Participants: Christian Berdahl
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000353
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00:31 Hello, friends welcome to Faith Chapel.
00:33 I'm Christian Berdahl, Director of Shepherds 00:35 Call Ministry and before we pray, 00:37 I'd like to ask you a question. Are you going 00:40 through trials and tribulations right now 00:42 in your life, or have you been through some 00:44 that you couldn't explain. Friends, 00:48 have you ever thought that God is the source 00:51 of your problems, that he's causing these things 00:54 to happen in your life. Friends, 00:57 this is just not the case, God is not the source 01:01 of our problems, Satan is. Let's pray together. 01:07 Father in Heaven, please be with us as we study. 01:10 Lord, I ask that you would send the Holy Spirit 01:12 to anoint our time together, I pray that 01:14 you would lead us into all truth. 01:17 Let the devil be exposed for who and what he is. 01:21 And help our minds to realize who and 01:24 what you are. Please help us to be Christians. 01:28 In Jesus name, amen. Let's go right to the Bible, 01:32 Revelation 12 verse 7: And there was 01:35 war in heaven and Michael fought and his angels 01:40 fought the dragon; and the dragon fought 01:42 against his angels. And prevailed not; 01:44 neither was their place found any more in heaven. 01:48 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent 01:51 called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the 01:54 whole world: He was cast out into the earth, 01:58 and his angels were cast out with him. 02:04 Today, we find ourselves in a great cosmic war, 02:09 on one side we have Satan and he wants our 02:12 eternal destruction. He wants us to hate God; 02:15 he wants us to assign Satan's characteristics 02:18 to God. And we have God on one side saying 02:22 I love you and I want to be with you forever, 02:24 there's a great controversy going 02:27 on right now, a great war, Satan on one side, 02:30 God on the other. And friends, Satan is trying 02:34 to do everything he can in his hellish power 02:36 to deceive us regarding God's true character. 02:41 And his special affection for us, he seeks to 02:43 discourage us, to beat us down, to make us run 02:47 from God, even to blame God for problems that 02:51 the devil himself is causing. He wants us to 02:55 live for self and to question the value of 02:59 a Christian life. He wants us to look upon God 03:03 as a harsh, ruling dictator, who just wants 03:06 to snuff us out, if he has the chance. 03:10 There is a deep seeded belief in Christendom 03:12 today I've discovered and that belief is, 03:15 it goes like this, if we're suffering, 03:18 if we're having trials in our life and things just 03:20 aren't going the right way for us. 03:23 Then we must be suffering judgment from God 03:26 and this, this deception, this perspective is as old 03:30 as the devil himself. But friends, this isn't always 03:33 the case, yes, it's true that our own poor 03:36 decisions can give our loving God an opportunity 03:39 to correct us and help us. And he does this by 03:43 allowing trials sometimes, God will through 03:47 his providential hand set up circumstances, 03:49 to guide us back to a healthy life giving 03:53 invigorating Christian walk. But God does not 03:58 cause the temptations; the devil causes the 04:05 temptations, I don't believe God 04:07 causes the trail. He may indeed allow the test, 04:16 but God does not tempt us. In fact let's go to 04:19 James 1:13 and this we'll bear it out, 04:22 God does not test, tempt us: 04:24 Let no man say when he is tempted, 04:26 that I am tempted of God: for God cannot be 04:30 tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 04:35 You see God may test us, but he doesn't tempt us. 04:42 God uses tests and trials for our own good 04:49 and our own growth and character development. 04:51 In fact let's read that, the Southern Watchman 04:54 February 7, 1905: "Affliction, temptation, 05:00 adversity and other varied trials are the means 05:04 by which God refines us and sanctifies us." 05:09 So, friends there are going to be trials 05:12 as a Christian, because it's the very means 05:14 by which God refines us and sanctifies us, 05:18 to be made Holy that means. 05:21 The devil knows that every single trial and 05:25 every episode of suffering that he inflicts on us 05:28 as God's people; he knows that 05:30 if we're connected to God. That God can work good, 05:35 out of even that nasty trial that the devil 05:38 has brought upon us. You see he's a beaten foe, 05:42 so when he tries to get us to look at God with 05:44 a distorted view that God is the one that's causing 05:48 the trials. It's not God, it's the devil, 05:53 for without God, think about this. Without God, 05:59 we would just be left as the sport of Satan, 06:02 we would be constantly tempted, 06:04 in fact without God life would just be a bunch 06:07 of meaningless suffering and toil. 06:10 But with God we can make sense out of the, 06:14 the suffering and the toil