Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.
Man, it's so good to be back with you.
A couple of really exciting updates.
Connor and Tabitha were able to welcome their new baby girl,
Hadley Grace into the world. Both baby and mom are doing
great from what I've heard. Connor did great, but just so,
so excited for them. Really excited about the plans
that God already has for little Hadley and just love, love what
God's doing in their family. Last week, if you were with us
last week, we got to really just walk through with three
different people giving their lives to Jesus last week, which
was absolutely amazing, to where we'll get to celebrate that new
life in Jesus in a couple weeks through baptism.
So could not be more excited about that.
Here's my question to you though, is everything that we
just sang about was really about God's love for us and his love
exhibited for us through what Jesus did for us on the cross.
And you know, we do not serve CJ is absolutely right.
We do not serve a a dead God. We, we do not come here to
memorialize a good teacher. We serve a living God, a living
Christ, a living Jesus to where the Bible tells us if we
surrender our lives to him, that the Holy Spirit of God will come
in and dwell us and to begin to change us and transform us from
the inside out. And all of that is great, all of
that's true. But have you really thought,
have you really thought about the?
Cost of that? Have you really thought about
the cost? Of it.
Like here's here's one of the things, if you're, if you're new
to church or you grew up in church, either way, one of the
things that we all need to come back to and we need to realize
is that following Jesus, accepting Jesus, surrendering
our lives to Jesus, coming before God and saying, God, I
admit that I'm a Sinner, that I believe that you sent Jesus into
this world to pay the price for my sins and I need to surrender
my life to you. God, would you come in and take
control of my life and I commit to following you for the rest of
my life. That is absolutely free.
That's free. As a matter of fact, it is as
simple as the Apostle Paul wrote to where he says, if you believe
in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,
you will be saved. That is free.
So last week we got to walk through, you know, leading three
people in surrendering their lives to Jesus, and that was
free for them. But here's the thing.
Choosing to surrender your life to Jesus and accept what He has
done for us, that's free. However, it'll cost you
everything. It'll cost you everything.
And I think that we live in a day and an age to where we don't
really, we like the free benefits of what it looks like
for us to follow God and, and follow the, the, the, the ways
of God. We don't really like to talk
about everything that it'll cost us and everything that we should
expect as followers of Jesus to be coming our way.
If you're, if you're new to Riverbend, if you're new to
church, and certainly if you're new to, to the series, this
series is called live well. And, and here's the overall gist
of the series is there's a God who created you and this God
that created you, he loves you and this God that created you
and loves you, He actually desires ultimate good for you.
He, he desires, he actually desires God actually desires for
you and I and for us and for we to live life well.
But here's kind of the disconnect.
A lot of times what we consider our definitions of what it means
to live well often include bigger, better, bigger, better,
newer. And I think that there's enough
of us in the room and online that we've kind of followed that
track. We followed that plan of what it
looks like for us to live well. We've, we, we've aimed our lives
at always pursuing bigger, better, newer, and we've just
ended up more stressed and in debt with a lot of regret there.
But God's way, God's way of us to live well, God's definition
for us to live well. There's a lot of hardship that
comes with that, but it also results in living a life to
where you and I know that we are free from shame.
We're free from from the guilt of our sin.
And we can actually experience true forgiveness.
We can experience true purpose, the purpose of which we were
created for. You see, there's, think of it
this way, My definitions of living well and God's
definitions of living well, a lot of times when they don't
match up, they're almost kind of like two different roads, like
our world's definition of what it looks like for us to live
well. It looks like it's a, it's an
easy road and it looks like it leads to life.
And God's definition of what it looks like to, to live well, it
looks like a really, really hard road and it looks like it leads
to death. When in actuality, the two are
actually opposite our world's definition of living well, even
though it does look a lot easier, it actually leads to
death. And God's definition, even
though it does look and is a lot harder, it actually leads to, to
life. And here's the beauty about God.
God allows us to choose. God allows us to choose, but he
doesn't want us to be ignorant about those choices.
