The Eye of the Storm

Good afternoon, everyone. It's so nice to be back. This place is like coming home. It really is. It's so nice to see all of you guys again. It's been some time. It's been...

feels like months. I don't think it's a felony to drive without chains. I mean, it's... So what happened was we got all the way to the pass. We got all the way to the pass. And we realized we have this... we have a new van. Some of you have heard that story as to how we got our new van.

Our old one blew up in New Mexico. And so we bought this other one in Oklahoma. And of course it didn't come with chains, which, you know, most cars don't. But we got it home and it turns out our old tire chains, they don't fit the new tires on the new van. And we were not probably as prepared as we probably should have been. We have never, ever once crossed the pass.

Ever. Not once have we crossed the pass coming over here, where it's been anything more than please carry tire chains. Like, usually it's just carry tire chains, have them in the thing. It's a snow zone. Roads are usually pretty good. Today was the first time we've ever hit that pass and it said chains required. And we didn't have them, so we just kept going.

We figured if we slowed down it would be slicker. So we just drove. If God brought me to it, He'll bring me through it. Isn't that how it goes? As long as I don't do something really dumb and like drive without chains up a pass in really slick snowstorms. But no, quite the storm on our side. I don't know if it's coming your way or not, but there was quite a bit of rain coming down at points in time and quite a bit of stuff on the ground.

So the storms are still coming in offshore periodically, very much like in the last parts of the month of October. How many of you remember back to the last part of the month of October? Anybody? Storm-wise? Okay, what was going on over here, storm-wise? Was that when you guys had your big snowstorm? That was Thanksgiving, so that was the month earlier. Well, it's a good thing you weren't off the coast of Mexico, because off the coast of Mexico there was a massive storm brewing in the last part of the month of October.

And it actually started out as a super small tropical depression. Really wasn't that much. In fact, most meteorologists looked at it and went, nah, it's not going to do anything. It's really not even worth looking at. So it began its life relatively humbly, not really appearing to do a whole lot early on.

And as a result, again, people didn't really pay all that much attention to it as it went. But as the days ticked on, it seemed to gain a little steam and become a little bit scary. It was destined to become something significantly more and actually something that was very potentially dangerous. The forecasters' worst fears were realized when that tropical depression moved through several hundred miles of really, really warm water off the Mexican coast and started picking up some serious steam.

Within a 24-hour period, it went from a tropical depression that very few paid any mind to at all, to a Category 5 storm. She was given a name, Hurricane Patricia. Some of you may remember here in the news of Hurricane Patricia and kind of what was going on with Hurricane Patricia. But not only did she become an extremely powerful Category 5 storm, she broke record after record after record on the way to getting there. She broke record after record. She had the lowest recorded pressure reading of a hurricane in recorded history.

Since we've been recording the pressure readings of hurricanes, she had the lowest of any other hurricane. The lower the pressure, oftentimes, the more wind speed and the more damage that can come out of it. Greatest rate of intensification ever recorded. So speed with which it got worse, so that's really intensification.

How quickly it got real bad. Quickest amount of intensification of any other Pacific hurricane since the 60s. Achieved an 8.3 on the Dvorak scale. Got an 8.3 on the Dvorak scale, which only goes up to 8. So I don't know how they figured it was 0.3 above the 8, but it was well above what it was there. Wind speeds were recorded in excess of 200 miles an hour, which was actually 30 miles an hour higher than the wind speeds of Hurricane Katrina.

So here we have this massive storm all of a sudden that's come out of really nothing, and it is bearing down on the little tiny Mexican state of Jalisco. Which, you know, in that particular area, a lot of my students are from Jalisco. Not a lot of money in some of those parts of that area of the country. And people were really kind of ill-prepared for this particular thing as it came in. And the real size and scope of this thing had a lot of people thinking it was going to be a significant disaster, just catastrophic.

As the storm approached, the eyes of the world, the collective eyes of the world, turned to this incoming storm, this juggernaut that was bearing down. And they held their breath, really anticipating the worst. Thankfully, as we know now, the moral and the end of the story, God had mercy on the people of Mexico. That storm dissipated. In fact, it really turned into just about nothing. It came across as kind of dissipated as quickly as it had built. Ended up with a little bit of rainfall, but a little bit of localized flooding, but no loss of life, you know, no major.

Issues whatsoever. I mean, it was, you could say that they dodged a bullet, so to speak. It was largely, Mexico itself was largely untouched. Let's go over to Matthew 7 to get started today. Let's go over to Matthew 7 today. We're going to take a look at storms in a way, but we're going to look at them in a slightly different way, maybe, than what we usually do in this particular passage. Matthew 7. And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 24.

Matthew 7 and verse 24.

Matthew 7 and verse 24 says, And it fell, and great was its fall.

In this particular parable, we see an analogy being given that contrasts really two individuals in their lives. So we see two individuals here. One individual, I mean, we recognize when we read this particular passage, Christ is not instructing us on the finer aspects of homebuilding. Okay, that's really not the overall focus of this, even though it is absolutely accurate to make sure your house is built on a good solid foundation for it to keep standing up. But he's contrasting the life of two individuals. And in this case, one who did what they needed to do, and therefore their house was built on this foundation that was strong and able to withstand the storms that would come, and the other who maybe didn't, maybe cut some corners. Maybe things were a little bit short-cutted in certain aspects, and the foundation wasn't as strong as it needed to be. And as those storms came, and as the wind beat down, and as the rain poured, it eroded away that foundation and the house fell.

