Ironworks | Trials

and good morning to you it's good to have you guys here to get some donuts feeling the extra energy from all that nutritious breakfast yeah good good speaking of nutritious breakfasts um next ironworks is going to be may 15th but i want to give you a heads up on that one because you'll definitely want to come to that one we're going to be doing a breakfast a knockdown drag out breakfast and there's a few other items that we got for you i think we got some ironwork t-shirts don't tell anybody uh for guys that come to that so uh that's going to be kind of cool uh you don't want to miss that bring bring your buddy uh you know to make sure that we get it all in here i don't know if we'll be able to fit next time if i announce it too much um so uh but that'll be great may 15th breakfast and we'll we'll get into the word as well as well there um what i'd like to do is remind you too of um if you're if you're just joining us with ironworks you can you can uh catch up if you want once a month we've been doing these ironwork studies for the last couple years and if you go on our website you can just look up ironworks search it or find our topical uh series uh which we don't have many of those because we go verse by verse through the bible but for these iron works we've done 36 topics thus far everything from uh be you know being good husbands to uh um working hard uh to singleness to um uh you know just pornography uh we've done a ton of topics 36 of them uh to to to add them all up and and so it's just the things that the lord's been putting on our hearts to say let's let's sharpen ourselves as men let's become more like uh what the lord would call us to be and i think those 36 studies we've done have been really fruitful and good and i've even heard from some of your wives it's great uh debbie will tell me hey so-and-so said that her husband's actually praying with with her now it's awesome like like i'm hearing good fruit from things that were um that we're hearing from from you guys so that's always good to hear today i i just prayed about it lord said uh um we need to talk about a topic that has to do with dealing with difficulties and dealing with trials um our men today here's a question for us to kind of rhetorically kick around are men today better and well-equipped to deal with difficulties and trials or are we ill-equipped and uh you know is this is this generation this younger generation have we done a good job as grandfathers and fathers equipping our sons uh with the ability to deal with difficulties and and to deal with it not just in a man kind of way but in a godly biblical kind of way that's the that's the question that i kind of put before you it's amazing to see what kind of difficulties people have to go through and really no matter who you are you're going to probably deal with trials and tribulations and difficulties and here's another one that's kind of interesting the more godly you are probably the more difficulties you'll go through that's what the bible teaches so what do you do with that and what should be our mindset um when i think of a guy who had a tough day i think of a guy that i met down in honduras i was teaching at a pastor's conference it sounds fancy and stuff but it wasn't it was in like a hut with about 150 pastors and men i just remember being there and it just rained like i'd never seen rain the whole time i was there just and like portland doesn't know what rain is if you can imagine that but in honduras man it was just just like buckets of water and i was teaching there was this tin roof you know so the rain would go and i'd have to kind of yell it was it was quite a scene but after the conference i sat down with this one um gedifuna pastor um and um and i i asked him a question and i i didn't expect such a response but here was the question hey how did you come to know the lord how did you become a christian and uh he said well one day i was and i had a translator there telling me the story so it took this took about an hour to learn this okay um he said i was out in the banana fields he worked for the dole corporation actually there in honduras and he was working out of the banana fields and um you know these down in honduras there's these miles and miles of banana groves just miles of them and and he was out there you know i don't know what they do but trimming or working on the trees or whatever his village was up on this little ridge of this hillside and you can see the village and then he was out in this huge flat miles and mile spans of banana groves and um he said it started to rain and um and one of the things you have to watch for is flash floods there because uh it it's something that you know we don't even know uh what it's like here to have these kinds of flash floods well apparently it started raining so hard he he saw something to his horror he saw up on the ridges of the mountains water starting to gush in river-like form from the tops of the mountains that's how much rain was coming down and he thought oh no this is going to be bad so he dropped everything he was doing and he ran back up to his village and when he got to his village by that time the water was knee-deep throughout the whole village and it was rising you could actually see the water rising and he found his his um his wife and his little you know two-year-old daughter and they they got up uh in in the rafters of their uh hut where they lived because the water was now about 10 feet deep and their whole village was 10 feet deep underwater and then he broke a hole through the thatched roof of his hut and got up on the top of the roof and and was sitting there with his wife who was by the way nine months pregnant his wife's nine months pregnant uh his little two-year-daughter two-year-old and sitting up on the ridge of his roof and then pretty soon they're they're they're you can't see the house it's all underwater and he said they knew that they were gonna have to leave bale off of the house because it wasn't supporting them anymore now what happens with a bunch of these banana trees apparently is in these kinds of flood the root system of these banana trees are big enough to where there's a floatation that actually uproots the banana trees like the banana trees are planted in the ground but when it floods that much the banana trees pop up and then they turn upside down and these roots are floating around like so all these banana trees are starting to like float but that's the only thing floating and so he he grabs his family and they jump on a banana tree root and they're they're floating around on this banana tree root and um and he he explained to me how suddenly all these wild animals were looking for places to go to like um he and and he the only thing he had on him was this is a true story uh macgyver he had a swiss army knife uh in his pocket and the reason he pulls that out is because he had everything from a panther tried to get up on the route that he was on he was there with a swiss army knife trying to shoo away the the panther and also a deadly snake he said there was a snake that kept trying to get on his route he's like trying to fend that off and and and all the while his family's floating right at that point his wife her water breaks and she she goes into labor on this banana route um and there she is you know laboring and he's fighting off these animals and they're just floating off into oblivion um and the wind starts picking up as it turns out you might remember do you guys remember hurricane mitch that's the one it was quite a few years back hurricane mitch it was a big one though it was a really bad one and he was in the middle of hurricane mitch on a banana route with his family well they survived the storm floating on this route uh the baby came he literally cut the umbilical cord with his swiss army knife of his of his child uh true story um so they're floating there finally after two days two days this helicopter comes up and they're rescuing all these people that you know survived this hurricane down there and um but the problem was um the the helicopter was already jam-packed full of people um they only had room for really one more person they said only one more uh there's