 Tonight, Lord willing, we're going to talk about how trials remind us how much we need God. Now, I've been doing biblical counseling for 20-something years, seven years, I think. And it's very common when someone is in a trial to come to me for counsel and they're asking the why question. It's very common. Their motive may be very innocent. Why is this happening? But most of the time it's not. Most people that struggle with the why question conclude that there is no God or he would stop the trial. Some people conclude that God is powerless to prevent trials. And some people, even preachers have preached that we have to come to the place where we forgive God for taking us through a trial. Now, these beliefs, these wrong conclusions are blasphemous. They malign God's character because they accuse him of not being good, of not being all powerful, of not loving them, of not caring about them. Now, it's been interesting and all of the ladies that I have counseled over these years that are in trials, some are in extremely difficult trials. I mean, I will weep with them as I hear their stories. But in spite of that, some of these ladies have such a deep, abiding faith in God and trusting God that they are experiencing the supernatural peace of God that's guarding their hearts and guarding their minds. Others that come for help may be in a tiny, what I would call a relatively insignificant trial. And they are angry at God and they become what I describe as emotionally disturbed. Their emotional pain is horrific. They're not persuaded of the goodness of God and they are not grateful to him. They experience frustration, fear, bitterness. Their focus is only on themselves. And they're in such emotional pain that they're desperate for relief. But instead of giving God glory, they blame him. So one of the things that I do is I teach them what the Bible says about trials and tests that God takes us through and what is his purpose. One of them is I start out with teaching them a little bit about the character of God and that God is sovereign. That means he rules over us. He is our High King of Heaven. In Psalm 115, 1-3, it says, Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kindness, because of your truth. Why should the nations say where now is their God? But listen to verse three. But our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. This is something that every person on the planet needs to get settled. God is sovereign. He rules over his creation. He's the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. I remember as a new Christian reading the Bible for the very first time. I was 33 years old and I was astounded at what I was reading. But I wondered why does God let bad things happen? I was a pediatric intensive care nurse and little children get sick. Sometimes they die. Why would God do that? And then I got to Romans 9 and it settled the issue for me completely. God is the molder. We are the clay. And God grants repentance, he grants faith, and then sometimes he hardens people's hearts. But because this is his prerogative, this is his creation and he can do with it as he pleases. Whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not, God is our highest authority. And then we are his creatures. That means Peter said in 1 Peter that God has chosen for himself a people for his own possession so that they may proclaim his excellencies. It's all about him. It's not all about us. In Isaiah 43 and verse 7, Isaiah wrote, everyone, and this is God speaking here, everyone who is called by my name and whom I have created for my glory. See, the focus needs to turn back to God. Look what God has done, whom I have formed, even whom I have made. So we as his creatures are to glorify him and therefore we are to submit ourselves to his sovereign hand. And sometimes those providences of God are very hard, very dark, very bitter. And then a lot of times they're the opposite, just glorious and joy for us. Well, then I tell my councillors, God has decided or decreed, you could say that, how we may best give him glory. Now this is something you need to grasp if you don't already because this is whatever it would take to give God glory in our life is what we should desire, even if we must suffer at times in the process. The only way to give God glory is to become more and more like him. And God uses the circumstances, either good or bad, circumstances in our lives to test us and to mold us into his image. And I take my councillors through Romans chapter 8, verse 28 and 29, and we know that God causes, God causes all things. All things can be good things as well as bad things to work together for what? For good to those who love God. Now there's a hitch. Not everybody loves God. You have to be born again to be in a position to love God and then you have to be being obedient to him. So he causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose. His purpose is his own glory. That is the very best thing that could happen to us, that we could honor him and worship him and glorify him more. So those whom he foreknew, those that he saves the elect, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. So the good, you may have heard the expression, this trial is for your good and God's glory. Well the good is to mold us more and more into Christ likeness. Now nothing happens to us by bad luck or fate or chance. This is God's providential care and hand over us. His sovereign decrees for us. Now the blessings that God gives us are astounding. He gives us life. He gives us abilities that we have. Saving us from our sin is the most astounding blessing of all and our salvation showcases God's mercy, His holiness, His love and our utter inability to save ourselves. God does permit others to sin against us and he uses it for his purposes. You probably know the story and Genesis, the end of Genesis where Joseph was sold by his jealous brothers off as a slave and then all that he went through in Egypt, even being falsely accused and he went to prison and then God granted him favor with the Pharaoh because God gave him the interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream. Well because of the famine that ensued, his brothers had to come to Egypt because they heard that there was grain there that they could purchase and a long story short