[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning, church man.
That good or what?
If you're not awake and excited after that, check your pulse.
So glad that you were here this morning. How awesome was it, those six baptism? Can we give God some glory for that?
What some of you don't know is we had seven in the first service, so that's 13 for the weekend.
God is doing something. I don't know if you feel it, but he's doing something and he's good. We have been in our series called A Life that Matters.
And Pastor Bill has gone through a life that I live, a love that I lavish a load that I lift, a legacy that I leave. And today we're gonna finish out the series with lessons on.
And it's important to learn lessons in life for many reasons, but I think there's two probably main reasons.
The first reason is you wanna learn it for yourself.
You wanna learn life lessons so you don't make the same mistakes over and over and over again. You wanna learn things that are gonna help you have a happy and healthy life. Life.
Another reason most of us want to learn lessons is because we want to pass our lessons on to our family, to our kids, maybe to our grandkids, if we get that opportunity. I remember for me one day, my granddad, who was married to my grandmother for over 63 years before she passed away, and they were happy and in love and even till the very end. And so I asked him one day, I said, granddad, what's behind it? Like, how did you have such a happy, healthy, long marriage? And without hesitation, he looked me in the eyes and he said, I learned how to say, yes, ma'. Am.
Now, ladies, that's not an opportunity for you to nudge your spouse next to you, but there's something to that.
The great biblical prophet Bruce Lee once said, instead of buying your children all the things you never had, you should teach them all the things you were never taught.
Material wears out, but knowledge stays.
Francis Bacon said it this way, knowledge is power.
But when is the best time to actually learn life lessons? And so, believe it or not, there's a lot of research out there.
That talks about the neuroscience of learning life lessons. But not only that, but when is the most opportune time for people to learn these lessons?
It was a study like the Harvard Grant study, where they studied for over 85 years, 700 men, and later came back and studied their families. And what they learned for these men is that the study revealed that positive relationships are the strongest predictor of a happy, healthy life, even outweighing fame or wealth. The study implied that life lessons accumulate through social bonds, through relationships, which reduces loneliness and promotes adaptive behaviors which help them apply the lessons to their life.
According to this study and many others that I saw, they kind of came up with the same end game that the richest opportunities for life lessons happen during difficult events.
So what does that mean for us?
Well, in my short life, I can tell you that we're gonna have plenty of opportunities to have life lessons, because life is full of difficult events, life is full of tough situation, and life is full of hard times.
So how do we learn? I think there's three different camps.
And how you learn, there's the first camp, which you would rather watch someone, you would rather learn from someone. Whether it's you listen to life experiences they've been through. Maybe it's the mistakes they've made in life and they tell you, and you're like, I'm gonna log that away, so I never have to go through that. Right? Maybe it's you like to read books or you like to listen to podcasts, and it's things that can help you where you're not gonna make some mistakes that you might make otherwise.
Then there's the second group. The second group is I have to learn things my way, and the hard way, I have to experience it myself.
Right? How many of you? That's you.
Okay. How many of you, you like to learn from other people so you don't have to experience those things. Okay? And then I came up with a third group.
And this is the group that in your heart of hearts, you want to be able to listen when watch, read, whatever it may be to learn from other people, but yet it never fails.
You don't apply that to your life, and you have to do it on your own, and you have to learn the hard way.
How many of you? That's you. Okay? So I came up with a name for this group, and it's called the Hot Plate People.
And what I mean by that is when you're at a restaurant and the waitress comes over and sets your plate down, she gets your attention.
She looks at you in the eye. You look at her in the eye and she says, this plate is extremely hot.
And you acknowledge. You shake your head up and down. And as soon as she walks away, what do you do? You touch the stinking plate.
You wanna learn from listening, but you have to learn by doing it yourself.
And the thing about life is that hot plates are inevitable.
John 16:33 says this. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. And get this in the world you will have tribulation.
What's interesting about in this chapter 16, John 13 through 17 is known as Jesus farewell discourse, meaning these are the words that he's telling his disciples that the night before he is going to be crucified.
He is setting them up for what is about to come. He's preparing them.
He says, in this world you will have tribulations and you will have trouble. The Greek word actually means for trouble means pressure and affliction.
It's acknowledgement of life's hardship.
