Refined by Fire: Embracing Trials with Faith

Do you ever feel like you are being plunged into the fire where you feel like you're going through something really hard something difficult in your life you can feel like you're in the fire where it where there's just this heat process that's happening and it's not an easy process it's it's something that takes time right you're in the fire i I thought this week I would ask this question have you ever felt like you've been hammered and then I thought I don't want to ask that question that could be taken the wrong way i don't know what some of your answers will be that's a message for another day but the reality is you probably have gone through a time where where life gets pretty hard and it's hot isn't it literally i mean not just literally but figuratively speaking there's pressure there's times where you feel like maybe you're being kind of beaten down a little bit over and over again and there's something that is a difference between this piece of metal and you is you actually can participate in the process now this piece of metal didn't get a choice right but you you have a choice and we're going to talk some about that in this series of what it looks like to participate with God in when you're in the fire and how God can actually you may not realize this especially if you're newer to the Christian faith how God can actually take some of the most difficult things that are happening in our lives and God can use those things to shape us into the people that we are becoming but the people that we are today as well in fact the Apostle Paul who we're going to really look at his life over the next uh and some of the events in his life he wrote to a group of Christians who were being persecuted in Rome uh it was a hard place to be a Christian back in the first century and what Paul said in Romans chapter 8 28 now our main text is going going to be you can start turning in your Bibles Acts 18 that's where we're going to be but the Apostle Paul said these things to those believers and I believe he's saying these to you to you as well if you feel like you are in the fire which we're going to talk about in a second and we know that our God causes everything to work together for the good for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them now I want you to notice that it doesn't say that all the things that are in your life that are happening are good things and it doesn't say that God causes those bad things either but what it says and it's speaking to the sovereignty of our God is that God when you choose to participate with him can work those things together for the good in your life something that maybe you never could conceive could be a good thing in your life that God can take some of those things like that blacksmith chooses look at the next part of this for God knew his people in advance and he did what chose just like that blacksmith chooses a piece of raw unimpressive just a piece of metal that has to be refined that has to be worked upon our God can can choose us he's chosen you and I want you to know that if you are a follower of Jesus that you are being taken through a perfecting process you're being taken through a refining process and again friends unlike this metal you have the choice whether or not you are going to participate with God now here is the inevitable and this is something that maybe you didn't want to hear today but the reality is this okay before that process can ever happen you got to recognize this truth that we all go through the fire in fact because we are in a world that is marred and broken by sin I would tell you that you are in the fire whether you want to be or not this world in which we live is broken and it's filled with hardships and pain and it's filled with difficulty we all go through the fire there's not an exception in this room today or in the last service jesus even said in this world as he was speaking to his disciples in this world you will have what did he say much trouble you're going to go through difficulties peter would later write to those same group of Christians in Rome he would write in a letter that he would say don't be surprised like I think some of them were surprised that they were facing hardship i thought when I followed Jesus everything got easy peter said "Don't be surprised." And he uses this expression at the fiery trials that you will go through don't be surprised james the brother of Jesus would write to Hebrew believers he would write to them as they were being persecuted james would say you've got to learn how to rejoice right in the midst of various trials and so there's different kinds of trials my point is you're in the fire and you're going to go through the fire the the thing that we're going to look at in this series is how do we go through the fire trials in your life are a given you're not exempt you can't clip out from that test they're a given you're going to go through hurts you're going to go through betrayals because people are broken and we all make mistakes and we all do dumb things and say dumb things you're going to experience grief you're going to have loss in your life there will be people who will break your heart that's not something that you can avoid because this world is fallen because it's broken and as we live in the world we are living in the fire so it's not so you just got to come to the place of accepting this in fact I would tell you that one of the reasons that many of us get stuck in moving forward in our growth in Christ is because we get stuck at this point of being surprised that we're in the fire there may have even been some pastors that have sold you a bill of goods saying that if you come to faith in Christ that everything's going to be easy and that you won't have problems and or if you just give more that you know what I mean like they'll try to manipulate you and know but this is what I want you to know that much of the Bible especially the New Testament are written by men who went through great trials who were preparing people to go through trials and help them through their trials so much of the Bible is about this but what we will often do is we get stuck and we get to this place of thinking why am I going through the fire now by the way I've thought that way and maybe you're thinking that way today and this isn't