Trials by Fire

Introduction

Good morning and welcome. We will work through the tech issues, hopefully. I’ve got Jacob on it, so we’ll see. It’s good to see all of you this morning. If you were expecting Brent, I’m I’m just the shorter version. not necessarily as well spoken, but I’m I’m happy to fill in and have the opportunity. The process of refining gold, thank you, is involved, and quite frankly, it can be pretty brutal, depending on what century you’re looking at and the starting place of the gold that is being refined. If you ask me how I know this, I spent probably a little bit too much time watching videos on YouTube and doing some other research online. And for the record, let me just tell you, all it takes is one innocent search to ruin your entire YouTube algorithm.

So be careful what you search for. But the process of purifying gold is again brutal on the precious metal. Depending on how it starts, if you take raw iron ore, they may start by hammering and chiseling away the obvious pieces that don’t belong. After that, typically they use some kind of chemical, especially in modern day gold refining. They use a lot of chemicals to take away all of the impurities.

You have to melt gold to be able to burn off the impurities and separate some of the impurities, and the melting point of gold is around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. So it’s pretty significant. And yet the outcome of this tough, brutal process, yields something desirable. Desirable hundreds, thousands of years ago, desirable today. Maybe you’ve seen one of those commercials where they are sell selling the gold bars. And you see it’s polished and it’s perfect. It’s everything you would want in a teeny tiny slab of gold. And let’s say you decide to pick up the phone and hurry and buy now because quantities are limited. And it shows up at your door and you hurriedly open the box, and although it is much smaller than you thought it was gonna be, that’s not even the thing that surprises you most.

The thing that surprises you most is it’s not shiny. It’s not smooth. It’s it’s not what you thought it was gonna be. Instead, it’s dull, it’s tarnished, it’s got a bunch of black spots in it. You’d probably assume that you had been scammed because that’s not what you think of when you think of this refined gold product. Those of you who are husbands, how many of you would buy your wife some sort of gold jewelry and get it nicely packaged with a pretty bow, and she unwraps it and she takes it out, and it’s got all kinds of discoloration, all kinds of strange spots. Do you think that would say I love you? Do you think that she would feel loved by such a gift?

I don’t know that would make her feel special or important. I think I’d probably rather buy something that was fake gold instead of buying something that was real that was full of imperfections. Don’t worry, dear, yours are real. But I can’t help think about what Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter 1. I’d like to begin reading there this morning in verse 3. 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 3, Peter says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in this in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is refined by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Maybe through some professors who were more generous than they should have been. But I’m so glad that time of my life is over. Studying and trying to remember information, the nerves, the jitters, knowing that you’ve got to pass this test. I don’t want to have to deal with that anymore. But when I think about tests in life, the reality is that if my life is not yet over, my tests are not yet over. At some point, I’m going to have to go through more difficulties, more struggles, more trials and tests. And when I consider, especially in the Old Testament, the idea of people who were tried and tested, my mind immediately goes to the life and story of Joseph. You could think of Job in the Old Testament, you could think of Jesus in the New Testament.

1. Trials Reveal the Authenticity of Our Faith

For me, I think about the trials and the challenges and ultimately the refinement that we see as we look at his life and his story and where he comes from, where we meet him at his beginning in Genesis 37, and where his story ends in Genesis chapter 50. And so this morning I want to look at the idea of testing, of refinement, of outcomes relating not only to gold, that precious metal, but also thinking and considering the life of Joseph. First and foremost, when we consider the trials and the tribulations, the struggles, the challenges, the difficulties of life, we need to remember, we need to keep in mind the trials reveal the authenticity of our faith. Is your faith real? Is it something that you compartmentalize and you leave in your car so that it’s always with you when you come to church and worship with one another?

Or is it something that is intangibly a part of who you are that goes with you wherever you go? That your faith is on display no matter what you’re doing, who you’re around, and who you’re dealing with. Back in 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter says that the trials test the genuineness of our faith. I’m here to tell you that if you’re sitting in this room right now, it is easy to be a person of faith. Because you are surrounded by people of like faith. And you’re focused on the faith and what your faith is in. You’re focused on the things that we’ve sung about and the things that we’ve prayed about this morning. It is so much easier to be faithful here than when you walk out those doors.

