SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do 1 Peter chapter 1, and we'll read from verse 1 to verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Capodicea, Asia, Bithnea, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, a lasting hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_00: And our key verses for today in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuous of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Though you have not seen him, you love him.
SPEAKER_00: Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's living and active.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just want to be inspired and informed today.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be transformed and changed by the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: You've said in your word that when we receive, acknowledge, and recognize your truth, your truth will set us free.
SPEAKER_00: And we thank you for your truth today.
SPEAKER_00: We pray, O God, that you'll speak to us in a great and mighty way about trials and why you allow them in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we usually want to just go through our day and our week and our life and our years with not many changes, not many interruptions, not many distractions, but we know that life has its twists and turns.
SPEAKER_00: Things happen that are unexpected, they're unforeseen, they come out of the blue.
SPEAKER_00: News that hits us hard, events and circumstances that you didn't see coming.
SPEAKER_00: The death of a loved one, an illness, a relationship that has been broken, and even a heart attack.
SPEAKER_00: There is Max Locato talks about a story about Chippy the Canary.
SPEAKER_00: And he begins by saying Chippy never saw it coming.
SPEAKER_00: One moment he's peacefully perched in his coop cage.
SPEAKER_00: The next moment he's sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
SPEAKER_00: Problems began when his owner decided to clean Chippy's cage with a vacuum cleaner.
SPEAKER_00: So she removed the attachment from the end of the hose and then the phone rang.
SPEAKER_00: She left the uh the hose in the cage.
SPEAKER_00: When she turned to pick up the hose again, she heard a quick sucking sound, kind of like and Chippy got sucked in.
SPEAKER_00: The owner gasped out, uh, gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum cleaner, and quickly opened the bag.
SPEAKER_00: And little old Chippy was still alive in the bag.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
SPEAKER_00: Chippy was stunned but still alive.
SPEAKER_00: He was dirty, he was soiled.
SPEAKER_00: You know the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag, not the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: She ran to the bathroom and immediately put the bird under running water.
SPEAKER_00: But realizing Chippy was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do, and she reached for the hairdryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
SPEAKER_00: Poor Chippy never knew, never saw it coming, never knew what hit him.
SPEAKER_00: A few days after the traumatic event, the reporter that initially had written about the event contacted the owner to see how the bird was recovering, and the owner said, Well, Chippy doesn't sing anymore, he just sits there and stares.
SPEAKER_00: What a description, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
SPEAKER_00: And this describes events that hit our lives, transforms us, changes us when we have things that are unexpected that that occur to us.
SPEAKER_00: We usually try to run from trials, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We have a sense that uh we can do whatever we can to get out of going through trials and situations, but interestingly enough, trials have a way of tracking us down, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: Some folks try to numb themselves, they try to deprive themselves of uh a power, the this power of sensation, of human feelings and emotions, and that's a slow and cruel death, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: As we die emotionally and spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: In this text today, in verse six, we find that there are two words that are joined together that don't really fit in our natural sense when we think about trials.
SPEAKER_00: Verse six, it says, This in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found in result in praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In this you rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
SPEAKER_00: When trials come and tribulations come.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's face it, friends, we're human beings and we are sanctified, we're saved, but friends, when things come upon our hearts that bring frustration and anger and bitterness, we don't respond too well, do we?
SPEAKER_00: Rejoicing is probably not on our minds when we think of trials that hit us unexpectedly.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice when we can avoid trials.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice when the trials are over.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter here puts these two words together in one verse, speaks to us today that it is possible to have this unspeakable joy and a sense of Christ's presence and peace right in the midst of trial and tribulation, whether it's turmoil from within or tribulation and persecution from without.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 4 says, Rejoice in the Lord always.
SPEAKER_00: And again I say rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in the Lord always, and at all times, is our is the command that Paul gives to the Philippians.
SPEAKER_00: In past weeks we talked about how God, through this great mercy, has saved us, has sanctified us, has saved us from the penalty of sin, saved us from the guilt, the death that comes, which is the wages of sin, the Bible says is death.
SPEAKER_00: He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He saved us, then God has sanctified us, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Set us apart to live holy lives free from the power of sin, the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit that keeps us, that guards us, that protects our heart from diving into sin that will bring destruction to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, God has secured and reserved a habitation, a dwelling place for us in heaven, guarded by his power.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We talked last week about when you make a reservation in heaven, God keeps it and God knows you're coming.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: It's not like hotel six sometimes that forget that you're coming.
