- If you take out your message
notes inside your program, you may not have realized
that for the past four or five weeks I've
had you in a series on building character. We didn't announce it, but
that's where we were going. I started with a message called Making the Hard Changes In Me, that was the first message
right after Easter. Making the hard changes in me, about character development. Then the next week, I had Jason, a friend teach on
building or breaking the destructive
patterns in your life. Breaking the destructive
patterns in your life. The next week, George
and Tondra Gregory talked about how God uses
marriage to build your character and how God says that
marriage is not simply to make you happy,
it's to make you holy. And then last week, of
course Kay taught us on learning to see
your blind spots. What a message, huh? What a message. (congregation applauds) I wanna continue in
that theme this week by looking at how God
uses tests in your life to grow your character and
to strengthen your faith. 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. So you shouldn't
expect everything to
go right in this life. It's not going to. God wants to grow
your character. He wants you to make
you spiritually mature. Don't want you to be a
spiritual baby all your life and He wants you to grow up. And our model of
course is Jesus Christ, who was love, joy, peace,
patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control; He was the fruit of the spirit; and He's our model for
spiritual maturity. Now one of the ways,
one of the ways that God grows you
up is by testing you. When you work out in a gym you test your muscles
by lifting weights and the more weight you can
lift, the more test your muscle, the more it grows your muscle. And God builds your
character the same way, through a series of tests. And those test test your faith, they test your character,
they test your patience, they test all kinds of
things in your life. 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. Now we know that from
what the Bible says. They're at the top
of your outline. James 1, it says this, whenever troubles come your way, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an
opportunity for joy. Huh? Oh, oh, I got another
problem: I'm happy. (congregation laughs) 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. You are resilient, you are
responsible, you are strong. You're a strong woman,
you're a strong man because you have
strength of character and you're ready for anything
because your faith is tested. Now notice those two phrases. I want you to circle the
phrase faith is tested and circle the phrase
strong in character and draw a line
between those two because they go together. 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. And if you intend to
be the man or the woman God wants you to be, God
will test your faith. 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. (woman laughs) Okay, He wants you, so He gives
you the answers in advance. Didn't you always like
those open book tests? (congregation laughs) 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. Every test you're gonna
go through in life is already in this book. And if you study this
book, then you're gonna see from the characters in this
book how to pass each test. Now all we have time for
today is to go through about five or six of
these different tests and we're gonna
use three different
characters of the Bible: Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Three guys you've all heard of. And they went through
test and you're gonna go through those exact same test. These six tests, I've
been through them dozens of times in my life. You have too. You may not even
realize it was a test, but you have been going
through these tests over and over in your life. Now good news, as I said, God
wants you to pass the test. Now let's start with
this first guy, Noah. The Bible tells us that
when God created the earth it was perfect: there
were no problems, no sorrows, no sin, no
sadness, no suffering, no tears, no trials,
no temptation; it was just a perfect
place, it was Eden. But man messed it up. And the longer man went along
we started having pollution, we started having problems,
we had conflict, we had wars, we have injustice,
we have racism, we have all of these
problems in life. We have sexual abuse. God didn't start
any of these things. Man started murder,
man started jealousy, man started cheating and
dishonesty and adultery, and all these other things. The world got worse
and worse and worse. Until the Bible says,
God was so aggrieved that He had even made the earth because it was going
in the wrong direction. And He said, I'm just
gonna start over. And when He looked
down on the earth, the Bible says that
earth was so evil He could only find one guy. Only find one righteous
guy in the entire planet and the guy's name was Noah. And the Bible tells us
that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I'm grateful for Noah because