sometimes, 06:16 we can go through life knowing that God 06:18 will not allow us to be tempted above that 06:20 we're able in fact let's read that First Corinthians 06:23 10:13: There hath no temptation taken you but 06:27 is as common to man: but God is faithful, 06:31 who will not suffer you to be tempted above that 06:34 ye are able; but will with the temptation also make 06:38 a way of escape, that you maybe able to bear it. 06:43 You see God is not going to allow us to go through 06:47 anything that he himself has not foreseen, 06:49 evaluated and said yes Christian can handle this, 06:52 or no he can't. That gives me courage to go on. Amen. 06:56 Even through the trial, in fact if we're going 07:02 to be grown up Christians. We have to get to the 07:06 place where we're just going to accept that 07:08 there will be trials and the sooner we do this, 07:12 the sooner we can get on with our victories 07:15 Christian life. I had a Revelation a while back, 07:20 I realize that I was praying two entirely 07:24 opposite prayers, I was praying Lord, 07:27 please help me to be like Jesus, help me to 07:30 overcome the sin in my life, help me with this 07:32 character perfection, help me to be like the 07:36 hundred and forty four thousand. 07:37 I'm, I've been praying that for many years and 07:39 yet trials would come and then I would say 07:42 Lord please I'm failing here why are these 07:44 trials here, please take them away. 07:47 I don't wanna go through this, 07:49 please Lord what's wrong, why am I going 07:51 through these problems, and it occurred to me 07:54 one day as I was studying this, 07:56 the trials and tribulation and why we have to go 07:59 through this suffering, it occurred to me that 08:03 God was answering my first prayer when he 08:06 allowed the trials to come. You see if I've a 08:09 problem with money, God will allow money 08:12 problems to come. So, I can learn my lesson 08:16 to overcome the defect that I have, 08:19 God was just being the faithful Father. 08:23 He was saying I will honor your first prayer 08:26 request, I will help you through the trial, 08:30 praise God. You see I didn't understand how 08:38 trials and tests and temptations worked. 08:42 You see God was helping me to overcome the 08:44 character, the very dear character defects that I 08:47 needed to overcome. James 1:12 says: 08:52 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, 08:57 for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown 09:01 of life. You see there is gonna be a trial, 09:03 which the Lord hath promised to them 09:05 that love him. Friends when we're tried and 09:10 the trials are coming I think the best place 09:11 to start is Lord am I being corrected for 09:14 sin in my life. Because Hebrews 12:6 says: 09:19 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, 09:23 and scourageth every son whom he receiveth. 09:27 You see to chasteneth that doesn't mean like 09:31 in my mind I used to think that was like you 09:32 would whip somebody, you would chasten them, 09:34 no to chasten means to instruct. 09:38 For whom the Lord loves, he instructs. 09:40 Amen, I need to be instructed, 09:42 it's also means to correct or to reform. 09:44 For whomever the Lord loves, 09:46 he's going to correct and reform, 09:49 I need reformation in my life friends, 09:51 I'm sure you do too. For whomever the Lord loves 09:54 he chastenth. And God does as I would 09:57 with my children. If I truly love my children, 10:01 I'm going to chasten them, I'm going to love them, 10:04 instruct them, correct them, and help them back 10:08 on the path of righteousness. God 10:11 does just as a faithful Christian father would; 10:14 he helps us back on the path of righteousness. 10:21 Hebrews 4:16 says: Let us therefore come boldly 10:25 to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 10:28 and find grace in time of need. Friends, 10:31 we need to come boldly to God's throne, 10:34 don't run away from him come to God. 10:37 And he will work good, out of the bad, 10:41 God won't waste your pain friends. 10:47 The Faith I live by, page 134: We should remember 10:50 that all make mistakes, even men and women 10:55 who have years of experience sometimes err. 10:58 But God does not cast them off because of 11:01 their errors, to every erring son and daughter 11:03 of Adam; he gives the privilege of another 11:08 trial. Did you hear that? To every erring son, 11:11 he gives the privilege of another err, 11:13 so if we don't meet it, we don't learn the lesson 11:16 the first time around. God will faithfully bring 11:19 it back around, what a terrible psycho frankly; 11:22 I don't wanna go back through the same trials 11:25 over and over again. And if we learned the 11:28 lesson the first time, God has no need to bring 11:31 that same trial around again, praise the Lord. 11:36 What a coach. The next reason we need to 11:39 ask ourselves if I'm not being corrected by God 11:41 for sin is, am I being prepared for special 11:45 service, I think of Joseph. Young Joseph was 11:48 sold into slavery