Dealing with Trials

1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

You know, I was this morning, this weekend's been a just a good weekend for us.

I've just been thanking all that God's done, and as we were here yesterday morning praying with the folks going to camp, looking, driving down, looking on the property, and seeing all that God's doing.

Do you realize how God has provided every need?

Huh?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Provided for every need.

Everything down there.

Everything down there is paid for, guys.

Can we give them God a hand?

Amen.

And by the way, for first-time visitors, if you're a first-time visitor, please raise your hand.

Come on.

There we go.

Yes, sweetie.

Yeah, right in here, right here, Carlton.

God bless you.

Amen.

Amen.

But I was thinking, and Paul, we've got uh, we've had, it's probably after all said and done this week.

Are you ready for this?

And I'm not saying this to brag.

I'm saying this to give God the glory.

Last week we had a$155,000 offering.

Wow.

Did you hear what it?

Some of you don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we got every bit of that much more coming in this time, this week.

All for God's glory to get ready to build that building.

Can we give God a hand?

Amen.

God's good.

All the time.

That's a nice way to start out on your vacation.

Yes, it is.

But you know what's nice to start out on your vacation is knowing there's no anxiety or pressure about finances because we don't owe anything.

Can I get an amen?

We don't owe anything, folks.

Hey, the we are servant, hey, the borrowers servant to the lender.

We're only servant to one person, and that's Jesus Christ.

Can I get an amen?

Thank God.

And you don't understand, I was in ministries where if we didn't have money come in that week, we couldn't make payroll.

My wife will tell you, I've been there.

Actually, I've been there in every ministry other than this one.

Yeah, that's true.

In our first church, we were, I took a church that was a year old, had 30 people, and the interest rate went to 21%.

Y'all remember those days?

Some of y'all don't remember those days.

And and uh we had borrowed$300,000 what they had before I got there.

If I'd have been there, we wouldn't have done that.

But uh uh to buy the funeral home, and we were going, we were going so much in.

We were at the end of the first year, my pastor, we owed$340,000.

We owed$40,000 more than when I got there.

And we were making payments.

I don't know.

Jack would come up on Wednesday night and say, Pastor, the law if we need this much money this week, or we can't pay our bills.

And I love what he said, though, each time he'd say that.

And he only said that, I think he said that more than once.

But he said, but I vote we pay you first.

I said, Amen.

I am in that.

So I've been there.

Same way with Liberty and the same way with the temple.

So praise God.

Praise God.

One thing I admire about my buddy, David Wilson.

This past June was two years, he's been gone.

When we met, he was dear friend, served with me on the board of trustees at Temple.

But I never forget when he came, when he asked me to come.

I said, David, I'm tired of raising money.

I'm tired of ministrating.

I said, I don't want to do that.

I'm just gonna preach.

That's all I want to do.

I'm going back in the van.

Solomon did.

He said, you won't have to do anything but preach.

He said, you'll never have to worry about us going in debt or being a money problem.

I promise you that.

And boy, has he stuck to his promise.

To God be the glory.

And it's just, but this is the way it's supposed to be, folks.

This is the way it's supposed to be.

So in my fourth quarter, my last quarter, my last really ministry, I'm seeing how it's really supposed to be done.

And to God be the glory, and me able to train these younger men.

This is the way it's done.

But they all agree.

Uh both they all agree with Larry, well, I was a Larry Burkett.

They're Dave Ramsey folks.

But that's the way it's supposed to be.

So, but I was just thinking this week.

What a blessing.

So this fall, get ready.

We even I hadn't even thought about it really.

This is something that our our council can start thinking about.

Paul, you know when the you're ordering the steel for the building and all, but this will be seven years.

August the 12th.

Huh?

Ordering in this week.

You know what we need to do?

This being God's perfect number seven.

We need to, we need to do a groundbreaking.

We need to do a groundbreaking out there.

And uh so we need to start thinking about that.

I know I I see clay there, there.

Y'all kind of uh I mean, groundbreaking is basically you get your shovels and you know, so who knows?

We might even could do that on the anniversary service.

I don't know.

I'm throwing that out so y'all y'all that are organizers and know how to do all that.

Think about it.

So I don't, but it it would this fall.

I'll just preach.

Yeah, right.

Well, I always have a suggestion, but but that doesn't mean you have to do it.

Um they'll tell you that.

Uh we do it all, we're one accord here.

1 Corinthians 6.17, he that's joined on the Lord's one spirit.

Amen.

Hey, I don't have I don't have any agenda here, folks.

Your pastor has no agenda but God's agenda.

But now when God gives me the vision, which he has, now we just gotta complete it.

Amen.

And God's gonna help us do that.

In fact, God's gonna do that.

We're just gonna get, we're gonna just have the privilege of getting in on it.

Can I get an amen?

So that's exciting.

Verses 6 through 14 in 1 Peter 5, the last exhortation from Peter.

And you know, in one of the most crucial lessons to learn as a Christian, now listen to me.

