Embracing Surrender: Strengthening Faith Through Trials

In our journey towards Easter, we delve into the profound theme of surrender, recognizing that our faith is not a static entity but a dynamic muscle that requires nurturing and growth. As we reflect on the sacred rhythms of our spiritual life, we are reminded that God is not asking us to navigate this path alone. We are part of a community that supports and strengthens one another in our walk with Christ. The Apostle Paul's assurance to the Philippians resonates with us today, affirming that the good work God began in us will be brought to completion.

In prayer, we seek to grow our faith, even in the midst of trials and challenges. We are called to recognize these moments as opportunities for faith muscle development, areas that God persistently brings to our attention. Our faith is meant to be active, transforming our beliefs into actions. James reminds us that faith without deeds is useless, urging us to be participants in God's kingdom, expressing the compassion and conviction of Jesus through our lives.

Our spiritual practices should not merely be additions to our routine but should replace aspects of our daily life that do not align with pursuing God. Worship, for instance, can be a powerful tool in connecting with God, transforming mundane moments into sacred encounters. We are encouraged to swap out the secular for the sacred, to let go of the things that fuel us negatively, and to embrace practices that draw us closer to God.

The trials we face are not signs of God's absence but evidence of His love and development. We are reminded of the importance of steadfastness in faith, as taught by James, who encourages us to count it all joy when facing various trials. These trials produce perseverance, leading us to maturity and completeness in Christ.

As we approach communion, we are called to remember the sacrifice of Jesus, His death, burial, and resurrection, which continue to hold power in our lives today. We celebrate the reality that we are not alone because of what He accomplished for us at Calvary.

Key Takeaways:

- Faith is not a passive belief but an active muscle that must be exercised through trials and challenges. Just as physical muscles require consistent training to grow, our faith muscle develops through the tests God allows in our lives, shaping us to handle greater spiritual responsibilities. [46:02 ]

- Our spiritual practices should be transformative, not merely additive. By integrating worship and other faith-filled activities into our daily routines, we replace the secular with the sacred, allowing God to reshape our lives from the inside out. This shift in focus can lead to a deeper connection with God and a more robust faith. [31:17 ]

- The concept of steadfastness is crucial in our spiritual journey. It is through steadfast faith that we can endure trials with joy, knowing that God is using these experiences to perfect and complete us. This perspective transforms our understanding of suffering and aligns our hearts with God's purposes. [38:46 ]

- The evidence of our faith is not found in the absence of struggle but in the presence of God's work within those struggles. When we face trials, it is an opportunity to witness God's faithfulness and to grow in trust and reliance on Him. Our faith is proven genuine as we see God's hand at work in our lives. [42:22 ]

- Communion serves as a powerful reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus and the ongoing impact of His resurrection power in our lives. As we partake in this sacred act, we affirm our unity with Christ and with one another, celebrating the victory He has won on our behalf and the assurance that we are never alone. [53:27 ]

**Bible Reading:**

1. Philippians 1:6 (ESV)
"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

2. James 1:2-4 (ESV)
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

3. James 2:17 (ESV)
"So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

4. Romans 5:3-4 (ESV)
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."

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**Observation Questions:**

1. In Philippians 1:6, what does the Apostle Paul mean when he says that the good work God began will be brought to completion? How does this relate to the concept of faith being a dynamic muscle?

2. According to James 1:2-4, what is the purpose of facing trials, and how do they affect our faith?

3. Reflecting on James 2:17, what is the relationship between faith and deeds according to this passage?

4. Considering Romans 5:3-4, what sequence of growth does Paul describe as resulting from suffering, and how does this compare to the development of physical muscles?

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**Interpretation Questions:**

1. How does the assurance of God's ongoing work in us, as mentioned in Philippians 1:6, influence our response to personal spiritual growth and challenges?

2. What does it mean to "count it all joy" in the midst of various trials, and how might this perspective transform our understanding of difficult circumstances?

3. How can the belief that faith without deeds is dead, as stated in James 2:17, challenge us to evaluate the authenticity of our faith?

4. In what ways does the process of rejoicing in sufferings, leading to endurance and character, mirror the strengthening of our faith muscle?

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**Application Questions:**

1. Identify a recent trial or challenge you've faced. How can you view this as an opportunity for faith muscle development, and what specific action can you take to exercise this muscle?

