Equipping Eve: God Never Promised Us a Rose Garden

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve, the second episode of 2018.

Hey! Hard to believe. So just a reminder that EquippingEve .com

is kind of new. So it's been new since November, but that's still new, right? That's only a couple of months.

So for a few years, we had a website that I was not particularly fond of, but just didn't have the ability or the time to update, so now it's been updated.

So finally had that time a couple of months ago, and so now EquippingEve .com is all new and fancy.

There's ways to contact me there, so if you have ideas for the show, ideas for the website, send them to me.

And I don't always necessarily respond, depending on the message, but you can send me comments, criticisms, questions, concerns, anything.

Anything is welcome. Contact page there at EquippingEve .com or EquippingEve at gmail .com.

And hey, I have not introduced myself. I'm Erin Benziger. So welcome to the show.

Thanks for tuning in again. With me here in my very fancy studio is my producer.

Every good podcast has a producer, and our producer here at EquippingEve is producer

Charlie. Charlie is my cat, and so as some of you know, occasionally you can hear a bell ringing on these episodes.

Not always, but every now and then. And if so, that would be Charlie making his presence known.

So that's what producers do. And so if you have any major complaints about the show, please direct them to Charlie.

That's it. But he is sleeping soundly right now, which is not at all indicative of how exciting the show will be, because it's going to be fantastic.

So let's get started, shall we? So here's the thing, ladies. Here's what

I would like to talk about today. God never promised us a rose garden.

Nope. Sure didn't. And it's funny, because that phrase constantly pops in my mind, and I know it's from a book from back in the day, and I say back in the day, just back before I was born.

I think it's from the 60s, called I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. God never promised us a rose garden, right?

You know, and I say this, we've just come off of the hustle and bustle of Christmas, and we always hear about the hustle and bustle of Christmas, but it's true, right?

I mean, we all know it's true. We're rushing around, we're trying to finish up things at work or school, or we've got all these things going on at church and with our friends and our kids' friends, and trying to bake all the cookies and have the perfect Christmas, and so I don't know if anybody ever actually enjoys

Christmas. But you know, so we're coming off of that, and inevitably, you know, trials come along in those busy times, and some of us have ongoing trials, and I'm not going to just dwell on our trials today, because that's actually kind of the opposite of what we want to try to accomplish here.

But the reality is, you know, we are not promised like puppy dogs and unicorns when we come to Christ.

So contrary to what the word -faith teachers would have us believe that, hey, once you become a

Christian, then you'll be rich and healthy, and God wants you to have a fancy car and a great big house and a promotion and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, no.

I just don't...the way that they twist Scripture to get to that is just phenomenal, and then half the time,

I don't think they even use Scripture anymore. They just...because that's what people want, right? So you're just appealing to people's carnal desires for money and wealth and ease of living.

Of course, yeah, we would all love to have, you know, I'll take a big fancy house as long as I also get someone to clean it along with it, because I don't want to clean a big fancy house.

But sure, I'll take the fancy luxury car and the big fancy promotion as long as I don't have to do, you know, 90 hours of work a week and, you know, but just get the notoriety from it.

Sure, who wouldn't want that in their carnality, right, in their fleshly mind?

And so they just appeal to that, hey, if you send me money, this is how this works, you're sowing a seed, and then your seed's just going to multiply, you know, a hundredfold.

So if you send me $10, well, get a hundred back.

But if you send me more, just saying, and people fall for it. And I don't know how people fall for it, but they do.

I take that back. I do know how. It's because the prince of power, prince of this world, he completely blinds people.

You know, they're blinded by that. They're blinded by their own sin and selfishness and greed. And so then they fall into that trap and they're given a gospel that just is damning them.

We are not promised lives of luxury as Christians. Jesus, our

Savior, our Lord, our sovereign King, who sits at the right hand of God the

Father in heaven, while he was here and walked this earth, he had no place to lay his head.

I mean, you probably have a comfy bed you climb into at night, don't you? I do. Comfy bed, nice pillow.

Jesus had no place to lay his head. He was persecuted unto death.

His apostles were persecuted either unto death or John was exiled to Patmos.

We can go through church history and look at the church, the martyrs throughout history who were burned.

Stephen was stoned. That's unpleasant. It's unpleasant. Yet, a student is not greater than his teacher, is he?

Is she? So surely we know that if Christ was persecuted all the way unto death, then we can expect difficulties in our lives.

God never promised us a rose garden. 2 Timothy 3 .12 says, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

And Paul goes on, he says, evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

And then he encourages Timothy, you, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

Continue in the things you have learned. Where do you learn that? That from the word of God and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, scripture, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training and righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.

