Grow up
Good morning church. Do you know the dumbest question someone could ask, and unfortunately the question mainly comes from christians.
Are you ready? The dumbest question is :
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Taking the question at face value proves it stupidity.. First of all the bible says that no one is good. Secondly the question implies that good things happen to bad people...and the opposite question is true as well...why do good things happen to good people or why do bad things happen to bad people? These are difficult questions to answer because you cannot give a logical answer to illogical and stupid questions.
You see this question in rooted in a law mentality, that directly links your performance before a good god to the amount of blessings we receive. So if we are good then good things must happen to us and if we are bad then bad things should happen to us. Just as a wakeup call, god lets it rain over both the good and the bad, in fact good is relative, because even with all our good works, and self righteousness if we were to stand before our Holy god, our greatest good would seems like filth compared to his goodness.
As believers we can become so arrogant and think that because we are christians everything should go our way. In fact god has given many of us promises and when we don't see the promises coming to pass we start asking stupid questions like these.
I want to speak with you about "growing up" through difficult situations.
Here is a trust worthy saying
God is more interested in your growth than in your comfort
You see when we go through challenging situations God is not out to get you, he is out to grow you. god wants to expand and increase your capacity and He knows that:
Growth requires resistance
If you have your bible with you please go to genesis 16 we are going to read the entire chapter.
Genesis 16:1-16
16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,[a]
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward[b] all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen[c] the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi[d]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Here we find the story of Hagar, Hagar found herself in a ruff spot at work, her boss told her to sleep with her husband, which she did, you would think that doing what you should do will bring blessing but not in this case i mean the situation got so bad that Hagar not only felt like she wanted to run away, she actually did run away! ( not that Hagar was innocent she clearly had an attitude problem).
How many of you have ever felt like this at the work place or in your home life, you felt that things are getting so bad that you just want to quit or run away!
We all know that feeling! And thats normally when we say dumb things like "why is this happening to me, i am a good person, you know i love Jesus, i go to church"
I think many of us, react just like Hagar, and we get really bad attitudes when things don't go our way. But be that as it may.
When we get to this breaking point there is a very important thing we need to ask, and this important question is found in verse 8 when the angel of the Lord asked Hagar
Where have you come from, and where are you going?
You see Hagar who's name means uncertain was in a place of uncertainty, so the angel of the Lord came and basically said to her "you are uncertain of your future step back and see the big picture, where have you come from and where are you going?
Can i just say, never despise where you come from, whether you from a small town or a sinful past, never be ashamed of your testimony, never shun away from your past because your past laid the foundation for gods grace in your life! No matter y our history no matter your story and experiences, don't be ashamed because what the enemy intended for evil and your humiliation god intended for good and your glorification.
You might have a terrible back ground But don't get stuck in the past! look towards the future look towards the promises god has for you
It is important to know what Gods promises and plans are for your life, because without it we loose focus and purpose. Without the big picture we can easily get stuck and locked into the one event or situation for months years sometimes even a lifetime. And this is not gods will, when life gives you a hard time remember the promises he has made for you, god wants to grow you through it so always keep the big picture in mind.
god says in Jeremiah 29 :11 that he has plans to bless and prosper you, and we see this truth in genesis 16, i mean God did tell Hagar that she would be blessed.
You see by keeping the big picture in mind you realize that
Troubles are not sent to bother us but to better us
Long story short endure and push through! God will never allow something you cannot handle, i think the problem is that god believes more in us than what we do ourself.
God sees the big picture for example when he spoke to Hagar he said she must go back and submit to her authority, god gave her a reason, he said because he is also going multiply her offspring!
I believe if she did not listen to gods advice she would not have received her promise.
But god asked her to do a tough thing.. He asked her to go back to her boss and submit to her authority.
Because god knows
To get out of difficulty, we must go through it
Now i don't know about you but this is hard! How many of you have a hard time at work under a boss, and just when you think hes gone or the issue is sorted out guess what, another department head comes along and its a different set of issues!
The problem today is that we do not understand that everything is a process. God says in his word that " he started a good work in us and he will bring it to completion" ( Philippians 1:6) and many times god uses the chisel of adversity to accomplish his work in our lives.
Consider David, he was anointed to be king, yet he served for a long time until his process was completed. I mean even thou David was anointed king, before his promise came true he was mistreated by his authority, he still respected the authority. You see the way he reacted towards his situation, his attitude was the key that unlocked his destiny.
He grew through his troubles and became the greatest king of israel, known to be a man after gods own heart.
The truth is that god allows situations because he wants us to grow, god wants us to grow in our characters, in our love in our people skills.