But understand it’s also easy to fool yourself into thinking that you’re faithful because it’s easier to be faithful here. And how do we know what our commitment to God truly entails? How do we know where we stand with Him in our relationship? It comes through testing. It comes through those trials. It comes through the challenges that we wish didn’t happen. If you’ve ever gone through something difficult and you just wish you could fast forward through that and be done with it, that is helping you understand whether or not your faith is as strong and genuine as you may believe that it is when you’re sitting here. Much like fire proves the purity of gold, the real gold can withstand the harshness of the process. The real gold is what’s left over after the chemicals and after the heat and after the hammering and the chiseling.

The gold is what you end up with.

The same is true with our faith. Have you ever had a time in your life where you felt like you were so committed and dedicated to God that your faith was untouchable? That you were reading and studying and praying. And you felt like you had never been stronger, you’ve never been closer in your relationship to God. And then out of nowhere, some trial, some test comes up that you aren’t expecting, that you don’t know how to deal with, that you don’t know how to face.

Maybe only you know about it. Maybe just your family. Maybe you haven’t broadcasted it. Maybe you haven’t told people about what you’re dealing with. But there’s probably something going on in your life right now. Some test that is difficult, that is hurtful, that is challenging, that is frustrating. Something that you’re praying about in your private prayers. That God would let you get through. That God would end, that God would finish and take care of. For me, I think very dearly about the Olympics and what they’re dealing with. OJaden and Beth and Beckett. I think a lot of because Amanda and I have experience of living in a hospital and how difficult that is and how difficult it is to see your child stuck in a predicament like that.

But they’re not the only ones. Probably most of the faces that I’m looking at right now are going through something. Joseph in his life was put through the ringer as well. As I was reading his story, it was interesting to me about some of the trials, the tests that he went through that even as a young man, he was sold by his brothers. That to me is maybe a little bit more normal for the day and time, but I can’t fathom that personally. I have three brothers, and we have been at odds with each other from time to time. And I guess maybe with a couple of them, there’s a little bit of odds still there. But I’ve never wanted to kill them. I don’t think they’ve ever wanted to kill me.

In Genesis 37, particularly in verse, and I didn’t write it down, I believe it’s verse 25, it says that after his brothers threw him into the pit, they sat down to eat. Cold, that your own family could hate you so much, your own brothers, that they would throw you into a pit, and they would just go on about their lives. And understand, they threw him into the pit as a concession because Reuben, one brother said, Well, hey, how about let’s not actually kill him, but let’s just try to find a creative way to get rid of him. And the pit was the solution at the time. And then later on, after he has sold, he starts to create a good reputation, and he moves up the ranks in Potiphar’s house, and Potiphar trusts him, and he has some authority.

And then Potiphar’s wife tries to tempt him and trick him, and he runs away. He does everything right, and she lies about it, and he’s punished for her lie. And yet, through these things, through the imprisonment, through people who believed in him, and through people who benefited from him, leaving him to rot in jail, leaving him to rot in the pit. He seemed in the end to remain steadfast in his faith. Now that doesn’t mean that perhaps there was time when he was in the pit that he wasn’t thinking, when is this going to end? This isn’t very fair. What did I do wrong? I don’t deserve to be down here. But we could see in the end as we go through his story that he was steadfast in his faith.

However, I would submit to you that it is because of the trials and tests that he went through. Trials in our lives, whether loss or injustice or hardship, those things reveal whether our faith is rooted in God or whether it’s rooted in fleeting circumstances.

Right now, does your faith depend on how easy things are, how much money is in your bank account, whether your car is having problems or not, whether your family, your children, your parents, your siblings all have good relationships. Does your faith depend on those things? Because those things will fail. Those things will fall apart. Those things will crumble when you least expect it. And if your faith is resting on those things, those things and the loss of those things become a test, not just to define your faith, but so that you see what your faith is like.

Because if you’re grading your ability to be faithful to God in this moment, what about when life hits you right across the face? What’s your faith going to do then? When the difficult times arise, how do you react? And I don’t mean respond, I mean react. What’s your first inclination? What feelings run through your mind? What questions come to the forefront of your mind? Are you calm and prayerful? Does God’s word ring out in your mind and in your heart? Do those things that you think about and sing about and pray about and study about here, do those things have such a stranglehold on you that they become how you react when you’re not here? When you’re not around the strength of your spiritual family.

Put this behind me, that would be great. Maybe you’ve heard the saying that be careful if you pray for patience. Because God’s not going to give you patience, He’s going to teach you patience. Oh, but I’m I’m smart. I’ve learned to just pray and ask God to be okay with the level of patience I currently have. But that’s not how it works, is it? Do you respond with frustration that the challenges have come your way? Or maybe you grow angry with God because He’s testing you? Because you’re faced with the reality that your strong faith in some situations is not the real faith, it’s not the real you. Most people don’t want to face the reality of themselves. Do you become exasperated because God hasn’t given you the answer you want or answered you according to the timetable that you want?

