We'll stand while we read this.
Romans chapter 5, I'll pick it up in
verse 1 just to get the theme of
it here.
We'll actually be in verse 3, but Romans
5, 1, Therefore being justified by faith we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and
we rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
And not only so, we glory in tribulations
also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience
experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not
ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
who is given unto us.
Father, we thank you for your word and
how grateful we are for it.
And Lord, as tonight we also celebrate communion
together.
Lord, when the living word, our Lord Jesus
Christ, went to the cross for us, and
there the great sacrifice of your life for
us, for our sins, the great offering of
yourself, Lord, so that we may have fellowship
with you, we may have communion with you,
we may forever have a relationship with you,
being loved and adored and accepted now and
forever and ever because of the work of
the cross, how we thank you for it.
And Lord, we pray that the cross would
not just be your glory that you had
before the world began, but Lord, that it
would be the glory that we would have
long after the world has passed.
Lord, may we love the cross, not just
your going to it for us, but learning,
Lord, what it is for us to go
to it to meet and commune with you
and with each other as well.
So Lord, may you minister tonight to us
each and everyone in Jesus' name, amen.
You may be seated.
You know, as far as the New Testament
is concerned, there are essentially two types of
Christians, I guess you could say.
A carnal Christian and a spiritual Christian.
Somebody essentially that is ruled by their own
flesh and somebody that is ruled by their
spirit.
A Christian that is living and walking in
the flesh and a Christian that is walking
in the spirit.
And essentially, it seems like one of the
major differences between those two is that one
of them really knows, I think wonderfully, you
know, who they are in Christ, who their
life is in Christ, what it is to
be hid in Christ, to be found in
Christ, and they love that.
And the carnal Christian has not really grasped
that fully.
They don't really see the wealth, the fullness,
the plan, the identity, all that the Lord
has really done for them.
And thus, they're still oftentimes left out there
on their own, in their own devices.
But for the person that does know who
they are, for the spiritual Christian, the one
that loves walking in the spirit, sharing the
life of the spirit, for them, life is
a tremendous excitement for them.
They seem to know much of how to
handle the issues of life as they come.
As the trials, the tribulations, the struggles come,
they see them.
They even perhaps invite them.
And they're determined they're going to grow in
them.
For those who really don't know who they
are in Christ, who really are living and
walking and sharing that life in Christ as
they ought to, they don't really understand it
yet.
They don't seem to have the ability to
interpret the pressures of life as they come.
And they see a trial coming.
It's just a trial.
It's just a problem.
It's just something there that's an obstacle.
It's a problem.
And it's a totally unnecessary thing.
Instead of it being one opportunity after another
to grow in Christ, to discover more of
his life and his presence and his power,
for that person, when the issues come, they
just, why?
I don't need it.
I don't want it.
I don't like it.
One is becoming more and more like Christ
through the trials and the tribulations of life.
And the other one is oftentimes bewildered.
And he's confused.
One of them, you know, he's looking for
heaven.
And he loves the thought of heaven.
And preparing his life for heaven.
And letting God conform him to the image
of Christ.
And another one is still carnal.
He's still earthly.
He still so often interprets life as the
abundance of things.
As his, you know, his happy marriage, good
kids, good job, good health, 401k, and, you
know, pension program.
And had once good friends.
And once no traffic on the road.
And the plumbing not to back up.
You know, or whatever.
And if life goes that way, it's okay.
But let one of those things get in
trouble.
And he's just, why?
Why does this have to happen to me?
And they're upset.
And they're taken off guard.
And they're in trouble.
And they oftentimes, they don't just simply have
a trial.
They have two trials.
They have just the trial that comes.
But they're all, but then every time that
happens, they're having a trial about trials.
Why does this have to happen to me?
You know, what did I do?
And they're honestly confused by them.
They're honestly, seemingly take back and taken back
and they're frustrated by them.
Well, here in Romans five, in many ways
to me, Paul is helping us to separate
between these two worlds in between these two
people.
And, and, and for the one that really
wants to, to go on in all that
they can and their relationship and their fellowship
with God, when they have determined that they
look at what Paul has to say here
in the first two verses about a Christian,
they're being justified by faith, having peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
also we have this access by faith into
this grace, wherein we stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God here.
Paul looks now all Christians, every saved person
is in this verse, these verses, they're there.
