Lessons We Learn from Our Trials

One thing I did forget to mention was the fact that we really do have plenty of room at the Home Office for training. The ministers. What we found was the plan originally was that we would have anywhere between three and five men a year coming in for training. And we believe that we can very adequately take care of that at the Home Office. So that's something that we will continue to have as a focus and to be working on.

We've had many trials and tests in the church and in our local congregations over the last few years. When you look at your local congregation, whether it's Hickory or, you know, Asheville, Charlotte, how many are out of work? How many have health problems? How many are struggling financially? How many of us are struggling spiritually to keep ourselves together? And how many are wondering, well, what's going on? Or, you know, what's happening?

Well, I think we could all come up with answers to that. I pastor a small congregation in Rome, Georgia, where the majority of the people are out of work. We have a lot of elderly people there. Some are retired. But many of them have some severe health problems. We've had three people die in the last year, year and a half. And for a congregation of about 25, we have had people who have had their houses foreclosed on, and just, you know, difficulties.

And I'm always amazed at their resiliency and their strength and how they keep bouncing back and keep going. But yet, what we're experiencing is not something, I think, unusual for what occurs in God's Church and among His people. How many people do you know who maybe have died of sickness or died prematurely, or who have suffered, perhaps cancer, heart problems? It could be any number of things over an extended period of time. Many times we ask, why? Why does this happen to me, or why is it happening to God's people?

We're the children of God. We realize that when we were called by God, placed in His Church, that God didn't put us in the bubble. He didn't protect us from every problem that comes along. Yes, we are His sons, we are His daughters, but we still struggle. Why does the Church go through the struggles, the trials, and the tests that they do?

As I mentioned in the preliminary discussion we had, the sermonette, you can look at 72, 74, 76, 78, 79 in the Church and go back through the 90s and all the difficulties we've had. Why has the Church faced with all of those problems? What kind of impact does this have on us? Does it have on families? Because many times you see families divided.

You see families going one place or going somewhere else. And yet, when you look at the human race, you look at human history, you also see that human beings have suffered a great deal. How many people have died in wars? In the last century, apparently, I think it's estimated something like 150 million people have died as far as wars. How many have been maimed, injured, crippled for life? Think of the misery and the suffering of a young man, 18, 19, goes off to war, has his legs blown off, an arm blown off.

He comes back crippled, he's married, has a family, trying to earn a living, trying to adjust to life. Many seem to have a tremendous amount of resiliency in being able to face those types of trials. Others don't. And it depends on their emotional, mental strength and stability.

We hear of accidents happening all the time, and maybe some of us have had family members involved. Drunk drivers, drivers out there on drugs that they're taking. Actually today, texting. You find that people are going down the highway driving and they're texting on their blackberries or their phones while they're driving.

And it's been proven that that is much more dangerous than driving drunk. And how many people have had an accident? You know, when you're looking at this little thing, you see something and somebody stops right in front of you, or a deer pops out, or someone pulls in traffic or cuts you off and you don't watch, and you look up and all at once, uh-oh, you've got a wreck going on. Look at the economic plight of people today. We have situations in this country where houses are being foreclosed on by the tens of thousands. People are out of work by the millions in our country.

You look around the world and you find that people live in wretched conditions, going without proper food, clothing, and shelter. So we have huge debts. The United States government right now has over $14 trillion in debt. Who's going to pay for that? How are we going to pay for that? Are we going to be willing to say, okay, we as a nation are going to tighten our belt, and here's the yearly budget. We're going to knock a fourth of that out and put it on the debt. We're going to pay this off. We're not going to do that.

We've grown up in a nation where there's too much dependency upon the government, social programs. And so therefore, you would have rioting going on in the streets, just like there is in Britain or Ireland or Greece or some of these other nations. Why do so many people seem to have a lot of problems? And others seem to have a few problems. Is it fair? When you look around at problems, you say, well, we should all have the same. It doesn't work that way, does it?

Do we all have the same blessings? No. Do we all have the same problems? No. And so there is a difference. When you look at the individual Christian, and I'm talking about each one of us, myself, you see that we go through the same type of trials that people around us do. Same type of difficulties. They do. We have health problems. They have health problems. Christians are not immune to financial difficulties, to family problems. We're exposed to a whole gamut, whole spectrum of difficulties that the human race is exposed to.

And the question is, why? Why do we go through this? Why do we go through these problems? What are we to learn from them? And are we to learn anything more than just the average person in society? Is life always fair? And of course, it's not. Let's take a look at these questions today. Let's take a look at what God has promised us. Because when it's all said and done, you stand on the promises that God gives us in His Word.