me beating you up this isn't me telling you to get over it or anything like that that's the last thing I want you to feel for me as a pastor in fact I want you to feel compassion but the compassion that I want to share with you today is to help you come to the place of acceptance and the sooner you get to the place of accepting that you're going to go through the fire you're living in the place where there is fire this is the thing that we've got to accept we all are going to have loss we are all going to have someone that we love that is going to pass away at some point nobody's exempt here we all are going to have somebody that we love that's going to get very sick or we are going to get very sick do you understand what I'm saying we're all going to have a difficulty at some point you're not going to avoid that and I was talking with a friend of mine this week and we were talking about this as he and his family are going through one of the hardest times in his in in their lives and what he said to me that I thought was so profound that I want to say to you is he said "You know what we realized we've come to the place of acceptance that that life's hard right now." And he said "It just hit us we're not the first ones to go through something hard and we won't be the last and neither will you we can get stuck of why this is a question that many of us will get stuck and this isn't if you I've asked this question so I just want you to know if you're if you're asking this don't think I'm looking down on you i've asked this i've been stuck here we ask the question why me right have you ever been stuck there come on it's easy why why me God and we can we can easily get stuck in that place and really what I I want to condition you for is maybe a better question and the question in the broken world in which we live maybe should be this question why not me okay and that's not to say that whatever has happened to you that you deserved it it's just that the the acceptance is that we're in a world that is broken jesus said think about this jesus perfectly never sinned jesus went through incredible difficulty did he not suffered unlike any of us have ever suffered all of the apostles who left everything to follow Jesus every one of them lost their lives and were greatly persecuted for following Jesus life did not get easier for them just because they decided to follow Jesus in fact I would tell you this sometimes when you follow Jesus in certain parts of the world it gets harder to follow Jesus because you're going to face persecution believers all over the world are facing opposition they're facing difficulty because they love Jesus in fact what I want to invite you to do this week with me is to pray with me for the believers who are in India where I was back in November and I got to speak to 800 church planters that went through a church planting uh training and were being graduated and they were being sent out all over India into the unreached villages sharing the gospel of Jesus in that time seven of them have been arrested and are are in prison right now there have been some who have been martyed and this on this very day they are graduating 600 more church planters today and we're supporting that church you're giving to that supports them but do you know what the training is for them it's not as we're sending you out all is going to be easy they know it won't be in fact I was so moved by something that they did i didn't understand whenever I was commissioning them and I was sending them out many of them put their hands over their throat i was like "What why are they doing that what does that mean?" And one of the guys that was there told me they understand that when they go out that some of them will never they will never come back to this group ever again and this is symbolic this was symbolic of the fact of them saying "We will be faithful to Jesus even unto death." That's what that meant i was so moved by that knowing that we were sending them out and some of them but my point is this they've come to a place of accepting that this world isn't our home this world can be a challenge this world is is difficult here in the West we struggle and we start thinking maybe maybe I'm the exception to this rule and and just being real though the fire is never pleasant the fire this isn't something that's popular to preach uh but remember we're not trying to grow a big church or a crowd we want to grow disciples of Jesus who stay faithful when life gets really difficult sometimes and you know this life will throw you an unexpected sucker punch won't it makes me think of the guy named Mark mark had been in his company for 19 years and their business was struggling and was suffering and they were they were trying to figure out how to to turn the business around and he's in the conference room he's in middle management and he's leading his team on strategy of how how to just make things go a little better the economy is difficult and he was struggling and and uh the business was struggling and one of his co-workers walks into the conference room and says "Mark John wants to see you right now." And Mark has been there for a while and he says 'Okay well tell John I'll be down there about 15 minutes we're just about done' he said 'N no John told me to tell you want you to come right now and he's like what okay well whatever and so he's walking down the hallway he gets to John's office his boss of 19 years and he notices that he's in there with the head of the HR department and she's sitting there with John and they both look very uncomfortable but she has a scripted document and asks him to sit down and and begins to read this document to him and at this point in the middle of this script that's being read he's like "What wait a are are you firing me?" And and at this point the room's kind of spinning have you ever been where you've gotten news that you're like "What in the world you weren't expecting." The room's kind of spinning he's only hearing like fragments of sentences he's hearing you know uh downsizing and you've been faithful and severance and this he's hearing these kinds of things and within a 15-minute period this guy's life was completely turned upside down and and and this is a story of things that happen on a regular basis isn't it and he's walking down the hallway walking by the same conference