He doesn't sugarcoat the human condition or the cost of discipleship. He shoots straight with them. He says, persecution, loss and struggle is going to happen, guaranteed, especially for those who follow Jesus.
So what should be our response to that? Here's what I think.
Don't waste your troubles, don't waste your trials.
Don't waste the tribulation in your life. Because it's bigger than you having a good life, which is awesome, and I want that for you. It's bigger than your spouse being happy, which I hope we all want that right?
But it's spiritual.
It's connected to God and what God wants to do to you through this time, but also through you. For other.
Let me show you what I mean. The first thing Difficult Times does is it builds character. If you're taking notes, write that down. It builds character. Romans 5, verse 3 tells us this.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.
That's not what we're taught, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Why?
Because knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
God has purpose for our pain.
He uses these difficult seasons that we go through to grow perseverance, to deepen our character and to strengthen our. Our hope. And we see it throughout the Bible in characters like Joseph.
We see him go through a lot of stuff, but yet he stays faithful. And we see God bless him. Let me show you. He's the favored son of Jacob, and because of that, his brothers are jealous and they get him sold into Slavery sound like your family?
No.
They're jealous because the father gave him a coat to show that he's his favorite. But they're also jealous and upset because he had these dreams and he interpreted these dreams and they didn't like what he interpreted, so they get him sold off into slavery. When he's there, he works for Potiphar and he gets accused of something horrible and he gets imprisoned. Wrongly. Falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned. Not a great thing, right? But while he is there, he begins to interpret the dreams of those that are there, including the guards.
And so when the king has a dream that no one could interpret, guess who they go and tell? They go tell the king, hey, we got this guy. He seems to know what he's doing, so he brings it. He's the only person that's able to interpret the king's dream, which leads him to be up the ranks to number two.
He's just under Pharaoh. He's number two in command, number two in charge.
And the dream that he interpreted actually came true. Seven years of great harvest. Seven years of nothing.
And so they saved that food. So everybody had to come to the kingdom to receive food so that they could continue to live. And guess who came in that moment desperate? His family, including his brothers.
In that moment, he was able to forgive them.
He was able to save them. He was able to give them what they needed to survive. Later on, we see that his brothers came and apologized and asked for his forgiveness. What they meant for harm, God intended for good.
James 1:2 says this. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
It builds you up to be able to deal with life later, to handle things differently as you go. Because God wants to use you. He wants to use your pain for the second point this morning to become comfort. To become comfort.
You become. I become. This is what I've learned about myself. And you may not. If you don't know me, you don't know. You're like, you're a pastor. How dare you.
I struggle with empathy.
Now, I have compassion for people, but empathy is something I struggle with. My first response when I meet with somebody in my head a lot of times, if they're telling me something I wanna say, come on, let's suck it up, let's pull our boots off and let's get through this.
That's not empathy. Empathy is when you empathize with them and what they are going through. Here's what I've learned I am more compassionate, I am more empathetic to somebody in their situation when I in turn have gone through the same situation.
When I've experienced something in my life, I am able to comfort and show compassion to somebody differently than than someone who may not have experienced that. That doesn't mean you can't comfort and show compassion, but it's just different.
And God wants to use that to help other people. Second Corinthians, verse one says this.
God comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
He shows us compassion and comfort in our time of need so that we are able to show that same comfort and compassion to others who are going through the same thing.
The compassion we receive in sorrow equips us to walk alongside others when they need comfort.
God uses your story of healing for his glory and the benefit of others.
In 1935 in Akron, Ohio, there was a New York stockbroker and a local doctor who were hopeless alcoholics, major problem, major struggle with alcohol. They began to meet together and then they decided they were gonna go get the help of a local Episcopal church to give them some spiritual guidance that maybe could help them get through this.
Both of them end up becoming sober. They find sobriety, but because of that, they wanna not just live in that, they wanna help other people that struggle with the same thing.
So they began to meet with people who were alcoholics, who were struggling in hospitals and things like that. They began to go and meet with them and share and give them tools and resources that maybe can help them.
And along with those two men and the first client they ever had that found sobriety, they began to meet on a consistent basis and became the very first group for aa Alcoholics Anonymous.
And to this day in aa, the leaders of the group were also a part of the group.
