Why Trials Are Necessary for Your Growth

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church at the Lookout.

Jesus abiding in his presence.

Growing in his family and living on his mission.

Visit us abide at the lookout.

I have the honor and the privilege of getting to introduce to you guys our guest speaker for this morning.

My friend, Bob Sorge, is here joining us this morning.

He is a father in the faith.

And if you ask what his title is, his title is a New Testament Levite.

Amen.

He carries the presence of the Lord everywhere he goes.

He stands in the face of the Lord and says, Yes, anything you ask of me, I'll say yes.

And he comes and he speaks and he shares.

And the wealth and the riches of what he's gleaned in the kingdom, he freely gives in his teachings.

So listen closely.

Bob Sorge had a vocal cord injury that happened how many years ago?

31 years ago.

Bob was a pastor, he was a worship leader, and he suffered this injury.

And since then, he has still stayed true to the calling on his life to come speak and to share the gospel, to share the word of the Lord with the body.

And he uses these special devices to help him do so.

So listen closely.

You may have to tune in a little bit and let's and uh just lean in a little bit as he speaks.

It will sound like a whisper, but man, it's packed full of power.

All right, let's welcome Bob Sorgi.

Oh, and go buy his books in the back.

Sorry, I forgot to tell you.

He has books in the back that are life-changing, guys.

Go back there after service, grab a book, and sew into his ministry and sew into your personal development.

We are knocking on the door today for the healer to visit every person that needs healing in this room today.

I'm at the front of the line.

I've been asking God for 31 years.

He's promised to heal me, and I know you're good to your promises.

And so I am seeking him.

I'm seeking the kingdom of God first and his righteousness.

And when his kingdom comes, everybody's healed.

And so just be expectant because we're gonna be praying again today for people to be healed, and we're gonna be agreeing with you and the Lord for his purpose in your life.

And I'm just blessed to be in Boulder, Colorado.

This morning, my first ever time to Boulder.

I've been to a few places around here, but I've never been to your beautiful city here.

And so I'm just loving the privilege of uh my family just got bigger this morning because I've got Pat in my family, I've got Dee Dee in my family, I've got Karen in my family, I've got Andrew in my family, I've got all their names written right down here.

I've got Bob.

Bob, you and I need to stick together, bro.

It's us against the whole world.

So for all my friends, my new friends, I'm just blessed to be with you today and to share in the word of the Lord.

Uh when this happened to me, I didn't plan it like this, but the Lord has led me to write books.

I'm right now working on number 30.

Unbelievable.

So uh yeah, when you go to the table, it's gonna be option overload.

I apologize.

Uh but if I if I could, I would take time to walk through every book and tell you why it's so valuable to me, so why the message is so meaningful for me.

And so take some time, look at the books, you can get the four book special.

I'm speaking this morning from my newest book.

This is number 29.

Sometimes we need trials.

And so, if this message connects for you this morning, you can go deeper in a book.

And Pastor Luke, I just want to give this copy to you.

Beautiful.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace, your presence.

We thank you for the cross of Jesus.

And I'm asking, Lord, that the cross would be exalted in our midst today, and that the Father would be glorified through the speaking of the word.

And may every hungry heart find something from your heart today that they will take with them forever.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

My most popular book is called Secrets of the Secret Place.

You gotta get that one.

My uh I think my favorite book is a book called The Cross, because I'm a lover of the cross.

I love that we have a cross over here.

I was gonna try to figure out can we move it so that I could preach in the shadow of the cross today?

I think it's not very mobile, but I love the cross of Jesus and uh and what he has done for us.

It's the only message we have.

So, with your permission, I'm gonna preach on the cross today.

Is that okay?

Our scripture is Luke 24, 46.

Luke 24, verse 46.

Luke 24:46

Jesus is speaking these words.

Do we have media notes for the screens?

Did the verses get to the screens?

I think we're hopefully they yeah, okay, we're we're gonna get it.

Jesus is speaking these words just after the resurrection.

When he debriefs with his disciples after the resurrection, most of what he's gonna talk about is forward looking.

But he has the cross is so massive that he's gonna say one thing about the cross to his disciples after the fact.

His one word of debrief, it's on our screen.

Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.

And looking back on the cross, Jesus says to his disciples, the cross was necessary.

I want you to notice what he didn't say.

He didn't say that was the greatest injustice of human history.

It should have never happened.

I want you to notice what he didn't say.

He didn't say, Pilate is really gonna regret this.