One thing that is so amazing is that
God's grace enables us to ‘face the music' even when we don't like the tune.
In fact It was through The way of the cross that Jesus learnt (hebrews 5:8) in other words through suffering the perfect lamb was proven to be perfect, what makes us so special?
Listen to Rom 8:18
I consider that my present sufferings cannot be compared to the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
Also look at this amazing promise in 2 Timothy 2:12
“If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”
Even the great apostle Paul had struggles...
Another thing i see in this passage is that the angel of the Lord met with Hagar. The angel of the lord , is the same angel who appeared to moses, the same angel who accompanied the Israelites through the dessert. We find that in the new testament the angel of the lord does not appear, this is because The angel of the lord is Jesus.
And here is the application, when Hagar was running away she was probably wondering where god was, why he didn't help her, and all of the sudden jesus was there with her!
in the mist of our suffering jesus is there, when the disciples was in the boat crossing over, and a storm came up, jesus came to them, the truth is that god will never leave you alone, in your struggles, he will never leave you nor forsake you!
No trouble can come so near that God is not nearer.
When ever you find your self in a place of difficulty, remember this one question
Where do you come from , and where are you going.
You see everything in the kingdom is progressive for example we have acceptance grace to empowering grace.
When you get saved the grace of god covers your shortcomings, but the truth is that god wants to not only cover your sins he wants to bring you to a place of empowerment
In other words he wants to progress you from justification to sanctification
When we are saved we are justified which means to be just as if you'd never sinned, how ever god wants you to move on to sanctification to get rid of anything that might hinder your progress.
To push the point further we can take our church as another example As a church where do we come from and where are we going, we had small beginnings, little effect in our community and terrible carpets, today we are more effective than we were 4 years ago, but what we have going here is not. The final product, God still have greater plans for this church, because god is a progressive god!
You see everything in the kingdom is progressive, and god desires your growth to be progressive
In fact as believers we should anticipate growth. We should anticipate growth in this church and in our lives..and like i said earlier, growth does not happen without resistance.
And how can we anticipate growth if you are continually looking behind you, don't get locked in to current or past situations. Don't allow a situation to overcome you! know that
If we had no trials, there would be no triumphs
And without triumphs we cannot have greater authority and stronger character.
If you are in a tough situation there are some things that may hinder your growth
For example Lack of knowledge acts 18:24-28,
24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor[a] and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
Firstly we don't know it all, and before we react in difficult situations, ask for godly counsel. It is good to have a teachable spirit,
Secondly when we lack knowledge of gods word we struggle to hear his voice in the mist of our situations.
Tell story of what god shared about him always speaking, its just our frame of reference that makes it difficult to hear.
Another hindrance is Carnality 1 corinthians 3:1-3,
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
when we live by what we feel and not by the word of god, when we allow our impulses to drive our decisions we wont grow, for example, in the work place where you know your boss is wrong, will you react and slander him or will you allow god to vindicate you.
Allow yourself to be ruled by the holy spirit and not by your carnal desires to be right.
Another hinderance is Instability ephesians 4:14,15,
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
when we are unsure of what we believe or we are not grounded in what we believe it will hinder our growth, know what you believe and grow in the knowledge of that. Don't choose what you will believe and when you want to believe it, only those who hear the word and put it into practice and patiently perseveres in it will grow .
And lastly spiritual Dullness is a great hindarence to growth. hebrews 5:11-14,
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Spiritual dullness which many times is a direct result of staying in a sin, numbs your ability to hear god and growth, the sin may be bitterness towards your boss, a critical spirit, a unfogiving heart, when we are spiritually dull its because we are not apllying the fundemental truths of our faith in our lives.
Church here is the truth: the current situation you find yourself in is not to crush you God wants you to grow spiritually in order for the kingdom to grow
The kingdom is the rule and reign of god in your life and in the lives of others.
To the extent that you allow yourself to be obedient to the principles of god is the extent that the kingdom of god is evident in your life ,for example when you bless those who curse you and you pray for your enemies or your boss, the kingdom of god becomes manifest in your life and you are able to advance gods kingdom and purposes in this world.
And most importantly you start to grow up into maturity.
We find that jesus grew in favor and wisdom (see Luke 2:40) And god desires the same for you, to grow spiritually, he wants to increase favor on your life and he wants to give you wisdom.
Church here is the truth
Jesus wants to encounter you where you are in the mist of your struggles.
If you are in a place of uncertainty, and you are at the end of yourself and you don't know what else to do, then today is your day
God is in this place, and God wants to meet with you this morning.
God is asking you to trust him and allow him to show you the big picture, he wants to speak to your heart and give you direction and a promise to hold on to.
Only God can change sunsets into sunrises