He doesn't want us to be ignorant about those choices in,
in other words, what comes along with choosing God's way?
Well, I think we need to 1st come back to God's definition of
what it means to live well. If you're new to the series,
it's kind of the big idea or the main truth that we've been
revolving around since the beginning of January.
Here we are home stretch of the series.
We got one more week in the book of first Peter.
But to live well is to live God's way, firm in faith, steady
in trials and anchored in hope. And one of the things that any,
any follower of Jesus knows is that following the, the words
and the ways and the will of God will require us to remain firm
in our faith and steady in our trials and, and anchored in our
hope, no doubt about it. And I want to show you a
passage. I want to show you a passage in
the book of first Peter. And if you have a Bible with
you, I want to invite you to find First Peter chapter 4, to
where Peter's going to encourage us to live very, very much
aware, to be very aware of the cost of what it looks like for
us to follow. Jesus.
If you have a Bible with you, we're going to pick it up in
verse 12. If you don't, passages on the
note sheet that that you were handed on the way in and it's
going to be on the screen as well.
This is what Peter writes. Beloved, do not be surprised at
the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though
something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that
you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
If you're insulted for the name of Christ, you're blessed
because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer or thief, or an
evildoer or a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a
Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God
in that name. For it is time for judgment to
begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what
will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of
God? And he's going to quote another
passage of Scripture? And if the righteous is scarcely
saved, what will become of the ungodly and the Sinner?
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God, to God's will,
entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing
good. Now let's just go ahead and
address the elephant in the room.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trials when or fiery
trial when it comes upon you to test you.
I don't know about you, but I read that and I sit there and
go, man, what an uplifting verse.
What a way to start my Sunday right.
What a way to start my Sunday. I think it's really important
for us, however, to talk about and for us to look at what the
fiery trial that Peter's referring to here, what it's not
because there's a lot of confusion, especially in, in, in
in the United States to where there there's a lot of
prosperity, there's a lot of blessing there.
There's a church on every corner to where it's not hard for us to
practice our faith. There's a lot of
misunderstanding about what the fiery trial is, but I think we
need to clarify the three most common mistakes of what people
often assume the fiery trial is. So if you're taking notes with
us, let's look at three things. The fiery trial is not the first
one. The fiery trial is not the
consequences of my sinful choices.
The fiery trial, brothers, do we.
We don't want you to be unaware. We want you to be prepared.
There will be a fiery trial that comes to test you.
He is not talking about Peter's not talking about the
consequences of my sinful choices.
This is why check this out. Peter writes this If you're
insulted for the name of Christ, you would be blessed.
What is the if? If you are insulted for what?
For the name of Christ? And then he goes on as if that
wasn't clear enough. But let none of you suffer as a
murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
Here's the whole point is every single one of our sinful choices
and decisions, they all have consequences to them.
They all have consequences. And even though God can forgive
all of our sins, all of the sins that that that things that we
have done that God's word tells us not to do, things that we
refuse to do that God's word tells us to do, those are sins.
God can forgive all of our sins, but his forgiveness of our sin
doesn't necessarily mean that he eliminates all the consequences.
Let me kind of like put some feet on that.
God can forgive and does forgive past sexual sin, but that
doesn't mean that the remaining relational consequences for
relations, relational consequences later on in life.
It doesn't mean that those consequences of those sexual
sins don't keep lingering, but God can forgive the sins of of
substance abuse, but it doesn't mean that he automatically
eliminates like the the, the grip of of of addiction.
You you see? The fiery trial is not
necessary. It's not like the consequences
of our sinful decisions. Second thing that the fiery
trial is not, it's not really the common stresses of life.
It's not really the common stresses of life.
We all have stresses in life. And isn't it interesting?
