God's Purpose for Trials | Kingsmen

The Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness

Welcome to the Kingsman podcast, where we are trying to reclaim the purpose of the kingdom. At times it's confusing and hard. We live in two realms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of dark. And when Christ says, seek first the kingdom of God, what does that mean?

Well, that's what we're trying to do here with this podcast. When we look at scripture, one of the things that's hard for us to understand, which is why the Bible gives us so many illustrations and helps, is the spiritual realm.

Looking at the reality that we have a physical realm, this is our body, we have a spiritual realm, and the two are at war with one another. And not only that, we are easily drawn into the physical realm because, well, that's what we can see.

Our body's natural desire to be satisfied, to be accepted, and to feel safe because our flesh is built this way. It's natural. Like being hungry for food, that's normal. Being tired and wanting to sleep, that's normal.

So there's a draw. And then you put the sinful nature within this body, and Satan can use all kinds of tactics to tempt us and draw us away, which we've looked at multiple passages in the past and will continue to do so.

Christian Life as Dependence on the Father

But one of the things that I want us to look at today, just briefly, is the Christian life as dependence. That is hard. As we grow older, we naturally want to become self-sufficient. It's pride. It is the sin of pride.

When you look at James 4 and James describes wisdom, he describes it as the exact opposite. It's meekness, gentleness, patience, open to reason, one who longs for peace. There's a sense where there isn't necessarily independence, there's more of a dependence that's going on there.

And this is why James says, when you lack this, and you will, you need to pray for it. Which I have said in the past, that prayer is the greatest example of dependence. We're called to constantly be in communication with our Father because we need Him, we depend upon Him daily, as he says in our prayer, that he's given us in the Lord's Prayer.

But there's an aspect of this dependence that has been really helpful for me recently, and I wanted to share this with you. We don't see trials as ways to remind us and steer us back to the dependence upon the Father.

Spurgeon has this amazing quote where he says, a child will not wander from his father when he hears the barking dog. And how is Satan described? As the roaring lion. And in many ways, God has utilized Satan throughout all of history to warn us about wandering, about the dangers of not staying closely in his strength and his power.

I mean, Ephesians, when it says, stand in the strength of the Lord. Well, to do that, that means you should not depend on your own strength, your own wisdom, your own power, therefore, stand in the power and the strength of the Lord.

And this is a wrestling match that we go on for the rest of our life. I can remember talking with congregants when they're struggling to think about prayer. They're like, man, I just don't know why I need to pray right now.

My job's good. My kid's good. I just, I'm fine. My health is fine. And really, the way we see that is, well, life's going well. I've been making right decisions, therefore, I don't really know why I need to depend upon God today, why I need to go to him for my daily bread, because, well, I'm doing the work at my job and I'm raising my kids well.

And that's the lie of Satan, believe it or not, for us to be so secure with ourselves that we can wander away from depending upon God. And just when we find ourselves away, out from under his wing, out from under his protection and his love and guidance, that's when we get under attack.

That's when we find him sifting us. When we become comfortable in our body, when we become comfortable in this world and we don't believe that there is a danger, that's when it happens. When you hold that position, it makes sense when James says, you should count it a good thing when God brings a trial into your life, because what he's showing you is a weakness that you need to depend upon him for.

Trials as a Call Back to Weakness and Prayer

So we don't like weaknesses. We don't like to be told we're weak. We don't want to be told we're frail. And I mean, this starts when we're kids, right? I want to tie my own shoes. I want to put on my own socks, right?

I want to do it myself. Let me do it myself. And I have four kids and all four kids went through the same phase, all four of them, right? And if you've had children, you've probably seen this as well.

It's part of our nature. But God in his kindness knows that's dangerous for us. It's not good for us. And so trials and temptations, I'm sorry, trials and struggles that he allows in our life, he allows them in such a way that it causes us to see the reality of our situation, to step back and say, wow, I don't think I need to let go of my father's hand and his strength because I've wandered off.

And I think we're going to be struggling with trials and suffering for the rest of our life. And when we look at Paul when he says, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, you see, what happens is when we start to stand in our own strength, we also start to then accomplish our own will.

We start to accomplish our own desires. And those, man, we are so quickly drawn away because our flesh is weak, right? Meaning that, or let me put it this way, our spirit is weak, but the flesh is strong.

So if we're not standing in the strength of the Lord, we can easily be drawn away and we are drawn away. And that's why we find ourselves wrestling with each other and wrestling with ourselves and giving into temptations.

And as Paul says in Romans 7, I keep doing the things I don't want to do and the things I should be doing, I'm not doing them. Who is going to save me from this body of death? And he says, thank be to Christ.

So this is why in every New Testament epistle, it feels like the conclusion is look to Christ. Look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, the one who justifies us, the one who sanctifies us, the one who will glorify us, the one who will sustain us and give us hope and give us joy.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right? There's nothing that will separate us from the love of Christ, setting aside the weight and the sin that easily besets us and looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

You know, when we find ourselves stumbling, we've forgotten that we've been cleansed by Christ from our former sins. So we live our life with our eyes looking upon Christ and God in his kindness, as Hebrews has told us, that often he will use discipline and trials and struggles to remind us that our eyes have gone off the king and our eyes are on this kingdom, the kingdom of darkness.