You are whether you're, you may be here
tonight, not enjoying who you are in Christ.
You may not be resting in who you
are in Christ.
You may not be rejoicing in who you
are in Christ, but if you're a saved
person, if you've given your life to Christ,
you're in him, you're just not enjoying him.
You have access into God's presence.
As we looked at that word in our
last study, we are actually introduced as royalty
to God as his children.
And as we're brought in there as Kings
and priests before God, one person is overwhelmed
by that to realize this is who I
am.
I can't believe it.
And they're taken back.
And with all their heart, they want to
know more and more and more.
I'm royalty.
I'm a child of the living God.
I am one day going to waken in
his likeness, in his image.
I don't think so.
Look at me now.
I'm a far cry from that.
I mean, a long way to go before
anybody would mistake me for royalty, you know,
sort of a thing.
And, uh, but that person, they look there
and said, but if indeed I am royalty,
I want to know more and more about
it.
And there, they find that that is somebody
there that, that they want their life to
be equipped and changed and transformed into that
royalty.
You know, suppose, uh, not likely to happen,
but suppose this week I got invited to
the White House by the president himself.
One day he was having a state dinner
and he wanted me to come.
Not real likely.
I don't think, but, uh, if such a
thing had happened, I mean, I would obviously
immediately be taken back, you know, by it.
I'd be very confused perhaps by the whole
thing.
But then once the shock of the invitation
settled in, and I actually went around, told
her, but I'm going to the White House.
And then I'd probably start thinking about it
and think, why was the same thing?
Everybody else immediately thought later on.
I'd start, why, what in the world did
he want me there to come to the
White House for?
I'd think, what would I wear?
I mean, these people at the White House,
the way they dress.
I mean, when I go over there in
my $79 suit, it's a night, look at
this 79 bucks.
Can't beat that.
But when I go over there in my
suit, I didn't, you know, they're going to,
they're going to look at me and say,
that's a $79 suit, isn't it?
But anyway, or whatever else that, that they
may think about the thing.
And, but once I get in there, what
will I say?
How will I act?
What do I do if the president turned
to me and asked me something?
Don, thank you for coming.
Actually, we wanted to talk about the world
economy.
I'd like your input.
Oh, it's in trouble.
Yes, sir.
What do you suggest?
Fix it.
You know, I then, you know, hey, well,
what do you think about national security?
We've got some real breaches of national security.
You know, what do you think about that?
Bad.
Shouldn't happen.
You know, I could maybe give some very
broad sweeping things, but for any input on
what would justify my being there.
I mean, at the end of the night,
the president, the cabinet, you know, and his
advisors would be sitting around, what did you
invite that idiot here for?
You know, he didn't know anything.
And I wouldn't.
But here, essentially, you and I are about
to be invited ultimately into something far beyond
any state dinner.
We're going to be invited into heaven and
they're invited and introduced and brought in there
in a sense there would, would it be
something when I get there, would I reflect
a maturity and a glory and a majesty?
Would I reflect a character?
Would I affect, would I represent Christian characteristics
and maturity and qualities of which the Lord
would look and say, and here's Don.
And then, you know, have him sit down.
And at the end of the night, people
would say, wow, I know why you invited
him.
And, but yet I am going to be
invited to just such a dinner.
So are you, every one of us, we
are, we have been invited and are being
introduced as royalty.
And when we realize that, you know, we've
got to find her immediately.
I would find myself within dress me.
If I was going someplace, I'd be on
a crunch course.
Teach me everything you can about national security.
Teach me about the economy.
Teach me everything I can possibly find about
economics.
Teach me, dress me right, help my English.
How do you, how do they talk back
there or whatever else I'd want to learn
every bit that I possibly could.
And I wouldn't mind the pressure.
I wouldn't mind the study.
I wouldn't mind the crunching of time and
energy in preparation for such an event.
And in a sense, this is what Paul
is talking about.
Somebody who honestly and truly knows who they
are and knows they're about to go to
heaven.
And there, when they get there to have
something within them that represents the qualities and
the depth and the maturity of God himself,
the one whose image we are made in
and whose image we are going to be
conformed back into to realize, God, I do
not have these graces.
I do not have these characteristics.
I don't have this maturity.
I don't have this depth.
And now, Paul, he isn't changing the subject
here when he goes on and he says,
and not only so in verse three, but
he says, but we glory in tribulation, knowing
that tribulation works.
