to work, and it's not for lack of effort. You've gone on 37 interviews, 12 Skype interviews, and it's just not happening, and the bills are piling up. Your family is depending on you. You've shared this with people around you and they understand. But the reality, and you're feeling the pressure and then somebody comes along side you and says, "hey, remember God won't give you more than you who can handle", and you're thinking, what are you saying? Maybe you have tried to conceive, and you've miscarried and miscarried and miscarried and miscarried and miscarried over and over and over again, and the struggle of that is so real. And then somebody comes along side of you and says, "hey, remember God won't give you more than you can handle." That's a lot, and I don't want to vilify people who have said that because I've said things like that and probably you have too, and we're trying to be helpful. But can I tell you something today? Telling somebody that's in the thickest trial and the heaviest trial of their life - when you tell them, and I tell them that God won't give them more than they can handle, it just doesn't sit on the heart well.

Pastor Aaron 10:12 So, what do we do? Well, I'm here to tell you today that God often gives us more than we can handle, but never more than He can handle. Isn't that a great truth today? To know that if you're in the middle of the trial of your life or you've ever walked through one, to understand this: that God often allows these burdens and these trials of this human experience and this drama called life. He allows those things to be heavy and to feel so intense. But listen, it is more than you can handle, but it isn't more than God can handle, and there is hope in that today.

Pastor Aaron 10:55 The reality is that there is a man in the scripture who knows a lot about this experience. His name is Paul, and Paul's journey in his life was literally like every time he turned around. Yep. There was a moment. Yep. There's another moment. Yet there's another moment. He's up against this church who doesn't understand that this is sometimes what following Jesus looks like. Nobody ever said that when you come to Christ, it gets easier. Sometimes, church, sometimes it gets harder. It feels like it's more than you can handle because it is, but now you have an escape. You have a way out. His name is Jesus, and it's never more than He can handle.

Pastor Aaron 11:43 So, Paul was going to walk us through this with this church in Corinth. He's going to help us in such a great way to where we can walk out of this room today being helpful for those are in the thick of it. We're going to help you, but we're also going to navigate those of us who, we see people and notice, and we've walked through a struggle, but we want to be a person of help and hope and comfort. God's going to provide a way for all of us to get something out of this today. So, if you would open your Bibles to II Corinthians I, and let's see exactly what Paul puts before us today. He says in verse three, "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." Did you catch that? Did you see what he called God? He called him a father. Man, that's so important because some of us today didn't have very good dads, and maybe your earthly father was not there, he wasn't aware, he wasn't present. I don't want you to project your experience of your earthly father upon your Heavenly Father because God isn't a God who is unaware and is distant from you. Say "God's not like that." Say that. God is not like that. God is present. He is aware. He is standing at the edge of Heaven leaning in to what you're going through in your life.

Pastor Aaron 13:08 Now some of you might say, "I don't feel like that." The truth of the matter is when I've walked through what I've walked through, I didn't feel like that either. I'm like, somebody would tell me God's standing at the edge of Heaven waiting to move into your life. I'm like, time like that guy's weird because that isn’t happening to me. I feel like God has got me on mute. You're in good company because I think there's some fellow strugglers in here who have felt the same way. Also, there's a guy in the Bible in the Old Testament and his name is Isaiah. Isiah 51:9, this is what he says to God among his trial. He says, can you hear me? And then it gets even more bold. Wake up! Can you even hear me with what I'm going through God? And I want you to wake up to the realities of my struggle. Can I tell you something today? God isn't scared with your honesty. God isn't scared with that level of transparency in the midst of your pain. God wants to hear that, and as a matter fact with the Prophet Isaiah, He says in verse 12 of that very same chapter that God moves in and He rushes in like a tidal wave and brings only what God could bring to Isaiah's distress. It was God's comfort. The Father of mercy and the God of all comfort stepped in. He heard, and He moved into action in the Prophet Isaiah's life, and he does it for you too.

