Why Does the Bottom Fall Out?
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Transcript
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WHY DOES THE BOTTOM FALL OUT?
WHY DOES THE BOTTOM FALL OUT?
1 PETER 1:1-9
1 PETER 1:1-9
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
Intro:
There are times when it seems like everything goes wrong and the bottom falls out of life.
I read about a man stopped by a policeman for driving without a taillight. The driver became quite distressed. "Don't take it so hard," consoled the officer, "it's a minor offense." "That's not the point," replied the troubled driver. "What worries me is what's happened to my wife and my trailer?"
Maybe things haven't happened to you quite as dramatic as that, but none the less, there have been times when the bottom fell out of life. That which I want to ask today is WHY?
I think of something that circulated around in E-mail a while back that asks "Why?"
If it was only a 3 hour cruise, why did Mrs. Howell have so many clothes?
Why buy a product that it takes 2000 flushes to get rid of?
Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why do they report power outages on TV?
Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
Well, the "why" I want to ask is "Why does the bottom fall out of life?" I believe Peter gives us an explanation. Peter describes:
I. TRIALS THAT ARE PAINFUL IN THEIR ENCOUNTER-VS. 6
I. TRIALS THAT ARE PAINFUL IN THEIR ENCOUNTER-VS. 6
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
In Vs.6, Peter speaks of the heaviness that comes through manifold temptations. The word "temptation" speaks of "adversity."
A. The Different Types Of Trials-vs. 6
A. The Different Types Of Trials-vs. 6
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
33 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.
1. Manifold = "various in character. It literally means "variegated, many-colored."
There are the "blue Monday's," the "gray Tuesdays," the "black Wednesday's," etc.
2. Our trials are sometimes physical - financial - emotional - spiritual. Trials come in many colors and in many styles.
3. They may come from Heaven, they may come from Hell. They may come from a friend; they may come from a foe. They may come in the night; they may come in the light. It may be one kind of trial this week and another kind next week.
B. The Distressing Time Of Trials-vs. 6
B. The Distressing Time Of Trials-vs. 6
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest.
1. Heaviness = "to distress, cause grief, to make sorrowful."
2. Trials can be very distressing, very devastating, very depressing. They can leave us in great heaviness.
3. I think of David in Psalm 55:6, "And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest."
4. He was so distressed, discouraged, and despairing of life; he wished he could just fly off into the night and never come back again.
5. "The bottom falling out of life," is one way of describing these trials.
II. TRIALS THAT ARE PURPOSEFUL IN THEIR EXPERIENCE-VS. 6
II. TRIALS THAT ARE PURPOSEFUL IN THEIR EXPERIENCE-VS. 6
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
Notice 3 words in Vs.6, "If need be."
Peter is saying that sometimes there is a need for the bottom to fall out in life. Isn’t that strange? We would never think of there ever being a need for things to wrong in life. It may be that we need for the winds of adversity to blow our way.)
A. It May Be God's Way Of Breaking Us
A. It May Be God's Way Of Breaking Us
1. I think of the Prodigal son who left the father's house. He went into the far country and for a short time, lived it up as we might say. But then one day he found himself at the bottom. He found himself in the hog-pen. Luke 15:17 says "he came to himself." It was only when the bottom fell out that he came to his senses.....GOD KNOWS HOW TO BRING THE PRODIGAL HOME!
17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
2. The Psalmist said in Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word."
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: But now have I kept thy word.
3. Ill. A certain elder in a Presbyterian church who had made a tremendous amount of money in business, finally saw his business collapse and his fortune vanish. Here is what he said to his Pastor, “I am glad that I failed for I was getting away from God.”
3. The Psalmist admits that at one point in his life he had strayed.........Maybe you have strayed.....The Psalmist declares that God used "affliction" to bring him back.
4. God has brought many down and brought many back by letting the bottom fall out.
5. One thinks of Naomi.....We read of how Naomi testified in Ruth 1:20-21, "And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. [21] I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?"
6. One thinks of Jonah....A few nights in the belly of the whale turned things around for him.
7. This you can be certain of: You leave the light, and there will come the night. As someone has said, trials are God's megaphone to get our attention.
8. Ill. Jessie Donadio, a 36-year-old Boston woman, became the victim of amnesia. For three months she wandered, but during a severe thunderstorm she suddenly remembered who she was and where she was from. The storm jolted her memory back. How often the storms of life bring us back to our senses! God sends them not to destroy us but to help us. Many people can look back and thank God for the storms that brought them back to Him!