2. Reflect on your daily routine. What is one secular activity you can replace with a spiritual practice this week to nurture your faith?

3. Think of a specific area in your life where your faith has not yet turned into action. What is one step you can take this week to express your faith through deeds?

4. Consider the last time you experienced a trial that tested your faith. How did you see God's faithfulness during that time, and how can you share this experience with someone who is currently struggling?

5. As you approach communion or a time of reflection this week, how will you remember and celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus in a way that reaffirms your connection to the Christian community and strengthens your faith?

Day 1: Exercising Faith Through Trials
Faith is often compared to a muscle that must be exercised to grow stronger. In the spiritual realm, this growth comes through facing trials and challenges. These are not random misfortunes but divinely appointed opportunities to develop a deeper trust in God. As believers encounter various difficulties, they are invited to lean into their faith, to trust God's sovereignty, and to find strength in His promises. This process is not about achieving perfection but about becoming more resilient and equipped for the journey ahead. It's in the midst of these trials that faith moves from being a concept to a tangible, lived experience, one that shapes character and deepens one's relationship with God. [46:02]

James 1:2-4 (ESV)
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Reflection: What trial are you currently facing, and how can you approach it as an opportunity to strengthen your faith muscle?

Day 2: Transformative Spiritual Practices
Spiritual practices should not just be another item on our to-do list but should fundamentally transform how we live. By integrating practices like worship, prayer, and service into our daily routines, we invite God to reshape our priorities and actions. This transformative approach allows believers to experience God's presence in the ordinary, turning everyday moments into sacred encounters. As secular habits are replaced with spiritual disciplines, believers find that their lives begin to reflect the values and character of Christ more clearly. This shift is not just about personal growth; it's about becoming a beacon of God's love and truth in the world. [31:17]

Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Reflection: Identify one secular habit you can replace with a spiritual practice this week to deepen your connection with God.

Day 3: Steadfastness in Faith
Steadfastness is a key quality in the life of a believer. It is the firm, unwavering commitment to trust God even when circumstances are challenging. This steadfast faith is not passive; it actively seeks to understand God's purpose in trials and to rejoice in the growth that comes from enduring them. As believers practice steadfastness, they mature in their faith, becoming more complete in Christ. This maturity is not just for their benefit but also serves as a testimony to others of God's faithfulness and power. [38:46]

Hebrews 10:35-36 (ESV)
"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised."

Reflection: How can you practice steadfastness today in a situation where you might typically waver or lose hope?

Day 4: God's Work in Our Struggles
The presence of struggles in our lives does not indicate God's absence but rather the presence of His refining work. As believers face trials, they are given the opportunity to see God's hand at work, shaping and strengthening their faith. This perspective allows them to view challenges not as obstacles but as divine appointments for growth and testimony. It is through these experiences that faith is proven genuine and believers learn to trust in God's sovereignty and goodness, even when the path is difficult. [42:22]

1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV)
"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Reflection: Reflect on a recent struggle and consider how you have seen or can look for God's work within it.

Day 5: The Power of Communion
Communion is a sacred act that not only reminds us of Jesus' sacrifice but also unites us with Him and with each other. As believers partake in communion, they celebrate the victory of the resurrection and the ongoing impact of Jesus' power in their lives. This act of remembrance is a powerful declaration of faith, affirming that believers are never alone and are part of a larger community of faith. Through communion, the church is strengthened, encouraged, and renewed in its mission to live out the gospel. [53:27]

1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (ESV)
"The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread."

Reflection: As you prepare for communion, what does it mean for you to be in unity with Christ and His body, the church?

to receive. We thank you for this in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, good morning, Menlo Church. So glad that you are here with us from all of our campuses in Saratoga, Mountain View, Menlo Park, San Mateo. And really what it feels like is that we are all at our newly launched Seattle campus. So thanks for being here. This is like a storm shelter at this point. This is pretty wild, but we are so glad that you've chosen to join us for really a conversation that we started at the beginning of the year that we're calling Wired for Wonder, where our hope is that as we together experience and understand a little bit more about how big and incredible and loving God is, even if it's been a long time for you, it can expose us to a new way of living, even as we continue on in our year together.

