God Uses Time and Trials
1 Peter 2:2; Phil. 1:6;
Ps. 119:67; Jam. 1:2-4
SUBJECT: SPIRITUAL GROWTH
THEME: regarding spiritual growth, God uses time and trials as instruments throughout our journey’s. Our responsibilities are to realize this and actively pursue Christlikeness.
RELEVANCE: Unless we realize that spiritual growth requires time, we may think that our slow pace of spiritual growth is due to something inherently deficient or wrong in us. If we don’t understand that God often uses trials to make us stronger, we may conclude that God is punishing us or is angry with us for some reason we don’t understand.
INTRODUCTION:
We are always on the forge, or on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things. -Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)
As We Probe into this Mystery, However, We Learn Some Startling Truths. If you walked past the low tree limb where the cocoon was attached at just the precise moment the butterfly began to emerge from its magic chamber, you would see a fearful struggle—a struggle that would rend your heart and make you fear for the butterfly's life. The butterfly pushes and pulls and wiggles. Then it falls back, exhausted. It repeats the process again and again until, finally, after long and agonizing labor, it escapes the cocoon.
As You Watched
this Struggle for Life—as Indeed it Is,
for if the butterfly does not get out within a certain length of time, it will
die in the cocoon—you would be tempted to come to the butterfly's rescue,
perhaps by taking some tweezers and enlarging the opening ever so slightly to
let the butterfly out of his potential coffin.
Well-meaning as such a gesture would be, it would seal the doom of the butterfly. For the very struggle to get out of the cocoon develops the butterfly's ability to fly. If the butterfly does not struggle to get out of the cocoon, it is condemned to crawl the twigs, unable to fly, until it starves to death or becomes dinner for a waiting bird.
Both Time in the Cocoon and the Trials in Getting out of it Are Essential to Transform the Ugly Little Caterpillar into a Beautiful Flitting Butterfly. Time and trials are both necessary to transform a worm-like creature, condemned to inching its way along the underbrush of life, into a lovely-winged creature able to take to the Heavens.
The Natural Realm
with Butterflies Parallels the Spiritual Realm with Children of God. God wants us to undergo continuous transformation from
creatures of the physical realm to creatures of the spiritual realm, from
creatures of the world to creatures of Heaven, from creatures of time to
creatures of eternity. With our bodies on earth, God wants us to live with our
minds on Heaven.
And just as it takes time and trials to transform a caterpillar into a butterfly, so it takes time and trials to transform a child of God from one whose interests, values, and affections center on earth to one whose interests, values, and affections focus on Heaven. -Max Anders
In this Message We Will Emphasize That …
1. Spiritual Growth Requires Time, Just as Physical Growth
Does.
2. Trials Are Used by God to Make Us Spiritually Insightful
and Strong.
3. The Bible Gives Us Many Examples of Spiritual Leaders Whose Trials Eventually Produced Spiritual Maturity.
MESSAGE:
I. WHAT GOD SAID ABOUT THE ROLE OF TIME IN
SPIRITUAL GROWTH
The Bible teaches
that spiritual growth requires time, just as physical growth does.
1 Peter 2:2, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
In 1 Peter 2:2, the apostle instructs us “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” This relates physical growth to spiritual growth.
1. We Grow Slowly Physically—and Spiritually. Certainly, physical growth is automatic and Spiritual growth is more dependent on our cooperation with the Lord, but still growth takes place over time. Growth is not instantaneous!
When I was twelve through seventeen years old, I drove
myself hard to develop better artistic skills. I had inherited an artistic gene
from somewhere, and I simply loved to draw, color, and paint. I drew at school
and then again at home, I could easily spend an entire evening or a Saturday
afternoon drawing, sketching, shading with color pencils, creating, and
painting. For quite some time I was enamored with creating “superheroes” and
extraordinary “hyperphysical freedom fighter quads” who vindicated right,
fought for justice and truth, and who were fully equipped with transcending
abilities and qualities. I would start with a concept and build it to a sketch
and then elevate it to a mixed media drawing and then finally an acrylic
painting! I was always proud of my
latest achievement, but I couldn’t wait to launch another project. Then it was back to the drawing board in an all-out
effort to surpass anything I had ever done before.