It does something.
And here he looks there to somebody that
realizes, dress me, teach me, train me, equip
me, mature me, prepare my heart and prepare
my life.
And then when I, in that process of
it, I want that character.
God looks at, all right, we're going to
have some trials.
We're going to have some testings.
We're going to have some buffeting.
We're going to have some, we're going to
push your brain, your mind, your heart, your
life to new limits, new testings.
We're going to ask more of your character
than has ever been in it before.
We're going to ask more depth of your
love, more of your heart, more of your
nature.
We're going to put in the pressure cooker.
But if I'm a spiritual Christian at all,
I'm going to say, get on with it.
Just so long as you can get me
to the dinner on time, dress me for
it, equip me for it, prepare me for
it.
That is a date that is set and
I have accepted the invitation and I'm going
to go.
And I'm not ready.
But the Christian, the spiritual one looks there
and he begins, as Paul says, even so
we glory in tribulation.
He looks at it, at the fact that
somebody would tutor him, somebody would take him,
somebody would disciple him, someone would train him.
Someone would take him aside and put him
through the processes and the lessons of life.
The Christian there, he begins to glory in
it.
Paul says, that's what it means there.
He actually rejoiced the fact that God would
take him aside.
God changed my nature, changed my character.
If you will, I want to listen.
I want to respond and I want to
learn and I want to grow.
And you see the Christian, he glories in
a sense.
Paul is saying here in tribulation because he
knows that the tribulations of life, the trials
of life, it's a training ground, it's preparation
ground, it's equipping ground, it's a dressing room
for the married supper of the Lamb, for
heaven, to be introduced as royalty and to
be brought in.
And therefore he doesn't mind what it is
he glories, as a matter of fact, in
tribulation.
The word tribulation means affliction, trouble, persecution.
It means oppressing together under pressure.
In other words, God looks and he says,
I'm going to take you and I'm going
to push you to the limits.
I want to find, you know, I want
to, if I'm going to strengthen your character
and make it deep and make it strong,
I'm going to put you through something.
And therefore the Christian, he looks there and
he realizes as he looks at life and
he maybe looks at this wonderful little marriage
he's got or dreams he has or hopes
he has, he looks at this marriage, he
looks at these children, he looks at the
work at the office, he looks at his
boss, he looks at his friendship, he looks
at his health, he looks at his 401k,
he looks at all of these things out
there and he says, okay God, here's all
the marbles you got to work with.
Here are the things and the relationships I
have in life and you can work with
them and deal with them and do whatever
has got to be done with them to
teach me how to live, to teach me.
If you can teach me in these relationships
in life, if you can press me in
these, if you can try me and test
me and push me to the limits and
teach me new depth in the relationships and
the issues and the struggles of life, take
them, teach me.
And he looks at the, essentially the ball
field that God has to deal with in
his life and the trials that he says,
all right, I'm going to teach you how
to love and I'm going to teach you
how to walk by faith and I'm going
to teach you depth and I want to
teach you character and I want to teach
you devotion and I want to teach you
consistency and maturity and morality and values and
I'm going to pour a lot of things
in you, but in the process of it,
there God, he wants to look and he'll
may look and he allows trials in a
marriage.
He allows, you know, trials, raising children, allows
all of these things in a family.
He puts us into it and he says,
now what do you want?
How are you going to handle this when
the miscommunication, the misunderstanding happens?
Your marriage.
How are you going to respond?
In the flesh or in the spirit?
Are you going to realize there that every
time a trial comes, you now have an
open door either into the flesh, I'll handle
this myself, or there's something there where you're
going to glory in the tribulation where you're
going to say, no, I want the issues
in my marriage to be handled by the
spirit.
I want God to resolve them.
You look, they're raising your children and, you
know, and watching these children, they come up
and grow in the world, don't know Christ,
are born outside of knowledge of Christ and
God gives them to you.
He said, now disciple them, train them, love
them, and you watch them grow up and
there as you do and the challenges and
the pressures and the struggles and every time
something happens in the marriage, happens with the
children, there's two doors, the door of the
flesh, that I'll handle this, I'll resolve this,
I know what this kid needs.
There's the door of the spirit where you
back off and say, God, if you could
teach me character and you can teach me
love and you can teach me depth and
you can teach me maturity, I want to
learn it.