and he became as a slave, 11:53 he eventually became the second-in-command 11:55 of all of Egypt, how did he go from being a slave 11:58 to being Second-in-command, 12:00 because he didn't whine and complain, oh! 12:02 My brothers sold me, I'm sure he had moments 12:05 of that, but eventually he got over it and he 12:07 went forward in his faith with God, 12:09 knowing that at least God was with him. 12:11 His family wasn't, his dad wasn't, 12:13 his brothers weren't but God was with him. 12:17 And God was preparing him for special service, 12:20 in fact he became Second-in-command 12:22 of Egypt and because of his faithfulness, 12:24 millions were fed during a great time famine, 12:29 where if Joseph hadn't been used of God 12:31 and if he had just been a whiner and become 12:33 a normal slave like everyone else. 12:35 God couldn't have worked through Joseph 12:37 because he was being prepared for special 12:39 service; God couldn't have worked through 12:41 Joseph to bless millions, if Joseph hadn't been 12:46 surrendered to God, perhaps millions would 12:49 have starved. You see eventually God helped 12:56 Joseph to not only be a blessing to millions 13:00 of people. But he became a blessing to his own 13:04 family and you know the story, God didn't waste 13:06 Joseph's pain of being a slave, no, no, no. 13:09 He brought Joseph's brothers back to him, 13:12 he brought his father back to him and 13:13 they were reconciled, God didn't waste Joseph's 13:16 pain and if you're being prepared for special 13:19 service. God will not waste your pain either. 13:22 Amen. Amen, the third reason I thought about 13:28 why would we be having trials and tribulations 13:31 in our life, perhaps we're being attacked 13:35 just simply because we're living a Christian 13:36 life and the devil hates that very fact. 13:40 Jesus from his birth, he was misunderstood 13:43 and attacked by the devil, he was misunderstood 13:45 by his brothers, by his parents, by his church, 13:48 by his disciples, by the Roman government, 13:50 everyone misunderstood Jesus Christ. 13:54 And he was attacked and we're told that Satan 13:58 made stronger attacks upon Christ than he 14:01 will ever make upon us, you and I can never 14:04 be tempted like Jesus was tempted. 14:08 But God didn't waste Jesus pain either. 14:11 You see sometimes we as Christian are 14:14 misunderstood and it is hard and 14:16 we're thinking Lord I'm just trying to do the 14:17 right thing, why is this happening. 14:20 We're asking the wrong question friends, 14:22 stop asking why and start asking what 14:25 can I learn, how can I be a light. 14:30 Jesus pain wasn't wasted friends. 14:33 He went from being the majesty of Heaven, 14:36 the creator sitting on the throne and he 14:40 became like me, a lowly human being and he died, 14:46 he went through a life of misunderstanding, 14:49 he went through a life of, of attack by the devil. 14:52 You know from the time he was born, 14:54 the devil worked on Herod to try to kill him, 14:56 he was constantly being attacked friends. 14:59 You and I don't even have to go through that 15:00 much, yet Jesus chose to come here. 15:06 He chose to be a man like you and me, 15:11 but God didn't waste his pain, even though, 15:13 even though he went all the way through with 15:15 the plan of salvation and he hung on that cross 15:19 and he died and he died of a broken heart, 15:21 separation from his, his father. 15:23 God didn't waste his pain, because he raised 15:26 him in three days. Amen, he raised him 15:28 in three days and Jesus Christ pain wasn't 15:31 wasted. Because he could go to the throne of God 15:33 and he said yes son, your sacrifice is accepted, 15:36 praise God. But I want you to think about this, 15:43 God's pain won't be wasted either friends, 15:48 think about this God is the only one who has gone 15:53 through all of the suffering from the 15:56 first sin in Heaven and it broke his heart. 16:00 Taking a third of the host of heaven which 16:02 broke his heart, to seeing Adam and Eve follow 16:06 the devil which broke his heart, 16:08 was God going through trials, yes. 16:10 Then stop whining and complaining if you are, 16:13 if God can't even escape trials and tribulations 16:15 neither are we as Christians, amen. Right, 16:21 God has gone through trial and tribulation with 16:25 every single one of us since beginning of time, 16:29 we only have to live this long in our life 16:31 and we're going oh! It's just too hard, what? 16:36 But you know, God's pain is not gonna be wasted 16:40 either friends, halleluiah! When Jesus comes 16:44 he's gonna have a people who have loved 16:46 and had faith in him and God will have his children 16:49 with him again. And so God's pain won't be 16:52 wasted either, there is no one more in this 16:55 universe that wants the pain and suffering to stop, 16:58 no one more than God the father himself. 