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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Acts chapter #5 This morning as we continue to look at the issue
of growth in the Christian life. And we've asked you over the
last several weeks, and we ask you again this week, have you
grown in your Christian life? Have you grown over the last
week? Have you found places in your
life that you need to grow in the spiritual realm?
And have you grown in those areas?
And we know that sometimes it's not everything that we want it
to be or everything that it ought to be, but we do know that
we ought to grow. And the Lord will help us grow
with His Holy Spirit. And so we've looking at this
issue of growth from the very last words that Peter gave us in
second Peter chapter #3 and then followed how Peter grew in the
book of Acts. But this morning, I want us to
look at a very important issue when it comes to this issue of
growth, and that is this growing through trials.
Growing through trials. Now, if I was to play a word
association game this morning, if I was to ask you to give me
some. Words that would.
Be associated with the word trials.
I imagine you'd probably come up with a word like this.
Fear, dread, pain, discouragement, quitting.
I mean, are those kind of words that you would maybe associate
with some of the troubles and the trials that you have in your
life? Let me ask you, has anybody ever
had any troubles or trials in life?
Let me see. I just want to make sure
everyone's hands work. All right.
Good, because we all have to raise our hands, don't we?
Every single one of us have gone through difficulties and
troubles and trials. I'll be honest with you.
When I go through those times in my life, here's the words that
I'm not using. Joy, gladness, rejoicing,
pleasure, growth. These are not the words that we
would associate with the issue of trials.
But here's what I want us to look at this morning when it
comes to growing trials will be in the way.
You know you can have revival in your life, you can have this
time of personal revival in your life.
Where? Where the Lord?
Speaking to you through your Bible reading and everything's
good and everything's exciting and emotionally you just feel
like you're on fire for the Lord.
I hope you felt like that in your life before.
There've been times and seasons where where the Lord's presence
was was so real. It's not that he wasn't there
before, but you're just so in tune with what the Lord has in
your life. You've confessed your sin before
the Lord. You're keeping short accounts
with Him. You're listening and then things
are good and things are great and you're growing and you just
wished it would stay like that. But here's the problem.
There comes problems and trials, not even necessarily because of
what is happening in your life with what you're doing, that
you're doing something wrong and God's bringing judgement or
chastisement in your life. But it's just like Job, who is
minding his own business, and all of a sudden it seemed like
life crumbled around him. And if you're going to try to
live the growth type of life of which we're called to as
believers, trials are going to come, difficulties are going to
come. In fact, James 1 verses 2
through 4 says this. My brethren, count it all.
Joy, what was that the word association you thought you'd
use? It wasn't the one that first
came to my mind. My brethren, count it all.
Joy when you fall into divers temptations.
Knowing this at the trial of your faith, work as patience.
But let patients have a perfect work, that she may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing. And James is saying this, If you
want to grow, problems aren't the problem.
But problems are actually the method that God often used to
help us grow, that problems aren't always the problem, but
problems are actually providentially placed in our
life because he wants us to grow.
And so this morning I kind of want us to change our thinking a
little bit today about this issue of trials that we have in
our life. And I'm not necessarily that
saying that when your bank account is empty, you ought to
be giddy and say I overdrew that that's kind of that's something
else. I don't know that that's
necessarily godly or not. But what I'm saying is this.
That we don't lose hope when things go wrong, That we don't
lose courage when the problems come.
That we don't think God's quit on us when the troubles happen,
but instead realize that not only has God not.
Quit on us. But He's intricately and
intimately working in our life because He wants you to grow,
not because he's against you. Would you stand, please, for the
reading of God's Worry Acts chapter 5?
Beginning of verse #17 There's a lot going on in this chapter.
We'll try to cover it the best we can this morning.
Acts, chapter 5. Beginning of verse #17 It says
this. Then the high priest rose up,
and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the
Sadducees, and were filled with indignation, and they laid their
hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.
But the Angel the Lord by night opened the prison doors and
brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the
temple to the people all the words of this life.
And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in
the morning and taught. But the high priest came, and
they that were with him, and called the council together, and
all the Senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the
prison to have them brought. But when the officers came and
found them not in the prison, they returned and told saying
The prison truly found we shut with all safety, the keeper
standing without the doors, but when we'd open, we.