Isn't it interesting how the older you get, the bigger the
stresses become, the older you get, the bigger stresses you,
you, you become and you kind of look back over your life and
you're like, Hey, remember when the biggest thing that was
stressful to me was that, man, I'd sign up for that every day
of the week and, and twice on Sunday, Like to be able to go
back and have the stresses that I thought were like a really big
deal in my early 20s or when I was 14.
And I'm not saying that those weren't big deals or big
stresses when I was 14 or when I was in my early 20s.
I'm just saying that now as I get older, the stresses seem to
get a little bit bigger and a little bit hairier, right.
The fiery child is to come upon us that Peter's talking about
here in First Peter 412 are not the common stresses of life.
So parents, as challenging as your kids may be, they are not
the fiery trial. Wives, as challenging and as
stubborn as your husband may be, he is not the fiery trial.
As as much of A jerk as your boss or your supervisor or your
manager, maybe he or she is not the fiery trial.
We all have things that are really, really common stresses
of life that we don't like. Things like bills and vegetables
and taxes and dentist chairs, as much as we don't like them, they
are not the fiery trial, although they will.
They will make us look forward to heaven a lot more, right?
But the common stresses of life are not the fiery trial that
Peter's talking about. The third thing, third
misconception about these fiery trial is the culture's movement
away from Christendom. The culture's movement, our
culture's movement away from Christendom.
Let me kind of unpack that for a second.
We no doubt live in a country that was founded by Judeo,
judeo-christian ethics, no doubt about it.
We, we're a country that was founded with a, with a base
acknowledgement of our creator God.
We're a, we're a country that was founded on, on a, on a
shared morality of what was right and what was wrong.
For the most part. We, we are a country that was,
that was founded in a way in which I would say that
Christianity was, was viewed favourably in the marketplace
and, and, and in the public sector.
I would say that probably up until the the 1990s, there were
cultural pressures and incentives for someone,
especially in the South, to say that they were a Christian and
that they attended church. Now sitting here in 2026, a lot
of those cultural pressures and incentives, they no longer
exist. A lot of the movement that we
see happening in our culture is, is a rejection against
Christendom, the shared Judeo-christian values.
But I would even argue this, I would even argue this, that the
fiery trial that Peter's referring to here in First Peter
4 is not our culture's movement away from judeo-christian
values. It's just not you see, again,
we, we, we live in a day and age to where there's no cultural
incentive or pressure to say that you're something that
you're not. If you're not a follower of
Jesus, then there's no cultural pressure incentive to say that
you are. There's no culture incentive or
pressure to, to, to, to go to church if if you not a follower
of Jesus. So what's happening is, is we're
having people pull away. We're having our culture being
more authentic and more honest and more real about who they are
and what they believe. And they're actually living with
a sense of genuineness, A genuine lostness, but a
genuineness. This is why it's so important
for us to understand the fiery trial that Peter's referring to
here is not a City Hall's refusal to place a Nativity on
the front lawn. And the fiery trial that Peter's
referring to here is not a cashier saying Happy Holidays
rather than Merry Christmas. That's just cultural cultures
drift and unbelieving cultures drift away from or all out
abandonment away from a judeo-christian ethic or what we
would call Christendom. You see Christendom, it has the
has the fingerprints of Christianity.
It looks like Christianity. Sometimes it feels like
Christianity, but it's really just a cultural Christianity.
It's not the same as a I've surrendered my life to Jesus.
I've been born again, I've been forgiven of my sins and only and
purchased with the blood of Jesus type of Christianity.
It's going through the motions and and and Christendom that
that's what our culture is slowly but surely rejecting.
And I would even argue over the last 20 something years that
rejection has has rapidly increased.
But that rejection is not necessarily what.
The fiery trial that Peter's talking about here.
So if the. Fiery trial is not the
consequences of my own sinful decisions, and the fiery trial
is not the common stresses of life and the fiery trial that
Peter's referring to here in First Peter 412.
It is not culture's movement away from Christendom.
What exactly is the fiery trial? What exactly is the fiery trial?
And this comes back to the overall gist of the question
that we asked at the beginning. What will following Jesus cost
me? Here's a definition.