and if you don't know this story you need to read the book of Genesis. It is absolutely amazing but at the end his brothers, they knew who he was by then and they were afraid that Joseph was going to have them put in prison or killed and they came to Joseph and he said, they fell down before him and said, behold we are your servants but Joseph said to them, do not be afraid for am I in God's place. Now I remember the first time I read this as a brand new baby believer and I was astounded. Joseph said to them, as for you you meant evil against me. He didn't say, oh it's water over the dam, no big deal. He said, no, what you did was evil but God meant it for good the same time in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive and he forgave them. I don't think God, I would have killed them if they had been my brothers but God put it in his heart to forgive them. He said, so therefore do not be afraid I will provide for you and your little ones so he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Only God can give you that kind of heart but he said, what you did you meant for evil but God meant it for good. And then point number C, God sometimes tests us and when he does he has a definite purpose or purposes behind it. For example, an unexpected death of a loved one or a long difficult illness for yourself. There's a lot of young mothers here you go to the grocery store and your toddler has a temper tantrum and is screaming everybody looks at you like you're trying to kill this kid and you really would like to but you pretend, you smile and pretend like you don't want to but it's unnerving when they do that. One of the purposes that God has in a trial is to prune us so that we may bear more fruit for his glory. John 15, Jesus talks about this and he said, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. Pruning is painful. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him he bears much fruit. A true believer is going to bear fruit for the Lord. For apart from me you can do nothing. Trials often bring out the worst in us. We can become panicked. We can become angry. We can become very self-centered, very self-focused. We can become bitter and hurt and unforgiving and we can bring out the worst. But God thankfully he prunes the worst off as he convicts us of our sins and helps us turn from sin to righteousness. So God is good even though it's painful. He disciplines those whom he loves and he is going to not let us just continue because of his kindness be happy in our sin and continue in our sin. And then point number three. God tests us to discipline us for our good. Now tomorrow in the very last session Lord willing we're going to talk about the goodness of God and when I wrote that lecture I looked up every word good or goodness in the whole Bible and came up with the principles that I'm going to share with you tomorrow but it just absolutely thrilled my soul. Fortunately for us even with difficult trials God has a pure motive and he has a compassionate heart. He disciplines those whom he loves so that we can share his holiness. In the book of Hebrews in chapter 12 we learn about that and he says here in Hebrews chapter 12 starting in verse four he says you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood and you're striving against sin and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved or reproof is telling you what you're doing wrong by him for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline but if you are without discipline of which all believers have become partakers then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? Our earthly fathers disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. But now listen to this because this is astounding. He disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful. It's painful. It's embarrassing. It's humiliating but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it. Now listen to this. Afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, and then he goes on there, so God tests us and he disciplines us for our good so that we can share his holiness. We can experience the peaceful fruit of righteousness. And then number four. God gives us special opportunities to see if our faith is proven to be genuine. 1 Peter 1 verse 6 through 8. He's talking, Peter is writing to Christians scattered throughout the Roman provinces and they are undergoing persecution. Nero is either emperor then or about to become emperor. He was crazy. He despised the Christians and he was just grievous in how he treated them. Just wicked. And Peter is saying, remember what Christ has done for you but remember the glory that awaits you in the future. And he's talking about these trials in verse 6. He says in this you greatly rejoice what Christ has done and what you have to look forward to. Even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith, he's testing your faith, he's proving your faith, being more precious in gold which is perishable even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now, when you have an extreme trial it should not be the very first time you think about this issue. A little trial, a little test could be you could have a flat tire or one of your good friends won't let you stop and get something to eat. Or just, you know, little minor things that come up. But last November I got a phone call from our daughter, Anna and she said, Mom, I have a lump in my breast and so we talked about it and she went to the doctor the next day and to make a long story short she had very aggressive, very bad breast cancer and so I just remember having anxiety at the beginning of this. Now I'm not, I don't tend to be a warrior I don't tend to be an anxious person so it was just about to overwhelm me but every time I would feel almost overwhelmed I would turn that into a prayer and the Lord had helped me in much lesser trials to learn through the Scripture and His enabling me and helping me and giving me grace how to think about things like this and my prayer went like this and the first thing I would say tears running down my face Lord, thank you for reminding me how much I need you thank you for this test thank you for this trial and it looked very dark at that point and I didn't feel happy but I was thanking God because He commands us