Found no man with him. Now when the high priest and the
captain of the temple, the chief priest, heard these things, they
doubted of them. Where unto this should grow.
They came. One told them, saying, Behold,
the men whom he put in prison are standing in the temple and
teaching the people that you got to stop for just a moment.
You got to find the Bible humorous all right, in the sense
that you realize what's happening here.
The idea is they were locked up. The Angel of the Lord frees the
disciples. They go out and preach because
they were told to go back out to preach The the the Sadducees
sent them and say, all right, let's put these guys on trial.
They're not there. The doors are locked.
Where are they? And someone just runs in and
says, are you all looking for the disciples?
Yeah, where are they? They're back out there
preaching. Wouldn't we arrest them for
that? Well, we did.
But they're back out there preaching again.
You define the the irony in that.
I well, OK, I do. All right.
So anyway in verse #26 Then went the captain with the officers,
and brought them without violence, for they feared the
people, lest they should have been stoned.
And when they brought them, they set them before the council.
And the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not straightly
command you that you should not teach in this name?
And behold, you fell Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend
to bring this man's blood upon us.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,
This, We ought to obey God rather than them.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged
on a tree. Him at God, exalted with his
right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to
Israel, forgiveness of sins. And we're as witnesses of these
things. And so it is that also the Holy
Ghost, whom God hath given to them, that obey Him.
Now drop down to verse #40 where it says.
And to him they agreed. And when they had called the
apostles, they'd beaten them, and they commanded them that
they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
I'd call that a trial, wouldn't you?
And they departed from the presence of the council.
What's that next word? Rejoicing.
Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they cease not to teach and preach.
Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father, I pray that
you'll be with us here this morning.
Help us to be able to look at your word to understand who we
need to be. What?
I imagine there's going to be some people here this morning
who are going through trials, but this isn't just something
that we're talking about in a way that's conjecture, but
they're living it right now. Would help them to know that not
only can they go through grow through the trials, but I
believe that you have brought these trials into the life for
the very fact that they would grow to be able to be who they
are called to be. And that those trials that you
have brought their way are not there because of your hatred for
them, but rather because of your intense love for them would help
that to be evident through your word.
As I preach and I ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you may be seated. When trials come, it's easy to
stop reading your Bible. When trials come, it's easy to
stop praying. Why is it when trials come
people stop going to church? It would seem to be the best
place to be when the trials come.
But yet the very first temptation is to leave the very
place that God has designed for you to not just grow through the
Word of God, but through the fellowship of other believers as
well. Trials can get us into the place
where we relapse over habitual sin.
Maybe God's given us victory in the past, but yet we go right
back like the prodigal to the hog pen and go right back to
that which God had saved us from.
Why do we take this posture when trials come?
You see that Peter gave us an example and really all of the
apostles give us the example here at the end of Acts chapter
#5 when we saw that they were rejoicing.
And, and they teach us here this morning that trials are less
about groaning and more about growing.
Trials are less about groaning and more about growing.
You see, life may have its ups and downs, but growth doesn't
have to. I'll say that one more time.
Life may have its ups and downs, but your Christian growth
doesn't have to meaning this. Just because life goes up and
down doesn't mean your Christian walk has to go up and down.
Just because life goes up and down doesn't mean you have to
lay your Bible aside. You know, you ought to cling
tighter to it. Just because you're going
through the trials doesn't mean that prayer should go out the
window. No, no, we should wear out our
knees being on the on the ground, just asking the Lord and
begging Him to help us to get through those trials.
We need to recognize these trials for what they are.
And I'll tell you, Acts chapter 5 is just a, a seesaw of
activity. If you were to take it all the
way from verse #1 to see what took place, you start at the
very beginning in in verse number.
Verse number. 1. And then down to verse #10 you
find that there were two who were in the church, Ananias and
Sapphira. Now, the trajectory of the
church up to this point had just been up, hadn't it?
We saw how the church was established by Jesus Christ,
empowered on the day of Pentecost.
There was a day where 3000 people got saved.
There was a day where 5000 people got saved.
The church exploded in a major way.
There really been no problems in the church.
But there's one thing I can guarantee you about church.
They'll be problems as long as there's people say, Pastor,
that's not very encouraging. I'm just saying we're human
beings this morning. Is there everyone awake this
morning? Did you drink decaf like me this
morning, Pastor? You say if you're drinking
decaf, what are you like on caffeine?