They help people with their struggles because they have been with those same struggles.
And the last thing that we see that it can bring, our trials and tribulations can bring is it brings communion.
And this is the biggest one, brings communion. Psalm 34:18 says this.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
Sorrow is a part of the human experience. And the Bible even says that Jesus was once called a man of sorrows.
And the thing is, is when we go through things that are painful, God does not distance himself from us.
It's the opposite when we go through struggles, trials, tribulations, God actually draws near to us.
A few years ago, I was at a conference, and I heard this pastor talk about this group of Korean missionaries in 2007 who were captured in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
They were there to spread the gospel, and the Taliban captured them.
And it was interesting to hear the reflection from the pastor as he told the story of when they first got in there and they were captured. They. They knew that they were gonna be killed.
And so they began to argue. And you're like, what are they gonna argue about at this moment? They began to argue about who was gonna be the first one to step up and say, I'll be killed first.
The pastor was saying, well, I'm the leader of this group. I'm a little bit old. I'm gonna be the first one. I nominate my. And then, no, no, it shouldn't be you, Pastor. You know, you. It shouldn't be you. And they would argue back and forth, but the other thing they did is they had a small Bible that was hidden because they took all their stuff, but one of the guys had a Bible, and they knew they were about to be separated and be alone, so they began to tear out pages of the Bible and give them to everybody so they could hide them away so when they were alone, they could have something to read and connect with God.
Well, they. Eventually they got rescued, but. But not before two of them were murdered.
And when they got back, the pastor would reach out to the people in the group, consistently checking on them, meeting with them, seeing what they needed.
And he talks about this one lady that he met with who was in this group that went on this trip, and she had a very strange question that kind of threw him off.
She asked him, do you miss it?
And he was like, why do I miss. What do you mean, do I miss it?
She goes on to say, since I've returned home, I've gone to church faithfully. I've been in my Bible every day. I've been in Bible study. I've been in prayer. I have fasted. And I can't seem to find that intimacy and closeness that I had with when I was in that cell thinking I was gonna be murdered.
There's something about when we're in the middle of something that seems like we're never gonna get out, where God shows up and draws close to us.
Let me show you. In the Bible, you have. In Acts, you have Stephen, the first martyr of the church. And Stephen is bold, and he is telling everybody about Jesus and what Jesus is here to do. And How Jesus is gonna save. How Jesus is the son of God. And. And he's boldly preaching. And a lot of people are getting upset.
The Bible says that they are getting angry. They begin to gnash their teeth.
And he's sitting there watching these people come towards him. They pick up stones. Cause they're gonna stone him to death. And in this moment, Stephen says that the heavens opened up and he saw Jesus at the right hand of God.
Even while they're killing him.
He's in this moment where he has an intimacy with God. He asks for forgiveness for those that are murdering him in the moment.
It's not just New Testament. We see it in the Old Testament in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They say, I will not bow down to the king's idol. I only bow down to God. He is my God.
And because of that, they're gonna throw them in the fiery furnace.
Most of us, you've heard the story. But the thing is, as they're throwing them in, the guards who were throwing them in, they weren't even going into the furnace. They're throwing them in to the furnace. It's so hot that the guards actually die.
So you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Bendigo in the fiery furnace. The next day, the king comes back, and he looks in and he says, who are these four that are walking amongst the flames?
Because Jesus was with them. The Lord was with them during this time.
In our pain, in the stories that we read of trouble and trials, it never fails that God is. Isn't present.
But we have to remember this.
Whatever you're going through this morning, the devil loves it.
The devil is a liar. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And what he wants you to do when you're walking in the middle of this is he wants you to stop. He wants you to give up and say, I can't go on.
I mean, we see it. Let me show you. We're not gonna have it on the screen, but I have my Bible. Good thing, right? Amen.
I wanted to show you this too. Cause it's kind of appropriate with what I'm about to tell you is. So this is my Bible. I love this Bible. I keep it by my bed and take it with me everywhere.