17:07 If we suffer and we have trials another reason 17:13 we may be going through this, is perhaps 17:15 I've been selected, you've been selected for 17:19 special character growth. Maybe God really 17:23 wants to work in our lives and I think about Job, 17:27 you can't talk about trials and tribulations from 17:29 a Biblical perspective and not talk about Job. 17:32 That brother went through trials and tribulations 17:36 didn't he. We all know the story, let's start Job 17:41 1 and we'll start in verse 6: Now there was 17:48 a day when the sons of God came to present 17:50 themselves before the Lord, 17:51 and Satan came also among them. 17:53 And the Lord said unto Satan, 17:55 Whence comest thou? In other words, you know, 17:56 where have you come from? 17:59 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 18:01 From going to and fro in the earth, 18:03 I've been patrolling and walking up and down in it. 18:06 And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou 18:08 considered my servant Job, that there is none like 18:11 him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, 18:14 one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 18:18 Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, 18:20 Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not 18:24 made an hedge about him, and about his house, 18:26 and about all that he hath on every side? 18:28 Hast thou blessed the work, 18:31 you've blessed the work of his hands, 18:32 and his substance is increased in the land. 18:36 Put forth thine hand now and touch all that 18:38 he has, and he's gonna curse you to your face. 18:40 And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, 18:43 all that he hath is in thy power; 18:47 only upon himself put not forth thine hand. 18:50 So Satan went from the presence of the Lord. 18:53 Oh! The devil was excited, I can go and I'm 18:58 gonna show God that I'm right, 18:59 that Job only worships you because you've 19:02 put a hedge of protection around them. 19:04 Friends, do you see what's happening here, 19:08 God is allowing the devil to do certain things, 19:13 I don't like that, I don't but God, 19:17 he has an expected end for Job. 19:21 Let's read Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts 19:26 that I think toward you, saith the Lord, 19:28 thoughts of peace and not of evil, 19:31 to give you an expected end. 19:35 You see God had a plan for Job, 19:39 he wanted to help Job grow in his Christian 19:42 experience and so he allowed the devil to go 19:45 and to tempt him, to bring the trial, 19:49 to bring the tribulation and in the story in Job 1:3 19:53 through 19 we're not gonna take the time 19:54 to read it but there were four calamities that 19:56 befell Job very quickly in rapid succession. 20:00 The first calamity was that people came and 20:01 stole his oxen and his asses and killed his 20:04 servants, part of his major wealth, 20:05 a major part of his wealth was taken. 20:08 Second calamity, right rapid fire right after 20:10 fire came down from Heaven killed sheep 20:14 and servants, the third, people stole camels 20:17 and killed the servants. Now, all of his wealth 20:19 is gone and the fourth and the most terrible 20:22 you know Job kind of probably dealt with 20:24 becoming a poor man, but then the fourth 20:26 one and the most terrible in my estimation 20:28 is that a tornado came and it smote the four 20:31 corners of the home where all of his children, 20:34 ten children were inside. The roof falls 20:37 in and kills them all. Job receives the news 20:41 that he has lost absolutely everything 20:43 including his children within a manner of 20:46 moments. Did Job know why this was happening? 20:51 No. Did he know who was behind all of this terror? 20:57 No, did Job have all the facts? No, 21:03 all he knew is what he could see and what he 21:05 could he hear. This was an all out attack from 21:09 the devil friends, did God do it? No, 21:15 did God allow it? Yes. Who did it? The devil friends, 21:20 the devil did this. Now did Job like this at all, 21:24 did he like the fact that this was happening to him? 21:26 Of course not friends. Did Satan tempt him after, 21:31 see here's how it works. The trial comes and 21:34 then when the trial's there and our emotions 21:36 are getting the best of us then the devil 21:38 comes in to tempt us to forsake our God. 21:42 Friends, we must be careful not to sin, 21:45 because of the trial, amen. You know when things 21:50 are all falling apart and there is no apparent 21:53 reason for it, we must and we've been living 21:55 a healthy Christian life and God's not correcting 21:57 us for something, we must then conclude that 22:00 we don't have all the facts. In the middle 22:04 of this Job mourns in the great loss, 22:07 but amazingly enough, he gets down in the 22:10 ashes and he worships God. He worships his God, 22:14 his maker, this was a man of great faith friends. 22:19 And I guarantee you God did not allow this 22:23 trial to come at the beginning of his Christian 22:26 experience, because God looks at things 22:28 and evaluates and says I know the faith 22:30 that Job has and he can see this one through 22:34 with my strength and my power. 