Surviving Trials

Transcript

Some years ago, it’s probably coming on three decades now, I didn’t look up exactly the date, but it was about probably 30 years ago that I first learned the history of the family of a member as we were sitting in a hospital.  And as he talked and I heard his story there were times I had to swallow hard and try to keep my composure as I listen to it.  His Father, he explained, had been an alcoholic and had committed suicide when this member was a child.  One brother was an alcoholic.  Another brother was an epileptic and had suffered a seizure and had died while he was alone.  He himself had suffered a crippling injury that had left him disabled.  He had married, had lost 2 children through a miscarriage and a still birth and then one night his wife woke up just woke up suddenly with a pounding headache and 30 minutes later was dead with an aneurysm.  

Eventually, he came into the church.  He remarried had 2 children and just felt extremely blessed.   He was a hard worker.  He was respected in the church.  The reason he was telling me that that morning in the hospital is that his baby daughter had been rushed there due to suddenly experiencing a series of convulsions and seizures.  The doctors said that they were life threatening and that they were working feverishly to try and get those under control. And as he was telling me this and your listening I was beginning to prepare myself for the question that is commonly asked by a lot of people at a time like that. The why question.  He was upset. He was crying.  He was afraid as you would expect and sure enough the why question came.  He asked why, but it wasn’t why me?  He asked one of the most amazing questions I’ve ever been asked at a time like that.  He said why is it after I’ve gone through so many trials that I can't handle this better?  That took me aback. I wasn’t prepared for that, but we began to talk through it.  Actually, he was handling it better.  He was handling it better than he might have.  He was handling it in a very normal way in terms of being upset and the tears and so on, but he was handling it better than normal, better than most people in terms of being concerned about I want to handle this the right way in God’s sight.  That’s what he was really thinking about.  I want to deal with this the right way in God’s sight as he was facing again a huge trial in life.  

I would like to have a show of hands.  How many of you have never ever had a trial in your life?  Okay, I’ve got an audience today.  I had a member tell me one time I never had trials until I came into the church and I said I don’t believe that.  You didn’t call them trials.  When we are out in the world we don’t call them trials.  We call them problems.  Trials is sort of a church speak term and it comes straight from the bible because when we begin to understand God's way of life we look at everything that comes along in life whether its blessings or trials, we see it in a certain perspective because we know just like in a trial we’re being judged. In other words, the way we handle something God is watching, others are watching, we are watching and there will be a verdict sooner or later on how we handled it.  It may be you pass it with flying colors or that was really bad or some parts were good some weren’t, but trials is not a bad word for the way we deal with things that come along and we all have them.  We often hear of difficulties that other people are going through and every now and then we find ourselves at the center of the storm.  It is our name being read in the prayer request.  It’s not too often, but we are there occasionally and there are a lot of times we never submit anything for a prayer request.  We are just dealing with it ourselves or maybe with a few others we may share it with.  Sometimes we're all alone in a trial. Sometimes there are trials that we all share the same trial together.  

Sometimes we bring them on by our own actions, we realize.  And sometimes we didn’t do anything, but somebody else’s actions dumped a trial and created a trial for us.  Sometimes well sometimes it’s hard to figure out which is the most irritating.  It’s irritating when you realize I did this myself and sometimes it’s irritating to realize why did they do this to me?  Sometimes you can foresee a trial coming from a long way.  You can see the storm clouds gathering and you know life is going to change because you think it’s coming and other times it comes like a bolt out of the blue.  You get that phone call and your life changes, maybe temporarily, maybe forever, but something you get some news and here is a trial.  But regardless, come they do.  Come they do and then they go and then others come later.  They vary in type.  They vary in intensity.  They vary in length, but they’re there.  And when we read that “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man,” we can pretty quickly list the most common ones.  There are a lot of common trials aren’t there?  It may be health problems, as we have already heard about in two announcements.  It may be financial problems.  It may be loneliness.  It may be persecution.  It may be job loss.  It may be relationships breaking up.   It may be living in dangerous and threatening situations as some of our members live in other parts of the world where daily they have to watch their back and life is hard that way.  But, every now and then we see some very unusual trials, but even the unusual ones are not so rare that someone else hasn’t been through something similar as well.  