But this parable has everything to do with how we've built our life. It has everything to do with how we've built our life, and how we've prepared, and how we've built our foundation. And it really prompts us to ask ourselves, have we built it on rock, or have we built it on sand? Have we built our foundation on rock, or have we built it on sand? Really, the question is, how sure is our foundation? And while this is an extremely important question, while this is an extremely important topic to look at, and one that all of us should take to heart in our lives, it's not the focus that I want to take today. We're going to take this in a slightly different direction. I want to pull something else out of this passage and take it in a different place. What I want to look at is that in this particular passage, Christ Himself in this parable likens trials, tribulations, difficulties in life to storms. He likens them to storms. And very specifically tells us, and I think this is a really important part of this passage. I think we gloss over. He tells us very specifically, those storms are going to come. They're going to come. They're going to pound away at the life that we have built, and they're going to buffet us with high winds and heavy rain and floodwaters and everything else. And when those storms come, do we focus on the storm? Do we focus on the storm? Do we look at the storm itself? Do we see it coming long distance, checking the radar, checking the wind speeds, trying to figure out what the rainfall amounts are going to be, whether or not, you know, checking our phones, looking at the updates on all kinds of other things, just to see how bad it's going to be? Or do we recognize that the life that we've built, provided our focus is in the right place and provided we've done what we've needed to do? The life that we've built will ride it out. Do we place our eyes on the storm? And do we start to ask ourselves, why? Do we start to look at, why, God, have You let me go through this?

Don't You love me? Why would You put me through something so tough? Why would You give me this? Why would You give me this trial?

These are all very human things. They're all very human emotions for us to consider why we go through these types of things. And let's face it, all of us have been there at one point in time or another.

But, brethren, when we place our eyes on the storm, when we focus on the difficulties and the struggles in our life, the trials, the tribulations that we face, we take our eyes from where they should be, firmly focused on God.

This message is actually by special request. I had someone ask several months back in the midst of an unbelievable amount of trials in their own life, and ask for a message on what it took to let it go. What it took to let it go. What it took to just step away from the trials, step away from the struggles, step away from the tribulation that they were dealing with, and hand it over to God and say, it's yours.

What does that take? How do we do that? And how do we have the strength and really the courage that it takes in our life to let God have our trials and go forward? And so what we're going to do today is we're going to spend the remainder of the time that we have looking primarily at the life of one man. And we're going to be looking at many of the lessons that he learned throughout his life. We'll bring in some other examples as well. But what we want to look at is really what is the ultimate purpose of the suffering that we deal with, the trials and the tribulations and the things that come our way. What is the purpose in that? Why does it happen? Why do we go through it? So the title of the message today is The Eye of the Storm. And we're going to take a look, to begin with at least, in the life of the Apostle Peter. We're going to take a look at the life of the Apostle Peter. If you want to start turning over to Matthew 14, you can. But the Apostle Peter is one of these characters that we see in Scripture that from its beginning to its end of his character arc. So when we pick up Peter and we get a chance to kind of see who he was at the beginning versus who he was at the end, we see incredible amounts of growth. Like incredible amounts of growth. He goes from this impulsive, maybe even brash, you might say, fisherman at the beginning, you know, asking all kinds of questions to one of the men of Christ's inner circle. One of these men that Christ trusted, that he understood, that he knew, one whom he was very close to. He was very outspoken. He became one of the leaders of the Twelve as time went on. And he's really one of the apostles that we know quite a bit about. He's one that we know quite a bit about because much of his writings have been preserved. And because he was kind of central in much of what was going on, his example is throughout.

But in Matthew 14, we'll break into an experience that he had really early on in his discipleship. And this is super early on, but it's going to illustrate our point today. This idea that when we take our eyes off of God and we focus on the storm, when we look at the storm itself and we take our eyes away from where they should be, we find ourselves struggling at times. We find ourselves in trouble. So in this case, in Matthew 14, we pick it up, we find Peter in the midst of a very literal storm. A very literal storm. The disciples found themselves facing a storm that had whipped up this massive windstorm on the sea as they were traveling by boat. They were struggling mightily against the wind, trying to gain some ground when at that point in time Christ appears to them out there on the water. We'll pick it up, Matthew 14, verse 25.

It says, now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea, and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It's a ghost! And I don't know why I always hear it with Shaggy's voice from Scooby-Doo. It's not. I'm sure he didn't sound like that, but that's what in my head, that's what I hear. And they cried out, and they cried out for fear. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. Okay? So now they know what they're dealing with, they know who's there.

So when he saw that the wind was blowing pretty hard, he was afraid, beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? You know, it's a lot like the old Road Runner cartoons. As long as the Road Runner never looked down after he had run off of the cliff, so to speak, he didn't realize the laws of gravity still applied. Or I'm sorry, why like Coyote, I guess, is the one that would run out and then fall. Road Runner would just keep going. But he didn't really realize what kind of trouble he was in until he looked down. And in this example, we look at this, Peter was doing just fine until he took his eyes off of Jesus, until he took his eyes off of Christ right in front of him. Verses 29 and 30, once again, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. At first he was successful. He was doing it at first. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, but when he saw the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. We see the human component now kick in. We see this thought process of, wait a second, the waves are huge, the wind's really blowing hard. I'm walking on water. I should not be able to walk on water. The wind's really... Oh, that was a big wave. Oh, oh, oh. And then doubt kicks in. And all of a sudden now he begins to sink. He took his eyes off of the Lord directly in front of him, literally directly in front of him. And he focused on the storm at his feet and the storm that was raging around him. And he realized, and he's a fisherman, he understands, if I fall in, I'm gone. If I fall in, I'm gone. You know, I'm going to drown. He lost his focus. And he began to kind of consider his present situation. He put his eyes on the storm and he took him away from Christ right in front of him. Right in front of him and he started to sink. He had a moment of doubt. He looked away. He focused on the storm. Focused on the storm. Peter had a similar moment, actually, after Christ was arrested in Gethsemane. Let's go to Luke 22. Go over to Luke 22. And in Luke 22, prior to Christ's arrest, Peter had a discussion with Jesus where he told him that he would never deny him. So, oh, no, no, no, Lord. Not me. Not me. I would never do that. No, not me. I'm willing to die right alongside of you. I'll do it. I will.