SPEAKER_00: They'll leave the light on for you.
SPEAKER_00: But we look at our trials, it's hard to rejoice if you look ahead and you just focus on the trials.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the enemy of our soul desires for us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Keep our eyes horizontal on the problems, amen, on the situations.
SPEAKER_00: Wondering how God is gonna do, wondering how we're gonna get through.
SPEAKER_00: What all the what if questions, the what if, the what if, the what if.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are sick of having the what if questions rattle around your mind?
SPEAKER_00: What if, what if, what if?
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we should learn to appreciate trials and tribulations, hardships for what they produce.
SPEAKER_00: For when the pain is gone, we realize the lessons that we have learned.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Not only the lessons that we have learned to add to our faith, but the intimacy and the wonder and the experience and the revelation of knowing Christ in a deeper way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I want to know you in the power of your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us stop right there, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, in the fellowship of your sufferings, do you know that Jesus learned obedience by the things that he suffered?
SPEAKER_00: The very Son of God had to go through suffering in order to passionately obey God's will for his life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I will go and I will die.
SPEAKER_00: He took care of it in the garden, didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I realize the pain and suffering that I'm gonna experience physically, emotionally, spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, uh, Father God, if this cup can maybe pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is the cry for all of us in trials and tribulations that come.
SPEAKER_00: Not my will, not my way.
SPEAKER_00: Not me responding in bitterness and resentment, but allowing you through this trial to mold me and shape me, reveal to me who you are in a greater and mighty way.
SPEAKER_00: So there are four characteristics of trials.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, in verse six, trials are diverse, they are varied.
SPEAKER_00: In the King James, it says manifold.
SPEAKER_00: This word varied speaks of many colored, variegated.
SPEAKER_00: As many as are the colors in the world are the kinds of suffering that folks can experience.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it true?
SPEAKER_00: Trials that you can experience.
SPEAKER_00: Trials come in all shades and use.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live very long to see and hear the pain, the suffering, the sorrow, the trials that this life brings.
SPEAKER_00: The news, the death of a loved one, a lost job, an emotional heartache.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, we're living in a day and age where people are on drugs.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking just about heroin, cocaine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about these drugs because of the emotional and mental anguish and pain that they are experiencing about life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus wants to set us free.
SPEAKER_00: There are three types of trials that we experience.
SPEAKER_00: There's physical trials, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have experienced a physical trial just a couple of weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I wouldn't have uh just don't have a heart attack, okay, is what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the greatest and funnest thing.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' day, we know he went around healing the blind, the deaf, the lame.
SPEAKER_00: He touched and healed the lepers.
SPEAKER_00: We all know people who suffer with physical conditions that we continue to pray for healing.
SPEAKER_00: And the grace and the peace for folks to continue on until the healing takes place, either on this planet or in heaven, when we see him face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: We know that God is our great physician.
SPEAKER_00: We know that God is our healer, that Christ is our healer.
SPEAKER_00: He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_00: So when we pray for physical healing, we pray for God to heal right now.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: But if it does not happen, we pray for the grace and the power to continue on through physical illness and continue to give the Lord all the praise and all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So there is mental or emotional.
SPEAKER_00: As you read the Psalms, you understand that you can relate with David.
SPEAKER_00: He talks about knocking the teeth out of his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: I love that verse.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
SPEAKER_00: But we see all the emotion that's wrapped up in the Psalms as David pours out his heart to the Lord because of his anguish and his emotional state.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Psalm 6, 6, I am weary with my moaning.
SPEAKER_00: Every night I flood my bed with tears, I drench my couch with weeping.
SPEAKER_00: And probably all of us in this room have spent a night with our head on our pillow, crying before the Lord and wondering what is going on, crying out to the Lord, amen.
SPEAKER_00: That the Lord would relieve us, that the Lord would come.
SPEAKER_00: He sees every tear, he hears every cry.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And it is wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Elijah was a great prophet of God.
SPEAKER_00: He uh he said, Yo, you prophets of Baal, let's have a little competition, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You 450, you get your bowl and cook it up and pray to your God and see if God comes, your God comes down and puts fire on the altar.
SPEAKER_00: And if it doesn't, I'll put my sacrifice on and I'll pray to my God.