All of this was done with a corresponding love for the animated silver screen and a fascination with the adventures of comic books, where drawing and painting were valuable abilities. Developing a limitless imagination was an imperative if this was to be my future! But no matter how sharp my skills where, I always wanted to be better and reach higher goals. There was always a consuming desire to improve, refine, and achieve perfection.
The same was true spiritually when I became a Christian after my fourth year in the Air Force. As I look back on it, I experienced rather significant spiritual growth from the very beginning. But it never seemed enough. I was never pleased with how far I had come. I was always consumed with how far it seemed I had to go (Phil. 2:12-13).
2. But Any Growth Takes Time. Yes, while it is always appropriate to do the things that encourage maximum growth, like Bible study, prayer, disciplines, church attendance, and service to others, we must still be content with our present spiritual stature, or life will be needlessly troubling and frustrating. Not merely passive patience, but still appreciating where God has brought you from.
B. THE BIBLE REFERS TO GROWTH AS TAKING TIME.
1.
The Lord Jesus Increased and Grew in Favor With God.
In Luke 2:52, we read that, “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” He waited until He was thirty years old to minister. Growth over time.
2. It Takes Time to Transform a Life and
Renew One’s Mind.
In a similar vein we read in Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Growth over time.
3.
It Takes Time to Plant, Water, and Reap the Increase.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul writes, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Growth over time.
4.
It Takes Time to Develop and Become Fit for Spiritual Leadership.
One of the qualifications for a pastor, a spiritual leader in the church, is that he is not a novice or a new convert (1 Timothy 3:6). 1 Tim. 3:6, Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Growth over time. You cannot become holy in a hurry!
5.
This Does Not Encourage Us to Be Lazy and Lacks with Our Growth, but to
Face a Reality Connected with Spiritual Growth. Philip. 1:6, Being
confident of this very thing, that he
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philip. 1:9-11, And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; [10] That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; [11] Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
These verses encourage the pursuit of holiness and godliness, in conjunction with the reality that growth will take place throughout your spiritual journey in Christ on this earth.
II. WHAT GOD SAID ABOUT THE ROLE OF TRIALS IN
SPIRITUAL GROWTH
The Bible teaches that trials are used by God to make us spiritually insightful and strong.
A. A DAMAGING & HINDERING MISCONCEPTION
ABOUT TRIALS.
One FALSE teaching says if you are in God’s will, you will
not have trials. You will not have physical ailments, or financial
difficulties, or relationship problems. It teaches that if you have enough
faith, God will heal you of those things. It says that if you claim what you
want as though it were already true, it will become true.
However, some of the fundamental passages in Scripture disclaim this teaching.
B. A HELPFUL & PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF TRIALS.
1.
The Lord Afflicted David to Mature Him!
Psalm 119:67, Before
I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
Psalm 119:71, It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
Psalm 119:75, I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
These passages teach very clearly that the Lord afflicted David for the purpose of maturing him. Thus, God was not angry, or punishing him; this is one way He grows us up in Christ.
2. The Lord Used Afflictions and Trials in Paul’s Ministry to Advance Man’s Perception of Christ and to Secure Renewal and Glory for Paul. Part of the means used by God in this transforming, maturing, and renewing process is suffering (see 1 Peter 4:1, 13-14). We see also in 2 Corinthians 4:8–11 and 16–18 that Paul suffered tremendously:
A.
The Fruit of Paul’s Suffering Was the Exhibition or Broadcasting of the
Life of Christ. Service for God
through constant exposure to violence and even death for Jesus’ sake makes
Christ’s life evident to the world.
2 Cor. 4:8-11, We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; [9] Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; [10] Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. [11] For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
How can the world see the life of Christ when He is not personally or physically present in the world today? The answer is that as we Christians suffer in the service of the Lord, His life is being manifested through our physical existence. When violence comes to a true servant of God, we usually think of it as a tragedy. But in essences the suffering servant of God is freshly broadcasted for the world to see!
B. The Benefits for Paul Were Immediate and Eternal as He Suffered for Christ’s Sake. Paul compared the sufferings he had experienced, severe as they were (2 Cor. 11:23-29), to “light” and momentary troubles, pressures, and hardships. Though, as he wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8, his hardships were “pressed out of measure” or far beyond his ability to endure, he said his coming “glory” … far outweighs them all!
2 Cor. 4:16-18, For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; [18] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
1. The Trials We Face Are Nothing in View of the Eternal Glory That Will Be Ours When We Are in Jesus’ Presence (2 Cor. 4:14) and would be like Him (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil 3:21; 1 John 3:2).