But, regardless what the trial is, what we all have to deal with is the question that this man was asking.  How will I handle it?  How will I handle it?  That is the big question that is critically important to us and it's even important to other people.  We absolutely have to come the right perspective and viewpoint because when it comes down to it no matter what the trial is, no matter how big it is, no matter how small it is, no matter how temporary the consequences or how permanent the consequences, all of us have one major thing in common when we meet our challenges in life.  The most important question, the most important aspect of any trial is this: how will this trial change my relationship with God?  How will this trial change my relationship with God?  Trials will change our relationship with God.  Trials should change our relationship with God.  It should.  They should make our relationship stronger, but that is not an easy process and as we look at life sometimes we see that they do and sometimes they don’t.  With some people they do and some people they don’t.  We probably all have examples etched in our minds of seeing other people that you just marveled at the example they set and you think oh they handled that so well.  They were so strong.   I hope I can do the same if I ever go through anything like that, where they have changed.  It all depends though on how we handle a number of aspects that are critical to surviving trial.  

This man that I was talking to that day, looking back had suffered loss, but he was also looking back and thinking about times he had been blessed.  He was putting the whole package together and after all of those things he put together he was concerned about one thing, the right thing, handling this trial that had come his way in the right way.  Now in his case, his baby did not die.  She lived, but she lived with some long-term permanent health problems.  She is alive today, but life has not been easy health wise and that makes you think well, death would have been one kind of trial, but a life with health problems provides a different kind of trial all of which we have to deal with.  We go through these things; we go through the test and the blessings that make up life.  We have probably also seen cases where blessings turned into trials for some people and trials turned into blessings perhaps as well.  

So, how will trials change your relationship with God and what will determine it?  I want to talk about some things I have observed and learned over the years about surviving trials.  Elements that help us come out on the other side.  When we get to the other side of the trial, the elements that help us come out on the other side with our relationship with God stronger.  ` Some of these lessons are from personal experiences.  Some of them are from watching the experiences of others and I hope you will jot down, if you take no more notes then just seven words today, I hope you will jot down these things.  Write them in the back of your Bible.  Put them somewhere where you can easily access them later because when you are in the middle of a trial sometimes it is hard to think straight.  Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything we have to remember.  And if we have something in some place that helps us it will help us to refer to them in times of need.  

Mr. Ross and I did not talk with each other at all about what we're going to talk about today, but I’m amazed at how they dove tail together even to the use of one scripture that is similar.  This is not the end all discussion on trials.  There’s much to think about, but they are some things that I hope will be of help and basically I’m going to just talk about things we need to go to God about in times of trial, things to talk with God about in times of trial.  And these are elements that apply to every trial you can think of.  Every trial you can think of these elements will be consistent in every single trial whether it is sickness or death or marriage problems or single troubles or job troubles or financial or friendship troubles or trials with other people or trials in the church whatever kind come our way.  These are things to take to God, to ask God for and when you are praying for other people about their trials these are also things to ask God for them because they make up a big part of the package of things we need to be equipped with.  Not just to survive a trial, but to make sure we come out of it closer to God.  We always go to God.  I mean, we are a people who are trained and we respond by going to God because that’s what we do, it’s part of our lives.  This I hope will help us to think about all the things we need to go to him about because so often what we focus on is what is apparent.  We focus on what is apparent and when I say apparent I mean the answer that seems obvious to us.  We often hear prayer request and it’s not that that’s wrong to talk about please request for healing please request this person to find a job or to get me through this particular situation whatever it may be. The apparent answer to what we perceive is the answer to our need and it is good to ask for those things.  

For example for the case I began with in that story, the obvious need is for healing and we prayed to God fervently for that, to spare the child’s life.  But, when a trial comes, the thing about trial is we never know exactly how it’s going to play out.  We can never forecast exactly well I know this will happen and this will happen and the other thing is going to happen and here is where it’s going to end up.  We don’t know these things when we get into a trial in life, so asking for the specific answer to the situation at hand is only one aspect of things we need to ask for and consider.  We need to be asking for other things as well and maybe asking for them first.  Think about asking for some of the other things first.  Some of these things will seem obvious, but I think we all realize from our experience in life, sometimes the obvious is sometimes missed in the middle of a trial.  Things we can forget.  

1.  Trials will always be a threat.  Trials always carry the potential threat to faith.  This is what we heard in the Sermonette.  The time that a trial hits is not the time to start praying for faith.  That should be part of our regular prayer life all of the time.  Not just for ourselves, but for others as well. We can never assume that I can work up the faith that I need on the spare of the moment when a trial hits.  When a trial hits, that’s when the faith will be challenged.  We are, as human beings, we are emotional beings.  We carry a lot of emotion and in trials are emotions often run high and sometimes they’re conflicted.  And what we have to be careful is that our faith is not determined by our emotional state.  Faith should not be determined by our emotional state.  Faith should not be blind faith.  It should not be faith that waivers on where we are emotionally at the time.  It needs to be solidly anchored.  Now we heard the Sermonette about the Israelites as it was recounted in the book of Hebrews and Hebrews speaks a lot about faith.  Let’s go to Hebrews 11 and see this principle here.  