if it weren't for him, none of us would be here. By the way racism and race, really there's only one
race: it's the human race because we all came from Noah. - [Woman] Yes. - Every one of us
here came from Noah. And after the flood,
his sons spread out all around the world and
started different cultures and things like that,
but we're all from Noah; all of our blood bleeds red. None of you bleed
green blood, okay? We may look different
on the outside, but inside we're
really all the same 'cause we all came from
this one guy, Noah, who obviously came from Adam. Now I want you to
watch this first clip and then we'll talk
about the first test. Watch this. (thunder rumbles) (dramatic music) (ocean waves crashing) (animals screech) - In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered
the face of the deep. And God said, let
there be light. And there was light. (thunder rumbles) On the second day, God
separated the waters to form the seas and the sky. (ocean waves crashing) (girl exclaims) (hammer pounding) (breathing heavily) On the third day,
God created the land, the trees, and
plants and fruits. - Will we ever see land again? - Of course. Of course we will. (thunder rumbles) The next day, he put the
sun, the moon, and stars in the heavens. And on the fifth day, all the creatures of the sea and of the air (birds chirping). And on the sixth day, all
the creatures of the ground, (elephant roars) and then He made us to live in paradise until Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. And with one choice, they
learned both good and evil. Since then, since
Cain killed Abel, God has seen too much
evil in human hearts. (both exclaims) Wrong choices, wrong decisions! That's why this is happening. Our Creator decided
to cleanse the earth. God warned me, He told
me to build a boat, a boat to save our family
and all the animals, every other living
creature would die. (dramatic music) And on the seventh day, God rested. (dramatic music) - Now imagine if you are this
guy, Noah, or you're his wife or you're one of his
kids, and you know the world's a pretty evil place and God comes to your
dad or your husband and says, I'm gonna start over, I'm gonna wipe out everything, I'm gonna flood the earth and I want you to
build a big boat, we're gonna call it an ark; and I'm gonna bring
all the animals to you and you're gonna
put your families and all these animals on the ark and we're just gonna
start over you. Would you believe that? Would you think, am I
hearing right, what? What are you talking about? Now this is the very first
test, write this down. You're gonna go through
a kind of test like this in your life many, many
times and it is a new task, a new task or a new dream. God's gonna come to you and say, here's what I want you to do, or, here's what I'm
asking you to do, or here's what I'm
telling you to do, and it could be so big that
it just seems impossible. It's an impossible dream or it's an impossible task. I call this the what test. Because when God comes
to you and talks to you, and says, here's what I want
you to do, you go, what? (congregation laughs) Moi, me, no way. You got the wrong guy. I think that person
lives down the street. What? That's the what test in life. When ask you to do something
that's so new or so difficult you don't even imagine
yourself doing it. And here's what the Bible
says, in Hebrews 11, and all the verses today
are out of Hebrews 11. It was by faith that
Noah built an ark to save his family
from the flood. And he obeyed God, who
warned him about something that, notice this, had
never happened before. The Bible tells us
that up to this time it had never rained on earth, that's why they had
never seen a rainbow. It never rained. The Bible tells us that a
mist came up from the ground at night kinda like
dew, a condensation, it was some kind of condensation
that happened in the earth that watered all of the animals, I mean all of the vegetables
and all the plants. This is why before the flood people lived a whole lot longer. The atmosphere have changed. People lived 200,
300, 400 years, I think God did
that intentionally so they'd have lots of
kids to populate the earth. But after the flood, their
age starts going down and that people
aren't living as long. Something changed
in the environment, in the firmament, in the
climate in that environment. But notice it says there, it
had never happened before. When you have this first
test, it's gonna be when God comes to you and
says, I want you to do this, now it may not be building ark, but it's something, number
one, you've never done before and, number two, it
seems impossible. That's the what test. What? Are you kiddin' me? You're gonna go
through the what test. You've never done it before
or it seems impossible. Now what is faith? This is a test, write this down. Faith is facing the future
without knowing what. 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. Number two, here's the
second test: a major change. A major change. First, a new task; the
second is a major change. And I call this the where test. Where are we goin, Lord? Where are we goin'