I mean, it's interesting that the talk of persecution and encouragement in the word, it's all right there in the same paragraph.

Hmm. Interesting. Because we draw our strength and encouragement even in times of persecution from the word of God.

And we must continue in that word. That is the only truth. And we know it to be true in spite of whatever is going on around us.

So ladies, I didn't give you time to flip to that passage. That was passage, that passage was 2 Timothy 3 .12

and following. And now I'd like you to turn to first Peter four, first Peter four,

I am starting in verse 12. Peter writes, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you.

But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exultation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evildoer or troublesome meddler. But if anyone suffers as a

Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. Hmm.

Interesting. First Peter four, 12 through 16. Interesting.

Turn now, ladies, to first John three, verse 13, do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

Why do they hate us? Because they do not know Christ. If the world hates you because you are a

Christian, they actually hate Christ, Christ, who lives inside of you, Christ, who is your savior.

And if they hated Christ, well, what do we expect, right? Second Corinthians two, second

Corinthians two, 14 says, but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one and aroma from death to death to the other and aroma from life to life.

And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God, an aroma from death to death to others and aroma of life to life.

So we are to expect persecution. We are to expect persecution, but persecution, ladies, let's be really clear here.

That doesn't mean being stoned or hanged or burned at the stake. It doesn't mean necessarily, it can mean those things, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you lose your job or your husband loses his job because you're

Christians. It doesn't necessarily mean that you are blatantly mistreated for the obvious reason of your faith.

It doesn't mean that someone says, well, you're a Christian, so I don't like you. You're a duty head. That doesn't necessarily mean, well, that's not persecution, then you just laugh at the person if they call you a duty head.

But, you know, persecution can be far more subtle than that and can be something that maybe even the person executing it doesn't even realize why they're doing it.

But sometimes we're in situations where speaking about our faith, it's just not really appropriate.

Like if I'm in a business meeting, I'm not just going to break out into a gospel presentation.

That's not how that works, right? But I may behave in that meeting differently than other people.

And then we find when things like that happen, if maybe there's a confrontation and we just remain calm and we're very gracious and we handle it the way that we know

Christ would like us to handle it, only by His strength and power does our flesh not take over sometimes.

But we find we might be treated differently just because of the way we handle things.

We may be treated differently simply because of the way we handle situations, simply because of the way we carry ourselves, simply because of the way we just are in our day -to -day lives around the other people that God has placed under our influence in our day -to -day lives.

And I'm not saying anything to the effect of, you know, what is that saying that doesn't even make any sense.

Preach the gospel if necessary, use words. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, I mean, in reality, we don't all walk around with the megaphone and, you know, the

Bible open, preaching hellfire and brimstone on our way to the next board meeting.

I mean, that's just not what we do. That's just not how that works. You don't walk through the grocery store doing that.

But we carry ourselves a certain way as Christians. We should, right? We strive to do that the way that we are called to do.

And remember that Peter said that no one should be persecuted as a sinner.

So, you know, he lists some very specific troubling sins, you know, to make sure that no one suffers as a murderer or a thief, but he says, or as an evildoer or even a troublesome meddler.

So it's not just these grave sins, but don't even suffer as someone who's committing these other, quote unquote, smaller sins.

But if you're going to suffer, suffer as a Christian. That means that we carry ourselves a certain way so that if there is a conflict, right?

We remain blameless, even in the sight of men, because we carry ourselves according to the gospel that has saved us.

In a difficult situation, if we respond as Christ would have us respond, we may just find that we're treated poorly because the world doesn't expect that and doesn't necessarily even want that gentle response.

Some people just like to argue. I used to be like that. I like to argue. And you just want to keep it going.

And then the next person is just very calm and not feeding your anger the way that you want them to.

Instead, they're feeding it in a different way by just remaining calm and not perpetuating the situation. And that can result in a type of persecution.

And they don't even know that they're doing it because we're Christians, but it is a type of persecution. So take heart.

You know, we often say, well, if you're not being persecuted for Christ, you need to re -evaluate your faith or whatever. That's true, but it doesn't necessarily mean that all your friends say they don't want to be your friend anymore because you're a

Christian. It might just mean, yeah, that person at work just isn't nice to me.

And maybe it's just because you handle yourself the way Christ would have you handle yourself.

You can be thankful that that's the extent of your persecution, but it is still a reminder that you belong to him.