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, (Our life is based on a relationship with God.  Somebody we need to believe in and if we don't have faith how can we please somebody whose relationship with us is so much dependent upon faith and he goes on to say) for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

We must believe that He is, not that He just exists, but that He is what He says He is.  It’s not only believing that He exists, but He is what He says He is and we believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  A part of faith is putting the reward in the hand of the one who really controls it.  He picks the rewards, not us.  He is a rewarder.  Faith begins with simply saying I understand I believe that God rewards those who diligently seek Him. I will not move on that.  I will not be budged from that.  This is the God I serve.  He does reward us.  Our belief in that cannot be measured by well it's not the reward I wanted or it’s not the reward when I wanted it.  It’s simply believing God will take care of this.  He does reward.  I have to believe what He is and what He says He is. 

Now you heard the scripture in Galatians 2:20, but it’s too important to just refer to it.  Let’s go back and read that again.  Galatians 2:20.  Sometimes faith is considered in the light of wait a minute where have I come from where have I been and sometimes we have to go all the way back to how did I end up here and you ended up here at a time when you were crucified when you made a commitment and you were crucified through repentance and baptism.

Galatians 2:20  (And he says that)  I have been crucified with Christ; (I made a commitment.  That old man died and I started a new way of life and) it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, (At the Passover a few weeks ago, I wasn’t here, but I know something was said to the effect of, taking the Passover is an expression of faith.  Faith that He came, that He lived, that He lived a sinless life, that He died.  He died for us.  He is faithful to forgive our sins and we have this faith that encompasses so much in life and the life which I now live is rooted in faith and it’s the faith in the Son of God.) who loved me and gave Himself for me.(That’s bedrock.  That’s foundational.)  

To come back to and to think about and we live by faith in the Son of God, but when Christ lives in us we have to consider then that we have the faith of Christ. It’s not just the faith in Christ, but the faith of Christ, of the Son of God, but that doesn’t come naturally.  That’s miraculous. It’s an action of God’s doing and the human side of our thinking wars against that spiritual side. 

Last July I gave a sermon here about the four enemies of faith.  Just looking at four places in the gospels where Jesus used the words, o you of little faith, and He brought out four different things: doubt, worry, fear, and human reasoning.  In times of trial, is it natural to have doubts and worries and fears and human reasoning?  Is it natural?  Absolutely.  Times of trial are precisely the times when those four elements raise their heads.  When things are going great those things are seldom issues. When we are secure in life, they are none factors, but in times of trial the human mind can so easily go to doubt and fear and worry and human reasoning and that erodes, Christ said, our faith.  So, it's so important to ask God please help my faith. It's important to recognize the internal struggles we sometimes have like the man who told Jesus, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! Help the things that are tugging against that faith that I may stay strong there because it will be challenged.  

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, (Sometimes in the middle of a trial.  I’ve been there, where I’ve told God, I don’t even know what to ask for.  I don’t even know what to say.  I don’t know what the solution is.  I don’t know how to deal with this.  Sometimes you don’t know even how to pray as you ought.) but the Spirit (of God.  The Spirit) Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Verse 27-28 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. (When we are in those times of struggling we don’t even know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit of God can help us intercede for us, help fix our minds on the will of God.) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

I’ve spent some time this week pondering this.  When the future is uncertain, when life is challenging is it easy to say this? Well, not always.  It’s not always, to quote verse 28, with confidence and feeling.  And that's precisely the time to pray to God and ask God right now in this trial help me to remember this.  Strengthen my faith.  Help me to keep in mind what this means that there is a working together of all things to the good.  There is a good because God is working this.  All things work together for good is a statement of belief of what you see in the future.  All things work together for good is a statement of belief of what you see in the future.  Now we can look back on the past as well and see the truism of that statement, but when we are in the middle of a trial, it’s about what we see in the future.  It doesn't tell us in advance how.  It doesn’t tell us when. It doesn’t tell us what we will go through and it doesn’t even tell us why it won’t work that way specifically.  It just says we know. We know.  That’s a statement of faith.  Do we know that?  Well, when God gives us His faith we do.  Romans 8:28 is a statement about faith not about sight, which leads us to 2 Corinthians 5:7, a simple little verse that has a lot of meaning.  