And Paul says there that the Christian, he's
actually begins to look at the issues and
the trials and the tribulations in his life
around and he realizes these are all the
arenas that God has that he's going to
work in to teach us whatever he has
to teach us.
Then we decide, am I going to run
away from him?
Am I going to give up on him?
That's when the trials come, what do we
do?
Do we glory in the tribulation?
Do we actually look at there almost like
an invitation?
That's what Paul says, the struggle in the
home, the struggle in the marriage, the struggle
with the health, the struggle with the career,
the struggle at the office, the struggle in
whatever it is, is there something there that
the Christian man, Paul says he glories, he
looks at it, he says, Lord, this is
a great test because I don't have the
equipment to resolve this.
I don't have the answers.
I don't know what this woman needs.
I don't know what these kids need.
I don't know what this boss is trying
to do.
I don't know what's going on.
I don't have the maturity or the graces
of the character to do it, but you
do help me.
And here Paul says the child of God,
he literally glories in tribulation.
He finds it's one of his greatest hours,
it's his greatest opportunities to truly test the
power of the risen Christ within him, to
trust the ability of Jesus Christ to rule
and reign within his own life and to
transform him.
And he finds there that he glories in
it because you see, he knows even so
we glory in tribulation knowing Paul says there
for the Christian who's living spiritually that the
word there, no, it just means fundamentally what,
what we think of the word to know.
It means obviously to intellectually know, but it
also means to be skilled in when somebody
knows his trade, when somebody knows, you know,
as a surgery and he knows medicine, he
is skilled in it.
And this is the word that Paul means.
He said here, he says the Christian with
through tribulation, he is somebody that is, he's
becoming skilled when he looks there at the
trials of life, even invites them.
And not that he goes searching for them,
but when they come, they're welcomed in a
sense.
Okay, Lord, let's roll up our sleeves and
teach me something about you.
I never knew before something about your power.
I never discovered something about your kindness.
That's way beyond the limits of mind.
Something to me about your gentleness, your patience,
your nature that I have yet to discover,
because I know I'm going to be royalty
one day.
I know those graces will be in me.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get onto
the business.
Or do we run?
Do we run from it?
Do we find ourselves, the heat gets on
and, you know, and out of the kitchen
I go, I don't need this.
I remember, you know, one time I came,
my wife told me, we were discussing something
and she was actually kidding.
I better say this firsthand.
But she told me, she said, listen, I
want you to understand something.
If you ever divorce me, you're taking the
kids.
I dropped on my knees.
I said, forgive me.
I'm sorry.
I'll never leave you, you know, or whatever.
But anyway, so often, you know, when a
trial comes on, I just want to run
from it.
But there the Christian, he says, no, I
want to head right into it because he
knows.
You see, that's one of the wonderful things
about Paul.
Paul, you know, the knowledge of what the
Lord would come through and carry him through
and give him a victory, though he always
didn't know how or why it would work
out.
In the processes, there was one thing Paul
was so steadfast in.
Whatever else he knew, you know, you may
not know for sure, but you knew, he
knew the Lord would bring him through.
He writes to the church at Corinth in
2 Corinthians 480, he says, for we are
troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but not in despair.
Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Lord Jesus, so that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in
our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto
death for Jesus' sake, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh.
Paul looked there and he says, you can
do whatever you want to to me, I
don't care.
All I do know for sure is that
in every trial, every struggle, it's an opportunity
for his body, his life, his spirit to
be made manifest in this mortal body.
I'll experience something of him that I hadn't
known before.
And Paul knew that.
He knew that the tribulation did this for
him.
So when a trial came and he could
see something coming, wow, that's beyond me.
This is exciting.
I'm going to discover something about the Lord
I didn't know.
And here Paul, he gives us here a
little outline of what it will do.
He says, first of all, he says, tribulation,
not only it works.
I think sometimes it's almost good just to
stop that verse right there.
Tribulation for a Christian works.
And most of us say, no, it doesn't.
No, sirree.
I don't, you know, it doesn't work for
me at all.
Well, Paul says it does.
Tribulation works.
It's God's way of, you know, turning up
the temperature, putting on the pressure for his
child to bring out things within his own
child, his own child didn't know were there,
but he knew were there.
And he says it works.
And he says, what it does work is
tribulation work with patience.
And that word patience there essentially it means
an enduring, a patient continuance.