and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 so and then I would pray and I would say Lord my prayer my request is that she can be cured of this cancer but in a prayer request like that you always have to add but whatever would glorify you the most in Anna's life and all of our lives and I didn't want to add that I just wanted to say please cure her but I could not know how we could glorify Him the most I didn't sleep very well I'd wake up I don't know how many times at night I'd be praying and then one night in the middle of the night it dawned on me God is listening to me I didn't know that He would grant my desire but just the wonder of being able to talk to God and He does cure and He is good and He is loving and He has a special purpose in our trials well for weeks that anxiety kept on and I was praying my special prayer many times every day and then the anxiety went away and then this as she started the chemo the grief settled over me that was the worst grief I have ever experienced in my life but I just kept praying and the Lord enabled me to keep functioning and then after a month or so of that one day I got up and the grief was gone and nothing had changed she was still in chemo we didn't know what the outcome would be but the Lord will not give you more than you can bear 1 Corinthians 10-13 he promises that and you have to obey him regardless of how you feel and he will enable you to get through it and not only get through it but he will give you his supernatural peace well the weeks went on then Anna had a double mastectomy and when they did the pathology report there was not one living cancer cell left and that was what we had been praying for for seven months so we are but you know it's not always that way so we want to we can trust God that he's going to use it for our good but we want him to be glorified so he tests us to discipline us for our good and then he gives us special opportunities to see if our faith is proven to be genuine so all these trials whether they're little bitty whether they're great big give us what I call it an on the spot opportunity to prove who we really worship who we really serve is it our own comfort or is it our Lord and if our faith is genuine then it will be proven it will survive the test it would result in praise and glory and honor to God and then of course James is saying the same thing God is maturing us during trials James 1 verse 2 through 4 consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith you're not going through it in vain God has a high and holy purpose behind it 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 Roman numeral number three on your outline God wants us to be grateful now being grateful or being thankful I think it's similar to loving someone sometimes you've I've been married it'll be 50 years in September and I love my husband dearly but I don't always feel like that don't tell him I said that sometimes you feel like you love the other person but sometimes you show love regardless of how you feel in a similar way gratitude to God is either a thought and or an action it may or may not include a wonderful feeling of gratitude but God's commands are clear Colossians 3 Colossians chapter 3 15 through 17 Paul wrote in Colossians let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and listen and be thankful this is a command it's all over the place in the Bible to be thankful he's not commanding you to feel happy he's commanding you to thank God let the word of Christ richly dwell within you that's the scriptures with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through him to God the Father the few counselors that I've had over the years that are what I would describe as extremely emotionally disturbed they were very different ladies different backgrounds but they had two things in common one is they were not persuaded of the goodness of God and they were not grateful to God they were not thankful I used to when our church was young we didn't have very many people I was a church pianist not because I aspired to be the church pianist but because my husband was one of the elders and I was the only and he knew I could play the piano so he told and so I ended up being the pianist and the only thing worse than my playing was their singing so I would pick out two hymns and tell whoever was leading the singing these are the hymns that I could play and this is what we're going to do this Sunday well then we grew a little bit and then we had a man who became our song leader well he wanted to have a choir we had a choir all right we had eight people and if Cindy Carson couldn't come we had to cancel because she was the only one who could really sing but anyway we didn't have we didn't have our own piano and we didn't have a building so we rented space in different public schools and we went from place to place and one and I kept resigning as pianist but they wouldn't let me because I was the only one who could play the piano finally the Lord sent somebody and that was a happy day but we were moving from one school to a different school and for some reason I thought they had a decent piano in that auditorium in that public school auditorium so I got there early and Jerry Gunter he was one of our elders and the song leader and so he came early and so we would practice we would go over the songs and I started playing that piano it had broken keys it was out of tune it sounded like a honky-tonk bar piano it was the worst piano ever that I have ever played and I was just so disappointed and I began to cry and I'm not a cry baby but I was crying tears running down my face and then it's hard to see the notes and then your nose starts running and then it's really bad but my thought was this Lord, why? why are you doing this to us? we love you we believe the Bible is true the church down the street they had hundreds of people they have a huge steinway and they don't even believe your words true so anyway Jerry noticed that I was crying and so he stopped singing and he came over and I stopped playing and he said I think we need to pray and I said I think so so we bowed our heads and Jerry said Lord, thank you for this piano and I thought oh brother I didn't say that I just thought it and if that wasn't bad enough he said I pray for Martha I thought