I gave you this in your notes. The fiery trial.
Is a suffering that is experienced due to my walking in
obedience to God's word will and ways.
It is a suffering that is experienced due to my walking in
obedience to God's word will and ways.
There is a direct correlation. I am obedient to God, therefore
I am enduring this trial. I'm holding on to the words, the
will and the ways of God. Therefore I'm experiencing this
type of suffering. It is a direct correlation
between my obedience to God and my suffering for that obedience.
And it's going to happen in two distinct ways.
The first one, again, if you're taking notes with us, jot this
down. It's going to be a personal
suffering. It's going to be a personal
suffering. When I am walking in obedience
to God's Word will and ways. There are some things in my
life. If I'm living my life in
accordance to God's word and God's will and God's way for me,
that's going to, that's going to be contrary to the Word.
The world's the unbelieving worlds like will and ways.
So there's going to be some things that I'm going to suffer.
Let me let me kind of give you some examples.
If you're single with us and, and you are living obedient to
God's word and his will and his ways for you, then you refuse to
lower your standards and you refuse and you completely reject
some type of like hookup culture because you know that it's
against God's word, it's against God's will and it's against
God's ways. Well, what's that going to cost
you? It's going to cost you at least
temporarily. It's going to cost you
companionship. If you, if you're, if you're, if
you're an employee and you're, you're looking to walk in
accordance with Scripture and God's word and his will and his
ways and you refuse to compromise your integrity or
your character. It may very well cost you a
promotion and that's going to cost you some money if you're a
man or a woman or a student with us and, and you become convicted
about the things that you allow to kind of influence your
thoughts. Because we know that like what
goes into our thoughts, it's just human nature.
It starts to starts to like ping pong within us and because it
starts to change us and you become convicted about the
content that you allow into your thoughts with whether that
content is through reels or, or or or or websites or music or
movies or or TV shows. That may very well cost you
some, some popularity and it may cost you some, maybe even some
friends because you like we were talking about last week, you now
have a new master and that's Jesus.
And you want to honor Jesus in everything that you do.
So honoring Jesus in everything that you do, it will cost you
personally. There will be a personal
suffering, but there's also going to be a second category of
suffering, and that's what we call a shared suffering, a
shared suffering. What I mean by that is when a
body of believers like Riverbend Church, whether you're in the
room with us or online, you're following Jesus and we're all
looking to walk and sync with God's Word and his will and his
ways. There will be and we're joining
with other churches, other Bible believing Jesus loving churches,
not only in this area, but in this state and in this country
and around the world. There will be a shared
suffering. There will be a complete
misunderstanding of who we are and a mislabelling of who we are
because we're looking to live in accordance with what God says,
not what feels good or what culture says.
I'll give you I'll give you a couple of examples.
Not to spend a whole lot of time here, but we read in Genesis
chapter one that God created humanity is male and female and
he created both of them in his image of equal value, but he
created them male and female. So as Bible believing followers
of Jesus, we cannot get down with and we cannot accept a
culture's view of 54 different gender identities.
We just can't. But because of that, we're
labeled as a people that doesn't really love people or maybe even
bigotry. 2014, the founders of Hobby Lobby, both devout
followers of Jesus. They were sued and their case
was taken all the way to the Supreme Court of the United
States. They were sued because under the
Affordable Health Care Act, they were mandated as a company or as
a corporation that they had to provide health insurance, which
part of that health insurance included abortion.
And the founders of Hobby Lobby said, listen, based off of our
fear of God and our belief in Scripture that all, all life is
sacred, that from the moment of conception to the moment of
death, we are to protect all life.
We can't, we can't adhere by that that statute and that
mandate. And because they took that
stance, they were sued and their case was taken all the way
Supreme Court of the United States.