With all this focus that we've placed on this transcendent God, that he has cosmic power and scale beyond anything that we can imagine, it's no wonder that there is a version of our faith that helps us think about and understand that sometimes there's a level of faith that we place in God that is beyond our answers, that's beyond having it all figured out. And hopefully that's been a part of this series for you. Having faith in most people means that we trust a person that we can see. Having faith in God often means that we trust someone we can't always see in our life, and yet we trust him anyway. Faith in God for you and me is really important.

And sometimes I think that we can have this false choice in the way we think about faith, where there is an idea that if I have faith or I don't have faith, that's a choice. But I would tell you the choice is not whether or not we have faith or don't; it's what or whom we place our faith in. And so all of us have faith. It's in hopes, right, that when we face adversity, or we face tragedy, or we have something exciting happen in our life, that we have something or someone to depend on and walk us through it. And for you, maybe you're feeling like, what is my faith in today, right? You're wondering in the midst of what you're going through, and I'm going to pray for us in just a second that God would show us that.

And if you've never been here before, never heard me speak, I pray kneeling. And the reason that I do that in part is because I'm just humbly asking God to move in lives just like yours. People who are maybe discouraged, disheartened, wondering if God even cares about what you're going through and facing today. So would you pray with me?

God, thank you so much. Thank you that no matter what we're going through today, we can trust you. Thank you that no matter what's waiting for us in the week ahead, we can trust you. That you've already gone ahead of us. You're there waiting for us. You know the bigger plan. And God, we can trust you with it. God, would you help us even today to grow our faith, to understand maybe in a new way what it looks like to do that? It's not static, God. It's something you want to grow and develop in each and every one of us. Would you do that even right now? It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, maybe for some of you, a couple seconds ago when I said we all have faith, you felt like, well, I'm not sure I actually believe that. I think that at the end of the day, there are times in my life where I don't really have faith. Or there's people that I know, people, they're facts people, or they have some other sort of moniker to associate with how they think about life. And I would say, again, we are all faith people. We all place our faith in something. Some of those things that we place our faith in, by the way, are small. They seem even kind of petty. But we all have faith.

One of the things that I place faith in in my life, and I bet you do too, is a good warranty. You know what I'm talking about? Maybe you never have to use it, but when you purchase a product and you find out that it comes with a warranty, there's something comforting about that. Because you think to yourself, if I need it, it will be there. When I was traveling recently, the overhead bin in a plane that I was traveling on was full. And so I had to take my overhead bag that I was going to put up there, and I had to check that bag to pick up where we were going. Which, you know, not a big deal. I cried for a minute, but it was fine. I just sent it on its way. And we got to where we were going, and I got my bag. Everything was fine, except that, get ready for tragedy, they had broken the handle on my carry-on bag.

Now, I could have gotten another bag from the airline, probably. It wasn't a huge deal. But this bag had some sentimental value to me. I've used this bag for years. I trusted this bag. I liked this bag. And the good news is, this bag came with a lifetime warranty. Now, I had never had to use that warranty before, but I had always trusted that when I needed it, I could call the company, and they would take care of me. Sure enough, after some back and forth, they sent me some parts to repair my bag. And if you know me at all, you know a bag repair person is not, like, top of my resume. But I'm here to tell you, I figured it out. I actually did put my bag back together in mostly the same form that it was before it was broken. So it's functional now. It's pretty amazing.

Maybe you have a story like that. Or maybe for you, it didn't end quite so happily ever after. But faith is one of those things that we don't really know how much we have until it's tested. We don't really know how confident we are in who or what we trust in until we have to trust it. And actually, the quality of our faith is often revealed in the tests and the trials that we face. I know that for many of you, your faith is being tested right now. And examining your faith, it actually may feel painful to you over the next few minutes. But I hope that our time together is always hopeful. I hope that it's never shameful, that God is always showing you that no matter what you're in the middle of, no matter what you're facing right now, no matter what was in the week behind you or the week ahead of you, that God is with you. That this time in our place together helps us be faithful. And it doesn't feel futile because God is with you.

Faith is so important. As a matter of fact, in the classic work, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis framed faith this way. He says, "Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods." It's a good definition. We live in a moody culture, don't we? Trends have never come and gone faster. Today's Stanley water bottles will be tomorrow's live, laugh, love signs. Like, there is no doubt in my mind. And if you have a live, laugh, love sign in your house and you love it, I'm so happy for you. But if our souls are left unattended in the storm of our cultural current, then our faith will likely just follow that current faith fad too. And we will find ourselves moving with the winds rather than the wind.

