Common

THE DURABILITY TEST

Endurance is a quality that God expects us to manifest. If you go to an IKEA store, you will find somewhere in the chair department a glass box with what is called the durability test. They have a mechanism that simulates someone sitting on the chair, and they say the chair was used 10 times a day for 10 years and it’s still like new in its original shape. The furniture at IKEA was never meant to be as sturdy or as high quality as the good old teak or oak furniture that the older generation has probably been accustomed to. Let’s face it--it’s cheap quality but they want to sell it by showing how durable it is.

2 Timothy 4:7 Paul says "I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith."

Someone posted a very funny picture on the Internet called "The real IKEA durability test" where a dog is chewing one of those chairs and it didn’t pass the test. In our lives we will be put to the test, and many times we think we are faithful and ready to endure anything, but God will sometimes allow us to go through hardships in order to help us to become approved. His intention is not to see us failing the test of fire, but he always help us to learn our lessons and to endure our trials through faith. there is a Chinese proverb, "A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made better without trials."

Life is full of all kinds of trails and tests

When we talk about trials and tests in life, what do you think about? Often we think about cancer or illness, or fire or famine as the trials of life. Often our minds go to huge life altering crisis and such; but friends every day is full of moments of trial and testing.

For our purpose today we will call them “common trials”

You know, like balancing work and family; or getting that long overdue repair done; or dealing with the rude person on the customer service line.

There are many common trials that we probably all share here today, so let’s remember that….

Just because something is common does not mean it is not hard!!

There are some people in our church today that are dealing with unique trials; they are not necessarily shared by all or even a majority of people in this room. There are a few of us in here that are dealing with a messy marriage or divorce problem; or a complicated health diagnosis; or prolonged unemployment.

But there are a lot of us in this room that are dealing with the stress of aging parents, and if your not dealing with it now chances are you have or you are going to.

Lots of us in this room are dealing with the stress of raising kids; and chances are if you are not right now chances are you have or you are going to.

Lots of us in this room are dealing with the inflating cost of living…

Or the rising cost of healthcare…

Or the stress of a post-christian society.

Yes, there are plenty of common trials in this room today.

Between our daily bread and thy Kingdom come.

And here’s what I love about our God- He is all about daily bread.

Daily Bread is the thing we need today- no matter how simple and mundane it may seem. Bread is just bread- that’s it. It’s really simple and the most basic food of the day.

Sometimes all we need is the basics, and the basics matter to God, friends. He is the God of daily bread.

We often forget that God is not just concerned with the catastrophic global problems. The Kingdom of God is also about the small intimate details of life.

Between Sparrows and Eagles

Luke 12:6–7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Have you ever felt guilty about] bothering God with the little things? Like God is so busy with all the other things in the world, and here I am asking for help to find my car keys. Seems like God might have bigger things.

But I no longer call them “little” things; I call them sparrow requests. That reminds me that our God cares about even the sparrow, millions of them in the world that I never even pay attention to; so of course he cares about my car keys; because he cares about me.

Compassion Fatigue

Have you ever heard of compassion fatigue?

Compassion fatigue is when we grow tired of having compassion on someone because all of our emotional energy is just used up.

As humans we have limits to everything including our emotional energy. Perhaps we see this most clearly with our kids or our spouses, right? How many times do we use up all our emotional energy on all the other things. Then when we get home our families take the brunt of our fatigue.

Sometimes we act like God does the same thing, but listen to this:

Isaiah 40:28–31 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

One day she was sitting in her kitchen very frustrated and lonely. She sat there for a long time and just wept. Then she noticed a small sparrow had somehow gotten into her kitchen, so she opened the door thinking the sparrow would simply fly out the door. To her surprise the sparrow kept flying into the closed window that was just above the door. This distraught woman noticed several times that the sparrow would fly directly into the top of the window thinking it was an opening to freedom and each time colliding into glass of the window. This small sparrow after each time hitting the window would become weaker and weaker. The woman also noticed the sparrow hitting the window lower and lower each time he flew into the window until he got so weak that he couldn’t even fly, all he could to was walk. Then she noticed this little sparrow very slowly, simply walked through the door to freedom. As she observed this little bird walk through the door, the sparrow began to regain his strength

Remembering God’s grace for our needs should help us desire to have the same for others

Testing Reveals

Our values

Our character

Our fears

Testing Refines

Refining can hurt!!!

The more refined the mineral the more valuable it is

Testing Refocuses

Our eyes on Jesus