Christ told him flat out, no, no, look, you're not going to just deny me once. No, you're going to deny me three times, actually, before it even hits morning. You're going to have denied me three times before it's all over with. Verse 54 of Luke 22, I use this particular example because this one is different than the rest of the examples that talk about this particular section. And this one's different in a very important way. And we're going to look at that here in just a second.

So again, Peter very, very impulsively, perhaps, maybe very brashly, oh, no, no, Lord, not me. No, not me. I won't deny you. I would go to my death. Jesus tells him, no, no, not quite. Verse 54 of Luke 22, Luke 22, verse 54, says, Having arrested him, they led him, and they brought him into the high priest's house, but Peter followed at a distance. So he's kind of holding back a little bit, making sure that he's able to keep up and go along with.

Now, when they'd kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, keep in mind again, it's nighttime, it's probably a little chilly, Peter sat among them at the fire, kind of warming himself, maybe. Says that a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him. So now he's getting somebody's attention. And he's sitting there, and he's minding his own business, and now he got this girl going, wait a minute. Hey, hear him. Hear him. You were with him, too. This man was also with him.

Verse 57, but he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him. I don't know him. Number one, right? And after a little while, another saw him, and they said, You're also of them. Peter said, Man, I'm not. I am not.

Then after about an hour, it passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, Surely, this fellow was with him, for he's a Galilean. We've got a Galilean here. What do you do? There's a Galilean guy on trial. He's clearly with the Galilean guy on trial. Peter says, Man, I don't know what you're saying. And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. Now, we all know that aspect of the story. We've heard that part of the story before. Three times he denies him the rooster crows. Verse 61, though, of Luke 22, records something that the other accounts don't. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

And then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. So Peter went out, and he wept bitterly. Peter knew Christ was going to die. He knew this was the way the road went. In fact, before, Christ had told him, and he said, Not so, Lord! We won't let it happen! We'll fight! We'll prevent it! Christ told him, No, you won't. This is how it has to happen. No, you won't. But here, just as he predicted, Christ had been arrested. His followers had scattered.

And really, I mean, in the minds of many of the disciples at this point, it's over. It's over.

The man who'd said he would die with Christ just denied him three separate times. Three separate times.

And then just as Christ had told him what happened, the third time he speaks, the rooster crows. Now again, verse 61, and I want this to sink in, because this is a big, big concept here that I, in this particular account, is important. And Luke, or in the Lord turned, and Luke, trying to say Luke over and over and over again, sorry. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

Can you imagine for a moment what was going through Peter's head at that point in time? After all of the words that he had said to him the night before he was arrested, you know, that same earlier that evening? Imagine what was going through his head. You know, now I won't deny you. Yeah, you will three times. Rooster crows. And then the gaze through the crowd from Christ right to Peter just sinks right in.

Imagine what was going through his head at that moment.

Christ looks right through the crowd, and his gaze follows on Peter, refocusing him, drawing him back in. Remember? Remember me? Remember what we said would happen?

Peter at that moment realizes what happened. It says he weeps bitterly. I can't even imagine just the amount of racking sobs that Peter must have had at that particular moment. But he took his eyes away for a moment. Took his eyes away for a moment. For a moment, his focus wasn't on Christ. It wasn't on kind of what was going on at that point in time. It was a moment of self-preservation. It was a moment of, if I admit that I'm with him, they'll put me on trial and I'll die, too. It was a moment of self-preservation. He says, nope, not me. I wasn't with him. No, you got the wrong guy.

Just like on the water, though, it took a momentary lapse. It took a moment of looking away.

And a recognition that his own admission likely would have led to his own death.

But as we mentioned in the beginning, the life of the Apostle Peter is really incredible from a standpoint of how much growth he goes through in his entirety of his ark. We can actually see him change before our very eyes. And as with all of us, he was a very different person before he received the Holy Spirit than he was afterwards. After he received the Holy Spirit and he had an opportunity to better understand the truth of God as his eyes were opened, he got it!

And we can see from the words that he recorded in 1 and 2 Peter that he definitely did. Let's go over to 1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4, we see this is kind of...if the earlier Peter is young Peter, this is old Peter.

This is nearing the end of his life, that these two books are written.

1 Peter 4. 1 Peter 4. And we'll pick it up in verse 12. And in this section, what we're going to see is we're going to see his thoughts, again, nearing the end of his life, his thoughts on the storms of life, on trials, on tribulations, on the things that all of us face. And he leaves, really recorded in these particular words, encouragement for those of us down through the ages, facing our lives and all that comes along with it. Coming from his very own unique experience and the inspiration of God, he gives us what we see written in 1 Peter 4, 12. 1 Peter 4, verse 12 says, In other words, don't be surprised. Don't be surprised when these sorts of things happen, these fiery trials that you experience in life. Don't be shocked by them. Don't be caught by surprise.

