Live Aware | Live Well (Part Eight)

Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.

Man, it's so good to be back with you.

A couple of really exciting updates.

Connor and Tabitha were able to welcome their new baby girl,

Hadley Grace into the world. Both baby and mom are doing

great from what I've heard. Connor did great, but just so,

so excited for them. Really excited about the plans

that God already has for little Hadley and just love, love what

God's doing in their family. Last week, if you were with us

last week, we got to really just walk through with three

different people giving their lives to Jesus last week, which

was absolutely amazing, to where we'll get to celebrate that new

life in Jesus in a couple weeks through baptism.

So could not be more excited about that.

Here's my question to you though, is everything that we

just sang about was really about God's love for us and his love

exhibited for us through what Jesus did for us on the cross.

And you know, we do not serve CJ is absolutely right.

We do not serve a a dead God. We, we do not come here to

memorialize a good teacher. We serve a living God, a living

Christ, a living Jesus to where the Bible tells us if we

surrender our lives to him, that the Holy Spirit of God will come

in and dwell us and to begin to change us and transform us from

the inside out. And all of that is great, all of

that's true. But have you really thought,

have you really thought about the?

Cost of that? Have you really thought about

the cost? Of it.

Like here's here's one of the things, if you're, if you're new

to church or you grew up in church, either way, one of the

things that we all need to come back to and we need to realize

is that following Jesus, accepting Jesus, surrendering

our lives to Jesus, coming before God and saying, God, I

admit that I'm a Sinner, that I believe that you sent Jesus into

this world to pay the price for my sins and I need to surrender

my life to you. God, would you come in and take

control of my life and I commit to following you for the rest of

my life. That is absolutely free.

That's free. As a matter of fact, it is as

simple as the Apostle Paul wrote to where he says, if you believe

in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

you will be saved. That is free.

So last week we got to walk through, you know, leading three

people in surrendering their lives to Jesus, and that was

free for them. But here's the thing.

Choosing to surrender your life to Jesus and accept what He has

done for us, that's free. However, it'll cost you

everything. It'll cost you everything.

And I think that we live in a day and an age to where we don't

really, we like the free benefits of what it looks like

for us to follow God and, and follow the, the, the, the ways

of God. We don't really like to talk

about everything that it'll cost us and everything that we should

expect as followers of Jesus to be coming our way.

If you're, if you're new to Riverbend, if you're new to

church, and certainly if you're new to, to the series, this

series is called live well. And, and here's the overall gist

of the series is there's a God who created you and this God

that created you, he loves you and this God that created you

and loves you, He actually desires ultimate good for you.

He, he desires, he actually desires God actually desires for

you and I and for us and for we to live life well.

But here's kind of the disconnect.

A lot of times what we consider our definitions of what it means

to live well often include bigger, better, bigger, better,

newer. And I think that there's enough

of us in the room and online that we've kind of followed that

track. We followed that plan of what it

looks like for us to live well. We've, we, we've aimed our lives

at always pursuing bigger, better, newer, and we've just

ended up more stressed and in debt with a lot of regret there.

But God's way, God's way of us to live well, God's definition

for us to live well. There's a lot of hardship that

comes with that, but it also results in living a life to

where you and I know that we are free from shame.

We're free from from the guilt of our sin.

And we can actually experience true forgiveness.

We can experience true purpose, the purpose of which we were

created for. You see, there's, think of it

this way, My definitions of living well and God's

definitions of living well, a lot of times when they don't

match up, they're almost kind of like two different roads, like

our world's definition of what it looks like for us to live

well. It looks like it's a, it's an

easy road and it looks like it leads to life.

And God's definition of what it looks like to, to live well, it

looks like a really, really hard road and it looks like it leads

to death. When in actuality, the two are

actually opposite our world's definition of living well, even

though it does look a lot easier, it actually leads to

death. And God's definition, even

though it does look and is a lot harder, it actually leads to, to

life. And here's the beauty about God.