with this one? And you have a major
change upset in your life. A good example of
this kind of test is the guy named Abraham. And the Bible tells
us in Hebrews 11:8-10, it was by faith
that Abraham obeyed when God called
him to leave home, see, this is a big
change, to leave home and go to another land, he's
gonna make a major move, that God would give
him as his inheritance. And he went, notice,
without knowing where, circle the where, this
is the where test, without knowing
where he was going. Now Abraham is a guy who
lived in a city called Ur, which is Ur of the Chaldees
over in the Iraq, Iran area, Ur of the Chaldees. How would you like
to live in Ur? Where are you from? Ur (congregation laughs). Oh, sorry, I had gas. Where are you from? Ur (congregation laughs). You burped again (laughs). Ur, okay. Abraham lived in a big city
called Ur and God says, I've picked you out and I'm
gonna make you a great nation but I'm not gonna make
you a great nation here in the Iraq area. I'm gonna move you over
to the Palestine area, to the Israel area and I want
you to get ready to move. Now this is an especially
difficult move, major change for Abraham. Why? First, he's 75 years old. When he's ready for
social security, God says, get ready
for social insecurity. (congregation laughs) When he's ready to hang it up
and slow down and play golf, God says, take it
down, put it on, get ready for the
adventure of your life. At age 75, that's not really
when you're getting ready to start your greatest
adventure in life, okay? But this is a major
change at age 75. He's ready to retire; God
says, I'm ready to inspire. You're gettin' ready
to move into your greatest victory in
life after age 75. Now Abraham had a lot to move, 'cause the Bible tells us
he was a very wealthy guy. So he had years of accumulation. He had a lot of cattle,
he had a lot of sheep, he had a lot of goats,
he had a lot of family, he had a lot of people
working for him, lots of people, employees. And God says, I'm gonna
move you to a new country. And Abraham says,
where are we goin'? He says, I'll let you know. He said, how will I
know when I get there? He said, I'll let you know. He said, what direction? He said, just head that way. And how long is it gonna take? I'll let you know. Would you move? (congregation laughs) If God said, I'm not gonna
tell you where you goin', how long it's gonna take,
where you gonna end up, what it's gonna be
like; just trust me. This is the second test
of life, a major change, the test of life
is the where test. Imagine, how long
is it gonna take? I'll let you know. It's totally on faith. Abraham, by faith,
obeyed God to leave home and go to another land. Would you do that? You're gonna be tested by
God when He's gonna say, I want you to go that direction. You go, where? To head that way. What's at the end? I'll let you know. This is a test. Some of you are in the where
test of life right now, some of you are in
that first test. Okay, what? But some of you
in the where test. And the where test
is God saying, I'm gonna move you and
you don't know where yet. That is a test of your
character, to test your faith. Now write this down, faith
is following God's leading without knowing where. 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. So Abraham does this and he
packs up all of his wealth, and all of his cattle, and
camels, and sheep, and goats, and employees, and family,
and grandkids and everything and he heads off that direction having no idea where he's going. He eventually gets to Canaan. But still when he gets to land he doesn't get to settle down, in fact he has to live in
tents the rest of his life and that leads me
to the third test. Write this down, the third
test you're gonna have in life is a delayed promise. You can count on
this one, folks. God has over 7,000 promises
in the Bible for you. He is not guaranteed to fulfill every one of them instantly. I've told you this before,
God is not a vending machine where you put in the prayer
and pull the promise button and you get
everything instantly. If you did, it wouldn't
require any faith. If every prayer of yours
was instantly answered, you'd think God was your genie. Your wish is my command. God is not your genie. God doesn't work for you. You work for God. God is not your genie. He has made all these promises, but He has all of
eternity to fulfill them. Some of the promises
that God has made you are not even gonna be filled
here in this lifetime; they're gonna be
fulfilled in eternity. He's got all of heaven and
eternity to fulfill them. But the delayed promise is
what I call the when test. First, you're goin',
what, Lord, what? Then you're goin',
where, Lord, where? And then this one you're
goin', when, Lord, when? When are you gonna
answer my prayer? When are you gonna hear me? When are things gonna
change in my marriage? When am I gonna get married? When am I gonna graduate? When am I gonna have a baby? When am I gonna
get that promotion? It's the when question of
life, that's the third test. You're gonna go