he was going to say that you'll comfort her he said that she will repent of her pride well when he said that I thought well I'm not going to cry anymore so I stopped crying and I blew my nose and we went got through the practice and I went to Sunday school I have no idea what the lesson was about for an hour I sat there like Jacob wrestling with God and toward the end of the hour it dawned on me how ungrateful I was after all the Lord had done for me for us, for our little church and so I asked the Lord to forgive me and then had to go face the music literally and we got through it and then Jerry did call the principal of the school that week and said we do have a piano available that's better than yours do you mind if we bring it and she was thrilled to have a much better piano but I didn't expect that test I expected something entirely different and yet I failed it miserably God teaches us through little tests like that so that we can be prepared for the big trials that come and then God wants us to be fully persuaded of his goodness in Psalm 100 it says shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth serve the Lord with what? gladness come before him with joyful singing know that the Lord himself is God it is he who has made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the sheep of his pasture enter his gates with thanksgiving now picture this the temple was up on a hill the singers of Israel would gather at the bottom of the hill and start singing psalms and they would go up towards the temple into the gates into the gate into the courtyard so there's a wall around the temple and there's different gates and it says enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise Jerusalem wasn't very big back then and I just imagine that these men and their voices must have been magnificent you could probably hear them singing God's praises all over Jerusalem it says for the Lord is good his loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations now suppose you receive an unexpected bad report on a medical test or you learn of the sudden death of a loved one or you get a phone call and you find out your child's spouse is leaving him or leaving her at the very least your emotions will be all over the place you'll be reeling emotionally you probably won't be able to sleep grief will wash over you like a wave at the beach now all of these examples are trying times testing times but you must remind yourself of the goodness of God and tomorrow we'll go into much more detail about that but I want you to pray I want you to think Lord you are good to have let me live this long with a good medical test or you are good to have let me have my loved one for as long as I did my mother's been dead several years and I can still tear up when I think about her I wish I could talk to her but I have to remind myself that God was so good to me to let me have her as long as I did or God you are good to our child because he or she does not have to go through this marriage separation in vain God can teach her things or teach him things mold them more and more into Christ's likeness we should remind ourselves that God is good regardless of our circumstances so somebody who loves him Jesus said if you love me you will keep my commandments sometimes I don't want to do the right thing but I will and I will pray and ask God to help me and I'll say Lord I'm doing this because I love you he said if you love me you will keep my commandments so a person who loves him will be convinced of his goodness on days sprinkled with small aggravating tests as well as on days consumed by immense grievous trials God is good and good thoughts of him should fill our hearts always and then we should realize that God must love us very much to test our faith as he does in Psalm 136 it tells us that his love is everlasting Psalm 136 give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his loving kindness this is the Hebrew word has said it's eternal love is covenantal love is everlasting give thanks to the God of gods for his loving kindness is everlasting give thanks to the Lord of lords for his loving kindness is everlasting to him who alone does great wonders for his loving kindness is everlasting to him who made the heavens with skill for his loving kindness is everlasting to him who spread out the earth above the waters for his loving kindness is everlasting. To him who made the great lights, the sun and the moon, the stars, for his loving kindness is everlasting. The sun to rule by day for his loving kindness is everlasting. The moon and the stars to rule by night for his loving kindness is everlasting. To him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn for his loving kindness is everlasting. When my daddy, my dad in the south, we say my daddy, got saved when he was 89 years old. It was amazing. And he started reading the Bible. And he got to, he started in Genesis. And so he called me one day and he said, I bet you don't know when the first rainbow was. And I said, well, when was it? And he said at the end of the flood. And then he said, and I bet you don't know why God put the rainbow there. And so I said, and I'm teary on the phone. I said, why daddy? And he said, because he promised to never flood the world again. So then he gets to Exodus and he called me and he said, did you know that that king, tell those people they could leave. And then he changed his mind and God sent frogs. And that king told us, and he went through all the plagues. I said, I had heard that. So to him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn for his loving kindness is everlasting. And he brought Israel out from their midst for his loving kindness is everlasting with a strong hand and an outstretched arm for his loving kindness is everlasting. And he goes on and on there. This is the same God that is our God. And in his kindness, we are on this side of the cross instead of the other side. We're not looking for the promise of the Messiah. We know the Messiah. We're looking for him to come back and we have joy in just thinking about that. And someday he will. When I was halfway through my master's degree in nursing at Georgia State University in Atlanta, when I got saved, I was 33 years old and I got saved in June. And before the end of the summer, I