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Brethren, what can sight tell you?  What can sight tell you?  Sight can only tell you what the problem is.  It can only tell you when God has intervened.  Faith tells you that He will.  Sight can only tell you when.  That's why living by sight erodes faith.  Humanly speaking I can only see what's in the past and I can only see what's in the present and sometimes as we all know sometimes we don’t even see that clearly.  Sometimes we misinterpret what we are seeing, but spiritually God gives us sight to what lies ahead, accepting on His word and on our belief in Him and on His way of life in faith that things work together for good and we believe that.  It’s important to God, probably for a number of reasons, but the bottom line is He’s our Father, He is in control.  He wants His children to believe in Him and to trust Him, to trust His care for us, to trust His consistency.  To trust that He is the one who started the work in us.  He will be faithful to finish the work in us.  He will work through us.  We are the clay, He’s the potter and even when we have done things that were really dumb and maybe we have done things to bring trials on ourselves He still will work with the clay to fix it.  

Now if we have faith that God has the answers and will answer, in the meantime, we have to wait and that's where the 2nd point comes in.  Something important to ask for: patience.  Patience is so needed while we are waiting for God to answer and to fulfill His promises, but again understand there's a type of patience that is of God that humans don’t have naturally.  There’s a type of patience that God has that is a fruit an aspect of His Spirit that He can work in our lives in a special way.  Let’s go to James 5:7.  

James 5:7-8 (We read.) Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. (Now the primary meaning of this for all of God’s people applies to the second coming.  We understand that, but it can also apply to individual cases because sometimes we wait for God to come with a solution to our problem. We wait for God to help us through that. So, he says, be patient until the coming of the Lord. ) See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.  You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

There is a lot to think about there.  The example he gives is that of a farmer.   A farmer has to be a hard working person. Has to do a lot is responsible for a lot, but some things are out of his control.  There are some things that just rely on what God’s work is, the time frame for seed germination, the growth, the maturation, the rain, the sun, etc.  There are some things a farmer has no control over and he just has to wait.  

If we say God is in control, patience says let Him control it.  If God is in control, patience says let Him control it because sometimes God is working in a trial to accomplish any number of things and sometimes we don’t see what it is.  We can't identify, while the trial is going on, what 

it is He's trying to accomplish.  Sometimes we may be in a trial that God is using to accomplish something in somebody else’s life.  And that’s the working of God with all of us working together.  We are not islands in the stream over here.  Our lives affect other people and sometimes we go through things because God is working in any number of people’s lives, but he says, establish your hearts, what does that mean?  There's a work of the heart that is going on in life, in your life and God is giving time and allowing this work to be accomplished, but your heart is going to be the core of your being.  It is your core. It is what you fall back on that foundational understanding and belief that you have.  Establish the foundation of what do you live for and why you live.  Keep the heart there.  There are so many scriptures on the impact of the heart and we are to guard our hearts the proverb says, from out of it comes the issues of life.  Establish the heart.  Patience is part of that.  Growing impatient tears down faith because you know what patience does?  Patience turns off the clock.  Impatience is the opposite.  Patience turns off the clock.  The moment we become impatient we say I'm running out of time.  I’m running out of time.  I want this faster and I want it according to my time frame and if it’s not there I’m the one who will become impatient.  

Impatience starts evaluating situations based on the time involved and if things do not progress according to the time frame we want our attitude can change our faith can waiver.  Impatience can really be an enemy of faith.  Now hey, we all want relief as fast as possible.  When I’ve been in trials, I want relief now.  Pop, pop, fizz, fizz.  I want relief.  That’s an old commercial probably, if you’re under 25, you don’t recognize it.  It was alkalizer. But life doesn’t work spiritually like a pill and even though we want relief and there’s nothing wrong with wanting relief, are we always able to tell God, I'm on your clock.  Patience tells God I'm on your clock, the solution to this is in your hands, it’s on your schedule, it’s according to your will and I will patiently wait.  I will turn my clock off because I'm not going to put God on a timer. I'm not going to put God on a timer.  

James 1:2-4 (He says) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing (This is part of the establishing the heart. Knowing) that the testing of your faith produces patience. (The margin says endurance or perseverance.) But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect (The margin here says mature.) and complete, lacking nothing.

