"Why God Allows Trials" | Pastor Steve Gaines

well again open your bibles to james chapter one we're going to walk through the book of james and you know i've got a discipleship group with four young men who are going to be pastors they're serving on our staff and we are memorizing the book of james as well and you might want to try that and five chapters i promise you just a couple of verses a week and you can memorize it and it is really some powerful stuff now why in the world does god allow trials does anybody recognize the name the apostle paul does anybody know that guy yeah the apostle paul wrote a lot of the new testament and the apostle paul was begging god one day to take what he called a thorn in his flesh we don't know what it was we have no idea what it was but something that was just irritating him no end and he said god please i'm asking you take this away and god said no second time god please take this away no god third time please take this way now look if anybody could get an answer to prayer it ought to be the apostle paul all right third time god says no and here's why this is the gaines translation all right you're better off with this trial than without it paul i have caught you up into heaven i have let you seen i have let you see heaven i have given you inspiration you have written almost half of what will be the new testament i have given you great miracles if you didn't have this thorn in your flesh if i didn't allow a trial to stay with you most of the time son it wouldn't be good you'd get all proud you'd get all arrogant you'd think you were doing it paul and listen you are better with this thorn in your side than you are without it you say god really thinks that way absolutely so god's not going to let you just sit around and be comfortable that's what we want amen we want to be physically comfortable we want to be spiritually comfortable we don't want any discomfort god is not interested in your spiritual comfort level he is not interested in your comfort he is interested in you being christ-like all right and for that to happen he's going to allow trials to come into your life so that you will exercise your faith muscles faith is a muscle you have to exercise it or it gets soft and flabby and you he's going to make sure that these trials come your way so that you will rely on him in faith and not rely on yourself now i want to talk to you about trials let's read the text one more time would you just read since we've got it on the screen would you just read it with me let's let's read it good and strong here we go consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing now let's go down to verse 12 because it's connected here we go blessed is a man who perseveres under trial for once he's been approved he will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to those who love him give you three reasons god allows us to go through trials number one he does that so that we can exhibit a cheerful response you say a cheerful response god expects me to be cheerful to respond cheerfully when i have a trial yes look at verse 2. consider it count it all joy my brethren when you encounter come into contact with unexpectedly various trials and he's writing to jewish christians and they were doubly hated they were hated by the gentiles because they were jews they were hated by the jews who were not christians because they were christians so really they didn't have just a whole lot of friends they were people who were going through constant trials james said to them count it all joy consider it all joy consider is a verb of command god was commanding them to look at their trials as an opportunity to display joy and joy what is that it's part of the fruit of the holy spirit love joy peace patience and on and on when they were joyful in their trials they were displaying the fact that they were loving god and he said it's all joy consider it all joy full joy complete joy supreme joy the highest kind of joy it's exactly what jesus said in the sermon on the mount and i've told you several times now but you're going to see it all the way through james i'm going to be referring a lot back to the sermon on the mount because the book of james in many ways is a commentary on the sermon on the mount matthew 5 6-7 and what did jesus say in matthew 5 10-12 god blesses those who are persecuted for doing right for the kingdom of heaven is theirs god blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all kinds and sorts of evil things against you because you're my followers be happy about it be very glad that's there it is right there for a great reward awaits you in heaven and remember the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way notice too in james 1 2 it's when you encounter various tribes not if every christian will inevitably experience trials god uses them in his sovereign sanctifying plan sanctification is being made more like jesus so it's when you encounter various trials that word encounter is the greek word parapipto and it means to fall into a problem that you didn't see coming it's kind of like back in december don and i were in panama city taking a week of vacation and we were sitting there in our car at the red light and man the thing turned green the guy the lady in front of us took off and right when i was about to give it gas this guy i don't know if he's talking on his phone what he was doing but he hit us in this big truck right by and just smashed into the back of us i mean just really messed up the car and the whole bit we didn't see it coming that's the kind of thing he's talking