no more room literally so they took up joselina's wife with one of those little you know baskets and and they they said go ahead and bring the bait the baby to and the the daughter so they they barely were squeezing into this helicopter hanging on and but they had they threw her selena down some food like just because he'd been you know really hungry they threw a bunch of food down and they said we'll be back and they flew off the water there was no land in sight it looked to him like he was out in the middle of the ocean you couldn't see any ridges or mountains that's how far he had floated out to sea or whatever wherever he was and there he just sat there for another two weeks true story two weeks he almost died fortunately the food sustained him and they dropped him i think some water um but uh there was just too many people to rescue and they couldn't find him but finally the hurricane water level started to drop and he he finally saw land and so he with the last bit of his energy bailed off of his banana root after two weeks and um and was able to float off to shore uh the story gets even kind of crazier i don't have time to tell you all the details but he ends up splatting in the mud at the edge of the shore and he's just passes out when he wakes up the sun's shining the birds are chirping and he's just in the mud any any and he feels in his hand this strange object in the mud and he realized it's it's a bicycle tire uh in the mud and he thinks that's odd and he kind of starts digging and as it turns out it was a legitimate bicycle he dug out the bicycle rinsed it off and he kind of carried it up out of the mud and and he found you know an old road and just started pedaling and he peddled the bicycle into what eventually was um the one of the main cities there when he got there uh the hospitals were packed he was trying to find his family and he actually found his his wife his daughter and their newborn baby sort of in a triage care right in the middle of the street of the main street there of town um and so there he was he was reunited with his family and um and he was just sitting there and he said he had never felt such despair because everything he knew everything he owned everything he had was just is nothing he just had his family sitting in the middle of a street there in honduras it was at that point um this this american guy and this little white pickup comes driving up and he walks in and he finds this family and uh he says can i help you guys now this happens to be this guy is the guy who invited me to come speak at this pastor's conference one of my high school buddies from back in the old days who became a missionary in honduras matt mccollum and matt drove his little truck into town and the lord said you need to help a family and and i'll lead you to this family that's what the lord told matt so matt's like okay i'm going to find a family i'm going to help him and he found this family joselina his wife his now two children and he he scoops them up puts them in the truck brings them to the mission base there in uh in honduras and uh and ministers to them and it was at that point that um uh you know joselina had never seen such kindness and matt just said you know you need to have jesus as a part of your life that's the only way to get through this life and especially with what you've been through and this guy and his whole family they start weeping and they accepted the lord and became christians and shortly thereafter he became went into the pastoral training school and became a pastor within three years of a church in honduras that's the story of joselina next time you have a bad day just remember old old selena there in honduras that's a tough day at the office right there you know uh but it's a true story that is um almost miraculous and when you hear him tell it it's it's even more gripping but but here's the thing um i i have an advantage and a disadvantage and and i i probably oversell this one because i i have such respect for the men that i got to grow up around but i grew up in a not only in a group of men but a group of men in a church that i didn't realize really what i had around me as a young man growing up um i thought all men were like the men that i got to grow up around my pastor my dad um you know the elders in our church the people that were ministering in our church you know i just was surrounded by these um what i would now realize they're all kind of pillars of you know manhood biblical manhood i didn't realize it at the time i think even to this day i still get caught off guard with men's behavior when i see it uh and i just go oh that's so unfamiliar to me um weird stuff and i know this might sound really condescending i don't mean to sound this way but like when men are shaken by things that are really small you know and i see men kind of you know complaining and and and griping and grumbling about some of the smaller things and i think man that's so foreign to me i i know this sounds weird but things have happened to me like i've been in meetings you know like big meetings where a man got so upset he just got up and marched out of the meeting um and i thought that was the most ridiculous thing i'd ever seen i never saw a man get so hot and bothered that he huffed out of a meeting like a little ninny uh it just it just struck me so odd and i the guy the guy even said can i leave and i said no we're not done here like i wasn't being rude i was just i was just like this is new information i've never seen a guy act like that before i'm so like it's strange to me i still see some of those things and i think man now i've had over the years sort this out and realize wow i think that the guys that i grew up around they're the exception and it has to do with men and the way they view difficulties and trials and how they handle trouble and you know um i think that maybe and maybe i don't know this isn't a sociological study that i've done but i think maybe there's a there's a previous generation in general there's always the guys that didn't deal with difficulty well but i think that the ratio of men who knew how to face difficulty in trials maybe in a previous couple generations they handled stuff differently than i think today's man generally deals with it and and i'm not sure why it has probably something to do with the the feminizing of men today uh and us sort of acting and not meaning this to be a joke or mean but uh men are are sort of acting more like women today um that's just that's just what i often see um it makes me nervous like why is that happening is is it because our culture doesn't like masculinity they even have a word for it toxic masculinity now there is such thing as of course men behaving badly but when you put a label like toxic masculinity on men suddenly that's sort of demeaning masculinity and our culture celebrates the more feminized sort of version of a man did you guys did you guys see oh i shouldn't be saying this stuff is this recording right now uh um did you guys see a couple years back they were doing a study on the willamette river good news the willamette river is more clean than it was you know 10 years ago and and you know whether you can eat fish out of the willamette and stuff and i was like oh that's good you know i remember doing baptisms 25 years ago in the willamette and uh it was like this water stinks but oh well here it goes you know uh we're putting some more sins in this river here but whoo but now that the river's very pristine in fact the the study said that the willamette river water was as good as the drinking water in new jersey that's what it said but the one thing that they were troubled by here in the portland study of the willamette river water quality was all the now this is all the um estrogen uh drugs that people are taking these days uh for various uh health issues and stuff there's so much estrogen in the medicine that people are taking even though the water is you know filtered through the septic systems and the water filtration and all that they found a fairly large amount of estrogen in in the river water and the study found that the fish many of the fish were there i forget the term they use but the the male fish were having