God allows us to choose. God allows us to choose, but he

doesn't want us to be ignorant about those choices.

He doesn't want us to be ignorant about those choices in,

in other words, what comes along with choosing God's way?

Well, I think we need to 1st come back to God's definition of

what it means to live well. If you're new to the series,

it's kind of the big idea or the main truth that we've been

revolving around since the beginning of January.

Here we are home stretch of the series.

We got one more week in the book of first Peter.

But to live well is to live God's way, firm in faith, steady

in trials and anchored in hope. And one of the things that any,

any follower of Jesus knows is that following the, the words

and the ways and the will of God will require us to remain firm

in our faith and steady in our trials and, and anchored in our

hope, no doubt about it. And I want to show you a

passage. I want to show you a passage in

the book of first Peter. And if you have a Bible with

you, I want to invite you to find First Peter chapter 4, to

1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

where Peter's going to encourage us to live very, very much

aware, to be very aware of the cost of what it looks like for

us to follow. Jesus.

If you have a Bible with you, we're going to pick it up in

verse 12. If you don't, passages on the

note sheet that that you were handed on the way in and it's

going to be on the screen as well.

This is what Peter writes. Beloved, do not be surprised at

the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though

something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that

you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed

because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief, or an

evildoer or a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a

Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God

in that name. For it is time for judgment to

begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what

will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of

God? And he's going to quote another

passage of Scripture? And if the righteous is scarcely

saved, what will become of the ungodly and the Sinner?

Therefore, let those who suffer according to God, to God's will,

entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing

good. Now let's just go ahead and

address the elephant in the room.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trials when or fiery

trial when it comes upon you to test you.

I don't know about you, but I read that and I sit there and

go, man, what an uplifting verse.

What a way to start my Sunday right.

What a way to start my Sunday. I think it's really important

for us, however, to talk about and for us to look at what the

fiery trial that Peter's referring to here, what it's not

because there's a lot of confusion, especially in, in, in

in the United States to where there there's a lot of

prosperity, there's a lot of blessing there.

There's a church on every corner to where it's not hard for us to

practice our faith. There's a lot of

misunderstanding about what the fiery trial is, but I think we

need to clarify the three most common mistakes of what people

often assume the fiery trial is. So if you're taking notes with

us, let's look at three things. The fiery trial is not the first

one. The fiery trial is not the

consequences of my sinful choices.

The fiery trial, brothers, do we.

We don't want you to be unaware. We want you to be prepared.

There will be a fiery trial that comes to test you.

He is not talking about Peter's not talking about the

consequences of my sinful choices.

This is why check this out. Peter writes this If you're

insulted for the name of Christ, you would be blessed.

What is the if? If you are insulted for what?

For the name of Christ? And then he goes on as if that

wasn't clear enough. But let none of you suffer as a

murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Here's the whole point is every single one of our sinful choices

and decisions, they all have consequences to them.

They all have consequences. And even though God can forgive

all of our sins, all of the sins that that that things that we

have done that God's word tells us not to do, things that we

refuse to do that God's word tells us to do, those are sins.

God can forgive all of our sins, but his forgiveness of our sin

doesn't necessarily mean that he eliminates all the consequences.

Let me kind of like put some feet on that.

God can forgive and does forgive past sexual sin, but that

doesn't mean that the remaining relational consequences for

relations, relational consequences later on in life.

It doesn't mean that those consequences of those sexual

sins don't keep lingering, but God can forgive the sins of of

substance abuse, but it doesn't mean that he automatically

eliminates like the the, the grip of of of addiction.

You you see? The fiery trial is not

necessary. It's not like the consequences

of our sinful decisions. Second thing that the fiery

trial is not, it's not really the common stresses of life.

It's not really the common stresses of life.

We all have stresses in life. And isn't it interesting?