SPEAKER_00: And the God that I serve will bring fire down on the altar.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: The prophets of Baal cut themselves and prayed and did all their things to try and pray to their false gods.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Elijah prayed, the fire from heaven fell down.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah with the people put to death the 450 prophets of Baal.
SPEAKER_00: He was filled with victory.
SPEAKER_00: That was a victory, amen.
SPEAKER_00: He honored God and he lived for God.
SPEAKER_00: And he preached the wonder of who God is, and God revealed himself in a mighty and powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: But he heard that there was this witchy lady who was queen, Queen Jezebel, and told everybody that he was after Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: And Elijah went running away.
SPEAKER_00: Heard that he that that Jezebel threatened him and wanted him dead, he suffered from fear and hopelessness and exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: And just a little bit after the victory that God gave Elijah, he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.
SPEAKER_00: Take away my life.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the emotional heart in our the emotional being in our uh because we are human beings, is so complex and perplex, perplexing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And we have moments where we don't think we're gonna make it.
SPEAKER_00: There are folks that have pondered suicide.
SPEAKER_00: But God is here to tell us that He's with us, and through every trial and every tribulation, there is an end, and there is the will and the way of God for your life and for mine.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that God works out all things for our good, according to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ today, then you've signed on the dotted line that you've given your heart over to the Master who is Lord and Savior of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So wherever he tells you to go, you go.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever he says for you to do, you do.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever ministry he calls you to do, you do it.
SPEAKER_00: Not out of religious duty, but out of a love and affection for the Savior that loved you and gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That's why we serve, and that's why we love him.
SPEAKER_00: And in the deepest, darkest moments, we understand that Jesus is our great high priest praying for you, praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard of long prayer meetings, but Jesus has been praying for you for well over 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And he sends the Holy Spirit to minister the will and the way of God for your life.
SPEAKER_00: And in your darkest moments, as you cry out to the Lord, realize this that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweated great drops of blood through his pores because of the agony that he knew that he would face on the cross, physically, but also spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of God who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might be the declared righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And because of his sacrifice, because of his victory over death, because of his ascension and glorification into heaven and seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that same victory is ours, and aren't you glad for that today?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Victory in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we we struggle spiritually, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you maybe have been saved for a long, long time, but you're still struggling over the shame and guilt of your life from your past?
SPEAKER_00: God wants to set you free from that.
SPEAKER_00: We wrestle with doubts about God.
SPEAKER_00: We wrestle with expectations that we have with God.
SPEAKER_00: Do we wonder really if God has our best interest in mind?
SPEAKER_00: We feel that down.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting how John the Baptist, man, he was he was a wild dude.
SPEAKER_00: Ate locusts, camel hair, lived out in the desert, baptizing people, wreaking havoc on the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: When he baptized Jesus, he says, I'm not worthy even to unloose Jesus' sandals because I must decrease, but Jesus must increase.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That was the message, the prophetic message of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: But when he gets God into prison, he sent disciples, his disciples, to Jesus, to have them ask Jesus, are you the one, or should we look for another?
SPEAKER_00: How many times have you, maybe in the prisons of your life, when you feel all boxed in, you don't know what God is doing, you ask God, God, are you really real?
SPEAKER_00: Are you there for me?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna see me through?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that, 1 Peter 4, 10 and 11, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.
SPEAKER_00: As good God's stewards, as good stewards of God's varied grace, the same word when it spoke about varied or diverse trials.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves with the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: As many as are the diverse and varied and multicolored trials and tribulations, there are the many wonders of the color of God's grace to meet you where you are.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Where sin abounds, the Bible says, God's grace does much more abound.
SPEAKER_00: Where your trial abounds, God's grace and ministry of the Holy Spirit abounds so much more as you trust him and as you serve him.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, trials cause grief.
SPEAKER_00: We read in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.
SPEAKER_00: We live in a society that doesn't like grief.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to talk about death.
SPEAKER_00: We like to talk about good times, rock and roll, apple pie, and Chevrolet.
SPEAKER_00: We like to talk about things that don't keep us looking at the very urgent, necessary things of life, which is where we will spend eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Trials cause grief.
SPEAKER_00: It means that we are distressed or we're made heavy.
SPEAKER_00: Life has a way of piling on and weighing you down, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Crushing you.
SPEAKER_00: Grief is a normal and healthy expression.