female characteristics uh because of so much uh estrogen did anybody see this study it was quite a few years ago but i remember thinking i'm not swimming in the willamette that sounds that sounds like it might not be a good thing um but but the you know they're they're saying it feminizes fish i wonder maybe that's the answer why portland's though i don't know i don't know it's our drinking water no i'm i'm just i'm not saying that's real i just that is what the study said but but but what what we need is to step back and say um maybe personally individually how do i deal with trials and difficulty do i deal with it um in in sort of the modern culturally relevant way of doing it with uh you know being super sensitive and and feeling and and and trying to you know nurse our way through a situation or are we more you know world war ii generation put your head down and just deal with it face it deal with it and and muscle our way through the challenges and difficulties how does our family view the way we handle this do my kids when they see trouble do they see a man that is setting his face like flint to the lord and trusting in the lord and realize that all these things are going to make us better and stronger or do my kids see a dad does what are we going to do and honey what do you think what should we do and i i don't know you know what are we what are we projecting to our kids and our our families um again i refer to that thing i mentioned that what was it the unit a tv show that was a few years back and i'll never forget this one officer was trying to control this outpost that was under attack and when when the when the elite unit got there everybody's kind of panicking and the commanding officer was like and didn't know what to do and the unit came in and the leadership of the of the main guy was awesome he he comes in smiling bullets zinging by his head he's like you need to project leadership here you know he smiles and he just walks through and everybody's like suddenly following him because of his confidence i feel like the church we need those kind of guys guys that are are truly putting our trust in the lord and we're not easily moved and we're not easily freaked out or worried or stressed out now don't get me wrong i understand that anxiety and stress is a very real part of life and i do think that some people have a greater proclivity towards stress we see that in the bible and i think david for example was one of those guys but david knew how to handle stress and he pressed through it we know that because he was a military hero he went through the most stressful of situations but he made it through those times it's not that we deny that bad things are happening or stressful times are coming but the idea is to to know how to deal with trials and tribulations and for us as men to perhaps go back a generation or two to how we deal with stress uh it's interesting because um really i think romans is where i'd like to start why don't you turn with me in romans uh chapter five paul the apostle was one such man that i think we could use as an example of how to deal with trials and troubles you know it's i'm not i'm not suggesting that we just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and be tough and be men that's not what i'm saying i would say for us to pull ourselves up by the biblical bootstraps and say what does the bible tell us about trials and troubles and and and first of all it's a mindset there's a mindset involved here that paul the apostle has that i think we need to kind of start with this mindset uh some of us oh i don't want anything to happen and i worry oh what's going to happen what if i have what if i get fired from oh no what if i get fired uh what happens if my finances are what happens if i get cancer what happens if someone dies you know and and we worry and worry but paul he starts out with a mindset before anything happened what did he say it's romans chapter five right here uh we'll start in verse three in romans 5 3 it says and not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that the tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us for when we were yet without strength in due time christ died for the ungodly man i love this paul just says we rejoice or glory in tribulation bring it on paul's saying why paul knew that tribulation ends up building us it builds these things it says it builds you know patience verse four experience and then experience brings about hope and then when you have the hope and patience and experience hope makes you not ashamed that behavior in trials and tribulation makes you ashamed and i think a lot of times we as men today we find ourselves ashamed because we don't feel like we handled things very well or we we didn't step up to the plate and i think there's a lot of shame in men today because they don't know how to deal with tribulations and trials but the old school biblical guy holds his head up high not because of his own pride but he's not ashamed because he was able to deal with the trial deal with the trouble in a biblical godly kind of way hope makes not ashamed because the love of god god's got you the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given to us and then i love this because some of you might say but brett i'm not that strong of a man guess what that's good it says here in in verse 6 4 when we were yet without strength in it says they're in due time christ died for the ungodly that's one of my favorite lines by the way in in maybe all the book of romans there's a lot of great ones but in due time christ died for the ungodly the reason i love that one is satan never accuses me of being godly brett you're so godly now maybe he would if he was trying to get me to be prideful or whatever but most of the time says like fred you're so ungodly you are such a loser spiritually satan's accusing the brethren day and night that's you and me the satan wants to accuse you as a guy that just doesn't measure up or is not spiritual enough or whatever and guess what you're ungodly but it says in due time christ died for that person that's us the lord loves us so much that he died for the ungodly um uh man i love that well all that to say you know this this rejoicing or glorying and tribulation that's what paul his mindset would say bring it on because these trials are going to make me better they're going to sharp sharpen with patience and experience and then hope you know and um and so so the thing is why are we going through trials why do we go with through difficulties and there's some things i want to kind of share with you guys about this just a few things and you can jot them down maybe in your notes and think about them and pray through it a little bit but the first thing um is um paul going through difficult times number one trials and tribulations are a surety it's a sure thing it's gonna happen in your life and if you're a young man and you haven't gone through really big trials and troubles hang on you will it's just part of life life brings you difficult days trials are a surety satan um uh is gonna try to mess with you by the way do you guys remember the four spiritual laws uh one of those four four spiritual laws i remember as a kid uh you know god loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life and that's true but i think there's a fifth spiritual law that they left out satan hates your guts and wants to kill you that's a that's a law right there satan he's the accuser he's the destroyer he wants to mess you up and one of the things that i think satan will often do is try to um trouble you and uh and whisper in your you're not gonna make it and you're going down and and satan is i think more of an author of fear uh is fear something the lord wants us to have well it depends on what kind of fear time the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge but the idea of being afraid uh is not really godly he's not giving us over to that spirit of fear but of you know love power and a sound mind um so this idea of trials uh jot down ii corinthians 11. in second corinthians 11 23 through 28 let me just read it to you it says here in second corinthians 11 23 it says um are they ministers of christ i speak as a