Isn't it interesting how the older you get, the bigger the

stresses become, the older you get, the bigger stresses you,

you, you become and you kind of look back over your life and

you're like, Hey, remember when the biggest thing that was

stressful to me was that, man, I'd sign up for that every day

of the week and, and twice on Sunday, Like to be able to go

back and have the stresses that I thought were like a really big

deal in my early 20s or when I was 14.

And I'm not saying that those weren't big deals or big

stresses when I was 14 or when I was in my early 20s.

I'm just saying that now as I get older, the stresses seem to

get a little bit bigger and a little bit hairier, right.

The fiery child is to come upon us that Peter's talking about

here in First Peter 412 are not the common stresses of life.

So parents, as challenging as your kids may be, they are not

the fiery trial. Wives, as challenging and as

stubborn as your husband may be, he is not the fiery trial.

As as much of A jerk as your boss or your supervisor or your

manager, maybe he or she is not the fiery trial.

We all have things that are really, really common stresses

of life that we don't like. Things like bills and vegetables

and taxes and dentist chairs, as much as we don't like them, they

are not the fiery trial, although they will.

They will make us look forward to heaven a lot more, right?

But the common stresses of life are not the fiery trial that

Peter's talking about. The third thing, third

misconception about these fiery trial is the culture's movement

away from Christendom. The culture's movement, our

culture's movement away from Christendom.

Let me kind of unpack that for a second.

We no doubt live in a country that was founded by Judeo,

judeo-christian ethics, no doubt about it.

We, we're a country that was founded with a, with a base

acknowledgement of our creator God.

We're a, we're a country that was founded on, on a, on a

shared morality of what was right and what was wrong.

For the most part. We, we are a country that was,

that was founded in a way in which I would say that

Christianity was, was viewed favourably in the marketplace

and, and, and in the public sector.

I would say that probably up until the the 1990s, there were

cultural pressures and incentives for someone,

especially in the South, to say that they were a Christian and

that they attended church. Now sitting here in 2026, a lot

of those cultural pressures and incentives, they no longer

exist. A lot of the movement that we

see happening in our culture is, is a rejection against

Christendom, the shared Judeo-christian values.

But I would even argue this, I would even argue this, that the

fiery trial that Peter's referring to here in First Peter

4 is not our culture's movement away from judeo-christian

values. It's just not you see, again,

we, we, we live in a day and age to where there's no cultural

incentive or pressure to say that you're something that

you're not. If you're not a follower of

Jesus, then there's no cultural pressure incentive to say that

you are. There's no culture incentive or

pressure to, to, to, to go to church if if you not a follower

of Jesus. So what's happening is, is we're

having people pull away. We're having our culture being

more authentic and more honest and more real about who they are

and what they believe. And they're actually living with

a sense of genuineness, A genuine lostness, but a

genuineness. This is why it's so important

for us to understand the fiery trial that Peter's referring to

here is not a City Hall's refusal to place a Nativity on

the front lawn. And the fiery trial that Peter's

referring to here is not a cashier saying Happy Holidays

rather than Merry Christmas. That's just cultural cultures

drift and unbelieving cultures drift away from or all out

abandonment away from a judeo-christian ethic or what we

would call Christendom. You see Christendom, it has the

has the fingerprints of Christianity.

It looks like Christianity. Sometimes it feels like

Christianity, but it's really just a cultural Christianity.

It's not the same as a I've surrendered my life to Jesus.

I've been born again, I've been forgiven of my sins and only and

purchased with the blood of Jesus type of Christianity.

It's going through the motions and and and Christendom that

that's what our culture is slowly but surely rejecting.

And I would even argue over the last 20 something years that

rejection has has rapidly increased.

But that rejection is not necessarily what.

The fiery trial that Peter's talking about here.

So if the. Fiery trial is not the

consequences of my own sinful decisions, and the fiery trial

is not the common stresses of life and the fiery trial that

Peter's referring to here in First Peter 412.

It is not culture's movement away from Christendom.

What exactly is the fiery trial? What exactly is the fiery trial?

And this comes back to the overall gist of the question

that we asked at the beginning. What will following Jesus cost

me? Here's a definition.

