[Frank Dunkle] I think I was thinking of Mr. Rangel’s sermonette. I think I'd like to identify with it being the Feast of Tabernacles. Can I just get a court order and decide that I'm at the Feast? Remember how nice it was, you know, inspiring, enjoyable experiences, fellowship with brethren. Those sermonettes and sermons that taught us about God's way and got us inspired for His plan and purpose for us. And if you think about it, you can almost be there just like it was yesterday. Then, in other ways, it seems like that was a lifetime ago, and now it's back to real life. The real life that we live day-by-day is filled with work and tension and pressure, problems, stress. Well, I hope it's not all that bad for most of us, but I was thinking, you know, that the difficulties and challenges of just day-to-day life sometimes make our vision of God's Kingdom seem distant and far away. And I guess that makes sense. I was thinking how we get excited for the Feast of Tabernacles coming.

Most of us, at one time or another, have had a case of what we call Feast fever. But I've never been at the Feast and had a case of going home fever. You know, you come home and the lawn hasn't been mowed in two weeks and you've got loads after loads of laundry, doctor's and dentist's appointment, sometimes trying to get along with co-workers who don't believe the way we do, or sometimes even family members. And then I think, "That's not even big problems. That's not real trials." But we can question sometimes, "Does it have to be that way? Why didn't God just make life easier?" And, you know, with that in mind, can we do what we find written in the book of James, where he said, "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials"? How can we really do that? And I'm pausing. I've got in my notes, it said, "Stop." And I can tell people this indeed, as you might be suspecting, is heading towards one of those "trials are good for you" type sermons. But I'd like to present it with using some of what I've drawn from the privilege that I get of teaching the General Epistles class here at Ambassador Bible College. In preparing and teaching that class, I've had to study some of the Greek words that were translated into English, and as I've done so, I've seen some of the full meaning of those words, I think, adds a little bit. So I'd like to share that with us today.

And I think it's also good regularly to revisit the idea that it's good for us to suffer, not that we necessarily enjoy it. But that's the way it is. And it's worth turning to the reminder of that. If you'll turn to John 16:33, John 16:33, there's an assurance that that's the way our life as Christians is meant to be. It wasn't a surprise to God. It wasn't a mistake in His plan that He didn't bother to correct. I've used this scripture a lot of times, and I always imagine Christ pausing and smiling partway through. It was in the middle of a long night with the disciples, with His last Passover that He spent with them in the flesh before His crucifixion, so He had a lot of teaching, and He told them a lot of teaching that they probably wouldn't understand until later, and it included this. In verse 33 of chapter 16, He says, "These things I've spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you'll have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I'm not sure if He said it quite like that, but I imagine Him doing so. And be of good cheer. Be cheerful in your tribulation.

One thing I think of is maybe we'll be able to do that better if we sort of take the lead concerning those trials. By take the lead, maybe we can even initiate some of the discomfort of the trial so that we'll be better able to handle it. With that, I want to turn back to James. I'm going to go to the minor prophets, major prophets, general epistles a few times. James 4, beginning in verse 9. James 4:9, he writes, "Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” But he adds, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." The King James there says to be afflicted. And I learned that the Greek word used there implies not only be afflicted but that it can include self-inflicted affliction. I didn't mean for that to have that sort of rhyming sound, but it sort of does. That is, “a voluntary forgoing of comfort and pleasure.” You think, "Who would ever voluntarily make themselves uncomfortable? Whoever afflicts themselves on purpose?"

Well, every successful athlete, every good musical performer, every person who's ever successfully built a business or developed a skill at a trade. You know, the wording that James here is using implies that self-discipline. You know, like the vigorous training that an athlete goes through to be able to perform at a high level. And I'm guessing that just about all of us have had a taste of that at least in a small way. Some of you have learned to perform at high levels and have spent a lot of time. But even if you participated in little league baseball, little league soccer, you had to go to practice, you had to go through drills. "I want to play a game." "No, you got to do drills, you got to learn the basics." It's not as much fun. But a higher level of performance requires, you know, that sacrifice, giving up the comfort and ease. Now, that's something I learned that I was never good at any sport that involved a ball. I like playing them, but I never had the dexterity. But one thing I found I could do was run. And so when I was a younger man, I couldn't run fast, so I trained for and participated in a number of marathons. And that's something. On race day, it's exciting, it's fun. You go out there, there's crowds of people, bands are playing, the streets are decorated. As you run along the streets, there are crowds lining them, cheering you on.