about when you encounter something you're just minding your own business going along living for jesus reading your bible loving the lord whatever and wham just like getting hit in the back of a car and that's what he means and by the way that that word encounter you can read it for what it really means in another part of the bible there's a story jesus tells a parable that jesus tells about a man who was walking down from jerusalem to jericho and he fell among thieves philamong unexpectedly is parapipto its encounter he encountered some thieves he all of a sudden was being robbed and he was beaten he was just walking down the road and suddenly these guys jumped him and that's what trials do they jump you they jump you you can come right out of church and you can be in a fight with your family before you get home amen don't act so holy i said amen amen that's right you can get into you can get in you can have a bad thought you can you can read your bible and pray and have this glorious hallelujah time and all of a sudden wham there's a trial just like that that's what he's talking about various trials by the way diversified trials it it literally means multi-colored there's all kinds of trials i want to say this to you about the time you say well i think i've seen every kind of trial there is here comes another one you see i didn't see that i had no idea that you could even be have a trial like that i will say this to you by the way don't mistake trials and temptations god sends trials to purify us to make us more like jesus it's called sanctification but god does not tempt you to sin now why do i say that because we live in a culture that says if somebody wants to sin nowadays they just say well god made me this way look at me god doesn't make you sin god doesn't say thou shalt not do this and then turn around and give you the desire to do it you say okay where do i get those desires there are three sources of your desire to sin number one the devil will tempt you number two this evil world will tempt you but number three let's get some ownership into it we have a sinful nature that will tempt us as well okay so it could be the devil it could be the world it could be our own sinful nature but it's not god don't say god made me this way if you're trying to justify your sin god does not tempt you to sin he tests you to make you more like jesus but he never ever tempts you to sin he gives you those times of testing so that instead of just curling up in a fetal position and crying and i'm not in any way minimizing your suffering i'm not but you've got to come out of that and you've got to start giving god joy the bible talks about a sacrifice of praise sometimes praise cost you something you've got to sacrifice sometimes when you're praising the lord and display christian joy there was a man we don't know his name in the 3rd century a.d that left behind this beautiful little paragraph in written form and he was writing to a friend these were some of his last words before he died and he said you know we live in a bad world it is an incredibly bad and sinful world but i have discovered in the midst of this bad world a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret they have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any sinful pleasure in this life they are despised they are persecuted but they don't care they have overcome the world these people i'm talking about are the christians and i have become one of them why did he become a christian because he saw them going through trials and they gave god glory anyway not for the trial but in the midst of the trial they were joyful you can experience exhibit rather a cheerful response when you're going through a tough time when you're going through a hard time you can praise god in pain you can celebrate in suffering you can bless him when you're under a burden remember job now i want to say this to you i'm not i'm not in any way minimizing anybody's trial in here but i would seriously doubt we've got anybody here who went through trials at the level of job he lost all of his farm animals he lost all of his crops he lost all of his money he lost his health he lost his 10 children he had 10 children and they were all killed the walls a tornado came through a strong wind came through and pushed the walls down and killed all 10 of his children at the same time and it all happened at the same time the devil had said to god if you didn't take such good care of job he would curse you to your face and god said you can let things happen to him you can let trials come to him but don't take his life and all of it was stripped away and then his wife comes up they were her children too and she says hey why don't you just curse god and die she was so frustrated with life she was ready to give up so what's job do he's got even his better half is telling him to curse god what's he going to do he's going to do what god tells him to do to bless god in the midst of your persecution or to curse god well he chose the right way job 2 verse 10 but he said to her you speak as one of the foolish women speaks shall we indeed accept good from god and shall we not accept adversity in all this job did not sin with his lips one of the sweetest people i've ever met in my life was the guy that was a pastor here before me adrian rogers godly man was pastor here for 32 years and if you bought one of his books he wrote almost 30 books i don't even think i've read 30 books but anyway he wrote 30 books i have read 30 books but if you if he signed his book to you he always wrote this verse the reference to it psalm 31 