I gave you this in your notes. The fiery trial.

Is a suffering that is experienced due to my walking in

obedience to God's word will and ways.

It is a suffering that is experienced due to my walking in

obedience to God's word will and ways.

There is a direct correlation. I am obedient to God, therefore

I am enduring this trial. I'm holding on to the words, the

will and the ways of God. Therefore I'm experiencing this

type of suffering. It is a direct correlation

between my obedience to God and my suffering for that obedience.

And it's going to happen in two distinct ways.

The first one, again, if you're taking notes with us, jot this

down. It's going to be a personal

suffering. It's going to be a personal

suffering. When I am walking in obedience

to God's Word will and ways. There are some things in my

life. If I'm living my life in

accordance to God's word and God's will and God's way for me,

that's going to, that's going to be contrary to the Word.

The world's the unbelieving worlds like will and ways.

So there's going to be some things that I'm going to suffer.

Let me let me kind of give you some examples.

If you're single with us and, and you are living obedient to

God's word and his will and his ways for you, then you refuse to

lower your standards and you refuse and you completely reject

some type of like hookup culture because you know that it's

against God's word, it's against God's will and it's against

God's ways. Well, what's that going to cost

you? It's going to cost you at least

temporarily. It's going to cost you

companionship. If you, if you're, if you're, if

you're an employee and you're, you're looking to walk in

accordance with Scripture and God's word and his will and his

ways and you refuse to compromise your integrity or

your character. It may very well cost you a

promotion and that's going to cost you some money if you're a

man or a woman or a student with us and, and you become convicted

about the things that you allow to kind of influence your

thoughts. Because we know that like what

goes into our thoughts, it's just human nature.

It starts to starts to like ping pong within us and because it

starts to change us and you become convicted about the

content that you allow into your thoughts with whether that

content is through reels or, or or or or websites or music or

movies or or TV shows. That may very well cost you

some, some popularity and it may cost you some, maybe even some

friends because you like we were talking about last week, you now

have a new master and that's Jesus.

And you want to honor Jesus in everything that you do.

So honoring Jesus in everything that you do, it will cost you

personally. There will be a personal

suffering, but there's also going to be a second category of

suffering, and that's what we call a shared suffering, a

shared suffering. What I mean by that is when a

body of believers like Riverbend Church, whether you're in the

room with us or online, you're following Jesus and we're all

looking to walk and sync with God's Word and his will and his

ways. There will be and we're joining

with other churches, other Bible believing Jesus loving churches,

not only in this area, but in this state and in this country

and around the world. There will be a shared

suffering. There will be a complete

misunderstanding of who we are and a mislabelling of who we are

because we're looking to live in accordance with what God says,

not what feels good or what culture says.

I'll give you I'll give you a couple of examples.

Not to spend a whole lot of time here, but we read in Genesis

chapter one that God created humanity is male and female and

he created both of them in his image of equal value, but he

created them male and female. So as Bible believing followers

of Jesus, we cannot get down with and we cannot accept a

culture's view of 54 different gender identities.

We just can't. But because of that, we're

labeled as a people that doesn't really love people or maybe even

bigotry. 2014, the founders of Hobby Lobby, both devout

followers of Jesus. They were sued and their case

was taken all the way to the Supreme Court of the United

States. They were sued because under the

Affordable Health Care Act, they were mandated as a company or as

a corporation that they had to provide health insurance, which

part of that health insurance included abortion.

And the founders of Hobby Lobby said, listen, based off of our

fear of God and our belief in Scripture that all, all life is

sacred, that from the moment of conception to the moment of

death, we are to protect all life.

We can't, we can't adhere by that that statute and that

mandate. And because they took that

stance, they were sued and their case was taken all the way

Supreme Court of the United States.