But all that's for nothing if you didn't start training in advance. Whenever I set a date and said, "I'm going to register for that marathon"... I was able to do the Flying Pig two or three or four times, I lose track. Not that I've done so many, it's just my memory is bad. But, you know, about three or four months in advance, you have to start setting the alarm earlier. You get up often before dawn, get out those smelly running shoes and put them on, you stretch, head out on the road. But I could say, no one made me do that, but I wanted the result at the end, so I afflicted myself. And that's an analogy Paul used in 1 Corinthians 9 if you want to turn there. 1 Corinthians 9, we'll begin in verse 24. 1 Corinthians 9:24, Paul writes, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?" Now, I often say, in a marathon or a distance race, everyone who crosses the finish line receives the prize. And he says, "Run in such a way that you may obtain." We could say, train, get ready in a way that you may obtain. "Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable. Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body, bring it into subjection, lest, when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

As a Christian, our goal isn't a physical finish line, it's not a T-shirt with the word "Finisher" across it, although it's surprising how much you value one of those. Our goal is God's Kingdom. And we're on our way. As Mr. Rangle said, we've been chosen and called, and we accepted that calling. And God is going to make sure that we can finish it. But there's going to be obstacles, there's going to be difficulties, challenges. In a long distance race, there are hills. And it's funny that the hill that doesn't seem very hard when it's in the first mile. After about 20, boy, it could be tough. We're going to have spiritual hills, and we need to discipline ourselves spiritually, as well as mentally and emotionally to be able to overcome. Because I want to say stopping, giving up, not finishing. That's a terrible thing, something we don't want to contemplate.

We'll go back to James. If you will, I want to read James 1:2-4. James 1, this is where I found that what I like to use for the title. "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Now, the Greek translated here as perfect, and it's telious. You could spell it... I don't have my whiteboard here, but that's okay. The students know that you can't read my writing anyways. It would be spelled T-E... Where is it? Now I can't read it. T-E-L-I-O-U-S. Telious. It doesn't mean absolutely perfect with no fault, rather it means mature. It means complete. In some cases, that word is used to describe fruit that's ripe, describing us as Christians. We go through a process of becoming more mature and complete. You know, it might describe us when we've learned to face our faults and weakness and grapple with them and overcome them. The word here from the Greek that's translated complete, is olókliros. It means entire, having all the parts. When there's a Greek translation of the Old Testament description of sacrificial animals, that word, olókliros, is used. They have to be unblemished. So we're becoming that.

But the next word that James used is the one that really intrigued me. This is in verse 4, "That patience may have its perfect work, that you may be perfect, and complete, and lacking nothing." That word “lacking nothing," leipesthai. I'm probably not pronouncing it correctly, but leipesthai. If you want to write it down in your notes, try it this way, L-E-I-P-E-S-T-H-A-I. It's a Greek term that sometimes is used to describe an army that's been defeated. But more often, or more appropriate to our usage, it can describe a runner who doesn't finish the race, the runner who is leipesthai, didn't reach the finish line. And there, that fits in with the analogy that I've been making. And I like to see my development as a child of God like steady training for a marathon. I said I like to see that. I like to think, "Okay. I'm training. I'm developing. Christ is going to return and I'm going to cross that finish line." But I remember the first time I entered a long-distance race, and it didn't go that way. I was 12 years old. Those of you that remember a program in the church we had called Y.O.U., Youth Opportunities United. I entered my first Y.O.U. track meet. The two-mile run was the event I chose because I'm not fast, never have been, but I've got a little bit of stubbornness. I thought I can start running and just not stop until I get to the end. So that's what I tried to do.

