Trials and Trophies

All of us like trophies and award shows, but nobody likes a trial.  

It's the trial that changes you.  

I'm going to teach you how to walk through trials.

Paul wrote a lot of words of encouragement for those going through trials, but many of those words were written by Paul in a prison cell.
  

Philippians 3:13-15(NIRV)

13 Brothers and sisters, I don’t consider that I have taken hold of it yet.

But here is the one thing I do. 

I forget what is behind me. 

I push hard toward what is ahead of me. 

14 I push myself forward toward the goal to win the prize. 

God has appointed me to win it. 

The heavenly prize is Christ Jesus himself. 

15 So all of us who are grown up in the faith should see things this way. 

Maybe you think differently about something. 

But God will make it clear to you.

To do what God wants you to do, you have to have a good forgetter.  

When the enemy reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future. 

To push on, you've got to play through the pain.  

Life's going to be hard.  

It's going to be rough.  

God will use some things that He didn't send to develop you.  

Sometimes, He will send it.
  

Look no further than Paul.  

He was a very educated Pharisee who kept the law.  

He was doing what he thought was right.

He did every thing that he knew to stop Christianity.

Paul even held their coats while they were murdering Stephen.  

However, God liked something that he saw in Paul. 

God knocked Paul off his horse which hurt.  

He could have knocked him down before getting on the horse. (Acts 9)

Paul realized it was God who did it.

God made Paul blind, and gave him instructions.  

He had to find Straight Street while he was still blind.  

A tough thing to do. 
      

Ananias didn't want Paul.  

He was scared of him.  

God used a trial of blindness to save Paul.  

We celebrate Paul, but what about Ananias who changed Paul's life?

Paul was chasing the wrong trophy.  

I'm trusting in God.  

The trial will change you.  

The trophy will not.  

You can get trophies in a pawn shop.

A trophy will remind you, but a trial will define you. 

The trial will refine you to be better.

(How do you learn things?  

By talking to people that you disagree with).  

How do we grow?  

By going through things, we don't want to do.
  

Some of you don't pray when life is easy.  

The stress and the trial will cause your  roots to grow deep into Jesus.

A trial will grow and prepare you.  

God will use the hard times to bring about great things.  

We each have a high calling.  

We have to have the trial to reach it.

We've got to trust God during the trial, and not complain.  

We've got to learn how to talk to God. 

We're nothing as a Church if we're not a praying Church.
  

(We're where we are because of prayer. 

19,000 people have given their lives to Jesus within 3.5 years).

In trials, we learn the power of prayer.  

We've got to learn to live with the answer to our prayers. 

It may be go.  

It may be grow.
  

Have you heard about Daniel?  

He lived in captivity all of his life.

Daniel learned how to pray in captivity.  

He would eventually change the landscape of his captive nation through his prayers.

Daniel was faithful and gained God's favor. 

Favor ain't fair. 

Prayer positions you for God's favor and purpose. 

He ended up ruling the country in his captivity.

Your prayers aren't about you.  

They are all about God.  

The Lord's Prayer is a recipe for prayer.  

Declare the greatness of God's name.

It's not my kingdom come.  

My will be done, but the exact opposite.
  

Can you better understand the wonderful will of God our Father?  His will for us is far greater than we can ask or think or even dream up (Ephesians 3:20).

We must follow through in faith throughout the trials for God's blessings.  

We act like we believe.  

We pray like we believe, but do  we follow through and really believe?

When God cleans a house, God likes to fill a house.  

Trials make us pure vessels worthy of God's divine use. 

The trophy for ourselves is not the blessing, but people walking into the kingdom is. 

Have you ever heard of someone who has never heard of Jesus?  

How about our kids in the nursery?  

Why not reach them?  

Jeremiah 33:3 (NIRV)

3 Call out to me. 

I will answer you. 

I will tell you great things you do not know. 

And unless I do, you wouldn’t be able to find out about them.”
        

Sometimes God will call you to a trial which will change you, and everyone around you if you'll embrace it.  

There will always be people who will plot against you.
  

(Daniel 6) Daniel was plotted against because of his prayer life.  

For 30 days, people could only pray to the king.
  

Daniel opened his window, and prayed to his God. He was arrested.  

Then, King Darius knew that he was duped into having Daniel killed.
  

When Daniel was fed to lions, they were on a fast, a Daniel fast, and they didn't eat him.  

It changed the heart of a nation.

If Satan's not afraid of your prayer life, he should be. 

Get your eye off the trial, and get you're eye on the trophy who is Christ.
  

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIRV)

17 Our troubles are small. 

They last only for a short time. 

But they are earning for us a glory that will last forever. It is greater than all our troubles. 

18 So we don’t spend all our time looking at what we can see. Instead, we look at what we can’t see. That’s because what can be seen lasts only a short time. But what can’t be seen will last forever.

If you acknowledge Christ, He'll acknowledge you.  

Jesus must be the center of your life.  Tell Him.  

Jesus I give you my life now and forever more. 

Amen!

Romans 10:13 (NIRV)

13 Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Joel 2:32) 

  

Notes taken from Jeremy Foster, Hope City Church