Pastor Aaron 14:41 Now, if you're a parent today, you understand that idea of providing for your children what they need in their moment of distress. You get it. I get it too. This last week, we were sitting down and my oldest daughter, her name is Sydney, and she apparently had a pretty rough day at school and she just started letting it all out. Apparently, there was a Veteran's Day assembly, and she told some kid to stop messing with their backpack and that was it. And then, as they walk back to the classroom, the teacher pulls Sydney and this boy out into the hallway. All the fifth-grade rooms are open, and she says, "of all the people you should know better." She starts pointing at her. She says, "Dad, I felt like she was speaking to me in bold font", and she starts crying and we start leaning in. I don't know how Joy felt. I'm pretty sure I saw her eyes, and she was welling up with tears. I was welling up with tears. My heart hurt because her heart hurt. I stepped in as a dad and just listened. I was present. I was there with her, and my wife was present and there with her. As she began to share, we just kept saying, yeah, and what else and what else and what else? And she began to share more and more and more, and then before the conversation was over, my wife kind of comes around the other side of the table, picks her up and just let her sit on her and cry more. And why is that important? Because that's what a loving father does. That's what a loving mother does. That's what a loving friend does. And church, that's what your Heavenly Father does for you. He listens. He engages, and He brings the only relief that you can find in this world and it is His comfort.

Pastor Aaron 16:28 Now, the problem with comfort is that we've kind of hijacked that word in our culture. It's gone soft, and for those men in the room, they're like, "geez, is he going to talk about comfort all day?" That sounds really, really weak. Sorry. That's the whole theme of the sermon, but it's not weak when you know what it is. You see, we think of comfort, like comfort food. Y'all got comfort food. I know you do. I don't know what it is for you, but for me it's Cracker Barrel. I don't know why you're laughing. I'm being serious. It's Cracker Barrel. As a matter of fact, we were there this week, and I love those biscuits. So, you open those warm biscuits, and you put a little bit of butter on it and some apple butter and some of you don't even know what I'm talking about right now, but then you put that right there and you wait. That's the key. And you let all that stuff happen, and you eat some of your meal. Then you pick that biscuit up and you bite that. It's, I'm telling you, it is a hug for the soul. Mmmm. Man, it feels like home. It's a snuggie man. You just feel so good when you eat that. It's comfort food. It's like comfort zones. We know that: don't push me outside of my comfort zone because I get uncomfortable. The reality is that many of us, when we think about the comfort of God, that's what we think about. It makes me feel all warm and cozy like a snuggie. It makes me feel like I feel when I'm at home at Thanksgiving and I'm eating Pecan Pie and Blue Bell ice cream. Like, that just makes me feel so good. That's not the comfort of God. Really, when the word was translated, the better way of translating is strength. It's courage. It's bravery. It has nothing to do with the warm fuzzies, but everything to do with this concept of fortified of soul. Its fortified where you stand up straight and you hold on because you know who's holding you. One scholar even says it like this, that the idea of what Paul's talking about is not some tranquilizing dose of grace that only dulls the pain. It's not a pill that you pop like a spiritual Lortab that fixes all things. It's not that, but a stiffening agent that fortifies one in heart, mind, and soul. God's comfort strengthens weak knees and sustains sagging spirits so that one faces the troubles of life with unbending resolve and unending assurance. That is what the comfort of God provides a fellow struggler when life has given you more than you can handle. It's not mamby pamby weak and a warm and snugly. It is this idea of "No! God's got this s got this." And He strengthens your mind. He strengthens your heart. He strengthens your soul, and He provides an unwavering and unending strength that can only be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. It can only be found in Him. Let that comfort meet you where you are today.

