A young construction worker at a construction site was bragging that he was stronger than everybody else there. He focused his remarks on making fun of one of the older workmen.
After several minutes, the older worker had had enough.
“Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?” he said to the young construction worker. “I'll bet a week's wages that I can haul something in a wheelbarrow over to that building that you won't be able to wheel back.”
“You're on, old man,” the young worker replied.
The old man reached out and grabbed a wheelbarrow by the handles. Then he turned to the young man and said, “All right. Get in.”
Most of the time when you boast, it backfires on you. But there are times when boasting will benefit you. There are times when pride will profit you. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Romans 5, Romans 5, where the Bible shows us those times.
Romans 5, look at verse 2, about halfway through. Notice it says, “We rejoice in hope.” Now, look at verse 3. There it says, “We rejoice in our sufferings.” Skip down to verse 11. There it says, “We also rejoice in God.”
That word “rejoice,” in the original Greek, literally means “to boast,” i.e., “to joyfully take pride in something,” like when your grandson scores the winning touchdown or your granddaughter nails her gymnastics routine. You rejoice with pride at their accomplishments. In the same way, the Bible says believers boast in their hope. They boast in their sufferings, and they boast in their God. Let’s take a closer look. First, if you’re going to boast, then…
BOAST IN YOUR HOPE.
Rejoice with pride at the assurances God has given you. Glory in the confidence you have in Christ.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (ESV).
When you put your faith in Christ, God declares you righteous. And because He declares you righteous, He calls you His friend. You are no longer an enemy of God. Instead, you stop fighting God and God brings peace to your relationship with Him.
So boast in the assurance of God’s peace. Rejoice with pride in the confidence that God loves you.
Elizabeth DeBeasi, from Stanford Connecticut, was putting her daughter to bed one evening. She asked her little girl, “Carla, what is it like to be four years old?”
The little girl responded, “It’s special.”
“Why is it special,” mom asked.
Little Carla responded, “It’s special because I know my mommy loves me” (Elizabeth DeBeasi, “Heart to Heart,” Today’s Christian Woman).
Life is special, because your Heavenly Father loves you! So, if you’re going to boast, boast about that. Boast in the assurance of God’s peace.
Then boast in the assurance of God’s grace. Rejoice with pride that God has favored you unconditionally.
Romans 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…
Faith in Christ gives us access into God’s undeserved favor. But not only that, we stand in that favor, firmly established in it forever!
In the Smithsonian magazine, naturalist Jane Goodall talks about a Callery pear tree that had been planted near Building 5 of the World Trade Center. Since the early 1970s each year the tree's delicate white blossoms had brought a touch of spring into a world of concrete. In 2001, after the 9/11 attack, this tree, like all the other trees that had been planted there, disappeared beneath the fallen towers. But amazingly, in October, a cleanup worker found her, smashed and pinned between blocks of concrete. She was decapitated and the eight remaining feet of trunk were charred black; the roots were broken; and there was only one living branch.
Initially, many observers thought the tree was unsalvageable. But the cleanup workers at Ground Zero persuaded an employee with the Parks Department to give the tree a chance, so it was sent off to a nursery in the Bronx. When a nursery worker first saw the decapitated tree, he did not think anything could save her. But once he cut away the dead, burned tissues and planted her trimmed roots deeply in good rich soil, the tree survived. He gave the tree a new name—Survivor.
In the spring of 2010 disaster struck Survivor again. A terrible storm with 100 mile per hour winds ripped the tree out of the ground. Once again rescue workers worked together to salvage and redeem Survivor. At first, they only partially lifted the tree, packing in compost and mulch so as not to break the roots. For a long while they gently sprayed the tree with water to minimize the shock, hoping she'd make it. A few weeks later they set to work to get Survivor completely upright. Again, Survivor was resurrected from the dead. The next year Survivor was incorporated into the 9/11 memorial. She was planted near the footprint of the South Tower with its traumatized side facing the public (Jane Goodall, “Jane Goodall Reveals Her Lifelong Fascination With… Plants?” Smithsonian magazine, March 2013; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
Today, this one-of-a-kind tree stands out from the rest of the trees on the 9/11 Memorial. In the spring, it’s the first to bud and the last to lose its leaves in the fall.