It's essentially an abiding in Jesus under pressure.
Their patience, what it is all about is
it's something that happens when the trial comes.
And then I look there and I decide
I want to go through the glory door.
I want to go through the one Jesus
where you live.
I'm tired of the flesh.
I'm tired of doing it my own way.
I'm tired of my own resolutions.
I want yours.
You know, I think one of the most
wonderful things, by the way, that ever happens
to a Christian is they do get tired.
One of the things I love about getting
old is you get tired.
The older you get, you get tired.
And it's a wonderful thing.
I think God built into us that we
get tired.
You know, when you're young and you could,
you don't need God to fix stuff.
I can fix it.
God, I know how to handle these kids.
Watch me.
I know how to handle this woman.
I'll tell you on a date.
God, you were never married.
I'm married.
I know women, you know, or something.
You actually remember those days guys, when you
thought you knew him?
Yeah.
Remember vaguely, you know, and you actually thought,
and so you are going to handle one
or you knew how to handle children.
The wonderful thing is, is, is time happens
and you get tired and you roll up
your sleeves and you go in there and
you solve it.
Boy, do you ever, did I ever teach
them kids something today or whatever else?
And all they do is keep on eating
and get bigger.
And then, and they multiply and then they
come at you in numbers and you get
tired and they're gaining strength and you're losing
yours.
And then as with time, you realize, you
know, we got to find another plan and
there's got to be another way of attack.
And the Lord says, yes, there is.
It's another door.
It's called the door of the spirit.
And when it's wonderful, when you sometimes get
tired in your marriage, you're tired in your
family, you're tired at work, tired of resolving
your own problems.
It's a wonderful thing because it's due tribulation
is doing its work and its work is
so often, first of all, just tires.
And then as it tires us down and
brings us to a place, is there a
strength beyond my own?
Is there an endurance beyond my own?
Is there a power and a consistency beyond
my own?
And then Jesus raises and he said, well,
I got a little, I got a little
power.
I created the universe, a few other things
like that.
You know, I, I, I'm available.
I do love you.
And if you'd like to abide in me,
maybe the two of us can get through
it together.
Hey, great idea.
And you begin though, to realize tribulation works
and it works patience.
You come to where Jesus helped me.
If you'll get me through this Lord, I'll
thank you forever.
That's patience, beginning to rest in him, beginning
to be dependent upon him.
And there's something there.
It is so wonderful.
Sometimes when the Lord takes you and he,
and he, and he has a way of
just taking away all the hope, all the
resources, all the strength, everything.
Sometimes one of the most wonderful things that
can ever happen when you're just you and
him, you in there with the Lord, do
you realize these, these trials, these tribulations, these
struggles to where you need his strength and
you need his power.
And you depend upon him because here he
says it, it works.
It has a way of working.
Some years ago, I went up to San
Jose and actually 1991.
And when I went up there, I took
over a ministry that wasn't a Calvary chapel
before, but it became one when I went
up there.
And at the time that I got up
there, there was 388 people.
And 75% of them were older, were
over 60 years old, mostly dead people moving
around.
Just kidding.
See if you're listening.
But anyway, but I'm looking there and here,
and then they, they looked at me and
they didn't like me.
I was very different.
I looked at them and it was kind
of mutual, but anyway, the, uh, but I'm
looking at this whole thing.
And I had, I took a board that
knew nothing about Calvary chapel, nothing about the
word, nothing about it.
I had a staff.
I didn't take a single person with me.
And then there was no money, $8.1
million.
And there, it was one of the most
wonderful times in all of life because there
was no human remedy, none, nada.
And when morning by morning to get up
and realize Jesus, I don't know how many
times I told him, this is your church.
This is your church.
You, you, you, you birthed the church.
You really gave yourself for the church.
You love the church.
You shed your blood for the church.
Now go get them, you know, sort of
a thing.
But it was something there.
There's a tremendous dependence in there and, and,
and the elders, you can have the elders
and you can have, uh, the staff and
you can have the debt.
You can have it all.
But day by day, when there's nothing but
the Lord, to get you through, it's one
of the most wonderful times you'll ever have
in your life.
When you look there and there's nothing that
can save your marriage, but the Lord, there's
nothing that can help your kids, but the
Lord, there's nothing that can work out the
job situation, the health situation, the financial situation,
nothing at all, but him.