They're going to happen. It's to be expected. So much so, it's to be expected that we should rejoice in the opportunities that we have when we have suffering. Which, I know, I know, that's not easy to do. I know. I know. But when we signed up to live this way of life, when we said, God, I will follow you, we didn't get to dictate the terms. We didn't get to say, I'll follow you, but only if my bank account is fat, or I'll follow you only if I get this shiny new job, or I'll follow you only if my health holds up. We said, I will follow you, come what may. That was the terms that we entered into. We didn't get to dictate the terms. We were never promised a rose garden. We were never promised a rose garden. In fact, if you look scripture-ily, we see quite the contrary. We see quite the contrary. We see that we were guaranteed that trials will come, and that they would not necessarily be so much fun. John 16 and verse 33, John 16 verse 33, we see a conversation with Christ's disciples, between Christ and His disciples, and actually throughout John 16 we see this conversation. John 16 verse 33 kind of puts the cap on the conversation. John 16 verse 33 puts the final kind of, I don't know, final concept on it, and the final statement at the end. 16 verse 33, giving them an idea of really what they can expect, really trying to help them to understand the things that they were going to deal with and that they were going to experience.

John 16 and verse 33 says, these things I've spoken to you, again coming at the very end of a big, long dissertation on this whole concept, these things I've spoken to you that in me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

In other words, you're not alone. You're going to have difficulties. You're going to have issues. You're going to have trials and temptations and struggles and things that are extremely difficult in your life because there's the world around you that is not currently Christ's world. Right now, Satan's in charge of things down here. You can only do what God allows him to do. But in this world, there will be tribulation. There will be trials. There will be suffering. But Christ says, in Him, we can find peace. So where does our respite come from, our trials that we face? Our respite comes by being able to focus on God, keeping our focus on where it belongs, placing our eyes on the storm. We lose track of that. We can face our trials if we stick with God because Christ overcame the world. And while all of us can look at this academically, we can all read these words. We can all say, yeah, academically, that makes perfect sense. I know. I need to keep my focus in the right place. I need to not worry about my job loss or worry about this health struggle or these other things. Focusing on God, not focusing on the trials, practically, that can be a mess. Practically, that can be very, very tough. What does it look like in our lives from a practical standpoint? How do we go about doing this practically? How do we go about having and achieving the strength and the courage that it takes to give our trials to God and not worry about Him, particularly when they are major, major, major issues in our life? Somewhat ironically, it requires the strength and courage to commit an action that the majority of the world considers cowardly. We surrender. We surrender. We raise the white flag. We weigh the right flag. And we surrender. Total surrender. We stop trying to fix it ourselves. We put down our weapons, and we raise the white flag. We recognize it like it talks about in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, and we won't turn there. But 1 Corinthians 6, 20 talks about how we're not our own, that this life that we have, this life that we lead, it isn't ours anyway. It isn't ours anyway. We were bought with a price, a very expensive price. And as a result, we accept what befalls us, knowing that God will work it out in His time according to His will. And again, while this looks really simple on paper, in real life, it's messy. It's messy in real life. 1 Peter 5 gets into this concept a little bit further. 1 Peter 5... I should have had you keep your finger or ribbon or something in 1 Peter. My apologies. That's right. We're still close. 1 Peter 5 gives us a really great deal of information on what this looks like from a standpoint of our life. What does this look like in our life? How do we exactly do this? We're going to go through verses 6 through 10. Take a look at those. 1 Peter 5 verses 6 through 10. This is really Peter's concept on what that surrender looks like. How do we deal with the struggles that we face? How do we have the strength to confront those? How do we have the strength to work through them? We have to do the things that he mentions here. 1 Peter 5, we'll pick it up in verse 6.

2 Peter 6, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Not our time. Due time. In his time. In his timing. 3 Peter 6, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. 4 Peter 7, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Humble ourselves. Humble ourselves. Tough question time. Are we too proud to accept help? Are we too proud to accept help? Even from God. Are we too proud to accept help from God himself? Are we constantly trying to fix it ourselves and are we not willing to step back, put our hands up and say, I can't do this, Father. I can't. I cannot do this. You're going to have to. I think about this and I can identify times in my own life where I have tried so hard to fix something.

I mean, I have stepped back and I've looked at the issue and I've gone, all right, what if I come at it from this side? If I come at it from over here, everything, well, okay, that didn't work. But what about over here? Maybe I can kind of work my way around this little issue and come at it from the side, and then maybe I can somehow manage to fix it. And the reality is, as I look back on it, there was nothing that I could have done to fix that problem. Absolutely nothing. It was beyond my ability to fix. And yet I went like Don Quixote at that thing, just charging over and over and over again, trying to somehow fix it myself. And as I look back on that and as I consider kind of where that came from, I can only conclude it was pride. I can only conclude it was pride that somehow I personally thought that I could fix something that I didn't think God could somehow take care of.

I sat there and I worried about it. I fretted about it. I just tried to figure out how in the world I was going to fix this. I don't know if you've had similar situations. I would venture a guess that many of you probably have. It's a very human thing to do. But Peter admonishes us to humble ourselves, to recognize maybe that we can't fix it, and to cast our worries on God, that He cares for us and He will exalt us in due time. And we have to recognize that in our lives God will do what's necessary. But again, according to His purposes and according to His plan and in His time, it means that the answer might be no for a while. Until it's yes. Or it might be no until it's never yes. We never really know how that's going to go. And that's what's tough. You know, the song says that the waiting is the hardest part. Yeah, it is. Waiting on that answer or waiting for God to work how He's going to work or whatever He's going to do is tough. It's very, very difficult. He continues with a warning.