wrote a letter to the Dean of the nursing school. And I said, I have become a Christian and the Lord Jesus is coming back and I don't have time for this program. Withdraw me from the program. And they did. And I'm sure they're still laughing about it. Every once in a while, I think about it, I'll say, Lord, please come back soon. So that, because all those professors can say, oh, that's what she was talking about. Let's see, where am I? God's love is everlasting. And then first John four and verse 10, it says, in this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's just a big word that means that Jesus satisfied the wrath of God when the father poured his wrath out on the son for our sins. And then in Hebrews two and verse six, it says, but one has testified somewhere saying, what is man that you, speaking of God, remember him or the son of man that you are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. He's talking about Christ. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have appointed him over all the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. God loves us very much to test our faith as he does. Well, I already told you about first Peter one, six through eight, but I want to read this again. It says in this, in these trials, you greatly rejoice even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials so that the proof of your faith, this is what God is testing, being more precious than gold, which is perishable. Even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. We had several years ago, our pastor got up one Sunday morning and he told us that a friend of two guys that he went to school with had, they had graduated from seminary, they were best friends, they were going, they had made plans with their families to go to France as missionaries. And while they were still raising their money, the families got together on a Saturday evening and the two men went out, I think they were gonna get donuts for the family or something there. They took, one of them had four little children. They took the baby with them. The baby was in the back seat. A drunk driver hit them head on and the two men were killed. The baby was okay, but the men were gone. And John just said, I wanna pray for the families and friends and please, he asked us to continue to pray. So we did. And I didn't know them. One of the wives, her name was Lois Stride and she is the one who had the four little bitty children and I was, we continued to pray for them and one day my phone rang and it was a friend of Lois's, somehow she'd got my phone number and she said, you don't know me but I'm a good friend of Lois Stride's and she proceeded to tell me what happened and I said, I know about it, we know about it, we are praying for her. And she said, well, what you don't know is she's been to some of your conferences, read your books and it would mean a lot to her if you would send her a note. And I said, I will be happy to do that. Will you please give me her address? And so she did. So as I sat down to write a note to someone that I had never met but assumed that she was a Christian and of course she was, I said all the usual stuff. I am so sorry that this has happened. If there's anything I can do, anything you need, please let me know. Our church family has been praying for you for weeks and then I thought I need to say something to her about why this has happened. And as I thought about it, I said, I'm not going to pretend to tell you why this has happened because I don't know. Only God really knows. I said, but I do know this, that he must love you very much to test your faith at this level. And I'm praying that it will be found to be genuine. And then I quoted first Peter one verses six and seven and eight. So I prayed that God would comfort her with that. I did not know her reaction, what it would be because I didn't know her. But I just asked the Lord to comfort her. Well, I sent it. Well, months later, I ran into another friend of hers at a conference where I was speaking and this other friend came up and said, Lois was comforted by your note and she put it up and when she would feel almost overwhelmed, she would get it back out and read it again. This is the power of God's word. This helps all of us. It helped me to think about this when I learned about Anna's cancer and we did not know what kind of outcome that would be. We need to honor God and glorify him. Our hearts should have a place for sorrow and grief but it should be godly sorrow like our Lord had when Lazarus died. He grieved but he never sinned. All the trials he went through were grievous but he never sinned. It is a glorious grand mystery how God sovereignly works in his creation. He has decreed from eternity past how we can best give him glory. He cares about every single one of us. He has very definite and good purposes for us as he tests us. Our obligation is to be grateful, fully persuaded of his goodness and to realize how much he does love us. Then we can face whatever test or trial that comes upon us knowing that God is working in our life and the lives of our loved ones to accomplish his divine purposes. So let's pray. Father, we are reminded that you are sovereign, that you are the high king of heaven, that you rule over your creation and we just thank you and praise you for your goodness, your mercy, your love. Even when you test us and we go through trials I pray that you will use these things for our good and for your glory. Lord, it's easy to say thank you Lord when everything is going great but when you enable us to say thank you for this trial, thank you for reminding me how much I need you then that is the greater glory, the greater honor to you. And I pray that you will teach us these things, they will just be near and dear to our hearts and that if and when and we may never have a really bad trial but if it happens, Lord, I pray that our first thought will be to thank you for reminding us how much we truly do need you. Lord, we love you, we are so grateful for your word that you have told us these things that we don't have to just go through dark times and struggle and worry and I pray just thanking you and I pray for each of us that you will use us for your glory no matter what that means. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.