Trusting God's Sovereignty Through Life's Trials
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"I meet the Lord and spend a good long time with Him, I want to meet men like Horatio Spafford that are able to praise Jesus in the midst of great sorrow. And when we get to heaven to see the Lord who is our everlasting joy, I believe that God is just going to be able to minister to us and give us, kind of peel back the curtain a little bit of why things happen the way they do for us to be able to see His faithfulness and good in our lives in the midst of great sorrow and persecution and tragedy." [00:39:53] (45 seconds)
"Hebrews 11 in the New Testament is that passage that we often call the hall of faith. And when you read the stories of the men and women that believed God and did not see the fullness of the promise of what they believed in in their lifetime and yet were persecuted and really faced great trials, they pressed on in maturity. And then we have stories like Job and men like Watts who are going through trials and circumstances. These men of faith, the reformers and those who were martyred for their faith, they pressed on and they're examples for us. That perseverance through suffering is worthy of our attention." [00:40:45] (58 seconds)
"But if you're leaning into what God is doing in your life and you're trusting him and your ears are open to what he is saying and your eyes are open to what he is doing, then your tribulations are not going to disappoint you. And if you're tribulations, then create in you, they refine in you perseverance. And perseverance is proven character. And proven character is hope. And when we have hope, church, it never disappoints. Why? Because God's love is poured out into our hearts." [00:42:54] (31 seconds)
"That God is able to meet us in our greatest need, that He provides His presence to help us get through it, and that no matter the outcome, God uses good and bad days to conform us into the image of His Son. He uses good and bad days to conform us into the image of His Son. And that's where Solomon is taking us in the text this morning. As we continue our study in this book, and we're in this chapter where we began last week of him introducing these proverbs, these wisdom statements, Solomon... Solomon is going to highlight one of those wisdom statements, and then he's going to build upon it." [00:44:41] (42 seconds)
"So, when everything is taken away, God is still working. When you have, it seems like, more bad days than good days, God is still working. But it doesn't always seem that way, right? I mean, let's just be honest. When we have a bad day, it's tempting to be frustrated, and it's very difficult to see, not just the silver lining, but God's purpose in the midst of it." [00:45:35] (33 seconds)
"And you know, you hear the term prosperity gospel, your mind immediately goes to guys like Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen and all of those heretics, really, that teach a gospel that God will give you health and wealth and prosperity. But Tim Challies, who is a brother in the Lord and faithful to the gospel, was writing about the false prosperity gospel that we're tempted to believe in. And it's this, that we think that God should give us good days." [00:47:14] (31 seconds)
"But that's not the testimony of Scripture. Ecclesiastes 7 doesn't promise that, nor does the testimony of the rest of the Old Testament. I mean, if you want to, because we're going to be snowed in today, and if you're not a fan of football, read the book of Job today. And figure out what the message of that book is nor is it the testimony of the gospels where jesus says that the slave is not greater than the master and if they persecuted him how much more will they persecute us nor is it the testimony of the epistles of the new testament where guys like john and paul and peter just write that again and again that god uses refining fire to purify us but that we're not escaping the trouble that is visited to the righteous on the earth but in the midst of all of that in the trials and the trouble and the persecutions while we're not promised our best life now here on this earth we are promised to be rescued we are promised that god will always be with us we are promised that god always has a plan in the midst of the good days and the bad days we are promised he will never let us go we are promised that he will use it for our good and his glory and we are promised in essence that god does not waste a single moment of our lives and when we start thinking about the ebbs and flows of the gospel we are promised that god will the highs and lows the the good days and the bad days you need to know oh child of god that god will use every moment of your life to conform you into the image of his son he doesn't waste a second and when we live this way realizing that god uses all of it we will always find mercy and grace to get through it i mean when you hear the stories like the video showed my first thought is how do you have that kind of faith and how do you keep moving forward and and that's that's a bigger example but we all have people in our life that we know that just have been steamrolled by life and you look at them and think how do they get through it and how do they get through it and how do they get through it and how do they get up every day like how do they just realize that that there's something bigger than their circumstances and i'm a pastor and i've read the word of god and i've i've even gone through trials like i i've i've seen that but i'm talking about those the crushing moments of life and i i'm tempted to think how do they do it and yet they're a testimony to us of the faithfulness of god because they have always found grace and mercy that god has always been present and so let's look at ecclesiastes 7 and be confronted and comforted by the sovereignty of god as solomon challenges us to consider the work of god in our lives i'll be reading ecclesiastes 7 verses 13 through 18 hear the word of god consider the work of god for who is able to straighten what he has bent in the day of prosperity be happy but in the day of adversity consider god has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him i've seen everything during my lifetime of futility there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise why should you ruin yourself do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool why should you die before your time it is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other for the one who fears god comes forth with both of them" [00:48:31] (0 seconds)