What a picture of grace! Like Survivor, sin had marred and broken some of you. Some had written you off as “unsalvageable,” but God in His grace stepped in to save you, and He keeps saving you after every storm. In other words, God has firmly established you in His grace, which allows you to weather any storm.
Now, that’s something to boast about. So if you’re going to boast, boast in the assurance of God’s peace, boast in the assurance of God’s grace, and…
Boast in the assurance of God’s glory. Rejoice with pride that God will exalt Himself in your situation.
Romans 5:2b …and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We boast in the assurance that God will glorify Himself. In other words, even though you might not be able to praise God in your current situation, God will work in such a way that one day you will genuinely praise Him from the heart. He’ll bring such good out of the bad, you will marvel at His wisdom and grace.
That’s what happened to Corrie ten Boom. For hiding Jews in their home, she and her sister, Betsy, ended up in Ravensbruck, an overcrowded and flea infested Nazi concentration camp. Miraculously, they were able to smuggle a Bible into the camp, which told them to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18). It also told them that God can use anything for good (Romans 8:28).
Betsy decided that this meant thanking God for the fleas. This was too much for Corrie, who said she could do no such thing. Betsy insisted, so Corrie gave in and thanked God for the fleas.
Over the next several months a wonderful, but curious, thing happened: They found that the guards never entered their barracks.
This meant that the women were not assaulted. It also meant that they were able to do the unthinkable, which was to hold open Bible studies and prayer meetings in the heart of a Nazi concentration camp. Through this, countless numbers of women came to faith in Christ.
Only at the end did they discover why the guards had left them alone and would not enter their barracks: It was because of the fleas (James Emery White, “Thankful for the Fleas,” Christianity.com Blog, 2017; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
You may not understand the “fleas” in your life right now, but one day you will praise God for those fleas. So, why not begin praising God right now? Because God will be glorified in your situation, no matter how bad it seems today.
Now, that’s something to boast about. So, if you’re going to boast, boast in the assurance of God’s peace, boast in the assurance of God’s grace, and boast in the assurance of God’s glory. First, boast in your hope. Then second…
BOAST IN YOUR PAIN.
Rejoice with pride in your suffering. Glory in your pressing afflictions.
Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance… (ESV).
In the original Greek, “suffering” means “pressure.” That is to say, when life presses in, we can boast, because that pressure produces perseverance.
In a study published in May 2024, researchers wanted to answer a profound question: Why are some societies more resilient than others?
The study, published in the journal Nature, compared 16 societies scattered across the world, in places like the Yukon and the Australian outback. With powerful statistical models, the researchers analyzed 30,000 years of archaeological records, tracing the impact of wars, famines, and climate change.
The researchers looked for factors that explained why societies in some cases suffered long, deep downturns, while others experienced smaller drops in their populations and bounced back more quickly.
One feature that stood out was the frequency of downturns. You might expect that going through a lot of them would wear societies down, making them more vulnerable to new catastrophes. But the opposite seems to have occurred. They found that going through downturns enabled societies to get through future shocks faster. The more often a society went through them, the more resilient it eventually became (Carl Zimmer, “What Makes a Society More Resilient? Frequent Hardship.” The New York Times, 5-1-24; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
So, boast in your pain, because pain produces perseverance, and perseverance produces proven character.
Romans 5:3-4a Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character… (ESV)
The word for “character” is dokime in the original Greek, and it speaks of someone or something that has been put to the test and measured up. In other words, that person has been tried and proven.