And in a narrow 5 four decision in the United States Supreme

Court 2014 the Supreme Court barely upheld those founders

rights not just to believe what they say they believe in but to

actually put it into practice. 2015 there was another Supreme

Court case Ozerfel V Hodges. And in Ozerfel V Hodges, the

Supreme Court ruled and it actually federalized same sex

marriage, citing using constitutional protections, but

then also citing portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which

basically classified sexual orientation in the same vein as

a person's skin color, saying the Supreme Court of the United

States said no one can discriminate on that basis.

Now, most church scholars and historians agree that that has

now laid the legal groundwork for the federal government to

remove the tax exempt status of any church that does not perform

or refuses to perform same sex marriage.

Not because we're bigots, not because we hate people, but

because we believe that God instituted marriage, He created

marriage and He only blesses marriage is between a man and a

woman. So most legal scholars believe

that that now, that's 2015 Supreme Court case has now laid

the groundwork for the federal government to to remove tax

exempt status of churches, which means that tithes and offerings

will then become double taxed. You see what you and I, what we

give together to and through Riverbend Church, that money has

already been taxed. Well, if the federal government

then taxes ties and offerings again, that's a double taxation,

which will then lead to a lot of churches having to close their

doors. As your pastor, I'm very well

aware of the fact that following that vein out to its personal

conclusion, it could very easily mean when I stand on where God's

Word tells me to stand about marriage, that that could be

classified as hate speech. I, I, I don't tell you this, I

don't tell you this is your pastor to incite you, to get you

to wring your hands, to get you to go full on ostrich mode and

stick your head in the sand. I tell you this to give us full

context of what Peter is talking about and to give us full

context of what you and I have willingly signed up for when we

surrendered our lives to Jesus. So in full context, let me go

back and read first. Peter 413 In light of the

personal sufferings and the shared sufferings, rejoice in so

far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also

rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.

So here's the question to his church, How in the world, in

light of everything that I just said, none of us going to make a

Hallmark card, right? How in the world do we rejoice

in that? I think we rejoice by three

mindset shifts, which are also going to come accompany 3

promises from God. If you're taking notes with us,

here's the three mindset shifts that we have got to be aware of

in the day and age in which we're living.

Number one, I don't chase trials, but I won't be surprised

when they come. I don't chase trials, but I

won't be surprised when they come.

Listen, I have never met anybody that says, listen, I haven't had

a good trial in a while. I think I'm going to go chase

one down. If that's you two things, either

A, you've got way too much time on your hands or B, you ain't

right. And I know it's not

grammatically correct, but it's theologically correct.

You ain't right. I don't chase them.

I don't chase them, but I won't be surprised when they come.

I won't be surprised when they come.

What? What is our definition of the

fiery trial? It is a suffering that comes

upon me as a direct result of me living in obedience to God's

Word, His will, and His ways. So when I strive to be obedient

to God, do you know who takes notice?

My enemy, Satan, his demons, the forces of hell itself.

So when I strive to be obedient to God's Word and His will and

His ways, my obedience places a target on me.

What is hell? What are the forces of hell?

What's their main objective for any of us?

Plan A Keep us away from Jesus. Keep us from surrendering our

lives to Jesus. If you've already surrendered

your life to Jesus, there's nothing that can ever separate

you from the love of God. Nothing.

I love how Paul ends the end of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

What can separate us from the love of God?

And he gives a whole litany of things that goes, Nope, not

that, not that, not that. There's nothing that can ever

separate us. Once you were saved, you're

always saved. But but once you're saved

doesn't mean that you're always be effective.

So if Satan can't keep you away from surrendering your life to

Jesus, he wants to keep you as ineffective as possible by from

leading other people to Jesus. And how does he do that?

By keeping us disobedient to God's word, his will and his

ways. You see, I don't chase trials,

but I'm also not going to be surprised when they when they

come. Jesus himself promised this.

He goes in this world. You will have happy times.

It's not what he said in this world.

You will have an easy time. It's not what he said in this

world. If you go to church every week,

life will always turn out the way that you thought.

Not what he said in this world. You'll have health, wealth and

prosperity. Not what he said.