SPEAKER_00: Many feel that they should just smile and say, I'm okay, you're okay.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, bless God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That was the old school when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_00: That was the old way of going to church.
SPEAKER_00: We'd hop in the car and we lived in Long Island and we'd have to drive to the Bronx.
SPEAKER_00: My father passed to the church in the Bronx.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole ride, other than when we were singing glorious praises to God, was my father swinging with his eight-foot arm, trying to keep us back there and keeping the kids all settled.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh we get out of the car after maybe some arguments, and then we turned it on.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, hallelujah, God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And my mother would have my ear like this, as she's as we're walking into church, and she'd be talking to people.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, sister, isn't God good?
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, bless God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, right when she's got my ear squeezing it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
SPEAKER_00: But in those olden days, you had to uh dress for success.
SPEAKER_00: You had to fake it till you make it.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord is calling his church.
SPEAKER_00: To an authenticity that's real.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm hurting.
SPEAKER_00: And I need my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: I need the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to take me up and hold me and embrace me.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the body of Christ does.
SPEAKER_00: Each and every one of us ministers the grace of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Trials bring grease, bring bring grief.
SPEAKER_00: Ancient times, Hebrews took 30 days to grieve.
SPEAKER_00: They would tear their clothes, they'd sit in sackcloth and ashes, and they were allowed to wail.
SPEAKER_00: They were allowed to scream and they were allowed to yell.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do much of that in our funeral services, do we?
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of low-key.
SPEAKER_00: But grief needs to be expressed.
SPEAKER_00: And grief needs to be experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Trials cause grief.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to run from it.
SPEAKER_00: Allow the Lord to express your emotions to him.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that David knew how to encourage himself in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In his times of emotional trauma and distress, David knew how to encourage himself in the Lord by meditation.
SPEAKER_00: Not new age meditation where you hold your finger like this and go, um, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Meditation is focusing your mind on the truth of God, the character of God, the nature of God, the goodness of God, the glory of God, the grace of God, everything about God.
SPEAKER_00: You're running over in your mind and creating a mindset that's renewed and your life is transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Meditation.
SPEAKER_00: I love bringing this meditation up because it's so apropos to my life.
SPEAKER_00: The cow choose its cud.
SPEAKER_00: One stomach.
SPEAKER_00: Bloop.
SPEAKER_00: Back up, choose it again.
SPEAKER_00: Back down to the second stomach, regurgitates it back up.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Five stomachs, regurgitation, meditation.
SPEAKER_00: The cow chooses its cud more.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The cow choose its cud more.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need to do, friends.
SPEAKER_00: We need to meditate on the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: How were your thoughts this week?
SPEAKER_00: Were they negative?
SPEAKER_00: Were they filled with complaining?
SPEAKER_00: Were they filled with grumbling?
SPEAKER_00: Were they filled with the thoughts of what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if?
SPEAKER_00: And when the enemy of your soul hears you meditating on these thoughts, he just runs in with a flood to destroy your life and set your mind in opposition to the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
SPEAKER_00: We need to have a mindset that is always focused on the greatness of God and always focused on our heart and where we stand before Him.
SPEAKER_00: Then, thirdly, trials are often necessary.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Our sovereign God knows when you need a trial.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that something?
SPEAKER_00: When trials come, we question God and we wonder, does he really have my best interest in mind?
SPEAKER_00: Peter says that they can be the will of God for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Peter writes a lot about suffering in his letters, but more importantly, suffering according to the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
SPEAKER_00: First Peter 4 19 says, Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will and trust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
SPEAKER_00: When we suffer a trial, we have no idea of the need that God is meeting in our heart and in our life and fulfilling in us as the sovereign God who knows us best and knows what we exactly need from Him to turn our hearts and lives to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_00: We can all think back of times of trials and adversity where we didn't think we'd get out of it, but we knew right in the middle of it that God was releasing something wonderful in our heart and in our life as we depended on him, as we trusted him.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Lean not on your own understanding in all your ways and at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, trials can be wonderful as we live our lives for him.
SPEAKER_00: Trials correct us.
SPEAKER_00: David said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray.
SPEAKER_00: But now I keep your word.
SPEAKER_00: You are good and do good.
SPEAKER_00: Teach me your statutes.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Before I was afflicted, before I knew the pain of the trial or sorrow, I went astray.