Since I was only 12, you might guess I didn't put a lot of planning or a lot of training in advance into that. Still, I did reasonably well. I got through the first mile at a decent pace. There were only, by the way, six boys in the race. So, according to the track meet rules, all I had to do was reach the end and I would get a point for my team. Now, I'd add, though, that the point wasn't the most important thing. I made that first mile, as I said, but I remember the sixth lap, you know, and my running started feeling and looking more like trudging, gasping for air. During the seventh lap, and by the way, it's a two-mile race, eight laps only, my legs started feeling wobbly, my vision started getting blurry, these thoughts started crossing my mind, "Frank, you can't do this. I got to stop. I might die." And so, I determined, when I came around, I was like, "I've got to quit this." My running slowed to a stop and I started staggering off of the track. And this roar… it seemed like a roar. I'm sure it was a number of people, but, "Frank, don't stop." Encouraging me, "Carry on. It's only one more lap." My older sister had a friend who came out on the track and I remember said, "Frank, don't do this," and begging me to keep going. "Go around one more time," but I did not. I was leipesthai. I didn't finish. And that not finishing, even though it was just a 12-year-old in a Y.O.U. track meet, that haunted me for years, because almost immediately I thought, "What am I doing? I want to get back on the track." You can't do that. Once you leave the track, you're done. I couldn't go back.

Sorry, I had something written in my notes, I couldn't read without glasses. I remember as I looked back on it, it wasn't that I was incapable. I just hadn't learned to cope with the pain and put it behind me. Years after that, I thought about it. As a matter of fact, it was 13 years later when I did enter my first marathon. That race when I was leipesthai, and I didn't know the word leipesthai then, but that was on my mind. I said, "Frank, you are going to finish this race." Let's not lose track of why James used the term here, though. He wasn't writing to a group of athletes preparing for a race, he was writing to people like us. He was writing to Christians. And what he wrote to them then applies to us today. He told us to do something so we won't have that leipesthai feeling, because as much as I wished I could get back on the track and finish that race, how much bigger would it be when Christ returns if you looked and said, "I could be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye if I hadn't quit"? We don't want to have that feeling. We've got to prepare.

That idea of preparing, building up so that you can handle trials, I think it wasn't new in the New Testament. It's been around. If you want to turn with me to Jeremiah 12, there's an interesting turn of phrase there that I really like. I'm not the only one. I've heard a number of ministers refer to this in how we cope with life. Jeremiah 12, we'll start reading in verse 5. But I'll mention this is one of those places where Jeremiah talks very openly with God and he questions him, you know, "God, why are the people who are evil doing so well? Why am I suffering? Why is it like this? It shouldn't be this way." And God answers Him pretty bluntly in verse 5. He says, "If you've run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, how can you contend with horses? And Jeremiah, if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?" God was sort of telling Jeremiah, "Look, you got to toughen up. This is the training part. It's going to get tougher." His earlier challenges were preparing him for the real tough ones to come. And yeah, real tough ones would come for Jeremiah. Happy thought is he was ready when they came. He stood strong when the time came.

As I said, we're not running in a physical marathon and we're certainly not racing against horses. We're in a race, though, for eternal life. So how do we condition and train ourselves for that? That doesn't involve getting the right shoes or stretching out or setting the alarm. Well, actually, in some ways it might involve setting an alarm at sometimes. But I think a start for how we prepare might be seen in that word James used, "Afflict yourself." That term can be used and sometimes does for the word fast. Fasting is a spiritual tool that can improve our spiritual conditioning. And I'll admit, I don't much like fasting, but I like what it does for me. I like what it accomplishes. If you're still here in the Old Testament, just a few pages back to Isaiah 58 reminds us some of what that does. Isaiah 58:6, God says, "Is this not the fast that I've chosen?" To do what? "To lose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke." And we can go on from there. These are good results. These are results that are worth counting it all joy when you have that knotting, that knotted empty feeling in your stomach. And that's not running with horses. These are spiritual tools and there are others.

I'd like to turn to 2 Timothy 2:15. 2 Timothy. I'm trying not to go too fast but my wife looked at the schedule for all that’s scheduled tonight and she said, "You better not go long." She didn't say it in that tone of voice, but... 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,” I like the... The Old King James said, "Study to present yourself approved of God a worker," and we could say a worker with God's Word, His Scripture, "who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." And we can apply this to disciplining ourselves, to study of God's Word. You know, make time. "Spend time laboring in the word," as we use the phrase sometimes. And that could include setting the alarm, get up a little earlier if you need to to make time to do it before going to work or to school. Give up some of that time watching T.V. or playing video games or whatever it is that seems more fun. We can apply the same principle to prayer. Those four basic spiritual tools we repeat over and over. Prayer, Bible study, fasting, meditation. I won't say so much about prayer and Bible study because we could spend sermon after sermon, and we often do. It's worth saying a little bit more about meditation.