We will find ourselves moving with the winds rather than staying anchored in who God has called us to be. But it doesn't have to be this way. Even if you are new or newer to faith, there is something so good and hopeful about faith if we are intentional about it. And Habakkuk, he helps us see that faith is the divine muscle of your life. And so the question I'm going to ask you is, is yours growing or shrinking? If your faith is not some static moment in time decision, but it's actually a muscle that's core to you, are you growing that muscle?

We've been studying the words of the Bible, and we've been studying the words of the Bible, who's a prophet of God from thousands of years ago, who reveals in his conversation with God that actually faith fuels us. God would use very difficult circumstances to bring about the peace and the justice that he's praying that Israel would experience, and ultimately, the salvation that Jesus offers to all of us, to the whole world. But the righteous people, they weren't the people who on the surface looked like they were doing everything correctly. There was a different distinction.

In a passage that we looked at just a couple weeks ago, there was a verse that might have been easy to miss. But in it, God, responding to Habakkuk, says, "Behold, his soul is puffed up. It's not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith." The contrast here is stark, right? As we look at this option, it can sometimes feel like, well, is it really either or? This binary contrast from God is the arrogance of the enemies that God would use to help bring about the justice that Habakkuk is praying for, and that God actually would use those same people later to show his justice and judgment towards in judgment. And then on the other side, you have this group of people who are actually showing their righteousness by their faith, which will lead to their eventual blessing. One will have eventual consequence. One will have eventual blessing. Neither one of them has an outcome from their behavior. Neither one of them has an immediate outcome from their choices.

And that immediately puts us in tension with our instincts, with the cultural current around us, because we want immediate access. We want immediate results of whatever the thing is that we're doing or thinking about. That's the culture we live in. And so we have inherent suspicion that if we don't immediately have the benefit or immediately have a negative consequence, we can justify our action. Like you've heard these words before. It's because these words, quoted in Habakkuk, a book that many of you didn't even know existed a month ago, actually get quoted throughout the Bible. We see them three times directly quoted in the New Testament of your Bible. It becomes a core faith framework that the righteous shall live by faith for the millennia that followed.

See, it may seem easy to associate ourselves with the righteous and to just move on. But the word that we translate is the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of God. It's the word of faith here. In the original language, it carries with it this sense of steadfastness, that not only do we have faith as a momentary decision, but that actually our faith, even when the storms of life come, even when we face trials and tests, our faith stays solid. The idea was that faith would continue to fuel the righteous person, even when it wasn't convenient or culturally accepted.

See, the Babylonian rule that the Israelites would have to live through would be unthinkably difficult. And it would have been way easier to just go with the flow, to leave faith of the previous generation behind. God would understand, right? It would be so much easier to just adopt the views and the values of the culture around you and say, "God, you get it. We just need to change our faith a little bit here and a little bit here and a little bit. We need to go along to get along." Obviously, we have no idea what that feels like. But for the Jewish people, thousands of years ago, it's been so hard. I think we do know what that feels like.

The value of living a countercultural faith in a culture that wants nothing to do with it, it was the challenge of the Jewish people then, and it's the challenge that we share today. For them, Orthodox Jew, they would have a whole bunch of attributes that would have been impossible to hide, from eating a kosher diet, to specific guidelines for their wardrobe, to their weekly schedule, to special holidays, just a few of the ways that their faith in Yahweh would have been impossible to hide. And so, I think we do know what Yahweh, their one true God, would have made life under the radar very difficult, if not impossible.

So, before you excuse yourself from this conversation, before you go, "Check, I'm good. I am in the righteous crowd," here's my question. How does your life, fueled by faith, show up in your daily decisions? I think for a lot of us, if we're honest, most people in our life who are pretty close to us that don't know we're Christians would be surprised to find out we were. We are what I like to call secret agent Christians. I came up with all the verses in the Bible that condone being a secret agent Christian, and I found out there are none.

What it means for us to be thoughtful witnesses is core to what it means to walk out, even in a culture that wants nothing to do with God. I think that a lot of our faith is conditional on God doing what we want, when we want him to do it, and how we want him to do it. And if he doesn't, our faith takes a hit. This kind of fictional faith, it only works in the fantasy of our imaginations. We can only trust God to the extent that we can't trust him. We can't trust him to the extent that he meets our expectations or understanding. And in that case, God is actually bending his will to ours. Faith isn't fueling our lives. Our own fantasies and imagination are.

