Life: If It Only Came With Instructions

Morning Worship Service - 4/2/06

 

I. Introduction

(Illustration: Rock climber Craig DeMartino was doing what he loved best as he scaled the heights of the Sundance Buttress in Rocky Mountain National Park on July 21^st 2002. Little did he know that the harrowing “Whiteman” climb would be his last. After a tragic instant of miscommunication, Craig tumbled off the rocky cliff and plummeted nine stories to an almost certain death. Free falling at over 60 miles per hour, he crashed onto the mountain floor feet first. With a broken back, a fractured neck and shattered ankles, Craig remained unconscious as the doctors advised the family he had less than an hour to live. But God has a different plan for Craig. Through a series of miraculous events, Craig survived his 100 foot fall to discover a renewed relationship with Jesus and to testify of God’s wondrous power in his life. Listen to this brief testimony that he gave while still in the hospital recuperating from the fall.

PLAY #11 on the menu for the DVD of “After the Fall”)

- Maybe some week I will show you the entire video of this amazing  story. However, this morning, as we get back into this study of how to handle the real life storms that come our way, I wanted you to see that in the midst of this category 5 storm in Craig’s life, he was responding by following Christ’s instructions.

Ä And as a result, as you can tell, this whole situation was not overwhelming him and causing him to respond in a way that was sinful and displeasing to God, but instead he was facing this storm with an attitude of great victory.

- And again, this attitude of great victory came as a result of following Christ’s instructions by first of all responding to the life storm and trial with great confidence.

Ä As Christ instructs us to do in Matthew 14, Craig responded to this storm by being of good cheer or taking courage. (Change Slide)

Ä Christ never wants us to respond to trials with a spirit of great fear, terror, and worry. While that certainly may be our natural initial response, Christ does not want us to stay there.

Ä Instead Christ would have us to replace the fear, terror and worry with confidence.

- Now this confidence that Christ wants us to respond with is not a blind confidence. For Craig and for us, with the instruction to respond with confidence comes instruction for the foundation upon which to base that confidence.

Ä Again, based on Christ’s instruction in Matthew 14, Craig was able to based his confident attitude on knowledge or the understanding that the “I AM” was with him. (Change Slide) è the almighty, all-powerful, self-existent, faithful God of the universe was with him in the very midst of the storm.

ü Now to be honest with you, the reason why some of us may be sitting here this morning knowing that whenever a trial or storm comes into our lives we become defeated and discouraged leading to consistent responses of sin is because of the fact that we really don’t know whether or not God is really with us. And we don’t really know that, because we don’t really know him as our personal Lord and Savior. That is where it all must begin.

Ä So, Craig was able to have confidence as his personal testimony spoke to this morning, because he had the understanding mind that the “I Am” was with him. But in addition to that, he also had the knowledge from James 1 that the testing of his faith was going to produce patience. (Change Slide) è In other words, he understood the fact that God will always use the trials of our life for our benefit and development.

 

 

 

ü Folks, as our loving heavenly father, God always wants what is best for us, and what is best for us that we are always right within his will. So, with that knowledge, we can have the confidence that God has something better for us when we come out on the other side of the trial

 

- Now with this last bit of knowledge concerning the fact that God uses trials for our benefit and development in some way - I am not standing here this morning just asking you to accept that fact blindly, because the fact of the matter is that this is a pretty hard fact to swallow at times.

Ä In fact God himself doesn’t ask us to accept this truth blindly

- But instead God, using the Scriptures, has given us several example of individuals who faced trials and life storms, and along with the account of the storm we are also give the purpose or the benefit that God intended for that storm in that individuals life.

 

II. God’s Purposes for Trials in our Lives

- Now, I knew that this morning I would be running short on time due to all that we wanted to do within our service this morning. Therefore, I hope that with the time that we do have remaining, we will be able to discover together at least two purposes or benefits that God might intend to use a trial in our lives to accomplish.

- And so to not waste any more time, let’s just jump right into the first purpose or benefit by jumping into our Scriptures in the book of Exodus chapter 16

 

1. God uses trials and storms in our lives in order to increase the strength of our faith and obedience to him

- The last time we were together, I had us go to the book of Exodus, and I had us peek in on the nation of Israel and a trial that they were facing together as a nation. Because of time we are not going to go back there, but let me just remind you that from this example we learned that God used that particular trial in the life of the Israelites in order to increase the strength of their faith and their obedience to Him. (Change Slide)

- What God delights in, in more than anything else is our obedience to him because of our faith in him. However, that obedience doesn’t always come naturally. In fact, speaking personally, it is something that I need to work at and always need improving in.

Ä Therefore, when the situation presents itself, in order to help us out, God will try and use a storm of life that we are going through in order to strengthen our faith and our obedience to him.

Ä We will never be consistent in our obedience to God if we are never given any test in order to strengthen us and our faith to be obedient - God wants to know if we are still going to remain faithful and obedient to him, even in the midst of a tough sitituation.