There is when you can step back and
begin to realize that's the environment in which
the Lord does some of his wonderful work
ever, because he says tribulation work with patients
and patients experience.
And that word experience is a wonderful word.
It means tried and tested, a tested approvedness.
It means they're a tried character.
What happens is, is that when you take
somebody, they decide, I want to go through
the door where Lord you do it.
And I trust you help me.
I don't know how to resolve this.
I'm tired of my own ways.
I want to depend upon you.
And they depend upon the Lord.
They, they, they yield over to him.
And as they yield over to him and
they begin to abide under pressure in Christ,
he says that tribulation produces that patients and
that patients produces a tested approved character.
Something happens through this pressure cooker, through this
trial, through this struggle, there is a specimen
that begins to arrive out of it.
That all of a sudden you admire it.
There's a depth.
There is a maturity.
There is a stability.
There is a consistency.
It wasn't there before in trials of what
do this.
That's what that's their purposes.
If you ever looked at your Bible and
realize virtually every character in the Bible that
you would respect every character, you admire the
reason you respect them and admire them is
because of their character and the character that
was produced through trials.
When you look at a Moses and you
see the trials and you see the struggles
and you see the backside of the desert
and you see him grappling with his fundamental
issues of life of learning to trust in
God.
And then you begin to see the man
stand there before Pharaoh and say, let my
people go.
And there is a tested approvedness there.
There is a character.
When you look at a David and you
realize started off a nice young boy, love
God, precious heart, wonderful things, but far from
the man that could truly sit upon the
throne with depth and with character.
So God takes him and he puts him
through a pressure cooker, lets him have years
under, you know, running over through every nook
and cranny and hill and dale and valley
and cave over all of Israel, you know,
for his own life being hunted like a
dog.
And yet through this, he learned to trust,
to abide under pressure and character began to
be formed.
And there began to be a depth that
one day when God brought him out and
brought him before the world and put him
on the throne, there was character.
There was royalty.
There was a king you could follow, you
could respect.
When you see these qualities, when you look
at a Daniel, when you look at a
Hannah there in her trials and her struggles
there with her family and with her children,
but knowing what it was to cry out
and to weep before God and to abide
in him and let him produce character.
You come along, you find a little Esther,
you know, obviously a pretty face, no question
about that, but not much more initially.
But then when she finds herself in the
book of Esther and the pressures and the
trials and the struggles, and there what is
called upon her, she had no capacity to
do in her, you know, Mordecai gets a
hold of her and tell you got to
go before the king.
She says, Oh, Mordecai, you know, and he's
out there and he's sackcloth.
And as she said, come on, get him
in here, give him a bath.
He's having a hard day.
He's thinking really weird stuff.
And then he's got to sit down with
her.
And he says, don't you realize, Esther, you
are alive for a reason.
God has created you for a reason, for
a purpose.
You have no inkling of it.
You're just a pretty face.
I got married to the king.
You think, but you're far more than that.
You're a woman who has yet to realize
the capacity that God has given into your
life.
And God's going to deliver the people one
way or another, either with you or without
you.
It's your choice, but you can rise to
the occasion.
And here under that sort of pressure in
her heart and her life comes to grips
with abiding and trusting a character comes forth
where she sends a message back to Mordecai,
tell the people to get ready.
I'm going.
And if I perish, I perish.
And you look at that and say, where
did she come from?
Tribulation works wonderful things.
They take somebody in tribulation, work with patients,
patients experience and experience hope.
The word hope is a wonderful word.
It means to anticipate with pleasure, an expectation
of a, you know, a fulfillment.
There is something that there is now happens
into this person that has gone through where
they've allowed tribulation to do its way, its
work.
It produces patience, patience, character, experience, and who,
and, and experience gives us stability.
It gives a maturity.
It gives a depth that gives a quality
about somebody there that there's an unshakable hope.
There is something there that absolutely knows within
that person, God will come through.
He cannot fail himself.
I'm given to him.
And for his purposes and for his plan,
he will work.
He will do it.
There is a full assurance.
There is a sense of wonderful stability.
And he says in hope, make it's not
ashamed.
Where does shame just means put to flight?
Words of shame just mean I got to
get out of here.
We're the word of shame.
It just basically means the pressure gets on
and I've got to find a way out.
But he says, hope, make it not ashamed.
Something there when they realize I don't need
a way out.
God has a way in and he's going
to work his plan.
