sermonette: Trials and Suffering
James Beaubelle
Given 15-Aug-26; Sermon #1889s; 17 minutes
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Trials and suffering are woven throughout God's purpose for humanity, shaping His people for their eternal inheritance. I Peter, the "wilderness epistle," portrays believers as pilgrims whose faith is tested through suffering so that perseverance, humility, compassion, and godly character may be developed. Trials are not merely hardships to endure but opportunities to actively apply faith—to choose trust and obedience when circumstances are difficult. As James demonstrated through Abraham, faith is perfected through action. Suffering also draws believers together, teaching them to care for, pray for, and strengthen one another. Though we may not fully understand why God permits trials, Scripture assures us that He remains near to the brokenhearted and uses temporary suffering for an eternal purpose. Our calling is to set our will to believe, act faithfully, and remain steadfast as God prepares us for His Kingdom.
I picked a topic that is very large in its scope. You can find elements of it from the beginning in Genesis chapter 3 and then throughout the whole Bible until its completion in Revelation 21 and in verse 4, where God makes all things new. Its impact is easily seen in everyone's lives whether they know of God or not. All of the spiritual and physical creation has been touched by it as it continues to serve God's purpose for His creation and His creative purpose for mankind. Obviously I can't in just a few minutes speak to all of its aspects, nor do I believe I even know all the depth of God's wisdom in this. But still, it's a topic we all must consider. Where knowledge is power. And when we can get even a glimmer of understanding, we can be helped in making better choices. I will likely leave us with more questions to the extent trials and suffering play out in our lives. But to keep this narrowed down, The focus will be by just looking at statements by the apostle Peter in I Peter chapters 1 through 5. We're the focus on the importance of faith as we go through trials and of course as we suffer. Let's begin with a little background. First Peter has been rightly called the wilderness epistle, and the reason is clearly seen by his opening verse in First Peter 1 and in verse one as he addresses the scattered flock outside of Palestine. Peter, as we know, was tasked by his master, Jesus Christ in John 21:15-17 to feed and care for his sheep. And this he did. I Peter chapter 1 and verse 1 and 2 we see him reaching out with a letter to the scattered Jews in Asia Minor. Translated in the New King James as pilgrims of the dispersion. Other translations call them strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These pilgrims were God's elect. And we could change the names of the places for the elect today and read this letter by him as being sent to those in Pasadena. In Charlotte or in Texas, on and on, how easily this speaks to all of us scattered certainly after Worldwide had gotten to a point that the faithful people of God could no longer attend. I personally was called after this fact, but I can certainly see what a difficult time so many had to endure, and still today many suffer the consequences of God's scattering. First Peter is an epistle written to God's pilgrims today as it was for those saints then. Those who are in the wilderness today and seek an inheritance in the kingdom of God that was spoken of by our Lord. Verse 4 says To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you. We are referred to as the beloved children of God, and we bear many other names. We are the elect. His first fruits, the people of God, His saints and His bride, and we are, in my opinion, spiritual Hebrews. The term Hebrews is loosely defined as one or those who are passing through, and it perfectly pictures those who are on a wilderness journey, such as ourselves. We have our temporal existence here today. But it's not our home. We are sojourners who need to keep our focus on our Lord and on a future that is being and has been prepared for each one of us. And it is with who and where our hope lies that matters a great deal. And it becomes where our daily focus must be, for it helps us to place our trials in proper perspective and see how necessary they are to our final destination with our God. All trials and suffering have a beginning, and they have an end. And all God-given trials are working out an eternal purpose for our good. That's hard to say. At times even harder to believe. Paul in Romans 8:18 said, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Paul doesn't diminish our sufferings here, but reminds us to keep our focus steady on our pilgrimage and on our future. And like our Lord who learned by the things He suffered, we also by design will follow in His steps. All 5 chapters in I Peter has something to say to us concerning trials and suffering. I will list them as topics, as a broad overview you may want to look into for yourselves and consider. And then for today, narrow down to one and if I can shed a little light on the subject. We'll start with chapter one. Verses 6 and 7 Peter speaks of suffering as a trial of our faith. In chapter 2, verses 18 to 20, he speaks of our suffering for conscience sake and adds in verse 21 to 23, he speaks of Christ's suffering as leaving us an example. In chapter 3 and in verse 13 and 14, it speaks of suffering for righteousness, and verse 18 speaks of Christ's suffering that Christ may bring us to God and of being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. In chapter 4, verse 1 speaks of suffering to help us cease from sin. That sounds important. And verse 12 to 16 tells us to rejoice as we partake in Christ's suffering. In chapter 5, verse 10, Peter speaks of suffering for a while or a limited time for Christ to perfect. To establish and to strengthen us. We see the topic scattered throughout all 5 chapters of this little book. It's beginning to look like life is one long stress test for all of us. And in a sense it is. For within the crucible of suffering and trials we learn the valuable lessons of perseverance and of faith. And of hope We find ourselves in complete reliance on God and work to fashion our lives after Him. That we may develop godly character traits as our own, and we begin to grow the fruits of the spirit we often read of in Galatians 5 as we put aside the works of the