It links trials to a work that is being done.  Let patience have its perfect work.  These are times that are part of the establishing of our hearts is to ask what is God's greatest concern for me? What does God want for me most of all and that is to be in His Kingdom.  We must be developing His character to be there, but we also know character doesn’t come instantly. Character is built.  Character is built through time and God can build some things in our lives only through time, only through time and tests.  Sometimes the lessons learned in a trial or learned over time and yet they make us stronger.  

Let's say for instance an entire family is in a severe financial trial and let's say there are 6 people in the family and all of them see things in different ways.  Some of them might be very patient.  Some of them may be struggling with their irritation over somebody else they may feel is responsible for it.  Somebody else may be more self-centered and less inclined to sacrifice during that time of trial and it takes all of them time to learn certain things, learn certain lessons.  God may be working in every one of them to try to bring each one to an important understanding about life about character and 5 out of the 6 may get it.  Five out of the 6 may be there, but let’s say that person who is self-centered and selfish, doesn’t want to sacrifice, doesn’t want to do the cut back to help the rest of the family survive it.  What if they don’t get it?  Maybe God is working in them, but everybody else has to be patient until that person comes around and joins the team.  

We all have different things to learn in life.  It may all be the same trial, but the reaction of one may make the trial worse for everyone else, but everyone else doesn't have any choice, except to be patient and let patience have its perfect work.  Patience isn’t easy, but impatience makes things really hard.  Ask for it.  Pray to God for it.  We need to be aware though that having patience does not imply that we just sit and do nothing.  Life seldom allows that.  So, while we are patiently waiting for a resolution, we often have to make decisions along the way, big decisions.  So the next point to consider is found in the next verse of James 1. 

Verse 5-6 If any of you lacks wisdom, (Well that pretty much gets all of us I think.) let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.  But let him ask in faith, (You begin to see all these points sort of dove tail and they relate.  When one is mentioned another is mentioned.  When faith is mentioned you have patience mentioned then you have wisdom mentioned because they do work together.) with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

So often, times of trial are also times when we have to make big decisions.  In the case that I described to you at the beginning, the doctors were asking every day for the parents to give permission to do this thing or to do that thing and you’re an untrained person.  You’re sitting there as somebody who’s untrained and they are asking for permission and it’s your responsibility to ask what’s in the best interest of my child and I don’t know.  I don’t know these things and its pressure, but there is no escaping the pressure.  

Times of trial usually are times that ramp up our emotions too and times of high emotion are usually not good times to make big decisions, but they are often precisely the times we have to make big decisions.  We don’t think well when our emotions are running high.  Some of my worst decisions in life have been the emotional decisions.  And so, because times of trial are often times of high emotion, that’s why it’s really important to go to God and ask for wisdom.  That’s when we need wisdom, wisdom to sort through.  First of all, all the thoughts that can come to mind to ask God I don’t trust my thinking and I need wisdom to reject the thoughts that are dangerous to me.  I need wisdom to hang on to the right thoughts.  We need wisdom to separate the cardinal from the spiritual.  We need wisdom to get the advice that we need to get.  We need wisdom to know who to go to for advice.  We need wisdom to discern the good advice from the bad because sometimes in times of trial, a lot of well-meaning people can tell you all sorts of things and it’s not always that everybody is right.  We need wisdom to know that.  We need wisdom to weigh pros and cons.  We need wisdom to discern and simply sometimes have the sense of what to do when logic doesn’t tell you.  It’s just the wisdom from above.  It’s the wisdom from above that God can give and will give liberally.  Here’s a great example in John 9.  

John 9:1-2     Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  

Now they were trying to figure out why. That’s natural. In any trial, we try to figure out why and it’s good to, but they had reached a human conclusion and they were giving only two options it's one or the other they had figured it out and that was not wise because neither was correct and unless Jesus had given them the right answer they would have gone down either road or the other of blame placing and they would’ve been wrong.  It would’ve been a very unwise way to think.

Verse 3 (And so) Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

Have you ever found yourself thinking unwisely?  Yep, we all have.  We think why?  Well, it must be this or that.  Maybe it’s neither and to have the mind of God, to ask God help me to think, is so important.  

Proverbs 2:1-6 My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

There are several things here, verse 1, receive my words.  That means the only way to receive His words for us is to read them and then listen, incline your ear, He says in verse 2.  And then study, apply your heart to understanding and then pray, cry out for discernment and then pursue it, seek her in verse 4.  Read, listen, study, pray, pursue.  Be thinking about these things and God will give wisdom.