This eternal perspective and hope in things to come sustained Paul during the temporary sufferings that marked his ministry. As he elsewhere reminded the Corinthians, the world and its present sufferings are passing away (1 Cor. 7:31). What is seen (the material) is temporary, but what is unseen (the spiritual) is eternal. The temporal will be replaced by a “crown of glory” that will never fade away (1 Peter 5:4), an “eternal glory” in Christ (1 Peter 5:10). Therefore, Paul said, believers should look not on what is seen but, ironically, on what cannot be seen. What the inner man “sees” surpasses what physical eyes see. -David K. Lowery, “2 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary
2.
Trials and Afflictions Are Certainly Beneficial to Believers!
1 Peter 5:10, But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
A. The Suffering Saint is Perfected.
Trials make the believer fit; they supply needed elements in our character to mature us.
B. The Suffering Saint is Established.
Sufferings make Christians more stable, able to maintain a good confession, and to bear up under pressure. (Luke 22:32)
C. The Suffering Saint is Strengthened.
Persecution is intended by Satan to weaken and wear out the believers, but it actually has the opposite effect. It strengthens us to endure even more!
D. The Suffering Saint is Settled!
This carries the idea of ‘foundations.’ God wants every believer to be firmly planted in a secure place in His Son and His Word!
QUOTE: “The inevitable suffering of the Christian life always yields the same blessed results in the character of believers; it will refine the faith, adjust the character, establish, strengthen and settle the people of God!” -Harry Lacey
3.
Trials Produce Endurance, Endurance Produces Maturity.
Again, in James 1:2–4 we see: My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; [3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. [4] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
4.
We Are Actually Following Our Lord’s Example When We Suffer for Doing
Right.
1 Peter 2:18-21, Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. [19] For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. [20] For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. [21] For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
A. God's Will Includes Suffering, and Christ Left Us an Example by His Own Suffering. Verse 17 teaches that we may suffer for doing right. Christ suffered, we read in 1 Peter 4:1, and we should arm ourselves for the same purpose.
B.
We Can Actually Glorify God in Our Sufferings.
1Peter 4:12–16 indicates that we can glorify God in our suffering, and finally in 5:10–11 we see that our suffering can result in strength and maturity.
5. We must Dispel the Notion That the Christian Life Does Not Include Suffering. Otherwise, it will distort our perspective, confuse us, frustrate us, and cause us to think something is wrong with us. Not only does the will of God include trials, it includes trials over time—you cannot have one bad day, and wake up the next day spiritually mature.
Someone once asked the president of his school whether he could not take a shorter course than the one prescribed. “Oh yes,” replied the president, “but then, it depends upon what you want to be. When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.”
If you want to be a spiritual squash, you can make it in a hurry. But if you want to be a mighty oak, you must sink your roots deep and dig in for the long haul.
III. THE EXAMPLES GOD GIVES OF THE ROLE OF TIME
AND TRIALS
The Bible gives us many examples of spiritual leaders whose trials eventually produced spiritual maturity.
Perhaps the most vivid and heartening way to grasp this truth is to see it fleshed out in the lives of some of the giants of the Scriptures.
A. NOTE SOME VERY GOOD EXAMPLES FROM GOD’S WORD.
1.
The Example of Joseph.
For example, God
gave Joseph reason to believe that God was going to use him in an extraordinary
way. Yet each time Joseph tried to do something right, circumstances backfired
on him, and he paid dearly for it.
He tried to get his brothers to shape-up by telling them
about the dreams he had. But the dreams indicated God was going to cause Joseph
to rule over them. They didn't like that, and Joseph paid for it by their
selling him as a slave.
He tried to do the right thing by resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife. She retaliated by having him imprisoned. He tried to do the right thing in prison, but the man he befriended forgot about him, and Joseph languished in prison for another two years. Finally, God plucked him out of the prison and set him over the entire nation of Egypt. -Max Anders
2.
The Example of David.
In a second example, David was anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel fourteen years before he came to the throne. During that time, rather than living like a prince, David was running from cave to cave like a common criminal, trying to keep Saul from lopping off his head.
3.
The Example of Paul.
In the New Testament, Jesus told Paul that He was going to use Paul to take the message of salvation to the Gentile world. Fourteen years later Paul set out on his first missionary journey. During that time, Paul sewed tents, lived in the desert, and endured unsatisfying experiences with Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.