Meditation is that focused thinking, directing your thoughts, thinking about who and what God is, what he's doing, what he's done before. If you'll turn with me to Ecclesiastes 7, I think there's something worthwhile to be said on that. Ecclesiastes 7, beginning in verse 2 because focus thinking can be very enjoyable and fun when you think about certain things, but we want to think about the other two, as it will be beneficial. Ecclesiastes 7:2, "Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting,” why? “For that's the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart." It's the taking it to heart part... I didn't know I'd make a rhyme there, but... The thing about taking it to heart that makes it worthwhile. Verse 3, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better." A sad countenance can make your heart better. Sometimes when you're afflicted and you're thinking about it and focusing on what it means and what God is doing. And I want to look at some of the ways that works. But first, I should say, of course, we're not to always be sad. And Solomon didn't mean, "Boy, you’d better never go to a happy occasion." In this very book, he's the one that said, "For everything there is a season." And I'll quote Ecclesiastes 3:4, "There is a time to weep, also a time to laugh." So we use these tools properly and sparingly.

To move on, I'd like to go back to James 1 and repeat what I read earlier. James 1, we'll read verses 2 through 4 again. I want to focus on a different one of those words. James 1:2, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." And let's not forget what happens after that. Patience will have its perfect work, that you may be perfect, complete and not leipesthai.” Because I've told you how bad that feels. I want to back up that word that's translated, patience. That's one of the reasons we counted all joy because we're developing that patience and that brings a perfect work. The word there for patience in Greek is hupomone, which... hupomone. You can spell it however you like because it's written in Greek squiggles in the original, but I translated it as H-U-P-O-M-O-N-E. And it can… it's sometimes translated as perseverance, that gritting your teeth and getting through something. We might think that if we just use perseverance, but we might miss the fact that the Greek word that James chose includes an implication, something that doesn't have to be in the formal definition, but I'm pretty sure James wanted. And it means, not just enduring and being patient, but having a cheerful anticipation, cheerfully anticipating success, meaning, "Yeah, it's tough now, but I know I'm going to get through it. I know there's something good. There's going to be a success at the end of this and I'm happy about that."

Whenever I describe that definition to people, I can't help but think of a scene from one of my favorite movies. And it's a movie that came out, I think, back in the '80s called, The Princess Bride. Usually, when I say that… I see people have seen it, okay. There's one scene in the movie where if you remember Inigo Montoya, the Spaniard who's a master swordsman, and he's been assigned to catch the fellow pursuing them. It turns out it's Westley, the hero of the story, but he's disguised to be the Dread Pirate Roberts. And Inigo Montoya doesn’t... he feels bad about taking him down because Inigo is so good. He can defeat anybody. So I'll have to fight him with my left hand. So eventually they're going at it and, wow. And they're going at it and Montoya says, "I admit it. You're better than I am." But he says it with a good Spanish accent. And while there, Westley says, "Well, then why are you smiling?" "Because I know something you do not know." "What's that?" And then Montoya says, "Oh, I am not left-handed," then he switches towards right-hand and he starts winning and pushing him back. He had that in the back of his mind, he's smiling because he knew he had something more that was going to give him success.

Now, I don't want to describe all the movie, but of course, it turns out Westley also was not left-handed. He switched and he won. Later they became friends and colleagues and happy ending. But my point is that like Inigo Montoya, when we're in a trial, we can have a smile on our face, because you could say, "I know something you don't know." The you that you're saying, "Don't know it," is all the rest of the world who don't have God's calling yet. What do we have? It's much more than being right-handed, and I hope that's a comfort to those of you who are left-handed. What we have is an all-powerful God, a loving God who's on our side. You could say, "I'm going to win this. I'm going to overcome because God is behind me. He's on my side."

