Tests of Faith: Growing Character Through Challenges

Now Kay said this last week, it's one of the fundamental laws of spiritual growth and one of the values in our church is that God's number one goal in your life is to make you like Jesus. God's goal on earth is not to make you happy; God's goal on your life is to grow you up the spiritual maturity. Happiness comes from holiness. And in heaven you're gonna be happy for trillions and trillions of years. This is the growing stage. This is the development stage. Not everything works perfectly and not everything goes the way you want it to go because God is much more interested in your character than He is your comfort. [00:74:707]

Now the good news behind that is that there is a purpose behind every problem in your life. Problems are not simply arbitrary. Problems are not simply by chance. The problems that come into your life are there to test your character, to grow your character, to grow your faith to help you become all that God wants you to be: the man God wants you to be, the woman God wants you to be. So every problem has a purpose and it's designed to help you grow. [00:171:271]

Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. Now if we just stop there, that wouldn't make any sense. But then it gives you the reason for the joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, let it grow, for when it is fully developed you will be, read it with me, strong in character and ready for anything. I want you to be strong in character. I want you to be ready for anything that happens in life that you're able to handle. [00:229:696]

The way you become strong in character is to have your faith tested. And Kay talked about this and George and Tondra talked about this, and Jason talked about this, and I talked about it in the first message of series that God uses the conflicts and the problems and the pressures, and the trials, and the difficulties, and the disasters and the dangers, and the dead-ends, and the disappointments. He uses all of it to test your faith and to grow you strong in character. [00:296:229]

Now what I'm gonna do today is just take you through six of the many test you're gonna go through. Fortunately, God wants you to pass the test. Okay, He wants you, so He gives you the answers in advance. Didn't you always like those open book tests? The answers are right there. You gotta go look it up. Well, the answers are all right here. This is the answer book for all the test of your life. And God gives us many examples in the Bible to prepare us for the many different kinds of test. [00:334:300]

Faith is facing the future without knowing what. Noah built an ark by faith. In Hebrews 11:1 it says, faith is being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what we do not see. Faith is facing the future without knowing what's gonna happen. And you've got this big task, this new task, it's impossible, you've never done it before. You're gonna have that test many, many times in life. God will ask you to do something you've never done before. [00:1014:680]

Faith is following God's leading without knowing where. Sometime God might say, I want you to quit your job. What's the new job? I'll let you know. I want you to sell your house. Where are we gonna move? I'll let you know. That is the second test of life, the where, that builds your character: the what and the where, the new task and the major change. Faith is following God's leading without knowing where. [00:1276:008]

Faith is waiting for God's timing without knowing when. Now here's the fourth test. These are many, many test but I'm just covering a few this weekend. Number four is an unsolvable problem. Now you've all had this one. And this is what I call the how test. You get a problem and you go, how in the world we gonna solve this one? This is a test. [00:1583:582]

Faith is expecting a miracle without knowing how. That's what faith is. I'm teaching you today what it means to have faith. Faith is facing the future without knowing what, following God's leading without knowin' where, waiting for God's timing without knowin' when, expecting a miracle without knowing how. That is the test of your character, that is the test of your faith. [00:1854:452]

Faith is trusting God's purpose without knowing why. If you can explain everything in your life, you are not living by faith. There are some things in your life that just aren't explainable and you have to live by faith. Now I could do a series on the test of God and go for a year, but let me just give you one more. This is test number six and it's a tough one too. The sixth test is prolonged pain. [00:2559:890]

Faith is continuing to persist without knowing how long. This is the how long test of life. Now how do you develop persistence? How do you develop endurance? How do you keep on doin' the right thing year after year after year when you don't always feel like doin' the right thing? You don't always feel like staying married. How do you keep on doin' the right thing when you don't feel like it? [00:2898:195]

With our heads bowed, with human tests, the key is knowing all the answers. But with God's test, the key is not knowing all the answers. With God's test, the key is trusting God to know the answer. Pray this prayer in your heart. Follow me as I say this prayer. Dear God, say it in your mind. Dear God, I wanna be a man or a woman of faith, I wanna be a man or a woman of character that you can use in a mighty way. [00:3319:616]