Hope Church Sunday Podcast

Navigating Through the Ups and Downs in Life

This Sunday, Pastor Gary taught on navigating through life's highs and lows. Drawing from the assurance that the Lord orchestrates all things for His good, Pastor Gary explains how every twist and turn in our journey is purposeful. Through the ups and downs, God shapes, us molding our character and faith. Not only do these moments serve to refine us, but they unveil the depths of God's character and our constant dependence on Him. We are presented with the opportunity to believe and become aware that God is actively at work in our lives.

Recorded at Hope Church in Springfield, MO.

Duration:: 40m
Broadcast on:: 30 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Thanks for tuning in to the Hope Church Podcast. We hope that you're blessed and encouraged to walk out the gospel as you listen to this message. Good and hope, family. Hey, I don't know if I can follow that, you know. Unbelievable. That's all I can say. Hey, man, what a great day to be in the house of God. I've been looking forward to this. And by the way, I want to give some props for Pastor Josh's message last week. You know, when the Bible says that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, you've got to know that's a major message. And we're living in times when God has been portrayed so many different ways and we kind of let the truth go sometimes for whatever's happening in a culture. But we need to reject culture and believe the Word of God. And I would encourage you if you did not hear that message or if you kind of need to go back over it to get some of the points. I was tempted to follow up on it today and preach it the way it should have been preached, you know. But, you know, I thought I'd leave it lay the way it was, but no, it was awesome. And like I said, I really wanted to do that, but I felt like something else was brewing today and I felt like I would address it. Today, I'm going to probably do more teaching than preaching. You know, the difference sometimes preaching is motivational and it really hammers you and you get excited and you go change. Well this is something I really want to share with you because we're all going through these things. And I entitled this navigating through the ups and downs in life. There are principles that are laid down for us that are powerful and helpful and encouraging. How many of you have been through something maybe even recently where you said, "Why me?" Come on, let me see your hands. How many of you kind of look around because there are things that happen to us that God wants to use to put some things through us. There's growth in those moments. If you never have a challenge, you don't need to step it up. And so when those challenges come, God has plans and principles for us that we can follow. And if you want to follow along in your Bible today and I would encourage you to do that whether it's on your phone or whether you have a physical Bible, I like a physical Bible personally because I write in it all the time. And so all the revelation I get, I want to make sure I don't lose it. But anyway, Romans chapter 5 is where we'll be today. And basically, these are principles that help you when you're going through the various phases of development and maturity to know what's next and to know maybe what's happening to you. The worst thing that could happen to a believer is to be going through some things and interpreting it with our natural mind, with the assistance of the accuser of the brethren. What God may have allowed to come to you and the circumstances you find yourself in may have two sources. One of those sources may be your own bad mistakes. That's all right, we all make them. But the second one could be God allowing something so he could introduce himself to you in another context. The comforter would never be met in his fullness if you never need to be comforted. There's so many things that God wants to introduce to us in ways that will never forget them. So follow along with me today if you would and we'll see what we can learn. To grow spiritually throughout the various seasons of life, there will be challenges. I know that comes as no surprise, but there's a plan mapped out to help each of us reach the desired destination. First things first, let's identify our starting point. The Apostle Paul puts us on good footing in verse 1 of Romans chapter 5 where he says something about peace with God. Let me read it to you. It says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." This is an introduction that God's made to us we call salvation. When he says this about having been justified by faith, he points back to Abraham the father of the faithful and said, "Abram believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness or right standing before God." And what he was believing God for was to have a child. He was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 and there was no way in the natural that that was going to happen. But God had named him father of a multitude and he stood in that name many years and how in the world could you live with that when you were still a child less than 100 years of age? But somehow, somehow, Abraham caught it in his spirit and he believed God and God says righteousness is yours. It didn't have much to do and even his behavior at that point in time. It was a posture of heart and mind. He and God linked up on something and we understand by the New Testament that we do the same thing and we come to the Lord Jesus who shed his blood for us, who calls us to repent and be baptized in his name. And when we do that, we believe that he imparts something to us called justification. That's a theological term that means just as if you'd never sinned. There ought to be some people shouting and running down the house right about now because you've been a mess. I've been a mess. The sin and one point of the law makes us guilty for the entire thing. We can't congratulate ourselves because we're not as bad as someone else. Jesus paid for every sin of every kind in every age by what he did on the cross. We read later on that he nailed those things to his