Let's turn a few pages ahead in the book of James. James 4, beginning in verse 9. I think we read this before, but I want to get to the end. "Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." That's why we can lament and mourn so that God will lift us up. And it doesn't say, "He might if He gets around to it, or if He thinks about it." Peter wrote something very similar over in 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5:6, a few pages later. Here he says, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you…” that means he'll lift you up. You humble yourselves and God will exalt you in due time. Our best efforts for ourself when we're down to raise ourselves up, they might not work. They definitely don't come close to what God can do. That implies in our current situation, of course, whatever our current situation is, but the most important thing is that God intends to give us eternal life. Even if you're in the grave... Now, I know none of you are in the grave, as far as I can tell, but that's the fate that awaits us, but there's something we can smile and say, "I know something a lot of people don't know. God will lift me up." We've got that confidence of what comes afterwards. And that's important. And we got to remember it because I want to be hupomone every single time. I want to have that smile on my face, I want to have a cheerful anticipation of success. But you know what happens to me? Sometimes I'm looking like this and I don't like this. I'm grumbling. I'm complaining. And a lot of times I brought the trial on myself but I'm not happy. And I need spiritual help to control the thoughts to make me think the right thing. I need help. And I have that as well.

I want to read 2 Corinthians 10:4-5. 2 Corinthians 10, beginning in verse 4, this is an important thought. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty” meaning not carnal but spiritual. Our warfare, we're in a fight for our life, for our spiritual life, and we've got spiritual weapons, “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” and the point I wanted to get to especially here, “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” the hope and promise here is that controlling our very thoughts is possible with God's Spirit working in our minds and helping us, as we can focus on the happy expectation, on the good that God is accomplishing with us. We can have the mind of Christ in us so that we can indeed be hupomone. If God can make that possible, what more can you empower me to accomplish? And when I say me, I mean all of us, of course. We have to keep in mind I'm using this analogy here and there of training for a race, but we can't just train up and get eternal life. It doesn't work that way.

Romans 6:23 reminds us that eternal life is a gift. "The wages of sin is death," and we've all done that. Not died, but we've all sinned, as Romans 3:23 reminds us. And so we've all earned death, but God wants to give us that eternal life, by our own abilities, our own stamina. No matter how much we pray, Bible study, meditate and fast, that doesn't earn us that, but God is able to give us life. I want to go again to the last of the general epistles in the book of Jude, one page... Not one page. Two pages, one chapter. Just before Revelation. Jude 1:24. A very beautiful... Some scholars say the most beautiful doxology in the Bible, which doxology is a poem of praise to God. It says, "Now to Him who is able… Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,” I want to stop there. But emphasize that special phrase that describes God as "Him who is able." I'm not able. You are not able, not able to do what we really want the most, and that is gain eternal life. But God is able. He can present you faultless because of Christ's penalty that pay… or Christ's sacrifice that pays the penalty of our sins. Let me add a couple of other places where that phrase is used. I won't turn there. But in Roman 16:25, in Romans 16:25, Paul describes God as, "Him who is able to establish you,” set you firm on your foundation.

In Ephesians 3:20, he calls Him, "Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” I love that particular scripture and phrase, Ephesian 3:20, God is “Him who is able to do above anything that we ask or think,” as I said, it's pretty clear, we can't give ourselves eternal life. God is able to do that. The one thing I remind me, though, is I am able to prevent myself from having eternal life. God has given me that power to pull myself out of the race, to prevent myself from receiving that priceless gift. I don't want to do that. You know, but I could. I could go through trials and challenges, I could feel exhausted and hopeless and just give up, rather than relying on the power of God. That's what I need to do. Now, I wonder, God could just pull us out of any trial or test. And I'm reminding you that a lot of what I'm describing here today, I've been reminded, some of them are more inconveniences than trials, but those help get us ready for the ones that are real trials. But God doesn't always help us to avoid those. He lets us experience them, I think because He has a greater purpose. As a matter of fact, I think a lot of times He coordinates them. He makes sure they come at the right time and in the right way to accomplish His purpose. And that's important to remember because we're getting ready, we're building up.