There's a term that's been coined for this problem sometimes. It's called the Christian atheist. There is a condition that is worse, actually, than the arrogance that God is warning Habakkuk about. It's the ignorance that sometimes we can live with a version of faith that looks the part but lacks the most important part. First-century leaders, we can't live with a version of faith that looks the part but lacks the most important part. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Now, we instantly feel a little bit of a problem in that, right? If we really avoided everybody like that, we would be pretty lonely. Some of us, we couldn't associate with ourselves. There is something in us that we read a list like that and go, uh-oh, and Jesus says, come on back. But Paul is warning his young protege Timothy about what people will look like when things get worse around him. And the punchline is that there will be great rationalization, but not great maturity. Good excuses, but not a good exercise of humble dependence on God. And it will become normative, even in the church. That's the context that Paul is writing to Timothy about.

So what role is faith playing in your daily life right now? One of the biggest reasons for resolutions failing early in the year is that we try to make them additive. We had a pretty full December, and we think, I know what will be good in January. I'll just add more things. You didn't have room for more things in December. You don't have more room for things in January. So when you get tired of being overworked, you just stop doing the new things. And one of the great ways, the better way, really, to try new things and to implement faith in your life is to find ways where it can be really swapped out for things you're already doing. Less additive and more supplemental. And I wonder for you, how does it look to do that?

I've heard from a few of you over the course of the last week that after talking about worship last week, you experienced worship even in the service differently than you had before. And heading into this week, you carried with you a sense that you could access God, that actually worship could be this incredible weapon God gave you for a worrying world at war, and singing to God on your way to work, singing to God as you took a walk, listening to even the song that Menlo put out, or worship music. It helped you connect with God in a brand new way. And maybe for you, it's more about, how do I swap out some of what I'm currently doing for what it means to align and connect with God? I'm going to change what I listen to in the car. I'm going to change what I listen to on that walk. I'm going to change what I'm reading. It's not that I'm going to do more. I'm going to do different.

Maybe for some of you, the challenge is deeper. You know that there is something fueling you that's on that list that Paul just gave us. And you've been able to keep it under wraps, but not under control. You look the part of a Christian, but your life, especially your inner life, needs help. I want to use part of our final message in this series to say that you haven't gone too far. You haven't done too much. There's going to be a prayer team available at the end of our time together that would love to pray for you, and teams of people that would love to help you find a next step and get care for whatever you're in the middle of. They'd be honored to listen to you. And I want to say to you, if you're in the midst of a dangerous home life or an abusive relationship, I grew up in dangerous conditions. And I want to just say to you, we want to help today. Ask for help today. We want you to get out of a dangerous situation.

But I think for many, that's not the challenge for us. I think, for many, it's just easier to flee the obstacles than fight in the trial. As a matter of fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus, he gives us a way to think about the fight in the tests and trials that come our way, which can be a very challenging reminder to the most mature Christians among us. James put it this way in the first century in a letter that he writes to a group of Jewish converts to Christianity who have spread across the ancient world in the first century. He says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

Like I said, it's not the fight plan that any of us were hoping for. It's not the workout regimen of the muscle of faith that we want God to use to grow in us. And at face value, it can feel kind of heartless, right? You're like, "James, help us out, man. Really just like, have joy about this? Easy for you to say. Not helpful." But if you were with us last week, we talked about how we are wired for joy and how joy is different from happiness. See, the biggest difference is that it isn't a condition of our circumstances. Joy is a condition of our heart. We can choose joy even when we wouldn't choose our circumstances because we know who the God of our circumstances is.

Here's the pattern that James gives us in this group of early Christians. This idea that we can choose joy in our trials, not just on their own, but because we know they create steadfastness. That there is something God is doing in your life, even if you wouldn't have signed up for it. And over time, God is going to grow this divine muscle of faith in your life. That all those areas in your life that you think, you know what, I know that there's some areas of my life, God, that you don't have control of right now. You're not the Lord of my finances. God, you don't have control of this relationship. You don't, you don't really have access in my workplace, God. And the way that God gains access to those areas of our life that we often don't want to give him is that he brings trials to those areas of life we can't get through without him.