B. It May Be God's Way Of Building Us.
B. It May Be God's Way Of Building Us.
1. Someone has said that trials are God's divine gymnasium whereby He develops our spiritual muscles.
10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
2. Peter said in 1 Peter 5:10, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
3. Every year in October, at the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego, California, there begins what is called "Hell Week." It is part of the Navy's Basic Underwater Demolition School, where sailors are turned into SEALS Sea-Air-Land Commandos. This period of torturous physical and psychological training begins on Sunday night. Lights flash as the recruits are awakened by an instructor. Next to one ear, a machine gun with blanks is fired. A jet from a garden hose is digging into the other ear. An instructor shouts out instructions, "We have a mission to perform this evening. I want you to listen to every detail I have for you." The mission turns out to be exercising and lying wet and almost naked on cold steel plates.
On Monday, the six-man teams are ordered to run races with a 250 pound Zodiac rubber assault boat on their heads. Tuesday, with less than an hour of sleep the night before, they have to row those Zodiac boats to Mexican waters and back, a trip of 18 miles.
On Wednesday, the men continue the races with boats bouncing on their heads, their combat boots sinking in the soft sand. That evening they run again. At midnight, they are ordered to lie naked in the cold pounding surf. Every ten minutes they are made to stand up to get the full effect of the wind.
By Thursday morning everyone is hallucinating. By Friday afternoon, the week is over and the new SEALS are lined up to be checked by a doctor.
What is the Navy doing? By pushing these men to the very brink of insanity, these men are being transformed into some of the toughest human beings in the world.
4. Why does God let the bottom fall out in life....to build us and make us strong. He prunes us to make us better.
5. Ill. A vacationer watched with curiosity as a lumberman occasionally jabbed his sharp hook into a log, separating it from the others that were floating down a mountain stream. When asked why he did this, the worker replied, "These may all look alike to you, but a few of them are quite different. The ones I let pass are from trees that grew in a valley where they were always protected from the storms. Their grain is coarse. The ones I've hooked and kept apart from the rest came from high up on the mountains. From the time they were small, they were beaten by strong winds. This toughens the trees and gives them a fine and beautiful grain. We save them for choice work. They're too good to make into plain lumber." God often allows some of His dearest saints to be bent by trials or buffeted by the winds of adversity so that they may be strengthened for His service and prepared to fulfill His highest purposes.)
C. It May Be God's Way Of Blessing Us.
C. It May Be God's Way Of Blessing Us.
1. Most want God's blessings without any cost involved. But the truth of the matter is, the richest blessings of the Lord come through adversity.
2. Someone has said,
"The thickest cloud may bring the heaviest shower of blessing."
"The thickest cloud may bring the heaviest shower of blessing."
3. Charles Spurgeon began to conduct services in the Royal Surrey Gardens Music Hall in London. The building seated 12,000 and filled. An additional 10,000 were gathered on the outside. A group of young men had conspired to disrupt the services. While Spurgeon was praying they began to yell out, "Fire! The galleries are falling!" Panic broke out and 7 people were trampled to death. There were 28 that were seriously injured and hospitalized. Spurgeon fell apart and had to be carried from the platform. The emotional shock and strain of the tragedy almost caused him to leave the ministry.
Years later he was able to see that God brought good out of the tragedy. He testified in his auto-biography: "That frightful calamity, the impression of which can never be erased from my mind, became in the providence of God, one of the wonderful means of turning public attention to the services; and I do not doubt that fearful catastrophe though it was, has been the mother of multitudes of blessings."
4. It may be that God wants to break us, build us, or bless us. If need be.......the bottom falls out of life.
III. TRIALS THAT ARE PRODUCTIVE IN THEIR EFFECT- VS. 7
III. TRIALS THAT ARE PRODUCTIVE IN THEIR EFFECT- VS. 7
(Ill. Peter tells us in Vs.7 that the end result of the bottom falling of life is two-fold.)
A. There Is a Life That Is Purified.
A. There Is a Life That Is Purified.
10 But he knoweth the way that I take: When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
1. Peter speaks of faith being "tried with fire." Peter had in mind the furnace of the goldsmith. He would put the precious metal into the smelting furnace for the purpose of removing all impurities.
2. It is said that the eastern goldsmith kept the metal in the furnace until he could see his face reflected in it.
3. The end result of the bottom falling out of life is confronted sin, confessed sin, and cleansed sin.
B. There Is A Lord That Is Glorified.
B. There Is A Lord That Is Glorified.
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. 11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Why does the bottom fall out of life? That we "might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
2. No longer do we live selfish lives but submitted lives. No longer do we flee God, but follow God. Instead of our Lord being grieved by our life, He is glorified by our life.
3. He may let the bottom fall out of life to break us, build us, or bless us, but in the end He is the One Who is glorified. That was what He was after all the while.
CONCLUSION:
CONCLUSION:
Has the bottom fallen out of some part of your life? Are you facing adversity, affliction and trials? What is your response to them going to be? I would just remind you that just as the heat from the son softens wax and hardens clay; the heat from our trials can either soften our heart toward God, or it can harden our heart toward Him. Regardless of what you might be facing today, remember this:
God knows about it and He is using it in your life for your good and for His glory
God knows about it and He is using it in your life for your good and for His glory
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;