And in a narrow 5 four decision in the United States Supreme
Court 2014 the Supreme Court barely upheld those founders
rights not just to believe what they say they believe in but to
actually put it into practice. 2015 there was another Supreme
Court case Ozerfel V Hodges. And in Ozerfel V Hodges, the
Supreme Court ruled and it actually federalized same sex
marriage, citing using constitutional protections, but
then also citing portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
basically classified sexual orientation in the same vein as
a person's skin color, saying the Supreme Court of the United
States said no one can discriminate on that basis.
Now, most church scholars and historians agree that that has
now laid the legal groundwork for the federal government to
remove the tax exempt status of any church that does not perform
or refuses to perform same sex marriage.
Not because we're bigots, not because we hate people, but
because we believe that God instituted marriage, He created
marriage and He only blesses marriage is between a man and a
woman. So most legal scholars believe
that that now, that's 2015 Supreme Court case has now laid
the groundwork for the federal government to to remove tax
exempt status of churches, which means that tithes and offerings
will then become double taxed. You see what you and I, what we
give together to and through Riverbend Church, that money has
already been taxed. Well, if the federal government
then taxes ties and offerings again, that's a double taxation,
which will then lead to a lot of churches having to close their
doors. As your pastor, I'm very well
aware of the fact that following that vein out to its personal
conclusion, it could very easily mean when I stand on where God's
Word tells me to stand about marriage, that that could be
classified as hate speech. I, I, I don't tell you this, I
don't tell you this is your pastor to incite you, to get you
to wring your hands, to get you to go full on ostrich mode and
stick your head in the sand. I tell you this to give us full
context of what Peter is talking about and to give us full
context of what you and I have willingly signed up for when we
surrendered our lives to Jesus. So in full context, let me go
back and read first. Peter 413 In light of the
personal sufferings and the shared sufferings, rejoice in so
far as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also
rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.
So here's the question to his church, How in the world, in
light of everything that I just said, none of us going to make a
Hallmark card, right? How in the world do we rejoice
in that? I think we rejoice by three
mindset shifts, which are also going to come accompany 3
promises from God. If you're taking notes with us,
here's the three mindset shifts that we have got to be aware of
in the day and age in which we're living.
Number one, I don't chase trials, but I won't be surprised
when they come. I don't chase trials, but I
won't be surprised when they come.
Listen, I have never met anybody that says, listen, I haven't had
a good trial in a while. I think I'm going to go chase
one down. If that's you two things, either
A, you've got way too much time on your hands or B, you ain't
right. And I know it's not
grammatically correct, but it's theologically correct.
You ain't right. I don't chase them.
I don't chase them, but I won't be surprised when they come.
I won't be surprised when they come.
What? What is our definition of the
fiery trial? It is a suffering that comes
upon me as a direct result of me living in obedience to God's
Word, His will, and His ways. So when I strive to be obedient
to God, do you know who takes notice?
My enemy, Satan, his demons, the forces of hell itself.
So when I strive to be obedient to God's Word and His will and
His ways, my obedience places a target on me.
What is hell? What are the forces of hell?
What's their main objective for any of us?
Plan A Keep us away from Jesus. Keep us from surrendering our
lives to Jesus. If you've already surrendered
your life to Jesus, there's nothing that can ever separate
you from the love of God. Nothing.
I love how Paul ends the end of Romans chapter 8.
What can separate us from the love of God?
And he gives a whole litany of things that goes, Nope, not
that, not that, not that. There's nothing that can ever
separate us. Once you were saved, you're
always saved. But but once you're saved
doesn't mean that you're always be effective.
So if Satan can't keep you away from surrendering your life to
Jesus, he wants to keep you as ineffective as possible by from
leading other people to Jesus. And how does he do that?
By keeping us disobedient to God's word, his will and his
ways. You see, I don't chase trials,
but I'm also not going to be surprised when they when they
come. Jesus himself promised this.
He goes in this world. You will have happy times.
It's not what he said in this world.
You will have an easy time. It's not what he said in this
world. If you go to church every week,
life will always turn out the way that you thought.
Not what he said in this world. You'll have health, wealth and
prosperity. Not what he said.
