Faith on Trial
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· 1 viewGrace Fellowship in Rusk, Texas Sunday, March 10, 2024
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Faith on Trial
Faith on Trial
I'm not sure how this is going to turn out today. I have a message prepared but I feel like, and yesterday I told my wife and I my daughter and son-in-law yesterday, getting ready for today was a struggle. Getting ready for a message is generally easy, but it was like there was a resistance, not a resistance to the message, but it was like I've felt in the past when that's happened. I thought after I got to the service, “That's why, because God had something else on the agenda.” Sometimes God can change our agenda. Now, it's okay to be prepared. Always be prepared. The Bible say man plans his way but God directs his steps. So in this testimony today, I believe that God is trying to emphasize something. It's not what I had prepared but I do believe God wants to emphasize something. That is, God is Sovereign in our lives, and He is working out his plan regardless of how it may look. A lot of people get the idea that living for Jesus is going to be easy, that it's going to be a Rose Garden, that once I come to Jesus, my life is going to be easy. At least, that's what sometime we imagine that just give your life to Jesus and everything's going to be okay. Then people give their life to Jesus and find out it's not always okay. Life is hard and living for Jesus is hard. It may be the hardest thing you've ever done, but it is worth it. It is worth it. I just heard a pastor say this the other day in our East Texas Pastors Fellowship. This younger generation needs to hear and know this from an older generation that's been through some tough times. Yes, living for Jesus is going to be hard. It's good, but it's also going to be hard. You will be going upstream and a downstream world. It's going to require you to face things this world will throw at you because you don't live and approve of what it lives and approves. You're going to be caught in a place of struggle. Yes, the Christian Life may be like a rose garden, but it's got lots of thorns too, amen, so stop and smell the roses. But, be prepared for the thorns. Remember that Paul, that great apostle, God called when he first had that encounter on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine. He was out to persecute the church. He did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. He did not believe that he was doing anything wrong by going after these “heretics”. But Jesus was real. He just didn't know Him. In fact, he said later in Galatians chapter 1 that God had ordained him to be an apostle even before he was born God had set him apart. So, all this time, he was going after the church. God had a different plan for him. Some of you are pursuing the wrong things while convinced you're going the right way. But you're going the wrong way and God in his mercy will wake us up. He will put a Stop Sign in our path that we didn't want. He will have his angelic police force pull us over and maybe His correction officers to put us in a prison to get our attention. God got Paul's attention, he was Saul at the time, and said “I've chosen you you.” God has a purpose for our life. We may not be in the middle of that purpose right now but God has a purpose. He's going to wake you up so you can realize the purpose for which he put you on this planet. You're on this planet for a purpose. You were born for such a time as this. If you resist it in your rebellion and pride and stubbornness, you're going to be like the one Jesus spoke of who live their life for themselves. They are going to lose their life. But He also said that those who lose their life for My sake and gospel will find their life. They're going to find their real purpose. Paul found his purpose, but it took a road to Damascus. It took blindness. He came to a point where he had to have someone lead him around. He had to become vulnerable. God spoke to a man called Ananias to go talk to him, and tell him that He had called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people, and he's going to take the message of Christ to the Gentile nation. He was to tell him everything he was going to suffer for His name's sake. He didn't say that life is going to be a bed of roses. Paul had made a life a living hell for those who believed in Jesus. Now, he was going to experience a kind of a hell on Earth for the cause of Christ. But it was going to be worth. Paul ran the race that God set before him. At the end of his race in 2 Timothy chapter 4, Paul said, “I have run my race I have finished my course.” What is he talking about? It is God’s purpose for his life—the thing that God told him to do on the road to Damascus, to take the gospel to the Gentile nations. Paul said now there is laid up for me a crown that God will give me and all who have served him. That's my paraphrase. In other words, we have a race to run. It doesn’t turn out the way we thought it was going to be. Remember Joseph? Joseph had a dream. Actually, he had two dreams. Have you ever had a dream of doing something for God or what God was going to do for you? I've had those kind of