fool i am more he said i'm more of a minister than anybody um he says in labor's more abundant in stripes now that's not stripes like military stripes that's like whipping stripes on his back this is what paul had to deal with he said i was whipped in stripes above measure in prison more frequent in deaths off how many can people say yeah i've dealt with death several times paul was left for dead maybe even did die and came back there's a theory that remember the vision of heaven that paul had maybe that's when they stoned him to death and left him for dead but then he came back he says also verse 24 of the jews five times received by forty stripes save one three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned for you portlanders that means with rocks um just uh just a heads up there guys uh once i was stoned paul said three three times i suffered shipwreck um and night and day have i been in the deep that means for like 24 hours he was floating in the ocean the mediterranean sea uh this paul knew what suffering is see the reason i share second corinthians here with you is because well even goes on verse 26 in journeys often perils of waters perils of robbers perils of mine own countrymen his jews that were hating him in perils by the heathen in perils in the city and perils of the wilderness perils in the sea in perils among the false brethren in weariness and painfulness and watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and in nakedness beside those things that were without which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches like paul he's saying listen i know what trouble is i've been through trials and i think it's great that paul's the one saying i rejoice in tribulation because because nobody in this room i think could say well paul you don't know what i'm going through you don't understand the suffering you know you're you're the one saying nobody knows the trouble i've seen no well paul he's he's the guy that can say this paul if there's anybody you can say it paul said yeah shipwrecked dead stoned um you know hated uh despised uh all these things whipped uh with these uh flagellum probably the same kind of whip that jesus was whipped with so paul he's saying listen trials and tribulation that's part of the deal um in second timothy 3 12 the bible says this all who live godly in christ shall suffer persecution and trouble that's that's a promise of god's word name it and claim it it's funny how we love to name the promises that are so positive but we don't like to you know stick on our mirror the memory verse you know those who live godly will suffer persecution that's a promise of god's word um you know jesus taught us in luke chapter 9 verse 23 he said you know take up your cross daily and follow me what does it mean to take up your cross well a cross is a burden a cross is something that's not fun a cross implies suffering and challenges take up your cross daily and follow me first peter chapter 4 verse 12. interestingly enough it says this in first peter 4 12. it says beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you but rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers of christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding joy so interesting it says here that you know you and i shouldn't be shocked or think it's a weird thing why am i going through trouble have you ever noticed that that's the general attitude when we go through trials why am i going through this um i think the wise man gets to a place in his life when he says why not why wouldn't i be going through trials why wouldn't i be going through troubled times um we we think somehow in our entitled culture um in a in a world that says you and i deserve to be comfortable and happy and you know uh even in our our nation you know we believe in um you know the pursuit of happiness life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and if that gets challenged in any way shape or form suddenly you know why lord why but we we should be saying why not what do we deserve you know um it's like that old charles had in spurgeon saying hey as long as you're not in hell and burning for all eternity if you're still alive and not now rejoice be glad so when the car breaks down uh when when the the boss doesn't pay you when you get to the doctor and they say cancer uh when when things are difficult for you and for your family don't think that's strange so you know what this is this is the way it's gonna go the bible promises this one of the reasons i think that modern day church doesn't deal with trials very well we've wrongly preached that when you become a christian and the gospel of jesus means you accept the lord and you become a christian and then from that day forward your life is going to be rosy now now i understand why we've preached that way because the the real true christian we do feel like even with the trials we're like man my life is so much better knowing jesus and having the hope of heaven like that is true and so when we preach the gospel we say hey if you accept christ man your life will change you'll have joy in your heart that's all true but we also do say you might have joy but you also might have cancer and you might get fired from your job and and people might hate you for that the bible's very clear that those bad things will still happen it's just that as a christian like paul i rejoice in tribulation um bring it on lord you know it's whatever you want for my life as bad and painful as it might be i need to learn to just say i'm trusting that god knows exactly what he's doing take up my cross walk with the lord daily don't think it's strange when trials happen to me as some strange thing has happened to me but rejoice it says why should we be shocked do we think we deserve anything else that's the problem and i have to apologize to our young people in fact i'm going to say young meaning millennials all the way down gen z i'll tell you why because you know millennials get this bad rap all the time you know and they i don't hear it as much now because the millennials are the older people now but do you remember when millennials were constantly being bashed and it was always millennials being bashed by gen xers which is my generation um and and i always kind of thought about that for a second wait a minute gen xers aren't they your kids like you're the ones who raised them to get the blue ribbon stupidly um remember everybody got the blue ribbon and everybody got the trophy for participation we did that to the millennial generation and it still happens you know to this gen z generation and so i apologize like like um but but one thing i'd like to undo if i could is this idea of entitlement that i'm entitled to you know a perfectly peaceful happy life because that's just not true and we've believed that that you know we think we deserve somehow no trials and no troubles but if you are equipped as a man of god and you know what the bible says you know trouble is coming and we're not going to be shocked by that it may not not have reached you yet if you're you know 16 years old maybe you haven't had trouble yet you will well bret that's kind of scary well sometimes you know it's best to start saying well i need to become the man that's going to be able to face these things and be the strength and to be the leader through those trials and so starting to equip yourself today to be ready for the trial of tomorrow we'll talk about that equipping in a second um you know it reminds me of that story um in the 1950s um a um instructor there at west point was instructing you know the the soon-to-be you know officers um about uh survival he had a class on how to survive out you know without food and all this stuff and you know the guy was an expert but he noted that there was something that happened um and it happened to be that he his the guys were yawning in his class and they were all kind of him and hawn and they wouldn't study and they were barely passing his class and you know and he just thought man how do i get these guys suddenly all of a sudden um one year he started teaching and the guys were taking notes very specifically and and you know uh writing and then asking questions afterward and acing