The difficulties you face in life not only reveal your level of faith, but they show you the reality of your faith. Is your faith fake? Is it a mask that you put on when you’re around other people in some situations, or is it really you? And those things that we go through in life can be critical to know where you stand and your relationship with God and whether you’ve got or whether you’ve got some work to do. If you’re struggling to deal with the test that God has given you, that’s okay. I have been there. I have struggled. I have prayed those prayers of desperation.

2. Trials Help Refine Our Faith

I’ve been on my knees begging God just to let the pain stop. But sometimes we’ve got some work to do. And that’s where trials also come into play because they help refine our faith by taking away the impurities, by taking away those things that are not representative of our Heavenly Father and the faith that maybe we have when we are at our strongest moments. Not only do the trials and tests reveal our faith, they serve to make that faith better. And if you’re going through something and you are struggling in your faith, let me tell you, the one solution is for your faith to be stronger tomorrow than it is today, and the only way that happens is through trials and tests that help us learn and grow.

Appreciate and take advantage of that trial. As the chemicals and intense heat have their effect on gold as it’s being refined, everything that is not gold slowly falls away. Either the chemicals help to disintegrate it, or the chemicals and the heat help to separate it. Sort of like we see in the New Testament, the idea of the wheat and the chaff. As you separate them, as you sift them, the things fall apart, and you can take what you want, and you’re left with something that is more pure. I want to look at a few verses now in Genesis chapter 37, and consider a mindset that Joseph had, and a couple of ways that he was refined. In Genesis chapter 37, beginning in verse 3, it says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons.

I know the feeling, I’m I’m the loved child. Because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all the others, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

He said to them, Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brother said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. But when he told it to his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Man, it’s like Joseph doesn’t know when to shut up. Because every time in this account that he opens his mouth, what is the result? Somebody hated him more than they did five minutes ago. Now, there is a little bit of reading between the lines on my part here, a bit of assumption, but it almost seems like perhaps Joseph was a little bit proud of the dreams that he had. A little bit proud to make sure that his brothers who hated him knew that perhaps one day he was going to be superior. It’s interesting to consider the younger version of Joseph.

Had perhaps the excitement, perhaps the slightly boastful mindset of declaring to his brothers the dream that he had, that his siblings, even his parents were going to bow down to him.

Well, this is before this is what propelled him to be second in command. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. Side note, this word pit is the same word that’s used in chapter 37 when his brothers threw him into the pit. Joseph can’t seem to stay out of the pits. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I’ve heard it said of you that when you have a dream, you can interpret it. And in verse 16, we have Joseph’s response, and it’s interesting because he doesn’t say, Oh, yeah, I have a habit of doing this.

I’ve been interpreting my own dreams since I was a kid. In fact, you’ve got the guy who dealt with the bread and the chef, and I interpreted their dreams, and everything happened to them as it was said. And so, yeah, I’ve I’ve got you. What kind of dream did you have? Tell me. No, Joseph says in verse 16 to Pharaoh, it is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Do you see any refinement here? Do you see someone who has maybe grown up a little bit, maybe learned lessons the hard way? Maybe has benefited from the challenges and tests that he had to go through, the unfairness, the hatred, being sold into slavery, being lied about, being left abandoned in a prison pit.

Have you ever met somebody in your life and you thought they have never had a service job in their entire life? The way they interact with people, the way they treat people. Sometimes it can show that this person’s never been on the receiving end of a condescending tone. That they must inherently think that they are better than other people who serve them. Or maybe you’ve known a grown adult. And you’ve thought to yourself about this grown adult. I don’t think this person was ever disciplined as a child. And if you don’t think of anybody, they’re probably thinking about you.

Now, when I was a kid, I thought it was all about punishment. I thought about getting spanked by my father with his leather belt. Where’s the growth in that? But really, when you think about especially children, discipline is trying to help children understand how to be disciplined people. It’s about guidance, it’s about training, it’s about testing. The idea is that as children are young and as they grow up, we help them understand the importance of things like proper behavior and acceptable attitudes, acceptable actions and reactions, especially when they’re young and moldable. And ultimately, the goal of those sorts of behaviors is to help ensure that they become proper, productive members of society as they reach adulthood. For most parents, of course, there are some sad exceptions, but for most parents, punishment is not about beating your kids.

