Character: God's Work

Introduction

Mark Buchanan - Your God is Too Safe pg 21/22

In Contrast Peter says,

1 Peter 1:3–9 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Peter says our faith is more precious than anything in this world and should result in a life of praise and joy.

But this isn’t always the truth, and some thing we need to grow in.

That’s why Peter says God works in our lives to show the reality of our faith so that it might be genuine.

Faith matters because it is the door to relationship and life in God

Faith is the way to becoming “truly human” - character

So God works for this in our lives

God’s uses anything and everything for this purpose - Old generations with parts that they used for food that we wouldn’t today.

I. Trials

Scripture and experience tells us that this world tends to not easy and not a friend to followers of Christ.

James calls these trials

James 1:2–4 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

He’s not clear on what these trials are but that they can come in various ways.

They can come through people, circumstances, through good things that tempt us to put them in the place of God, can come through difficult unexpected circumstances, they can come through evil perpetuated against us or others.

They really are any thing that tests our faith, will we continue to follow

A little later James says this....

James 1:12–15 ESV

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

These trials test us and our faith and it is up to us how we handle them.

It is our flesh that tempts us to allow them to lead us away from God

So James says to realize:

God’s wisdom

Our standing in life is what we can rejoice in

Eternal reward for perseverance

God is really the giver of good gifts

God uses these things to build our faith and character

I I. Suffering/Hardship

One of the things we wrestle with most as humans and as believers is suffering and hardship

“If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can’t know.” Tim Keller

Alot of the NT scriptures that talk about this are talking within the context of persecution

But there is the reality of the test that other suffering brings

health, financial, loss and grief, abuse etc.

3 whys:

Fallen World - Gen 3

2. Personal sin - James 5; I Cor 11

3. Spiritual - Job

How do we face these tests:

God knows and cares:

Psalm 56:8–11 ESV

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

God’s comfort:

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

God’s Purpose:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

And eternity

III. The Scriptures

Hebrews 4:11–13 ESV

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Strive to enter that rest shows us again that we must do our part

God has given us his word and uses his word to do this in our hearts and lives

The word of God is so sharp that it cuts through our justifications, denials, seared consciences.

Because God knows each of our hearts

He wants us to be free to experience and enter his rest now and in eternity

IV. The Church

Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

God uses us as we use our gifts to build each other into maturity

Through speaking the truth of the Scriptures, the gospel

We do this to point each other to Christ - in contrast to the rude, condescending arrogant truth speaking of our world

Ephesians 4:16 ESV

from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Ie. community - Life Groups

V. The Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:16 ESV

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:25 ESV

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Here is what our life begins to look like when we walk by the Spirit

Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and selfcontrol

Conclusion