SPEAKER_00: But now I keep your word.
SPEAKER_00: You do good and you are good.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis said, pain plants the flag of truth in the fortress of a rebel soul.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We face trials, we want to run away from God.
SPEAKER_00: We want to either we want to run away from God, we want to run away from the trial, we want to numb it with the things of this world, with the devices of this world.
SPEAKER_00: But God is desiring to plant truth right in our soul in the midst of this suffering, as we even have a desire to walk away from Him.
SPEAKER_00: Truth is what sets us free.
SPEAKER_00: The biggest thing in the last days that will pop out and has popped out as we see the Lord coming is not just wars and rumors of wars which we see.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just earthquakes, pestilences, famines.
SPEAKER_00: It is deception.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Deception.
SPEAKER_00: And we see a world that is being deceived by the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And what comes against this deception, but the truth of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we desire.
SPEAKER_00: Truth corrects us.
SPEAKER_00: And then, secondly, truth humbles us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll read from verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And it says this.
SPEAKER_00: I must go on boasting.
SPEAKER_00: You ever have a friend that boasted all the time?
SPEAKER_00: And he just wanted to take him down to the ground and humble him?
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Lord do that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Paul was having problems with pride.
SPEAKER_00: He was having problems with arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the way the Lord had dealt with him.
SPEAKER_00: I must go on boasting, though, there is nothing to be gained by it.
SPEAKER_00: I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.
SPEAKER_00: And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
SPEAKER_00: On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.
SPEAKER_00: So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that Paul had received, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being conceited.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but he said to me, and here it is for all of us, amen.
SPEAKER_00: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, for when I am weak, then I am strong.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a message that really goes over too well if you don't understand what Christ is desiring for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was filled with arrogance, he was filled with pride.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan harassed him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord used that harassment to keep Paul humble and to keep him out of this realm of arrogance and allow Paul to realize that his sufficiency is not in his oratorical power or his knowledge or his revelations or his spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: His sufficiency is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And what gets us into the grace of God and the wonder of who God is is for us to humble ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Not raise our figure and say, yo, I'm number one.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey.
SPEAKER_00: No, but to get down on our knees and cry out to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm really, I am nothing with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I have this in this tendency in my heart to be prideful, to be arrogant.
SPEAKER_00: I have a tendency in my heart to sway in this area of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
SPEAKER_00: I need you, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I need you.
SPEAKER_00: And I realize that my grace, Jesus said, is sufficient for me.
SPEAKER_00: For your power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful illustration of how the Lord desires to keep us humble.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it corrects us, it humbles us, trials strengthen us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another wonderful scripture that James brings out.
SPEAKER_00: And when we read it, we say, What are you nuts?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever read a scripture like that?
SPEAKER_00: Where you go, God, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Produces perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: It produces endurance.
SPEAKER_00: And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy.
SPEAKER_00: What are you counting?
SPEAKER_00: The pain and the suffering?
SPEAKER_00: No, you're counting the joy that you know that Christ is with you and will see you through it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: He'll bring you out to the other side, and when he does, you'll have a greater revelation of the wonder of his love for you and his grace.
SPEAKER_00: And it is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in college, I before I played basketball, I I ran with the cross-country team.
SPEAKER_00: And I realized that I'm not all that.
SPEAKER_00: I was used to running a little bit, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But when these guys took off for miles and miles and miles, and I'm running, I'm trying to keep up to them.
SPEAKER_00: This is very competitive, and I'm running and I'm running.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a runner, you realize that there's a point when you're running that the greatest desire for you is just to collapse and fall down because your body is screaming and crying.
SPEAKER_00: But I realized there that there is a thing called the second wind.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: The second wind.
SPEAKER_00: And when you run and you get through that second wind, you gain new strength.
SPEAKER_00: Your body just takes on a new uh desire to keep on running and to finish the race.
SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
SPEAKER_00: The testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_00: Stay in the fight.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Stay on your knees.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Stay faithful to reading your word.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's going to be a steadfastness that comes over your heart and your life that you know not of, because it is the wonder and the power of God's grace to keep you going.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance and endurance.
SPEAKER_00: Steadfastness.
SPEAKER_00: And we learn this.
SPEAKER_00: We go from faith to faith and glory to glory.
SPEAKER_00: Every victory that we win, we realize that we need to continue to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: And then trials equip us.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, 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.