Don't know what it is, maybe.
But you see somebody like this, when they
learn this, Paul looks there and he says,
you want to be royalty.
You want to be invited to the feast.
You want to be introduced as royalty.
You want to be sitting there, you know,
in the White House.
You want to go to the wedding supper
of the Lamb.
And you want to look there and you're
going to be royalty.
Don't you want to get dressed?
Don't you want to get ready?
And God so often, you know, puts things
around us.
And as he puts them around, he lets
things shake and he lets them happen.
And either somebody looks there and says, I
don't need this man.
I don't need this woman.
Who needs him?
I'm out of here.
And they're shamed.
They're put to flight or else something happens
where they look there and say, God, you
have an answer.
And the problem isn't him.
The problem isn't her.
The problem is I don't know the answer
yet.
And I've got to abide in you to
show me and to teach me and to
help me put me in the pressure.
I don't care.
I know you've got an answer.
We don't.
You do.
And whether it is with the children or
with whatever else it may be there to
find there that whatever to be able to
rest and say, God, all I know is
I have this wonderful assurance that you're going
to come through and make it not a
shame.
And he says, for the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit is given to us.
The word shed abroad means to pour forth,
to shed forth, to bestow or to distribute
largely.
They're this person.
And once they've gone through the trial, they
said, all right, God, I'm not running from
the home.
I'm not running for the relationship.
I'm not running from the friendship.
I'm not running from the health issue.
I'm not running from the financial thing.
I'm not in panic.
I'm right here.
Now, teach me.
Speak to me.
I don't care what you want me to
do.
I'll do it.
And I care what you want me to
say.
I'll say it.
So many times, you know, I don't know
whether one of the things I'm very grateful
for sometimes.
I'm not grateful at all that I was
rebellious growing up.
But I but but one of the thing
in my rebellion growing up, I was just
I was some people are real nice people.
Some of you grew up real nice.
And I'm happy for you.
That's that's great.
But I didn't grow up nice.
I was I was very self willed driven.
And I was somebody I could I would
I determine if there's something I was going
to do, I was going to do it.
Or whatever else I could be so stubborn.
And that's it.
And and that stubbornness could so frustrate you
or exhaust you.
You'd you'd be so driven and you'd get
in it.
It's a it does a great work in
you.
And you're so driven, but so often just
by the flesh.
That's all I knew.
I remember one time my dad was driving
down the street coming home.
And I'm kind of in a fight with
regular a lot of times a lot of
boys on our street, a lot of fighting,
not to murder, just just to maim temporarily.
But you know, it's how we kind of
grew up.
And I'm in one.
And my dad comes by.
But the guy he's his name was john.
He lived around the corner.
And he came over and we're playing ball.
And he was bigger than me.
And then we get into a thing.
And so I just kind of you know,
I and I realized I'm going to lose
this one.
And so I just kind of graciously got
out of it.
You know, and I go home, my dad
looks at me said, Did you just eat?
She saw this thing.
He says, You walk away from a fight.
I said, No, I didn't know.
He says it looks to me like you
walked away from a fight.
Now whether I'm not recommending this council, but
my dad, maybe I don't know if he
had his devotions that morning or not.
But anyway, he looked at me and he
says, Listen, I don't ever want to see
you walk away from something.
Well, I was so mad at my dad
for sending me out there to finish this
fight.
I went out there and I beat the
guy to a pulp.
And I could everybody looked at me.
How did he do that?
With the adrenaline.
It happened several times in my life.
Actually, I found out you can turn on
adrenaline.
Have you ever noticed about you can if
you decide you're going to do something with
such intensity that you can push yourself to
limits.
All I knew it was in the spirit
in the flesh, never in the spirit.
But it's so tiring.
And you can run your marriage like that.
You can raise your family like that.
I'm going to drive home my point no
matter what I got to do.
And you pay a big price.
And one of the most wonderful things that
happens is the day somebody learns that the
day that somebody they realize, Lord, is there
another door?
Is there another way to live?
Is there another thing to learn and to
determine their Lord?
I want to win this in your spirit.
You may have some in your marriage.
I want out here with your kids.
I want help.
You may go to work.
I don't need this.
And when the Lord says, Yes, you do.
Yes, you do.
You just don't need it because you don't
have the answers, do you?
But when you find they're in a relationship
or something else, Lord, help me get me
through this.