And that is not beneficial for anyone. And it doesn't advance the kingdom of darkness. And I know I'm speaking a lot in generalities, but my encouragement to you as you think about your life, next time you find yourself in a struggle, I mean, I had something as little as my van broke down and I needed an alternator and it was like $1 ,500 or whatever.

And at first it was kind of like, oh, it's another thing, it's another thing. And I had this moment, we're talking with my wife and I said, this is just money and it's just earthly things. Why are we going to, and it was a great reminder that John, don't put your hope in a car, don't put your hope in your bank account, be wise, be flexible, trust in the Lord and keep focusing your eyes on what matters.

Because all that means is now I have less money to do with what I thought I was going to do with it. And God's like, you can trust me for this, just be smart, be wise, don't get your heart set on these things.

It was a great reminder. It was a great reminder. And I looked at my father and I said, God, I see that, I see what you've done. I live in a broken world and this trial, which, you know, at the end of the day, $1 ,500 and alternators, really low on the trial end, right?

Real low on the trial end. There are other things that I have gone through, things that have been much harder for me to deal with. But in a weird way, I did smile and I chuckled and I was like, ah, this is what James means.

Just remind yourself that he's strengthening your faith. And that's literally what James says, because when the trial has come to its point of purpose, you find that your faith in Christ is stronger. Because God's peeling back the layers that you have put on top of yourself to find protection.

If I have this and I have this, this will protect me. And he goes ahead and says, sure, you want to use that? Let's see what happens. Let's see how that stands up to the trial. But as we're going to get into soon, put on the full armor of God and there's nothing, there's nothing that will touch you.

You are safe and secure from now and to all eternity. That doesn't mean you're not going to die and you're not going to suffer. But the ultimate hope and the ultimate joy that we await, which we are just, as it says in Romans, our bodies are groaning, we're awaiting the resurrection of all things.

We are safe and secure. So as we sojourn in this life, as we work in the kingdom, as we're soldiers of Christ, we need to be reminded at times when we wander from the camp and we wander from his protection and his wing.

At times he'll put things in our way to show us, hey, you are, you're coming to the end of the rope where this is where danger happens and I'm going to use a trial and I'm going to use a struggle. I'm going to allow something to happen.

This is even times it could be really hurtful and too, because we're doing it to ourselves. We're the ones who have wandered and this is why our confession, both in the Westminster and the London Baptist Confession in chapter 5 .5 says that God often allows us to wander so that when we understand the consequences of this, we have a greater and deeper dependence upon him.

And that's for our good. God is not sadistic. Depending upon him is the ultimate joy and protection and hope that we may have. And so a loving father is using means to help you stay strong in your dependence and run away from your independence.

You don't want to be independent from God for any reasons. Your salvation, the way in which you grow, your sanctification and your ultimate glorification when you make it home. You don't want us to be responsible for any of those.

This is why it's so important that he says, renew your mind, Romans 12. Why? Because renewing of your mind reminds you of your weakness and when the trials come, you can say, yes, this is another reminder that the joy of the Lord and the strength of the Lord is my hope and my joy.

And I'm not going to allow anything else in this world to distract me from it. And this is why I would say the church is so important in God's economy. The church isn't just kind of tacked on there and somehow like, okay, yeah, just, you know, this is also super helpful for your life, you know, as an additive to get done what I need you to do.

The church is God's mission. God uses the church and he calls it one body. You know, this is just go to Ephesians one. That's how he describes it. You are one body with many members. And so he uses this body, which is a representation of Christ to do his work.

And when we separate ourselves from the strength of his body, the influence, the constant renewal of the mind, where we have brothers and sisters who will confront us, uphold us, who will give to us the gospel.

And I had the joy of hearing one of our men in our church preach from Psalm 46 last week. And it's not very often I get to hear, I get to sit and hear within my own family, the word preached. And it was such a joy, such a refreshment.

To this day, you know, four or five days later, I'm feeling the joy and the refreshment of that sermon, being reminded of why I can sit still and know that he is God. You know, we, I would encourage you if you want to go to our website and listen to that.

And if you're a church member and you did get to hear that, you want to hear this sermon. Wilmer Bryant did just an amazing job of reminding us that sometimes we just tell people, sit still and know that he is God.

That's not what the psalmist does. He shows us our weakness. He admits that the ground within us is shaking and moving and shifting and crumbling. And then he reminds us of the power of God and who we are in God.

And at that moment, you can say, even though the earth below you may fail, you can sit still and know that God has not failed. There's nothing for you to do to preserve or save yourself. And it is a wonderful truth in the midst of our trials, in the midst of our suffering, we have confidence in knowing that God is doing his work.

Trials as the Barking Dog and the Means of Grace

Shorter one, hopefully it was helpful for you. Just an encouragement to you. Trials is the dog barking, reminding you, don't wander from the Father. Stay close to him, depend upon him. Use his means that he's given to you, right?

The preaching and teaching of the word, the prayer and the table and baptism, the constant use of that week in and week out, fellowshipping with your brothers and sisters, singing with them, encouraging them until he returns.

Hopefully this is encouraging for you and I have some additional thoughts for you next week. We'll see you then.