Notice what he didn't say.

He didn't say, oh, the Jewish leaders really blew at that time.

The only thing he says about his cross, it was necessary.

He uses this the gospel uses the Greek word di.

It's a Greek word that means necessary.

Jesus used it frequently before the cross.

He's in speaking of his impending sufferings.

He said, the Son of Man must suffer.

He used that word.

He said, it's gotta happen.

And then after it happened, he said, it had to happen.

The cross was necessary.

He goes, I had to do the cross to fulfill all righteousness.

I had to do the cross to procure your salvation.

I had to do the cross to fulfill scripture.

I had to do the cross to overcome the devil.

The cross was necessary.

Peter, in his epistle, is gonna pick up the identical word, die, if I'm saying it correctly.

He's gonna use that identical word to apply it to our fiery trials.

In 1 Peter 1 verses 6 and 7, he goes, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, that's where the word happens.

1 Peter 1:6

He's going, it literally means if being necessary, though for a little while, if being necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Just leave it on the screen for a couple minutes.

Listen, by using the same word Jesus used, necessary, Peter is drawing a straight line between the cross and our fiery trials.

Just as the cross was necessary for Jesus Christ, Peter goes, sometimes our fiery trials are also necessary.

Your trial is your certification.

It proves the authenticity of your faith.

There's a day coming when they will we will stand in the presence of the angels and they're gonna go, was Piper's faith authentic?

And they're gonna look at her life and they're gonna say, look what she lived through, look what she came through.

Hell was against her, demons were against her, the world was against her.

Boulder Colorado was against her.

She had struggles in her family, struggles in her body, struggles in her finances.

Everything was a battle and a fight.

But she stood through it all, lifted her heart, and gave me her love.

And heaven is gonna look at how you persevered through your trials, and it's gonna put its official stamp, its impromptu on your life and go authentic.

This was the real deal.

And our trials actually become our certification that our faith is authentic.

And the scripture says that this kind of faith is much more precious than gold because it endures forever.

And it will be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And Piper, it's not gonna be to your praise.

They're not gonna be talking about you on that day.

They're not gonna be going, did you see her out there?

Man, did she run a race?

Way to go.

They're not gonna be talking about you.

They're gonna be talking about the grace of Christ.

In spite of you, even in your weakness, even in your frailty, in the fight of faith, the grace of Jesus was good enough to carry you all the way through and to present you faultless in the presence of God with great glory.

And your story is gonna be a testimony of praise to the faithfulness and goodness and grace of God.

Sometimes you don't know what you've got till you test it.

You decide you want to get yourself a motorcycle, Bob, and so you go to the shop and you look at the sh at the motorcycles and you're like, I think this might be my baby, but before I buy it, can I take it for a test run?

Because until you test that motorcycle out, you're just never quite sure what you're buying.

The same is true in life.

There are some things that are never really known until they're tested.

Character is not known until it's proven by temptation.

There's a book in that statement right there.

Love is not known until it's proven by hatred.

Faith is not known until it's proven by trials.

Jeremiah forty eight, verse eleven.

The Lord is talking about the nation of Moab, and he says through Jeremiah, Moab has been at ease from his youth.

He has settled on his drakes and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity.

Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent has not changed.

God is speaking of the nation of Moab as a vat of wine.

In the winemaking process, they will take the wine from one vessel and pour it into another vessel to get it off the drakes.

You don't want the wine to stay on the drags.

I don't know why, but I'm just not good enough on that topic.

But I guess the wine gets stale and old and it doesn't get perfected.

You wanna get the drakes removed so that the wine can move forward in the perfection process.

So wine is moved from vessel to vessel and the drags are removed.

And God is saying to the nation of Moab, you were never moved from vessel to vessel.

You just sat on your drags.

He says to Moab, you know, it would have been helpful if your nation had gone into captivity.

That would have actually helped a little bit, would have freshened you up a little bit.

But you just sat there.

And now you're stuffy, you're stinky, and actually the nation of Moab is gonna come into judgment because they just sat on their slime in the comforts of what they had were living in, and they're gonna come into judgment because they had never been poured from vessel to vessel.

Did you know that nations have a fragrance to God?

I wonder what America smells like.

Maybe it's good that I don't know.

Churches have a fragrance to God.

Individuals have a fragrance to God.

I think it's a good question to ask every once in a while.

God, what do I smell like?

Just ask him.

What is the fragrance of my life to you?