If you turn to Matthew 10, verse 16, Jesus was sending the 12 disciples out, or Jesus was speaking to his 12 disciples and he says,

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

But beware of men for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues and you will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the

Gentiles. But when they hand you over, don't worry about how or what you are to say. It will be given you in that hour what you are to say, for it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you.

Brother will betray brother to death, a father is child, children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.

You will be hated by all because of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next.

For truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes." Now, obviously this is very much in the context of the disciples, but there is truth here for us.

And I pause on that very first verse I read that Christ says, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Well, that's just true in the world, period, right? So be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

So don't be gullible and naive and just think that everybody loves you and everything's fantastic and you just live and I'll leave it to be of a world.

And because that's just not real. I don't care what you put up on Instagram. I don't care what

Facebook says. Your life ain't perfect. I got news for you. You've been found out.

So you are, ladies, we are sheep in the midst of wolves. And so we are to be shrewd as serpents.

We are not to be gullible that the world is all perfect and hunky -dory, and we are to be discerning and we are to be grounded and rooted in God's word so that we can exercise that discernment properly.

But we are to be innocent as doves, be gentle, be humble, be meek, because that is what

Christ calls us to, because before Christ, we were in the exact same position as those with whom we might be conversing or conflicting.

And we must remember that in the midst of the conflict. So at times, maybe in difficult situations, because we are responding in a gentle manner, we may be treated poorly because that's not what the world wants to see.

Conversely, we may actually be treated favorably, right?

Because people don't expect it. And doesn't the Bible also say in Proverbs, turn with me there,

Proverbs 14, let me go in order here, Proverbs 14, 29, he who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick -tempered exalts folly.

So just a reminder, keep your cool. And Proverbs 15, very familiar verses here, verse one, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Verse 18, a hot -tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. So you know,

Proverbs are not true all the time. As we just said, sometimes you may make people angrier by remaining calm, but a gentle answer turns away wrath, and so that can also be the result that people don't realize they're seeing

Christ in you, but you are displaying Him nonetheless. And more importantly, this isn't about you and how you're behaving, but it is about glorifying

Christ through that behavior, whatever the situation may be and whatever the outcome may be.

We live, respond, and react as Christ would have us live, respond, and react, and the outcome will be to His glory, regardless of what it is, because we have acted in a manner worthy of our calling, and we have reflected

Christ well. We are living demonstrations of the fruit of the

Spirit, are we not? When we're saved, we are transformed.

There is a transformation instantly upon being saved, and then we are progressively sanctified by the power of the

Holy Spirit. Of course, we are active in our sanctification as well, striving and seeking to look more and more like Christ through the enabling power of the

Holy Spirit, but this fruit of the Spirit, that's present in you when you're saved. Now, is it perfect? No, it's never going to be perfect until you get to heaven, so don't worry about that, but we strive for it, right?

And Galatians 5 .22 says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Against such things, there is no law. Love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

Let us demonstrate, be living demonstrations of that fruit of the Spirit that we are to display.

Paul goes on in verse 24 and says, now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, and crucifying that flesh with its passions and desires also means crucifying the desire to lash out in bad situations, and we may then find that we are persecuted, but let us be persecuted for Christ, not for our sin.

Now, all of that being said, while we are not promised a rose garden, that doesn't mean that our lives are always going to be only difficult.

Yes, we endure trials, we endure hardships, disappointments, and difficulties. I mean, rarely is life smooth sailing, right?

That's kind of difficult for us because we can look around and see others who seem to be having a smooth path, and maybe they are, maybe they just have a few little bumps right now, but trust me, in the past, they probably had their ordeals, and they probably have some coming.

It can be really difficult sometimes when we look around and we see the unbelievers around us just flourishing, right?

Everything's going great for them, they're just everything, you know? They're in such a great place in life, they're able to enjoy time with their family and do their hobbies on top of everything else they have to do, and just everything's going so well for that unbeliever.

Well, they may be having their best life now, but it's empty without Christ, whether they know it or not, and without Christ, this is all they have.

This is their best life right now. But as Christians, whether we are experiencing difficult times, or whether it's just kind of status quo, like things are okay, nothing major going on one way or the other, or whether we're experiencing an exceptionally good time, we have joy.

We have joy. As believers in Christ, we have joy in all circumstances.

Turn very quickly to another familiar passage, ladies, in James. James chapter 1, verse 2,

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. So there you go. We have joy in trials.

We have joy in trials, but that's not the only time we have joy. Philippians 4, verse 4 says, Rejoice in the

Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. Sometimes it's easy when things are going good for us not to rejoice in the

Lord, isn't it? Because things are going so well, and so you're not brought to your knees quite as often because things are going great, and you don't think about it, and that's wrong, that's sinful.

