Embrace Trials

Open by praying, and then read:

Romans 5:1–5 KJV

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Romans is one of the best books to read for someone trying to get a better grasp of theology because the whole book is laid out in sections of theology: Chapters 1-3a are about Hamartiology (Sin), Chapters 3b-11 are about Soteriology (Salvation), and Chapters 12-16 are about Ecclesiology (Church). Here, in chapter 5, Paul has just finished arguing through chapters 3b-4 that we are saved by grace through faith alone; and now he begins to teach about our justification.

In this passage, Paul puts forward 5 benefits that we have access to because of our justification:

Peace with God through Jesus Christ

Romans 5:6–11 KJV

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Access to God’s Grace (both his presence and his favor)

Romans 6:12–14 KJV

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Hebrews 4:14–16 KJV

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Hope of the Glory of God

Romans 5:21 KJV

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

The ability to glory in Tribulations (our focus today)

The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost

1 John 4:12–16 KJV

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Today, we’re going to be focusing on the fourth benefit: Glorying in Tribulations:

I. Tribulation

When we’re talking about tribulation here, we are talking about anything from severe sickness to financial trouble to the death of loved ones to persecution to any other thing that might bring internal or external pressures. And true to that, the word for tribulation here means trouble, distress, oppression, and/or tribulation. So, the question comes, “how can we glory in these?”

A. In Practicality

Practically speaking, tribulations are not always unavoidable. We are all going to feel the sting of a loved one’s death, or a severe sickness weakening ourselves or another. Tribulation is inevitable. Jesus even assures us of such in Matthew 5:43-48,

Matthew 5:43–48 KJV

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

So then, where does the glorying come? It comes in what tribulation can bring if you allow it. I have already alluded to this, but another way to view the word tribulation is pressure which can relate to stress both physical, mental, and spiritual. This ‘pressure’ is the trigger for the process laid out here in Romans 5, with out it, the rest of the process would not come.

So, we are going to analogize sports to our subject to help bring out what is being taught. This is not to deminish the seriousness of many of the struggles we are going through in our lives, but like many things, we participate in things like sports which equip us to tackle situations and circumstances that we are battered with throughout our lives. And that takes us right into my next point:

B. In Practice

As I said a minute ago, tribulations, or these pressures, are the trigger for the process we are going to unpack in this message. Without this ‘trigger’, the process does not function. You can’t go from unpracticed to fully prepared without the preparation. That is where this comes in. Tribulations put us in positions of pressure that require action. Not just any actions, but proper action.

In Baseball, objectively the most life-analogous sport, it takes hundreds to thousands of ground-balls for a fielder to appropriately learn to remain in front of the ball, and receive it straight up appropriately. Beyond this, it takes hundreds to thousands more to learn how to appropriately field hit balls in the numerous other ways necessary to be considered an adept fielder in high school, let alone what it takes to be a professional fielder.

On top of that, learning how to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely. First starting with hitting hundreds of balls off of a tee. Then moving on to a pitching machine or slow-toss. Then peer-pitchers with increasing speeds as we move up. Then you toss in change-ups, curve-balls, knuckle-balls, forks, etc. That is not even including situational hitting!

Each one of these things take a countless number of takes to master.

The same is true of our lives. We undergo small ‘pressures’ in our lives that prepare us for tribulations.

C. In Game

In many of our tribulations, wrong choices are dangerous, or even deadly. They can cause divisions in families, or even cause us to doubt our faith. That is why we are to work out our pressures.

Practice brings us to the point that we are hopefully ready to play in the game. Errors will happen, but what matters is how we take each pitch, each hit, each ground ball. That work we put into it will come out in the moments we need them most. No practice, you’re only asking for a miracle, but with practice behind you, you can rely on what you have worked on.

That brings us to what tribulation generates:

II. Patience

“Tribulation worketh patience.” The word for patience here means ‘endurance’, ‘perseverance’, and/or ‘patience’. So those pressures that work on us generate disciplines that allow us to push through future trials. So we see endurance in:

A. In Progress

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 KJV

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

When I did Cross Country, I hated it. I never, even after two season of doing it, thought running was fun. But I probably got more technical and life analogies from that sport than even baseball. In Cross Country, the normal race we would run, which would generally be once a week, would be 5k’s. 5k’s, if you don’t know, are 3.2 mile races; and our meets would always be a 5k. Do you know what you do to train for a 5k? You run. So much so that by the time you are going to meets once a week, you are generally running 3k or 5k every practice which is 4 days a week, and the 5th day being the meet.