I know that's what I'm saying. I know it's dangerous, but, but
listen, the church had just gone through this, this upward ascent
and but there were people involved.
And two of those people were Ananias and Sapphira.
And they sold a piece of land and, and they decided to give
that money to the church. And there was a problem, though.
They decided that they were only to give a part of the portion of
the sale of the land to the church.
Now that wasn't the problem. The problem was this, that they
lied about it in front of the church and they told the church
that they gave a whole lot more than they actually gave.
What I just mentioned a few moments ago, that when it comes
to the issue of us giving, the right hand ought not to know
what the left hand is doing. We don't give.
So the people know how much we give.
We don't give because we're trying to receive anything in
return. Honestly.
We just give because, well, God commanded it.
And I'll tell you that every time that I've given, God has
given so much more to me than the little bit that I give to
Him. You say you only give a little
bit, Pastor, you don't give 10%. You know, I tithe and give
offerings and we tithe as a family and give offerings.
What I'm saying is this is how little is that compared to what
God's given us? And here's Ananias and Sapphira.
And they want to make much of themselves.
They go in the church and they want everyone to know how much
they've given. And so Peter talks to Ananias
first and, and makes mention of this.
And Ananias lies in front of the people.
And just like that, he's dead. And a few young men come and
take him out of the church body. Couple hours later Sapphira
comes. Looking for a husband.
Anyone. Seen my husband, Peter says,
hey, I'll answer your question if you answer one of mine.
That money you gave, was it so much?
The Bible says. And she says, Oh yeah, that's
what I gave, confirming the lie that Ananias had said a few
moments ago. And Peter looks at her and says
this. The sounds that you hear are the
feet of the men who took your, your husband's body away will be
taking your body away as well. And she dies.
I'd say that's a pretty bad day for the church.
I'd say that's a trial, wouldn't you?
I'd say that's things going poorly.
But what happened in verse #11 it says.
And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard
these things in my Bible. Right next to that I say this, I
wrote this. I bet you imagine great fear
fell upon the church and two people just died because they
lied about the offering they gave.
I bet fear came upon the church. But listen, this wasn't the type
of fear where people were cowering before the Lord.
I would put it this way, This was a revival type fear where
people said this, we got to get right with the Lord.
We need to be serving the Lord. We need to make sure our hearts
are right before the Lord. Any kind of pride, any kind of
arrogance within us, it got to be removed.
There's no room for pride or arrogance in the church house.
These people said, and by the way, it's too 2025 and I would
say in this year there's still no room for pride or arrogance
within the church house. That counts for the one who's
standing behind the pulpit, and that counts for those who are
sitting in the chairs, and that counts for anyone who comes in
contact with the church. There's only one who's high
lifted up, and that's Jesus Christ.
We lift him up and we pray that all men are drawn unto him.
John the Baptist said he must increase and we must decrease.
It says by the hands of the apostles were many signs and
wonders wrought among the people and they were with 1 accord and
Solomon's Porsche's revival breaking out verse 13 and of the
rest Durst no man join himself to them, but the people magnify
them. It said this even the people
that didn't necessarily agree with them said there's something
going on here. You know what I hope the
testimony of Liberty Baptist churches and the community.
Even the people that don't agree with salvation and Jesus Christ.
They say this. I don't know what's going on in
Liberty Baptist Church. I don't know that I can agree
with it. I can't deny that something's
going on there and that's what's happening here in Jerusalem and.
Believers were more added to the Lord multitudes, both men and
women, in so much they brought forth.
Look at this, They brought forth the sick into the streets, lay
them on beds and couches. At least the shadow of Peter
passing by might overtake some of them.
There were people that were so amazed by what was going on that
that would lay their sick loved ones out on the ground and
hoping that Peter wouldn't even stop, that just his shadow
passing by would heal them. There came a multitude out of
the sick of the cities around about Jerusalem, bringing sick
folks and them which were vexed of unclean spirits, and they
were healed. Everyone, the seesaw has gone
the other way. Ananias and Sapphira.
It's low. Revival.
It's high. But then we get back to our
text. The disciples are preaching,
they're teaching, and they're arrested.
They're back low again. Another trials popped up, this
one perhaps the gravest of all the trials that have taken place
yet. The deepest valley that they've
come across yet since they have been the church together without
Jesus Christ, this trial that now all of the.