Teach me.
You see, every trial to me, it has
two doors.
It has two ways, you know, you can
go into it.
And one is the door of the flesh.
We're all handle it.
And the other one is it's a trial.
It's a test.
It's their Lord.
Can you help me?
Will you come through where he says, Of
course I will.
But you've got to want to go through
it.
You've got a glory in it.
You've got to look and say, Lord, let's
roll up our sleeves and let's get on
with it.
And, you know, the wonderful thing is, is
that once you begin to see life that
way, I believe you become fearless.
You become immortal.
You have a hope that you don't care
what happens.
It means nothing to you.
Even your own life.
A few weeks ago, I went home, as
I do every day.
But I went home and I'm laying in
bed there after church.
And as I'm laying in bed, I get
a pain in my chest.
Well, I never had pain like that.
And this is a real pain.
And it went on.
And next thing I know, I'm talking, I
said, Honey, and we start talking about this
thing.
And she starts describing her dad was a
doctor.
She says, You're having a heart attack.
I said, No, I'm not having a heart
attack.
She says, I'll bet you're having a heart
attack.
And I said, I don't think so.
But my blood pressure, I could tell it's
high and my pulse is racing.
And she says, You've got to go to
the hospital.
I said, I'm not going to a hospital.
So I took an aspirin.
Aspirin cures heart attacks.
So anyway, so I took an aspirin.
It didn't go away.
And it's just there.
And so finally, she's begging me, We're going
to the hospital.
We've got to go to the hospital.
And I realized what it is.
She didn't want me to die there.
She did.
She just remembered the body right there.
And the thing in it would ruin her
house.
I knew.
But anyway, so she's so finally okay.
So we go.
And I get in there.
And as I come into emergency, they say,
I got pain here a little.
And they said, They checked me out.
Next thing you know, they got guys out.
They throw me in this thing, wheel me
back there.
They're shaving my chest, put all this stuff
on me, running machines all over.
You ready with these pallets?
Okay, is he dead yet?
You know, I want to try them out
or whatever.
As they're doing this, I'm wondering, hey, they
think something.
What's going on here?
And they all night long, the entire night,
they sonogrammed my whole, they went through my
liver.
They said, Have you ever had a sonogram
in your liver?
It's something.
It was my kidneys.
I had two kidney stones sitting in there.
I've had 12.
And now there's two more ready to come.
But anyway, I didn't want to know that
part.
But then they're going through and they sonogram
everything.
They get to my heart and say, Hey,
your heart's unbelievable.
They took a one hour sonogram, every valve,
every muscle.
They said, and nine o'clock in the
morning, after all, finally, the pain's all gone.
I just stopped the pain so I could
go home.
But anyway, the pain's gone.
And they determined that I had a terrible
heartburn that mimicked a heart attack and gave
me some peptid AC, peptid AC, and charged
me $3,377.
Got home, took a shower and shaved.
I was only an hour late to work
and nobody missed me anyway.
Never even told anybody.
I knew, you know, where you been?
Oh, trying to die, but I couldn't finish
the job.
But when we determined, Lord, I don't care
if I live or die means nothing.
If I can glory in who you are
and I can go to the cross and
take your marriage, the cross, take your family,
take your heart and say, Jesus, teach me
something of you.
I didn't know before.
Teach me something of your character.
I didn't dream of.
He'll be there.
Father, we thank you for your love.
And I thank you, Lord, for the trials
and the tribulations.
Lord, I pray instead of despising them and
running from them and avoiding from them and
fleeing, Lord, that you would put something within
us where we glory in them.
We almost would invite them to say, Lord,
bring them on.
I want to go to that wedding feast
and I want to be royalty.
And I want to be somebody that at
the end of the night, they say the
love of God was just pouring out of
their heart.
It was shed abroad by the Holy Spirit
who was given to them.
They had character, they had depth, they had
stability, they had keeping power, they had maturity,
they had character.
Lord, teach us these things.
And Lord, as you teach them in our
home and in our marriages, help us to
know it isn't the husband, isn't the wife,
it isn't the child.
Lord, they're just glorious opportunities to go through
a door to discover something of you we
hadn't known before and wouldn't know unless in
your love and mercy.
Yet you allow these things to happen, to
bring us into a greater dependence upon you.
Teach us these things, Father.
We ask it in Jesus name.
Amen.