Embracing Trials: Joy and Hope in Suffering

In this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you are being grieved have been grieved now being grieved now in this you rejoice that's what I think it means I think they're simultaneous if you are a car in and loving person who is moved by earthquake fatalities or anything closer to you or the lostness of the people around you or the Brokenness of the families in your church or anything else sorrowful you will always have something in your awareness that's worth crying about won't you and the bible says weep with those who weep which means weep all the time and the Bible says rejoice always and again I say rejoice and right here we have it we have a hope that never changes and a God on our side by New Birth presence of the spirit keeping us for it always a reason to Joy always a reason to Rejoice. [00:118:84]

It is and you add to that you wake up into the unshakeable hope that you're going to inherit everything and you wake up into the unshakable confidence he will guard me no matter what happens to me he won't let me go he'll keep my face it may get small it may be a mustard seed someday but he won't let me go he will keep me he began the work he'll finish the work he is at work in me and then You Weep and those are not contradictory are they I don't think they are I hope they're not Paul said this is at Desiring God this is kind of a mantra for us because we we try not to bury our head in the sand when a thousand people are killed and in an earthquake in Nepal we we try not to bury our head but to come to terms with it 2 Corinthians chapter 6:1 sorrowful yet always rejoicing sorrowful yet always rejoicing. [00:218:56]

I think that's what this is teaching here so if you can take away from this seminar from those verses and from 2 Corinthians 610 and from weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who Rejoice those three texts I think describe the Christian Life as almost always simultaneously sorrowful and happy and what the Bible teaches you is that love won't ruin the wedding party with your sadness and love won't speak stupid chipper words at the funeral love knows when to release the joy and when to release the sorrow they're both always there it creates a certain kind of worship it does it it it you can tell a church where they they get this that these thousand folks are in pain and joy and worship leaders help us walk in that and help us there's music that can do that there's some music I think that's just way too off on the chipper end and some that's just way too off on the heavy end and how to weave weave it all together that's a gifted team of lead worshippers or dads and moms in a in a family helping kids grow up into this world. [00:288:08]

We rejoice and we grieve at the same time one owing to Hope one owing to trials if necessary so as these trials arrive in your life we we though for now sorry though now for a little while if necessary you are being grieved by various trials so who who who's making this necessary what kind of necessity are we talking about here like the devil is deciding whether something's necessary or you're deciding if it's necessary your neighbor is deciding that some trials you need some trials right now I'll I'll bump into your car this is God's this is is God's necessity now if I just stay within first Peter to get my answer to whose necessity is that who's making this necessary who's deciding that this is necessary the immediate context says that this so that here is a design of these trials and the design is for the tested genuine of your Faith to be found to result in praise that's definitely not the design of the devil he does not want your tested Faith to result in praise your praise or God's praise we get to that in a minute neither does your neighbor he's not aiming to help that that that's a purpose that only God can have so I'm inferring that this is God's necessity. [00:394:31]

God if necessary means if God deems it necessary and why would he deem it necessary for us to have these trials so that the tested genuiness of your faith would be found a result praise and glory and honor the revelation of Jesus Christ now to confirm whether I'm on the right track here this is always a good thing to do if you if you get an idea you think that from the context you have decided something accurately and Faithfully check it out by moving out a little bit so you go to chapter three see if I wrote These down yes I did here's here's 3117 it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil I think that's pretty plain if God Wills for you to suffer for doing good which means that the Injustice coming upon you is God's design for you that's big isn't it God Wills that you suffer for doing good sometimes so the necessity of suffering is God's 1 Peter 4:19 therefore let those who suffer according to God's Will and trust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing good so God wills it God wills it and then I went outside first Peter to Philippians for it has been granted to you graciously granted to you I preached on this a couple of weeks ago in Chapel at Bethlehem College and Seminary and really underlined this word right here it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe on him but that you should suffer for his sake so it is a gift. [00:535:32]

So three times two of them in First Peter one of them in Paul we are told that the sufferings that come into our lives are according to God's will God is Sovereign so when I look at this word if necessary here then I see okay he's my doctor he's my therapist and uh he decides what's necessary you ever had a knee replacement or had pneumonia because and could and you got two broken ribs and they say cough he said I can't cough it hurts you got to cough you got pneumonia you have to cough that's that's what's going on here God says it's necessary for your faith cough like that genuine Faith trust me your faith will be made stronger you get over the pneumonia of unbelief and sin if you cough though it hurts like crazy. [00:676:72]

These trials here come evidently by God's design and necessity and they have a a Grace for every day to meet them don't they I saw this first years ago when I put together Matthew 6:34 and Lamentations 3:22 this is what happens if you read the Bible through enough times you stumble onto things like this Matthew 634 says um don't be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself each day has enough trouble Trials of its own so God has judged that tomorrow will have its appropriate number of Trials so don't bring them into today wait there'll be enough for tomorrow you got today's trials tomorrow's trials don't let anxiety go here and bring them into here why why because every day now back Lamentations 3:22 the the mercies of God are new every every morning great is your faithfulness well if the mercies are new Every Morning those mercies are designed for those troubles if you try to take those troubles that are designed for Sunday tomorrow and bring them into Saturday to worry about them he's saying I didn't design Grace for that I designed Grace for tomorrow's troubles this is unbelievably encouraging that that the necessary TR trials that come into your life God always will give you Grace for them he will not let you be tested beyond what you are able but with the test we'll provide a way of Escape that you may be able to endure it that's part of what the shield of Faith does that's part of what being guarded through faith means. [00:768:95]

Father in Heaven cause us to rejoice in The Inheritance and the Living Hope that you've provided and Grant that we would be established so that our trials would not undo us but purify and strengthen our faith I ask this in Jesus name amen. [00:903:95]