Between the time that God gave Joseph and David and Paul
those promises and the time He fulfilled them was at least ten years, and
easily more. During that time, God put them through the types of experiences
that developed in them the strength of character, the sense of right and wrong,
the compassion for others, and the vision for the future that they would need
as leaders.
What was true of the spiritual giants of the Bible must be equally true for us: growth takes time and it takes trials. We cannot become holy quickly or easily.
B. NOTE SOME VALUABLE ENCOURAGEMENTS FROM GOD’S WORD.
1.
Our Response to These Realities, Then, must Be to Cultivate Patience.
Hebrews 12:1-2, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, [2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Allow me to convey the account of another preacher regarding patience. Patience isn't one of the stronger virtues for most of us. I'm afraid my ultimate character was revealed at the age of four or five when someone told me that a peach pit was a seed, and that if I planted it, it would grow into a peach tree. So, I ran out to the sand box in the back yard and planted the peach pit. I waited anxiously until the next morning when I raced out to see my peach tree. But no peach tree had sprouted. In a fit of anger, which I remember clearly to this day, I ripped the peach pit out of the sand and threw it as far into the adjoining field as my chubby little fingers could throw it. I have been struggling for patience ever since. -Max Anders
The writer to Hebrews says that we must run with patience (endurance) the race that is set before us. James 1:2-4, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; [3] Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. [4] But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
2.
In Addition to Patience, We must Persevere.
Proverbs 24:16, For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Passive patience is not what is called for. Active patience
fits the need. We will fail. And when
we do, we must get back up and try again. The person is not a failure who falls
down, but who refuses to get back up (Prov. 24:16). How many times? Seven times
seventy or as many times as it happens—that is how many times God will forgive
you, so that is how many times you must forgive yourself.
No one enjoys failure, but God can make failure the back door to success. He did for Joseph, for David, for Paul—and He can for us.
Conclusion:
Amy Carmichael was an English missionary to India in the
first half of the twentieth century. She had a particular burden for children
who were confiscated to use as temple prostitutes by the Hindu priests. An
accident in 1931 left her an invalid, crippled with arthritis. She remained
mostly bedridden for nearly twenty years.
From a human perspective, that is so hard to understand.
How, why would God allow such a brilliant, talented, dedicated servant of His
to become so crippled that she could no longer serve Him as she once did, and
live out her life in pain and misery? Yet Amy Carmichael met her pain with
God-given grace and made a wonderful impact on the world for the cause of
Christ even from her bed of pain. She wrote many stories which have touched
hundreds of thousands of lives. She let her adversity make her spiritually
stronger.
Like Job, who lost all that he had yet did not curse God;
like Paul who in spite of persistent prayer for relief lived with a “thorn in the flesh”; like
many other of God's choice servants, Amy Carmichael submitted to the pain and
suffering—and as a result was blessed and used greatly by God.
Out of her own furnace of trials, Amy Carmichael wrote a deep and moving poem about pain entitled, “No Scar?”
Hast Thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Has thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Has thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?
(Amy Carmichael, Toward Jerusalem, quoted by Russell Hitt in How Christians Grow 66)
We may shrink at the prospect of having to be wounded in order to mature. But we may all find grace and resolve in the words of Job, who suffered so greatly as a testimony to the grace of God: “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Gold, mined from the ground, is often imbedded in dirt, rocks, iron ore, and mineral deposits. The refiner puts the mixed-up mess into a cauldron, where it melts under near white-hot heat. Since gold is so heavy, it sinks to the bottom, while everything that is not gold rises to the top. It is called “dross.” It is skimmed off the top until nothing is left but pure gold. Without the heat, there is no pure gold. That is what Job is referring to. When God has tried (refined) me, I shall come forth as pure gold.
Let me close with an insightful quote from C. S. Lewis:
Imagine yourself a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on.… But presently, He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of … throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. -Max Anders
So, why is this
Important to us?
If we don’t realize that time and trials are both needed to
bring us to spiritual maturity, we may conclude that Christianity isn’t working
for us, and quit. We may feel that God is angry with us, and give up because we
don’t know what we did wrong. If we don’t
understand that God uses time and trials in every Christian’s life to makes us
spiritually strong, we may wear out, burn out, or give up. We may miss the good
that God wants to give us, because we don’t understand His ways.
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