Faith Tested: Navigating Trials with Biblical Truth

Now what this tells me is that the true test of your faith is not how high you jump praising the Lord in good times. But rather the test of your faith is how straight you walk in tough times. This is where the true colors of your faith are revealed. And when you have to choose between doing what the Bible says to do, or doing what you feel like doing or what our culture tells you to do, that's the greatest test of faith. [00:03:06]

And the reason why you may not have a biblical worldview is because you spent far more time watching the news than you have in reading the good news of the Bible. Or as I said in the last message, you spend more time on Facebook than getting your face in this book, the book, God's book. So you can be a Christian for years and still not be acting with understanding, acting with biblical basis. [00:05:26]

Now let me just list for you the five big tests of faith that I see going on in the contemporary environment around us, okay? Your faith is being tested five ways these days, the first test of course is the COVID-19 pandemic. And I call that a viral infirmity test. Viral infirmity test, an infirmity is an illness, or a sickness and a viral infirmity is an illness you get from a invisible virus. [00:09:16]

Now, what should we be doing during our plague? Well, two things, we keep on continuing these two things. Number one, continue to worship, okay? Pray, ask God to end the pandemic you do what David did when he caused the pandemic, you keep praying until the pandemic ends. 2 Samuel 24:25 it says this, "David built an altar to the Lord and he gave offerings of worship to God. And the Lord answered his prayer and the plague was stopped." [00:35:18]

Aaron, the priest, we're all priests, that's what the Bible says in Peter, that you don't have to go to a priest to confess you can confess directly to God. Every believer is a priest. The priesthood of every believer. "Aaron the Priest stood between the living and the dead until the plague was stopped." I think that's a job description for every Christian right now. We're to be in the middle, between the living and the dead in this plague, in this pandemic, building a bridge of love, building a, reaching out to those who are dying and reaching out to those who are living. [00:37:38]

I said this the very first week of this pandemic, people say we're all in the same boat. We're not, we're not in the same boat. We're all in the same storm, but some of us are in the yachts and some of us are in row boats. And some of us are in speed boats. And some of us are just barely hanging on to a piece of driftwood. How do you shelter at home when you're homeless? And so find somebody who's gotten more stressed than you and help them out. That will raise the joy in your own life. [00:39:57]

Let me close with this. You know yesterday, a man paid my wife a compliment, that I wish could be said of every Christian. I wish it could be said of you, Kay was told this compliment by a man. He said, you know Kay, you don't wear your faith as armor for protection, you wear your faith as a fragrance. That's a good line, I want that to be said about you. I want that to be said about me, that wherever you go, you're not wearing your faith as a defensive armor to argue and fight with people and put them down, but you wear your faith as a fragrance that makes people want to know Jesus, that you are attractive. [00:55:07]

How are you wearing your faith? How are you wearing your faith? Are you wearing it as armor? To be protected from all the evil, wicked mean bad and nasty people out there and all the people who disagree with you and all the people you think are really bad? Or you wearing your faith as a fragrance? Are people attracted to Christ by your faith? Or are they repelled by your faith? I want you to think about that this week. [00:56:03]

Now, if you just prayed that prayer, you need to tell somebody about it. So why don't you tell me since I'm the one who just led you in it? This is the beginning of a brand new life. As I told you, over 5,000 people have prayed that prayer with me online in the last 25 weeks. So what I want you to do is get at your phone right now, and I want you to text newstart, one word, newstart, N-E-W-S-T-A-R-T to 99,000. [01:00:26]

And if you would like to join a group, you can write group, I think it's group, it's a smallgroup, one word smallgroup, text that to 99,000, we'll help you get in an online group. Or you can email smallgroups@saddleback.com. And then of course you can give an offering of Thanksgiving like we do every week by going to saddleback.comonline/gift and your generosity is making a difference. [01:00:29]

I love you, I thank God for you, and in the weeks ahead, we're gonna look at these other four issues that are causing so much anxiety in people's lives that they're worried about seeing all the changes in our society. We'll talk about 'em. God bless you and we'll see you next week. [01:01:57]