the test what was the difference a little thing called vietnam once once those you know military officers knew they could end up in a jungle somewhere for real they started listening to the survival guy because what he was talking about had something to do with total reality the the point is i think for you young men you need to equip yourselves right now because the battle's coming and it's real and satan hates you and wants to mess you up and the lord will allow even trust sometimes it's not satan sometimes the lord allows struggles in our lives because he's building hope patience and experience so to equip yourself is important why because trials are a surety it's a sure thing it's going to happen in your life the question might be for you is am i going to be ready when that happens we'll talk about that in a second what readiness is number two trial so number one trials uh you know and tribulations are a surety they're a sure thing number two trials and tribulations lead to maturity you'll never know how far along you are in your maturity in your faith in your biblical manhood than when you're beaten up there's something about going through trials and troubles and getting beaten up once in a while you start to grow and you realize where you are it's like a gauge remember the guy in school that thought he was so tough and thought he could take anyone and then they got in a fight and some little dude pounds the big guy or you know the guy that thought he was so tough and he the guy just didn't know how to fight but he thought he was so good but you know there's always those guys that know and then don't know um yeah but but the the proof is in the pudding i i think that that's like our christian faith i'm pretty good with life you know i've got an instagram account and i'm an influencer and i'm living life large but when the trial comes how much of that influencing will really help you will you really survive the challenging things of this life um you know i love go to james chapter one flip over there with me i love how james puts this because he's also talking about equipping [Music] young men to be ready for this stuff it's james chapter one this is where we're going to take a look here again under this category trials and tribulations lead to maturity it leads to maturity check this out james chapter 1 verse 2. like paul he says verse 2 my brethren count it all joy same thing as rejoicing count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations now the word temptation there by the way uh can also be translated um trial or you know tribulation is the idea here um knowing verse three knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect an entire wanting nothing this king james language is a little tricky there in verse four when it says let patience so so trials and troubles brings about patience and then patience brings about a perfect work that you might be perfect the word perfect there in the the greek word can also be translated to the word mature full maturity perfect because you say brett nobody's perfect but that's not really what james is saying the word perfect is maybe better bringing yourself to full maturity but let patients have a perfect work that you may be mature and entire the word entire there means complete are you matured and complete if not let the trials and the troubles that come your way start working the maturity into your life that you desperately that i desperately need if you and i approach it saying oh no here's a problem why me that that's going to be a waste of time but if you say hey here comes a trial lord mature me through this trial give me patience through this trial help me to trust you and and equip me to make it through you know this trial and then he i love what james he goes on and says but if any of you lack wisdom verse 5 let him ask of god i love that next section there but but the point is um james agrees with paul rejoice or glory and tribulations why because it builds you uh and it strengthens you and it matures you um and and that's that's where the rubber meets the road when bad things happen are you mature enough to handle those things are you equipped do you have the tools and the skill sets as men to get through those difficult times the old saying is true christians are like tea bags you'll never know what you're made of until you're put in hot water i i know guys like that you know we all talk a good game but when you're in hot water and you're in real trouble that's when you see what you're really made of um so you know if you're beaten down if you're going through troubles good things can come from it and you have to acknowledge that that's part of the thing that can help you get through that trial that difficulty saying you know what good things are going to come from this um there's some pictures by the way not to get overly uh uh spiritual or deep about this but um if you want to do an exhaustive study of this there's there's things in the bible that talks about um uh the the lord you know pounding away i should say um remember how you and i are um called to be the light in the world jesus said i am the light of the world and then he said you are the lights what what single thing in the old testament pictures jesus as the light of the world and us being the lights in the world anybody somebody nobody the candlestick in the in the whole in the holy place remember that now this is an interesting thing jesus said i am literal the candlestick or the menorah they're in the in the you know tabernacle and then later in the temple was you you've seen them the jewish menorah it's one post with a light on top but then there's branches that come out and depending on which one you have whether it's like a hanukkah menorah or whatever there's different numbers but but all that to say there's oil in the little oil lamp that's sitting on a stand that's why it's called a lamp stand or a candlestick holder if you would the oil of the little thing sitting on top of the of the little platform and the branches going out and the picture you know the old testament is pictures remember we talked about types and pictures jesus is the light of the world but i'm the vine you are the branches jesus says but we also get to reflect his light like there's a great picture of what the church is supposed to be but some of the things about that the oil um where did where does the oil come from olive oil comes from the olives being beaten and crushed interesting picture there um even the lamp stand itself was it cast in a in a mold did they take all that gold because the lampstand was maybe the most costly of all the things in the tabernacle or the temple did you know the jews actually have the gold to make the new lampstand for the the next temple uh the temple institute they've had you know jewish billionaires around the globe actually put money in for the lampstand but it's it's worth over two billion dollars like that's how much money the slam stand is got gold they've got it all put away in a bank uh so that when they make the temple they can make the lampstand they made a model of it because it would be too expensive to try to secure something like that that's worth so much money it's kind of a funny story but instead of pouring the gold melted into a cast how did they do it well the lampstand was of a beaten work the bible says a beaten work exodus 25 uh verses 31 through 36 talks about how it was of a beaten work and and it comes through pounding and beating and and it causes when the lights were flickering in the candle the gold would flicker and reflect against that beaten work if you could picture that you know they they spoke of the beauty of the lampstand because it wasn't just a shiny smooth thing but it was it was a more of a sparkly light uh this candlestick beaten olives beaten gold beaten um we could talk about you know the the pictures there of just going through those poundings that the lord allows us to shape us to be the lights of the world like there's some great analogy there there's even the the church that's persecuted in the book of revelation called the church at smyrna um it's where myrrh was taken they were the persecuted church the pounded church but jesus