cross, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So when we praise God like we did here this morning, we're not taking any credit for being super spiritual or wonderful and sinless and holy, we're literally giving it all to him because he made it possible for us actually to walk into those experiences and to that quality of life because of what he did for us and subsequently when he poured out his spirit upon us to live inside of us, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now quickens or makes able my mortal body to do it. This is exciting stuff. You're not stuck with your genealogy. In fact you've got a brand new genealogy and he's sitting at the right hand of God the Father right now ever interceding for you and for me. He said come on kids, come on, come on, come on, come on. Take what I've given you, walk in it, believe it. Abraham, your great, great, great, great, great grandfather in the faith, believe me for a crazy thing and I counted him righteous because of that. You know what? We've got a whole lot more going on in this heart of ours than you have any way of understanding. God has more confidence in you than you do because the third person of the Trinity has taken up residence inside you and he wants to do the will of the Father and he's the only one that can equip you to do it. So we're going to take an offering now just to show you a Thanksgiving. You know, check this out, justification, I'll read it to you again. This theological term simply means being declared righteous in the sight of God, just as if I'd never sinned. It's a foundational necessity to know that we are on solid footing with God if we hope to grow spiritually. I don't know about you, but there's so often when I am so conscious of how far short I'm falling after all these years of walking with the Lord. And I know that's true. I mean, I'm not perfect at him, close. My wife doesn't know that yet, but I am really close. But we are so aware of how far short we fall, yet we still try and play the game. But God wants us to know, listen, I accept you in the beloved. You're not going to be able to earn it on your own. But I do say along the way, as we walk in faith and walk in the Spirit that the Lord says, "Adaboy, Adagirl, I'm proud of you." You've been able to step out of the masses and you've been able to believe me and walk with me by faith. And you have a testimony, you're like a light in a dark place. And if the devil can convince you that you are not, then you'll never be as effective as you should be. Now when you realize you've been justified by faith and brought into this thing, the freedom from your sins like God wants us to understand, you start to live it. You start to live up to what you know. And so it's so important that we get that nailed down because wherever we're going from here, you know, remember Jesus said, "The last supper told the disciples, listen, guys, in the world, you will have tribulation." And that means stress under pressure. Tribulation comes in all kind of fashion. Some of it's all inside of our head. Some of it is outside. In fact, we are in this world, but we're not of this world. So there is a constant persecution. There's a constant tribulation going on against a couple of different classes of people. One are the Jews, probably the most blameless race of people that has ever lived on the planet. They've never tried to conquer anybody. You know, and yet they're always having to fight anti-Semitism. I mean, really virally, I mean, it's crazy what's even going on right now. The second group of people that catch the same kind of flack are Christians. Again, Christians are one of the most blameless classes of people on the planet. And yet it seems like the culture itself wants to stamp out Christianity. And various other religions work tirelessly to do that. And yet God's people, there were God's people. And it's very important that we understand that this whole context of tribulation and difficulty is because we're in a world that is at odds with God. The world has fallen. It happened in the garden and we've anticipated that over the years and we've walked in that over the years until culture is anti-Christ. Am I surprising you with that? Yes. Yes. You see it everywhere. It's gotten very sophisticated. And so we're in a place in the world where there's a lot coming against us. And if we don't understand how God feels about us, we're going to really be under pressure. And it's pressure that we allow to happen that doesn't need to happen. The second thing we need to take stock of are the resources available to us as we undertake this journey through life. Verse two advises us that we have access to grace. Grace is such a powerful and essential asset that without it, we would have no possibility at all of a relationship with God. There are two aspects or two components if I could use that term to grace. Number one is unmerited favor. It's the unconditional acceptance we receive from God. We cannot earn it. To offend in one point of the law, remember, is to be guilty of the whole thing. We can never earn it. It's too late for that. So once we understand that, we realize that we're on his dime the whole time. He did something for us that could not be done any other way. And now we want to live in thanksgiving and honor to appreciate that and to walk in it. Second thing that grace brings to us is empowerment for a task. God is going to ask things of us that we cannot do on our own. And that is number one, to walk righteously, to live righteously and so forth and so on. And a lot of the other attributes of a Christian life that we all know, well, we have to have help with that. And the sooner we realize that, the better. God is not asking us suddenly to become superhuman people and do things that look like him. He says, "I want to flow through you. I want to equip you with grace to allow you to, as Philippians says, to will and to do of my good pleasure." That's the work of the Spirit of God in this. We're going to have to want -- we want to -- we want to get there. And when we begin to pursue that, he says, "I'm going to give you the ability to do it." It's the only way it happens. So we're dependent in that regard, but what a wonderful