room that he was just leading that meeting a few minutes ago and he's walking out and he's thinking thoughts like this i gave two decades of my life to this place and I can't bl I've I've never been unemployed uh in my entire adult life i've just moved from that job to this one i've been here for tw for nearly 20 years i you know I've what I've I don't even know where to start i've never I don't even know if I have it in me to start over friends what that is is that is being in the fire and what I would tell you is what happens in Mark's heart in the next few days i would suggest maybe the next six weeks could be six months could be a year sometimes longer what happens in his heart in the middle of the fire and the and the sucker punch is going to be more defining to who he will become when he turns six when he's 65 it'll be more defining how he handles the fire rather than what actually happened to him the responses that we experience whenever we go through the difficulties of our life he's at a crossroad his crossroad is to to go into a place of bitterness and and and and anger now anger is normal but staying in that place of bitterness staying in that place of anger or at some point he has to make a choice either bitterness or if he's a follower of Jesus leaning into a process and participating with God in a process where where God can actually refine him and perfect him the goal of this perfecting process is to look more like Jesus the goal is is not that we are perfect until we are presented before the Lord after we die right we But we are being perfected we are we are going through a disciplehip process and listen it's not fun the process can be painful that's why you're going through pain today but you and I where this this piece of metal did not have a choice you actually have a choice and here is our choice our choice when we are in the fire we don't get to pick the fire we're going to be in the fire but the choice in the fire is either resistance or it's resilience and when I say resistance what I mean is just you begin to descend into into bitterness and darkness and and then that begins to bleed out of your life onto others around you what is resilience what does it look like there there's some who have said that resilience can be defined like this it's the It's the art of bouncing back it it it could be said to rebound from a difficult situation something that maybe a series of events that happened in your life that are deeply disappointing maybe something that has you discouraged now I want to be clear this series isn't going to be saying "I want you just to get over it," or "I want you to pretend like something never happened." That's called denial that's not what we're talking about okay in fact you have to actually accept that a situation happened you don't want to stick your head in the sand and pretend like it didn't the other thing I want to be really clear about especially if you're grieving something right now is we're not telling you not to grieve in fact what Paul would tell us to do when he wrote a letter to the to the Thessalonians who had lost loved ones he told them to grieve but he told them that we grieve differently as followers of Christ we actually grieve with hope okay now so we're not saying live in denial we're not saying don't grieve in fact I would tell you some of you need to grieve it's h a healthy thing to go through the grieving process it's part of the refining process but we have a choice when we are in that grief when we are in that there's a crossroad where we come where we have to decide it's not whether or not I'm going to go through the fire i will go through the fire but will I let God at some point begin to work on me and refine me while I'm in the fire or will I grow incredibly bitter the whole time that I'm in the fire and that happens all of the time will I be resistant to God's shaping of me or will I be resilient over the next few weeks we're going to be looking at some events in Paul's life now some of you are new to Christianity and maybe you you're not aware of of much about this guy named Paul well I want you to know that he that Paul and Saul are the same it's the same person okay so when you hear us refer to Saul this is his Hebrew name paul was his Roman name okay so Saul he was how the Hebrews would have referred to him paul because he was a Roman citizen he was a Hebrew that was a Roman citizen and there was a shift that happened in the book of Acts where at first we're we're seeing Saul is being referred to and then whenever you hear us start talking about Paul you may be wondering what happened there well I think that the name at this point Luke begins to record it not as Saul but as Paul because he starts to primarily work with non-Hebrew people at one point and you're going to see that shift where it begins to happen but who is this guy well right after the resurrection of Jesus Christ uh there was great resistance that started happening as as the church the first century church was exploding and people were coming to faith in Christ and it was growing incredibly fast there in Jerusalem and there was a man by the name of Steven who was a godly man who was sharing the gospel very directly with people and those same Jewish leaders that put Jesus to death were the same ones that now they were seeking to put to death many of the many of the Jewish uh many of the Jewish Christians at this point and one of these was a guy by the name of Steven steven while he was preaching the gospel they drag him outside they they begin to stone him to death and we are first introduced to Saul as he is holding the coats of those that are stoning Steven to death this was the first martyr and murder of a person who was following Jesus besides Jesus himself the first Christian and again you need to think about this if you think that because you follow Jesus that life is always going to be easy what do you do with that passage because this guy was following Jesus and loving Jesus and yet they stoned him to death right there and so Saul is is holding their coats what it means is he's giving approval what you should know about Saul at this point was he w he would become the greatest adversary to the church he hated Christians he hated anybody that was in this movement of Jesus and it wasn't until he was on his way to a town up north in