Every one of us sits here today, basically depending on God and our relationship with God. And how close we are to God is going to determine how we respond. So let's acknowledge one thing to begin with. We don't always know the reason why we're going through a trial or a test. You may be going through something and you ask, why me? Last year I had this health problem. This year I got this financial problem. My car went out. I blew a tire. I lost my job. You could go on and on with a litany of difficulties or problems that we might be faced with.

There are specific lessons that God is trying to teach all of us. The one bottom lesson simply is God wants to prove our faithfulness. Will we remain faithful to Him in spite of all kinds of difficulties? Only God ultimately knows what our needs are, what our lacks are as far as our character. God is like a master painter. He sees the canvas, which is your character, and you and I are given a glimpse every once in a while.

You study the Bible and you say, I don't have enough patience. You study the Scripture and say, I need to show more love. I've got a temper, whatever it might be. You see certain elements of what you need to work on. God sees the whole picture. What if God were to dump the whole picture on you once?

What would happen? We'd probably all go off screaming because we couldn't take it. But God works with us. Maybe we know we need to work on having more love, but God realizes that, yes, you need more love, but you need this, this, and that. So the trials, the tests, the difficulties that we go through are helping us to develop that in a way that only God understands.

Occasionally, God will reveal to us, through the inspiration of His Spirit, why He's allowing a particular problem to occur. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. And we have an example here of the Apostle Paul, where God revealed to him why he was going through a difficulty. Verse 7. Paul said, He doesn't say exactly what that was. It could have been a health problem, my problem, it could have been a demon, and you could have been almost anything.

But notice he says, Paul realized that he could get puffed up over all of the visions he saw, the wonders that God performed through him, the miracles that God performed. And he said, For my strength is made perfect in weakness. In whose weakness?

On your weakness, my weakness. God's strength is perfected through our weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmity that the power priced 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 am I strong. The human tendency that we all have is that when things go well, we sort of drift, or we could drift, or we'd just go along.

We're not really as close as we should be, but when problems occur, when we're going through something, what does that force us to do? It forces us to our knees. It forces us to stick our nose in the Bible. It forces us to rely upon God to cry out to God, Help! I need help. I need strength. Help me. And so, you begin to rely upon God in His power, not your own power. So, Paul could have had a vanity problem, a problem with pride, and of course, none of us have that problem, right?

I mean, that's something that doesn't bother us. Well, we all have that problem, obviously. This was there to help keep him humble. He could not overcome it on his own. He needed strength from God. He had to turn to God for understanding. Many times we ask God to remove a trial for us, and yet God is perfecting us, perfecting our faith, perfecting our character. He's making us rely upon Him more fully. Back in Job 1, verse 8, we see a startling story here. We all have read the book of Job, but let's notice Job 1, verse 8. We find here that God brought Job up to Satan.

God was the one to introduce him to Satan. The Lord said to Satan, Well, have you considered my servant Job, that there's none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? Now notice Satan's reply.

What was the devil saying? Well, Job's only obeying you because of the blessings, because of what he can get. You take away what you give him, and he'll turn around and curse you. Okay, does that mean that you and I only obey God when things go well? When he's blessed us? Well, see, this was Satan's accusation against him. God does not place us in a vacuum. We're not totally impervious to the world, society, Satan the devil, his influences. You'll find that God was working a greater purpose out in Job's life. Let's go back to Job 42, beginning in verse 1, that there were some lessons that Job had to learn, and he didn't learn them immediately. He had boils all over his body, set on an ash pile, scraped himself with broken pieces of pottery. I'm sure he had pus and maggots and bugs and, who knows, crawling all over him. He was in absolute state of misery. His friends came up for a week. They sat there and looked at him and couldn't say anything because of sympathy. Finally, they started accusing him. You wouldn't be in this shape if you weren't doing something wrong. Just admit it. Job kept saying, I'm not doing anything wrong. Of course, what they were accusing him of doing, he wasn't doing. God knew that Job had a different problem. So in Job 42, beginning in verse 1, Job realized that his idea of God and who God was and how God dealt with man was not properly. But was not proper, so he had to repent of his approach. And yet you will find that his three friends were wrong. Job had to pray for them. They had to come and ask for forgiveness. Job prayed for them, and God restored everything that Job had. He had a greater opinion of himself than he had of God, and he had to learn that God was greater. Now, in reading through these two scriptures, there are three valuable lessons that all of us can learn. 1. We can be spiritually strong when we rely upon God. Our spiritual strength comes from relying upon Him. God gives us the strength that we need to endure whatever trial we go through. 2. We need to keep our eyes focused on God and on our relationship with Him. It is a matter of our close relationship with God. And 3. God will always do what is best for us. God is not out to hurt us, to destroy us. He is always out to do us good. God will do us good in the latter end. Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8, beginning in verse 2.