Jesus said in this world you will have trials.
But fear not, I've overcome the world.
Jesus was crystal clear. We will have trials.
I'm not going to chase them. I'm not going to chase them.
But I'm not going to be surprised when they come as kind
of a side point of conviction. Here's a question that followers
of Jesus, we should be asking ourselves.
Am I walking in such obedience to God that I'm actually a
threat to health? I'm starting to wonder if the
lack of the fiery trial that Peter's referring to here,
direct suffering, shared suffering.
I'm starting to wonder if the lack of the fiery trial, if a
lack of attack, if an if a lack of attack on my life from the
forces of hell, if that's not really a true indicator and a
diagnostic of my lack of a threat to hell, my lack of
obedience to God. You see us followers of Jesus
going through trials for Jesus should be a badge of honor.
Along the way, we've kind of got some twisted theology to where
we start to think as far as the Jesus.
Jesus, I read my Bible. I spent 15 minutes in prayer
with you. I gave to the church.
I serve once a month at the church.
Why are you allowing this trial to come in my life?
Well, the Bible tells us, he promises us you walk in
obedience to God. You will face suffering in this
world. We're going to come back to why
that's so important. Second mindset shift is I don't
like trials, but I won't be consumed by their fire.
I don't like trials, but I won't be consumed by their fire.
Here's what that means is when you and I, when we're facing a
trial in life that is directly tied to our obedience to God's
word and his will and his ways, you don't have to like the
trial. As a matter of fact, if you, if
you write in your journal like I am so happy, like, you know, I
love this trial, such a great time, you know, hashtag blessed
and in your journal. I'm starting to sit there and go
OK. You don't have to hyper
spiritualize things. You don't have to like the
trial, but you also don't have to fear it.
You also don't have to fear it. Let me ask you a question based
off of what we've just talked about, talked about where, what
is the ultimate source of the of the trials that's coming against
U.S. forces of hell? Do you really believe that God
is bigger than the forces of hell?
That means whatever hell can throw at you, God's protection
is bigger. We see that playing out all
throughout Scripture. You go to the book of Daniel,
you got three guys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They refused to bow down to to worship an image of the king as
a as a God. They refused to bow down and as
a as a consequence, they told him, like, listen king, like we
acknowledge your authority as our king, but we can't worship
you as God because we can only worship the one true God.
And as a result, King Nebuchadnezzar threw them
literally into a fiery furnace. That furnace was heated up
several times hotter than it normally was, so much so that
the Bible tells us that the guys actually heating the heating the
furnace actually died themselves because it was so hot.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fire.
No doubt the fire was hot, but God's protection was greater.
You can read on. Later on in the book of Daniel,
you got this guy by the name of Daniel who he.
Refuses to to. Obey the King's decree to stop
praying to God. It's like, hey, King, like I
acknowledge your authority as my king, but my greater authority,
my greatest authority is to my heavenly Father, to the King of
Kings, and that's God. And I'm going to keep praying.
As a consequence, he was thrown into a den of vicious lions.
Those lions were no, no doubt vicious and probably no doubt
starving, but God's protection of him was far greater.
Whatever trials may come your way and my way, as a result of
us being obedient, faithful to God, Listen, they're big, they
are hairy, they are destructive. However, God's protection is
much greater. One of my favorite passages in
the entire Bible is is Second Corinthians chapter 4 and right
there nestled in the middle of Second Corinthians chapter 4.
Love this passage. Paul writes this.
We talking about followers of Jesus.
We're. Afflicted in every way, but not
crushed. We're.
Perplexed but not driven to despair.
Persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.
You see, you don't have to like the trial, but you also don't
have to fear it. Let come what may.
There is nothing that can ever separate us from God's love.
God always, always, always has protection of your soul.
Let come what may, He always has protection of your soul.
Third mindset. The way in which we can be
blessed in the midst of living in a trial.
I don't avoid trials, but I will be purified in them.