Pastor Aaron 19:50 Paul moves on in verse four, and he says that this God of comfort, what does he do? He comforts us in all our affliction. I love that word - all. It's such a copeful word. It's not in some, not just the ones that other people afflict on him here. The ones that I inflicted upon myself. It's all of them. It's everything. But, as far as A is from Z, East is from West, and everything that encompasses all that, guess what? It's all of them, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Basically, what Paul's saying is there isn't an affliction in this life that I have gone through, that the comfort of God hasn't matched. Isn't that good news? This guy Paul was shipwrecked, beaten near death, whipped three times, stoned almost to the point of death, lost at sea, danger in the wilderness, and danger in the city. Listen, the men and women led to Christ straight up turned their backs on him and went after him. He was hungry, thirsty, naked, and prayed God to remove some sort of ailment and God never did. This is the guy in that moment that, if it were me, the best option would have been to run. Have you ever felt like that when life just gave you too much? Running sounds like a feasible option for relief. Who's with me on that? Sometimes running makes you feel, if I just run over here, maybe if I just quit this whole church thing or I quit this whole Jesus thing, that maybe the relief will actually come over here. If we run, we are running away from the only source of comfort there is. If we choose to run, we are running away from the only source of comfort that there is. There's a gift if we don't run. Did you catch the other part of the verse, "so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God.”?

Pastor Aaron 22:10 The gift of walking through that intense moment is that. Listen, there are people around us who have walked through a tough time too, and they received the comfort of God, and as they receive the comfort of God and they notice what you're going through, God does something crazy and He brings it on their mind or upon their heart and they move into action and they literally spill their comfort that they've been given over on to you. So, there's something that happens when God gives you comfort in your trouble. You are given an abundance of comfort. God is not stingy with His comfort to His children. God gives you like a double portion of that, over flowing in that. And then there is more. Well, what are we supposed to do with the more? There's a purpose to the more. My wife was just telling me of this lady that she teaches with, and she honestly didn't tell a lot of people, which is mostly our problems when we're going through struggles, whether we feel like we got ourselves into the problem or we're embarrassed by whatever it is. Or, it's our rugged individualism that makes us feel like we can take care of this, whatever that is. She opened up and told her, I'm actually going in for surgery. What are you going into surgery for? Well, I have brain tumors. My wife, a struggler with cancer and a survivor of cancer, has a moment as she has received great comfort from faithful men and women of God and a great church family that she has been doused with that comfort that she received. Now she is overflowing with faith and encouragement and comfort to this lady. She even spills it over onto her in the hallway at school. There it is. That's the point.

Pastor Aaron 24:04 One of the points that we have got to embrace today is that we have got to realize that when we walk through these things, it's not for just ourselves. You weren't given that comfort to be a reservoir, but you were given that comfort to be a river of life into the hearts and lives of other people that you live around. God did not comfort you, and He did not comfort me in my struggle to be comfortable again. He gave me that comfort, and He gave you that comfort so that you could be a comforter. There's a purpose for the pain. Don't waste it. Leverage it and use it to bring encouragement to people around you.

Pastor Aaron 24:53 Paul goes on to say here and our next passage right here in verse five, (for really the better word is because) because we share abundantly and Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly and comfort to. It's the idea that the writer of Hebrews explains where, listen, Jesus lived on this earth and he didn't go through anything that you didn't go through either. That every single time he suffered, every single time there was a weakness, God gave Him exactly what He needed in the moment that He needed. If you're in Christ this morning, the same truth is available to you today. As Christ has suffered, you will suffer. As God has comforted Jesus, He will comfort you. He moves on in verse six, "if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort which you experience, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we have endured." So, does God's comfort just show up when it's hard? Don't you wish it was that way like it just happened? That'd be so awesome and easy. But, the reality is that the struggle is awful, and life is real, but how do we get through it? What do we do? Paul calls us to this concept of patient endurance. Well, that sounds exciting. It actually sounds a little lazy to me. Does it sound lazy to anybody else? I’m going to patiently endure. What Paul means is this idea of expectant waiting. It's this intense desire. It's determined and victorious in the midst of the trial because you trust in God. And, it's the patient endurance that activates the comfort of God in our life. It's that resolve of God's got this. I believe in who God is. I know what the principles of this Bible says about God. I will trust in Him and not in my circumstance, and I will activate that feeling. As I do that, as I continue to trust in the most intense season of my life, guess what happens? Comfort comes rushing to you. That strength just shows up. There's that tension of, trusting in God or trusting in something else to get us through this.