Syria in Damascus where he has a personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus Christ himself and it's at that place where this guy who is the greatest adversary of the church his life would be transformed he would become the greatest advocate of the church don't you love how how Jesus changes people's lives and his life is is completely radically transformed by Christ and even so much that that the the Jewish Christians they were afraid of him they didn't know if this was legit they didn't know if it was real but they began to believe that this was a legitimate conversion and so Saul begins to take very seriously the commandment that Jesus gave to go and make disciples outside of Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria but he starts to go into this place the uttermost parts of the world he starts going into these major cities now where we're going to be over the next few weeks is we're going to be in a city called Corinth and it's in Greece and you can see it on this map so you can see where Paul started out by the way I'm going to refer to his name as Paul going forward now okay uh as he's going to be working with these gentile believers and he he leaves you can see he makes his way up through Asia Minor now in the book of Acts there are three major missionary journeys that Paul is going to take and we're going to primarily be looking over the next few weeks at the second journey that Paul went on okay and he went on this one uh there was a couple of traveling companions that he had one of those was named Silas and so before we read our text in Acts 18 I want you to know that at this point when Paul is first in Corenth in Greece I believe he's discouraged i think he is extremely weary and tired i think he's at a crossroad of his faith he certainly I believe because he's human is scared and he is anxious and and maybe some of you can really relate to that today maybe you're at a crossroad in your faith because you're in the fire right now and life is not easy for you right now and and you're wondering and maybe you were wondering why me right but remember the better question would be why not me okay if Jesus went through this and the others went through this I'm I'm not an exception to this i'm going to go through difficulty and again I believe the sooner we get to the place of just accepting that that here's what I'm trying to tell you this isn't heaven praise the Lord that this isn't all that there is amen we have something to look forward to this is what anchored all of these believers and we'll see in the coming weeks that Paul will even talk about how this body is it's a fragile clay jar he'll talk about how it's a temporary tent but then he would say later down the road he would say "But I'm going to have a permanent house but right now this is all temporary this is the fire while we're in the fire." So as he's making his way before he ever gets to Corenth he stops off in this town in Acts chapter 16 that's called Philippi and uh and what he would do his normal MMO would be to start in if there was a Jewish synagogue he would go into the Jewish synagogue and he would begin to try to share the gospel with Jewish people first because he was Jewish and usually that didn't go too well sometimes people would come to faith in Christ in some of these you will see that if you read through the book of Acts sometimes they would there would be a number who came to faith in Christ but what happens on this day in that one of these days that he's in Philippi he's sharing the gospel and there's a the scripture records that there is a young girl uh who is following him around probably she's somewhere between between 10 and 12 years old she's not a woman she might be a little older we don't know for sure her age but it just says that she's a slave girl okay it doesn't say that she's a woman she's a slave girl and she's following him around and she's saying this over and over the scripture tells us she's uh possessed by a demon and she is saying about Paul and Silas these men are servants of the most high God they are trying to tell you how to be saved now we would hear that and we'd think that's good right it'd be like me walking around in the commons and someone is just following me around this is a servant of the most high God this is a servant of the most high God oh I'm trying to have conversations with people you know finally and I don't think Paul wanted this kind of publicity finally Paul turns around and he says "In the name of Jesus I command this demon to come out of this girl." And so she gets her childhood back now the problem was she was owned by some evil men who were basically selling her services which this demon apparently was helping her be able to to uh be like a psychic or something like this and they are extremely upset because now their revenue stream has been taken away right when you hit someone in the pocketbook they get a little upset and so they drag Paul and Silas in front of the magistrates on that day and uh who are the judges there drag him in front they don't even get a fair trial by the way Paul is a Roman citizen and what is about to happen to him is illegal they take wooden rods and began to beat him and the Bible doesn't say it was just a little beating the words are very specific he is here's the words severely beaten over and over again injustice was happening he's being beaten silas is being beaten they take them they throw them in the dungeon uh a and uh again it's an incredible story i've preached on it before later that night after they've been beaten when they're in the dark of the dungeon they are praising and worshiping God it's important that when you feel like you are in the dungeon you are in the dark place that you go ahead and you come to worship and you worship God you do warfare through worship church and so they're worshiping God god brings an earthquake they are released miraculously the jailer comes to faith in Christ what I'm trying to tell you is things are happening that are good things but there's also hardship that's going on at the same time his back's been laid open he's bleeding profusely at this point and those people who are there realize they've made a mistake and they want Paul and Silas out of that town so they begin to make their way over to Thessalonica and he goes as is typically would do to the