had nothing bad to say about that church all five of the other churches he had a like massive correction but the church of smyrna the beaten church the persecuted church interesting myrrh was where that was from uh they'd they'd take mer and crush it and as they pounded myrrh this beautiful fragrance would come from the myrrh and uh it's funny the illustration of the church that is beaten and crushed there's a beautiful fragrance that comes from that and it was the church that was squared away i wonder if that's true with us the more beaten we are the brighter we shine have you guys seen that have you seen men in the church who've been through horrible horrible things you go man they shine pretty bright i know guys like that that have just been through horrible things you'd think they'd be walking around like eeyore but they're running around like tigger what's going on with that it has to do with this maturity and this you know the lord says i'm gonna take your your bummers and i'm gonna turn them around and mature you and i'm gonna make you shine brightly because of the sufferings that you've been through the olive oil was beaten the candlestick was beaten the church of smyrna was beaten but um but man uh the church shines bright when when we go through trials and troubles some of us very hesitatingly and we've heard you know some of the bold men of past say what we need to pray for is persecution of the church i'm not praying for that but i understand what people say that because that might just be the thing that makes the church shine the brightest in these days i think the church is growing dimmer and dimmer because we're losing our way we're afraid of teaching the bible as it stands and we're making stuff up as we go and we're losing our brightness but a little persecution that might just separate the men from the boys just like it did in the early church when they were persecuted there's an old quote i don't know who said it some people change their ways when they see the light others only when they feel the heat uh you know some of some of you are learning by seeing the light you follow jesus and you just get it others of you are gonna have to learn when you feel the trials and the temptations but like peter don't think it's strange when you encourage or encounter fiery trials which are to to mature you so trials and tribulations are a sure thing number two assurity number number two trials and tribulations lead to maturity but thirdly trials and tribulation will be a testimony a testimony um you know i love i love the um the beautiful testimony of going through suffering and a christian who does that with great strength and what happens to that that man he becomes this testimony of god i feel like we lack that in our culture because we've become so weakened and we've we've you know or were as men we were you know resigned to just step aside and let our wives be the spiritual leaders in our home and and you know we're going through troubles and we're just quiet and we just kind of internally try to struggle through but instead of letting those trials do what they're going to do trials and tribulation can be a beautiful testimony i remember the story there the book of acts you know where chapter 16 where paul and silas remember they were beaten and they were chained up and they were thrown into that jail cell i've seen the jail cell there in philippi where they believe paul and silas were imprisoned um and um and this this this prison there they are what do they do they're bloodied they're chained to the wall and they start singing praises at midnight to the lord now i used to think they were putting on a show this was manipulation you know we're going to show that we're not broken we're just going to sing praises and they thought they've got us but i used to think that's what it was but i'm realizing no it wasn't manipulation but it was an expectation paul and silas somehow knew that their sufferings they're being beaten and chained to that wall in the prison in philippi they were already rejoined oh lord this is awesome we just got beat and now we're chained to this wall and something good's gonna come from this because these bummers always turn into blessings this is this is what paul and silas do i don't think they were singing praises because they're like this will make the bible acts chapter 16. portland guys will be talking about us singing let's keep singing you know silas no they were singing knowing there was a bigger picture knowing that god was in control they were worshiping the lord um in their trial their suffering and because of that remember what happened the lord did a great thing busted the jail doors open all the prisoners were set free the philippian jailer was going to kill himself because you lose your prisoners your toast the guy was going to kill himself but paul says hey don't hurt yourself we're all still here and the philippian jailer got saved that day and him and his whole family got baptized that day and that was the beginning of a church called the church in philippi later we read the book of philippians to that church one of the most glorious books in all the new testament you see paul and silas they knew that their bummers were about to be you know turned around for a blessing um first peter chapter 3 verses 14 through 18 you know um kind of reminds us that we are to um you know kind of have an answer uh to of what's happening in our faith um the the the um you know the idea is the bummer turns out to make us bright number four i'm running out of time so we got to keep moving number four trials and tribulations will help you to number four know jesus personally um you know it's interesting we we know how jesus was beaten and we know that he went through every suffering you know the only one that could say i know more about suffering than paul the apostle in my book is uh is jesus himself you know you you think of isaiah 53 where it says in verse 4 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows that's all of ours yet we just we did esteem him stricken he was smitten and uh of god and he was afflicted and he was wounded for our transgression he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed isaiah 53 says jesus suffered uh deeply so that we might have salvation um you know it's interesting shadrach meshach and abednego went through a fire trial um but they they had an interesting thing happen remember when they were thrown into the fiery furnace by nebuchadnezzar when they wouldn't bow down to a statue do you remember what happened the three dudes were thrown in the fire furnace that was heated seven times hotter uh remember that the buff babylonian soldiers they when they went to throw them in they got burned up like that's how legit this fire was so there's shadrach meshach and abednego thrown in the fire furnace and then nebuchadnezzar who if i made the movie i would i would have uh cast him with don knotts remember the guy from barney fife uh because nebuchadnezzar he walked something hey didn't we throw three guys in there but the fourth guy there's a fourth guy in there who's the fourth guy and and he said he looks like the son of god how he's pretty bright he figured it out it's true it was a pre-incarnate appearance of jesus that showed up in the fiery furnace with shadow and you know it's amazing that shadrach meshach and abednego the only thing that burned was the bondage the ropes that were on their hands the fiery trial that was meant to destroy them by the enemy was the very thing that freed them from the ropes that tied them up and in the fiery trial that's where they saw they got the privilege of all the old testament people they were three of the guys out of a few that got to meet the pre-incarnate version of jesus standing there in the fire furnace with them do you think they were enjoying that i think the answer is yes well how do we know they were enjoying it was it like a sauna were they in there oh that feels pretty good you know sweat out those uh you know impurities no is that what they were doing no um they they they were in there their bondage was broken off and they were in there and do you remember that nebuchadnezzar had to say hey uh you guys come