Lots of our trials won't be the self-inflicted kind I was mentioning as that discipline. The biggest trial in life won't be fasting occasionally, it won't be having the alarm go off early so that you can do Bible study, it won't be making you lift your arm when they're asking for volunteers for a service project. Because I find myself, I'm looking, "Where's my arm? It needs to go up. It doesn't want to go up." Hopefully, those things will build our character and our endurance so we'll be ready when things really do get tough. Hopefully, we will have run with footmen when the time comes to contend with horses. And God is working on that. But, you know what? Humans can't outrun horses. We need to be ready to try. Humans can't make the sunshine on a rainy day. Humans can't cure cancer or a host of other terrible diseases. We do face trials and tests that are greater than we can humanly endure. And I say, "we" partly to remind us that it's a common experience. And if you want to start turning to 1 Corinthians 10, and because it's important for us to remember that maybe no one will have gone through the exact same thing we're going through, but we're all in this together. We all are suffering trials, and nobody has faced something really tough that's unlike anything anyone's ever done, and no one has to face it alone.

1 Corinthians 10:13, that's another scripture that I imagine is a favorite for many people. It says, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,” no matter what the temptation, it's not more than you can take, He won't suffer you to be tempted beyond what you're able, “but with the temptation will also make as a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." I think we often we like to focus on where it says, "He'll make a way of escape." I like to focus on that, but I think it's important to also notice he says the words "That you may be able to bear it." God is making us able to do some things. Sometimes the way that God makes us able to bear it is sending someone alongside us to help us carry the load, sending someone to give us the comfort and help that we need. Probably, most of us have experienced that sometime or another. Some of us have been the person offering comfort. Many times someone comes along that you may not expect.

I've got one that's very memorable in my life. It was my sophomore year at Ambassador College. And at that time, early in the school year, my mother ended a long trial with a chronic disease. And it was right there at the start of the school year, I had to rush home, go through a funeral, work with my sister to put her affairs in order. And I came back to college, I struggled to get back into the routine, to focus on what I was doing. But I felt sad, empty. There are times I wondered, "Do I really want to do this?" And that's natural. And please, don't feel bad for me now. This was more than 30 years ago. The focus isn't on why God allowed the trial or the lessons to be learned through that or grieving. But I want to underline that I learned that my suffering was not alone, that friends were there. My friends came with me. Some of them were willing to sit in the room when I said, "I don't feel like talking," but they would be there, and knowing that was comforting. There were people who would listen when I did feel like talking.

And it stands out, my R.A., my resident assistant, was a bit older than me. And I remember him coming to me and just sitting down and he didn't try to explain why this was good, he didn't try to make me feel better, but he talked about some of the challenges and the severe trials he'd been through. And somehow, maybe it's human, but knowing he'd suffered made me feel a little better. I don't want to say that in a perverse way, but I wasn't alone. Other people had gone through emotional pain. And I never forgot that. I wasn't alone. God had helped him. He was happy and successful, I would be again. Going through that gave me an appreciation for 1 Corinthians 10:13. Whatever difficulty we face, whatever the challenge, we're not alone. Others have suffered. And God may use one of those others to strengthen you when you need it, to make you able to bear with it and overcome. One way or another, if we call on God, we know we can trust him.

Back a few pages to Hebrews 13 is a scripture that should be indelible in our minds. We should be able to know that we can trust God. He'll strengthen us. He promises He'll lift us up. First... Or not first. Hebrews 13:5. Hebrews 13:5 says, "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" God promises He's not going to leave you, He will never forsake you. “So we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’" We could broaden that. We could also say, "What can various trials do to me? Yeah, they're tough, they're not fun, but various trials, it's just there to make me better. God is with me.” I say various trials partly to draw on a phrase that Peter used in 1 Peter 1:5. 1 Peter 1:5. I know I'm giving your fingers a workout because as I said, I'm borrowing from one of my classes and that's the way it goes.

1 Peter 1:5, and we could pick up with the last word of the previous verse. "You who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed at the last time." That word for “kept," the Greek means having an armed guard. It means like having a centurion on post with back then it would have been that halberd or a sword. It's like God is guarding us, keeping us safe “for salvation to be revealed at the last time.” Of course, the promise salvation is at the end and, of course, that's a reason we should be hupomone. At the end, God promises to lift me up, not necessarily immediately, but with that thought, we can do what Peter says in the next verse. Verse 6, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved by various trials,” I find it amusing the Greek that translated "various" could also have been translated multicolored. "You've grieved with multicolored trials." I like to say there's a whole rainbow of problems out there. And you might be grieved, but it works for good. There could be a whole bunch of different bad things or a case of when it rains, it pours. And I thought I'd share this. And instead of one of the heavier stories, Sue and I had an experience of that earlier this year. Back when it was 90 something degrees, I remember sitting in the living room and she said, "You know, I hear the air conditioning running an awful lot but it doesn't feel that cool in here." There's a reason for that. The air conditioner had died, when it was the hottest. So yeah, we got to put a new H.V.A.C. system right next to the new hot water tank we'd had put in a little while earlier. Then we went away to visit her parents, I think the next week, came back and, "What's that smell in the basement?" Sump pump had stopped working.

Okay. So then there's time cleaning up and getting late. I remember once I was behind, so I had to rush to get to the office in time, I get in the car and battery is dead. Not that I can complain. The battery was eight years old, but what a timing. I remember through all these things, my patience was wearing thin. So the capper was when I'd overloaded or miss loaded the washing machine and I was going at thumb, thumb, thumb, "I got to stop it. Okay, I need to open it up and rearrange the stuff. It won't. There's a lid-lock. Come on, open. Come on, open. I'm in a hurry. Open." I forced it open, and guess what? There's a little sensor that knows when you do that that costs about $200 to replace. I felt like I was experiencing some multicolored trials. And yeah… or maybe not trials, inconveniences. And yeah, I didn't smile all the way through it but pretty soon I could look back and say, "You know, this isn't so bad, Frank. Learn the lesson. It's pretty good, you got a bunch of new stuff." Of course, it's down in the basement where I don't look at it much. But none of this was what you call really bad trials. No dread disease, no life-threatening stuff, I didn't lose my job. This wasn't running with the horses. This was contending with footmen. Or did I say that backwards? But I hope it was... If I can make myself look at it with the right attitude, I can be getting ready for the horses. And that's important.

Here in 1 Peter 1:6, it reminds us. It says, "greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you've been grieved…” why do you need to be grieved by these trials? Not necessarily because you're sinning. And I'd like to... I'm not aware of any bad thing I did that made all that stuff break. Now, the washing machine, I do know I did one bad thing. I lost patience and that cost me. But God knows what we need and when, and He'll time those trials for our good. But there's another important point about that, "if need be." It's a happy thing that sometimes it doesn't need to be. And I remind people when life is good, don't feel guilty. God knows when you need a trial, and believe me, you'll get it when you need it. But if not.

And actually, it reminds me of when I was preparing to serve in the pastoral ministry, I was talking to Gary Smith over in the Portsmouth area. I moved into the area he was leaving. And as we were discussing things, I remember he used the analogy that, "Sometimes these problems are coming up," and he says, "It's like killing snakes." But he says, "It's not always killing snakes. And when it's not, take the dog for a walk, enjoy the scenery, and don't feel bad about it." That's a good thing to remember. God is in charge. He knows if and when we need a trial and He knows when we need a break. So we can be hupomone, we can smile and we can greatly rejoice because, as it says, we've been grieved by various trials but we're looking for that salvation to be revealed at the last time. That's what we're looking for. We can rejoice, we can count it all joy. The biggest reason to count it all joy is to realize what the trial is doing in us, what it's doing for us, I could say for you, for me. James tells us that the trials produce that patience. That's a cheerful expectation of success, and that is going to make us mature and complete. We're going to reach the conclusion of the process God set in motion.

Peter tells us that the suffering is going to refine our faith. Leading to the end, the goal of that faith, the salvation of your soul. We say eternal life. I've heard that many times described as “seeing the big picture." God's plan has a big picture, and it's really inspiring to me that that picture includes you. And if He has a drawing upon His wall somewhere, your face is in it. And I like to think my face is in it. Even when we're enduring terrible trials, we can smile, smile at the world around us and say, "I know something you do not know." God has a plan that includes you. God is able. Him who is able to bring you through trials and bring you into His Kingdom. That very God promises He will never leave you and never forsake you.