dreams. While I was still living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I had an understanding of why God was bringing me to Rusk, Texas. When God speaks to you, it can seem like just right around the corner because there's no time element in the spirit. But then we come down to reality and walking it out in real life. Joseph had these dreams and dreamed that that he was going to be in a superior position over his brothers. Even his father and mother were going to bow down to him. He probably made a mistake by sharing that dream but maybe not because that dream put him on a road of trouble. There was trouble ahead because his brothers began to hate him for that. “Who do you think you are?” It didn't help that his daddy gave him this Royal Coat of Many Colors which demonstrated to his brothers that he was his favorite. That's hard in a family when one seems to be the favorite. I heard someone say after the funeral one day that Daddy always told me I was the favorite. The others said, “Well, Daddy told me I was the favorite.” Another said, “Daddy told me I was the favorite.” He told all of them they were his favorite. He told each one not to tell the rest of them so they all went through their life thinking that they were their Daddy's favorite, and thinking, “Poor guys! My poor siters and brothers didn’t make the list.” So Joseph’s brothers ended up selling him into slavery. They thought, “He'll never return. He’s forgotten.” What did Joseph do? He could have become bitter. He could have become angry. I'm sure he I'm sure he wept. In fact, his brothers said later, “Didn't we see his tears?” He was begging them, “Don't do this to me!” They ignored him because their anger and hate toward him. At that point their jealousy toward him was so strong. You know the story. He served God. He did the best he could do. He did not let his slavery put him in heart in bondage. He was free on the inside, and it caused him to rise up within Potiphar’s house. In fact, Potipher put him over everything except his own wife. Then Potiphar’s wife began to eye Joseph and said, “I like that guy!” So she pursued him. He had to run away leaving his coat. She turned it all around and accused Joseph of trying to take advantage of her. Potiphar had him thrown in prison. Joseph likely though, “Wow! God I'm trying to do the right thing!” Has anybody tried to do the right thing and ended up in what you thought was the wrong place? Sometimes doing the right thing can get you in trouble. Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 5, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for “righteousness sake”. This persecution is not always about Jesus but just doing what's right. Has anyone been in a crowd where they wanted to do the wrong thing and you said, “I'm sorry I can't do that.” They respond, “Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re better than us? Then suddenly you experience consequences from your group of peers that you didn’t expect. You say to yourself, “I thought they were my friends!” Suddenly, you realize they're your friends as long as you do what they want you to do. Well, Joseph was thrown into the prison. How are you going to get out of there? He didn't know. As far as he knew, his visions were just his imaginations. Maybe he ate some bad goat or something I would say pizza. I don't know if they had pizza back then. Probably not! Maybe he ate some bad goat back then. Maybe, he thought, “I just need to let it go!” But something inside of him wouldn't let go of his faith in God. You know that's really where the test come. Wasn't that the test for Job when he went through what he could not explain and what he did not understand? I did not like the Book of Job when I first read it. Iignored the Book of Job. It did not it was not a book I wanted to read because it did not agree with what I thought in my mind God would be like, or what God would allow. If you live for God you're going to experience good and if you don't then maybe bad things. That was the position of job's friends. When experience all this trouble, Job’s friends said to him, “You must have sinned. You had to have done something wrong or else this wouldn't have happened. Look at us. I mean we're doing pretty good. We're living for God. Job you’ve got to start confessing (your sins). Job was saying, “I don't know of anything I've done. I have done I know to do.” Job got to the point that he said this: “I don't understand what's going on but one day I'm going to get to stand before him and plead my case. I know that when I plead my case, it's all going to be straightened out.” See, he was trusting in himself. He was trusting in his own righteousness. We are not to trust in our own righteousness. He did say this amid his confusion and despair and the questions in the “Dark Night of the Soul” that he went through. That was a phrase that was used by one of the ancient Church fathers. The “Dark Night of the Soul” refers to a time when God simply seems to be absent. You pray and there's no answer. You cry out but there's no one answers. You’re in a dark place. It seems like you’re all alone. It’s in that time when you begin to question your faith. No one answers. You're in a dark place