SPEAKER_00: That is fantastic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I was a youth pastor and at a church, my first church really, full time, and the pastor asked me to preach.
SPEAKER_00: And I was a 22-year-old kid that had no problems, no trials, no nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And guess which passage of scripture I picked?
SPEAKER_00: Suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm preaching about suffering for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in the back of my mind, my mind is telling me, you don't have a clue what you're talking about as I'm preaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I knew at that point that God needed to send me through some fire.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Send me through some trial so that I could receive the comfort in these situations from God.
SPEAKER_00: And now I see in people's lives the comfort that Christ can give to others.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the way the body of Christ works, friends.
SPEAKER_00: We comfort one another with the comfort that Christ has given us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The comfort that Christ has given me might not be the thing that I share with someone else, but it might be your comfort that you share with another individual that lifts them up and encourages them.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Through the trials and the tribulations that we have been through.
SPEAKER_00: This is a wonder of God's grace that God uses us to bring comfort and peace and encouragement to one another.
SPEAKER_00: It strengthens us, it equips us.
SPEAKER_00: It corrects us.
SPEAKER_00: Trials humble us.
SPEAKER_00: Fourthly and lastly, trials reveal faith.
SPEAKER_00: A jeweler can always tell if the gold that was brought to him is real or fake by putting it in the fire, heating it up.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is a refiner's fire.
SPEAKER_00: Burning away the impurities, the imperfections, and the dross.
SPEAKER_00: And dross is that which is worthless and considered as refuse.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 17, 3 says, The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.
SPEAKER_00: God is not out to burn you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's out to bless you, and those blessings from him are often found in trials.
SPEAKER_00: Job said, remember Job had everything going for him.
SPEAKER_00: Then he lost everything except his wife.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord knew and saw him.
SPEAKER_00: And it's and Job said in his agony about the Lord, but he knows the way that I take, when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that our cry today, friends?
SPEAKER_00: That when the trials come and the tribulations come, that we'll have this steadfastness of heart, this perseverance, this endurance that's given to us by obedience to the truth and the yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit, that we can make it.
SPEAKER_00: And once we've been tested, the genuineness of our faith will come forth as gold.
SPEAKER_00: Warren Wearsby says this if God has you in the furnace, his eye is on the clock, and his hand is on the thermostat.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the temperature and he knows when to relieve you of the trial and the tribulation that you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: As we turn to him in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Take heart.
SPEAKER_00: Trials are not a personal attack.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's not after you.
SPEAKER_00: He's after your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know in the last days the hearts of many will turn cold.
SPEAKER_00: And there'll be an apostasy.
SPEAKER_00: People will be turning away from the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because of trials and persecutions and tribulations, their hearts will grow cold.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to strengthen and firm up your faith and allow you to see him more clearly in all your ways.
SPEAKER_00: And at all times, he is a refiner's fire.
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, this gives you a new look at trials.
SPEAKER_00: As believers, we never run from the battle.
SPEAKER_00: We always run to the battle.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: This is what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has won the victory, and now he leads us in triumphal procession as victors and overcomers in all things.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is putting you through a test.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be steadfast, persevere, and endure.
SPEAKER_00: And through it all get to know him better in such a beautiful way that he becomes your all-in-all and he fills everything in every way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's bow for a word of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you today.
SPEAKER_00: We're so grateful for your care and concern for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're so grateful that you hold us and embrace us in all of our situations and circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: You never leave us nor forsake us.
SPEAKER_00: You're always there.
SPEAKER_00: You lead us and you guide us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, if there are those here today that are suffering through trials, pray, O Lord, that they would see and that they would know that you have a desire to reveal yourself to them and for them to claim you in a greater way as Master and Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we're so grateful that the word says that in all things, God desires to work everything for our good.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we only get to know that understanding by understanding your character and nature, by reading your word.
SPEAKER_00: We trust you today, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We trust you.
SPEAKER_00: We lay our lives down.
SPEAKER_00: We say, Lord, no matter what trial or tribulation comes, I know you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: I know you'll see me through.
SPEAKER_00: I know you'll conform me to the image of Christ, and through it, I'll know you in a greater way.
SPEAKER_00: And I can proclaim like Paul, I want to know you in the power of your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, in the fellowship of your sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: Be with us this week.
SPEAKER_00: In all of our circumstances, we pray in Jesus' wonderful name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.