Apostles are in prison. They're all imprisoned together.
What are they going to do? Certainly they believe their
lives are on the line. But here's the Angel of the
Lord. What does the Angel of the Lord
do? Well, the Angel of the Lord has
the key. Freeze them, Go, stand, preach.
What do they do? Exactly what the Lord tells them
to do. They go, they stand, and they
speak the word of God. And just as I mentioned a few
moments ago, the authorities come looking for them.
They can't find them, but they're not hiding.
They're out there front and center.
And what are they doing? They're preaching the word of
God. The the authorities come to them
and say, what are you doing? Peter?
You need to stop. Apostles, you need to stop.
And he preaches a message that's straight and true.
He says we ought to obey God rather than them, the God of our
fathers raised up, raised up. Jesus, listen to this.
Whom ye slew and hang on a tree. You think Peter's dancing around
the subject here? He's like John the Baptist.
And we'll look at this tonight in the issue of prophet
preaching when instead of John the Baptist that he laid the
axe. To the root of the tree, meaning
this he got right to the heart of the matter.
Peter looks at them and he says this.
You slew Jesus Christ. But do you know what Israel
needs? Repentance.
He says, do you know what Israel needs?
The forgiveness of sins. And he preaches to him, Jesus,
even in this low point. Now, I skipped over a section
where there's a man named Gamaliel who stood up.
Gamaliel, we'll find out later on, is a teacher of soul who
will become Paul. And Gamaliel stands up in front
of the people because the Sadducees and the religious
authorities, they don't know what to do.
They're at a There are crossroads here.
Gamaliel basically says this guys, if God's not in this, then
it'll. Crumble and fall.
But if God's in this, you can't stop it.
Leave him alone. And what happened?
Well, we saw in verse #40 and to him Gamaliel, they agreed.
And when they called the apostles and beaten them, now
that's not what Gamaliel said. He said leave him alone.
But what do they do for spite? To send a message, to teach him
a lesson? They beat him and they sent him
away. We're back low again.
They're bearing the marks for the first time of their faith.
Did you get that? For the first time they are
physically bearing the marks for their faith.
They've watched Jesus with the nails, with the side pierced,
with the crown upon his head. But for the first time, they
themselves and their body bear the marks of being a believer.
I don't know about you. I've had people be mean to me
here and there. I've had people make fun of me
for being a Christian. I've never had anyone physically
assault me for being a Christian.
I've never been imprisoned for being a Christian.
I've never had anyone lay a finger on me because of being a
Christian. I can't imagine how I would
respond. But how did they respond?
The word that just jumps off the page at me is the word
rejoicing, that in the midst of this deep, dark hour, they
rejoiced. But they didn't just rejoice.
They kept doing what they were called to do because they
rejoiced. And they went out and even
though they were threatened, don't preach again.
What did they do? They kept on preaching.
They kept on doing that, which was right.
Despite the fact that they were in a deep trial, despite the
fact that they've been up and down, up and down in the events
of the days, their growth continued unabated. 2.
People die in the middle of church because they lied.
That's bad. Great revival breaks out and
multitudes get saved. And in fact I don't even know
how many people got saved here because think about it.
Pentecost 3000, a few days later 5000.
In this text it just says a multitude.
So in my mind I'm wondering is that more than 5000?
Because before it was mentioned 3000 and 5000.
I think anyway you slice it, there's more than 10,000 people
who have gotten saved I would imagine in a very short period
of time. That's good.
They're arrested, they're beaten, they're made mockery of.
That's bad. But then they rejoice at what
God did through them, and that's good.
Now remember, trials are less about groaning and more about
growing. And we see Peter and all the
apostles grow through the difficulties that they went
through in this chapter. They'd never encountered
anything like this before. It was just all good.
Everything was good Once you got to Pentecost, up to Chapter 5,
everything's good. Everything's good, everything's
good. And wouldn't you love it in life
if everything was good all the time?
You know, if I didn't think much about it, I would think.
Life would be. Good if it was just always good.
But think about some of the greatest lessons you've learned
in your life. Some of you think about how you
came to Christ. Was it because life was just
always good? Or did God get a hold of you
when you were in a pretty dark place?
Or did God get a hold of you because he put your back against
the wall? Not because, again, he despises
you, but because He loves you? Amen.