It’s not about abusing your kids, it’s not about showing them who’s boss, it’s about helping to teach them lessons, critical lessons of faith that they’re not necessarily even grasping. If you ask your kids, especially those of you who have teenagers, if you ask your teenager after you have given them some sort of punishment, if they thought about how that helps them grow their faith, my guess is they won’t have made the connection. Maybe they will.

3. Refined Faith Leads to God's Glory and Praise

He wants you to be a perfect reflection of him. And these tests help us to weed out those things that don’t belong. Finally. And I think most importantly, refined faith, the result of the challenges and the difficulties that we go through leads to God’s glory and praise. If you go back to 1 Peter chapter 1, you don’t have to, because we’re just going to reflect on a part of the verse in verse 7. It says that the idea of our tested genuine faith results in praise and glory and honor to God. If you won’t refine your faith for you, at least do it for your Heavenly Father. At least endure the trials and the tests, knowing that whatever happens to you and whatever happens in your scenario, whatever answer God decides to give you for your prayers, and on whatever timetable that happens, regardless of the result to you, the result should always be as children of God, that we and those around us praise and glorify our Father in heaven.

And if there is no praise, and if there is no glorifying of God as you go through your difficulty, you’re doing it wrong.

Because I believe it’s true for people of the world, people who are not religious, people who don’t claim any sort of religious affiliation. When we as humans go through difficult times, we tend to search for meaning. What is the purpose of this? I hear it from people at work. I don’t know what I’m supposed to learn from this, but I’m trying to figure it out. People who don’t care about God, people who don’t care that he exists, people who don’t go to church, people who never open their Bibles, and they go through a difficulty and they try to figure out what does it mean. What is the reason for it? I believe that God built that into us as a reflection of him as the Creator, that He means for us to look for purpose beyond the suffering itself.

If I’m dealing with something that is difficult, something that’s frustrating, something that’s testing me, at least if I know it’s for something, that makes it a little easier. If it’s for something, that can make it a little bit more bearable. I’ll give you a very basic example. I cannot stand all the other idiots on the road. People who cut in front of you, people who tailgate you, people who think that their time is obviously more valuable than yours.

Sometimes, I use that word loosely, sometimes I do not pass the test. And I will speed up and get back over in front of the person who cut me off. Or for the one who’s tailgating me, I’ll slow down a little bit more. And my wonderful wife, she tries to give me meaning. And she’ll say, what if this person is in a hurry because there’s a medical emergency? Or something of that nature. And I get it, because if Abigail was having a medical emergency, I would do whatever it took to get her to wherever she needed to be. But I’m quick to quit back to her. Yeah, like all of these people are experiencing medical emergencies. I don’t think that’s how this works. I’m pretty sure it’s just people being selfish people who don’t care about anybody else.

But she tries to give me meaning because she hopes that if I think about the fact that this test that God has put before me has a bigger meaning that it will get through to me because it’s human nature to search for meaning.

Something that can make it worthwhile.

But I can pay the bills and take good care of my family, then the stuff I have to deal with at work is worth it. If I have to work through the very occasional complexities of a marriage relationship, but I get to share my life with someone I love, it’s worth it. And the same way, if I have to go through difficult things, times in life that truly put my faith to the test, but God can be praised and glorified through it. It’s worth it. It’s not a secret, I don’t think at this point in my life, that mine and my wife’s lives as parents have been a little bit different than the average. We’re not special or unique. I should say I’m not special or unique.

I’m pretty average, maybe not average height, but average as far as a person. And I share those personal things, especially in public settings like this, because I want I want you to know two things. First, I believe it’s important that we share the things that we’re struggling with. I think it’s important that we tell other people when we are being tested and how those things are affecting us. You know, social media has really embedded itself very deeply into our lives, and I hope that statement doesn’t come as a surprise to you. Perhaps in your mind you’re going, yeah, tell me about it. And I think one of the biggest negative impacts of social media is that it allows people to hide their faults and insecurities.

Now, I am by no means saying, go post a live video after church this morning and just tell everybody everything that’s going wrong in your life. Please don’t. I’m probably not going to watch it anyway.

