During one of the greatest pandemics of the century, many people are experiencing unpresidented hardship. Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? In this study we will discover God’s perspectives on trials, and see how they are divinely calculated for good.

<p>During one of the greatest pandemics of the century, many people are experiencing unpresidented hardship. Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? In this study we will discover God’s perspectives on trials, and see how they are divinely calculated for good.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Vassar SDA Church

Taylor Hinkle

God’s Perspective of Trials: Why You’ll Want More

Father in Heaven, Lord we're so thankful for the opportunity to meet this morning.

We're thankful for your Word that can minister to our hearts and to our minds.

We're thankful that your Word is specifically applicable for people who are going through difficult situations.

Father we're thankful that you don't just allow us to go through difficulty, but Father, you actually have a plan for us in difficulty, and you use the terrible things of this life to end up being for our good.

Father, we pray that you would change our perspective, that you would give us joyful hearts in the midst of difficulty, and you would help us to walk nearer to you.

Father, minister to us this morning, speak to us through your Holy Spirit, and may the Spirit of truth guide us into all truth and comfort our hearts.

You know the coronavirus and COVID-19 might be 1 of the greatest blessings that the world has known in recent history.

Now if I told someone that they would think I was absolutely heartless and insensitive.

I am not saying it's 1 of the greatest blessings for people who are losing their lives and struggling to even feed their own families.

I understand there's real difficulty and I'm not belittling this situation at all.

But I believe that the reason why the COVID-19 crisis might be 1 of the greatest blessings for the world is because it's in difficulty that God decides to bless us specifically.

In trials, God has a perfect plan for his people, and it is actually trials that are needed to bless God's people.

Now you might be a little bit skeptical about those statements this morning and say, well, maybe the pastor's just gone off the deep end thinking that trials are 1 of the greatest blessings for God's people.

But I want to take you to a few passages of scripture as we get started.

And you tell me if that's not what the Bible teaches.

If you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to go to James chapter 1.

We're going to look at all these in detail, but right now we just want to get a quick understanding of 1 clear teaching in Scripture, and We find the first passage in James chapter 1 beginning in verse 2.

Notice what the Bible says about trials here, and this is specifically speaking to the Christians who have been scattered abroad because of the persecution that was going on in their time.

We're just going to read the first few words of this passage, and then we'll come back to it later.

Count it all joy when what happens to you?

Now how many of you think that's kind of a strange statement.

Be exceedingly glad when you have trials.

Maybe James is the only 1 who says something like that.

Turn to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 4, a few pages back, 1st Peter chapter 4, 1st Peter chapter 4 and notice verse 12, 1st Peter chapter 4 and verse 12, we're going to come back to these verses and look at them a little more thoroughly in a little bit, but we want to see this clear teaching.

James told us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials.

What does the Bible tell us in 1 Peter chapter 4, notice verse 12.

1 Peter chapter 4 verse 12, it says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trials which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you." You know if we were to translate that in maybe a little bit more of a straight forward way is don't be surprised by trials, they're going to come.

This isn't strange, it's not abnormal, this is the normal course.

1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 13, it says, But do what?

But rejoice to the extent that you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

James chapter 1 and verse 2 says, My brother encountered all joy when he followed various trials.

First Peter tells us, don't be surprised when the trials come.

It says, but you should rejoice when those trials come.

The people writing scripture, yes, it's inspired by God, but James was just as much of a human as you and I are a human.

Peter was just as much of a human as you and I are human, and we see that even demonstrated when Jesus was going to Calvary, Peter, he fell under the pressure in the trials of that life.

But here he's telling people, hey, don't be surprised by trials.

They're actually blessings for you, and you can rejoice in those trials.

Some of you might have read this passage before and thought it was a typo or maybe you read it wrong.

The Bible is teaching us 1 clear point this morning.

James chapter 1 and verse 2, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

First Peter chapter 4, don't think it strange but rejoice when these trials come.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17, notice what the Bible says.

Then to Adam he said, this is God speaking, right after Adam and Eve sin, Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17.

"'Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, ' notice what God says, "'Cursed is the ground, ' what are those next few words?

In toil you shall eat of it, in all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field, in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, from out of it you were taken.

From dust you are, to dust you shall return." Now let's not miss the main point what God is delivering here.

God tells Adam that after sin that God was going to do something special to the ground and it was going to be a blessing to Adam.

It was going to be for his sake, in other words for his good.

And what is it that God said that he would do to the ground for the good of man?

It said, cursed is the ground for your sake.

In other words, God pronounced a curse upon the ground to make it more difficult to cultivate food from the ground, and the reason why God did that was for the blessing of his people.

Why is it that God would curse the ground?

Why would God make it more difficult, and then say that it was for your good?

Well, could it be that this is in line with the principles that God has laid out before, that we should count it all joy when we fall in the various trials, that we should rejoice when difficult times comes, 1 Peter chapter 4.

Could it be that God actually designed it so that difficulties are supposed to bless us even though that seems completely counterintuitive to us today.

Now I think this is probably the reason why Paul could say in Romans chapter 8 verse 28, count it, or not count it all joy, but he says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose.

Many people, when they come into tragic times, they say, well, how could this be good?

My friends, could it be why God allows some of the difficulty to happen in this world is because God knows that it's through the difficult situations that you and I can actually grow.

Does that mean that everything bad is God's will for your life?

Do you think God wants people to be raped and molested?

Do you think God wants people to have some of these atrocious things happen to them?

My friends, I don't think God is the originator of evil.

There's nowhere in scripture that the Bible says that.

God does not want to heap up challenges and terrible situations.

But 1 thing that we do know is God is good at redirecting the devil's original intent to bringing something good out of it.

God can use trials, God can even sometimes bring trials as we see in Genesis chapter 3 in order to bless his people.

If you remember the story of Joseph, remember Joseph who was the young man with several brothers and his brothers didn't like Joseph very much and when Joseph went to bring some supplies to his brothers and check on them when they were in the fields with the father's sheep, they took Joseph and threw him into a pit.

They decided to pull him out of the pit and they saw some traders coming by and they sold Joseph to the traders.

Back to Menu

God’s Perspective of Trials: Why You’ll Want More

Transcript

Description

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Norman McNulty Weekend

On the Border of the Heavenly Canaan

44m

Now Converted: Lessons from the Life of Peter

Lessons from the Life of Peter 1

52m

The Atheist Who Found God

1h 25m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Disciples in the Storm

43m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

17 The Judgment and 1844

1h 8m

No Trial Wasted

39m

The National Reform Movement & The Mark of the Beast

1h 3m

"Tell It Again"

What We Must Know: Prophecy Update

1h 6m

What to do at Midnight? Serving God in Times of Persecution

53m

Decree to Destroy Turned to Deliverance

58m

And Hope Does Not Disappoint

46m

Chaos, Coronavirus, and the Christian Response

47m

Sound Doctrine