dependence it is. We heard Marty stepped up for Rebecca when she was going through that horrible thing. Well, the Holy Spirit wants to step up in you and he wants to flow through you in characteristics and character development and all kinds of things that make you more like Christ as time goes on. And you're going to be able to say, "I don't know how that -- it's just there. I remember when I was in college and I finally came to know the Lord in a powerful way. I called my dad when I was at school, and I was talking to him about all I was doing, what was going on, and the ministry that we had going on. And in his old southern way, he just said, "Boy, it looks to me like the Lord changed your want to." That's exactly what he did. I had a desire for things that before looked boring to me. And it's been growing in me ever since. It's such an exciting thing when you realize I'm actually partnering with the Lord. He's putting some of his passion in me for things I didn't have ability to have passion for. The natural mind perceives not the things of God, for they are foolishness to us. But when we have the mind of Christ that's granted to us, and we refer to the word which is basically the stuff that makes up the mind of Christ, and we begin to embody that saying, "Man, it changes everything about us." How we come into our own. We come into the person God had ordained from the foundations of the earth. When the Bible says he knew you before the foundations of the earth, whoa, somebody in here probably feels like they're an accident, no such thing, no such thing. You are precious in the sight of God. You're the apple of his eye. He so wants to get right into the deep part of your life and paint a whole new world for you. He wants you to walk out the inheritance that he's had in mind for you. I can't say that strong enough today. We kind of sometimes feel like we're on our own charting our destiny. No, no, no. Commence your way to the Lord, and he will establish your path. It wouldn't be the path you'd necessarily chosen, or maybe it would. The bottom line is you will have an accomplice, and he will push you, he'll bless you, he'll honor you, he'll lift you, he'll strengthen you, he'll discipline you, he'll do all those things to get you where you need to be. So understand that God gives this unmerited favor of standing, and secondly, the ability or the empowerment to do that task. Now the word access, I've mentioned this before in the past, but I'm kind of a visual learner. I don't know how many of you are, but I need to kind of see it sometimes. And this word access is an amazing word in this context in particular. It means a couple of different things. Number one, it means entree. In other words, you grant entree to someone, you introduce someone, and usually in the context of its use, it means to someone who is usually a dignitary or otherwise a very important person. Several times over the years, I've had those kind of experiences where we were, in fact, one of them, the major one, was over in Ethiopia years ago. We were there on one of our trips and doing pastor's conferences, and our missionary over there was an Ethiopian guy, and he said that the president wants to meet you. And so we went through all the protocols and all the vetting and all that kind of stuff that goes on. And one day he said, "We'll need to dress up, and we'll go, and we'll wait in this waiting room, and the president will then see us if possible." And so when it happened, there was a surly old gentleman that had been president for many years, he'd been in the government since the days of Haile Selassie, which dates back of ways. And because of Pastor Gedahun's entree, we were ushered into his office. And because of the relationship he had with Gedahun, we were served by the president. He brought us tea, he brought us all the stuff, you know, and it became a customary whenever we were in town, he wanted us to come and see him. And eventually he came to see us here at the church sat on this stage, and without us understanding what he was going through, he received the Lord Jesus Christ right on this stage. And he went back to Ethiopia without telling us anything, he just asked for a computer and Bible software. We found out later on that man had given his mornings, every morning, an hour of his first part of his day, to study his Bible and pray. So he invited us over that spring afterwards to a state dinner at the palace, and he told us his testimony. I mean, 86-year-old man received the Lord Jesus and became fully a believer. And what I'm saying is, but it all starts with an entree. You just have no idea what God wants to do for you. The second meaning of access is one that really helps me to see it. It literally means to bring a ship by stages to its port. If you've ever been on a large vessel, you'll understand this, because you can't just drive it up to the dock and park it. It has to have help. And so early in my ministry, I spent a lot of time in Vancouver, in British Columbia, and we were ministering up there out of the town of Surrey, and a lot of the ministry that we did was over on Vancouver Island, around Victoria, Nanaimo, and some of those places over there. And in order to go there, we'd bring a car, and it's tough to drive to there. You've got issues driving there. And so what we did was there was these large ships, about the size of a mid-sized cruise ship, and they were fairies. They were for automobiles, and trucks, and things like that, and I would hold probably around 200 cars, and very big vessel. And so you'd drive on to that thing, and there's about a two, two and a half hour trip over there. And I always wonder, what are they going to do? Boy, you've got to be a good boat driver to get this thing right where it needs to be to get those cars off of it. And so I got up on top of the ship, and I was watching when we came next to Port, and we were landing that time, I believe in Nanaimo, and I was just watching it. It was real windy that day, and there was current also that was pushing the same direction that the wind was, and I'm thinking, man, that's going to be tough for him to get this thing in there. And, you know, he didn't seem