Message by Chad Kelly
(Due to technical difficulties, the audio recording of this sermon is unavailable.)
Palm Sunday
MacDonald
It is not far from the mark to say that 10 percent of life is what happens to you, and 90 percent is how you deal with the 10 percent.
Over the last few weeks, we”™ve been thinking about the trials that every Jesus-follower WILL inevitably go through (When Life is Hard, MacDonald).
We don”™t get to choose and control all the circumstances of our lives. And, in fact, God, in His love and wisdom, brings hard times to each of us for our good.
The KEY is how we respond to the hard times.
Spurgeon
Do not fret over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies.
Do you believe that God really loves you and is bringing more mercy into your life through the hard times?
The answer to that question will determine how we respond in the hard times.
Tchividjian
There”™s nothing like suffering to remind us how not in control we actually are, how little power we ultimately have, and how much we ultimately need God.
We begin Passion Week, or Holy Week, today””the week of Jesus”™ sufferings and torturous death on the cross, which was NOT the end because Jesus rose from the dead and is our Living Savior!
But for our purposes here this morning”¦
Jesus chose to walk the Via Dolorosa to Golgotha”¦He chose to carry the cross down the “Path of Suffering” to the “Place of the Skull” and die there”¦all in obedience to God because He believed God loved Him and wanted His””as well as our””ultimate good, and that the pain and suffering would end in a glory that could not otherwise be seen!
So this morning, and this week, as we think about Jesus”™ suffering”¦I want us to think about our own response to hard times and compare ourselves to Jesus so that we can be encouraged to be like Him, especially in the hard times.
The Danger of Hard Times
Refusing the hard times can ruin us spiritually.
Hebrews 12:12-17 (ESV)
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Refusing the hard times can ruin us spiritually.
1. Trials can lead to DISCOURAGEMENT
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet
When someone has drooping hands and weak knees, they”™re clearly discouraged.
Discouragement comes really quickly, especially when life knocks the wind out of our sails. Circumstances change in an instant and we weren”™t expecting the change, we don”™t like the change and suddenly hope fades and we”™re discouraged””with hands drooping and knees buckling.
“make straight paths for your feet”
MacDonald
We make straight paths for during our trials when we recognize God”™s presence with us, His resources for our problems, and His purposes for working trials for our good.
Trials can lead to discouragement.
2. Discouragement can lead to DISLOCATION
so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
MacDonald
God”™s goal in your trial is to heal what is lame.
God”™s goal is to give you the character of Jesus, to make you holy.
But if we squirm and wiggle and try to get out from under the trial, something is going to pop out of joint.
I thought about a time when I was in the gym a few years ago when I read this passage. I was doing squats and ended up hurting my lower back, not because I had too much weight, but because I didn”™t stay in the right position, I didn”™t keep the right form while lifting. With the right form, lifting weights will strengthen your muscles and help prevent injuries that can come from weak muscles””it can heal what is lame, as our text says. But, if your form is bad, you can really get hurt!
(EXPLAIN)
When the weight of a trial is bearing down on us, if we try to get out from under it, chances are, we”™re going to dislocate something, something is going to pop out of joint””we”™re gonna get hurt!
But God wants to make us holy through the trials.
C.S. Lewis talked about holiness as “just being free from myself”.
Free to love others and God as we were created to do!
MacDonald
Holiness is the soul-satisfying, saturating presence of God in your life”¦[and] striving for peace and holiness is the way we are to remain under God”™s loving hand and to see Him at work in our painful circumstances.
Discouragement can lead to dislocation.
3. Dislocation can lead to BITTERNESS
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
We fail to obtain the grace of God when we refuse to depend on God in the hard times.
Sometimes we grit our teeth and just survive. Other times we completely lay down and become the victim.
MacDonald
If you”™re just surviving, you”™re not getting the grace of God”¦[And] trials don”™t accomplish their beneficial work when you respond with a victim mentality.
Because neither approach latches on to God and His grace and strength.
Both “white-knuckling” it and playing the victim are both all about me””my attempt to be strong so as not to admit my need or my milking my weakness for attention.
Bitterness causes trouble in your life.
MacDonald
When a toxic mixture of anger and disappointment enters your heart, it wraps around your soul, clouding your judgment and distorting the way you see everything.
And it can “defile” you and others.
This word is used in another place to describe the way demons “torment” people.
Bitterness will torment your soul””and the lives of those around you””if you led hard times take you there.
Dislocation can lead to bitterness.
4. Bitterness can lead to PROFANE LIVING
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
This verse is a little confusing because the OT never states that Esau was sexually immoral””but, maybe he was. In any event, one thing is clear about Esau””he was unfaithful to God in an instant because the things of God didn”™t mean anything to him.
“Unholy”””“profane””¦the things of God are meaningless.
And if we refuse the hard times, we”™ll find that bitterness gives way to this profane living””where the things of God don”™t matter to us anymore.
The Message
Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God”™s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite.
MacDonald
If you aren”™t submitting to His work in your life, you won”™t be able to hold in your anger, bitterness, and resentment. You resent what God has given to other people, and you feel like you”™ve been bypassed. The anger seethes in you, and it”™s going to come out.
Bitterness can lead to profane living.
5. Profane living can lead to DISQUALIFICATION
17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
The Message
You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God”™s blessing””but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
This is a scary verse!
C.S. Lewis often said that if we live our lives refusing to humble ourselves before God and refusing to say, “Thy will be done”, God will eventually declare to us, for all eternity, “Thy will be done”.
MacDonald
The land of disqualification is the off ramp to hell.
Psalm 106:15 (NKJV)
God gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
How can you know if it”™s too late for you?
If you care, it”™s not too late!
So, surrender to God and His ways in your life TODAY!
Refusing the hard times can ruin us spiritually.
Here”™s the conclusion”¦
Our relationship with God will not stand if it boils down to God”™s giving us an easy life on earth and eternal life beyond, without any sorrow or hardship. Life in God is all about fulfilling HIS purposes.
And hard times are His way of making us like His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ!
So”¦this Passion Week, as we think about how Jesus suffered for us”¦let”™s imitate Jesus and surrender to our Father”™s perfect ways in our lives, no matter how hard.
Let”™s depend fully on God”™s grace to strengthen us in, and through, the hard times.
And, as we do, we”™ll see God change our hearts in ways we never thought possible.
Because you see, this life is not about me, it”™s not about you”¦It”™s all about Jesus! It”™s all about the world seeing Him in and through us, especially in the hard times!
VIDEO/Time of Reflection BEFORE Communion