See, those are the ways that God stretches and grows us. And so if that's the pattern that James gives us, I wonder for you, where are you stopping your faith workouts and letting those muscles atrophy in you? Let me surface just a couple questions to you. I'm going to start with you. Consider to help see where it might be happening for you. Maybe it's answering the question. What is the longest relationship in your life that is still close? I don't mean like, who are you still friends with on Facebook from someone you went to high school with? That's not what I'm asking. Who is it that you still stay in touch with regularly from decades ago? Do you have that person? Or is sort of the longest, the maximum time you have a relationship always just a few years? And there's always a reason. And usually it's not your fault, right? There's always a reason why those relationships have to just keep getting reset and keep getting reset and keep getting reset.

What's the longest you've worked or lived in one place? Maybe for you every couple years, even in a transient place, especially in a transient place like Silicon Valley, every couple years, you found yourself with the itch to move on. And you just kept doing it every couple years, just kept moving on, kept moving on, kept moving on. Especially if you grew up doing this, it can be very easy for those childhood patterns to replicate into your adult life. I mean, I wonder for you, what's the longest you've ever had a spiritual practice in your life that you've continued to pursue God with? Or is it that every week or every month or once a year you find yourself trying to kind of recreate and come up with something because the last one didn't work?

What's the last thing that happened in your life that someone around you, they were just in a tailspin because of it, but God kept you stable through it? There was a peace that you couldn't explain. There was an endurance oftentimes because God has brought that test or that trial to us in the past. And we watched him be faithful through it. And now we can tell someone else, look, I've experienced this. I've watched God show up. He's going to do it again. And these questions aren't silver bullets in our lives. But I think especially if you're somebody who journals, that could be a great opportunity to journal this week about where our faith workouts are getting cut short in our lives.

One of the things that I want to call out is that if you've been a Christian for a while, it can feel like, God, it just feels like in my life, things are getting harder. Can I tell you a secret? That's by design. See, one of the reasons that God wants to grow our faith muscle, the reason that you have bigger and bigger muscles is not to just wear cool shirts and show off, right? It's so that the things that God brings to us as we grow and mature as Christians, we can handle more weight with him. So I hope for you, you take a moment, right? Wonder, God, what is it that you're calling me to walk out in this life that I couldn't have before?

In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul, he begins this chapter by sharing this very idea that just like with any other muscle, we grow our faith over time to support even greater weight. That's true in our faith. This is particularly true in times of cultural turmoil. And the good news is this is not the first time in human history that we have faced that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian who resisted the Nazis, he put the concept this way. He said, "We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do and more in light of what they suffer." Some of you have decided that because of what you're going through, because of the challenges that you face, because of the trials in front of you, that God has forgotten you. But actually, this is hard to hear. The very trials and temptations that you think to yourself, "God, how could you allow these into my life? How could you allow this test to come my way?" God is using those very things because he loves you. Because he's developing you. Because he wants that area of your life that maybe you have yet to surrender to him to come into focus.

If you've primarily thought of your workout routine as something that impacts your body and your spiritual routines as things that impact your mind, I would encourage you to ask God to show you how your spiritual workout includes the development of faith for your whole life, not just your mind. And Alyssa, in my relationship, there are many differences that make us who we are. And one of those is that if you looked in our garage, there are two kind of setups physically. There's a big rack with a bunch of weights on it. It's very impressive. And a really fancy bike setup. And if you walked in there stereotypically, you'd be like, oh, those are cool weights. You use those all the time, right? Never. I never use those weights. I know it's hard to see under the jacket, but it's just not. For me, I love to ride a bike. I love to run. And I know that I should use those weights. I know that they would help me with everything else. But I just don't do it.

There's a big difference between knowing I should and actually doing it. Alyssa spends most days in some part working on those muscles, right? Because she knows that those muscles are either going to be used or she's going to lose them. And she wants the benefit of those muscles in our life. I think that's the challenge for many of us as it relates to our faith too. For some of us, we know that spiritual training is good and helpful, but we just don't do it. See, we have faith, but our faith, it turned into action. Can I tell you a secret? Your sinful flesh and the enemy of your soul do not care what you believe. Really. They care what you believe enough to do something about it. Seriously.