Because he wanted you to. Grow, whether it's grow in
salvation. And I'll remind you here this
morning that the message of Peter is the message I echo here
today. There is no name under heaven.
Remember Acts 412 given among men where why we must be saved.
That every single person must come to the understanding that
only Jesus Christ can save them. That you can't really grow in
your faith until you're in the faith.
And so if you don't know Jesus Christ your Savior, understand
that you're a Sinner and that only Christ can save you through
His precious blood, and that you need to call upon Him to save
you today. Listen, that's the first thing
you got to do. But then after that, you got to
keep growing. And growth doesn't come just
because life is good. Growth isn't about just being on
the mountaintop every day spiritually, but where are the
most fertile places for anything to grow.
It's not on a mountaintop. You've ever seen a farm on a
mountaintop? Not a good place to grow things,
but I'll tell you, down in the valley where the soil is
fertile, where the rains collect, things can grow.
And you know, even in our valleys, God can bring some of
the greatest growth in our life. If you understand, it's not
about groaning, but it's rather about growing.
What do I see about that from our text?
I see three things that I want to show you from our text that I
want you to remember when it comes this issue of our trials.
First of all, reject using trials as a reason to quit.
The first thing you need to understand is to reject trials
using trials as a reason to quit.
A pastor once said a true mark of a disciple is what it takes
to stop. Them.
A true mark of a disciple is what it takes to stop them.
Why is that true? Because a disciple is a
follower. Particularly, a disciple is a
follower of Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is leading you
into the valley, if the Jesus Christ is leading you into the
trial, if Jesus Christ is leading you into the difficulty,
A disciple will follow him Wherever that road may lead.
It may not be what you want, it may not be what you desire, but
that's what is done nonetheless. Verse #29 Peter said this.
We ought to obey God rather than man meaning this when they were
given the option to quit. Listen guys, you're free.
Listen guys, you busted out. We don't know how, we don't know
what happened, but we do know this.
All we're asking of you is you just.
Stop preaching. They might as well just ask them
to stop breathing because that was who they were.
That was their DNA. By the way, if you're a
believer, it's your life too, and my life too.
They could have used the opportunity to quit.
And by the way, I don't know that anyone would have blamed
them in the flesh for quitting in that moment.
Listen, guys, you had a good run, guys.
Things were good here for a few weeks, weren't they?
You saw a few 1000 people get converted.
But listen, you had your run and it's over.
The authorities are all over you.
If you keep going, you're going to die.
Just call it quits. No one's going to blame you.
But Peter said this. There's only one I'm going to
obey, and that's God. There's only one I want to
please, and that's God. And they did not use trials as a
reason. To quit.
They did not use trials as a reason to stop preaching.
It's true for them and it's true for us.
A disciple. Disciple rather, is a follower
of Christ. And if he leads you into and
through a trial, you must follow him there as well.
There's a hymn we sing sometimes called Am IA, soldier of the
Cross, and it goes Am IA soldier of the cross, a follower of the
Lamb. And the next verse says this,
Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while
others fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas,
basically saying this, Did you believe that the Christian life
was just always going to be a cakewalk?
Did you just believe that the cakewalk was that the Christian
life was just always going to be?
A bed of. Roses, but no if our Savior was
a suffering Savior. Then yes, we must go through
those trials as well, because to reject the trials would be to
reject the very character and nature of the Savior who saved
us. Because of His suffering, we
were able to be saved. Could you imagine if he said,
well, the cross is too much, The nails upon my head, the mockery,
I don't want it. And by the way, he could have
said that he was being. Crucified by his own creation.
Mocked by his own creation. He could have called. 10,000
angels to to rescue him there, but he died alone for you and
me. And his example is our way of
living today as well. Listen, are you going through a
difficult time right now? Don't raise your hand, but are
you going through a trial right now?
I want to encourage you. Listen, don't stop coming to
church. I'm glad you're here today.
I would even say this. My prescription.
I can't write a prescription. I'm not a doctor.
I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
OK, I can't, I can't help you with that.
But if I was to give you a prescription, it would be this.
If you come to 1 service a week, come to two.
If you come to two service a week, come to three.
Say what you think the oh, you think the answer is in church.
Well, I'll tell you where the answer isn't.
And the answer is really not in in church, the institution.