Verse 10-12 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, (God says I will help you think. I’ll help you think through this trial.  Whatever it is you are going through.)  To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things

I have been in some trials where the man who said perverse things to me was me.  Where you talk to yourself and you talk stupid talk.  Think things that are not healthy.  It’s like Job said when Job finally told God “I have uttered what I did not understand.” “I have uttered what I do not understand.”   That's why it impresses on us the need of the wisdom of God to think right.  Wisdom is a huge subject. It’s too big, far too big to detail here, but the emphasis in these verses alone tell us how important it is to God.  Ask God for wisdom.

The 4th thing to ask for I would like to illustrate with a story.   In 1977, my wife's Stepmother was having lunch in a restaurant in Washington DC with another church member and in the middle of the lunch she said, I think I’m going to faint and she fell out in the floor and they did not know it at the time, but she was having a ventricular fibrillation.  Her heart was beating rapidly, but it was pumping no blood to the brain.  By the time they got her to the hospital, she went about 20 minutes without oxygen going to the brain.  They debated, they finally put the paddles on her, they shocked her, and her heart started beating again.  Her life came back, but she was severely brain damaged.  We flew down there, went to the hospital every day, taking her dad back and forth.  And after several days of this, which was intensely stressful, we walked out of the house early one morning to go back to the hospital and we were walking down the side walk to the car and there was a little bench there and Dee’s Dad just plopped down on the bench and he said, I just can’t do it today. He said I can’t do it.  Every day there's worse news.  I can't go there again and get more bad news.  What do you say?  What do you say to somebody like that? We just sat down beside him and let him get it out and he said God has said He won't let you be tested above what you're able to stand and this is it.  I’ve hit the wall.  Can’t take anymore and we just sat there.  You’re silently praying, you don’t know what to say.  There’s no magic words that’s going to change it.  

He sat there, shoulders slumped, for a few minutes, then he looked at us and said ok, let’s go and we got up and we walked to the car and we got in the car and we drove to the hospital.  We were there all day where he did get more bad news because things were all in flux.  You didn’t know what you were going to get.  He needed something at that immediate time and he would need it time and again over the next coming years.  He needed endurance, the strength to endure. There are times in life when you simply ask God help me to be strong.  Endurance is different than patience.  Patience has to do with this mental attitude.  Endurance has to do with having the strength during the times when patience is required.  He got that endurance that morning.  Wasn’t anything we said, but something happened to where after a while he said ok, let’s go.  Eventually they brought Rose home.  They kept her for 4 years, until it became impossible.  She wasn’t in a vegetative state, but there was basically zero brain recovery and she was eventually put into a long term care facility and lived 29 years.  It would have been a severe trial had she died that day.  The way it turned out meant it was going to be a trial of endurance.  It was a long haul.  Financially it was horrific, in so many ways.  

Now humanly, by humanly I mean physically, and with our own human emotions and our human mental state we have limitations.  Every human has limitations and we need to appeal to God so often for the ability just to be strong because God can make us stronger than we are, stronger than we have within us.  He can give it, He does give it.  He does give it, but sometimes when we read Ephesians 6:13 about rustling, it is rustling.  There is a rustling that takes place and it takes strength and endurance.  

James 5:10-11 My brethren, take the prophets, (Sometimes in these times, God gives us strength by reminding us to consider other people.  Take a look at these examples in the bible and it does help us to have examples of faith and strength.) who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. 

Job endured for a long time and he endured all sorts of stuff.  He had his physical problems.  He suffered his loss of family.  He suffered his loss of income and wealth and he even suffered perhaps the worst was the ill advice of so many people around him, miserable comforters and sometimes he just had to endure, but the end, what is the end?  Would we count Job blessed had he quit, gave up?  Part of God’s compassion and mercy is to give us the strength to endure.  The strength that we know, we know can only come from Him.  There is no doubt about it, we know of ourselves I just wouldn’t have it.  It had to be extra help from God.  

Notice an interesting statement in Jeremiah 12.  Jeremiah, and the first 4 verses of chapter 12, falls into a state of complaining to God.  He’s in a pretty tough situation.  He is preaching for years and years and years and nobody’s listening and he’s getting all sorts of grief and his life is being threatened.  He is going through all kinds of things and there’s a point when he says you know I’m doing all this and it’s the unrighteous who are prospering and the unrighteous who are being blessed and all the happy people are those out there who are violating Gods way of life and they are not paying any attention to God and everything is going good for them and he was looking at all of that and he expresses that in the first few verses and then in verse 5, God answers Jeremiah and He says. 

