Life: If It Only Came With Instructions

Morning Worship Service - 4/9/06

 

I. Introduction

- Well folks, we have been talking together for several weeks now about how to handle the storms of life correctly by handling them Christ’s way. And over the last couple weeks in particular, we have been discussing the basis on which our confidence can be placed - which is one of the first ways that Christ has instructed us to respond to trials and storms in our lives.

Ä In the midst of life storms, we can have confidence, but that confidence must be based on an understanding mind, and that understanding must include the fact that:

ü We understand and know that the almighty, all-powerful, self-existent, faithful God of the universe is with us at all times.

ü We also must understand and know that God always wants what is best for us, therefore He will always use the trials of our life for our benefit and development.

è Now folks, here I am teaching and preaching on this subject for the past several weeks, but guess when I forgot about what I was teaching and preaching on this past week?

>>> MONDAY - Wouldn’t you know it, but Monday morning I get a letter in the mail from my Mortgage company telling me that my payment would be increasing by over $150 per month. I read that letter and it was like the heavens opened and the rain starting pouring down on me as I sat at my computer and tried to understand what and how and why. To be honest with you, I quickly began to panic a little. Then I called my mortgage company and talked with some guy there who seemed even more confused than I was, and by the time I hung up the phone an hour later, my panic turned to frustration and anger. To this point, confidence was the last thing on my mind. But as the day went on, God began to remind you of what I have been preaching about over the last several weeks. After a few more conversations with the mortgage company, we came to discover that if a few things were changed around, our mortgage payment was actually going to decrease a little bit instead of increase. Again, God proved himself that he was with me the entire time, and that he does want what is best for me, and that he can use an apparent trial for my benefit (literally) and my development (spiritually).

 

- Folks, all that to say, I know how difficult it is to respond with confidence in face of a trial, but as we learn to be better disciples of Christ, this is something that he would have us to learn and practice.

- And to help us learn and practice this response for trials, throughout Scripture he has given us story after story of individuals who went through a trial or storm and the lessons that he was able to use that trial to accomplish in that person’s life.

? From the children of Israel in the midst of their journey to promise land, we learned that God desires to use trials and storms in our lives in order to increase the strength of our faith and our obedience to Him. (that’s what God was trying to accomplish in my life this week)

� From good old King Nebuchadnezzar and the 7 years of animal like living, we learned that God desires to use trials and storms in our lives in order to teach us and bring about humility in our lives.

Ä We will never be a fully devoted follower of Christ and within his will - which is the best place for us to be - if we are too consumed with ourselves and not consumed enough with Christ.

Ä Pride has a great way of teaching us and bringing out the needed humility in our lives. Remember Proverbs 16:18, that tells us that, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

 

II. God’s Purposes for Trials in our Lives

- Well, if at all possible, this morning I would love for us to finish up dealing with the remaining purposes or benefits that God can use trials in order to accomplish in our lives.

Ä Now in order to accomplish this task, we are going to have to move fairly quickly, but I am confident that we can do it.

- That way, when we get back together after Easter, we can continue to look at the remaining instructions from Christ as to how we should be responding when the storms of life come our way.

Ä We have learned that he wants us to have a confident attitude and an understanding mind, but there are a couple of ways in which he would have us to respond.

- We will get to them in a couple of weeks, but this morning we need to stay on task, and so I am going to need us all to turn over in our Bibles to the Old Testament book of Job.

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.

- Now, as with the story of Nebuchadnezzar that we considered last week, the whole account of the life of Job kind of scares me also, but yet there are so many valuable lessons that can be learned from Job’s life and what he went through.

- This morning, due to time, we don’t have the time to do a full study on the life of Job, 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.

ü It wasn’t wrong for Job to have these possessions, because they were blessings from God.

ü And it is not wrong for us to have possessions.

Ä However, it is wrong to be dependent upon those worldly possessions and other worldly things.

è Now, if you are wondering how a person can tell if they are dependent on earthly things, one of the best ways I think you can tell is by asking yourself and do some honest evaluation of your life about what gives you the most happiness in life.

è If it is your worldly things - you are too dependent on them.

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

Ä And folks, let me just say that, that kind of thinking and dependence is an easy place for all of us to get to in our lives, and it’s not a place that Christ would have us to be.

 

- Well, as we have noted, 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’s response, and it was the response that God was looking for:

(READ Job 1:20-22)

- Folks, losing certain earthly possessions should bring about some kind of sorrow in our lives because that is part of being human. However, God is not so much concern about our emotional reaction, as much as he is concerned with our dependence reaction.

Ä And as we just saw in these verses,  Job clearly was dependent on the Lord when he responds to all that was told to him by saying...

(Put Job 1:21 on the screen with these words in yellow)

Ä Job was dependent on the Lord, and because his dependence was on the Lord and not on worldly things, when his possessions were taken from him, he was not only able to respond in the right way with his words, but also with his actions.

(Put Job 1:22 on the screen with these words in yellow)              

- Now, unfortunately Job’s wife did not have the same dependence upon God as Job had. We are told that after taking all his livestock and children, Job’s health was also taken from him. And it is at this point in time that we are told that Job’s wife comes on the scene in order to give Job a little advice.

(READ Job 2:9)

- Mrs. Job had the wrong perspective on earthly things, as seen by her wonderfully supportive words to her husband.

Ä In her mind, true happiness was found in earthly things such as possessions, family, and even health. So when those were taken from her, so was her spirit for living.