The answer is in this book that we teach and we preach and we
agree upon and not man's opinions, but on the word of
God. Listen, don't, don't make
excuses to stop coming to church.
Make excuses to come to church. Well, Sir, I can't be there
tonight. I got to be at church.
What are you? What are you, some kind of holy
roller and say, well, when was the last time you saw me roll
anywhere? I'm not a holy roller.
No, I just know what God's done for my life.
And you can even tell them God will do the same for you.
Well, don't talk to me about that.
Well, maybe they're not the kind of friend you thought they were.
Listen, don't quit. Don't quit praying.
Don't don't quit on living a holy life.
Don't don't quit reading your Bible every day.
Don't quit asking for forgiveness.
It's amazing how often we just take the Bible and put it off to
the side door. We're discouraged.
Listen, if you're sick, what do you need?
You need some medication. You need something that will
help you down deep and sometimes they got to give you a
supercharged dose at first to be able to help you.
You know what you would do? Well, just to sit down and read
the word of God, to turn off your phone, to turn off the
television, to turn off the Internet and turn on your
relationship with Him so that you can actually be helped.
You know it's not going to help you doom scrolling for three
hours. Well, that's right.
You know it's not going to help you binge watching a show.
You know what? Will help you absorbing the word
of God God say pastor you just you just think the.
Bible has all the answers. And.
Guilty. Has all the answers for life.
Now do we go through our life every moment of every day
reading the word of God? No, but the Bible says that we
can pray without ceasing that we can meditate upon him.
And I will tell you this, this is stolen a lot of our
meditations upon the Lord, because we scroll and scroll and
listen and listen. We don't even.
Use this for calls and when was the last time you called
somebody? We call these phones that's like
the, that's like one of the last functions we use it for.
But it takes away so much of our thoughts.
Listen, don't quit on Lord. Don't quit during the trial.
What do you do? No, dig deep.
I can't do that myself, Pastor. You're right.
We'll go back to Acts chapter 2. Remind ourselves it's the Holy
Spirit who helps us because when you are weak he is strong.
Don't quit going through the trials.
Galatians 6 verse 9. Let us not be weary in well
doing, for in due. Season we will reap if we faint
not. The farmer goes out and he
plows. The farmer goes out and he
plants. The farmer goes out and he
waters. The farmer goes out and he weeds
and he does it time and time and day and day and month and month
in back, breaking work for nothing.
Until one day there's an ear of corn, and then there's a bushel
of corn. There's an acre of corn, then
there's a field of corn. Why don't give up, Farmer?
Go out again. Well, I'm not.
I don't see anything today. I don't even see anything in the
ground. Just trust the process, Farmer.
Well, what am I going to get out of this field?
There's a stalk that's not even up to my knee.
Hey, keep going, farmer. It'll come.
How how much longer is this going to take?
Yeah, I I see it coming up to about my shoulder, but but
there's no yield. Keep going, farmer.
You're close. Don't give up.
Don't be weary and well doing, because if you're weary you'll
miss the harvest. There's a harvest of growth God
has for your life, but if you quit, you won't see it.
There's a harvest of growth, what God wants for your life,
but if you quit because of the trials, you won't see it.
You'll blame the Lord of the harvest who was trying to bring
out the best in you, but that you were blaming were the
troubles of your life, but he brought them into your life
because he brought, he was trying to bring something better
out of you and not a spite, but out of love project using trials
as a reason to quit #2 rejoice that you're counted worthy of
the trial. Rejoice that you're kind of
worthy of the trial. I know we already mentioned
this. Look at verse 41.
They departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Now listen to this. Listen very, very closely.
This is where we can get our thinking a little bit off.
I've overdrawn my account, OK? This isn't a personal testimony,
just to be clear, All right? This is a sermon illustration,
All right? I've overdrawn my account.
I look online and I see those red numbers, and I know that
those red numbers are not good, but then the bank's going to
probably tack on another $35 every time the numbers are read
because they're interested in keeping me poor, right?
And so that's the way it's going to work, right?
And so it's going to keep going. They're going to make more money
off of this. It's going to be a spiral.
I don't look at that and say rejoice.
Rejoice, it's a trial. Diane says OK, when you're done
rejoicing, can you tell me how we're buying groceries?