In Israel, there are some pottery shops where the owner has stamped the word dokimas on the bottom of many of the jars. That means that the jar has been through the furnace and it hasn’t cracked. It hasn’t broken It came out whole and complete. That is to say the jar has been “approved” after the testing by fire (Ron Lee Davis, “Rejoicing in Our Suffering,” Preaching Today, Tape #74).
In the same way, when you persevere in pain, you come out of the fire approved. You come out of the fire with proven character.
Scott Sauls, in his book Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen, says, “Many of the world’s greatest souls became their best selves not in spite of but because of their distress. The great hymn writer Cowper wrote hopeful hymns and the great artist Van Gogh brushed epic paintings while contemplating suicide. Charles Spurgeon preached some of his best sermons while depressed. Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and Martin Luther King Jr. [also] battled [depression]. The great composer Beethoven went deaf. C.S. Lewis buried his wife after a short, cancer-ridden marriage. Elie Wiesel and Corrie Ten Boom survived the holocaust. Joni Eareckson Tada lost her ability to walk in a tragic accident. John Perkins endured jail, beatings, and death threats from white supremacists.
As grief expert Elizabeth Kubler Ross famously noted, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These people have an appreciation and sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep love and concern. Beautiful people do not just happen” (Scott Sauls, Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen, Zondervan, 2022, page 22; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
So if you’re suffering, if you’re struggling, if you find yourself in the depths, boast about that. Rejoice with pride, because pain produces perseverance, perseverance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
Romans 5:3-5 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (ESV).
The more we suffer, the more we stay. The more we stay, the more we shine. The more we shine, the more we’re sure that God’s love will see us through.
Russian author and dissident, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, spent years in a Siberian prison. At one point he had become so discouraged, he decided to give up and die. His plan was to stop working out in the field, to lean on his shovel, and wait for the guards to come and beat him to death. However, when he stopped, another prisoner reached over with his shovel and quickly drew a cross at his feet, then erased it before a guard could see it.
Solzhenitsyn later said that his entire being was energized by that little reminder of the hope and courage we have in Christ. He found the strength to continue because a fellow believer cared enough to remind him of our hope (Raymond McHenry, McHenry's Quips, Quotes and Other Notes, Hendrickson Publishers, 1990, p. 78; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
Dear believer, no matter what you’re going through, don’t lose your hope. Hang on to the assurance you have in Christ for which you will never be put to shame. Now, that’s something to boast about! 1st, Boast in your hope. 2nd, Boast in your pain. And 3rd…
BOAST IN YOUR GOD.
Rejoice with pride in His love for you. Glory in the cross, which saved you and changed you forever.
Romans 5:6-8 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (ESV).
That is, Christ died on behalf of us. He died as our substitute and representative. We deserved to die for our sins, but Jesus, as our representative, died in our place.
It was 1944, and Bert Frizen was an infantryman on the front lines in Europe. American forces had advanced in the face of intermittent shelling and small-arms fire throughout the morning hours, but now all was quiet. His patrol reached the edge of a wooded area with an open field before them. Unknown to the Americans, a battery of Germans waited in a hedgerow about two hundred yards across the field.
Bert was one of two scouts who moved out into the clearing. Once he was halfway across the field, the remainder of his battalion followed. Suddenly the Germans opened fire, and machine gun fire ripped into both of Bert's legs. The American battalion withdrew into the woods for protection, while a rapid exchange of fire continued.
Bert lay helplessly in a small stream as shots volleyed overhead. There seemed to be no way out. To make matters worse, he now noticed that a German soldier was crawling toward him. Death appeared imminent; he closed his eyes and waited. To his surprise, a considerable period passed without the expected attack, so he ventured opening his eyes again. He was startled to see the German kneeling at his side, smiling. He then noticed that the shooting had stopped. Troops from both sides of the battlefield watched anxiously. Without any verbal exchange, this mysterious German reached down to lift Bert in his arms and proceeded to carry him to the safety of Bert's comrades.