So you put your body under consistent rigorous stress (pressure) in order to build up your endurance. Over my two seasons, I probably averaged a 31 minute race which comes out to about a 9:50 mile. The fastest race I ran was a 24:30, which would be a 8 minute mile. Again, I never liked this. Every time I ran, whether for practice or a meet, the first part of the race was never bad. About 5 minutes into the race, every time, I would tell myself, “this sucks. Why am I even doing this?” I never have to push through the start of the race, but when my body starts saying things like, “why am I running”, “My legs hurt”, “Breathing is hard”, That’s when endurance matters. Being able to persevere through those things is where it matters.

B. In Perseverance

James 1:2–4 (KJV)

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

You see when what you’re going through is so rough that it hurts to accept it, it hurts to push forward, it hurts to move passed it, that is when this patience matters. Those tribulations will happen. What matters is how you push through them! That’s why Hebrews says,

Hebrews 12:1–3 (KJV)

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Run with patience, push through your race! Run despite your struggles. That’s why this passage ends with, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” This is saying keep your eyes on Jesus, keep in your perspective your goal, your finish line.

One of my running mates was always getting in trouble for one bad habit he had: when he was running, he would often be looking behind him at the runners behind him. He was fast, but because he kept worrying about the people behind him, that slowed him down. He allowed his mind to get in the way of maintaining his race effectively.

But, when we do push through, and we build that endurance, that patience works Experience:

III. Experience

"And patience [works] experience”. Experience here is not necessarily the same as what you might think. Where you might think that this is relating to experience in the sense of experiencing something, it actually means your experience: like work experience. Think of this like your resume, what have you done? what have you persevered through and accomplished? The word additionally holds the idea of proof, or proof of character, and this is important! why? Because many people experience tribulations, and it takes them out. It is almost as if they are no longer a person. And we all know someone like this. They have “experienced” something, but they never overcame it. They didn’t endure through it. And because of this, they never gained their proof of character, their resume, their experience which was intended.

So that is why we differentiate between just having experienced something in the general meaning, and gaining experience in something.

Kids that play one season of baseball and are done and experienced baseball, but Major League Baseball players are experienced in baseball. See the difference?

So why might this be important to us? Because our Experience gives us hope:

IV. Hope

This is not the same hope we mentioned earlier: if you remember, one of the benefits we get from our salvation is the hope of glory. This hope can also be defined as a confident expectation. This can probably be best exampled in baseball with the: In the Ready Position.

The Ready Position in baseball is a position every player is expected to be in at the pitch of the ball. This position puts the player in the ideal position to react to anything that will come from the pitch. In going through this every pitch, the player is acting in such a way as to say they are expecting to be hit the ball every time, and they are ready for it.

Peter tells us to be ready and vigilant:

1 Peter 5:8–9 (KJV)

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Additionally Paul tell Timothy, and by addition, us, to be ready also:

2 Timothy 4:2–5 (KJV)

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

The ready position is important both in sports, and in our spiritual life because it puts us in the best position to react to what comes our way. That’s what is being brought by hope here. And this hope allows us to not be ashamed:

V. Not Ashamed

“And hope maketh not ashamed”, why? because when we have gone through the tribulation, gained endurance, developed that experience, have the readied expectation, we are able to undergo what comes.

A. In Defeat

Learning how to lose is the worst thing an athlete can not learn. Learning to lose is vital. Why? Because our life is not meant to be W’s every time. “Your Best Life Now” is a scam! The idea that your suffering is only from a lack of faith is nothing but a lie from demons trying to get people to either turn from their faith or give charlatans all their money. So Losses are inevitable. death is going to happen. Sickness is going to happen. How are you going to react when it does?

Proverbs 24:16 (KJV)

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again...”

So we should stand unashamed in our trouble, in our loss, in our time of hardship, because our God has already won:

B. In Victory

Romans 8:31–39 (KJV)

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 16:33 (KJV)

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

In Conclusion:

2 Timothy 4:6–8 KJV

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Are you going to be able to say this at your end?