Jeremiah 12:5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how (will) you contend with horses?” 

Again we don’t know in life.  Sometimes in life there will be trials when we are being dragged behind a team of horses and all we can do is hang on.  We just hang on until something happens and that requires more than we have of our own power.  And so God asked that of Jeremiah, but then he goes on to give Jeremiah the help.  God strengthens Jeremiah.  God strengthens him mentally, spiritually, emotionally, probably even physically.  God gives us that help.

Hebrews 10:32 (We heard 4 stories this morning from silver ambassadors who’ve been around probably for the most part 7, 8 decades and part of those stories was found in verse 32.) But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, (After which, God called them.) you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

Everybody who follows God long enough will look back in life and say yes here was something I went through, here’s another thing I went through and yet again we would have gone through things in life.  People in this world are also going through trials in life.  We look back on them and we look at the spiritual struggles.  We look at the things we go through and there are stories of great deliverances and stories of great struggles.  

Verse 33-39   (He said, You endured a great struggle with sufferings.) partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, (therefore) which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, And  He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” (Endurance is needed.) But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (God will give endurance, but don’t forget to ask for it.)

Number 5.  Christianity is not for wimps and sissies.  We always face the possibility of what we are humanly and sometimes there can be fearful situations where a lack of courage can make us sell out, so we always need to be asking God as well for courage.  The 5th element, courage.  

1 Corinthians 16:13 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.

It’s the opposite of fear.  We have to be a fighter for God’s way of life.  It’ll come in life. It comes often in life.  You children who are in here, you teens, you have to have courage too.  We were talking about this the other day.  Sometimes it's really tough on young people as we just read in Hebrews to be made a spectacle because you believe in something and it makes you different, it makes you a spectacle and that can bring on sometimes a trial of what other people think about you.  What they call you.  How they include you or exclude you. You’ll go through that.  

I remember growing up in the church and from age 11 my parents always took care of the school and working out the Holy Days and writing the excuse forms and talking with the coaches in Little League about not playing on the Sabbath, but I remember very well the first time when they said we think you're old enough now that it’s time for you to go talk to the principal and it’s time for you to talk to the coach and it’s time for you to take a stand on those things.  I don’t want to.  I want you to do it.  Well, it was scary.  It was always much easier when Mom or Dad came home and said ok, I talked to him and we worked it all out, but it’s a little scary to go and yet it was good training because if you’re going to walk God’s way, you’re going to have to take some stands and it’s fine its good, but it's going to take some courage and there’ll be much bigger things than that.  

There was a time when Israel was ending a 40 year stretch of trial, but one trial ending meant that some other ones were going to begin just because they were going into some different situations.  There was one person in the middle of this who had demonstrated tremendous courage 40 years earlier.  I mean stood up in the face of the whole nation.  Actually there were two people, but this one who comes into play later just stood up and stared them down and said the truth and you know what?  God honored him for that, but he had to endure the 40 years of trial with all the rest of them.  Just because Joshua and Caleb had the courage to stand for the truth, God didn’t say okay, you go into the Promised Land and 40 years later the rest of them will come.  They had to go through the trial of everybody else, along with their brethren.  Do you think Joshua and Caleb muttered for 40 years, here I am, you do the right thing you end up having to go through the same thing that they all go through?  We didn’t read the scripture, but back there in James it says don’t grumble.  It wouldn’t have done them any good.   Sometimes they had to endure other people, but there was Joshua and Caleb.  Moses had died just before Israel was entering the Promised Land and Joshua took his place and you would think wouldn’t you that since Joshua had been so courageous 40 years before that well that’s just part of his personality.  You might sit there and think well, I wish I was like some of these people.  There just bold and brash and not scared of anything.  I just wish I was like that because it’s a personality thing.  No, not a lot of that is not a personality thing.  God tells him something back in Joshua 1, Mr. courageous, He tells Joshua in verse 5.  

Joshua 1: 5-7 No man (will) be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. (That’s the promise.  Now comes the requirement.  But,) Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance (this) land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  (You might think well He is just saying I want to give you the land.  Why does He tell them first be strong and of good courage?) Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; (don’t) turn (to the left, don’t turn to the right, so) you may prosper wherever you go.

You begin to think why is God warning of all these things?  Why is God telling them when they are just about to end the trial and go into the Promised Land? Why is God sitting Joshua down and saying, you’ve got to be strong, you’ve got to have courage?