And I think that sometimes God comes to us and he goes, You've been living in the same city on the same street, in the same house, going to the same school, working the same job, playing the same video games, going to the same church for too long.

We're gonna mix this thing up.

And he pours you from one vessel to another, and you're over here going, Oh my goodness, what just happened?

And he's like, You needed this trial.

I'm freshening you up.

Look at the fresh fire in your eyes, look at the fresh desire in your heart.

Look how your prayer life has been rekindled.

Look how your love has come alive again.

You're back in the word again, you're back in the sacred place again.

I've freshened you up.

You have actually needed 2021.

In the desert of Arizona, there is a tourist trap called the Biosphere.

In a little town called Oracle, Arizona.

I've never been there, I've just looked online at this thing.

The biosphere.

You can Google if it uh if you want to later.

It was a speculative scientific experiment.

Somebody I think had too much money.

They built these domed buildings in the middle of the Arizona desert, and they constructed them to be a self-contained ecosystem that would be completely separated from the environment around it.

And the idea was this if we can construct a self-contained ecosystem and support human life long term inside this bubble, Maybe we can copy paste it, put it on Mars, and people can live on Mars.

So it was this scientific experiment.

Didn't go so well, but they were like, okay, what would happen if we grew fruit trees inside this biosphere?

We can give them perfect temperatures, perfect light, perfect watering, perfect fertilizer.

We could grow fruit trees in perfect growing conditions.

They said, let's do it.

So they planted a bunch of fruit trees in this biosphere, and sure enough, they produced this rich harvest with just one problem.

The branches of the trees kept snapping under the weight of the fruit.

Because in this artificial environment there was no wind.

Did you know that trees need wind?

Trees need wind to keep their branches flexible so that when the fruit comes on the branches, instead of snapping and breaking, the branches will flex and support the fruit.

But in this biosphere, in the absence of wind, the branches got brittle and they would snap under the weight of the fruit.

God's like, you needed this wind.

You actually needed this storm in your life.

You didn't enjoy the storm.

Sometimes when we look at storms, all we see are the destructive sides of them.

And storms do have some destructive sides, but there's a part a side of it that we actually need.

Did you know that our planet needs hurricanes?

Did you know that our planet needs storms?

Yes, they're destructive, but they're also the way of flushing our planet out and renewing the planet, equalizing the temperatures around the globe.

Our planet needs storms.

You sometimes need storms.

To get us flexible so that we can sustain the fruit of our next season.

Just as the cross was necessary for Jesus.

Peter goes, sometimes our fiery trials are also necessary to authenticate your faith, to freshen you up, to get you flexible again so that you can sustain the fruit of your next season.

I was on an airplane ride one time, coming home from Europe, I think it was.

And when you're on one of those long European flights, sometimes you're hoping there will be something on that screen in front of you that you know is worthy of your time.

And the options are really abysmal.

But I found a documentary on winemaking, and I'm like, I got time for this, let's just go ahead and watch this.

So I'm watching this documentary on winemaking, and what they're doing in the documentary is explaining what produces a vintage wine.

A vintage wine, as I understand it, is a wine from a particular season that because of the growing conditions that year, it produced an exceptionally delightful wine.

And they'll talk about it for years.

They'll talk about the wine from 2012.

Oh, did you ever get a bottle from 2012?

You're gonna pay for it.

And uh uh and they're they're hard to find, but 2012 was the year.

It was a vintage wine.

And so in this documentary, they're explaining what produces a vintage wine.

And I'm a novice watching the thing, and I'm thinking to myself, I know what produces a vintage wine.

You just get lots of sun, lots of rain, lots of warmth.

Voila! Vintage wine.

And they go.

Actually the opposite.

They said to get a vintage wine, you must have an adversarial growing season.

Conditions that stress the vines make them work harder.

They said it's when vines are stressed, when they have to work harder to produce their fruit.

That's where you get a vintage wine.

Too much sun, not enough sun, too much rain, not enough rain, too cold of temperatures, conditions that put stress on the vines and forced them to work harder.

And they said it like this You will never get a vintage wine from an unstressed vine.

And then they said this.

They go, A farmer will never irrigate his vineyard in a drought.

And I'm a novice, Pat, and I'm going, bro, that's exactly the time you need to irrigate your vineyard.

Hello, there's no rain.

Your vineyard is gonna die.

Bro, you need to save your vineyard.

You need to keep your vineyard alive, you need to give it some irrigation.