Verse 8, He continues with a warning. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.

Remain steadfast in your faith, knowing that your other brethren are suffering as well. God will, after we've suffered for a while, He will perfect us, He will establish us, He will strengthen us. Once again, notice that He doesn't say in verse 10, doesn't say it would necessarily happen in this life.

Once again, we have not been promised a rose garden. We've been promised an uphill climb, a narrow path that not everyone traverses. Life is tough. It's difficult. It doesn't make sense at times. We see individuals come down with cancer. We see people that we have friends that we've lost, some of them really young. We see difficulty. We experience trials.

Sometimes we pray for other people. Sometimes they don't make it. And it can be extremely tough to look at all of these things. And at times, it can even cause us to question God and His purposes. But brethren, we're looking at our life from a very different perspective than God is. We're looking at our life from a very different perspective than God is. He sees a very different side of our life than what we see. How many of you guys are familiar with Cory Ten Boom?

She's a motivational speaker, a Holocaust survivor, Christian. And she does these presentations. She's a Christian motivational speaker that draws on her Holocaust experience to be able to talk to people about how you go through trials and how you go through different things. Because she lived them. She went through multiple times. She actually attempted to hide a number of Jewish people throughout World War II, who was eventually caught and captured and thrown in with everybody else, survived the concentration camps.

And she's dead now. She died several years back. But she used to speak, and she would bring this giant piece of embroidery with her when she would give these presentations. She'd have this really big piece of embroidery. And as she spoke, she would hold the finished side to her. So she'd hold the finished side with the actual picture on it to her as she was talking. And she would hold up the just rat's nest on the back of this embroidery. Just threads everywhere, this way and that way, and all over the place.

She can't even tell what the picture is, you know, from the backside of it. And she would sit and she would talk as she gave this presentation with that whole entire back end of that embroidery there. And if you think about it, there's really no discernible pattern. Threads are all over the place. Just you could say chaos. I mean, you could say chaos, that it was just all over. At the end of the presentation, she'd turn the embroidery around so that everybody could see the picture that was on the front.

And the only way to get the picture on the front was to put the threads on the backside where they were at. This is a picture of what she had. This is the embroidery that she used. I'll send it around here so you guys can take a look at it, for those that maybe can't see it as well. But she would have this embroidery going with this just rat's nest again in the background. But flipping it around would see the picture that it was intended to be. She'd continue letting the audiences know that the finished side is what God's looking at.

That's what God sees in our life. That's the picture. That's what we're intended to become. That's the placement of the threads, or based on where the picture needs to come out. That's the perspective that he has looking at our life. Us, on the other hand, are looking up at that thread, the embroidery on the backside. From his perspective, all the threads are coming together to make this beautiful picture, this wonderful, beautiful pattern.

Crisp, clear design on our side. Sometimes we question it. Why is the thread there? It seems like a really weird place to put a thread. I don't think I'd put that thread there if it were me. But I guess that's where the thread is. From our side, it might look a little chaotic. We might question its placement. We not understand why they're all over the place.

But we also haven't had the privilege of seeing the other side of the embroidery yet. We haven't had that opportunity yet. We're looking at it from the opposite side with very, very human eyes. Reminds me a lot of the story of Joseph. Let's go over to Genesis 37.

Genesis 37, there's a couple of individuals who had similar situations like this. And for those that are doing the chronological read-through, we've been through both of them here in the last little bit that we're going to look at today. But Genesis 37, we get introduced to young Joseph. We get introduced to young Joseph in Genesis 37. And young Joseph strikes me as smidge naive. Maybe a little bit naive.

Just a bit. Just a bit. But we're introduced to young Joseph. He's the son of Jacob's most beloved wife, Rachel. And we see in verse 6 of Genesis 37, we see Joseph has this dream. So Genesis 37 and verse 6, Joseph tells his brothers, Please hear this dream which I have dreamed. There we were, binding sheaves in the field, and then behold my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and indeed your sheaves stood all around, and they bowed down to my sheave.

Isn't that cool? Can you even imagine? Isn't that the neatest thing you've ever heard of? Verse 8, his brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

In this case, he wasn't terribly well-liked up front, because you can imagine being the son of Jacob's most favored wife, he probably was pretty tight with Dad. And the other sons did not necessarily enjoy that same closeness, most likely.

So they didn't like him already. And then, now here we have this dream that comes into play. Verse 9, he dreams still another dream. This time he told it to his brothers, and he said, Look, I've dreamed another dream, and this time the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.

So he's so excited he told it to his dad. Hey, Dad! Check this out!

We can at least profit from this. There's no sense letting him rot in a pit if we can make some money. So they sell him off, and ultimately we see that he ends up on a caravan headed to Egypt. And we see the rest of the story unfold in subsequent chapters, and we won't read them all specifically.

But let's look at Joseph's life for a minute from his side of the tapestry. Let's take a look at Joseph's life from his side of the tapestry, from what he can see. He's a very famous dream. My brothers, my father rebuked me. My brothers got all mad about it. They threw me into a pit. They sold me into slavery. The person who bought me, his wife, tries to seduce me. I'm innocent. I get thrown in prison. I spend a bunch of time in prison. I interpret these dreams. These guys come and talk to me.

One of the guys says he'll tell the Pharaoh and get me out of here. It took him two years to even remember that here I am before things finally started looking up. If we look at Joseph's life from his side, from his side of the tapestry, all the things that happened to him, all the difficulties that he dealt with, but from God's side, how did that picture come together?