flesh and we learn to use our faith to meet the challenges of each day. These trials If we are willing to learn and embrace them, can teach us a greater amount of self-control and self-denial that we all need. We learn to subordinate the desires of the flesh and gain control of our carnality to pursue the higher goals of becoming in harmony with God and His will for us. Suffering Suffering is not meant by God to deny us all joy or happiness. But to help us find true joy in our relationship with God. To know he is near, near at hand at all the trials we endure. It is like what was spoken of in I Peter 6 and 7 I mentioned. When he tells us we will be grieved by various trials and then leads us into verse 8 and 9, how our faith can get us to the place where our suffering. Because we are linked by belief in Christ can settle our hearts and bring us into an abundance of joy. This will be the one verse we turn to today, First Peter 1. If you're not there already. This connection is so important as faith is applied, we need to read it in its full context to see where faith leads us. I Peter 1:6 9 Like always, it will be from the new King James unless I mention otherwise. Verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. May be found to praise and glory at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen you love Though now you do not see him. Yet believing You rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, and verse 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Certainly it will take faith in the Son of God for any pilgrim to find their way home. And when we do, we will rejoice for the work that God has done for us and the trials given in preparation for us and our inheritance. What is so hard today will find its end within the love of God. God changes not. But we must change. If we are to be as he is, we must learn to deny our own goals for self-satisfaction and learn the ways of compassion for others. We all know this. Mr. Armstrong defined it so simply by calling it the way of Git. Versus the way of give. And as Peter said, if need be, we will find trials, trials that will show us the way of humility, of compassion, and putting on Christ and of the destruction of our pride. When trials come upon us, we want to pull back and start problem solving. That's our human side working. But we also need to slow down and consider there is something we need to change. May be something we've been dragging around for years and never fully getting it behind us. In this faith has a role to play. Each and every one of us has been gifted by God the virtue of faith 100%. So it asks a question. If God has done this, why does He test our faith? Surely he knows our hearts. I think the question revolves around our application of our faith. God sets us up to make choices and wants to see if we will set our will to believe. And if we will set our will, our reason to maintain our faith in Him even when things look pretty bleak, and that happens more often than we know. Our faith is represented not only by what we believe. But also by the act of believing. This is how the apostle James could say, I will show you my faith by my works and insist that faith without works was a dead faith. Works are within the act of believing, and this is where we will each find our justification by faith. Verse 21 and 22 of James 2 explains this clearly. I'll read that for us. James Verse 21 and 22. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect. Does this verse in Ephesians 4:13 come to mind when it says, Till we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Trials appear to be very necessary for the perfecting of the saints. And I would add not only our own trials, but the trials of others near to us. How we care for others is very important to our Lord. Read over Matthew 25:31-46. We will not take the time to do that now. And think he's not concerned about our actions in helping others within their trials and suffering. We know that he is. We are cautioned. Not to resist reaching out in faith with prayers and comfort to those in trials, we are one body. We are one body with many members, and what happens to one happens to all of us. We each own a piece of every trial that comes upon God's people. What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. James 5:13-16, we will not take the time now, but notice something very revealing in verse 16. And pray for one another that you may be healed. Very interesting. Not pray that they may be healed, which of course we do. But that you may be healed. Can we begin to see how close faith can bring us to each other and the unity that exists between us in the days of our trials? Did not our Lord, as He suffered greatly on the cross, pray for all of us? Certainly he has left us an example in this. God has supplied the gift of faith we need to work through the days of our pilgrimage of trials and suffering. We just need to apply it. And to set our will to believe and to act on those beliefs. This is the testing God does to see if we will use the faith and develop the habit of having faith, to choose to have faith when we are opposed by the circumstances we find ourselves in. And that's all the time, I know. I was sitting, no I went on break. I was sitting at the auto repair shop getting an oil change on my truck. We've all kind of done things like that. And a quote from the aviator, Amelia Earhart was displayed on her monitor. It was all black except for this. That I think I can apply it to all of us in this lesson it has concerning the use of faith in our trials. This is what she said. She said the most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is mere tenacity. I do think God wants us to be tenacious as we strive towards the kingdom of God. To use every strength we have believing God will help with the things that we lack. If he does anything, it is he draws closer to us in our times of stress. Psalm 34:17-18 tells us, quote, The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears. And delivers them out of their troubles. Verse 18. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves us that have a contrite spirit. We're never alone unless we choose to be, and that is never recommended for the people of God. Let us lift up our voices to God and stand before Him as one people who by faith through all tribulation will enter into His rest, having found our way home.
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Sermon Topics
The Gospel