That's not what I'm saying. I found I had a tumor in my jaw
and the surgery was going to be severe. 12 hour surgery, 10 days
to 14 days in the hospital, two months at being out of the
pulpit. I didn't go.
This is good. This is what I was waiting.
For I've been looking for an opportunity like.
This you say, Pastor, what's? Who would do that?
Nobody would do that, he said. What's it says?
Rejoice. It didn't say to rejoice in the
beating. That's not what it said.
Go back and look at it again. They rejoiced that they were
what counted worthy could be had their names associated with
Jesus Christ. That's where the rejoicing was.
Now listen, if you misspent your money because you're not
handling your money right and you've been participating in
sinful activities, that's on you.
But I would tell you, there have been times that I've lost money
and we've been in situations where we're just trying to be
faithful and all of a sudden the money was gone.
Or all of a sudden you had $300 in the account and a $400.00
bill came in and you didn't know what to do.
I'm not saying you need to rejoice about that.
But remember, our Savior was a smitten, suffering Savior, and
He willfully. Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews
chapter 12, verse one for the joy that was set before him.
Verse #2 rather, I'm sorry, The joy that was set before him.
He endured the cross and suffered the shame for us, and
that He would count me worthy to have a difficulty that I don't
know what I'm going to do with. I rejoice that Lord, you counted
me worthy of that. Lord, You thought I could handle
this with your help, so I rejoice.
I don't know what I'm going to do about this health situation,
but you counted me worthy to walk through it with you.
I rejoice, Lord, I don't know where the next groceries are
going to come from, but you counted be worthy to walk
through this with you. I rejoice my friends and family
don't want to talk to me anymore because I named the name of
Jesus Christ. They make fun of me that they
don't really want to be around me anymore.
The people at work, they kind of make a Halo around me, like they
don't want to, like they don't want to be around.
They'll stay about 10 feet away. That's as close as they'll get
because they don't want to get too close to me because they're
tired of hearing me talk about the Bible.
But you know what, Lord, you went through a lot worse than I
did, and I count myself to rejoice that I could have just
that little bit of what you had and that you would count me
worthy of that. That's where the rejoicing is.
Not that. Not that we're getting getting.
Punched in the face, metaphorically speaking.
This is great. Keep it coming.
Lord, what's going on here? I don't understand it, but I
know you do. And now you're going to help me.
And I know I'm really stronger on the way out than I was on the
way in. So I rejoice because of what you
have done. I don't rejoice in the trial,
but I rejoice that I was counted worthy that you counted me
worthy. You know, they, they, I believe
we're saying they rejoice. They were counted worthy that,
that the Sanhedrin and that the Pharisees, the Sadducees would
associate them with Jesus Christ.
But who brought that trial into their life?
God. None of that took them by
surprise. But none of that took God by
surprise. God didn't say I was going to
protect them. In the Sanhedrin, they did.
How did this happen? No, the Sanhedrin thought they
were in control. God was in control.
They grew quickly. We're almost done.
Reject using trials as reason to quit.
Rejoice that you're counted worthy of the trial #3 resume
doing what you did when the trial started.
Resume doing. There are times you go through.
Trials and you can't do the things that you normally do.
You know, there are times you go through a surgery, you go
through a sickness, you go something like that.
You can't go to church. Do you know what you do?
As soon as you can go back to church, There are times that
you've got a migraine that's so bad you couldn't even read the
Bible if you tried. You try to put headphones in and
try to even listen to it being spoken to you.
You couldn't even concentrate on it.
But as soon as you're better, get back into the word of God.
There are times people with grief may struggle to be able to
pray, but may I remind you that Romans tells us that the Holy
Spirit can help us even when we don't even know what to pray and
we just appeal to Him. Listen, resume doing what you
did when the trial started. What does it say in verse #42
and daily in the temple and in every house?
They cease not, they didn't cease doing what they were doing
from the beginning. Well, there was a while they
couldn't keep preaching Jesus because they were in prison.
There's probably a good 24 hour period where they were not able
to preach Jesus, although I'm sure they were preaching them to
the jailers and everyone else in the jail too.
If we know Paul and we know Barnabas, or rather Silas, we
know that would be the case. But they couldn't.
But as soon as they could, they got back right.
They got right back to it. Listen, no matter what trial,
what difficulty, whatever you've been doing, listen.