and it seems you're all alone. It's during that time that you begin to question your faith—is God real? God are you there?” God is right there beside you. You just can't see him. He has never left you. He has never forsaken you. But one of the greatest tests in your life will be the “Dark Night of the Soul” is when it makes you question everything you ever believed. In that Dark Night of the Soul Job said, “Though He slay me yet will I trust Him. I don't understand what I'm going through but I know my God is not this way I know my God has not destined me for destruction. Even though I don't understand, even if He slays me, I'll trust Him. He knows what's best. He knows what's going on. Later Job found out he didn't know anything. God didn't explain to him about the devil. You may not get an answer on why you went through what you're you went through or what you're going through. God does not owe us an answer to our “Why?” Right now we owe him our faith when we don't know why. God began to say, “Job you've brought up all these questions about Me, but let Me ask you, “Where were you when I created the world? Tell Me if you know how I did this. Tell me how I slung the stars and when I created the animals and told them how to give birth. Where were you when I made the storehouse of the snow and the weather. Where were you?” Suddenly Job says, “I opened my mouth in ignorance. I was foolish to open my mouth.” God never explained the “Why”? All Job knew was that God was in control, and that God brought him out. Hallelujah! There's an “out” after the test. There is a blessing. That's why James could say, “Count it all joy, brethren, when you encounter various trials (James 1) knowing…” You’ve got to know something in the test to count it all joy. What about Jonah and all he who went through? What about Daniel in the Lion's Den or Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-Nego in the fire? “Count it all joy” can only happen when you know inside something bigger than the circumstances around you. Happiness depends on circumstances. When things are good, I'm happy. When things are bad, I'm sad. Joy is not that way. It doesn't matter what the storm is on the outside. You can still have joy on the inside because you know something on the inside that's going to change what's happening on the outside, amen. It says to count it all joy when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith… What is the devil after? He's after your Faith. The devil's not scared of you. He's not scared of me. The only thing he can't overcome is our faith. By faith we overcome the world. So, that is what the devil is trying to do. He did that to Job. He said, “Just strike him down and he'll deny you. He'll curse you. He'll let go of everything that he thought he knew about you. Just make life hard on him and he'll deny you.” What was he after? He was after job's faith, and he was after Joseph's faith. He's after your faith. So, there is a testing of our faith. That's what the devil's after. What's the most precious thing that we have? It's our faith. The testing of your faith produces patience. We don't like patience, because patience means we have to wait. We want an answer right now, in our way, and how we want it. But patience is doing a work on us. It's while we wait. That's the process of sanctification. That's the process of being made more like Jesus. It's patience that's working out the will of God inside of us. It hurts to wait. Have you ever dealt with your kids when they wanted candy, and you said, “You have to wait till after you eat” or “You have to wait later in the day” or “You have to wait to open your Christmas present next Saturday or whenever. It’s hard. It's hard. But it's developing character, isn't it? We need to learn patience. Joseph had to be patient. He did not let the prison destroy him. He served to the best that he could. As a result, because he served as unto the Lord, he began to rise up in the prison in authority. In fact, he was put over all the prisoners. He was trustworthy. He was a man of integrity. He did what was right. He didn't do what helped him. He did what was right. Through a process of some dreams by a couple of the inmates who were in connection with the Pharaoh—they both had dreams. One dream led to the baker being killed. One dream led to the butler being restored. The butler was the key to Joseph getting out. What if Joseph had just given up? What if he said, “I ain’t ministering to nobody. I'm not going to help nobody.” That's not good English. It's East Texas. My wife gets on me for saying “yella”. She said there's no such thing as “yella”. She will say, “What is that color?” I say, it's “yella”. Do y'all understand? You're from East Texas, amen? Okay! So, what I said may not be right but they understand me. All right. Now, he (Joseph) was willing to be used by God in a dark dungeon of a prison. By doing that, God raised up that man (the butler) to go back to Pharaoh. When Pharaoh had a dream, nobody could answer. He (the butler) says, “excuse me. There's this guy back in the prison who answered our dreams and it happened exactly like what he said. The Pharaoh said, “Go get him.” They brought him out, shaved him, and cleaned him all