Having accomplished his self-appointed mission, and still without speaking a word, the German soldier turned and walked back across the field to his own troop. No one dared break the silence of this sacred moment. Moments later the cease-fire ended, but not before all those present had witnessed how one man risked everything for his enemy (Lynn McAdam, West Germany. Leadership, Vol. 17, no. 4; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
That’s what Jesus did for you. While you were still His enemy, while you were still hostile to Him, Jesus risked His life for you, no! More than that, Jesus died for you. Jesus gave His life for you. He took the bullet that was meant for an enemy and died in your place.
As a result Jesus saved and changed you forever. He rescued you from certain death because of God’s wrath against your sin.
Romans 5:9-10 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (ESV).
Jesus saved you by His death on the cross as your substitute, and Jesus saved you by His perfect life as your representative. He lived the life you couldn’t live, and He paid the penalty you couldn’t pay, so God could forgive your sins and welcome you into His family forever. Jesus died for you, which saved and changed you forever.
Romans 5:11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Literally, in the original Greek, “we have received change.” That is, God changed our status from enemy to friend. God took away the hostility in our hearts and replaced it with His love.
At the start of the day on August 28th, 2022, Travis Connor and Ray Shields had only one thing in common: they both wore matching ponytail hairstyles. But by the end, they would be bonded by another unlikely coincidence: both were on the premises of a Safeway grocery store in east Bend when a gunman opened fire, killing two and injuring others.
When the shots rang out. 62-year-old Shields tried to grab his crutches and run when his hip gave out and he crumpled, collapsing to the ground. 31-year-old Connor had been glued to his phone, but quickly spied Shields, put him over his shoulder, and ran to get them both out of harm’s way.
That would’ve been the end of their time together, but according to Connor, “You don’t throw somebody over your shoulder and then say bye.” The two exchanged phone numbers and made plans to reconnect. Just three days later, they received grief counseling together at Pilot Butte Middle School, which led to a series of walks and hiking trips where they shared details of their lives with each other. That year they spent Thanksgiving together, and then Christmas. Shields said, “We quite literally fell into each other’s lives.”
Connor replied, “It’s a special circumstance that the normal guy has never experienced” (Bryce Dole, “They saved each other in the Bend Safeway shooting. They've been friends ever since.” Bend Bulletin, 8-29-23; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
The tragedy of that day turned strangers into friends. But even more remarkable, the seeming “tragedy” of the cross turned enemies into friends. It reconciled hostile sinners to a loving God. Please, if you haven’t done it already, trust Christ with your life and experience that change in your own heart.
Then, and only then, will you have something to boast about. For when God declares you righteous and reconciles you to Himself, you can and should boast in your hope, boast in your pain, and boast in your God.
Years ago, there was a master violinist in Europe. He would play in concerts, and he had a magnificent Stradivarius violin, extremely expensive. He would play the Stradivarius violin in concert and everyone would whisper in the crowd, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He would play in churches, and people would say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He even played before kings and queens, and they, too, would turn to one another and say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” All the glory went to the instrument.
Then one day this master violinist was walking by a pawn shop. He noticed an old, beat-up, worn-out violin. He walked into the pawn shop and asked how much it would cost. The owner of the pawn shop told him the American equivalent of five dollars. He bought the violin, and he took it home.
He polished it, and he refined it, and he tuned it, and he retuned it, and he built some character into that violin. Then, when he was to play the greatest performance of his life in a concert hall, he took out the little, five-dollar, worn-out, beat-up violin that he had polished and refined. He put it up to his chin, and he began to play, and everybody in the concert hall whispered, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius” (Ron Lee Davis, "Rejoicing in Our Suffering," Preaching Today, Tape No. 74; CT Pastors, Sermon Illustrations).
They got it wrong, didn’t they? The credit doesn’t go to the violin. The credit goes to the master violinist.
In the same way, God takes beat-up, cheap people and makes beautiful music out of their lives. So, don’t boast in yourself. Instead, boast in your God who gives you genuine hope, redeems your pain, and restores you for His glory.