- A verse that I found in my study for this that brought great in encouragement to me was the one that I read for you all in Hebrews chapter 4 that I want you to help me read this morning.

(Put Hebrews 5:7-8 on the screen with these words in yellow)

 

 

 

- So this morning we can face life storms and trials with confidence because we understand that God has something better for us when we come out on the other side of the trial; and that is that God can use the storm or trial we are facing in order to strengthen our faith and our obedience to Him.

2. God uses trials and storms in our lives in order to humble us

(READ Daniel 4:28-30)

è Folks, what appears to be the problem that good old king Nebuchadnezzar seems to be struggling with?      >>> PRIDE

Ä According to the king’s own words, the great city of Babylon owes its existence to him. “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty.”

- Well, in light of this obvious character flaw of the king, notice what happens to him next:

(READ Daniel 4:33)                                                                                                                 

è Folks, if you were driven out your home and made to live like a wild animal for seven years, would you consider that to be little storm of life?     

- This verse we just read really describes the wretchedness of Nebuchadnezzar's condition:

ü He was absolutely abhorred and despised by his subjects (which isn’t a big surprise by listening to him talk - who wants to listen to that?)

ü He was reduced to the state of a grazing beast in a field.

ü Physically his skin toughened into hide through constant exposure to outdoor weather at all seasons. And the hair of his head and his body, become so matted and coarse from neglect of care that it looked like eagle feathers. And finally, his fingernails and toenails, never cut, became like claws.

- Now in between the description of Nebuchadnezzar’s great pride and the description of the great storm that blew into his life, we have two verses that describe for us the reason for such a storm.

(READ Daniel 4:31-32)

- You see folks, as this true story illustrates for us, God will use trials and storms in our lives in order to humble us. That’s another of the purposes or benefits that God intends to use trials in our life to accomplish. (Change Slide)

(Illustration: Getting sick and losing my voice for the entire spring tour)

- Now the reason this is one of God’s purposes for trials is made very clear to us in Proverbs chapter 6 - remember, God wants what is best for us and what is best for us is being in his will

(READ Proverbs 6:16-17a)

- Folks, God can’t stand pride in our lives, because it will always cause us to take our focus off of God and what he would have us to be doing, and instead place our focus on ourselves and what we would like to do - which always will lead to sin.

- Therefore, when we are struggling with pride, which places our focus on ourselves, sometimes the only way God can get our attention or our focus is through a trial.

Ä And according to Proverbs 16:18, oftentimes the trial that God uses to teach us humility and bring about humility in our lives is often caused because of our pride because that verse tells us that, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

- Paul himself testified to this purpose or benefit that God has for trials and storms of life. 

(READ II Corinthians 12:7-10)

- So folks, if you are facing a life storm or trial this morning, I hope that you can face that storm or trial with confidence because you understand that God has something better for you when you come out on the other side of the trial.

ü One of those things is that God can use the storm or trial we are facing in order to strengthen our faith and our obedience to Him.

ü The other thing that should give us the confidence we need when facing a storm is that God can use the storm or trial we are facing in order to humble us.

 

- Now, we don’t have that much time left this morning, however I would like for us to consider one last benefit or purpose that God might have for a trial or life storm - remember, the more of these benefits or purposes we know about, the better the foundation will be upon which we can build our confidence.

3. God uses trials and storms in our lives in order to wean us from our dependence on worldly things

- As we continue to scroll through the pages of Scripture, we can find several different example of the third benefit or purpose for our lives that God uses trials for, but none of the accounts are so vivid than the account of Job.

- We don’t have the time to do a full study on the life of Job this morning, so we are just going to hit a couple of the basic highlights. And from those highlights we will see that God will use trials and storms in our lives in order to wean us from our dependence on worldly things. (Change Slide)

 

(READ Job 1:1-3)

è Folks, from what we just read, did Job have a lot of worldly things? >>> YES

è Was it wrong for him to have those worldly things?       >>> ABSOLUTELY NOT

Ä Please don’t misunderstand me this morning and think that I am teaching against having earthly possessions. It wasn’t wrong for Job to have these possessions, because they were blessings from God. And it is not wrong for us to have possessions.

Ä However, it is wrong to be dependent upon those worldly things. And if you are wondering how a person can tell if they are dependent on earthly things. Well, one of the best ways you can tell is by figuring out what gives you the most happiness in life. If it is your worldly things - you are too dependent on them.

Ä If you just can’t imagine how in the world you could go on if several of your earthly possessions were destroyed or taken - you have too much dependence on them.

- Job had a lot of possessions, and in the next several verses God allows Satan to bring a trial into Job’s life in order to test his dependence of these possessions.

(READ Job 1:9-12)

- And for those of you who are familiar with this account you know what happens next:

(READ Job 1:13-19)

è So what do you think, would this be considered a pretty serious storm in a person’s life?         >>> Yes - he lost his livestock and his children

- Now in light of this severe life storm, we find Job response, and it was the response that God was looking for: