How God Builds Your Faith

8 Pentec= ost, Proper 12

July 26, 2009

Rev. Ken= Wratten at St. Stephen’s, San Jose

Six Phases of Faith

Part 5: Dealing with Difficulty

Can you relate to this story?

&= nbsp; Brian Hise of Provo, Utah recently experienced more difficulty than any human being should have on a single day. First a water pipe broke in the upstairs apartment above his own and flooded his apartment. So the manager told him to go out = and rent a water vacuum. That's w= hen he discovered his car had a flat tire. He changed the tire and went inside to phone a friend for help. Standing in the water, the electric shock he got from the phone startled him and he ripped the phone off the wall. Before he could leave t= he apartment a second time, a neighbor had to kick down his apartment door bec= ause water damage had jammed it tight. While all of this was going on somebody stole Brian's car. But it was almost out of gas so he= found it a few blocks away. He then= had to push it to a gas station. = That evening, Hise attended a military ceremony at B.Y.U. University and he injured himself severely when he somehow sat down on his own bayonet which had been tossed onto the front seat of his car. Doctors were able to stitch up his wounds but no one was able to resuscitate Brian's four canaries crushed to death when wet ceiling plaster in his apartment fell on them while he was gone. When he got home, he sl= ipped on the wet carpet and badly injured his tail bone. Mr. Hise said he began to wonder if "God wanted me dead but kept missing." =

In the Phases of Growing in Faith that we ha= ve been exploring for the last few weeks, first God gives you a dream of what = He wants to do in your life. The= n in Phase Two you make the decision to commit yourself to the dream. Phase Three brings with it the inevitable delays. Then comes= Phase Four -- Difficulties.

Jesus told us that difficulties are NOT an option in life. John 16:33 "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." There is no esca= pe. The question is NOT whether we will have difficulties in our life. The ques= tion is how we will respond to them.

In 2 Cor. 6, the apostle Paul said, "In everything we do we show that we are God's servants, by enduring troubles, hardships and difficulties with great patience." We show what kind of Christian we = are by the way we respond to problems.

Acts 27 is one story of the many difficultie= s in Paul's life. He was being tak= en as a prisoner to Rome and he warned the captain of the boat, "Don't sail out of this harbor, because God has told me there's going to be a storm." But the captain and Paul’s g= uard decided to leave anyway and they sailed into a storm which inevitably caused them to shipwreck. =

In this story we learn three keys to dealing with difficulty. These are th= e things we need to do when we face our own difficulties in life.

I. Pray for Wisdom

There are four possible sources of difficult= y in your life.

1. Yourself. We cause some of our own= difficulties in life.

&= nbsp; 2. Other people. Bad things happen to= us through other people’s actions.

&= nbsp; 3. The devil. There is spiritual warf= are going on, and sometimes we get hit in the crossfire. Scripture says this is true, and I believe it.

&= nbsp; 4. God allows problems to come into o= ur lives; to get our attention, to test us, to mold us.

When you are having problems, here is what James 1:5 says to do; "If any of you lack wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without findi= ng fault and it will be given to him." When you're in the middle of difficulties, pray for wisdom. Although you cannot control the circumstances that happen to you in life, you can control how you will resp= ond to them. Pray for the wisdom = to know how to work through your difficulty.

In the book of Acts, when the ship’s captain decided to sail into the Mediterranean Sea= and Paul said, ‘Don't do it or we'll go into a storm’, they made three common mistakes. These = are the exact three mistakes you and I tend to make that get us into trouble.

= 1. We listen to bad advise. v. 11 "...they followed the a= dvice of the pilot..." God had already said not to set sail. Paul had warned them. But because = the "expert" said it was OK, they went ahead. There are a lot of experts in the = world, people ready to offer you their expert opinion. If God tells you to do one thing a= nd all the experts in the world tell you to do differently, don't listen to the experts. Listen to God.

= 2. We follow the crowd. v. 12 "the majority decided t= hat we should sail..." Th= ere were 276 on the boat. The vot= e was 273 to 3 to sail. The majorit= y was wrong. One of the phrases you hear is, "but everybody's doing it". But everybody can be wrong. Don't base your morality on popular opinion. Peer pressure keeps a lot of peopl= e from doing what God wants them to do. Teenagers need to hear this. But so do adults. I st= ill remember in high school, at a dance, the guys around me making fun of a guy= who couldn’t dance. I joined in. I couldn’t dance either, but I followed the crowd. I felt bad then, and I still feel bad that I let myself= get pulled in.

= 3. We try for the easy route. v. 13 "When a gentle south wi= nd began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted...” Paul told them again not to do it. = They were heading into a storm. But the= y went anyway and they were shipwrecked. You should not take advantage of every opportunity you have. You sho= uld not accept every job offer you get. You should not date everybody who asks you for a date. You need to remember to ask if thi= s is what God wants.

II. Determine the Lesson

Ask "What does God want me to learn from this?" 2 Cor. 4:17 "= ;These little troubles, which are temporary, are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward all out of proportion to our pain.” = Paul says that the problems you hav= e in your life are temporary, but the reward is permanent. Regardless of the source of your problems, God still has a purpose for them in your life. He wants you to grow as a result o= f them. God has a plan behind your problem= s. You need to look past the temporar= y pain and look at the long term benefit, the results in your life.

Romans 5 "We can rejoice when we run in= to problems and trials for we know ... they help us learn to be patient. And patience develop= s strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time..." Scripture isn’t telling us to rejoice BECAUSE we run into problems, but WHEN. You can rejoice that God wants you= to learn something. That is the = whole purpose for the difficulties and hurts you are facing. Every storm is a school. Every trial is a teacher.