up. He told Pharaoh the interpretation of the dream that was going to save the nation—seven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought. He said, “Pharaoh this is what I would do in the seven years of plenty. I would save up, because the drought's going to be really bad. Nobody's going to remember the blessing of the seven years of prosperity. So, save it up because you're going to need it. Pharaoh said, “You sound like a smart guy. I'm putting you over the project. In fact, I'm going to make you second in command to me”, and he did. When troubles came to his brothers back in the homeland, they had to find grain. They heard, “There's grain in Egypt”. And guess what? Joseph was over the distribution! So, when his brothers came, guess what? They all bowed down. They didn't know him. You know what God did? God restored the ugliness of the past. Sometimes times things have been so ugly in the past that they look like they're beyond redemption. But God can turn things around, amen! By this time, God had been working on the brothers. They felt guilt. Guilt had been eating on them ever since they did what they did. They just didn't have a way to make it right. Joseph tested them. In the end, he revealed himself to them. And you know what they said? They felt so bad that they thought, “Oh, man! This guy can kill us now! Our brother can destroy us all!” Joseph said, “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good. It wasn't you that brought me here. It was God that brought me here.” Well, wait a minute. Wasn't it the brothers that did all that? Yes. Wasn't it Potiphar’s wife who got him in trouble? He wasn't in trouble, but she got him in trouble. The prison and all of that was so unfair! But God brought him out of that. And because of that, many were saved who would have perished. That's not the journey Joseph would have chosen. It’s not the journey Job would have chosen. It’s not the journey that Paul would have chosen. But it was the journey God chose, not to destroy but to save. Sometimes the process is necessary to get us to the palace. God knows how to get us where we need to be. It’s not about us. Stop thinking God what do You want to do? God, I want You to do something great in me! You know what the greatness of God in us is? He's going to put you in a place where He can do something great through you for the people that He cares about. That's what he did with Joseph. He set him up to save people he cared about. Wasn't that the case with Moses? God tested Moses. God raised up Moses. Moses went through a hard time. God says, “I'm going to prepare you.” That meant 40 years in the palace and 40 years in the wilderness. Now when you don't think you're ready, you're ready because you don't trust in yourself anymore.” It wasn't about Moses. It was about these people. God says, “Can I use you to save these people Moses? I need you, but it's not about you Moses. I want to say to you today—it’s not about you. God's looking for vessels. God is looking for people to reach the broken world around us. He's looking for vessels just like me and you. God wants to do that today. Maybe today you're in a place where you say, “God I don't know why I'm in this situation”. Well understand this. You're not there without God being with you. God is with you. You may not understand it. You may not be able to explain it. It may seem like life is unfair. But God is still good! As Jeremiah 29:11 says. The people of Israel were in Babylon captivity. Jeremiah told them, “The Lord says this. I know the plans that I have for you says. They are plans of good and not evil that you might have a future and a hope.” It looked hopeless. It looked like they were stuck in a foreign land under bondage. They would never get out. But God says, “I know the plans that I have for you. You need to know today that God has plans for you. He has a future and a hope for your life. You may look around and not see it. It may look like a complete contradiction. But, He says, “I know the plans that I have for you plans of good and not evil to give you a future and a hope. God has a future and a hope for you. He's going to bring you out of that place and you're going to be different. You're going to be prepared. Stick it out. Go through the fire of testing like Shadrach, Meshak, and Abed-Nego. You're coming out with a testimony for the king! Go through the Lion's Den like Daniel. You're coming out with influence with the king. There are people who say, “Oh, yeah, you say your faith is real. Everybody says that. They are looking for a faith that survived the fire, a faith that survived the lion’s den, that survived the stoning like Paul, or slavery like Joseph in Potiphar’s house. Joseph went through a faith that survives. That is what people are looking for today. Maybe you’ve not found that, but I want you to know today—Jesus is real! He went through the fire Himself on the Cross. Look at the Cross. Jesus did that for you! God sent Jesus to the Cross because He loves you. Because of the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the Cross, despising the shame. What was the joy set before Him? Look around you. It’s me. It’s you. It’s us. We are what He was looking at.
(Invitational Call)