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Sermonette: Trust in God and Stand in Awe
#FT26-01PMs
Clyde Finklea
Given 26-Sep-26; 18 minutes
2026-09-26
summary: The Christian life is faith intertwined with pain. Suffering is a divine tool for growth; God ordains both prosperity and adversity to keep us humble (Eccl 7:13-14). Paul's affliction illustrates this: crushed beyond his strength, he learned trust lies not in self-reliance but in God, who raises the dead. This crucible yields three purposes: teaching total dependence, cultivating resilient hope, and equipping believers to comfort others. Paul's view shifted from despair to glory, calling trials a "momentary lightness" producing eternal glory. First Peter 1:6-9 adds that tested faith is more precious than gold, yielding praise at Christ's return. Suffering hurts, but its fruit is priceless: holy character and unshakeable trust. As Christ endured the cross for joy, believers endure trials knowing great joy awaits.
transcript:
And we all know That the Christian life. is a life of faith. And one of the basic facts of life that we all have to live with and we must, must learn to handle is the reality of pain and suffering. We all long for a life. Uh, without Trials and pain. But God wants us to mature in every area of life. But maturity doesn't come easily. There could be no growth without testing. There can be no testing. Without difficulties. If you think about it, if our circumstances never changed. If everything would just be predictably good and comfortable. Uh, we'd never really have to, have to trust in God. The more predictable life becomes, the less challenge. It presents. So plainly, suffering is a fact of life that none of us can avoid. If you would, let's open Our Bibles now to Ecclesiastes, 7th chapter. And we will get started here. Ecclesiastes 7:13. Uh, we will begin there reading 13 and 14, where it says, consider the work of God, for who can make straight what He has bent or some translations say, made crooked. In verse 14 says, in times of prosperity, be joyful. Now, I just want to pause here and take a look at this word prosperity because it is most often actually translated as good. Matter of fact, about um Yeah, 365 times is translated as good and only 6 times as prosperity. In other words, it's not necessarily talking about financial prosperity, although that could be included. Uh, it's referring to when times are good. Uh, oh, and life is good. No health issues, no financial issues, no relationship issues. Life is just good. But it goes on to say, but in times of adversity, consider this. Now, adversity is a word that means just the opposite of the word prosperity. It refers to when times are bad. Now It's translated. Mostly Uh, evil, about 440 times is translated evil. But if you know evil in the scripture most often refers to something that's bad. So life is full of good times. Or bad times. Well, he goes on to say in Ecclesiastes that God has made one as well as the other so that no one can discover what the future holds. So we ask, what is suffering? What are these bends or crooks in the road that got, that God puts in the path of life that we are to carefully consider. We simply stated suffering is anything that hurts or irritates. In God's design, however, it's something that also makes us think. When I think of the apostle Paul, I think of him as a, a giant in the faith. A man so confident that when he was bitten by a poisonous snake, he just shook it off into fire. It's just It went on like Nothing happened. But I have to ask the question, when you think about it. Was he always that confident? Well, let's take a look at that. Let's turn over to 2 Corinthians. In chapter one And we will begin in verse 8II Corinthians 1:8. Where he says, for we do not want you to be ignorant of our tribulations. He's talking about him and Timothy. He, where he says that even the trials that befell us in Asia, we were exceedingly or excessively as some translations put it, burdened beyond our own strength, so much so that we even despaired of living. I would say he was pretty depressed. And I think many of us have, have been through this this past year. Uh, even longer, and some of you are still going through a lot of severe trials. They seem to be getting more intense and longer. And in verse 9, he says, for we had a sense of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. Are these words that we were burdened excessively? Beyond our strength show that Paul's affliction was so great, it was so heavy that it was beyond anything that Paul could possibly handle. At least from his own resources as a human being. Now burden means to weigh down, to lay heavy, to lay a heavy burden upon. But Paul was not just burdened, he was burdened excessively. To the stress, to the, to to stress the extreme heaviness of this burden, the apostle combines two Greek words that mean excessive, extraordinary in character or degree. He uses these two words to focus on the nature of the burden um as one that was far beyond ordinary. Paul had been burdened excessively to an extraordinary degree beyond measure. So what did he mean? What does that mean? Well, I think it meant that from all appearances, The only verdict at which he could arrive was that he was going to die. In fact, as Paul goes on to explain, it was so excessive, it was beyond his own strength. To be able to bear Or hand Now, humanly speaking, there was absolutely nothing here or anyone else could do. I do not know if you've ever been there, I have. I'm sure many of you have to just. At a loss, and that's where Paul was at. So the result was that he even despaired of living, despaired. Um, is a compound Greek word that means to be in utter despair or to be at a complete loss. The idea is that it seemed to be no way out. He goes on to say, indeed it was like a A sentence of death But this literally reads, Indeed, we, we, we ourselves had within ourselves the sentence of death. It was not so much like a verdict pronounced on them by some authority, but rather a perception in the heart and the mind of the apostle. So in verse 9, it goes on to say, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raised the dead. In verse 10 It says, who delivered us from so great a death and continues to deliver and whom we have hoped that he would yet even deliver us again. All right, so the Greek text reads, Who delivered us from so great a death. Now so great is a word that means so great, so terrible, so large, rather than the risk of death. Paul simply says, so great a death. Uh, there