We Make Our Problems Bigger Than They Are and God Smaller Than He Is

Sermon outline

All things work together for good to those who love God, so in trials and loss a believer can grieve honestly and still refuse to shrink God, letting patience do its work until they are whole and lacking nothing.

1. All things work together for good, even when not all things are good

   No temptation or trial comes without a way of escape, but we must depend on God and lean on Him rather than on our own strength. He reads Romans 8 from the American Standard Version: we pray, the Spirit intercedes, and Jesus intercedes at the right hand of the Father. The verse does not say everything that happens will be good, but that in the bigger scheme God is working for the good of those who love Him, so we cannot quit in the middle of a test.

   “Bump your neighbour and say, you're called for His purpose.”

   • Romans 8:18-39
   • 1 Corinthians 10:13

2. Revelation does not remove the pain, but it changes how you go through it

   On the other side of a trial comes the moment of revelation. You will still cry, it will still hurt, and the absence of a person still leaves a void, but looking back he can see God's hand on his life in spite of loss. God turned crucifixion into resurrection, opened blind eyes, made saints of murderers like Paul, turned water into wine and raised Lazarus.

   Illustration: If the juice runs out at a wedding at the Coastlands Hotel, guests blame the bride and groom. Jesus walked into a wedding of people He hardly knew, listened to His mother, and turned water into wine.

   “It's easy to say it, but you gotta live it to truly have a revelation of it.”

   • John 2:1-11
   • John 11:38-44

3. The way that seems right: grief that rejects God's love

   Proverbs warns of a way that seems right to a man but ends in death. In grief, the comfort of people can become the devil's argument: everyone here loves me, so if God loved me, why did He allow this? A believer who gives in to that becomes an unbelieving believer who rejects God's love. Like David when his child died, grieve, then encourage yourself in the Lord and get up and carry on with your calling.

   Illustration: At a funeral everyone rallies round and asks what they can do. Right in the midst of it, he says, the devil is knocking at the door saying, see, God doesn't love you.

   “We cannot be both the victim and the victor.”

   • Proverbs 16:18-25
   • 2 Samuel 12:15-23

4. Be real, but say what you believe

   We are in the world but not of it, which does not exempt us from hard things; the difference is that we respond instead of react, and start happening to life instead of life happening to us. When people ask how you are after a loss, you do not have to fake it. You can be honest that it comes in waves and still tell them you thank God for His faithfulness.

   Illustration: He models an honest answer: I'm not doing so good, I'm not sleeping, it comes in waves, but I thank God for His faithfulness, and I know my God.

   “We can be real, but we got God.”

   • John 17:16
   • 1 John 4:17

5. Lord, show me the purpose of this pain

   We pray for God to show us our purpose, but rarely ask what we are meant to learn through a difficulty. Nobody grows in the comfortable times. The hard coach, and the people who said you would amount to nothing, are what mature you, and the true friend is the one who challenges your character rather than loving you just the way you are.

   Illustration: The real best friend is the one who tells you your breath is not too lekker and asks where the other fifty percent of your test went, not the one who fights you over two extra pieces of meat in a shared bunny chow.

   “The coach that's difficult is the one that grows you.”

   • Proverbs 18:24

6. Joy comes from knowing, not feeling

   Happiness comes from emotions; the Bible speaks of the joy of the Lord, which comes from knowing who God is. Not feeling His presence when you pray does not mean He does not love you, is not with you, or is angry with you. The Holy Spirit prays according to God's will, so there is no manipulating Him in prayer.

   Illustration: Seven years into a marriage you kiss your wife and do not feel the romance, but it does not mean she does not love you. It is the same with the Lord once the first experience of freedom becomes familiar.

   “Just because you don't feel the presence of the Lord all the time does not mean that He doesn't love you.”

7. Let patience have its perfect work

   James says to count it all joy in trials, because the proving of faith works patience, and patience makes you whole and complete, lacking nothing. Lacking nothing is not about money but about the character of God inside you, so that anxiety, stress and fear no longer define you. Patience comes in hard times, when you still lay hands on the spouse, the child or the situation you have stopped caring about, and call things as they should be.

   Illustration: When a son thinks he is clever and walks away, the father says, turn yourself around right now and come and stand here in front of me, because he knows his authority. That is how a believer brings situations into alignment.

   “Don't be trouble-conscious. Be God-conscious.”

   • James 1:2-4
   • Hebrews 4:15

In this message