to be slowing down, or worried, or, you know, there were no alarms going off, or anything like that. Basically, they'd done it a million times. This is the way they did it. They had a group of pilings or hard points that were anchored into the bottom, and they were in the form of a V, and they stretched quite a ways out from the shore. And all the captain had to do was to get the prow of that ship inside that V, which was quite wide. And then just move along at a slow pace, and eventually he's going to hit one of those hard points. And you could feel it when the wind was pushing this way, he'd probably hit one on the left side first, and you could just feel the ship go, ooh, and it would kick it back into the middle. And maybe he went to the other side, and as that narrowed down, you know, the corrections were less and less and less, and sure enough, that ship, that huge ship, docked in the perfect spot that you could drive off into the very same lane that you were on going in. And I thought, whoa. And at the time I was actually reading and studying this particular chapter, so it's a visual that I have that when I'm going through some things, to understand there's going to be some hard things that tend to push me back where I need to be. Anybody here ever encountered some of those? Hard spots, difficult spots. Maybe your behavior's been bad. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's just a situation in life that you hit, and it's pushing you away. A lot of people have changed jobs for things like that. Lots of things go on in life where you encounter a hard thing that wakes you up and moves you back in the right direction. And I just want to say to you, in the name of Jesus today, you don't rebuke the hard spots, you respond to the hard spots. We want to pray for no hard spots. That's because we think we want autonomy. I don't want autonomy. I want dependency because I know he's dependable. I don't know he said he'd never leave me or he'd never forsake me. So when I go through a hard thing, there's a lesson to be learned. There's something to take away from that in addition to the redirection that we may go through. But as a powerful thing, that's always in my mind every time I'm going through something like that, and it just helps. So maybe it can help you. Any intelligent consideration of spiritual growth in our walk with the Lord will lead us to grapple with these next few steps and their important steps. There are steps that Jesus made sure we're in the Scriptures for us because this is the way it works. So we're really happy with all we've seen so far. We're rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God in chapter 2 and in verse 3, it says that not only that, we glory in tribulations. What? That's got to be a misprint. Let's look that up in the Greek, it's got to be something else. No, no, it's exactly what it is. We glory in tribulations. With the analogy I'm making, if the Lord allows you or puts you in a place where you hit that hard place and you understand that you've committed your way to Him and He is directing your path and you can literally glory in that problem. You can access grace for that problem. You can partake of His nature in that problem and you can walk through that problem and wallah, you have a testimony. Guess what? The thing, you know, it's more important what happens in you than what happens to you. I live long enough to see that be true. What's going on in me is going to be in many ways perfected by what happens to me or not. That's our choice, but I choose to bounce off of those things back into a better place and keep on, in fact, I never, never once, no matter how rough the weather was or how hard you hit that hard place, never saw a captain throw it into reverse and back out. Keep it steady as she goes, proceed. If you keep it up, you're going to make it. Maybe it's the marks on your bow before it's all said and done, but you're going to make it. Don't quit. Don't give up. Don't back up. Here it is. Not only that, we glory in tribulations knowing. Here's where this is helpful. When you are going through that kind of tribulation, know this. That tribulation produces perseverance. Tribulation produces perseverance. We say, "Well, I don't know about this tribulation thing." Jesus, it says in Hebrews 5, 8, learned obedience through the things he suffered. I want to ask one of my first questions when I get to heaven is, "Lord Jesus, what did you have to learn obedience for?" But it says he did. Maybe when he was growing up, I don't know. Whatever the case is, it's there. Listen to this. No trial is overtaken, you accept that, which is common to men, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you were able. The wisdom that temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. That's 1 Corinthians 10, 13, and so the principle is there that this is well known to be a process. First Peter, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial," which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, "but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy." You know, I will say this, some of the moments in life that are some of the hardest ones give you a sense of accomplishment when you get through that phase and you love Jesus and people just as much as you did before you went through it. In fact, you probably love people more and God more as you go through those things because you feel His nearness, and one of the things about His nearness is He will take you out of the judgment seat and put you in the advocacy seat. You'll find yourself praying for those that persecute you. You'll find yourself loving the unlovable. You'll find yourself being less judgmental of the people that put you in those situations because you understand they're just people. I've got a lot of help from demonic activity and selfishness and all that kind of thing to persecute. So once we understand that, we can kind of deal with this a little bit better. Isn't it make any sense to anybody? I hope it is because this is where we live life. This is where you grow. Another Bible study won't necessarily grow you as much as I love Bible study because what you learn in that Bible study must