through the when test many, many times in life. Hebrews 11:8 to 10 says this, even after Abraham
reached the land God had promised him,
he lived there by faith, for he was like a
foreigner, living in a tent. He couldn't even settle down. He's living in a tent,
moving around the country God had said, I'm giving you. And by the way He says,
so did Isaac and Jacob, that's his son and his grandson. So for three generations,
they're kinda like nomads even though God said, I'm
giving you this country called Israel. You're not gonna get
it in this timetable. Living in a tent so
did Isaac and Jacob, to whom God gave
the same promise. Abraham did this because
he was confidently looking forward to a city
whose eternal foundations, a city designed
and built by God. Now in that verse I want
you to circle the word, it's in caps promise. Circle the word promise. It's used twice and this
is a very important word. It was promised to
him the same promise. God wants us to base
our lives on promises, not explanations. If you ever understand
that, you're gonna take a giant leap in your character and a giant leap in your faith. Go wants you to build
your life on His promises, not His explanations. God doesn't owe
you an explanation for anything in your life. God is God and you're not. And God is not gonna explain
why everything happens and when it happens
and how it happens and the reasons and all
for God doesn't owe you an explanation for everything. He wants you to
trust His promises, not wait for explanations. Now God had promised
him this land of Israel but after he gets there
there's this delay in transfer of ownership. And I'm sure Abraham
is constantly goin',
when, Lord, when? You gave me this promise,
when are you gonna fulfill it? Is it time yet, is it
time yet, time yet? He lives in tents for three
generations, that's a long wait. He's unable to settle down. The Bible calls him a
stranger in his own country. You may be in this test
right now, the when test, where you've been
waiting for an answer and it doesn't seem like
there's any end in sight, you go, when, when, Lord? When are you gonna take
care of this problem? When are you gonna take
care of this issue? When are you gonna take
care of this relationship? When are you gonna take
care of my finances? When are you gonna
take care of my health? When are you gonna
take care of my future? And you're just going,
when, Lord, when? Not what, not where, but when? I want you to write this down. Faith is waiting for God's
timing without knowing when. 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. Now God told Abraham
that not only was He gonna move him to a new
country and give him this land and he would be the
father of great nation, He told him that he
was going to have kids that would have more kids,
would have more kids, more kids and they
would populate it; that He was not just
giving him land, He was gonna him as his
heritage a great nation. They were all gonna
come from Abraham. Now remember, he's 75 years old when God tells him this promise. He moves to the land of Canaan, which is gonna be called Israel, and while he's there
he keeps waitin' for his wife to get pregnant. And by age 99, he still
doesn't have a son. This is what you might
call an unsolvable problem. Now it is physically
impossible for him, Abraham and his wife,
Sarah, to have a problem. It's physically impossible. How in the world are
we gonna have a baby? I'm 99, okay? Sarah's a little bit younger,
but Abraham's 99 years old. The Bible says Abraham
looked at his body and said, no way Jose. (congregation laughs) Sarah looked at
Abraham's body and said, yeah, double no way (congregation laughs)
with you and me, okay? This isn't gonna happen. And the Bible says when God
said, you're gonna have a baby, and Abraham's 99
years old, it says, Abraham laughed and it
said, Sarah laughed. And so when they
actually did get pregnant and had this baby,
they named him Isaac, which means laughter. Because Isaac was God's
joke to the world. Abraham's now 100 years old and he's the father
of his first child. Now God had changed his
name from Abram to Abraham, which means father
of great nation. How do you like goin'
into a restaurant and say, sir, what's your name? Father of great nation. How many kids you got? None (congregation laughs). How old are you? 100. It's kind of embarrassing. God gave him the
name way in advance. But they laughed and laughed. God had the last laugh. We know that Sarah, when God
told her she was pregnant, that she didn't believe
it because she laughed. And the truth is any woman
whose 75 told she's pregnant and believe it would
not laugh; she'd cry. (all laugh) Sarah did not cry; she laughed. What a joke. You know, I gotta
tell you this story. Fred Craddock is
a famous preacher, he's now in heaven,
back in the south, he overheard a conversation
one time in a restaurant between a 75-year-old
waitress and an older man. And the older man
said to the waitress, Anna, can I walk
you home tonight? And she said, no. He said, well, why not? She said, because I then