Well, there's going to be a great famine in the land shortly. Joseph's a good servant. I'm going to use him to solve it. I'm going to use Joseph to solve it. I need to get him away from his family, though, because his dad's holding on to the apron strings pretty tightly. I need to get him away from his family. I need to get him to Egypt. Well, just have him throw him in a pit and sell him to these caravan guys. I need to get him out of Potiphar's house, because if he's in Potiphar's house, I can't get him into contact with the guy who's going to get him into contact with Pharaoh.

At least not in this way, the way that I have planned. So here's where I'm going to put him. I'm going to put him in prison. I'm going to have him there. Once this plan begins to unfold, then here we go down the road. You've got orchestrated this entire thing. He used him to interpret the dream. The rest is history. From his side, from his side, Joseph looks and says, look at all these awful, horrible things that happened to me.

But from God's side, he was placed exactly where he needed to be, when he needed to be there. In fact, he recognizes it. Genesis 42. Genesis 42. His brothers finally show up. They do, in fact, bow down. There's a fulfillment of the dream itself in Genesis 42, verse 6. It says, Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold all the people of the land. Joseph's brothers came, and they bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.

The dream, the vision that he had, was then realized. But then, in verse 5, as we kind of look at this, we see that as it goes, his brothers are concerned. They're worried. They're worried, ultimately, that he's going to somehow want revenge. You know, as they're talking to him, that he's going to somehow want some kind of revenge. And he talks to them in...

let's see, it's Genesis 42. Let's see, seven, eight spies over here, sent for your youngest brother. Sorry, 43. I've lost it. It's been removed. Somebody erased it. No! Oh, you don't see it. It's in here, though, I promise you.

Oh, wait, wait, wait. Maybe it's 45. I might have not gone too far enough. Yep, right here. 45 verse 5. So 45 verse 5. My apologies. So the brothers are concerned. They realize once Joseph reveals himself to them, he's concerned that he's going to somehow... especially now, I mean, he's second in command over Egypt.

He's got power, man. He's got chariots. He's got all kinds of stuff. And he could really make their lives pretty miserable if he so chose. But he says to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Does my father still live? They couldn't answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. Like, oh, you are? Oh, oh, all right. This is not good. Joseph said to his brothers, please come near to me. So they came near, and he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. In other words, God planned this.

For these two years, the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, and God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you and the earth, and to save your lives by great deliverance. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he's made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all of his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph recognized that God had put him here. And through surrendering to God, through surrendering his life, and what was going to then happen in his life, God used him, and he put him where he needed to be. That's why surrender is so ultimately important.

That's why it's so important. God is performing a work in our lives that he promises to see through to the end. He's working a work in our life he promises to see through to the end. And Romans 12 talks a little bit about this concept of surrendering. Let's go over to Romans 12.

Romans 12 drives us home in a little bit different verbiage. Same basic concept, but a little bit of a different verbiage. Romans 12. Romans 12, we'll pick it up in verse 1 and verse 2. Romans 12, verse 1. Romans 12, verse 1 says, Romans 12, verse 1 says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And we focus a lot on this passage on that second aspect of things.

Not being transformed, but not being conformed. But the first part of this passage is equally as important. God wants us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Not only a living sacrifice, but a willing sacrifice. And if you think about what that means, or if you kind of consider what occurred with the majority of sacrifices in the Old Testament in ancient Israel, let's be realistic.

They didn't make it out alive. They didn't make it out alive. Their life was forfeit. They laid it down. And not necessarily willingly, in the case of the old sacrifices. You know, Christ's sacrifice was a willing sacrifice. But it was a one-way street. It was a one-way street. And as they might say, you know, in today's vernacular, we might say, well, they were all in. All the chips were on the table. You know, they've done everything that they could. They were all in. There was really no going back.

A willing sacrifice surrenders its own will and accepts the will of the one in charge, recognizing realistically that he holds our life in his hands anyway. And he does. He holds our life in his hands anyway. Our life is truly not our own, and really, it's forfeit. And because of that, then, verse 2 says we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, not conformed to the world around us. We need to be able to prove God's good, acceptable, and perfect will. And sometimes, sometimes that will will include difficult times in our lives. Sometimes it might mean that despite the most fervent of prayers, healing doesn't occur. But why? Why does God allow us to suffer? Why does God allow us to suffer? So as we start to kind of bring things to close here today, I'd like to leave you with three brief reasons as to why God allows suffering, why he allows trials, difficulties, and struggles in our life. The first of those things is that God can use our suffering to send a message to other people. He can do it for his glory. For his glory is the first of those three things. He can use our suffering to send a message to other people. And if we suffer trials, and if we suffer tribulations, and we rejoice in those trials, if our life is falling apart and we still have a smile on our face, what kind of a message does that send to other people? As they know, our life is falling apart, and yet we still have a smile on our face. We still are able to go forward and face our life with a smile. It sends a message loud and clear that the relationship that we have with God is more important to us than the temporary suffering that we experience. It tells us that he is worth every bit. That relationship is worth every bit. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 8 and verse 18. Go back just a couple pages from where we are at the moment in Romans 12. Romans 8 and verse 18. Romans 8 verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the things that happen in our life, the people we lose, the difficulties that we face, our health troubles, all of our sufferings, the things that we deal with, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. In other words, this life, all of its difficulties, struggles, whatever it is we face as we go through our time of judgment on this earth, our time of refinement has absolutely nothing on what God has in store for us, on what he has planned for us.