I don't avoid them, but I will be purified in them.
Two things about that statement #1 the trials that come our way
are not things that we can go around, not things that we can
go under, not things that we can go over.
We have to go through them. Here's 2 words of encouragement.
When you and I, when we go through trials, Number one, we
never go through the trials alone.
If you're a follower of Jesus, that means you have the Spirit
of the living God living in you, that there is nothing that you
will ever encounter alone. This is why King David could
honestly and authentically write in Psalm 23.
Four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil. Why?
Because you, God, you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
I'm never alone in what I go through and #2 with God, nothing
is ever wasted. With God, nothing is ever
wasted, ever. God will always use.
If we come to God and kind of reframe our question, here's how
we got to reframe the question. In the midst of the trial, ask
what, not why. Here's what I mean.
When you may be in a trial right now, you may be on the verge of
going into a trial. When you're in that trial, ask
the question, what God, what do you want to teach me in the
midst of what I'm walking through right now?
Not so much God, why in the world would you allow this to
happen to me? What not why?
There's a there's a profound, profound difference and that
question when we understand that we don't avoid trials, but we
will be purified in them. It gives us kind of a kind of a
strange confidence, right? A confidence that almost when
coming up on a trial, that fiery trial, hey trial, I don't like
you, you don't like me, but I know something that you don't.
Your intention for me is to tear me down, but God's going to use
you to build me up. So let's get this thing started.
You see, I don't avoid them. I would even argue I can't avoid
them, but I will be purified in them.
That's why whenever we go to another follower of Jesus and
say, hey, can I run a situation by you?
Can I get your godly counsel on this?
More times than not, we typically go to the person that
we know there's been through the trials, don't we?
Why is that? Because there's a track record
of them relying on God and his faithfulness in and through
them. Here's a question I want to
throw out there to you and especially if you're new to
church, It's AI think it's a very open and honest question.
Some people would even maybe even accuse this question of
being sacrilege. Here's the question, Ben.
If the fiery trials are going to come as a result of my obedience
to God, then why in the world would I ever want to be obedient
to God? That's a fair question.
Let me give you the answer. Do you want to be forgiven of
your sins? You see, I think what what has
so wrapped up our culture and its tightest grips is living and
walking with a sense of guilt and shame and secrecy.
Do you want to be freed up this morning or, or how about this?
How about many of us? We come in here, we're watching
online to where life has not at all gone the way that we thought
that it has, and it feels like all of our hope has been
stripped away. What would it look like for you
to know that if the worst that were to happen is you die, that
you would spend eternity with God in heaven?
How would that change the way that you lived?
How about this? How about a sense of peace and
love and purpose? That you've been striving to
find elsewhere by going down a lot of different roads and
trying a lot of different things, but you find out that
they only leave you empty and hollow and probably worse off
than you were to begin with. I would argue this if you're on
the fence about whether or not to follow Jesus.
A life that follows Jesus will give you a life that you have
always been looking for. No doubt about it.
Yes, it will come with hardships, but the blessings are
much greater than the hardships. Yes, it will come with trials,
but the eternal hope of knowing that you will spend eternity
with Jesus in heaven is greater than those trials.
Yes, it will come with suffering.
However, that suffering dulls in comparison to the life that
Jesus wants for you. Like I said at the very
beginning of our time together, and we had three people last
week that crossed over from death to life that know that
their greatest weapon against fear and doubt is a date,
February 15th, 2026. When the forces of hell try to
diminish who they are, diminish their hope, or try to cloud them
with doubt, they can pull out that date, February 15th, 2026.
That's when I nailed things down and gave my life to Jesus.
Do you have a date that you can go back to?
If you do or if you don't, we would love to pray with you.
We'd love to talk to you in just a few moments during our time of
response. If you do.
If you do, I want to walk you through four really key quick
questions to end our time. Here's the first one.
What is faithful obedience to God costing me right now?
If we're not listen, we don't go chasing trials.
