Rejoicing in the Midst of Trials

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Rejoicing in the Midst of Trials

Introduction: Our country and our world have experienced significant trials in this past year. The virus, lockdowns, and political upheavals have caused stress, anger, and division. Unfortunately, even believers have allowed the suffering of this time to affect them negatively. Fear, anxiousness, despair, and completely shutting down one’s service to the Lord are responses that should not happen among God’s people.

The trials of this past year and into our coming year should instead be received with thankfulness, joy, and resolve to use our suffering for the purpose God has intended it to be. Let’s learn the importance of tribulation and pain in Christian living.

1. God’s Use of Tribulation (Romans 5:1-5)
   1. This text (including all of chapter 5), is about our salvation and the grace we have in Christ. The first two verses sound so positive! But then we learn that included in our path to salvation is the necessary ingredient of tribulation.
   2. In fact, the word “rejoice” is used three times in this text. Verse 2, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Verse 3, we rejoice in tribulation. And verse 11, we rejoice in God. Which of these do you not rejoice in? 
   3. “Tribulation” is pressure, which may come from any number of sources. The word comes from the idea of grinding wheat. It is not just a painful incident, it is an ongoing “pressing” or “grinding.” It’s not pleasant, to say the least.
   4. Therefore, let’s ask a question: what does tribulation produce? Well, what? Notice: tribulation produces endurance. Isn’t that interesting? Say it again; say it to yourself: tribulation produces endurance. Now, how do you get endurance? Endurance/perseverance is part of the fruit of the Spirit, isn’t it? Endurance is necessary for salvation, isn’t it? But how do you get it? You get it through tribulation, don’t you? Now, how many of us rejoice tribulations?
   5. What else does tribulation produce? Tribulation produces character. NASB says “proven character.” In other words, it produces a quality, useful, productive, acceptable character that will not crack under pressure. Now, how do you get character? You get it by enduring tribulations. Will you get character by without tribulations? No. Will you get endurance without tribulation? No. To get endurance and to get character, you have to go through tribulations. Now, how many of us rejoice in tribulations?
   6. What else does tribulation produce? Tribulation produces hope. Hope is a deep longing, desire, and expectation to be with the Lord. How do you get it? Say it to yourself. Say it slowly and clearly: tribulation produces a longing, a desire, an expectation, to be with the Lord. Now, can you get hope without tribulation? No, you can’t. To get hope, you have to go through tribulations. Now, how many of us rejoice in tribulations?
   7. But there is something else here that we must notice. James 1:2-4 is a very similar text, but it adds something to the discussion: “let patience have its perfect work…” What does not mean? It means that tribulation does not automatically produce perseverance or character or hope. We must let it have its perfect work. Many go through tribulations and come out worse on the other side, not better. Job’s wife did not come out any better. Neither did Absalom or Judas.
   8. Rom.8:18-25 Do you see the emphasis on groaning in the text? Do you see the emphasis on “birth pangs?” That is a description of the Christian life. That is a description of what it is like to be a Christian. But what a minute. Is it a description of you?! Well, is it? Do you feel the groaning? Do you feel the pain; the ache in your soul of something terribly lacking? Or would you rather not think that deeply?
      We tend to hate the pain, but the groaning is necessary in order to have the “eagerly waiting.” No groaning, no eagerly waiting; no hope! Now is pain important to being a Christian?
   9. We must look at one more text: Heb.12:5-11. The emphasis here is on discipline. Verse 6 even refers to it as scourging. Any question about the painfulness of this description? Consider:
      1. Can you be a child of God and not experience this pain? No, not according to the text. Well, then why are we surprised at pain in our lives?
      2. Did you notice in verse 11 that we are to be trained by it? Now how does God train us? How? He trains us by pain, by tribulations, by discipline. Do we have the picture yet? We are not getting to heaven unless we allow ourselves to be trained by pain.
      3. Now why do we have to have this pain? Because pain causes change; and change brings about righteousness; and righteousness brings about joy. See the word “for our good that we might share in his holiness”? Anyone rejoicing in tribulations yet? Anyone taking the pain within them and accepting it as discipline from God and allowing it to produce perseverance, character, & hope?
2. Right & Wrong Responses to Pain
   1. There are three responses to pain that are sinful; that will not produce what God wants the pain to produce. We can illustrate all three of them from the book of Job.
      1. Job’s wife: “I’m in pain, so I quit.” She would not accept pain in this life; she would not allow the Lord to discipline her. “Nope, You are not giving me a whipping,” she said. “You whip me and I’m running away from Home. Curse God and die,” she said. She would do anything to make the pain stop. Living for God and pain just can’t go together. This life must be lived for pleasure, but if no pleasure, there is no point! How foolish indeed.
      2. Job’s three friends: “Pain shows that you are not a good person; pain shows you are not spiritual. More worship will make the pain go away.” No, that’s living in a dream world. Talk about allowing a godly life to disappoint you. That answer will only create despair.
      3. Job: “God, I will always believe in You, but You must make this stop; this is wrong! I did nothing to deserve this! Why don’t you answer me? Why don’t you let me die?!” Job thinks that continued long-term pain is unacceptable for godly men to have to endure. Pain is worthless; there is no point in it! No, that is accusing God of not knowing what He is doing. That is a lack of trust.
   2. The right response is to rejoice in tribulations, because tribulations produce endurance, and endurance produces a proven character, and character produces hope. 
   3. There are a lot of details in how to “let endurance have its full effect” that we will save for another lesson. But for now, please realize that in the book of Acts Christianity was born in the midst of tribulations. The message was clear: when people were beaten and even dying, the answer was not to hide but to speak all the more about Christ, to give themselves all the more for his cause, because tribulation produces patience and patience produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame. That doesn’t happen when we are fearful and anxious.

Berry Kercheville