34 verse 1. it's so good let's read it together would you read it with me i will bless the lord say with me now at all times let's read that one again i will bless the lord at all time let's read it again i will bless the lord his praise shall what continually be what in my mouth i may be hurting on the inside but i'm going to let his praises come out of my mouth that's a sacrifice of praise that's when you do right when you don't feel like doing it that's when god says now that's my child right there that's my job right there the apostles were beaten and they rejoiced in the midst of it they were beaten because they preached the gospel acts chapter 5 41-42 so they went on their way from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name and every day in the temple and from house to house they kept right on teaching and preaching jesus as the christ paul said in romans 5 verses 3 and 4 more than that we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces something endurance that thing that makes you stick to something even when you're tired and endurance produces character and character produces hope paul said in philippians 4 verse 4 rejoice in the lord when always always again i will say rejoice first thessalonians 5 18 in everything not just in a few things but in everything give thanks for this is god's will for you in christ jesus some of you have lost your jobs you shouldn't praise god for that but you can have the faith to praise god in the midst of that god can give you another job some of you have lost a loved one some of you have lost your health some of you have lost other things consider it all joy when you put it all together consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter when you fall into unexpected trials god allows trials so you can exhibit a cheerful response secondly god allows trials so that you can experience christlike results god's going to use your trials to take away some of the unchrist-like things in your life he's going to give you some good results if you'll just walk with him through the trial look at verse 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces something called endurance that we're testing document means to analyze to examine and it's really a word for purging metal when you put metal raw material metal in a fire it burns away the residue and what remains it what remains is the tested residue rather it keeps the residue and burns away the the dross and the waste first peter was written to persecuted christians as well and peter said the same thing that james says he said it in first peter 1 6-7 if you in this you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while if necessary you've been distressed by various trials so that the proof the testing the examining of your faith being more precious than gold which is perishable even through though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ there's something about testing it's like fire and it gives a pure quality to faith and that testing and that pure quality of faith leads to another result and that is endurance verse three knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance hupo monet and it means to steadfastly stand firm and keep on going romans 2 7 says he will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good that word keep on is the same word for endurance seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that god offers it's staying power it is spiritual grit it is resilience it is stamina in the words of the great theologian rocky balboa here's what it is and i quote it's not how hard you can hit that makes you a winner but it's how hard you can get hit and get up and keep going endurance but you get up and life will hit you the devil will hit you life will hit you and look you can be reading your bible and praying and being walking with god and you'll get hit in the jaw why god's doing something you get up and you keep on going romans 5 3 we rejoice in our sufferings what we rejoice he didn't say 4 he sit in suffering's come we're going to rejoice blessings come we're going to rejoice i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance that thing that makes you stick with something hebrews 10 36 for you have need of endurance so that when you've done the will of god you may receive what was promised james 5 11 we count those blessed who endured there it is who persevered you've heard of the endurance of job you've seen the outcome of the lord's dealings that the lord is full of compassion and is merciful so we're going to have this perfected endurance if we'll just stay faithful to god in the midst of the trials but that's not all god's going to mature us through that endurance verse 4 let endurance have its perfect result tell ios perfect so that you may be perfect and complete lacking enough you said brother steve i'm not perfect it doesn't mean perfection in the sense of sinlessness it means that god is maturing you when it talks about things it refers more to being perfect but when this telios is referring to people it talks about maturity and that's what's going on moral and spiritual maturity that's exactly what jesus was talking about again back in the sermon on the mount in matthew 5 48 if you've ever struggled with this verse like many people do jesus said you are to be perfect therefore you are to be perfect tell ios as your heavenly father is perfect people look at that and say i can't be perfect he's not saying you never can sin he's not saying that what he's saying is you can you are to be mature you are to be growing more like christ even as your father