Probably the most crucial, instead of just a crucial, probably the most crucial lesson as Christians to learn is how to handle suffering, how to handle trials, how to handle temptations, how to handle discouragement, even defeat.

Amen?

It really is.

Because when we handle, mishandle those situations and those circumstances, what happens is we we get a defeated attitude.

In fact, what Satan wants to do is take the joy of the Lord away from us.

That's what he wants.

Because, see, you cannot be an effective witness without the joy of the Lord.

For the joy of the Lord is your strength.

And that's very important that we understand that.

But we do know that lessons to learn as a Christian is how to handle suffering here.

And that's what Peter's really dealing, because he knows with the church at Babylon that with Nero, the severe persecution that the church is already facing.

So, and then in 1 Peter 4.12, remember one of my verses that I don't like, but I quote it to myself often, he says, Count it not strange concerning the fiery trials that are going to try you, as some strange things happen unto you.

In other words, don't be caught off guard when these trials come or these situations come.

So we see, as long as we're living in this fallen world, suffering is a certainty.

Say that with me, church.

Suffering is a certainty.

And we know that.

It may be physical suffering.

Many of you, we have a lot of physical suffering going on right now in our body.

Living in these frail bodies, and we get sick, we die.

It could be grief from watching a loved one suffer and die, which we all have done that.

But it also could be, hey, hey, just common pressures of life.

How do I pay my bills?

In fact, I just heard this morning a guy just lost his job.

I meant all these problems that we face in life, common pressures of life, providing a living for our family.

And then there's emotional suffering.

And I'm not sure that emotional suffering's not the worst.

Because emotional suffering brings on things like stress.

Hello?

Stress brings on things like strokes, heart attacks.

So all this is taking place.

But wherever it comes from, suffering is inevitable.

And it will make you grow.

Now, right, hey, when this suffering comes, you either get bitter and you blame God.

Now you may not blame him openly, but in your heart you do.

You blame God, or you get better and you praise God.

And in order to get better and praise God, we got to understand how to deal with this anxiety, this discouragement, this defeated attitudes.

And so today we're going to look at, and by the way, let me tell you how powerful this was.

I saw this and I said, man, that's good.

Do you know in the parables with Jesus and Mark 4, two of the parables dealt with people that did not know how to handle suffering and temptations, and that's why they quit on God.

In fact, when you look at the first one, the rocky soil, listen, Jesus explained that they had received the word joyfully at first, but then they didn't allow those roots to see down into their hearts, and they didn't grow.

They, you know, they got saved, and for a little while they were excited, they were faithful to church, faithful to quite time, but then persecution came and they quit.

And then they had the thorny ground, reflects those who seemed to grow for a while, but then allowed, among other things, the worries of the world to choke the word of God, and they became unprofitable.

Isn't it amazing how people that are walking with God for a while, when real strong pressure comes, they seem to bail, hey, bail out on God.

That's when you ought to turn to God more.

You know what?

Remember what I said?

They get bitter and they blame God.

And don't tell me you hadn't thought about that in every major crisis you've been in.

Here's how you do it.

I've done it.

Lord, what are you doing?

Don't you know, Danny, down here?

I've been faithful, I've been doing my quiet time, I've been witnessing, I've been tithing, I've been going to church.

Man, why is this happening to me?

Now you may not say it out loud like I just did, but you're thinking it.

So that's where Satan's trying to get you to get bitter instead of better.

Because he knows if you went through that trial and you work through that suffering and that anxiety and that worry, and you come out on the mountaintop, you are a force to be reckoned with.

You are a force to be reckoned with.

So, if you don't learn, and I don't learn how to handle affliction, worries, or other kinds of suffering, we will not persevere as a Christian.

But on the other hand, if we do learn how to handle suffering, we'll grow solid through it.

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be patient and perfect, entire wanting nothing.

And remember at the beginning of that, James says, count it on joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

So, with that said, let's go.

Let's look at four disciplines that we must have.

Discipline number one.

To grow solid through suffering, number one, we must humble ourselves before God.

Look at verse six and seven.

Humble ourselves.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you.

Now notice the word therefore.

It connects verse five with verse six and seven.

Here's the paraphrase.

Well, actually, the New Living Testament.

Listen to what it says.

Because God sets himself in battle against those who lift themselves up.

Wow.

God sets himself in battle against those who lift themselves up, but gives unmerited, I love that, favor to those who view themselves as lowly.

Therefore, lower yourselves under God's sovereign dealings with you that he might lift you up in due time.

Wow.

That's powerful.

I said, but yes.

In other words, you lower, we lower ourselves by throwing all our anxieties on him, knowing that he cares for you.

He cares for us.

We let him have it all.

Give it all to him.

The Greek word for anxieties comes from a word that means, now watch this, to divide.

And I kind of said, man, that's pretty good.

Let's run this thing.

And I said, anxieties divide our minds so that we can't concentrate on anything else.

And that's what anxiety really means.

It divides our minds so that we can't think on anything else.

In fact, an old theologian made this statement.