When God dealt with ancient Israel, He gave them a principle here that applies to all mankind. In verse 2, Deuteronomy 8.2, You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness. Now, why does God lead us, in a sense, through our own wilderness? To humble you, to test you, to know what's in your heart. So why do we go through the difficulties that we're faced with? We need to be humbled. God tests us. He proves us. He's not going to give eternal life to a rebel. You and I have to prove our absolute faithfulness to Him. And to know what's in your heart. See, we can profess with a mouth profession is made, but it's what comes out of the heart. Whether you would keep His commandments or not. And then verse 16 says, The end result was for their good. God will always do what is best for us. Now, with that in mind, let's notice 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13. This is one of the most comforting scriptures in the Bible.

Like the old expression, you can take this to the bank. This is one of those scriptures that you can rely upon all of them, but this is a promise.

No temptation, no trial, no testing, has overtaken you, except such as is common to man. But God is faithful. We will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. But will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it?

Now, let's take a look at this and analyze it a little bit. Let's take a look, first of all, no temptation. The word temptation here can mean either an enticement to sin or a testing or proving. Satan tries to tempt us to sin. He tries to get us to sin. God tests our character. Now, it's funny, the same word is used. Parosmos is the Greek word here, parosmos. It means a trial or proving, a trial of man's fidelity, integrity, virtue, constancy. God wants to see our integrity, our constancy. Will we remain faithful? It can also be an enticement to sin, to temptation. See, this is a word, parosmos, or parosmos, originally was a word that meant to put you to the test. It was also used of testing coins to see if they were genuine. Over a period of time, because man tends to fail tests, it began to be translated temptation. So, how do you know when it's talking about temptation or it's talking about trial? Because the same word is generally used here. Well, again, if it's talking about what God is doing, God tries you. Now, when God tries you, that means He puts you to the test. Is your faith genuine? Is your conversion genuine? Is your love genuine? Are you the real deal? Are you truly converted? Satan, though, comes along and says, look at this falluptuous blonde, or look at this pornography, or here's a gal in a booze, have at it, and He will put temptations in front of you, and He will try to entice you to sin. That's the difference.

Now, God never tempts us. The Bible is very clear about that, but Satan the devil does. God will prove our character, He will prove our faith, He will prove our holiness.

When a person is enticed to sin, that arises from the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Now, notice again in verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you except that is common to man. The trials of common Christians are not common trials. Others, you find, have the same burdens or problems. Do not most people go through life and they say, well, it's just tough luck, bad luck. They have difficulties. What lessons do they learn from them? Very seldom do they learn. They stumble from one thing to another, making the same mistakes. But God is dealing with us because He wants us to learn.

He wants us to grow up. He wants us to mature. He wants us to spiritually become smart. And you and I realize that even though we go through the same type of trials that other people do, that there is a God in heaven and He is working with us. He is directly involved in our lives. We are His people. We are His children, His sons and His daughters, and He's personally working with us. Now, it goes on to say, but God is faithful.

So, God is true. He's faithful. We can rely upon what God says. This is one of the great truisms of the Bible. You need, if there's anything you mark in this Scripture, you need to mark, God is faithful. You can rely upon God. You can trust Him. And so God is faithful. He will deal with us according to what He tells us in the Scriptures. Then it goes on to say, who will not allow you to be tempted above?

In other words, the word not allow, God is not going to allow you to be tempted to where it's going to destroy you. God will not allow you to be destroyed. God knows what we can bear, what we can endure, or what we cannot endure. He knows each one of us intimately. Our trials will be in proportion to our strength, or our strength will be supplied in proportion to the tests we go through.

One way or the other, God will deal with us. God will take care that we are not overcome if we rely upon Him. And so if we trust God, we rely upon Him. We pray to Him. We stay close to Him. Then God will be with us. So He's not going to allow us to be tempted or tested beyond what we are able. But notice, with the temptation or the trial, He will make the way of escape.