is this perfect this mature god he is our our object he is the one we're trying to emulate and follow you can grow you can be more like christ over the centuries some have tried to say this means perfectionism we're never going to be perfect how many of you know that does anybody know that have you have you realized that but we are nevertheless to strive for perfection even though we won't ever hit it all right but don't ever say you're sinless john said in first john 1 verses 8 through 10 if we claim that we have no sin we're only fooling ourselves we're not living in the truth but if we confess our sins to him he is faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness or unrighteousness if we claim we have not sinned we're calling god a liar we're showing that his word has no place in our hearts i want to say this to you again said it today i can't remember if i said it last service or this service you know after you this is the third time i've preached this sermon all right i want to say this to you if i've already said it it deserves to be said again there's not a person in here that has it all together including me not a person in here has it all together we're all a bunch of sinners that need jesus we have weaknesses and we all go through trials every one of us and the devil might be telling you hey man you don't belong here these people all have it all together look at me if you don't have it all together there's not a better place for you than right here because you're surrounded by like people all right we can't reach a state of sinful perfection but we can reach a state of ever increasing spiritual maturity we can as ii peter 3 18 says we can grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ i may not be what i ought to be but i'm farther ahead than i was a year ago you ever wondered how lifted lifting weights makes your muscles stronger you ever wondered about that well i want you to watch this is a a veteran a u.s veteran and when you see his muscles you're going to say mine don't look like that but listen to what he says watch i'm a.j tucker and this is what happens to your muscles when you lift weights whenever you lift weights for example let's say if i'm doing a bicep curl i curl the weight and it tears down my muscle over time it takes about 24 to 72 hours for my muscles to recover if i did a really intense workout it may take an entire week but what happens to the muscles is you get thousands of micro tears in the muscles and then it takes time to recover the muscle rebuilds it comes back a little bit bigger a little stronger and is prepared for that same exact workout and so that's why you change the workout you do it again and you increase the intensity you tear down the muscles again they come back a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger that's what happens when you work out it tears down the muscle so that when it grows back it's just a little bit stronger and a little bit bigger and that's what god is doing with you and me when we go through trials it's like spiritually working out and god wants you to be strong spiritually so he allows difficulties to come your way so you won't be a spiritual couch potato god wants you to be like christ god wants you to work out spiritually god wants you in the word he wants you praying he wants you walking in faith he and you'll go through trials and you'll say god i don't like this my spiritual muscles are burning i've got a lactic attack here but lord i'm telling you i believe on the other side i'm going to be stronger i'm going to be more like jesus i don't i don't like the process but i like the results i want to go with you lord we can experience christlike results because of trials consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials next time a trial comes along said you're nothing but a spiritual treadmill you're nothing but a spiritual elliptical machine you're just some spiritual weights that i'm gonna lift and i'm going to get a burn out of it you're just a spiritual jog in the park just a lap in a spiritual pool just a mile on an exercise bike but i am not going to give up i'm not going to quit i want to say this about god if you can only bench press spiritually 50 pounds he won't put 225 pounds on your chest all right there's a word that means trial and temptation you can use it either way it we usually say temptation when we look at first corinthians 10 13. it can go either way but it also talks about trials no temptation test or trial has overtaken you but such as is common to man that is everybody's going through it that's why i was trying to say while ago nobody has it all together everybody's being tempted and god is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able to catch that but with the temptation or the testing or the trial he will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it if you'll just persevere if you won't quit there's the deal don't quit don't quit god will give you christ-like results well why do we go through trials why does god allow this is there a better way can we just take a pill no god allows us to go through trials so we can exhibit a cheerful response so that we can experience the christ-like results but there's a third reason so we can enjoy our cherished reward look at verse 12. blessed is a man who perseveres under trial let's all say that together blessed is a man who perseveres under trial for once he has been approved whoa he will receive the crown of life which the lord has promised to those who love him there's a blessing on the other side of your burden there's a treasure