22:39 Did Job understand why all this was happening? 22:43 He didn't, and he had to bring into his life, 22:47 Second Corinthians 5:7 that says: 22:48 We must walk by faith, and not by sight, 22:51 he had to walk by faith and not by what was 22:54 going on around him, he couldn't look at the 22:57 fire that came down from Heaven and consumed, 23:00 you know it didn't consume a couple 23:01 of sheep, it consumed seven thousand of them. 23:04 I mean that would seem like God did this, 23:07 well the devil has control over those things 23:08 too friends. He had to walk by faith, 23:11 not by what he was seeing and when we're 23:13 tempted and when we have trials and tribulations 23:15 that are going on around us. 23:16 We have to walk by faith knowing that God 23:19 is in control, and then Satan is not happy 23:25 that Job stood through it because now 23:27 he's proven wrong. He goes back up to Heaven 23:30 and Job too and he says, alright, 23:33 you know round one ding, ding alright Job won 23:35 this one, but give me another chance, 23:37 let me afflict his person and if you let me 23:39 afflict him. He's gonna curse you. God says 23:41 you can afflict his person, do not kill him. 23:45 So, Satan comes back and says what can 23:48 I give this man that's gonna cause him, 23:51 I've got to give him something, I've 23:52 got a give him a dozy. So, Satan smote him, 23:56 smites him with boils from the top of his head 23:59 to the bottom of his feet even into his throat. 24:02 And Job begins to lament, he begins to wish 24:06 that he was dead, he doesn't even want 24:07 to live anymore and God's not giving him any 24:10 answers. And his friends that come to comfort him, 24:14 that's why they came amazingly enough, 24:16 if you know the story, they went on for thirty 24:18 something chapters and just beat down the 24:20 brother who was having a problem. Trying 24:22 to convince him, the reason you're suffering 24:24 Job is because well you've got some hidden 24:27 sin in your life. Well, that wasn't the case 24:31 and then to add insult to injury that his wife 24:35 says just curse God and die. 24:38 Would it be fair to say, Job feels all alone 24:41 in this world, yes. Would it be fair to say 24:46 that Job feels forsaken of his God, 24:48 here he had been living his life as an upright 24:51 Christian man and all of a sudden boom, 24:53 sudden calamity. Job begins struggle friends, 24:56 he did, he struggled and he started to think 24:58 that God was against him, because his reaction 25:02 to the second affliction, which was physical 25:04 suffering was very different in marked 25:07 contrast to his first affliction. 25:11 The loss of his children and his wealth, 25:13 but amazingly enough Job still goes through this, 25:18 this terrible trial and he's able to put it in 25:21 perspective and he weaves together beautiful 25:23 words in a poem of trust, from about chapter 26 25:27 to about chapter 31 and finally God steps into 25:30 the picture. And he says look your friends are 25:32 wrong, I'll deal with you later he says. 25:36 But I'm not gonna answer why, did you realize that? 25:39 God didn't answer Job's million dollar question 25:44 why? But God started asking Job a bunch of question 25:46 and he says, what do you know about the 25:50 creation of the earth? What do you know about 25:54 the animal kingdom? He begins to asking him 25:58 a bunch of questions that no man could possibly 26:00 answer and what he was doing was he was 26:02 trying to teach Job, that God's moral purposing 26:08 may not always be what we understand it to be, 26:12 that there is a bigger picture. He was using 26:16 Job's ignorance of God's creation, 26:21 to expose his ignorance of God's moral purposing. 26:29 Turn with me to Second Corinthians verse 10 26:34 or chapter 10 verse 4: For the weapons of 26:36 our warfare are not carnal, 26:38 but mighty through God did the pulling down 26:40 of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, 26:44 and every high thing that exalteth itself against 26:47 the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity 26:50 every thought to the obedience of Christ. 26:53 Friends, when we look at the great controversy, 26:58 everything that's going on we have to realize 27:01 that God will see us through and our weapons 27:04 of warfare are not carnal, but Spiritual. 27:07 So we must tap-in spiritually to God 27:09 and Job did and God restored unto Job, 27:13 he didn't waste his pain. Because he restored 27:16 unto Job, his family, his wealth and beyond this 27:22 Job got to live for a hundred and forty years 27:25 in a deeper experience. It says in the Bible that Job 27:28 said I had heard about you before but now 27:31 I have seen you. Friends, I want to encourage you 27:35 go through the trials with God, be like Job, 27:38 yes you'll struggle, but stand, stand through the 27:41 trial and God will deliver you for one day soon. 27:45 There will be no more pain; no more hurt for God 27:49 will led all the former things pass away. 27:52 God bless you as you move forward. |
Revised 2014-12-17