Jewish synagogue the Jews there don't take too kindly to this they get upset and there's there's like a mob that is forming against Paul this is what I'm wanting you to hear it's like one problem right after another you ever feel like that it's like constant opposition but Lord we're we're we're in this to to share the gospel with people it's it seems like it would be smooth sailing all he seemed to face was adversaries every town that he went to they get to Berea because they basically get run out of Thessalonica they get to Berea and those believers there or those those Hebrew people in the synagogue there are a little more open because they want to look at the scriptures themselves but just when you think it's going well those Jewish people in those other towns follow them there they're likeounding him they don't just want him punished they want him dead like I mean they literally if somebody you know is coming after you and they just want you dead and you don't have your firearm i know you have firearms okay but you don't have that with you and these guys are are throwing you in prison they're beating you up and we're going to learn over the next several weeks guys this went on throughout his entire ministry you're going to hear that he didn't just get beaten up one time you're going to hear that he was they tried to stone him to death one time you're going to hear that he didn't just get shipwrecked one time he was on a ship wreck three times okay all I hear is Jaws music whenever I'm thinking about that stuck in the three times you're going to hear about all the things that this guy went through so finally he gets down to Athens and it's more of the same he gets into Corenth and this is where again I'm giving you context for the next several weeks i want to really encourage you to be here for this series because it's about a refining it's a refining he gets into Corinth he's at this point been separated from Silas and his other partner in ministry Timothy and he is in Corenth at first he's by himself and I think I mean how long does it take for you to get over the beating that he just took maybe physically maybe he still has scabs on his back maybe but but maybe the bigger question is how long does it take you to get over the emotional turmoil of that how long does it take you to move through whenever you just feel like you're doing the right thing and yet it just seems to be one obstacle right after another he's in Corenth he has been and and and by the way every place people are coming to faith in Christ it's not like this is in vain but I think at at a certain point I think Paul is at a crossroad and at a crisis of faith because now he's in a he's in a place in Corenth and he's he's starting over again he goes into the synagogue he shares the gospel he does end up the Lord provides a couple named Priscilla and Aquilla who come alongside him god just in his tenderness provides him somebody like that he does reconnect with Silas and Timothy a little later but at one point I think he felt alone especially what we're going to read in a second it's I I think it's like it's more of the same is it like is he is he feeling this way because of what's happening in Corenth i think it's because of everything that happened right before i think it's what happened in town to town to town one resistant more uh resistance everywhere he went more insults more abuse more opposition it's like nothing is ever easy if you've ever felt like that he goes in and he's preaching to the Jews again you got to admire his tenacity and he goes into the Jews in the synagogue and there's more of the same verse six of chapter 18 in Acts but when they opposed and insulted him more of the same when they opposed when they insulted him a way that translates is abused him paul shook the dust from his clothes now what what he's saying is I'm shaking this off i'm shaking this dust off your blood is on your own heads i'm innocent from now on I will go preach to the Gentiles guys you ought to say amen right there because let me tell you why unless you're Jewish we wouldn't be here if this guy had not decided he could have easily said "I'm done." That's right where would we be he could have said "Forget this i'm sick of this i gave my life to you and this is what I get." Oh it would have been easy right there right but he doesn't he says "No I'm not done i have a purpose." A and and and they were framing him these Jews okay so he leaves the Jews there you would think they would be done with him okay he's not coming into the synagogue anymore no they kept pursuing him they wouldn't let it go they kept trying to trump up charges against him like treason against Caesar you understand that if you were a Christ follower in the first century and you said Jesus was Lord that was treason against Caesar because Caesar was the only Lord according to the Romans you could die for that and so he's preaching that Jesus is Lord and they're trying to get him dead well once people want you dead one of the things you're most likely to do is to move on to another town right i think it's time for me to move along or to start asking why me Lord why something happens at this crossroad something happens within him he could have decided to become bitter or he could begin to lean in and and and God this is what I'm going to show you god meets him in the dark place and some of you today maybe you're in the dark night of your soul and this is what I so much want you to see today god you have a God Jesus who will meet you in the dark place he doesn't avoid the dark place he will step in and this is exactly what he does with with Paul it wasn't too long ago he had been beaten in Philippi he's been rejected everywhere and it's I don't think it's like one thing i think for many of us it's like a conglomeration of things that begins to add up right it's not just the problem that you're having at work it's the problem that you're having at work while you're also having relationship problems in your marriage or you're struggling with a child that's hard to you know that's hard and a difficult child to raise you you or maybe you just found out you have a health problem and your pro it's like a sum of things that adds up and you know what it is this is just what kind of hit me this week it's just life in the fire's in the fire he's probably feeling at