We rejoice in the Lord when times are good, when it's just status quo, or when it's really tough.

All of those situations. I mean, remember that Paul wrote Philippians from jail, and it is the book of joy.

It is all about joy. So many Christians, it seems to me, walk around looking really glum.

They're just kind of a depressing bunch of people, and I think, I don't know that I want to be associated with you, let alone talk to you, because I'm going to need

Prozac after our conversation. And I don't think it's even always due to unfavorable circumstances.

I think there are certain groups that just seem to think that, and I don't think it's a conscious thing, but I think they believe, for some reason or another, that in order to be a true

Christian, and to be properly pious, they have to be depressed, just constantly mourning their sin, m -o -u -r -n -i -n -g, mourning their sin just constantly.

Do we mourn our sin? Yes, but if you dwell on it, you're just going to be a big, walking, depressive person, depressing person.

So they just think they need to be just constantly mourning their sin, or at least pretending to, and then they're constantly judging others who maybe don't seem to be as depressed as them, so clearly they're not as convicted about their sin, and they're just always downcast.

It's like, for them, depression equals salvation, like, oh, I'm really bummed about how awful

I am. I must be saved. Yeah, that's not how that works.

Because if you are just constantly dwelling on how awful you are, then you don't understand the gospel.

Yes, we mourn our sin. We confess our sin to the Lord. We repent of our sin, even as believers we do that, because it brings us into fellowship with God.

It draws us closer to Him. It helps us in mortifying that sin. But if you sit around and dwell on it, nobody's going to want to be around you.

That is not the Christian life. It's just not.

Paul, who called himself the chief of sinners, who persecuted the church, who stood there while Stephen was stoned, did not walk around just constantly downcast and mourning his sin.

And, oh, I'm such a horrible person. No, I do the things

I don't want to do, and I don't do the things I do want to do. But in Christ, we are forgiven.

In Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit to mortify that sin and to grow and look more and more like Him.

In Christ, we have reconciliation with God, so that when we stand before Him, we are closed with the righteousness of Christ, His righteousness imputed to us, our sin imputed to Him at the cross.

Listen, friends, if that does not make you joyful, regardless of what your circumstances are, then there is no hope for you, because that is the most glorious news that anybody can ever hear.

So we mourn our sin, but we do not dwell on it as Christians. You cannot grow that way.

It will stunt your growth. Depression does not equal salvation. And sometimes

I wonder, there's so many biblical counseling resources out there, and I know some things are necessary, and I know things happen with people, and depression, clinical depression happens, and so I'm not trying to downplay any of that or the need for medication or anything to that effect.

That is not what we're talking about here. But I think sometimes we grab a book, well, this will make me feel better,

I'll read this book about depression, or I'll read this or that, and this counseling resource will help me.

Maybe we just need a better understanding of our salvation, and a better understanding of the gospel, and a better understanding of the hope and joy that should be ours in Christ, and is ours in Christ, if we would just lay hold of it and experience it and live it.

Our joy is in Christ, and that's why we read

His word to know Him more, that is why we pray to Him daily to draw us close to Him. We speak to Him through prayer,

He speaks to us through the Bible, and the more we know our

Savior, the more we know what it is to grow, to be like Him, the

Holy Spirit enables us to grow in godliness, the more empowered we are by His truth, the truth contained in His word, and we can stand firm on those truths in times of trial, we can stand firm on them when confronted with sin, we can stand firm on them in times of joy, and we can have joy in all of those circumstances, but we must have a better grasp and understanding of our

Savior, of our salvation, of the gospel, and I think that's so lacking today.

There's such an emphasis on sin that we forget the good news.

We're so busy convicting people of their sin that we forget the encouragement that is theirs in Christ Jesus.

So ladies, my encouragement to you today is to pray for joy, to pray that God would bring to mind the gospel in all situations for you so that you would have joy in all circumstances, remembering that ultimately this life is not all there is, there is eternal life with Christ, if indeed you have been saved by Him and He has brought you to repentance and faith, and that eternal life will be one of unimaginable bliss with our

Savior. The eternal inheritance that is ours in Christ is unfathomable.

And so if you're going to dwell on anything, ladies, dwell on that. Paul said that he boasted in Christ alone, and I would say dwell on Christ alone as well.

Boast only in Christ and dwell on Christ. Okay, ladies,

I think that's all for today, but maybe we'll talk a little bit more about joy in the future.

And until next time, ladies, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.

Thanks for listening. Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies, but beyond Sunday morning, are

Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name's Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.