Pastor Aaron 27:18 See, the reality is, is many of us instead of activating our faith and activating our trust in God through prayers and through the encouragement of other people, we have a tendency to cope in other ways; to not deal with what we're dealing with. You numb out on Netflix. Can I get a witness? It started off watching season one of Friends, and, oops, oops, it's Thursday. Season ten. Because, you don't want to deal with it. I don't either. My thing is, I ate. I drowned my sorrows in ice cream and food. It is kind of funny, but it wasn't funny because when you add on the physical weight of 40 to 50 pounds, you're carrying that visual picture of what spiritually I was carrying. I was running to the wrong thing. I was activating the wrong area. I was trying to go after all of those things and hoping. Whatever it is in your life - it could be something like eating or it could even be drugs or wrong relationships, whatever it might be for you. The reality is those things seem to promise comfort and fulfillment, but they are so cheap, and they never fulfill their promises. The only thing that activates the comfort of God is the hard work of patient endurance. God has this. God you are in control. God, your word says that you started to work, and you're going to finish it right now into completion. God, I hold on to the fact that when I call out, your word says that you hear me in my affliction. I will land that hard in my heart and hold on to it so tight, and I will trust in you. That activates the comfort that we all long for that we've tried to seek out in other things.

Pastor Aaron 29:36 Verse seven, Paul moves on. There are people in life right now in this room that are like, hey bro, you're awesome, but I'm not in that. I'm not in that "I feel like God has given me more than I can handle moment." You will be. That's what Corinth struggles with. We're not there, bro. We're good. We're great. Following Jesus is awesome. It is, but it will be tested. And Paul says this in verse seven, "Our hope is for you is unshaken." There is a hope. "For we know that you share in our sufferings; you will also share in our comfort." It will come to you like a rushing wave. Now, this next part is really important because Paul could've just talked all about comfort, comfort, comfort, and it's really honestly, it's theological in concept, you know? That's really what. It’s just concepts of comfort, right? But, then Paul says, no, no, no. This is real, and he gives this personal disclosure of his own heart and his own struggle. Listen to what he says in verse eight. He says, "For we do not want you to be unaware brothers, sisters, family, Church of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself." When I read this and studied this this week, I really was like, what is the thing? Like, I want to know what it is. Does anybody else want to know? I want to know what it is because I think that would help me. In reality, knowing what Paul's struggle was, wouldn't help us because it takes us away from the main thing. See, Paul's struggle doesn't really matter what it was. What matters is that his hope was in the right place. What we all can identify with his whatever it was, we've probably felt like Paul has before, as well. Paul is giving us the idea that we felt utterly burden beyond despair. If you've ever hiked down into the Grand Canyon and maybe you wanted to camp down there. They load that donkey or that horse with all the gear that you need to survive, and let's just say the guy overloaded it a little too much. So, that animal takes a step down, down the trail, down the trail, and then before long the weight becomes so heavy. The course is so hard that the animal's legs buckle and fall under pressure. It's too much. I'm looking for the eject button and I can't find it. That's what Paul feels like. It's a cargo ship overloaded with too much cargo. It's too much. It's too much. It's too much. Is there any relief in sight?

Pastor Aaron 32:21 He goes on and he says, and he gives even further detail. Indeed. Verse Nine, "we felt that we had received the sentence of death." Literally, Paul is saying like, this thing is killing me.