Keep pressing forward. Life may have its ups and downs,
but growth doesn't have to. Growth can consistently go up
with God's help. I have to wonder, someday
there'll be people that will. Maybe it's just, it's a
fictional account, just a way that I would think of this
myself, that there would be people who spent their life
grumbling about trials. They spent their whole life
grumbling about this problem and that problem and this issue and
that issue. And again, I'm not talking about
the the trials we go through of our own making because of sin.
That's a whole different thing to talk about.
I'm talking about the things that God brings into our life
just as we're trying to be faithful, just as we're trying
to grow. And some of those people that
just complain, well, why? Why did my life work out the way
I wanted it to? Why didn't I have other things I
thought I would? And why did it seem like things
were difficult and why? Could you imagine getting to
heaven and maybe that person seeing the Lord?
And again, this is just a fictional way of looking at it,
but just as a way of illustration, seeing the Lord,
this person saying, God, why did you make my life so hard?
Ever felt like maybe God felt that way about you?
God, why did you make my life so hard?
I don't want to put words in the mouth of the Lord, but if I
could take what the word of God says and maybe imagine what he
would say. In love, I believe you would say
something like this, child. It was you that made it hard.
You made it hard through your groaning and you're complaining
because I was there with you. I was there with you every step
of the way. I wanted to help you grow.
In fact, I brought these things into your life because I wanted
you to grow. Listen, sailors aren't made on
calm seas. Students aren't made in easy
classes. Soldiers aren't made without
training and very intense training.
We go right down the line of all the things in life that take a
struggle to be able to get somewhere, and God says this.
Not only that, bring those trials in your life.
I brought them because I loved you, and life would have been
much easier if you had just grown through the trials instead
of groaned through the trials. You know why Peter and John
needed these trials? Peter would have more
difficulties in his life. You know, someday he's going to
be crucified upside down. By the way, that was at his own
request. History tells us I can't be
crucified in the same manner as my Lord.
What man says that? No, no, listen.
What man says something like that?
A man who had grown through a lot of trials.
There's John on the Isle of Patmos, an elderly man, the
only. Apostle, that's left.
He's been marooned there, if you will, in exile by the Roman
Empire, and there he is on that island and they thought he was
all alone. The Lord was there.
How we have the Book of Revelation.
How was John able to endure? You know why?
Because he grew in Acts chapter 5 and he grew a lot of places
later. Listen, do you want to be able
to handle the difficulties of life?
Do you want to be able to handle some of the things that are
coming down the road in your life?
Eventually it starts here. Grow in the trials that God
gives you now. And sometimes you get through
life and you realize, you know, my trials seem like they're
getting smaller. And it's not that they're
getting smaller, it's that you're growing in your faith.
It's not that they're smaller. They could be bigger, but you're
growing. I know this, that coming to New
England, starting a church, not knowing about salary and those
kind of things. We had support, but we lost a
lot of it right away. There was a lot of fear.
There's a lot of fear. It's easy for me to say that 12
years into it now. I wouldn't have admitted at the
time, but I now know there was. Boy, I was.
But you know, one thing that I was always sure about that God
brought us through some really difficult times in the first
seven years of ministry, in times when they didn't even pay
us and they promised us they would pay us.
And that I realized that if God could get me through that, he
could help us through this. And if God could help us through
this, then God could help us through some of the family
trials and turmoils that we've had.
And through it all, He's been faithful.
I'll repeat that. Through it all, he's been
faithful. But you don't come to that
conclusion unless you decide I'm going to grow.
Not just when I'm on the mountaintop, but I'm going to
grow no matter what the situation is.
Here's Peter and John, they did incredible things.
None of those incredible things would happen if they quit.
Next chapter 5. God would have done his own
things, his own way, because God's in control.
I'm not saying Christianity would have collapsed.
What I'm saying is this Peter wouldn't have been used and John
would have been used in the way that God intended them to.
What is God trying to do with you today?
Maybe you thought he he's angry at you.
Maybe you thought about quitting the trials too hard.
Can I encourage you this morning?
Could it be? Could it just be that God's not
angry with you and that's why this trials come in your life
while you're being faithful? Could it be he loves you so much
he wants you to grow so that you continue to can continue to be
what he's called you to be? Time to change our thinking.
Change our thinking. It should be less about groaning
when it comes to trials and a whole lot more about growing.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.