That kingdom that he has planned will be greater than anything that we can experience on this earth. Anything that we can experience on this earth. And so, in a way, when you look at it that way, what's a little suffering in this life? When it really comes down to it, what's a little suffering in this life? I was really incredibly just blown away, inspired recently, by a gentleman from Australia. Some of you may know about this. His name is Lindsey Smith, and he's a member down in Australia. He's been in the church for a number of years. He was in a major auto accident recently, like really serious, serious auto accident recently. There was a police chase, and the police were chasing this suspect through the streets, and the suspect's car rammed his, and he was hurt quite badly. In fact, the vehicle ran into him, injured him. He came out of the accident in a quadriplegic, which I can imagine for many of us, that's like worst nightmare scenario. It's like one of those things where you go, you know death would almost be a much better situation to have to deal with than not being able to hug your loved ones again, or feed yourself, or do a number of these other things. It would be something attitude-wise that would be really, really hard to deal with. Prayers all over the world went up. He's getting some feeling back in certain parts of his extremities, which is a good sign, but he's got a long ways to go.

He's got a long ways to go. His attitude, though, is absolutely contagious, and not long after they released him from the hospital, his son took a video and posted it on Facebook. Here he is in his wheelchair, out in the sun, beautiful sun in Australia, you know, right time of year for the sun down there. Here he is out in the sun, big old smile on his face, and he's humming the chicken dance, doing everything that he can to move his arms, and you see his shoulders. He is happy to be alive. He's happy to be alive. That is incredibly inspiring. You know, it puts—when I think about my trials and when I think about the things that I've dealt with, it sure puts him in a perspective. In the face of something as terrible as losing your ability to walk, to feed yourself, again, to hug your spouse, he's smiling and he's rejoicing in the face of it all.

What an incredible example. Really, what an incredible example. And he really is a wonderful illustration that when it comes down to it, what we experience here doesn't even come close to comparing to what God has in store. You know, when Lindsay, in this case, has resurrected, you know, what will any of the negative experiences that he had here ever matter? None of them will matter.

The second thing that trials do is they refocus and they refine us. They refocus and they refine us. God provides us with opportunities. I provide my students with opportunities, too. They don't like them. They're called tests. I call them opportunities because then they get all upset. We have a test today? No, you have an opportunity. You have an opportunity to illustrate how much you know. I don't know anything. Well, that's your problem. But you have an opportunity to show what you know. But he offered, just like he offered the Apostle Peter, he gave him opportunities to refocus, gave him opportunities to kind of check himself a little bit and come back and recognize where he's at and where he's from. Times—and God does that to us. He backs us into a corner that we can't possibly get ourselves out of.

Really, in order to let us know exactly where we stand, because if we can continually get ourselves out of situations, we start to begin to wonder, well, do I even really need God? Because I'm pretty good at this. I can get myself out of this. We start to maybe rely more on ourselves than the others. Secondly, too, how can God give us a miracle? How can he deliver us a miracle if there isn't an impossible place for us to be delivered from? Otherwise, we can always boast that it was us in some way or that it was something else. But if God's going to give a miracle, we have to be in an impossible place. We have to be in a place that only a miracle could have sufficed to get us out. You know, we see these kinds of examples all over the place. God put individuals into places throughout the Bible where they couldn't get themselves out and where God's deliverance would be necessary. The Israelites at the Red Sea, one example. Daniel and the lions. By all odds, Daniel should have been lion chow, right? When it came down to it, he should have been lion chow. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the furnace. You know, should have been not much left, right? David and Goliath. David shouldn't have won that battle. It was this tall. Maybe not this tall. Maybe it was this tall. But, I mean, compared to Goliath, a battle-hardened warrior like that, I mean, that's God. That's God's deliverance. And God put them in these really tough positions, put them in these extremely difficult, almost impossible places where it looked like to them at the time, you know, this may not work out. But I'm gonna go ahead and trust God, and I'm gonna step forward, and I'm gonna make this happen, in order to then deliver them in a way that was very extravagant and miraculous. However, you know, there are times, too, where it didn't work out. There are times where it didn't work out. There were times that the trial continued. There were times that deliverance didn't come. Let's go to Malachi 3. I don't often go to the book of Malachi. Malachi 3 is a really good book. There's lots of good stuff in it. I think maybe we don't go there because it's so hard to find. It's right after Zechariah. Malachi 3. Malachi 3, verse 3. God talks about this refining fire. He talks about this refining fire.

