⏳⌛🚩🌟WHY WE SUFFER⁉ ❓❕❗🌟🚩⏳⌛
📅August Monthly Emphasis📆
Introduction
🚓Job said in Job 14:1–“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”
🚓Even those of us who rejoice in Christ and rest in the salvation that He gives, even we suffer grief from all kinds of trials and tribulations in this life.
🚓We suffer them just as much, and sometimes even more so, than those who don’t know Christ.
1. 🚑Trials are the common experience of all of us. No one is immune. Trials are a part of living. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
2. 🚑Trials are transitory. i.e. Trials, though difficult are “for a little while.”
3. 🚑Trials are lessons that shouldn’t be wasted. Though not enjoyable or necessarily good in themselves, trials constitute a divine work for our ultimate good. Jesus never promised an easy journey, but He did promise a safe landing.
(Great Quotes & Illustrations, compiled by George Sweeting, p. 6, Word, Inc., 1985)
🚔We who are saved know that, through Christ our Saviour, we have been saved from the penalty of sin through His blood!
🚔We also know that through Christ we have been saved or delivered from the power of sin through His blood! (i.e. sin doesn’t have dominion over us any more.)
🚔We also know that through Christ, one day soon, we will be delivered from the very presence of sin!
🚔But until then, we still live in a sin-cursed world and in sinful flesh! And because of that, we still face trials and temptations while we are here.
🚔In our text, we see that Peter wanted to assure these Christians he addressed of their hope in Christ as they faced many different kinds of trials and temptations.
📌DON’T WASTE YOUR TRIALS. 📌
Today, I want us to see THE DESIGN OF OUR TRIALS:
I. 📎WE WASTE OUR TRIALS WHEN WE DON’T SEE THEM AS BEING DESIGNED BY GOD FOR US!
📢Listen closely.📢
📍God Designs Our Trials For Us! (Job 23:1-10)
We need to realize, that when the heat gets turned up in our life, God’s hand is on the thermostat. Psalms 66:10–“For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.”
📍How is silver tried? With fire or with heat.
📍What does heat do when it is applied to silver or gold? It causes the impurities (the dross) to separate from the gold. In this process, the gold loses none of its nature, it is only purified and becomes more valuable.
📍Someone once said, “Fire is the test of gold; adversity of strong men.”
📍In verse 7 of our text Peter says that our faith is more precious than gold, and that God allows our faith to be tried.
📍1 Corinthians 10:13–“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
📍It will not do for us to say that God only uses our trials but does not design them. Because, what God permits, He permits for a reason. And that reason is His design.
📍When God forsees a particular trial coming into our lives, He can choose to stop it or not. Since God is infinitely wise, it is right for us to call this purpose a design.
📍We know that Satan and his forces are real and they are the source of many temptations and trials. But they don’t have the final say in what trials happen in our lives or in how difficult those trials become.
📍If we don’t believe that trials that we face are designed for us by God, then we will waste those trials. By “waste” I mean we’ll miss the blessing that God has for us in and through those trials.
📌WE WASTE OUR TRIALS WHEN WE DON’T SEE THEM AS BEING DESIGNED BY GOD FOR US!
II. 📎WE WASTE OUR TRIALS WHEN WE DON’T SEE THEM AS BEING DESIGNED BY GOD FOR HIS GLORY
📍Revelation 4:11–“. . . for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
📍Colossians 1:16–“. . .all things were created by him, and for him:”
📍Romans 11:36–“For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things:. . .”
📍1 Corinthians 10:31–“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do [suffering?, facing difficult trials?, facing temptations?], do all to the glory of God.”
📍Look at 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. Did you catch verse 15?
2 Corinthians 4:15–“For all things [that would include suffering, trials, temptations] are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound [to superabound; to be in excess, be superfluous; to cause to superabound or excel] to the glory of God.”
📎Let’s illustrate these first two points:
A. 📌Old Testament Examples.
1. 📍Moses. (Exodus 3:18-20; 5:19-23; 6:1, 9; 7:2-5; etc.)
2. 📍Israel in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 8:2–And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.
3. 📍Job. (Job 1:7-12; 2:3-6, 10; 42:11)
James 5:11–“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
a. God could have prevented Job’s trials, but He didn’t.
b. God could have come to Job’s rescue at any time during His trials, but He did so in His own timing.
4. 📍The Prophets.
James 5:10–“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” (e.g. Jeremiah was poor, afflicted, imprisoned, ignored, ridiculed, rejected but, he was obedient!)
B. 📌New Testament Examples.
1. 📍Lazarus.
John 11:4–“When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”
2. 📍Jesus.
Hebrews 2:10–“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
3. 📍Peter and John. (Acts 4:1-3, 18, 21, 23-24a, 31, 32)
4. 📍The Early Church. (Acts 8:1, 4)
5. 📍Paul. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
Conclusion
Don’t waste your trials!
WE WASTE OUR TRIALS WHEN WE DON’T SEE THEM AS BEING DESIGNED BY GOD FOR US.
WE WASTE OUR TRIALS WHEN WE DON’T SEE THEM AS BEING DESIGNED BY GOD FOR HIS GLORY.
🎯🎯🎯🔈🔊Listen !!!!!!!
💒If we respond rightly to our trials:💒
🚨Trials can correct us.
🚨Trials can call us. (That is, to call us back close to God.)
🚨Trials can carry us. (That is, they serve as a transition in our lives.)
🚨Trials can change us. (In a good way.)
🚨Trials can conform us. (Into the image of Christ.)
💒But, if we respond wrongly to our trials:
🚨Trials can change us. (In a bad way.)
🚨Trials can control us. (Where all we do is focus on our trials.)
🚨Trials can corrupt us. (If we turn our backs on God.)
🚨Trials can callous us. (Cause us to harden our hearts toward God.)
🚩🚩🚩If you have never invited Christ into your life, you have no help in your trials.
⛪What you need to do today is come and trust Christ as your Saviour. He will give you the Comforter, His Holy Spirit, to help you through the times of trial in your life.
⛪If you are saved, don’t waste your trials when they come:
See them as being designed by God for you!
See them as being designed by God for His glory!
⛪If you do that, then you won’t waste the trials because you will respond rightly rather than wrongly when they come and God will get the glory through His work in your life.