Jesus said in this world you will have trials.

But fear not, I've overcome the world.

Jesus was crystal clear. We will have trials.

I'm not going to chase them. I'm not going to chase them.

But I'm not going to be surprised when they come as kind

of a side point of conviction. Here's a question that followers

of Jesus, we should be asking ourselves.

Am I walking in such obedience to God that I'm actually a

threat to health? I'm starting to wonder if the

lack of the fiery trial that Peter's referring to here,

direct suffering, shared suffering.

I'm starting to wonder if the lack of the fiery trial, if a

lack of attack, if an if a lack of attack on my life from the

forces of hell, if that's not really a true indicator and a

diagnostic of my lack of a threat to hell, my lack of

obedience to God. You see us followers of Jesus

going through trials for Jesus should be a badge of honor.

Along the way, we've kind of got some twisted theology to where

we start to think as far as the Jesus.

Jesus, I read my Bible. I spent 15 minutes in prayer

with you. I gave to the church.

I serve once a month at the church.

Why are you allowing this trial to come in my life?

Well, the Bible tells us, he promises us you walk in

obedience to God. You will face suffering in this

world. We're going to come back to why

that's so important. Second mindset shift is I don't

like trials, but I won't be consumed by their fire.

I don't like trials, but I won't be consumed by their fire.

Here's what that means is when you and I, when we're facing a

trial in life that is directly tied to our obedience to God's

word and his will and his ways, you don't have to like the

trial. As a matter of fact, if you, if

you write in your journal like I am so happy, like, you know, I

love this trial, such a great time, you know, hashtag blessed

and in your journal. I'm starting to sit there and go

OK. You don't have to hyper

spiritualize things. You don't have to like the

trial, but you also don't have to fear it.

You also don't have to fear it. Let me ask you a question based

off of what we've just talked about, talked about where, what

is the ultimate source of the of the trials that's coming against

U.S. forces of hell? Do you really believe that God

is bigger than the forces of hell?

That means whatever hell can throw at you, God's protection

is bigger. We see that playing out all

throughout Scripture. You go to the book of Daniel,

you got three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They refused to bow down to to worship an image of the king as

a as a God. They refused to bow down and as

a as a consequence, they told him, like, listen king, like we

acknowledge your authority as our king, but we can't worship

you as God because we can only worship the one true God.

And as a result, King Nebuchadnezzar threw them

literally into a fiery furnace. That furnace was heated up

several times hotter than it normally was, so much so that

the Bible tells us that the guys actually heating the heating the

furnace actually died themselves because it was so hot.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire.

No doubt the fire was hot, but God's protection was greater.

You can read on. Later on in the book of Daniel,

you got this guy by the name of Daniel who he.

Refuses to to. Obey the King's decree to stop

praying to God. It's like, hey, King, like I

acknowledge your authority as my king, but my greater authority,

my greatest authority is to my heavenly Father, to the King of

Kings, and that's God. And I'm going to keep praying.

As a consequence, he was thrown into a den of vicious lions.

Those lions were no, no doubt vicious and probably no doubt

starving, but God's protection of him was far greater.

Whatever trials may come your way and my way, as a result of

us being obedient, faithful to God, Listen, they're big, they

are hairy, they are destructive. However, God's protection is

much greater. One of my favorite passages in

the entire Bible is is Second Corinthians chapter 4 and right

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

there nestled in the middle of Second Corinthians chapter 4.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Love this passage. Paul writes this.

We talking about followers of Jesus.

We're. Afflicted in every way, but not

crushed. We're.

Perplexed but not driven to despair.

Persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

You see, you don't have to like the trial, but you also don't

have to fear it. Let come what may.

There is nothing that can ever separate us from God's love.

God always, always, always has protection of your soul.

Let come what may, He always has protection of your soul.

Third mindset. The way in which we can be

blessed in the midst of living in a trial.

I don't avoid trials, but I will be purified in them.

I don't avoid them, but I will be purified in them.