would become great with child. (congregation laughs) He goes, Anna, you're too old. You're too old. Well she said, well,
Sarah had a child at 75. He goes, how is that possible? He said, she believed
in the man upstairs. He said, well, if
I were a woman, I wouldn't believe
in the man upstairs. (all laugh) But sometimes God does what
I call an unsolvable problem, this is the how test. Hebrews 11:11 and 12 says this, it was by faith that Sarah
together with Abraham was able to have a child,
this is an unsolvable problem, even though they were too
old and Sarah was barren. Abraham believed that God
would keep His promise. And so a whole nation came
from this one man, Abraham, who was too old to
have any children, but a nation with
so many people that, like the stars of the sky
and the sand on the seashore, there's no way to count them. God had the last laugh. Here's the fourth thing I want
you to learn, write it down. 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. Let's go on to the fifth test. The fifth test is also in
Abraham's life and it is a senseless loss. A senseless loss. When you have a
loss in your life that makes no sense at
all it seems irrational, it seems illogical,
it doesn't make sense. And this of course
was the ultimate test, the ultimate test
in Abraham's life. And I wanna tell you,
friends, it will be yours too. This will be the ultimate
test in your life. A senseless loss. A lot of what happens
in life, friends, it just doesn't make sense. And when we look
for an explanation, we're not gonna find one. A lot in life just
doesn't make sense. You spend your
whole life thinking that if I get an explanation, then I'll feel better
about this loss. You won't. If my wife were to
drop dead tonight, and I knew why, I
knew the explanation, it wouldn't make it
any less painful. Explanations never comport. What you need when
you're in pain, what you need when
you've had a major loss is you need the presence of God, not explanation of God. Explanation will not
make it any less painful, so stop looking for the why. What you need is simply
God's presence in your life. A lot of what happens in
life doesn't make sense. Now God, after Abraham
had this miracle baby at 100 named Isaac, Isaac is now a young man
and God says one day, I want you to sacrifice
your son to me. Now this seems so unheard of. It seems so brutal,
it seems so bloody, it seems so nonsensical. Why would God ask me to
sacrifice the very son that He gave me
through a miracle? This is a test. God knows what He's doin'. He's testing Abraham's faith. God is not a cruel God, God
is not a capricious God, God is not a mean God. Abraham knew that. And so he's going
to obey knowing that God's gonna do
something about it, because I know God is
not that kind of God. But this is the ultimate test. Isaac represented everything
God had given Abraham. If his son dies, there's
no future nation. Now our response to
this when we look at everything else,
this is unfair. Have you ever said that in life? It's not fair. Well, let me tell you somethin',
folks, life is not fair. Who is said it was fair? This is not heaven;
this is earth. Life is not fair on earth
because it's filled with sin and sorrow and suffering
and evil and your choice, and you do things
that aren't fair and everybody else does too. God can make life very fair: just take away our
freedom of choice. But God asked him, Isaac,
to sacrifice his own son and our response is shock. How in the world could God
even ask Abraham to do this? In verses 17 and 18 of
Hebrews 11 it says this, it was by faith that Abraham
offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had
received God's promise, was ready to
sacrifice his only son even though God
had promised him, Isaac is the son through
which your descendants will be counted. This is one of the most gripping
stories in the Scripture. Abraham is trusting the
goodness of God saying, God's gonna figure out a way. Watch this on the screen. (dramatic music) - Father, we have the
firewood, but where's the lamb? - The Lord will provide
a sacrifice, my son. - Did Abraham take a lamb? - [Man] No, mistress. (woman exclaims) - Bring the wood. (Abraham breathing heavily) (dramatic music) - Father, what are you doing? You're hurting me, father. - Isaac, we must trust in God! (woman sobbing) - No! - Please, please. Please, father. - Forgive me. - Please. (suspenseful music) - [Man] Abraham! (sheep bleating) - The sacrifice. (sheep bleating) Oh, why, Lord,
why, why, why, why? (cries) (woman panting) - No (cries). No. No. Isaac! (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Abraham has
passed the ultimate test. He will become the
father of God's nation. Now it's up to Isaac. He will have a son called Jacob, God will rename him Israel. The promise of descendants
as numerous as the stars is coming true. - As I said, this
will be the most gut-wrenching test in your life. When God says the
dream I've given you, do you love the
dream more than Me or do you love Me