Later on in the same letter from James, he makes this point exactly, that good theology doesn't equal good formation. He says it this way. He says, "You say you have faith, for you believe there is one God. Good for you. Even the demons believe this and they tremble in terror. How foolish. Can't you see that faith without deeds is useless?" It's pretty harsh from James, right? But it's an important call for you and me to be able to see the problem of a workless faith. Now, get me clear. Our works don't save us, but a saving faith works. A growing faith fights. It's not just some aspect of our mind. We let God take over. We let God take over. We let God take over. We let God take over. We let God take over. We let God take over our lives with it. There are no mascots in the kingdom of heaven. We are all on the field. We are all in the game. We are all learning to express the compassion and conviction of Jesus through our whole lives as thoughtful witnesses of whatever God is doing in us and through us, even and especially in the areas where we're experiencing trial, testing, and pain.

I want to address one more thing before we finish this series too, which is as we think about wonder and faith, it's easy to narrow this down to areas that we are interested in or feel most confident in. But this can make our blind spots with God even more difficult to see. We all know someone who works out really regularly, like goes to the gym all the time, but only works on their arms. You know any of these people, right? They just look like kind of cartoon characters. You're like, your legs need some of what your arms have, right? You should balance it out. And if every day is arm day, our arms might be huge, but our legs will be tiny.

And for many of us, I think this has to do with the way we think about our faith intellectually. We could explain over and over and over again the most difficult and nuanced theological ideas, but like the one difficult relationship we have, we're avoiding because we don't really know how to show up with it. Because we haven't trusted God with the same level of devotion in our minds to our emotions, to our relationships. See, for us, God wants to grow all of us through our faith.

We're going to begin a new series next week, and it's going to focus on surrender as we prepare for Easter together. And I want to give you kind of a helpful tool around surrender if you want to get a head start. There's a book called Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton that will give you exposure to some spiritual practices and rhythms in your life that maybe right now you're going, what will it look like to swap out some of my daily routine for a daily routine of more holistically pursuing Jesus? These might be some great tools for you.

Good news is that God isn't asking you to figure this out on your own. You have found yourself in a community of people who love God and would love to include you in the work that God is doing in their life and in this community, even with what you face today. The Apostle Paul, he reminded the church at Philippi of this very idea. He says, "I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus."

So be encouraged, Menlo Church. Whatever you face today, you don't face alone. You don't have to. God is with you and God's people are here for you. Let's pray that faith could grow even in the places that are hurting today. Would you pray with me?

God, thank you so much. Thank you for the gift of your people that we can come even on a rainy day. We can sit next to each other. We can look across and who knows what one another are going through. But I know this, God, that you are growing all of our faith if we'll just look to see you in the trials and the tests and the challenges and the pain. God, would you help us to see those areas of those faith muscle development points that we have neglected, those things that we've decided aren't that important, but you keep bringing up. You keep introducing challenges. God, would you help us to walk with you and walk with your people through them? Help us to see our faith as something we can grow this week. In this series, God, take with us a wonder of you that's bigger than we had before. Don't let the end of this series be the end of that focus in our lives. Even as we think about this in communion in just a moment, God, you remind us of your death, your burial, your resurrection on our behalf and the power that...

1) "Growing your faith might take changing what you give your attention to, not just adding more but choosing different." [35:01 ] (Download)

2) "Faith grows in the fight, not in giving up or running away when things get difficult, but continuing to let God grow your muscles of faith." [36:11 ] (Download)

3) "The righteous shall live by faith... our faith stays solid even when it wasn't convenient or culturally accepted." [26:31 ] (Download)

4) "The very trials and temptations that you think to yourself God how could you allow these into my life... God is using those very things because he loves you." [44:26 ] (Download)

5) "Your sinful flesh and the enemy of your soul do not care what you believe really, they care what you believe enough to do something about." [46:02 ] (Download)

6) "A saving faith works, a growing faith fights. It's not just some aspect of our mind, we let God take over our lives with it." [46:41 ] (Download)

7) "God isn't asking you to figure this out on your own, you have found yourself in a community of people who love God and would love to include you." [49:21 ] (Download)

8) "God wants to grow our faith muscle... so that the things that God brings to us as we grow and mature as Christians we can handle more weight with him." [43:23 ] (Download)

9) "We are all learning to express the compassion and conviction of Jesus through our whole lives as thoughtful witnesses of whatever God is doing in us and through us." [47:16 ] (Download)

10) "We celebrate that reality because of what he accomplished for us at Calvary... we are no longer alone, we no longer need to be filled with fear." [53:27 ] (Download)