One thing we're doing in MET Youth is we're encouraging all the students to actually bring their physical Bibles. And they're like, why? It's on my phone. But here's what I know about your phone is you can be. Which is awesome. The Bible app's awesome. The. But as soon as I'm on there, I'm reading, I get a text or I get an email or I get a phone call. There's so many things that can interrupt, but if I'm just in this, it's just me and God. So we're encouraging all our kids to bring their Bibles. So if you see kids with their Bibles, tell them that's awesome. Encourage them. And I bet the first time we had them do this, there were probably 126 kids on a Wednesday night for our my night. I bet you 80 kids had their Bible.
I had him raise him up, and it was exciting. I got pumped. Anyway, this is my Bible. And a few years ago, we had a sweet little dog, and he was old and blind, but he had a nose to find my stuff on the side of my bed. And he started to chew on. You know, he was eating God's Word, which I'm not against that, but.
And so. But people are like, why don't you just get a new Bible? And I'm like, man, but this means something to me because it reminds me that sometimes life chews you up. But God's word is always true and always faithful. And so, you know, in Matthew 4, we see that Jesus has been fasting. He's been fasting for 40 days, right? And if you know anything about me, you know, I can go a couple hours and I'm hangry. And if you want to mess with me, that's the best time to do it. And so Satan knows that, too. Satan's good at what he does. He's not as good as God, but he's good at what he does. And so he comes and he tries to tempt Jesus in those 40 days. And so let me show you what he says.
He says, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread, right? He's been fasting. He's hungry. But he answered, this is Jesus. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So Jesus, in rebuttal to to Satan, does what? He quotes scripture. Okay, so Satan, the devil, took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple up top. And he said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, Satan quotes scripture to Jesus. He says, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Well, here's what's interesting, he quotes Psalm 91. Okay, so I'm gonna go to Psalm 91 and I'm gonna show you. He quotes verses 11 and 12.
For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
But he stops there.
Satan does what is convenient for Satan, and he wants to lead you to think that whatever you're going through, you need to give up and stop there.
But can I show you what happens if you keep going?
Verse 13.
Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. 13 says, you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent names for Satan you will trample under foot.
Jesus already has the victory.
If you're a follower of Christ, Jesus has victory in your life over the trials, the tribulations, the struggles that you're going through.
Jesus has victory over your sin and my sin for what he did on the cross for us.
Jesus has victory. Satan says to stop.
Jesus says, keep going. And I'm gonna show you the victory that you have because of me.
Listen to this.
Romans 8 says, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Keep going.
I know it's hard.
I know you feel like you're alone. I know you feel like I'm the only one that's ever gone through this. Even though that's not true, don't listen to the lies. Believe the truth that the victory's already been won. And the victory is the verse I read at the very beginning.
John 16:33. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.
I don't know if you noticed, but I stopped.
I didn't read you the whole verse.
But what happens if you keep going?
It goes on to say this, but take heart.
I have overcome the world.
Can I get an amen?
If you are a follower of Christ, you need to hear this this morning.
You're on the winning team.
You're on the winning team. The victory has already been won through Jesus and what he did for us.
That doesn't mean that we're exempt from hard times. It doesn't mean that we're exempt from trials or tribulations. It means that God wants to make us even more like Christ. When we go through all of those things this morning, I want you to invite God to meet you in your heart where there's pain.
To meet you there, to bring you comfort, to Meet you there to grow your character, to use every sorrow for the good of others and for the glory of Jesus.
So I thought, since I'm talking about lessons and I'm so old and wise from this message, what could be a simple lesson that we can take away from this?
And this is what I have.
Life is hard.
God is good.
Don't run from either.
Let's pray.
God, we ask this morning for some of us who are in the middle of something very difficult, for some of us who just came out of something very difficult, and for some of us who are about to walk into something very difficult.
God, we pray that our eyes would be open to see what you want to do through our trials, what you want to teach us, what you want to show us how you want to use us.
And God, we pray this morning that we commit to being open to whatever it is.
And we ask you to use us to help others who are going through the same things we've been through and overall to bring glory to you.
Use us, God, to bring people closer to you.
May we always see the great things that you're doing in our lives.
May we always say thank you and may we keep going, no matter what we're facing, because we know that through Jesus, victory is on the other side.
We love you and we thank you for your word today.
May we not just hear these words, but be doers of the Word. May we apply what we've heard today to our lives so that we can draw close to you, so we can build our kingdom, character, and God so we can help others.
We love you and we thank you. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: Sa.