But it is the idea that most people tend to show only the good things, only the positive things that are happening. That’s most people. The average person is telling you about the new stuff that they bought, or the new vacation that they took, or the new clothes that they got, or the things that their kid accomplished. And what happens when it’s 2 a.m. and you can’t sleep and you’re scrolling social media. There’s nothing inherently wrong with telling people about good things that happen in your life because as Christians, we are supposed to rejoice with people who rejoice. We are supposed to find goodness when good things happen to others, but there is something that happens to us when we see that skewed perspective. When we’re scrolling on social media and we see good thing after good thing after good thing, and we are reflecting on the challenges and trials and tests that we’re facing.

We start to compare our everyday lives. We start to compare our trialed, tested self with the best version that everybody else is posting for us to see.

I can’t tell you how true this is. I see people all the time, and I think, man, they have it easy. They got to go on a trip. We can’t go anywhere unless it’s in driving distance. How unfair is that for me.

So it’s important that we share our struggles, but I want you to know that I am not here because of me. I’m not here because I’m great. I’m not here because I’m amazing. I’m not here because I have any talents or abilities that are foreign to any of you. I’m not strong. I’m not some conquering hero who sets out to get it done and always gets it done. I’m imperfect. I’m weak. I struggle with trials in the same way that you do. I pray for the same things you do. I have the same emotional and mental reactions that probably you do. But I’ve gotten through the things that I’ve gotten through. I haven’t gotten through the things that I’ve gotten through because I’m somehow superior. I’ve gotten through them not because I am good, but because God is.

And he is strong enough and powerful enough and good enough to help you through yours. You see, if we go through difficult things and we don’t bring praise and glory to God, then that challenge was not just a failed test of our faith, but it is a waste of who we ought to be as children of Him. Don’t leave this place and let your relationship God be a waste. Don’t leave this place and the strength that you find here and walk out those doors and trade it in for what’s and whys and how longs, God. If we go through something difficult and we make it through in one piece, I want you to know, I want you to know that it is because of God, not because of me.

I want you to know that not only is he capable, but he is willing to turn what we perceive as bad things into good things. Doesn’t matter what it is. I can tell you stories. I won’t because I’m ready for lunch. But I can tell you stories of some crazy things that make no sense that have happened in my life that have turned a terrible situation into something that I never fathomed. The most powerful part of Joseph’s story is not all the trials and tests that he went through. It’s that in the end, not only did he recognize that good came from it, but that God tested him with a good purpose in mind. The last passages we’ll look at this morning, Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45, beginning in verse 4.

It says, So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near, and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me as you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. God did it. He simply worked through you. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and they’re yet five years in, which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. Joseph says, if you hadn’t sold me, I would never be here. And we would never have been able to weather the famine that was coming.

So it was not you in verse 8. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

And finally, in Genesis chapter 50, beginning of verse 15, when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, he said, May it be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back. It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, Your father gave this command before he dies, say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your fathers and their sin, of your brothers and their sin, because the evil did to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your fathers. Joseph wept and they spoke to him. His brother fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. They realized what they had done, and they realized where Joseph was and the authority that he had.

But in verse 19, Joseph says to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God. An interesting juxtaposition over his brothers who tried to play God by getting rid of him. As for you, verse 20, you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

Conclusion

And make them good. If God can do that in this scenario, whatever you have going on is something that God can deal with. He’s capable of handling it. He’s capable of getting it, of getting you through it. And this morning I would simply ask you have you been refined? Not have you been tested. We’ve all been tested, and we’re probably all being tested right now to some extent, but have you been refined? Can you look back on your life and see growth and see strength and see that your faith is better now, is stronger now, is deeper now in your relationship with God than it used to be. It’s not because one day you woke up and you said, you know what, I think I believe God more today than I did yesterday.

It’s because you’ve gone through trials and tests. Because you’ve gone through difficult things, it’s because you’ve gone through things that you didn’t want to go through, things that you didn’t like to have to deal with. Those tests refine us, make us more like our Father to bring glory and praise to Him. But if you are not a child of God, your tests, your trials don’t result the same way that they would if you belong to Him. Because at the end of the day, at the end of your trials, at the end of the testing of your life, there will be an ultimate trial of who were you? Did you belong to the Father? Have you been washed with the blood of His Son who died on the cross for you?

And if you’re among our number this morning and you have not been baptized, but you understand what you need to do to become a child of God, and you’re just waiting, this is a test you must pass. Make the choice, take the steps and become a child of God. So that you can pass that trial, that test, and bring praise and glory to God. And if you are a child of God and you’ve been struggling and your faith has been waning, and there’s something we can do to encourage you or pray for you, this is the time to make that known. If we can help you in any way, please come to the front as we stand and sing.