"Hebrews 11 in the New Testament is that passage that we often call the hall of faith. And when you read the stories of the men and women that believed God and did not see the fullness of the promise of what they believed in in their lifetime and yet were persecuted and really faced great trials, they pressed on in maturity. And then we have stories like Job and men like Watts who are going through trials and circumstances. These men of faith, the reformers and those who were martyred for their faith, they pressed on and they're examples for us. That perseverance through suffering is worthy of our attention." [00:40:45] (58 seconds)
"But if you're leaning into what God is doing in your life and you're trusting him and your ears are open to what he is saying and your eyes are open to what he is doing, then your tribulations are not going to disappoint you. And if you're tribulations, then create in you, they refine in you perseverance. And perseverance is proven character. And proven character is hope. And when we have hope, church, it never disappoints. Why? Because God's love is poured out into our hearts." [00:42:54] (31 seconds)
"That God is able to meet us in our greatest need, that He provides His presence to help us get through it, and that no matter the outcome, God uses good and bad days to conform us into the image of His Son. He uses good and bad days to conform us into the image of His Son. And that's where Solomon is taking us in the text this morning. As we continue our study in this book, and we're in this chapter where we began last week of him introducing these proverbs, these wisdom statements, Solomon... Solomon is going to highlight one of those wisdom statements, and then he's going to build upon it." [00:44:41] (42 seconds)
"So, when everything is taken away, God is still working. When you have, it seems like, more bad days than good days, God is still working. But it doesn't always seem that way, right? I mean, let's just be honest. When we have a bad day, it's tempting to be frustrated, and it's very difficult to see, not just the silver lining, but God's purpose in the midst of it." [00:45:35] (33 seconds)
"And you know, you hear the term prosperity gospel, your mind immediately goes to guys like Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen and all of those heretics, really, that teach a gospel that God will give you health and wealth and prosperity. But Tim Challies, who is a brother in the Lord and faithful to the gospel, was writing about the false prosperity gospel that we're tempted to believe in. And it's this, that we think that God should give us good days." [00:47:14] (31 seconds)
"But that's not the testimony of Scripture. Ecclesiastes 7 doesn't promise that, nor does the testimony of the rest of the Old Testament. I mean, if you want to, because we're going to be snowed in today, and if you're not a fan of football, read the book of Job today. And figure out what the message of that book is nor is it the testimony of the gospels where jesus says that the slave is not greater than the master and if they persecuted him how much more will they persecute us nor is it the testimony of the epistles of the new testament where guys like john and paul and peter just write that again and again that god uses refining fire to purify us but that we're not escaping the trouble that is visited to the righteous on the earth but in the midst of all of that in the trials and the trouble and the persecutions while we're not promised our best life now here on this earth we are promised to be rescued we are promised that god will always be with us we are promised that god always has a plan in the midst of the good days and the bad days we are promised he will never let us go we are promised that he will use it for our good and his glory and we are promised in essence that god does not waste a single moment of our lives and when we start thinking about the ebbs and flows of the gospel we are promised that god will the highs and lows the the good days and the bad days you need to know oh child of god that god will use every moment of your life to conform you into the image of his son he doesn't waste a second and when we live this way realizing that god uses all of it we will always find mercy and grace to get through it i mean when you hear the stories like the video showed my first thought is how do you have that kind of faith and how do you keep moving forward and and that's that's a bigger example but we all have people in our life that we know that just have been steamrolled by life and you look at them and think how do they get through it and how do they get through it and how do they get through it and how do they get up every day like how do they just realize that that there's something bigger than their circumstances and i'm a pastor and i've read the word of god and i've i've even gone through trials like i i've i've seen that but i'm talking about those the crushing moments of life and i i'm tempted to think how do they do it and yet they're a testimony to us of the faithfulness of god because they have always found grace and mercy that god has always been present and so let's look at ecclesiastes 7 and be confronted and comforted by the sovereignty of god as solomon challenges us to consider the work of god in our lives i'll be reading ecclesiastes 7 verses 13 through 18 hear the word of god consider the work of god for who is able to straighten what he has bent in the day of prosperity be happy but in the day of adversity consider god has made the one as well as the other so that man will not discover anything that will be after him i've seen everything during my lifetime of futility there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise why should you ruin yourself do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool why should you die before your time it is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other for the one who fears god comes forth with both of them" [00:48:31] (0 seconds)