I love it.

He said, someone, he defined worry this way, as a small, now what's this, trickle of fear.

A small trickle of fear.

Not a big trickle, but a small trickle of fear that manders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.

Wow.

Which means literally that if Satan can cut that channel of fear and divide your mind into disunity and disharmony, and you're fearful, he's trying to get you to be afraid.

See, watch, you can't have faith and fear.

Hello, come on with me.

Come on now.

You can't have fear and have faith.

Faith drives out fear.

2 Timothy 1 7 says, God's not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love.

Now watch.

Here it is.

Watch how this fits.

And of a sound mind.

God doesn't divide your mind, he unites your mind.

Faith doesn't divide your mind, it builds your mind.

Forsaking all I take him.

F-A-I-T-H.

Forsaking all, I take him.

Amen?

That's good, preacher.

And that helped me this week.

Oh, that's good.

Why is there a need?

Well, watch.

Why is there a need?

Here's the question.

For humbling ourselves in a time of trial.

Because at the heart of anxiety, now listen to me.

You've got to realize that worries and anxieties distract us from the productive things of God.

You know what Satan does not want you to do?

He doesn't want you to be productive for God.

Hello?

So anxiety and worries, hey, distract you from being productive for God.

So when you're worrying and all you do is up and down, worry, worry, worry, you're not being productive for God.

And Satan's sitting there laughing at us.

Laughing at us.

Been there.

Because at the heart of anxiety is the proud notion that I can handle things by myself.

If we do not throw everything, casting all our cares upon you, Him, because He cares for us, what we're really saying is I can handle it.

And we can't.

Can I get an Amen?

So that's why there's such a need to humble ourselves.

In fact, even we who trust in Christ as Savior and Christians, a lot of times when we say, Well, we're just going to give it to the Lord, do we really give it to the Lord?

You know, the only time we really give it to the Lord when he snatches the rug out from under us and we're a flat of our backs and we don't have any other place to go to, then we look up and say, Okay, Lord, I don't know what to do.

Will you help me?

So, at the root of this self-reliance is pride.

And everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination unto God, they will not go unpunished.

I was thinking about that.

That would like me being on an ocean liner, and all of a sudden a storm comes up.

Now, watch this.

A storm comes up, and I'm in a bad storm, and it the boat's going backwards and forward, and well, I'm frightful.

Oh, we may drown, or the boat may break broke, break open, or whatever.

And so I run up to the captain's deck and I tell the captain, hey captain, let me take over.

Hello! Well, that would be sad, wouldn't it?

We would sure be in trouble.

Then there would be a reason to be afraid, hey, afraid, to be frightened, to have fear.

The preacher's driving the boat.

We're in trouble.

In the storm.

Oh man.

George Mueller, great, great godly Christian, writer.

Used to tell the story of a boy who was walking along the road carrying a heavy load of wood on his shoulder, and a guy in a carriage was coming by, not a carriage, but a horse and wagon, uh passing by, and he stopped and he asked, the young lad, would you like to get on the back of the wagon, you know, and I'll take you where you're going.

I'm going in the same direction.

He said, Yes, sir, thank you.

He got on, sat down on the wagon, got up in the wagon, sat on the wagon, but kelp.

The wood, those beans still on his shoulder.

The driver of the wagon turned around and said, Son, why don't you take those uh lumbers and put them down in the wagon?

You know what the young lad said?

He says, I don't want to burden the horses with that load.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we laugh, but just think when you and I got saved, we got in the wagon of Jesus Christ.

He's the hey, he's the captain of the wagon, he's driving the wagon, and our problem is we still keeping those anxieties, those problems, and everything we have, they're still on our shoulder while we're sitting in the wagon.

Is that not good?

Get them off.

Dump them.

Give them to him.

Church, give them to him.

Oh, that's it.

We've climbed into the cart of salvation through Christ.

But we're prone to doubt.

Two things in a time of intense crisis.

You ready for this?

Two things we we're in a major crisis.

One, that we don't believe that God is really sovereign over that situation.

We don't believe that God has the power over that situation.

That's one.

Secondly, we really doubt, and by the way, here's what I wrote down.

Where is God in all this?

That's what, when you say, where's God, then we're doubting his sovereign control over that situation.

That makes sense, say amen.

When we say, well, where's God?

We're doubting that he is sovereign over those circumstances.

You with me?

All right, here's the second thing.

Yeah, oh me.

Here's the second thing.

We doubt his concern for us.

We really doubt his love for us.

We really doubt he cares for us.

Now, how do I know that?

Here's what we say.

Why is this happening to me?

Why is this happening to me?

Is that not true?

But Peter says, watch, that we must bow, humble ourselves, and acknowledge God's mighty hand, his sovereignty and power.

Listen, we've got to bow, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

Remember, you gotta, hey, you gotta bow before God before you can defeat Satan.

All right?

Amen.

And that's what we see right here.

I mean, it's it's literally seen right here.

He was asleep at the helm when your trial hit you.