a low point some of you may be feeling at a low point but God is going to speak something to him and he wants to speak something to you that will give him fresh fire today that will give him fresh wind that will actually carry him through where he's feeling tired like you might feel tired he's feeling discouraged he's feeling anxious he's in the dark place i would even tell you when he's in Corinth and I was studying on Corinth this week do you realize that Corinth was 20 times the size and population that Athens was athens had kind of run its course now Corinth was the mega city in Greece this was the most strategic city for people to come to faith in Christ and do you know what they were known for sexual immorality that's what they were famous for it was a I think he also was probably thinking this is probably a hopeless town what can a guy like me do in a place like this it's just going to be more of the same God you ever feel like that i can't make a difference here and so Jesus shows up look at verse 9 Acts 18 one night the Lord spoke to Paul i'm so glad he did in a vision and told him in fact will you read it with me out loud can we just say it out loud together say it with me don't be afraid speak out don't be silent for I am with you and no one will attack and harm you for many people in this city belong to me night was it was in the middle of the night that's been some of my worst times is in the middle of the night when I can't sleep and I'm worried about something how about you and I'm just ringing my hands i I'm out it's out of control what am I going to do but Jesus shows up and he speaks very directly to him and he in this dark night of his soul and he says Paul don't be afraid well why shouldn't I be afraid because I'm with you that's the reason i know it feels like the fire right now but this fire is not purposeless there's something that I'm doing in your life i'm with you Paul and then I love this he says "Don't give up on the mission." This is what I'm telling you there's too many people here that need you to be faithful Paul there's too many people that that that need you to speak the truth even if you face resistance you keep moving forward i'm with you i'm protecting you here and then I love this and by the way I'm already working all around you you may not see that but I am i I and and look I'm going to give you a reprieve right now nobody's going to harm you physically in this place for a little while now by the way as you learn Paul's story he would get beaten up again but not in Corenth i think while he's in the fire in this place the Lord in his kindness says "I'm gonna cool it down a little bit." And he's in the water i think that's just my assessment okay and he's there for a period of time where he's not going to be physically harmed he would be phys he didn't say you're never going to suffer again he just said right now this is what he's saying i got you okay i know you're scared right now take courage and this is what he's saying finish well finish what I've called you to do he's being forged in the fire and there's some application I want to pull out this is application just as much for Paul the same Jesus that spoke to Paul wants to speak to you today too if you're in the fire if you're feeling the pressure if you're feeling the heat there are some things that he says to you very directly when you're in the fire the first thing he says is you got to refuse to live in fear okay and you may be like "Well how do I I got to refuse to be anxious about this how do I do that it's like I don't feel like I can control my anxiety." I've shared very transparently that I've battled with anxiety for a lot of my life anxiety and fear can you from becoming what God has called you to be if you stay stuck in anxiety and in fear and worry it can you from growing it can you from being the kind of parent that God has called you to be living in fear all of the time where you're just constantly worried by the way those of us who like to to control those of us who like to feel like we're in control we're the ones that struggle with this the most because things start feeling like they're out of control and here's what he's saying Paul don't be paralyzed in fear now what is the solution he says don't forget I'm with you that's what he's telling him you're not do you're not making things happen you're not the one who's in total control here i'm in control fear can can delay cause you to miss or delay the calling that God has on your life i'm a perfect example of that some of you already know this if you've been in our church there was a time where God was calling me when I was across the street as a high school student at Boswell where God was starting to call me to become a pastor and I did not want to do that it's not because I didn't admire pastors or anything like that i just was so afraid you know what I was afraid of doing what I'm doing today standing in front of you do you realize every Sunday morning I drive in I feel sick at my stomach because I'm so nervous about standing up and speaking in front of people before I walk out on stage the last thing I say to the Lord is "Lord I can't do this i need you to do this." By the way the very moment I ever get to the place of thinking that I can do this without him is the day I fall flat on my face and I need to quit doing this but what I'm trying to say is I was so terrified of that i ran from God for a while i I'm glad that I finally decided to lean in and trust the Lord in that and I have to daily trust him that he's equipped me to do this some of you you're running from the Lord because you're afraid of something it will you uh in this area of moving forward and growing it could what God is wanting to do in your life paul was at this crossroad of faith he I believe was really anxious and and and Jesus is saying Paul I'm with you i know you feel like you're alone but I'm with you i'm not guaranteeing you won't be hurt down the road but I am promising you right now you won't be physically harmed here in other words I'm in control do you know do not be afraid is the most prominent uh commandment that we have in the Bible some form of do not be afraid whether it's don't worry or don't do not be afraid now I've not personally counted these but I've heard that there are 365 commandments that say do not be afraid which would be