then be put to practice somewhere because he that knows to do and does it not to him and sin. So we want to be practical Christians. We want to be folks that take what we've learned and what we know and put it to work Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and on. And so then some of the joy that you get is you can look back and say, "Whoa, I'm not the same person I was there." I see how I handled that in the past, but, "Wow, Lord, some of your characters rubbing off on me." And that's not a source for pride, it's just a source for amazement. And the more you get amazed with God, the happier you're going to be and the more effective you're going to be in sharing Him with other people. Now I'll just tell you this, we need to bear this in mind. The Lord loves us too much to leave us the way we are. Let's disabuse ourselves of this popular concept that when we live with the Lord, our definition of a blessed life will follow. That life will feature things like prosperity and resources and relationships with a healthy dose of health and happiness. Well any of those things may all happen. They're likely to occur somewhere along the way, but Scripture also promises a specific path to maturity and fulfillment as well as the eternal rewards. And I want to look at these waypoints. You know, when you're navigating somewhere, you usually have waypoints. When you take off from Springfield at the airport here to go to Dallas or wherever you're going Atlanta or wherever, there are waypoints along the way that those pilots are navigating too. They don't just go on a straight line. And so those waypoints, as you pass them, it gives you confidence that you're on course, that you've not been blown off course somewhere. And so what we're talking about today are those waypoints. It starts with tribulation of course, and it yields perseverance or endurance. That's what the word means, endurance. And this trait is the ability to bear up under pressure rather than expending energy and running from it. This is learning to carry a load with purpose. Proverbs 24-10 says, "If I faint in the day of adversity, my strength is small." God's trying to say, "Listen, I want you to toughen up." This tribulation that you're going through, steady she goes. Keep moving. Balance off the hard things while you're moving forward. It takes a lot of the jolt out of it when you are moving forward as you're gliding off of those things. There's no stopping and starting over again, it's just a movement that you take. Sometimes we learn that perseverance or endurance produces character. Some of us already are a character, but God's trying to produce some character. Verse 4, "Character and character hope." In other words, you're not stopping there. Character literally refines and tempers our life and translates into phrases like tried integrity or tested value. This in relationships, and this is where you learn who's who in the zoo in your life, are they trustworthy? Do they do what they said they were going to do? Do they show up on time? Are they stable? These are the kind of things that if we were hiring, we want to look for. Cleverness is great. Faithfulness is necessary. It's a necessity, pardon me. So understand that God is trying to develop that kind of a nature in you. Job 2310 says, "When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." It's known that when a refiner is refining silver or gold or something like that, he stops the process when he can see his face and what's in the pot. If God is refining you and me through these processes we've just noted, I wonder when he looks at us if he sees himself. That's the goal. Impressing God is a goal, and he's impressed when that happens. Finally, we learn that character produces hope. This is not just a positive attitude or wishful thinking, but rather it's a confident expectation based on a solid certainty. It's so amazing when no matter what's going on around you, you have hope. It's the living assurance that God is properly active in us and for us. It looks like this. David faced with a nine-foot-tall giant who'd been a man of war since his birth, who could take on 15 or 20 men and probably win. When David goes out with a slingshot and five smooth stones, nobody bet on him winning. But here's what he said, "This is hope. The Lord delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." That's hope. I've been through this, I've been through that, and I'm still here, I'm still standing. Something just gets down in your soul, and you look at a challenge and say, "I wonder how God's going to do this." I get to be part of it. There are going to be challenges in life that take more than you've got until you've got that, but you get it one way, and you just heard me delineate it for you. A whole lot more I can say on that, but the holy music is playing and it's time to roll. So would you stand? I want to ask you something, really, and be honest. Are you going to approach life with this in mind? How many of you say, "I want to do that. I want to have that perspective?" The Bible says, "We ask anything according to his will. He hears us, and if he hears us, we have the petition we've desired of him." God, open our eyes. Let us see that there's more for us than the against us. The hosts of heaven are standing on the precipice of heaven, watching to see your actions and our reactions to the wisdom, the grace, the power, and the holiness of heaven. Lord Jesus, let us be those that light up. Let us be those that gain hope. Let us be those that are the most dependable people around so that you can enjoy calling us your children, so that the host of heaven can see what Jesus has accomplished. So Lord, we pray today that she would open our eyes and our ears as we go through this process to know what is next and what can be gained by sticking it out. I bless these folks today. I ask you to open your eyes before them. Let them see with your eyes. Let them hear with the heart of God. Let them understand what the will of the Lord is and let them walk it out. I bless them today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all God's folks said, "Hey, man, God bless you. Have an awesome week, folks." (upbeat music)