more than the dream? Do you trust Me? If you love the dream
more than you love God, you've made the dream an idol. Now God is a good
God and we know there are many
layers to this story. The fact God had
already, a thousand years before Abraham had been born
and before He asked Abraham, He already knew
what He's gonna do: He was gonna provide
a lamb as a symbol, as a metaphor, as
an illustration of the fact that in
a few thousand years He was gonna provide
the lamb of God, His own son, and
He would sacrifice, God would sacrifice
His son for you. God is a God of love. He is not a God of
anger or retribution. To those who love Him and
put their trust in Him, He says, I will
provide the lamb. But you will be
tested in your life. Do you love the dream,
do you love the promise more than you love the
promiser and the dream giver? Abraham passed the test. How in the world was he
able to obey God in faith? Well, the Bible tells us how. Hebrews 11:19. Abraham reasoned, that
word there literally means he calculated, it's
an accounting term, he reasoned, he calculated,
he figured in his mind that God could raise the dead. If God can give me a
miracle son at age 100, he can raise him back to life. And figuratively
speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. Abraham thought, well,
if this goes through, I know God can raise
him back to life, that's the kind of God I serve. I want you to write this down. This is the fifth test. Faith is trusting God's
purpose without knowing why. 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. Prolonged pain. And this is the how long test. It could be a chronic
pain in your life. That could be a
chronic physical pain, it could be of chronic
emotional pain, it could be of chronic
spiritual pain, it could be of chronic
relational pain, it could be of
chronic financial pain it is extended suffering. It's suffering that
doesn't go away. You just happen to live with it maybe, maybe your entire life. This is a test. It is the how long test. How long, Lord? And so many of the
prophets in the Bible talk about this and
ask, how long, Lord, You gonna let this keep goin'? A good example of this is Moses. Moses had incredible
persistence. He put up with enormous
pain in his life. His life is divided
into three passages: 40 years in Pharaoh's court
learnin' to be a somebody, 40 years in the
backside of a desert learnin' to be a nobody
and then 40 years leading a million griping
babies across a desert. He put up with enormous
criticism, enormous conflict, enormous misunderstanding,
enormous pain and he has every right
to say, how long, Lord? Hebrews 11:24 to
26, Moses gave up everything that we try to
spend their lives achieving: fame, fortune, pleasure,
possessions, position. He was the son of
Pharaoh's daughter, that means he's a
grandson of the most powerful man in the
world at that time. He's living in
the lap of luxury. He gave it all up to go
lead a bunch of slaves across the desert. He gave up the very things we
spend our lives trying to get: status, sex, salary, passion,
possession, position, the American dream;
he gave it all up. The Bible says in
verse 24 to 26, by faith Moses, when
he had grown up, that's a mark of maturity. Remember, God wants you
to grow up spiritually. He didn't make this
decision as a baby. When he was a baby, his
parents made the decision. But when he'd grown up,
he refused to be known as the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. He knew his identity. He chose to be mistreated
along with the people of God rather than to enjoy
the pleasures of
sin for a short time with the people who
weren't the people of God. He regarded disgrace
for the sake of Christ as of greater value than
the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking
ahead to his reward. Our culture says, base all
your decisions on your feelings and live for the now. If it feels good, do it. If it doesn't feel
good, don't do it. And most people today
make their decision on, oh, this feels good
so it must be right. Not everything that
feels good is right and not everything that
feels wrong is bad. You can't go by your feelings. Your feelings lie
to you all the time, tell you things are
better than they are or they're worse than they are. Your feelings lie. You're manipulated
by your moods. The truth is I don't always
feel like being nice to people. (congregation laughs) Everybody thinks
I'm a nice person. I'm not always a nice person. I don't always feel like
being nice to people any more than you do. Sometimes I feel grumpy, cranky. Sometimes I just wanna
go home and get in bed. I don't always feel
like teaching you. In fact, bye. (all laugh) So what? If I only preach the times
that I feel like preaching or taught you the
times I feel like, well, it'd be a lot
less, I'll just say that. (all laugh) You don't always feel like
doin' the right thing. You know what, I'm gonna
let you in a little secret. I don't always feel
like helping my wife. (congregation laughs) And when my kids were at home I didn't always feel