on out of there like if i were just thinking to myself here if i were thrown in a fire furnace and then my ropes were broken and i wasn't burning i'd say awesome pure i'd be out of there i'd be out of there as quick because i'm like i'm not burning for now but how what about 10 seconds from now i'm out of here but shadrach meshach and abednego seemed to just be comfortable hanging out in the fiery furnace with jesus and you think that sounds a little crazy but some of you as men you figured this out i'd rather hang out in the fiery furnace with jesus than to be just going with the flow of the world outside of the fire furnace when you're facing trials and troubles to say you know what i'm going to embrace this i'm here in this trial this struggle god's got me here i'm going to see him more clearly through the trial my bondage is going to be burnt off and i'd rather be free in following christ in the furnace than you know live and large and be in a worldly wacko the problem is there's a lot of men that would rather be worldly wackos than to be guys in the fire and and remember what we read in um you know about in philippians chapter 3 verses 8 through 10. there's something that paul calls the fellowship of his sufferings let me read it to you philippians 3 verse 8 through 10 it says this um it says yea doubtless i count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of jesus christ my lord for who i have suffered the loss of all things paul says i've lost everything but he says i i count that great because i have christ he says i have suffered the loss of all things and do count them as dumb paul got to a place where all the good stuff that people long for he says that's all just a bunch of manure and and then he says that i may win christ i'd rather have nothing but win christ he's saying and verse 9 be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of christ the but the righteousness which is of god by faith listen that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death what's paul saying he's saying everything i was saying about the shadrach meshach and abednego i'll take trouble and fiery trials way over the world and comfort to be with christ but then he says but also we have this thing called the fellowship of his sufferings you know he says that i might know him we will know christ more intimately when you and i go through struggles and troubles trials and tribulations will help you know jesus personally it's part of that personal relationship that the lord wants to have with you and with me and so you say okay brett got it trials and troubles part of the deal and hopefully we know it's a surety and it leads to maturity and it leaves a testimony like paul and silas they were a testimony in their trouble people got saved because of their troubles trials and tribulations will help you know jesus personally that's all great brett so you're kind of saying that it's all good when you're going through trouble yes and if you can have that mindset to say i i embrace the trouble that comes my way now you say but that's great but you talked about the equipping how do i better equip myself you know those guys that were in the classroom at west point uh how do i make sure that i know how to survive in the jungle uh because because if you're saying it's a sure thing how do we do that well there's a couple things that i can tell you and i know that these might be just dismissed as oh yeah yeah do that read your bible and pray every day but i hope you never dismiss that when people say you've got to read your bible and pray every day first of all read your bible one of the things that will help you get through your trials and troubles is to have faith if you have faith and you realize that god is doing everything we just talked about and you know that beyond knowing it then suddenly nothing really moves you you won't be moved so easily if if you hear that you're fired um or you're laid off because the coronavirus or you know you you get that diagnosis of cancer you won't be moved if you have that faith built up so much so you know the lord's in control he knows exactly what i need he knows what's good for me and if cancer is good for me i'm gonna accept that how do you how do you get that level of faith well as it turns out let's see if you know the answer faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god the only way i know to be a man that is able to be readied for the trials that you're going to face perfectly knowing it's going to come the only way you're really going to be ready for that is to be a man of the word faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god your faith is not just you saying i'm going to i'm just going to believe nope there's there's a a supernatural thing that happens to the man that's that's in the word regularly you show me a man that's daily reading the word of god making it a part of his life even if he doesn't understand everything he reads and if that's you guess what join the crowd we don't i don't understand everything i read in the bible but um you know especially when i was younger like most of the things i don't have any idea what this means but as you read the word kind of throughout your life something happens one you start to understand the word more and more and then the dots all start getting connected but then also supernaturally the lord gives you that level of faith that you and i so desperately need to survive this world the trials and the troubles you and i need to be men of the word so that we're men of faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god so equip yourselves young men start early don't wait till you're older and you know when i get old trouble will come and stuff who knows when trouble is going to come it might be when you're 15. but you need to be a man of faith you need to start building up that faith you know it's the one offensive weapon we've been given the sword of the spirit the word of god and i fear that there's a lot of men that don't know how to handle the sword and yet they're facing battles in this life and then they are uh which end do you hold again and uh what what what scripture was that again about the no be it be one who's a a wielder of the sword of the spirit the word of god another thing that you can do to equip yourself is to be in prayer um pray without ceasing for this is the will of god to be a man of prayer you know there's something about prayer that starts to build up that faith as well i think when you're praying for the situations that you're facing um you're casting your cares on the lord i think too many men face their difficulties excuse me and they and they look at the problem i think i gotta fix that and and and because they think i got to do something they forget that it's the lord that actually has to do something they forget that god is in control they forget that god may have even allowed you to be in that situation in the first place and there's something about prayer that puts everything in the right perspective lord this situation i'm facing right now is way bigger than anything i know how to deal with so lord i'm going to cast my cares upon you you have not because you asked not the bible says and when you're facing problems and you fail to ask the lord for help the lord might say okay good luck with that i'll let you handle that but you can't but if you're saying lord i can't handle this problem but i want you to be my strength and guide me through this you know these are the men that i grew up with men of faith men of the word men of prayer you know um whether it was my dad you know we'd we'd be facing something as a family and my dad would just like well let's pray about that always and the family we just bow our heads right there wherever we are we could have been in the front yard talking about frisbee and all of a sudden let's pray about this okay and we'd all pray because it was more of a constant conversation with the lord pray without ceasing be in the word be in prayer and be men of faith and and then when the trials come you'll be equipped you won't be easily moved none of these things will move you um it's some people think well there's just brave men and then there's weak men