- Yet even in light of Mrs. Job’s response, notice Job’s continued dependence on God.

(READ Job 2:10)

 

è Folks, over the past several minutes, as we have been looking at the life of Job, I hope that you have been doing a little bit of evaluating of your life in order to determine who you are most like - JOB OR MRS. JOB?

è Are you dependent upon God or earthly things?

- It’s a tough lesson to learn, but sometimes God may be using a trial or storm in our lives in order to wean us away from our dependence on worldly things so that we can instead focus it on God himself.

(Illustration: Ultimately for Craig DeMartino, that was the one benefit or purpose that he learned from the whole trial that he went through. I want you to listen very carefully to what he has to say about the lessons that he had learned while laying in his hospital bed trying to recover.

PLAY #7 on the menu for the DVD of “After the Fall”)

 

- Again, it’s a tough lesson to learn, but if we are serious about being a disciple of Christ, and we always want to be in his will, there may come a time, because of the great materialistic society that we live in, where God may have to use a trial or a storm in our lives in order to wean us away from our dependence on worldly things so that we can instead focus it on God himself.

- Well, closely associated with this purpose or benefit comes the next one that you can find as you look throughout Scripture, especially when you look at the life of Paul. So, if you would, please turn over to Romans chapter 8.

4. God uses trials and storms in our lives in order to call us to or remind us of our eternal and heavenly hope

(READ Romans 8:18-25)

- Folks, if you know anything about the life of Paul, you know that he went through many different trials and storms in his life, and each of them made him more and more dependent on God.

- But as Paul also points out in this passage, God used the sufferings and trials that he experienced in order to also call him to or remind him of his heavenly hope.

Ä The hope of eternal joy and happiness in the very presence of God.

Ä The hope of no pain, no sorrow, no crying, no trials.

Ä The hope of perfected and unperishable bodies.

- And as he was called to remember this eternal and heavenly hope, he in turn was able to face the sufferings and trials in his life with great confidence, and therefore a continued commitment to live for God on this his temporary home called earth.

- You can’t help but read verse 18 and sense the great confidence Paul was able to have because of the eternal hope that he had.

(READ Romans 8:18)

- Folks, I don’t know about you, but the harder my trials and troubles are, and the longer they last, because I know that when I finally pass on I have a home waiting for me in heaven, the more I look forward to being with the Lord there.

- God built this purpose into trials and troubles in order to

ü make us long for our real home

ü but also, as we think about and long for our real home, He wants for that to give us confidence to continue to live our lives for Him in the midst of trials and storms.

 

- So folks, when facing life storms or trials, Christ instructs us to face them first and foremost with a confident attitude. But along with that confident attitude must come an understanding mind.

- And one of the things that you must understand is that God desires to use the trials and storms that come into your life and mine for our benefit and development. And thus far we have seen that God wants to use trials in our lives in order to benefit us by...

? increasing the strength of our faith and our obedience to Him.

� teaching us and bringing about humility in our lives.

? weaning us from our dependence on worldly things

� calling us to remember our eternal and heavenly hope

- Those four purposes can and should give us confidence when facing trials, but the key is that we must first remember them, and then secondly we must be convinced that they are true.

 

 

- Now before we wrap things up this morning, I want for us to consider one last passage, which in turn will give us one last purpose or benefit that God intends to use trials and storms in our lives in order to accomplish.

- If you would, turn over to II Corinthians chapter 1

5. God uses trials and storms in our lives in order to equip and enable us to better help others in their trials

(READ II Corinthians 1:3-5)

- Now folks, in these three verses Paul gives the Corinthians believers, as well as you and I, two very important reminders concerning sufferings or trials.

 

REMINDER #1 - When in the midst of trials and suffering, believers are comforted by God.

Ä And we are comforted by God because He by nature a merciful comforter. That is why Paul calls him in verse 3 “THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT”. That is part of who he is, and therefore part of what he does.

Ä And he goes about doing this comforting of believers primarily by using the Holy Spirit in combination with the Word of God.

Ä Like many things, it is hard to explain how this works unless you have personally experienced it yourself. But you will never experience it for yourself unless you take God at his word, and first of all become a believer by giving your life over to Christ, and secondly, spend time in the Word of God when in the midst of a trial.

è For some reason, at least for me, when I am going through a storm of life, one of the first things that I let slip through the cracks is my time spent in the Bible.

è And in reality, since this book is essential to God’s comfort in my life and the Holy Spirit’s role in the comforting process, than one of the first things that I should be doing is spending time in the Bible.

Ä When in the midst of trials and suffering, believers are comforted by God, through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, because that is his nature.

 

REMINDER #2 - Believers receive this comfort from God as a trust or stewardship that he expects to be passed on to others.

Ä And therein lies the fifth purpose or benefit that God intends to use trials in our lives to accomplish. God uses storms in our lives in order to equip us to better help others in their trials.

Ä Now that equipping is found in God’s comforting of us. And Paul tells us in verse 4  that God uses the suffering and comforting that comes along with it, in order that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble (READ vs.4)

Ä One author, when contemplating on Paul’s teaching here in these verses says this, “Paul viewed himself as a conduit through which God’s comfort could flow to the Corinthians - a conduit widened by all the suffering he had endured.”

 

- Folks, again when it the midst of trial we all must remember that God wants what is best for us, and therefore he might be planning on using a trial in your life in order that he might comfort you and therefore equip you to better help others in a trial that God knows lies ahead.

- God is simply making you a better disciple and servant of his.