Pastor Aaron 32:36 Has your more than you can handle moment - do you feel like it's ever killed you? Did you ever have one of moments where your circumstances are killing you? Awesome. I must be the worst preacher in America to tell you that today, but there is no better place for you to be if you feel like the circumstances of life are taking the life right out of your body. Why? The very next part of the verse says, "but that was to make us not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." If you feel like today that your marriage is busted and broke, your relationship with your child is too far gone and it is not able to repair. If you feel like you are at a dead end job and you're not making a difference in this world, if you feel like you're not doing what God has called you to do and you feel dead in your circumstances, I'm here to tell you that God is an expert at raising the dead, raising a dead marriage, raising a dead situation. Your God in heaven is the God of all comfort and the Father of mercies and He is moving. He is listening and moving towards you and moving with this idea that I see you and I love rescuing people from the jaws of death and snatching them up and giving them new life. This is what God does, man. He's a resurrector. He rescued me from the chains of death and sin and saved me. He rescued me from trouble and brought me new life and told me that you can do it again. The reality is that I've felt like a failure and no good like the world was speaking bold print to me and that I would never be able to do what I'm doing today. God is a resurrected God, and He takes things that feel dead and raises them to new life. If that wasn't good enough, Paul gives this insane hope in verse ten, "He delivered us from such a deadly pearl and He will deliver us again; on Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again."

Pastor Aaron 35:09 The next time you feel like God has given you more than you can handle, I want you to stand on the firm foundation that God has rescued you before and He will rescue you again. He'll do it again. This is the Apostle Paul who was shipwrecked, beaten to death, stoned, left for dead, and a thorn in the side. Nobody's coming. God sent him grace gifts called Titus. He sent him other gifts of other people along the way to help rescue him. Paul is speaking from a personal experience that God has rescued me, and He will do it again. I'm standing before you today as a person who did feel dead, who did feel wasted, who did feel out, and God said, no, I'm not done with you. I've rescued you once, and I will rescue you again. This is what He does. This is who He is. Does God often give us more than we can handle? He sure does but hear me. I love you. He loves you. He never gives you more than He can handle. Never, never.

Pastor Aaron 36:35 Would you pray with me? God, we're grateful that your word is our source of life, and where we find the encouragement today. I'm still praying today. Every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around. How many of you would just be honest enough like Paul gave personal disclosure, like I shared a little bit of my journey with you. How many of you would just say in a moment where nobody's looking, but you just simply raise your hand. You would say, hey Aaron, here's where I'm at right now. I, right now, am in one of those moments where I feel like God has given me more than I can handle. Would you just raise your hand high? Raise it high. All over this room, all over San Tan, Scottsdale. Would you let me pray for you? Raise your hand just as a sign of surrender. God, I'm giving it to you right now on releasing it to you. God, right now, in this moment we, like the Prophet Isaiah, are calling out to you. Can you hear us? Would you wake up to our situation and what we do know is later in verse 12, you move into action providing comfort and God, I pray you do that today. God, that we wouldn't stop in this moment from crying out to you, but we would continue to let our prayers rise to you. God, I pray that our prayers will be spoken in faith, not in despair or in worry because God, here's the deal. We know that you have this under control. And so, God, help us not be tempted to run. Help us not be tempted to run to other things. God, may we stand securely in this moment, trusting in you. God, we live in this space today, victorious from this circumstance, not because we're amazing, not because we're awesome, but because you're amazing and you're awesome. God today would we stand on the firm foundation of your faithfulness in our lives. You've rescued us once. God, we're claiming today in faith that you will rescue us again. God, we pray that you would raise this dead situation to life and faith. God, we're speaking it in faith that you would raise us again. God would you do it again today? Do it again in San Tan. Do it again in Scottsdale. Do it again in this room. In this moment, God raise us to life. We believe this, and we recognize that we can only get through it by the power of your Son, And, it's in that bold name we pray, Amen.



Recorded in Chandler, Arizona.