 Verse 8-9 (And He says) This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate (on) it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Success follows actions.  He doesn’t say wait until you prosper and then you have good success and then decide whether you are going to follow what is written in the book.  It takes courage.) Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

I think if you were Joshua and sitting there, I think you might be thinking what is He not telling me? What’s around the bin over there and over the river because He’s warning me about this?  Brethren, that’s just life.  I could sit here today and say hey folks in the next few years be strong and of good courage, be courageous because I know in this room we will face trials.  We’ve got to be strong with a strength that doesn’t generate from within us, but it’s a strength that comes from God.  

Point 6.  There are some fascinating studies going on right now, have been for a few years, with people who have terminal diseases especially cancer victims and they are studies about prayer and hope and positive attitudes and how it affects people’s ability to deal with disease and why it is that those with hope do so much better.  It’s sort of fascinating they’re only trying to figure out why it works, but God told us long ago of the critical importance for hope.  And hope is another thing that’s so important to surviving trials.   Hope has to do with our vision of what the future holds.  It means keeping the big picture in mind, seeing beyond the present circumstances.  Faith is the confidence it will come.  Hope has to do with what it is the vision of what it is.  Paul mentioned in 1Corinthians 13 that these three abide faith, hope, and love and love is the greatest.  Yes, but that doesn’t mean that hope isn’t way up there in terms of importance.  It’s powerful. What do people commonly agree is one of the most dangerous emotional and mental states to be in?  Hopelessness, that’s a dangerous place to go.  

Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, (This whole story, this story right here, these things were written for us to learn from.) that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

There’s not a single instance that we read of in this book of people who followed God and put their trust in Him and God abandoned them, dumped them, forgot about them.  There’s no instance.  

Verse 13 (It says) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's a type of hope that is beyond human invention, human perception.  It’s not something we can sit back and say my idea of it is this or I see it this way.  No he’s talking about something about the power of God's Spirit giving you an abundance of hope.  It is seeing it through the eyes of God. Seeing what we're living for through the mind of God.  That’s the type of hope that becomes very strong in a person.  Again there are very many scriptures on this topic that we can’t go to, but just never underestimate the importance of hope when we’re talking to God, to ask God for it, to recognize the need for it, to recognize the threat of losing hope.  It’s powerful.  Hope is important.  

Point 7.  Now after we have asked for all these things faith, patience, wisdom, endurance, courage, hope, then ask God for our specific request, for our needs.   The healing, the loneliness the hurting, the poverty, the relationships, the church problems, whatever it is. Whatever the trial may be, go to God specifically for that.  But my point is, if we only talk to God specifically about what we want as the answer and we leave out all these other things, we are going to be leaving out a big part of the picture of dealing with trials.  And for any requests that we make God has His options: Yes, No, maybe, wait.  We know that.   Just like any parent knows that it’s really bad child rearing to give your child whatever they demand when they demand it.  That’s not good and God is a master parent.  He’s working something in our lives and none of those options: Yes, No, maybe, wait, none of those, means that He is not operating love and the deepest concern for us, but whatever the response from God may be, put all of these things faith, patience, wisdom, courage, endurance, hope, put those in the mix, along with the specific request we would like to see.  Listen to what Paul learned. 

2 Corinthians 11: 23-28 Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; (And I read this and think just one of those things I would look at and say that was the trial of my life and he went through so many times.) a night and a day I have been in the deep;  in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.  (And then in the next chapter he mentions another thing.)  

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (He says) And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I (should) be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do we think Paul wanted any of these trials?  I can’t imagine that.  They came and they went and then others came.  Sometimes we learn to live life with the saying in mind, this too shall pass and it’s important to learn that, but it’s also to remember that once it passes, what am I left with?  Once it passes what am I left with?  And Paul was able to say through these things, I have grown, I have benefitted in unexpected ways.  I have learned.  I’ve grown closer to God and he could say it with true humility.  I’m a stronger person because of it.  Brethren, God has big shoulders and an amazing capacity.  He never bogs down with us.  He never slumbers, He never sleeps.  When we bring our cares to Him, He’s there.  How many people around the world do you think today went to God and dumped it all on Him, just laid it out to Him?  He says do that, do it. Cast all your cares on me, I care for you.  Go to him, run to him and ask for faith and patience, and wisdom, and endurance, and courage, and hope, and yes the thing that specific request that we perceive to be the answer to our problem and when we do that in times of trial, not only can we survive, but we can thrive and above all things we can come out on the other side of those trials where trials have changed our relationship with God.  They’ve made it stronger.