So God will give us the means to come out of the problem successfully. And as it says, that you may be able to bear it or endure it. The word bear means to endure here. So you and I may have to go through a long trial.

You may have to endure it. But God says He will give you the strength and the courage to endure it. So God is faithful. No trial, no test, no problem. No lophies, His compassion, His faithfulness, His commitment to us, His love for us. Hebrews 13 and verse 5 tells us this quite clearly. Hebrews 13 and beginning here in verse 5. We're told, Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Now in the Greek language, the Greek is written in such a way that when it says, I will never leave you, it's a triple negative.

Meaning, I will not, I will not, I will not leave you. And then, nor forsake you is a double negative. I will not, I will not forsake you. Now all that means is it's a way in the Greek to emphasize something, to put emphasis on it. Whereas today we would say, be on a shadow of a doubt. Don't have any concern. Absolutely! Let me tell you, you know, we go on and on. This is what I'll do. And then we don't end up doing it. Now God tells us that I will never leave you.

So what that tells me is God will never leave me. That He's always there. Everyone else may walk off and leave you. And you may be standing there, but God is with you. And God says, nor will I forsake you. So we have these absolute promises from God. And then verse 6 says, so we may boldly say, you can say with utter confidence, the Lord is my helper.

There is a God in heaven. He is described as the Almighty God. He has all power. There's no force superior to Him. He is my helper. He's the one who's on my side. I will not fear what man can do to me. All men can do is kill you. None of us want to be martyred or killed. That's all man can do to you.

God will bring you back to life. God will give you eternal life. God will give you an existence on His plane, in His realm, in the spirit world, part of His family. And so we have this commitment from God. This is an absolute commitment that God has given to His family. And you and I are part of that family. We have His spirit. We are His children. In Matthew 28, beginning in verse 19, Matthew 28, verse 19, we read this scripture. Well, let's back up to verse 18. Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

So Christ has been delegated all power and authority. Therefore, He says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you, always, even to the end of the age. We're not there yet. We haven't reached the end yet. It's coming. It's close. But He says He will always be with us, even right down to the very end of the age.

So what more do we need? We have God's total commitment to us and that He will always be with us. So how do we know that God will be faithful and committed to us, that He will always do what is best for us? On Hebrews 6, verse 13, we read this.

I will multiply you. And so after He had patiently endured, He obtained the promise, talking about the promise to Abraham. For men, indeed, swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all disputes. Thus God determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise, to all of us, the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it's impossible for God to lie, and by swearing on Himself it's impossible for Him to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. So we find that God, there's no higher power than God. He swore by Himself. So by the fact that He swore there's no greater power, and the fact that we find here, verse 18, that it's impossible for God to lie, goes totally contrary to His character. He will not lie. And so therefore, if God has given us the immutability of this promise, it will happen. We will inherit the kingdom of God. So we have His word, we have His oath. As chapter 10, beginning in verse 19, tells us in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10.19, we find, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, you and I have access to the very throne room of God, by a new and a living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is His flesh, having a high priest over the house of God, that's Christ, over the church here. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

So there it is again. God promises He's faithful.

You and I sometimes promise, and we're not always faithful. Can we always keep every promise we make? What if you promise, well tomorrow I'm going to come by and see you, and you die during the night, have a wreck, you're in the hospital, fall on your head and have amnesia.

There could be all kinds of reasons why you might not be able to fulfill your promise. Nothing keeps God from fulfilling His promise to us. God is faithful in spite of man's actions and man's sins. Romans 3, verse 1, doesn't matter what we do, God is still faithful. In chapter 3, verse 1 here, the book of Romans, it says, what advantage then has the Jew, or what is the prophet of circumcision?

He says, much in every way, much in every way, chiefly because of them, were committed the oracles of God. For what if some of them did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Because human beings don't believe. Don't believe there is a God, don't believe that God exists or God will do what He says, or that there are spiritual laws. It doesn't matter what human beings believe. It says, certainly not. Let God be true. And every man a liar, as it is written, that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged. But if our righteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust? Who inflicts wrath? Why speak as a man? Then He drops, let's drop down to verse 8. And why not say, let us do evil, that good may come, as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, their condemnation is just. So Paul is bringing out here that there were those who slandered Him, who falsely accused Him, who said that He was guilty. If God forgives us by His grace, the more we sin, the more grace is extended. The greater God is, this is what they were accusing Him of. In Isaiah 55, we learn a very valuable lesson about how God operates. Isaiah 55, verse 10. Isaiah 55, verse 10.