Malachi 3, verse 3, it says, He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. This idea of the refiner's fire, that through trials, through testing, through struggles in our life, we can be refined. We can have the impurities removed, and we can become a much brighter and much more magnificent metal. In fact, Proverbs 17.3, turn over there real quick, too. Proverbs 17.3 talks about this concept as well. Proverbs 17, verse 3 specifically tells us that the crucible is for silver. It talks about the crucible. The crucible is for silver. The crucible or the refining pot. The refining pot is for silver. The furnace is for gold. But the Lord tests the hearts. The Lord tests the hearts. God tries us. He tests us. He proves us. He wants to see what we'll do. We saw that example with Abraham. We've seen that example throughout Scripture as well. Trials have a way of showing God what we're made of. They have a way of showing God what we're made of. He desires a very specific attitude of response from us when he experiences them. One of the books we're going through right now for the chronological read-through is Job. And God takes everything from Job. Satan does. God allows it. But everything from Job is taken. He loses his family. He loses all of his flocks and wealth and status. And through 37 chapters of Job, Job goes, Whoa, it's me! What have I done? Why do I deserve this? And if you read between the rhetoric, it's incredible discourse on the nature of God and the nature of man and our place in things. But the crux of the story comes in in verses 37, 38, 39, 40, 41. The last five books, really, are the crux of it. Those are the ones where it comes together and God says what we talked about earlier. You don't get to dictate the terms. You say, I say follow me. You say, yes, come what may. You know, we surrender ourselves. We say, whatever you're going to bring our way, we'll face it. And we'll face it because what you have got planned for us is greater than what we face now. The last thing that we'll look at today, the last reason that God allows us to suffer is that suffering leads to hope. Suffering leads to hope. It gives us hope. Romans 5, verses 3 through 5. Romans 5, verses 3 through 5. Romans 5, verses 3. Kind of almost gives us a little bit of a mathematical formula, in a way, actually. Romans 5, verses 3 through 5. It says, and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations, and we're adding things to it, tribulations produce perseverance. You ever wonder sometimes whether you're going through what you're going through so you can learn patience?

I can guarantee you, this year, my students, that is their entire purpose for my life, is to teach me patience. I am absolutely 100% convinced that that is the purpose of my class of eighth graders and seventh graders this year. I'm guaranteed. I have been tried from a standpoint of patience more than any other year that I have ever taught.

I've been teaching 13 years now, and I can, without a shadow of a doubt, say this is the most difficult group of students I have ever taught. I'm certain that it is to teach me more patience, because I'm not where I need to be necessarily on the perseverance aspect. To perseverance, character. To perseverance, character. We build character when we have patience. When we take our lumps and we smile about it, it builds character.

And to character, hope. It says, now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. See that our trials and our suffering can lead to hope. Our trials can build patience. Our patience builds character, and our character builds hope. Our trials help us to recognize a very important lesson in God's life that he's called us to lead, and that is that this life isn't it. This life is not it. We place our hope in a resurrection. We place our hope in the Kingdom. This life is merely a stepping stone to get there. And it's important that when we have these things come down the pike, and when these storms roll in over and over again, sometimes it feels like you can't get your head above water, that this life isn't it, and that we need to make sure that our response to these trials and the things that we're dealing with are appropriate in that way. Brethren, we've been offered eternal life. We've been offered a gift of eternal life and an opportunity beyond this life with all of its aches and its pains and its difficulties. Again, our trials produce in us patience. Some put steadfastness, perseverance. That patience produces character, and our character builds hope. We can bank on that hope during our times of trial. We can bank on that. We can absolutely withdraw from that account all day long when we face difficulties in our life. We can bank on that. Bank on holding tight to that hope and holding on to those promises that God has given us. The writings of Peter contain a lifetime of wisdom from a man who, as time went on, really learned his lesson.

By the end of his life, as he wrote 1 and 2 Peter, if you have not read 1 and 2 Peter in a while, if you haven't, I'm going to give you homework. If you have not read 1 and 2 Peter in a while, read both of those books in the near future. Instead of read them from a standpoint of him saying, you, you, you, you, you from the suffering standpoint, put your name in there wherever it will fit. Make it like he's talking right to you, wherever it will fit. It's amazing some perspective shifts that can come out of that. Really, these two books, 1 and 2 Peter, they're like his magnum opus. These are the two big books that Peter produced that are really just incredible. But we see a brash, impulsive fisherman who really struggled to walk on water, develop into a servant of God who willingly went to his death. Christ told him, look, this is... when you're old, they're going to bind you, and they're going to take you where you don't want to go, and you're going to be put to death. He lived his entire life from that moment forward, knowing he would die a martyr. From that moment forward, he knew how his road ended. That's a weird concept to think about, knowing that, well, is this the day? No, maybe not. Is this the day? As he starts to get up there in age? Yeah, maybe not. And then eventually having it be the day. By tradition, he was crucified. It was crucified upside down again by tradition. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. But he claimed he would not be crucified in the manner that Christ was. He was not worthy. So he said he'd be crucified upside down. But his writings contain a lifetime of lessons learned. Lifetime of lessons learned. And it would be really helpful, again, to spend some time in those pages over the next little bit, thinking, again, of our own struggles and our own trials. But in these two short books, these two short books, they are, they're pretty quick. You can be through them in no time. But he talks trials, he talks suffering, he talks his own death. He talks about really his ultimate acceptance of it all. His ultimate acceptance of it all. He talks of the kingdom of God, talks about the focus that we must have on Christ and the life that all of us have been called to lead. He understood that storms would come. He knew that storms would come. He knew that life would have its trials, it would have its tribulations, it would have its difficulties. And that to come through them, for us to come through them, that we had to keep our eyes on God. That we had to keep our eyes on God and walk forward as that wind is just buffeting us, as the rain's pouring down, the flood waters are rising. We had to keep our eyes on the distance, on that light that Christ provided us, that example that He gave us, and straightforward, not turning, not getting distracted, not losing our focus. And there may be times that we have difficulty seeing the way forward through the rain. That rain may be coming down so thick that we can't hardly see off into the distance. There may be times that the wind is blowing like crazy and we may have to lean into the wind to gain ground. Or there might even be times that we're carrying all of our possessions on our heads through the flood waters. But we've got to keep a step forward, one foot after another, throughout that process. We can't stop going forward. And most importantly, most importantly, when we do face the trials of this life, when we face these things that just strike us so frequently, in order to have the strength and the courage to get through them, we have to keep our eyes on God and we cannot lose our focus.