Two things about that statement #1 the trials that come our way

are not things that we can go around, not things that we can

go under, not things that we can go over.

We have to go through them. Here's 2 words of encouragement.

When you and I, when we go through trials, Number one, we

never go through the trials alone.

If you're a follower of Jesus, that means you have the Spirit

of the living God living in you, that there is nothing that you

will ever encounter alone. This is why King David could

honestly and authentically write in Psalm 23.

Four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of

death, I will fear no evil. Why?

Because you, God, you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

I'm never alone in what I go through and #2 with God, nothing

is ever wasted. With God, nothing is ever

wasted, ever. God will always use.

If we come to God and kind of reframe our question, here's how

we got to reframe the question. In the midst of the trial, ask

what, not why. Here's what I mean.

When you may be in a trial right now, you may be on the verge of

going into a trial. When you're in that trial, ask

the question, what God, what do you want to teach me in the

midst of what I'm walking through right now?

Not so much God, why in the world would you allow this to

happen to me? What not why?

There's a there's a profound, profound difference and that

question when we understand that we don't avoid trials, but we

will be purified in them. It gives us kind of a kind of a

strange confidence, right? A confidence that almost when

coming up on a trial, that fiery trial, hey trial, I don't like

you, you don't like me, but I know something that you don't.

Your intention for me is to tear me down, but God's going to use

you to build me up. So let's get this thing started.

You see, I don't avoid them. I would even argue I can't avoid

them, but I will be purified in them.

That's why whenever we go to another follower of Jesus and

say, hey, can I run a situation by you?

Can I get your godly counsel on this?

More times than not, we typically go to the person that

we know there's been through the trials, don't we?

Why is that? Because there's a track record

of them relying on God and his faithfulness in and through

them. Here's a question I want to

throw out there to you and especially if you're new to

church, It's AI think it's a very open and honest question.

Some people would even maybe even accuse this question of

being sacrilege. Here's the question, Ben.

If the fiery trials are going to come as a result of my obedience

to God, then why in the world would I ever want to be obedient

to God? That's a fair question.

Let me give you the answer. Do you want to be forgiven of

your sins? You see, I think what what has

so wrapped up our culture and its tightest grips is living and

walking with a sense of guilt and shame and secrecy.

Do you want to be freed up this morning or, or how about this?

How about many of us? We come in here, we're watching

online to where life has not at all gone the way that we thought

that it has, and it feels like all of our hope has been

stripped away. What would it look like for you

to know that if the worst that were to happen is you die, that

you would spend eternity with God in heaven?

How would that change the way that you lived?

How about this? How about a sense of peace and

love and purpose? That you've been striving to

find elsewhere by going down a lot of different roads and

trying a lot of different things, but you find out that

they only leave you empty and hollow and probably worse off

than you were to begin with. I would argue this if you're on

the fence about whether or not to follow Jesus.

A life that follows Jesus will give you a life that you have

always been looking for. No doubt about it.

Yes, it will come with hardships, but the blessings are

much greater than the hardships. Yes, it will come with trials,

but the eternal hope of knowing that you will spend eternity

with Jesus in heaven is greater than those trials.

Yes, it will come with suffering.

However, that suffering dulls in comparison to the life that

Jesus wants for you. Like I said at the very

beginning of our time together, and we had three people last

week that crossed over from death to life that know that

their greatest weapon against fear and doubt is a date,

February 15th, 2026. When the forces of hell try to

diminish who they are, diminish their hope, or try to cloud them

with doubt, they can pull out that date, February 15th, 2026.

That's when I nailed things down and gave my life to Jesus.

Do you have a date that you can go back to?

If you do or if you don't, we would love to pray with you.

We'd love to talk to you in just a few moments during our time of

response. If you do.

If you do, I want to walk you through four really key quick

questions to end our time. Here's the first one.

What is faithful obedience to God costing me right now?

If we're not listen, we don't go chasing trials.