Some of you are facing a major difficulty ri= ght now. It might be an illness; = or a fear, or guilt, or a financial problem, or a strained relationship. Some of you are facing some kind of shipwreck. God brought you he= re this morning so you could hear God say, "Don't give up.” He does= n't want you to give up, He wants you to grow.= He wants you to mature, develop, become more and more like the perso= n He wants you to be.

When Ruth and I had been married for ten yea= rs, we were living in my home town, and I was a partner with my brothers and fa= ther in our family business. But I wasn’t making any money. In fact, we had lost our savings, our checking, cash value of life insurance, every asset we had. Ruth and I spent some long nights discussing “passionately”= ; if we should move away. She wanted to go, and I didn’t. Or at least I didn’t want to be wrong. Finally we didn’t even have the money = to pay the payments to my father for the home we were living in. So we got to = the point that there was no way out. I learned a very important life lesson tho= ugh all that. I felt so defeated that I finally asked, ‘God, what is going on? What do you want me to do?’ The lesson was that I should have had more discussions with Ruth, instead of just trying to prove I was right and= she was wrong. I learned that marriage is not about being right or wrong. It is about being partners.

How do you use your difficulties and problem= s to grow? You grow by doing these things: Pray for wisdom, determine the lesson, and then decide on your response.

III. Decide on Your Response=

You're going to be hurt many times in life, because life is not fair. It = just isn't. You will have problems= and pains that will make you either grow or give up.= It's your choice. The = circumstances that come into your life are not nearly as important as what happens ins= ide you. That is what you take in= to eternity. The circumstances a= re just temporary. But what you'll ta= ke with you is your character. Be intentional about how you respond to difficult situations.

Acts 27 describes three things you should not do; and they are the typical things we tend to do when we go through difficulty:

= 1. Don’t drift. v. 15 "so we gave way to it a= nd were driven along". The = ship taking prisoners to Rome was in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea= , and in the storm it hadn't seen the sun for 14 days. They couldn’t see the stars;= they have no idea where they are. "We began to drift" -- they gave up going toward their destination and started drifting. In our difficulties, some people start drifting through life. They give up their goal, purpose, ambition, dream for life. The problem is, you're life is going in the wrong direction if you are drifting= . Don't lose your goal when life gets hard.

= 2. Don't discard. v. 18 "...they began to throw= the cargo overboard...” The= y had been battered by the winds and waves and they start throwing things overboa= rd to lighten the ship. First th= ey threw the cargo overboard. Th= en the tackle. Then the food. They were ready to throw the prison= ers overboard. They were discardi= ng things they needed because the storm was so tough. When we get in a storm, a difficul= ty, we can start to abandon things; values and relationships we would not normally= let go of. People can say, "= I'm throwing in the towel. I'm abandoning this relationship. I'm giving up on my dream to go to college, to get married, to making this marr= iage work..." We start throwi= ng out things we shouldn't be throwing out.

God told Paul to stay with the ship. Don't throw out the values you kno= w are right and important. Don't ab= andon the things you know you need in your life.=

= 3. Don’t dispair. v. 20 "we finally gave up all= hope of being saved.” They finally give up hope, but they had forgotten one thing: Even in a storm God is= in control. He hadn't left them.= You may not feel God. But He hasn't left you. He's with you in that storm. He'll help you through it.

So what are the right responses to difficulty?

= 1. Confess your part. If you brought it on yourself, adm= it it. Stop blaming other people= . If you have a problem with an addi= ction, admit it. If you have a probl= em with your temper, admit it. T= he Bible says, "A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confess= es and forsakes them, he gets another chance." Accept responsibility.

= 2. Confront the storm. Luke reports in Acts, “They = lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore.” That is how you get through a storm. You can't go under it,= over it, or around it. You go righ= t into it. The only way to face a st= orm is head on. If you turn sideways, you're going to capsize. You = never solve a problem by ignoring it. God said "I will be with you.”

= 3. Trust God. Paul told the ship’s passeng= ers, "Keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told. God did not say the ship will make it. God said you will make it.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He said the ship will crack up and= fall apart. Some of you are going through a storm right now. Yo= ur ship may not make it. You may= lose the house. You may lose the c= ar. You may lose the career. As scary as this is, God has never promised to keep all of your comforts around you. But He did say, you will make it.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>

You may have to get to shore on a broken pie= ce of your ship, but you're going to make it.= You may have to doggie paddle. But you're going to make it. You may have a broken heart but you'll make it. You may have a broken home, but yo= u'll make it. God says "I wil= l be with you."

So that is what you do when difficulties hit you. You don't become anxious and afraid.&= nbsp; You don't allow yourself to give up on the dreams God has for your l= ife, and drift through life. You d= on't discard the values and relationships that you know are important. You don't throw away your relation= ship with God. You don't drift, you don= 't discard and you don't despair. You don't give up hope.

The interesting thing about the story in Act= s 27 is that everything was falling apart in this storm except Paul. That was because Paul’s conf= idence was in God, not in the ship. =

Consider the storms you are in. If you brought the storm into your= own life, you should admit it and ask God to help you change. If Satan brought this problem into= your life, you need to resist it -- do some spiritual warfare. If God allowed this problem in your life, you need to trust. In f= act, you need to trust God regardless of what the source is. Ask God, "What do you want me= to learn from this difficulty?" Put your confidence, your hope, your trust, in God. You WILL make it= to shore. Amen.