So God's word, His promises will come to pass. If the word has gone out, if God says there's going to be a resurrection, if God has said that He will give us eternal life, if God has said that He will be with us through all of our trials, guess what? He will. His word does not come back void. He doesn't just speak to hear Himself speak. It will produce the fruits that He says it will come to pass. Because, you see, God cannot deny Himself.

He cannot deny His nature. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 11, the Apostle Paul writing to the young evangelist, Timothy, reminded Timothy of this. 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 11. This is a faithful saying that if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny Himself.

God has a certain nature, a certain way He operates, a certain character. He will not go against that. And so He will not deny Himself. He will be faithful. We must believe and know in our hearts that God will always do what is best for us. He chastens us for our good, for our profit. How many human beings today who live, live and die without hope? And yet God gives us a strong hope, the hope of the resurrection, the hope of the future, that He extends to us.

Our great loving God has not left us without hope. He's not left us without a purpose in life. He's working with us, and He's working through us. God has revealed that there is a great purpose for this physical life that we go through. Have you ever stopped and wondered why did God create us physical in the first place?

See, God created the angels. He created all of the billions, maybe billions, millions, hundreds of millions of angels that we know of. And yet, Lucifer took one-third of them in rebellion against God. Now, what possibly did they find wrong with God? God is sinless. God is perfect. And yet, even God lost a third of the angels who went off. And do you think that God did not know what Lucifer was doing when he did it? Lucifer one day, some way had to get his nose pinned out of joint, and the Bible says he was lifted up with pride.

He was a beautiful carrot, beautiful angel, beautiful music, created with all kinds of abilities. And he began to think, well, I'm not being utilized by God in the way that I ought to be used. And he became envious. He wanted to take over. He felt he should have a higher position. Or God maybe was giving Gabriel or Michael or some other angelic being a greater responsibility.

He didn't like that. And so he started talking to another angel. And guess what? He affected him. And then they started talking to others, and they began to affect others. The principle of the rotten apple and the barrel. You might remember Mr. Herbert Armstrong, page 47 of one of his books. I forget which book it was.

I should have written that down. Mystery of the Ages, I believe. He uses the analogy of the rotten apple and the barrel. And how that if you don't take the rotten apple and set it aside, guess what? The rotten apple will begin to affect the whole barrel. And pretty soon they're all rotten. Well, did God know that there was a rotten apple among the angelic beings who were beginning to influence the others? Was he deaf, dumb, and blind? Did he know what was going on around him? I'm sure he did. But he realized that if they were going to rebel, he wanted them to rebel.

You know, leave. He wanted those around him who were faithful, who were loyal. That brings us back to why did God create us physical? Because as human beings, if we turn our back on God and reject Him, we cease to exist. He will burn us in the lake of fire, and we will cease to exist forever. But those who prove faithful, loyal, stand with Him, rely upon Him, trust Him, obedient, God will give us eternal life, and we will live forever.

So God gives us that hope. He gives us these promises. He tells us what His nature is like. That He is faithful. He cannot deny Himself. That we can trust Him. He's our Helper. He will never leave us, our forsake us. We can rely upon Him. God gives us hope. Let's notice one final scripture back here in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 3.

We find that we have a living hope. It's not a dead hope. It's a living hope.

1 Peter 1, verse 3. 2 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again. 3 To a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So the fact that Christ came, lived a perfect life, died for our sins, was resurrected. We now have a living hope. He's alive. He lives in us. 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, an undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last times. And, brethren, we're getting much closer to that. You look around at what's going on in the world. There are prophecies taking place right now that we talked about fifty years ago. Mr. Armstrong used to preach about this nation going down, how the alien would rise up among us, and how Europe would unite. And you see blocks of nations uniting in the Orient, where you could have armies of 100 million, 200 million, coming from those. Those things are happening today. It's almost like people are in a coma. We thought they were going to happen in the past. They are happening now. They are beginning to be filled now, and we can't sleepwalk through life. We have to realize that the end is getting near. So, God says this salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials. We have to go through various tests, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold, that perishes, though it be tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see Him, yet you believe. Not if you've seen Christ. The original apostles did, and those were alive at that time. But we have not seen Him, but we know that He exists. And you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. So, brethren, there is a living hope we have, and that is the salvation that God will give to us. So let's realize and hold on to these promises that God gives to us. And yes, we may have to go through more trials and more tests, but let's realize that there is a God in heaven. He's working out His plan in us. He will always be with us. He will never forsake us.