are probably two things in mind here that I, I was thinking of. One is whatever he, whatever he was faced with, it may have been of such a nature or degree. Um That it was going to be a terrible way to die. You see, there are ways to die, and then there are ways to die. And that's what he was, apparently it seemed to be that bad. And 2, he regarded himself as a dead man with no way of escape. So humanly speaking, because it was so bad, he did, he, the deliverance required nothing less than the act of God. Who raises the dead. The effect of this was to drive home the need to never trust in himself. But in God. If God can raise the dead, Can they not also deliver us from the gates of death? For sure he can. All right, let's turn over to 2 Corinthians. The 4th chapter So we are going to take a look at the mind of Paul after God had put him through the severe trial. You see, of the afflictions that Paul suffered both physically and emotional, he would later go on to say here in II Corinthians 4 and verse 8, he said, on every side, we are hard pressed, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. For this reason, we do not lose heart, but if our outward man is being brought to decay, Yet the inner man is being renewed day by day. Though he never leaves us alone, even when we feel as though God is nowhere near us. He's right there with us day by day. I think what I did is I read verse 8 and verse 9. I should have told you to go drop down to verse 16, that last one I read. So go you call that and verse 17. It says for the momentary light now listen to what he calls it now. Remember how bad it was when he was what he was going through. I mean, it was just so bad that he just, he'd give up on life. He thought he was going to die a terrible death. Now listen to what he says after it's all over with and God delivered him. For the momentary lightness of our tribulation is working out working out for us in a measurable, greater and everlasting fullness of joy. Uh, glory, excuse me. In verse 18. Well, we can we consider not the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. You know, these brethren, these trials, these sufferings, these pain that we deal with on a daily basis, many of us have been dealing with them for a long time. These are tools that God uses to mature us and to give us a greater capacity to encourage others. So in 2 Corinthians, let's flip back a few pages to chapter one. Yeah, we still All right, chapter one, we are gonna, we are going to pick this up in verse 3. Where he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies, the God of all comfort. Who comforts us in all our tribulations in order that we may be able to comfort those Who are in any trial, going through any suffering or any pain through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. While the Bible reveals a number of purposes for the suffering and the pain and the trials we deal with, the apostle Uh, actually reveals a number of purposes for suffering through what we just talked about. He highlights like 3 purposes that I wrote down. Um In the set of scriptures that we just went through. One, the purpose for suffering or affliction was expressed in II Corinthians 1:9, where he said that we should not trust in ourselves. But trust in God who raises the dead. The 2nd 1 purpose will be seen in II Corinthians 1:10, II Corinthians 1:10. That we set our hope on him, it is on God, that he will deliver us yet again. And the 3rd 1, 3rd purpose in II Corinthians 1:4, and I, I did not, I purposely did not put these in order. Uh, so, cause I wanted this to be the last one, the purpose that we might be able to comfort those who are suffering. Obviously, the apostle Paul. He was a man of tremendous faith, commitment. And yet through this experience, even the apostle learned a great lesson. That we too must come to embrace with all our hearts. We must understand that the trials and sufferings that we go through. are designed to bring us to a place of utter dependence and trust in God. Alone, no matter what. And we are going to begin to close here. I want to close over and I Peter. First Peter chapter one. And we will be reading starting in verse 6. Where Peter writes, and this you yourselves greatly rejoice. Though for the president, if it is necessary, you are in distress for a little while by various trials. Now we know that we are, we are, we are running up on. Uh, the close of this age, you know, and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, so things are beginning to intensify for all of us. The, the trials and the sufferings that we read about on the prayer request list, it's just, it's heartbreaking. But Necessary. God never leaves you, remember that. He says, um, Although you were stressed for a little while about various trials, verse 7, in order that the proving of your faith, which is much more precious than gold that perishes, though it's being tested by fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Whom not having seen you love. And whom though at the present time you do not see him. You believe and rejoice with unspeakable joy and filled with glory. In verse 9, and are receiving the end of your faith. Even the salvation of your souls or your lives. But you know, we have to remain faithful to the very end. So we have to trust in God with all our heart. So through and during The suffering We build character. We're building that holy and righteous character of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he had to suffer too. Because he suffered, we suffer. They're going to enter into the kingdom through much suffering. And we have to know that and trust that God's going to get us through the whole thing. To Christ returns. There is coming a time when we will be standing. On the sea of glass. Just imagine the joy. That we are going to experience at that time. Remember it says that Jesus Christ. He did not like the the pain of the cross, but through it, through the suffering, he had the, he had the, the joy, it was for the joy that was set before him. So just, it's the same thing with us, we can, if we could just reach out and feel it just like he did for the joy, knowing that while you're going through these things, you still got a great joy standing before you. It's coming. So bottom line is, Suffering is never easy. It's hard. Why? Because it hurts It just hurts. It's painful. That's why it's called trials, suffering. But what it produces is priceless. So we need to just learn to trust in God and stand in awe.
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