on the other side of your trial there's a jesus on the other side of your junk you're going through a tough time but when you see his face your tough time will be gone you won't even think about it how many of you know that life is not like this platform it's not a level road this is pretty easy to walk across life has got hills life has got muddy roads life has got potholes and you can turn your ankle in a heartbeat in life you can fall flat of your face you can walk out of this room full of the holy ghost full of a word and the whole bit and before you get home you can have a trial i'm telling you that's what life is but there's a better place coming amen and if we'll just persevere if we'll just keep going and say you know what it may not be zippity-doo.zippity-dave my oh my what a beautiful day it may be rain coming down storms coming down all kinds of things coming down people mad at me people yelling at me people this that and other things not going right money not coming in this not going on right health not good home not doing good all these things but no matter what happens i'm going to praise god i'm going to worship god i'm going to give him glory in the midst of every trial i'm going to keep on doing you know why because this is not my home i am just a pilgrim passing through and the what i'm really looking forward to is making it to the other side that's where the reward is that's where the reward and that's exactly what he's saying in verse 12 blessed is a man who perseveres under trial for once he's been approved he will receive the crown of life who's going to give that to you jesus he's already given it to you in a way he gave you eternal abundant life he gave you abundant life here in salvation the minute you got saved you were dead he put life in you the life of jesus christ in you and then one of these days you're going to see him face to face and it won't just be abundant life it will be everlasting life victorious life forever he will give you the crown of life which the lord has promised how many of you know that jesus cannot tell a lie amen the lord has promised to those who love him do you love jesus you may be the worst christian in here but if you love jesus man god has a promise for you it's not just the strong christians that never seem to mess up it's even the weakest one if you love jesus man if you love the lord he's promised to give you the crown of life you're going to persevere you're going to push through you are going to stand your ground and no matter what the devil throws at you or what this world throws at you or what you can dig up with your own sinful nature you are not quitting you are not going to quit look at me here's the christian life two three steps forward one step back two or three more steps forward one step back it's not just some constant well i'm going to do good the rest of my life no you fall down sometimes you mess up and god picks you up brushes you off if you belong to jesus he will never leave you nor forsake you even when you mess up he doesn't love your sin but he loves you once you've been approved you're going to get the crown of life the crown of life jesus wore a crown of thorns so he could put on your brow when you come before him the crown of life you know let's just be honest we can do some tough things if there's a reward out there amen when i was in high school i chose to play football i wasn't very big i wasn't very strong when i started out in eighth grade i started growing and by my senior year we had a really good football team we had three winning seasons in a row had never happened it never happened at dyersburg high school my senior year we had an all-offensive line that was seniors we had a all-american tailback we had a full-back that played four years at ut knoxville jimmy noonan it was all he was their nose guard started as a freshman we had some great players and i can remember one day it was september early september 1974 my senior year we were practicing football it was hot 45 of us and we were all taking the knee and classes let out they let us in the sixth period the sixth hour of the day we could practice football we'd already started our practice and we were taking a knee so all the guys that didn't play football were driving by and it was hot it's not only hot in west tennessee it's humid that's why it's so cold outside is because it's not only cold but it's humid and cold all right it'll shake your bones out there right now and when it's hot it's like an oven in memphis and so we were out there and we were sweating in dyersburg and some guy yelled at us he was in a car safely away from all of us and he yelled at us here's what he yelled i'm so sorry that you're hot and we're not and he kept driving and our coach said this i'll never forget it i've never forgotten it he said boys don't you worry about them they're not paying the price to know what it feels like to win a game on friday night now that may not sound like much to you but what he was saying this work that you're putting in is going to pay off and it did that was the first year dyersburg high school ever went to the state playoffs nowadays you can lose eight games and go to the state playoffs we've dumbed down everything amen but back then you had to win out you had to go undefeated my junior year we were nine and one and we didn't make the playoffs that's crazy no that was well i won't go i won't say that that was a different day let me just say that different day and so we're nine and one doesn't look like we're gonna make the playoffs but memphis east beats the unbeaten team here