perfect because it's one for every day do not be afraid today don't be afraid i'm with you there's so many places where where we where we see um where the Lord steps in this affected Paul so dramatically that he would later write to the people that were in Philippi remember the place where he'd gotten beaten now he's in prison for the gospel and he is writing to those Christians in Philippi and look at what he says don't worry about anything instead and this is what we do pray about everything tell God what you need i want you to notice the series of choices in here tell God what you need look at this this is a choice and thank him for what he's done you got to revisit some of the ways that God has been faithful to you in the past you got to start fixing your mind on those things and then this is what Paul's telling them this is the guy who was afraid at this point you will experience God's peace not a worldly kind of peace that's God's shalom everything within you is as it should be which exceeds anything that we can understand this is how a guy who is in prison right now could write about you know what his major theme to the Philippians was be joyful be joyful his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus so you got to you got to press in if you're fearful today here's what you got to do you got to open your hands up pray to the Lord about it when you start feeling that fear that's when you go to this place of prayer visit this scripture god comforted Paul now Paul was comforting them we'll learn about that in the coming weeks here's the other part of this he said "You can fear you don't have to fear because you can rest in the companionship of Christ." So this is your other part your application i I need to choose to rest in God's promises and the promise is I will be with you i'm with you and no one here is going to harm you you're not in control of the fire Paul i'm in control of the fire and I'm telling you right now I've got you and so you need to trust me right now and you need to start moving forward he's saying to some of you today I'm with you after you've lost your job i'm with you i'm with you in the diagnosis that you got that doesn't seem good right now i I'm I'm with you when the person that you love decided to walk out on you i'm still with you i'm still in I'm with you he doesn't say you won't go through the fire but he says I'll go through the fire with you and there's so many scriptures that I could point you to i think of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego when they wouldn't bow their knee to Nebuchadnezzar and they were literally thrown in the fiery furnace and when they looked in there weren't three men there were four one who looks like the son of God is what the man who looked in said jesus was with them in the fire and he's with you in the fire isaiah tells us this do not be afraid for I have ransomed you i've called you by name you are mine when you go not if when you go through the deep waters I will be with you when you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drown when you walk through the fire of of oppression you will not be burned up the flames will not consume you he's with you that's why you don't have to be afraid now if you're like me when we go through difficulty we like to maybe escape and we like to get distracted and we can lose our focus from our mission and here's the next thing that he's going to tell him sometimes you got to refocus your your mission you got to get back on the main thing what is the thing that God has called you to do what has God equipped you for and this is what he says paul don't quit speaking out do you know Paul didn't want to be a speaker either in fact he said he didn't feel like he was a very good speaker he was a great writer but he didn't he said "Others are better at speaking than me i don't want to do that." But he did speak out Paul don't be silent i've called you to preach i've called you to stay on mission but many of us when we go through difficulty this is what we're tempted to do to check out zone out and numb out and we can do it in a number of different ways i've done it you probably do it as well man when I'm going through the fire Lord I don't want to keep going i I I'm done i I'm so tired i just give me a remote and let me just lose myself in Netflix for a couple of days and some of you know what I'm talking about because you you don't want to face the reality of your life if you'd rather live in the reality somewhere else or maybe it's not that for you maybe it's not Netflix maybe it's just your social media feed and that's where you stay and you spend all of your time because you don't want to face the fire or for some of you it's not that it's some kind of self-medication you're like "Man I just need a drink that turns into many drinks that numbs you out from that pain you're going through." Or maybe it's not that it's some kind of drug that makes you feel better right now or it could be maybe it's not that it's something that's not illegal it's just food and we can self-medicate with food it makes us feel good for my And it's like anything to keep me from thinking about that i just want to focus on this and this is what he says you got to refocus stay on mission don't quit what you're doing don't numb out don't waste your pain just numbing out what might that be for you there's a last part that he says is so powerful you got to realize something god is already working all around you because what does he say there are many people in this city paul do you realize that belong to me do you realize that wherever you are at maybe it's a difficult place at work maybe it's difficulty in your family maybe it's something going on in the community do you realize that everywhere you are that God is always at work whether you can see it or not and what he's saying is Paul I was already working before you got here i'll be working after I'm done with you here but what I'd really love to do is to utilize you while you're here because I'm going to tell you something i really believe the greatest way that God uses us as Christ followers is not when everything is going really well in our lives do you know that your biggest impact is going to happen with people around you when you go through the difficult places and you stay faithful i'm not saying perfectly i'm just