like helping my kids with their homework. I hated homework! I didn't like it. I didn't want my kids to do it, I didn't want my
grandkids to do it. (congregation laughs) So if you're a teacher,
stop all homework! (all laugh) Just teasing. But I really didn't like it. (congregation laughs) But did I help 'em, yeah. I don't always like to read
my Bible, but I know it helps. I don't always
feel like praying. I find that when I
least feel like praying that's when I need it the most. When I don't feel like prayin'. Faith is being persistent. Faith is refusing to give up. Faith is keeping on no
matter how tired you are. Write this down, faith
is continuing to persist without knowing how long. 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? You don't always feel like
gettin' up and goin' to work. How do you have
that persistence? How do you handle
prolonged pain? By doin' what Moses did and
that is hearing from God; getting close to God,
listening to God, hearing to God, staying
connected to God. Watching this last clip. (strong wind blowing) (exclaims) - [Woman] Your people
are out there, Moses. - [Man] You're not one of us. - [Woman] They worship
the God of Abraham. - [Man] You should never
have let her keep him. - [Woman] Until he
has deserted them. - [Man] I will be pharaoh! (thunder rumbles) (breathing heavily) (dramatic music) - [God] Moses. (exclaims) Moses. - I am here. - [God] I am the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob. - You are real. - [God] I am. I have seen the
misery of my people. I am sending you to Pharaoh
to bring them out of Egypt. - How can I set them free? - [God] I will be with you. - With Your power, I
will set my people free. - Moses had a burning bush. You don't need a burning bush
because He wrote it all down and it's in here. Everything God wants to
say to you is right here. You don't have to go have
some mystical experience. People say, why didn't God
just right it in the sky? He's not going to. He wrote it in a book. Stop looking for a vision;
start looking for a verse. - [Woman] Amen. - Stop looking for
a sign in the sky; start looking for a
Scripture in the Word. It's all here. It's all here. And it will give you the ability
to pass the how long test when you're going
through prolonged pain; continuing to persist
without knowing how long. Hebrews 11:27, last verse,
by faith he, that's Moses, left Egypt, not fearing
the king's anger; he persevered, how
did he persevere, because he saw Him
who is invisible. You keep your eyes on God. If you keep your eyes on your
pain, you're going downhill. If you keep your eyes
on the pain reliever, on the Savior, on the
God who loves you, you're gonna go through it. Now I got a lot more
to say about this but we're out of time. Which of these tests are
you facing right now? An impossible task, and you're
goin', what, Lord, what? Are you considering
a major change and you're goin',
where, Lord, where? Are you facing a
delayed promise, a delayed answer,
when, Lord, when? Are you facing an unsolved
problem: how, Lord, how, how are You gonna do this? Are you facing a senseless
loss that you're grieving over: why, Lord, why? Are you struggling with
prolonged pain: how long, Lord? There's nothin'
wrong with asking God what, when, and where, and
why, and how and how long as long as you understand
you're not gonna get the answer. The real issue is
what are you gonna do when you don't get an answer? Even Jesus on the cross
said, my God, my God, why? So it's okay for you to ask why, but He didn't get an answer
and you won't either. The key is will you trust
God without knowing how, or when, or why, or
how long or where? I don't have time to go in
this, but there's a pattern seen in all three of these men. I wrote it down in your outline. I won't teach you on it. First, God gives you
an opportunity, He
gives you promise, then there's an obstacle or an
opponent that holds you back, then there's an ordeal and
this waiting or testing period. You're gonna go through
that over and over and over hundreds of times in your life. So let me summarize what
it means to live by faith. It's facing the future
without knowin' what. Faith is following God's
leading without knowin' where. Faith is waiting on God's
timing without knowing when. Faith is expecting a
miracle without knowing how. Faith is trusting God's purpose without knowin' why. Faith is continuing to persist without knowin' how long. This is a test. Let's bow our heads. 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. So dear Jesus Christ, help me face the future in faith
without knowing what. Jesus, help me follow Your
leading without knowing where; help me wait for Your
timing without knowing when; help me to expect a miracle
without knowin' how; help me to trust
Your plan and purpose without knowing why; and help
me to continue to persist and endure without
knowing how long. If you've never opened
your life to Christ, say, Jesus Christ, come
into my life right now, be my manager of my life,
the Lord of my life, be the Savior of my life. I need You. In Your name I pray, Amen.