in memphis and memphis east was nine and one so we got to play memphis east we beat them we go to ten and one we go to nashville and we get beat by the team that won the state championship but we would have never known it we would have never known the joys that was coming if we hadn't been out there practicing in that hot dyersburg heat i'm not trying to tell you a football story i'm trying to tell you about life life will knock you down and laugh at you life will hit you when you're trying to live for jesus life is no respecter of persons life will come up look you right now i laugh at you and slap you silly the devil will do that the world will do that and sometimes your own sin results in that amen but that's when you say you know what i'm getting up i'm not going to quit i'm not i may get knocked down nine times but i'm going to get up 10 times and i'm not going to quit trials whatever comes my way i don't want you but i'm not afraid of you because i've got a god who's going to pick me up and carry me home he's going to take me to the house he's going to reward me sinful old me he's going to reward me one of these days he's going to put the crown of life on my head one of these days quit go back go back to what go back to rebellion go back to that sinfulness no that's back there i'm forgetting all that i'm reaching forward to what lies ahead i'm going to persevere i may get knocked down but bless god i'm getting up i'm not going to quit i've had many tears and sorrows i've had questions for tomorrow there's been times i didn't know right from wrong but in every situation god gave blessed consolation [Music] that my trials come to only make me strong oh i've been to a lot of places and i've seen a lot of faces oh but there's times that i felt so all alone but in those lonely hours in those precious [Music] lonely hours god let me know that i was his own i'm singing through it all sing it with me let's all stand through it all i've learned to trust in you amen i've learned to trust in god through it all through it all i've learned to depend upon his word so i thank him for those mountains thank him for the valleys i thank him for the storms he's brought me through as if i never had a problem i wouldn't know my god could solve them i wouldn't know what faith in his word would do i'm singing through it all sing it out with me now oh through it all [Music] i've learned to trust in jesus who i have learned to trust in god i'm singing through it all through it all [Music] i have learned to depend upon his word could we sing that course one more time go through it all through it all i've learned to trust in jesus i've learned to trust in god through it all through it all i've learned to depend upon his word let's give god praise even in the midst of trials amen amen let's just be honest many of you going through a trial right now i got my hand up how many of you have been through a trial lately anybody else out there i like to say it this way you know it seems like this is really i think the way it is you're either going into a trial or you're in a trial or you're just leaving a trial but god will see you through how many of you would say god has led you through trials before anybody out there amen he's a faithful god is he not and the same god that led you through that other trial even if this trial is bigger he can lead you through and he will stay with the stuff if you don't know the lord you don't have any help you're out there on your own you don't have any way to have victory over trials i got saved 45 years ago it was either last wednesday night or this wednesday night i got saved gave my heart to jesus as a freshman in college god changed my life if you don't know jesus you need to be saved and i want to encourage you today to repent of your sins to turn from your sin doesn't mean you'll be sinless but it doesn't mean you're sorry for your sins you don't want to live like that you want to start living for jesus so you're going to do a 180 spiritually you're going to repent and then you're going to believe that jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to give you eternal life and then you're going to receive him you're going to invite him to come in your life and you're going to give him all the controls you're not just going to sit in the driver in the rider's seat you're not just going to sit in the back seat you're going to get in the trunk and let him drive you all right he can do whatever he wants whatever he wants you don't tell him anything about what to do he knows where you need to go you just get your hands off of the wheel and give your heart to christ if you've never done that don't you pray this with me right now pray something like this dear lord jesus i need to be saved i want to be saved i turn i repent of my sin i believe that you died on the cross for me i believe you rose from the dead i receive you right now come into my life i call on your name save me right now lord jesus and i thank you by faith that i'm saved in jesus name amen

Channel: Bellevue Baptist Church

Views: 3,402

Rating: 4.9480519 out of 5

Keywords: BellevueChurch, Bellevue Church, Bellevue Church Memphis, BellevueMemphis, Bellevue Memphis, Bellevue Church sermons, Steve Gaines, Steve Gains, PastorSteveGaines, Pastor Steve Gaines, Pastor Steve Gains, Steve Gaines Bellevue Church, Steve Gaines Sermons, Steve Gains Sermons, SundaySermon, The Book of James, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People, Why God Allows Trials

Id: PDfI88s762Y

Length: 50min 1sec (3001 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021