saying you stay faithful and people are watching how you go through and he says "Paul I'm already working here." Paul I don't want you to give up this work in Corinth paul do you realize that there was a temple there on the mountain in Corinth where over a thousand temple prostitutes were in that temple and and you can imagine the kind of worship service they had okay um and here's what he's saying there's too many people in this sin city that need Jesus paul I need you to stay faithful i want you to stay faithful and that's how it is in your difficult job god God is working in the difficult places around you you maybe don't see it he's working while you're you're you're parenting the challenging child he's working when you're dealing with the difficult people in your school he is at work but if you stay stuck in the bitterness a lot of those people are going to miss what God wants to convey to them through your life as you stay faithful we're going to talk about this in a couple weeks but God can transform your greatest trial into your greatest testimony and there are a number of you that your greatest testimony is because of something that you've gone through in your life that the Lord has it wasn't easy but that the Lord equipped you for rather than checking out Paul's comforted by the words of Jesus he begins to comfort them and do you realize that Paul spent 18 months in Corenth was the second longest place there was only one other place that he was there a little bit longer and that was Ephesus he God used him mightily there he wrote two letters to them this was a church that was planted in sin city and I want you to know that God wants to use you where you are today too i want to ask you to pray with me says "Paul stayed there for the next year and a half and you know what he did he taught the word of God he didn't quit he didn't throw in the towel he stayed faithful you and I are here today because of his faithfulness and I don't know what you're going through today and I don't minimize it i know it's something that's hard and if you're not today you will at some point or you came out of something that's hard but what I do know is that God has promised to be with you jesus has promised to meet you in that dark moment he's promised to meet you in the fire he doesn't want to waste the pain that you're feeling he can actually if you will participate and begin to lean into the process he can even begin to turn you into something that he loves an instrument to be used within his hand that impacts others something that he's doing in your life today so this is what I want to ask you to do okay we're going to end our service in a little bit of a different way i want to ask you all to stand with me okay okay and I want to ask our our those who maybe are elders or those who are on our prayer team you just go ahead and make your way down here and what I what I just felt led in this series is I know that whenever I bring up stuff like this that there are some of you that and I'm just saying this you are going through maybe the most difficult time in your life and I don't say that lightly i say it with compassion as a pastor that what I want and what I want to communicate to you is that you are not meant to go through that alone so this area down here we're turning into a place of prayer you know this is supposed to be a place of prayer amen a place where you have an opportunity to communicate with God the response for you today is maybe if you're going through something you might just want to sit back down and spend a little time with the Lord we're going to dismiss in just a moment some of you maybe you just really need somebody to pray with you today you you don't even have to tell them everything that's going on maybe just I'm just having a hard time they're going to be down here they've been trained to pray with you the question they're going to ask is this how can I help you today some of you maybe you don't want to talk to anybody but you want to turn this into an altar you just want to come and get down on your knees today as the m music's just going to be playing quietly for a few moments and you just need to talk to the Lord maybe you've been worried about something and instead of worrying today you're going to take the advice of Paul you're going to choose not to worry you're going to pray to God or maybe today you just need to tell him thank you and you're going to worship despite the circumstances i'm not telling you the circumstances are going to change maybe they will but in some cases they won't sometimes it may even get harder but he promised that he'll be with you so I want to pray for us okay and when I'm finished praying if you want to come down here you can you can come down to the front there'll be people who will pray with you the rest of you you can begin to make your way out at the end of my prayer into the commons i want to remind you we're having a newcomers class today immediately following this service out in the commons on the west side straight out those doors and we would love if you're checking EVC out to join us for that so Lord we just love you we thank you that Lord you meet us in the hard places just like you met Paul you empowered him Lord in a moment where I think he was really struggling and you comforted him Lord so that he could be a comfort to others and so Lord I pray your blessings over these people who are here today lord some of them are going through a really hard time some of them need your peace some of them Lord their joy has been removed because they're they're just struggling so much as they're in the fire and it's hot right now lord I pray Lord that you would begin to open our eyes as we participate to how you are refining us and how you have not abandoned us in fact you promise that you would be with us there are some of you that maybe you've never put your faith in Jesus and you can ask one of these down here what does it mean to follow Jesus and one of them will begin to share that truth with you so Lord I pray your blessings i pray your peace i pray that all who leave here today Lord that they could go in your grace and your peace and I pray this in the name of Jesus our savior and all God's people said "Amen." Go in God's grace for those of you that'd like to pray you can come down here to the front we'll see you next time [00:28:27]