that's just the way people think it is but you know what's funny is if you look at the men of the bible a lot of them were really weak men what what made them strong men consider the disciples and this is what i'll end with the disciples were bumbling stumbling goofballs now i say that reverently but they were jesus chose these guys they were constantly afraid oh we're going to perish in the water a few little waves out in the sea of galilee we're gonna die i know save us you know they're all freaking out they're saying stupid things all the time they're just these kind of bumbling guys and then even when jesus was taken in the garden of god70 man what happened to the disciples pure they took off the only one that even sort of stayed was peter but he followed afar off and was warming his hands by the enemy's fire because he wanted to kind of see what was happening i remember the little girl came to him and said you're one of those i am not blank any blankety blank and it'll do like like it's a crazy crazy story of just total you know total fear peter peter was a fearful dude but do you remember there in john chapter 20. when jesus resurrected and he appeared to them in that room they were the bible says they were assembled in john chapter 20. for fear of the jews they were just big chickens in the in the upper room hiding away and jesus was dead but he had rose from the grave but they're all assembled for fear of the jews they're fearful fear fulfilled but then jesus comes in and says peace and it says he breathed on them listen this is this is the final part of being equipped as a man for trials and troubles he breathed on simon on them and said receive ye the holy ghost and there they received the holy ghost now by the way there's these three relationships the holy spirit is with you in you and upon you jesus told them now go wait in jerusalem where the holy spirit's going to come upon you so they waited acts chapter 1 and acts chapter 2 suddenly the holy spirit shows up in acts chapter 2 and fills them up and and suddenly you've got a totally different peter instead of being the peter that's running around saying stupid stuff all the time and bumbling around as a fearful guy and doubting and and you know suddenly in acts chapter two you got this bold powerful preacher what made him bold and powerful did he go to seminary between acts chapter you know or you know john chapter 20 in acts chapter 2 did he go to seminary that didn't make him a godly faithful man what made him a godly faithful man is first of all jesus saved him but then he breathed on him and then he received the holy ghost and then aft after that you see these massively brave men who are no longer afraid of anything in acts chapter 4 remember they said stop spreading this news about jesus they said to peter and peter said to the same guys that killed jesus the sanhedrin the same guys he said we ought to obey god rather than men that's a very different peter than the one that was afraid of those guys hiding away quivering in his sandals up in the upper room what happened to peter is he was filled with the holy ghost and the spirit moved in him and gave him the words to say and how to handle massive persecution and all those guys would end up being as bold and as brave as a man could ever be and it wasn't because of some you know just reading a book finding awakening the giant within or some stupid thing like that it was these guys were filled with the holy spirit men of the word men of prayer and because they were equipped when the challenges came they they stepped up and the lord blessed them with the strength and gave them the words to say and got them through the difficulties well brett um i happen to know the end of the story they hung peter upside down on a cross and crucified him like jesus only upside down yeah but that's a good way to go if you ask me i mean you're if you're going to go down go down in a blaze of glory serving christ doing what god wants you to do because really it's not about this life is it um i think that you know when i read fox's book of martyrs i think there may not be a man on the earth that exists like those men of that day those men faced trials and troubles and i don't even know how they did i think they were filled with the spirit i forget which one it was the guy that was the first century christian martyr he was a pastor and they told him recant deny jesus and he wouldn't so they they they took him and they they fired up this huge it was a torture device it was meant to to cook slow cook a person they'd build it with hot coals and then they had literally like a barbecue grill big one and they would strap this guy onto the grill and they'd light the fire and they'd slowly cook him and he would eventually just sizzle to death brutal torturous death but in fox's book of martyrs you can read about these guys this one guy is laying on this thing they light it up and he's just glowing not because of the coals his face is shining history tells us the people that were watching it said he literally was smiling and rejoicing as he was there sizzling and they came up to him and they're like what's going on here and they're like trying to figure out what's wrong with their fire and and the guy says this i forget the exact words but he said he said this he said i think my backside is done it's time to flip me over that's what he said that is a true story in history does anybody remember the name of that guy huh first century guy uh i forget his name i'm gonna bring it next time because he's a great guy should be remembered but but many of those first century tortured guys they they smiled and they worshipped and they they withstood the worst of trials and man i don't know if there's a man that exists today that has that same kind of brave stick-to-itiveness for the lord that's what we need to do is be men of faith men of the word men of prayer men of the holy spirit by the way how do you get the holy spirit you fathers being evil know how to give good gifts to your kids how much more will the father give the holy ghost to what them that ask man daily be praying lord would you fill me afresh with your holy spirit that i might be the man you've called me to be and when you face trials when your kids and your wife sees you guys going through troubles they're going to see a man that is not the you know the the disciples shaking in their sandals they'll see the man the disciple that's boldly declaring truth and being a bright and shining light that's what we need men to face trials uh in a godly biblical way amen amen lord how we pray that you'd help us to face trials um in the way that your word tells us to lord um we've accepted a culture we've accepted a norm of really the um weakening of men and for us to take a back seat and not to lead and and for us to really be fearful men um lord we see fear as the new virtue in our country where people are really happy to be afraid of a virus and afraid of sickness and afraid of death but lord i pray that we'd be men of faith and like paul we would say we don't count our lives dear to ourselves but we put our trust in you lord i pray that each one of my brothers that we would be men of your word and men of faith father help us i pray when the spirit is willing maybe in this meeting right now our spirit is willing but we admit lord that our flesh becomes weak so be our strength remind us of this mindset lord i pray that we wouldn't hear this word and have it go in one year and out the other and walk out of here unchanged but let let your word just penetrate our hearts lord i pray that it might bring forth good fruit we ask this lord knowing you've heard our prayers in jesus name amen amen let's stand together well ironworks uh good stuff iron sharpening iron that's what i pray the lord does for all of us that we become sharper as we walk with the lord so may the lord bless you don't forget may 15th big breakfast great time we're gonna have next time we'll see you then dear dismiss god bless you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 4,362

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: fWDX42BXNmQ

Length: 70min 25sec (4225 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 10 2021