We don't like the trials. We don't avoid the trials, but a

question that we should really be pondering if you're, if we're

a follower of Jesus, what trial am I suffering right now for the

for the cause of following Jesus?

And if there's nothing that I can point to, in what areas do I

need to be obedient to Jesus? Not to be a jerk for Jesus,

you'll never find that in the Bible, but just simply be

obedient to Jesus. What's it costing me #2 Where's

God calling me to obey Him knowing that it'll cost me?

Is there a stand that He knows that I need to take, that I know

that I need to take, not because of my opinions or my

perspectives, but based off of what God's Word tells me?

Is there a stance that I know that I need to take based off of

following and being faithfully obedient to God's Word, His

will, and His ways that's going to cost me #3 What would it look

like for me to not run from the fire, but to be refined by it?

What would it look like for me to not run from the fire?

I often wonder what it'll look like when we know that our time

is coming to an end in this life.

I wonder how many times we'll look back if we're aware of

those final moments with regret. Wondering, I wonder what would

have happened, what God could have done in me and through me

if I had not run from that trial, but I actually chose to

trust God to be refined by it. 4th question.

How can I prepare my heart now for the fiery trials that will

come? This morning has been really

about being aware. Aware of the cost.

Remember how I told you 3 mindsets also lead to three

promises? Fact of the matter is whether or

not you're in a trial right now and trial's pending, if you're

obedient to God, a trial is pending.

But guess what? God will protect you in that

trial. God will protect you in that

trial if you lean on Him. Here's what we want to do.

I want to end our time just praying over us this morning.

And if you were like one of those three last week that said,

Ben, I don't know if I have a true relationship with Jesus,

but I don't want to leave here not knowing.

We would love to talk with you. Maybe there's someone in your

life that you're not sure they have a relationship with Jesus.

The most powerful thing that we can do is to come down and to

pray for them by name. Maybe you're in here this

morning, you've come out of a trial.

Maybe you're in a trial right now.

You may say, God, I need your protection of me in this trial.

God, would you grow me? Would you refine me in this

trial? God, I don't.

Like it, but I trust that you're with me.

Maybe this morning is just another step of dependence on

God and where He has placed you. Maybe it's courage for you to do

what exactly what you know God is calling you to do.

Maybe in a relationship, a personal relationship, maybe at

work, maybe at school. Maybe it's something personal.

Maybe it's some some some boundaries that you need to draw

in your own life personally, knowing that that stance will

cost you. So you just need to come down

and pray for some courage. Listen, God will grant it to

you. You just have to ask.

So this morning we're going to open up this time after we pray

to give us a chance to respond and to pray together.

God, we love you and we thank you for your word.

Again, we thank you for the fact that you do not keep anything

from us, God, you do not sugarcoat things for us.

God, I pray that you would forgive us of, of any, any

twisted theology or any twisted notion that if we surrender our

lives to you, then you're going to make everything a smooth road

ahead of us. You're going to make it easy.

You're going to give us everything that we want.

God, would you bring us back to the reminder that you love us

far too much for that God? You are most concerned with who

we are becoming, God, and we cannot become who you created us

to be without depending on you. So God, I pray for the man or

the woman or the student that is struggling with an assurance of

whether he or she is truly following you.

God, I pray that they would, that you would grant them a

boldness to step out and to come down, talk and pray with the

pastor this morning. God, that they can nail that

down. God, for those that already have

their salvation nailed down, God, would you help us to be

really, really honest with ourselves about ourselves and

about the presence or the lack of presence of, of trials in our

lives as as maybe being indicative of our true

faithfulness or our true obedience to you?

Help us to really look at God. What is it costing us to follow

you, God, and help us to respond appropriately to that?

God, there are people in in all of our lives that we know need

you. So God, we want to take this

time to lift them up to you by name.

God, we pray that whatever you're calling us to do this

morning, God, that you would move in freedom, that you would

move in power. God, that you would move in a

way that is undeniably you. And it's in Jesus name that we

pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,

connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.