| Transformed By Trouble | |
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In II Corinthians 4:16 in the New King James Version we read, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." They are working for us as long as we are not looking at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen. As long as it is not only your natural eyes that you see with, but your spiritual eyes, they will work for you, as long as you are not focusing on those temporary, physical things around you. In these momentary light afflictions you keep your eyes not on the physical or natural surroundings, but on the One who is working for you this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It is a problem when we expect that God is going to do something for us and our eyes are glued on that which we can see with our natural eye. When you see something with your natural eye you are likely to say, "This is impossible!" But when you see it with your inner eyes you say, "With God all things are possible." Everything is possible to them that believe! God is not limited, He is all-powerful. The enemy is mighty, but God is Almighty. The enemy is powerful, but God is all powerful. God can remove every Jericho wall and anything that stands in front of you as long as you continue to keep your eyes on those things which are eternal and not on those things which are temporary and physical. Let's recap. In verse 16 we said, we don't lose heart or give up. We don't faint. We are not weak and struggling and barely making it. We are not just hanging on. Things that we can see with only our natural eyes are temporary. They come and they go and something else replaces them and there is no eternal value in them. It is the thing that we cannot see with the natural eye that is eternal. That is where we need to focus. We have also decided in these several verses that these momentary glitches and problems that we go through are working for us. In the Living Bible it reads this way, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." The eternal benefit of what I'm going through far outweighs the problem. I Peter 4:12 says, "Don't be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange or unusual thing that is going to happen to you." This is not a strange thing; God knows all about it. Remember the verse of scripture that says, "such as is common to man", which he says concerning troubles that we go through. We tend to isolate ourselves, thinking we are some kind of unique individual and the only one going through this. No one understands, no one has it as hard or tough as I do. But according to scripture, these are all things that are common to man. My intent this morning is not negative. When I talk about transformed by trouble, that is not a negative; that is a positive. How many of you know that if the clay could squeal every time the potter has it in his hands and the wheel is going and the water is splashed on it again to keep it pliable, and it is taken off the wheel and crushed and reformed and started again, that it would say, "Ouch! Take it easy! Don't pull and stretch me so far!" In order to get print on a page you do understand that pressure has to be applied. I want to help all of us with this message. There is a lot of confusion about it. I want to help clear it up. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs the trouble or the problem or the time or the people or the situation. They are only momentary, but the end result is eternal. These are only glitches, like a problem with your computer. It is not for eternity. Someone can come and work it out for you and all of a sudden it is gone and we carry on. You should expect four kinds of problems in your life. Jesus warned us that in this world you are going to have tribulation, but don't lose heart. The problems that come into our lives are entirely impartial. Trouble comes into your life when you are young, when you are old, if you are black or white or Indian or oriental. The problems that come into our lives are unpredictable and often times you cannot prepare yourself adequately for the next onslaught. That is why our focus for the entire year has been "Ready Always." What do I mean by ready always? Spiritually I'm ready and my eyes are where they need to be and my heart is centered and focused where it needs to be. I'm ready whatever comes, high winds or glassy calm, I'm ready. Troubles come in many flavors. Some of the troubles are bitter, very bitter. Some we can hardly tolerate. Some we just shrug off and say, "I can handle that; I've been through these before." The ones you have been through before, you have learned from, so God doesn't have to repeat those. There are others that come along that will tweak us a bit and assist us over the next knoll in the area of character establishment and they may be a little more difficult. Peter assures us in the scripture that they are normal. In the Old Testament it says troubles in a man's life are like sparks that fly upward from a fire. They are normal. Everyone has them. God causes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, the saved and the unsaved, the church-goer and the non church-goer, the believer and the unbeliever. So troubles are impartial, unpredictable, come in many flavors and are normal. Peter goes on to say that no one is immune. You cannot be inoculated against trouble or problems arising in your life. Some Christian people think that they can. "I will go to church and get inoculated this morning and everything will be fine. No problems or difficulties will come my way. I prayed like mad this morning and as a result nothing like that will come into my life today." It doesn't have anything to do with what you do. Your prayer this morning was preparatory for what's going to hit this afternoon. Peter goes on to say no one is immune to pain or insulated from suffering. No one can skate through life problem free. We have a tendency to look at someone and take fleeting glances at their life and say, "They don't have a care in this world. I'm going from the frying pan into the fire and they seem to have no problems whatsoever." We don't have a clue what's going on in their lives, so don't compare yourselves among yourselves and think you have it really tough and someone else has it really easy. It doesn't work that way. No one is immune from pain or insulated from suffering and no one gets to skate through life problem free. Life is nothing but a series of problems and it is our reaction to the problems that counts, not the problems themselves. Life is nothing but a series of problems and it's our response to those problems that matters and determines whether or not we are looking at the things that are only temporary or if we are really looking at the things which are eternal. Here are the four kinds of problems you can expect in life:
The book of Proverbs gives us a long list of sins that will get us into trouble. I have only listed a few here. For instance:
These things can get me into trouble. I need to be watchful over those things that come into my life by choices and decisions that I have made myself. It also tells us that wisdom will keep you out of trouble. The Bible says, "Listen to the words of your Father, son, and pay heed to what he says." Why? Because he went down the road and it was rough and he wants to help you avoid that rough journey, so pay attention to his wisdom. Anytime, however, we ignore God's principles, we certainly will suffer the consequences. Remember, the scripture says we always reap what we sow. You do not reap what someone else sows; you reap what you sow. I thought it remarkable that the word always comes to mind there. There is always a harvest. The wages of sin are not always paid on Friday, but they are always paid. God has given us the freedom (I like to use the word autonomy here) like the church; it is an autonomous church. Not connected or tied to any other organization, but totally autonomous. God has made each of us totally autonomous. In spite of what we hear, know, receive, do in worship and praise, Bible study, listening to tapes and so on, I am still responsible to see to it that I follow through being a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. I'm autonomous. I make the choice or decision whether or not I put anything into action that Jesus has said. We make decisions and take a certain path and go in a certain direction; however, we are not free to choose the outcome or the consequences of that decision. Free to make the choice, but not free to select the consequences. I can make a silly choice to not take anything for a headache, which means that I will have to endure the headache until it runs its course and eventually leaves, or I can make a decision to do something about my headache and help it exit, but the consequences I cannot choose, which means that if I go on in pain and lie down in my pain and put a wet cloth over my eyes and sleep for several hours, but I don't do anything other than that, I suffer the consequences of the decision that I made and I have no choice over the consequences and the pain hangs on and sometimes even intensifies. David prayed, "I am surrounded by many troubles and my sins have caught up with me." People get confused when it comes down to these four types of problems that you need to expect in your life. Sometimes we blame God for something God designed and we want to get out of it quickly, but God designed it for the next two weeks. The intensity of it is part of God's design, but we rebuke the devil, pour on the oil, ask for prayer, do everything under the sun to try to do something, but it is by God's design that it is there. We are trying to cast out the devil and the devil hasn't got anything to do with it. It is not there by the devil's design, but by God's. We pray like crazy when we should be relaxing and we relax when we should be praying. We blame God for natural consequences that come into our lives because of our own poor choices and decisions. Then we blame the devil for circumstances that were actually designed by God Himself to draw us closer to Him. We get very confused, don't we? You can take this to the bank – God will never tempt you. Test you, yes; tempt you, no. God doesn't do that. God will never tempt you. Why? Because temptation is designed by Satan to draw you away from God, not closer to Him. The Bible says, "God tempts no man." God will never tempt you into something that is questionable, or compromising, or sinful. He will, and often does, test your character and your faith to see to it that you are drawn closer to Him and that your character is refined and your faith is enhanced or increased. One is to test, the other is to tempt. Tempting, to draw you away from; testing, to reaffirm the character that you have and the faith that you profess to others, to see if it is really there. When they say they are people of integrity, let's give them a certain situation and find out how much integrity is really there, so God tests us to see whether we are or are not what we claim to be. God tests our character to see what we are made of or our faith to see how strong we are getting or how weak we remain and He does that continually. "For it is God that worketh in us both the will and the to do of His good pleasure." When you face a problem, the first thing you and I need to do is determine its source. Is this a test, is it a trial, or am I being tempted to draw away? Let me give you an illustration. Nowhere in the scripture does it say that when Jonah was on board the ship and all of a sudden they encountered a terrible storm that Jonah was some place hovering in a corner on his knees praying and asking God to help him through that storm. It says that the people on board that ship said, "We have a problem somewhere because this is a very unusual storm. Storms do not come up that quickly in this stretch of water. We have a bigger problem here than just a storm." So they cornered Jonah, who said, "I'm the problem. Just throw me overboard and the storm will cease." What was the source of Jonah's problem? Disobedience. God said go to Nineveh and Jonah said, "No, I'm going to Tarshish and enjoy myself." God said, "On your way, you are going to have a problem," and he did. We know what happened after that and finally Jonah owned up to the problem and resolved the issue and did what God asked him to do.You don't blame God for #4. That one is the consequences of your own decisions and choices, so you don't blame God for that. What you do in a situation like that is confess and repent that you made some bad choices and decisions and pray, "God, help me through this whole mess and I will give you honor and glory and praise when I come out the other end." You don't blame Him for the trouble you are in because you made a silly mistake. Some people do that all the time. God will help you when you have made a poor choice or decision, but He will not necessarily bail you out. You may have to go through the consequences of your choices and decisions. On the other side of the