And the farmer's going, no, if I irrigate my vineyard in a drought, the roots of the vines will return to the surface to capture the surface moisture.

But the farmer goes, if I intentionally stress the vines by intentionally withholding irrigation, those vines have only one direction to go.

Under the dress of drought, the vines are now desperate to survive.

And in the fight to survive, the vines begin to push their roots deeper than they've ever gone before, desperately searching for moisture.

I call it holy desperation.

When God loves you enough to intentionally stress your vines.

When God loves you enough to starve you out of middle American Christianity, thank God he loved you enough to get you out of your little comfort bubble.

Thank God he loved you enough to interrupt your safety zones and intentionally stress your vines, and you're going, you're in a drought, and you're like, oh my god, why don't you talk to me?

Where are you?

What is going on?

And in the desperation of your drought, you start putting roots deeper into God than you ever have in all your life.

You start fasting like you've never fasted, you start praying like you've never prayed, you start devouring the word of God like you've never devoured it in all your life.

And in the desperation of your drought, when you put roots deeper into, you would have never gone after Jesus like this if it wasn't for your drought.

And when the vines start pushing into fissures and crevices and places in the ground where they've never had to go before, they are now reaching into places in the earth that have never been tapped by a root.

Did you know that soil gets tired?

Soil gets depleted.

But now the roots of the vines are going to places in the earth that have never been depleted before by a root.

This is for the trekky fans in the room.

Going where no root has gone before.

Touching untapped minerals, untapped nutrients, and they said, That's where you get a vintage wine.

I am suggesting there's somebody in the room today.

This trial has actually been necessary.

Just as the cross was necessary for Jesus Christ, Peter goes, so too our fiery trials are also sometimes necessary to establish the authenticity and to prove the authenticity of our faith, to freshen our fragrance, to get us flexible and to produce a vintage wine.

He is jealous for the wine of your love.

He is jealous for the wine of your life.

He's after a vintage wine.

I close with one final thought.

On the cross Jesus worshipped his father.

To find the verse, you don't go to the gospels.

You've got to go to David to find this verse.

Psalm twenty two.

Psalm twenty two is a cross psalm.

And David goes in Psalm twenty two, he goes, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And the whole psalm is a cross psalm where David enters into the passions of the cross in an identificational kind of way.

And in verse three of Psalm 22, David writes, But you are holy.

David has Jesus on the cross saying to the Father, You are holy.

When you are saying to God, you are holy, you are saying to him things like this: You are perfect, you are brilliant, you are kind, you are generous, you are compassionate.

Your leadership in your in my life is excellent.

It couldn't be better.

You are brilliant in how you are leading me forward.

You are merciful and tender and wise.

You can talk about for about 10 minutes all the wonderful attributes of God, or you can put it all in one word.

You are holy.

Because when you say to him, you are holy, you are saying to him, you are beautiful attribute of God and putting it all into one word.

And Jesus on the cross with with with electricity flashing through his entire being stood on the nail, spread his arms, and said to his father, You are holy.

Gonna be vulnerable with you for just a moment.

When I suffered this injury to my voice 31 years ago, I was a pastor, I was a worship leader, and the losses began.

I can no longer pastor, can no longer sing, can no longer just a lot of I'm a lot of former things.

I now have no titles.

Lost a lot.

And in the course of my journey with the Lord in this, I struggled to thank him for this trial.

I could thank him in the trial, but I didn't know how to thank him for the trial.

Because in my mind, and I'm just being honest with you, in my mind, it seemed that if I say to Jesus, Jesus, thank you for this fiery trial, that then I am accepting it as my permanent lot in life.

And I cannot accept this as my permanent lot in life.

I've got too many promises.

He's promised to heal me, he's promised in his word, he's promised through his prophets, he's promised through the Holy Spirit, I hold some exceedingly great and precious promises that are so precious to me, I will never let go my promises.

And it seemed to me that if I said to God, thank you for this trial, that I was letting go my promises until I came again to our text.

Give us Luke twenty four one more time for our screen, please.

Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

And Peter goes, The cross was necessary, but he didn't stop there.

He goes, The resurrection was also necessary.

And just as the cross was necessary for Jesus Christ, so was his resurrection.

The cross was never meant to be the last chapter.

The story is never over until resurrection.

And your fiery trial was never intended in the heart of God to be your last chapter, it was intended in the heart of God to authenticate your faith, to freshen you up, to get you flexible, to produce a vintage wine.

It was necessary.

But just as this trial has been necessary, so too is your resurrection.