We don't like the trials. We don't avoid the trials, but a
question that we should really be pondering if you're, if we're
a follower of Jesus, what trial am I suffering right now for the
for the cause of following Jesus?
And if there's nothing that I can point to, in what areas do I
need to be obedient to Jesus? Not to be a jerk for Jesus,
you'll never find that in the Bible, but just simply be
obedient to Jesus. What's it costing me #2 Where's
God calling me to obey Him knowing that it'll cost me?
Is there a stand that He knows that I need to take, that I know
that I need to take, not because of my opinions or my
perspectives, but based off of what God's Word tells me?
Is there a stance that I know that I need to take based off of
following and being faithfully obedient to God's Word, His
will, and His ways that's going to cost me #3 What would it look
like for me to not run from the fire, but to be refined by it?
What would it look like for me to not run from the fire?
I often wonder what it'll look like when we know that our time
is coming to an end in this life.
I wonder how many times we'll look back if we're aware of
those final moments with regret. Wondering, I wonder what would
have happened, what God could have done in me and through me
if I had not run from that trial, but I actually chose to
trust God to be refined by it. 4th question.
How can I prepare my heart now for the fiery trials that will
come? This morning has been really
about being aware. Aware of the cost.
Remember how I told you 3 mindsets also lead to three
promises? Fact of the matter is whether or
not you're in a trial right now and trial's pending, if you're
obedient to God, a trial is pending.
But guess what? God will protect you in that
trial. God will protect you in that
trial if you lean on Him. Here's what we want to do.
I want to end our time just praying over us this morning.
And if you were like one of those three last week that said,
Ben, I don't know if I have a true relationship with Jesus,
but I don't want to leave here not knowing.
We would love to talk with you. Maybe there's someone in your
life that you're not sure they have a relationship with Jesus.
The most powerful thing that we can do is to come down and to
pray for them by name. Maybe you're in here this
morning, you've come out of a trial.
Maybe you're in a trial right now.
You may say, God, I need your protection of me in this trial.
God, would you grow me? Would you refine me in this
trial? God, I don't.
Like it, but I trust that you're with me.
Maybe this morning is just another step of dependence on
God and where He has placed you. Maybe it's courage for you to do
what exactly what you know God is calling you to do.
Maybe in a relationship, a personal relationship, maybe at
work, maybe at school. Maybe it's something personal.
Maybe it's some some some boundaries that you need to draw
in your own life personally, knowing that that stance will
cost you. So you just need to come down
and pray for some courage. Listen, God will grant it to
you. You just have to ask.
So this morning we're going to open up this time after we pray
to give us a chance to respond and to pray together.
God, we love you and we thank you for your word.
Again, we thank you for the fact that you do not keep anything
from us, God, you do not sugarcoat things for us.
God, I pray that you would forgive us of, of any, any
twisted theology or any twisted notion that if we surrender our
lives to you, then you're going to make everything a smooth road
ahead of us. You're going to make it easy.
You're going to give us everything that we want.
God, would you bring us back to the reminder that you love us
far too much for that God? You are most concerned with who
we are becoming, God, and we cannot become who you created us
to be without depending on you. So God, I pray for the man or
the woman or the student that is struggling with an assurance of
whether he or she is truly following you.
God, I pray that they would, that you would grant them a
boldness to step out and to come down, talk and pray with the
pastor this morning. God, that they can nail that
down. God, for those that already have
their salvation nailed down, God, would you help us to be
really, really honest with ourselves about ourselves and
about the presence or the lack of presence of, of trials in our
lives as as maybe being indicative of our true
faithfulness or our true obedience to you?
Help us to really look at God. What is it costing us to follow
you, God, and help us to respond appropriately to that?
God, there are people in in all of our lives that we know need
you. So God, we want to take this
time to lift them up to you by name.
God, we pray that whatever you're calling us to do this
morning, God, that you would move in freedom, that you would
move in power. God, that you would move in a
way that is undeniably you. And it's in Jesus name that we
pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.