coin, Paul was involved in a raging storm at sea because of other people's disobedience and total disregard of God. Here was the man of God involved in a stormy situation because of some one else's doings. Jesus said to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side," and Jesus got on the boat and went down inside and curled up and went to sleep. They encountered a terrible storm and in the middle of the storm the disciples thought they were going to lose their lives. They woke Jesus up and said, "Don't you care that we are going to perish, for we are in the middle of a raging storm?" Wait a minute! Didn't He say, "Let's go over to the other side?" You are not going to go under when Jesus says, "Let's go over." When Jesus is your constant Companion you won't go under when He says, "Let's go over to the other side." The storms in your life can indeed be a trial of your faith; however, they can be caused by other people and their deeds. They can be caused by temptation that is staring you in the face and they can be caused by your own decisions. They could be found in the category of trespass – hurts caused by other people and their dealings with you. Do not be impulsive to follow after the unbeliever and his decisions and choices. You will find yourself swirling in the midst of nonsense and saying to yourself, "What in God's name am I doing here?" You wanted to please people and because your were so intent on that you didn't find out if it was pleasing to God and just jumped in with both feet. The trespasses of other people can suck you right in if you are not careful. The Bible says, "Be careful lest you become complicit in another person's evil deeds." In the prayer that Jesus modeled for us He said, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." It could be a trespass sometimes caused by someone who has roped you in. They love companionship even in their poor choices and decisions and there you are – caught. It could be a troubling thing you brought on yourself. In either case, each one requires a different response. Let's handle them now. If it is trouble that you find yourself in and it's your fault, "If we acknowledge our problem or sin and if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If we say, "God I'm really sorry. I blew it and hurried into something without asking you. I didn't even inquire and the consequences are now in front of me. I'm sorry; please forgive me." We must forgive those who trespass against us. It is incumbent upon us to understand that He said forgive us in the same measure that we forgive others. If we forgive not another man their trespasses, neither will He forgive us our trespasses. If it comes to a temptation, this is from the enemy. It is by Satanic design to draw you away from God and to reduce your spiritual content; to take the sharp edge off of your walk with God; to make you somewhat of a murky gray instead of white; to draw you away from your faithfulness and your consistency in whatever area he can, whether it is in giving or going or sharing or doing. To lull you to sleep; or one of his favorite things to do is to desensitize us to the presence of the Spirit of God within us and His voice. Be still and know, because there is an inner voice and He is speaking to you, but in order for you to hear Him you may have to shut out other sounds. The Bible says you resist the devil and he will flee from you. When it comes to temptation, or to draw you away, you resist that and he will flee from you. One of the areas of real difficulty we face is in the trespass area. If someone hurts us, it is not always easy for us to let it go, without a sense of desire to get even. If it is a trespass against us, something someone else did, you need to release it. Picture a dove in your hands and you walk out on the balcony of your hotel room and you release it. That's what you do with every one who trespasses against you. Let it go. When it comes to a trespass, no matter how intense it is, whether it is downright dirty and soiled your reputation or soiled your witness or your robes of righteousness, you still must release them. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Let it go. It doesn't matter. If it is a trial or test from God, please don't pray to be released from it. You are still the clay in the Potter's hands and He is doing the working. Remember, no matter the source, God, the devil, other people, or your own choices, none of your problems could ever be there without God's permission. None of your problems can be there without His okay. "I will not allow anything to come into your life without it first going through my preview. I know how intense it is and I know you can handle it and therefore you've got it." If anything came into your life that you couldn't handle God would say no and move it away. He will not allow us to be tempted beyond that which we are able, but with every temptation provides a way of escape. Everything that happens in the life of the Child of God is Father filtered. He intends to use it for your good. Even if Satan was the designer, God will turn it around and use it for your good. Even if other people trespassed against you and meant evil by it, God will turn it around, they will be punished and you will be further developed into what God intends you to be. The source is not your problem and it is no problem for God, either. He will turn it around for you and He will use it for your betterment, value and growth if you believe that what God has told you is absolutely true. When you made the decision to turn yourself over to God, that was no small choice. As far as God is concerned, that was the most important decision of your entire life. Now He is in charge of what is going on in your life. You noticed that I did not use the word "control." You are still in control. He is in charge, but you are still in control. He never took away your right of choice and decision. That means you are in control. Accidents only become incidents in the hands of God when you are living for Him. Every day of your life was written in God's calendar before you were even born, according to Psalm 139:16, which says, "Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none." In the Living it puts it this way, "You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe; every day was recorded in your Book." Everything that happens to you has spiritual significance. Whether it is the devil or other people or whatever, everything that happens in your life has spiritual significance. Everything! |