I'm preaching to Andrew today.

I'm preaching to Karen today.

I'm preaching to myself today.

Just as the trial has been necessary, so too is our resurrection.

Therefore, while I have the nail in my feet, and while I have the nail in my hands, I'm gonna Spread my hands to my beloved, and I'm gonna say to him, You are holy, you are perfect, your way in my life, it's brilliant, your leadership in my life, it's impeccable.

I have no accusation today of your hand in my life.

You are leading me in the brilliance of your perfections, you are kind, you are good, you are gracious, you are merciful, you are tender, you are full of truth, you are full of wisdom, you are full of compassion.

I worship you and I love you, you are holy, and the past our worship ministry, Pastor Luke, and the team that are waiting on the music and the one miniature just because it helps me with my voice.

In your heart, you have purpose to bring me through this story, and you have a resurrection in your heart for me.

Therefore, I'm gonna stand on my nail today and spread my arms and worship you and say, You are holy.

Would you stand with me, please?

And as we sing this song, I invite you if you want to, if you want to respond in a personal way, Andrew's already got his arms lifted.

If you want to respond in a personal way, here's what I would invite you to do.

You're welcome to come and stand in the front area here and to lift your branches to your beloved, the one who hasn't said, I'm not gonna save your branches from stress.

I'm actually intentionally stressing your branches because I am after a vintage wine.

And you want to come and lift your branches to Jesus and look him in the eye and say to him, You are holy, you are perfect, you are wise, and we're gonna stand with you together today and agree.

God's gonna give you grace in this storm, he's gonna give you grace in this drought, he's gonna strengthen your faith in this trial, you will come through with a proven faith, you're gonna come through a vintage wine in the lips of your master, and he is gonna finish your story with resurrection.

Because just as this trial has been necessary, so too is your resurrection.

If you come forward and lift your branches to Jesus, you're giving me permission to lay my hand gently on your head and to bless you and the Holy Spirit and agree with you for the purposes of God to be fulfilled in your life.

So whether you bring your branches to the front or whether you just lift them where you're seated this morning, I invite you to lift your eyes to your beloved and say, You are holy, you are perfect.

There is no accusation in the house today, Lord Jesus.

You are a brilliant farmer, you are drawing a vintage wine from our lives, you are perfecting the fragrance of our lives, and we say, You are holy, and may the grace of God be upon you today, may he fulfill every promise in your life, may he perfect your faith, may he strengthen you, may this may the knees be strengthened today, may the hands that have hung down be strengthened and lifted today, may he give you a straight course for your feet that you could walk in the way of the Lord and may you be healed in the race.

Because just as this trial has been necessary, so is your resurrection and Jesus, we are jealous today for finished stories.

We are jealous in the spirit for you to fulfill your purpose and bring us all the way through to resurrection in Jesus' name.

There's enough folks up here that I could use a little bit of help, actually, but I'm gonna lay my hands on you and bless you in the name of Jesus.

Go ahead and stretch your branches to the Lord, give him your love.

You are holy.

You are lovely.

Shine in the light of power in love as we see more to see light.

Shine light power.

Yes, you are your soul, your soul.

What a beautiful name it is.

What a beautiful name it is, what a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus Christ.

What a beautiful name it is nothing comparison, what a beautiful name it is, the name of Jesus.

What a wonderful What a wonderful name it is, what a wonderful name, the name of Jesus Christ, what a wonderful name it is nothing conversations, what a wonderful nabs, the name, what a wonderful babies, the name, what a wonderful babies, the name.

The heavens are royal, the trees are glory, for you are raised to the right, you have to be what a powerful day, what a powerful day, the name of Jesus, what a powerful name it is.

What a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus, what a powerful name it is, the name of Jesus.

Your name is life together.

Let's just shout the name of Jesus together over every sickness, disease, trial.

We shout the name of Jesus, Jesus.

We give you glory.

We say that you're holy, Jesus.

You are holy, Spirit.

We love you.

You are worthy.

You are holy.

And this morning, I pray a blessing over your people.

I pray a blessing.

As we feel the wind across our face, as we enter into trials and the storms, Lord God, we thank you.

That in all things you are good.

And you're growing us up into your image and your likeness, God, and you're sending us out in your power.

We say yes and amen, God.

In every season we say yes and amen to your name.

We love you in this place, God.

As we go, send us in your strength and your power and your glory.

And it's in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Be blessed, church, be blessed as we go in the name of Jesus.