Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I want to be the first to say to you here from the Thee Generation, Happy New Year. 2019 is here, and God knows that he wants to do something in each one of your lives in this 2019 year that is supernatural.

I want us to just reflect on a moment. I know at this time of the year we do reflect on where we’ve been, what God’s doing, and what we need to do here in this coming year, and steps we need to take, and things that we need to see God work in our lives. but I want to just challenge you with the pathway that God has given us in his word that brings us to maturity.

It’s a pathway that if you’re going to mature at all this year, you will have to be on it. It’s the only way that you cannot mature spiritually without this pathway. It’s a little simple truth found in James chapter number one, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations.

And here’s the phrase I want us to look at knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. That idea of perfection there is the idea of maturity, certainly not sinless.

We know from other passages of scripture, this side of eternity, that we will always have the possibility of sinning, and we certainly see that. So what’s this talking about? It’s talking about a pathway to maturity, and it tells us that the trying of your faith works patience.

Now, the first thing that will happen in 2019, I just want to warn you about, is your faith’s going to be tried. Now, the trying of your faith simply means this, that something is happening that seems to be contrary to what you’d think the Bible would say. You ever been struck with the verse, all things work together for good, and what you’re going through doesn’t seem like it’s going to work together for good?

That’s a trial of your faith, because what you’re going through, your experience, is not matching up with what the Bible says. Your faith is not tried when you can see it. I remember several years ago, 2005 to be exact, when our RV wrecked out in Wyoming.

For a few hours, it might have been a trial of faith. Lord, why? But it wasn’t long after that, we began to see answer to prayer after answer to prayer, God’s intervention after God’s intervention.

It’s a whole long story of God just doing marvelous things. So it wasn’t long before faith became sight. And we didn’t struggle with the trial of our faith because our faith wasn’t being tried.

It was clearly we saw what God was doing. Now, there might have been a trial at the very beginning, but it was fairly short because God began to immediately intervene. A trial of faith, then, is when you can’t figure it out.

God, why’d this have to happen? Or this doesn’t seem to be right. The trial of faith, the Bible says, works patience.

Now, what does patience mean? Now, obviously, patience has the idea it’s going to take longer than you want it to take. None of us like to think about that.

But the idea of biblical patience comes from two Greek words. One is the word hupo, which has the idea of under, and the other has the idea of is meno, which is translated often by the word abide. In John 15, it’s used several times.

The idea of patience is literally abiding under pressure. In other words, walking by faith, trusting God in the fire, or could we put it this way, trusting God in the furnace, in the frying pan, any way you want to put it that way. You understand in a trial saying, God, I’m going to walk with you and abide in you and trust you under these circumstances that I don’t like.

So the trial of faith means this. You have to make a decision. God, I can’t see what you’re doing.

I can’t figure it out. All looks bad to me, but I’m going to choose to trust you and to not get discouraged and disappointed. Have you ever gotten disappointed?

Can I say this reverently? Have you ever been tempted to be disappointed with God? The reason you would be disappointed God is because you somehow are in that moment where your faith is being tried, and you don’t see what God’s doing, and you can’t see what God’s doing, and you get disappointed instead of trusting him.

Now, the Bible says if you will believe in the Lord, you won’t be ashamed. That has the idea, in another passage, I think it says you won’t be confounded. It has the idea you won’t be disappointed.

And the point, friend, is simply this. Try it next time. When you’re tempted to be disappointed or to get discouraged.

And in a trial of faith, when what you’re going through seems not to match up with what you thought God was going to do or what some principle or passage of scripture, here’s what you need to do. God, I choose to trust you. I choose to trust you.

And here’s what you will learn to do. You will learn to trust God when you can’t see. You will learn to trust God under pressure.

You will learn to trust God in the frying pan or in the trial. That’s when your faith’s being tried. Now, God says it teaches you.

In other words, you cannot learn to walk by faith in the frying pan without the frying pan. Now, let’s just be honest. None of us like frying pans.

None of us like trials. None of us like it when we can’t see what God’s doing when it’s dark. But God says, that’s how I got to teach you how to believe.

I’ve got to teach you to trust me when you can’t see me. Trust me when you can’t figure it out. Trust me when there’s a trial, a faith issue at stake.

Now, the Bible says the trial of your faith works, teaches you how to walk by faith under pressure. And God says, now let that trial, that patience, that walking by faith under pressure have its perfect work, that you may be perfect in the entire, wanting or lacking nothing. So friend, it’s like this.

When you and I are in a situation, we can’t figure it out. And we say, God, I choose to trust you. I don’t see how you’re going to figure this out.

I don’t see how this is going to happen, but I choose to trust you. God says, that’s the way you to get Christian maturity. That patience, if you’ll let patience have its perfect work, and that simply means you don’t get out of the frying pan too soon.

In other words, you trust God to work it all together for good. God says, when you do that, that’s how you grow in maturity. That’s how your faith grows.

Now, friends, one year from now, you’re either going to be less mature or more mature. And can I tell you, what you do with those trials of faith are going to determine whether you grow or whether you go backwards. Because it’s all about faith.

It’s all about really trusting God when you cannot see. And it’s those moments, friends, that really do teach us that God’s working even when we can’t see him. I mentioned that RV wreck.

We were going down the highway, and that 35-foot trailer being towed behind our one-ton van began to weave going downhill, began to kind of wag like a dog’s tail. It became so violent that it pushed our vehicle onto the shoulder, which at that point happened to be flat, which was miraculous because since then it is a V for miles in both directions except for about a football field right there.

At that point, we ran off the road onto that flat spot. The trailer fell over and it was completely demolished. Now, obviously we were all shaken up.

Fortunately, none of us were hurt. It was, that was a miracle. And my wife was praying the entire time out loud.

And I know God heard her calling to me and I will answer thee. That’s another subject matter. But nonetheless, At that moment, it seems, Lord, what are you doing?

And again, for a few short hours, it would be hard, God, why did this happen? But you know what God did, so many miracles. But bottom line, he moved us to a fifth wheel trailer and a pickup truck and something much more stable, much more, that was much more, it was larger and more livable.

And God miraculously provided literally thousands of dollars for us to upgrade. And I could look back and say, you know, God was teaching many things. I couldn’t figure out for a while what he was doing, but then God began to encourage our faith.

And we realized, friends, that when bad things happen, it’s important to say, God, we choose to trust you. We don’t see what’s happening, but we choose to trust you. And so let me just encourage you to use those words next time when you’re tempted to get discouraged or disappointed, that you just simply say, no, God, I’m going to choose to trust you, even though I can’t figure it out.

I’ll just conclude with this little story. Several years ago, I heard the story of a man in the Depression who was a carpenter. And the Ladies Missionary Fellowship had gathered many materials together for an orphanage over in China.

And these ladies asked him to build some crates. He was a carpenter and send them to China. That’s what he did.

He spent some time building the crates, putting in the different items for the care package and nailed it shut and sent it over to China. And while he was driving home from the post office, he reached for his glasses. And they weren’t in his front pocket.

And he began to retrace the steps, where are my glasses? And then it hit him. They’d probably fallen out and were in that care package heading over to China.

And he cried out in despair. He said, oh God, I’m trying to serve you, and now this. Now you understand this is the Great Depression.

Money was not prevalent, and losing those glasses was a big loss. Well, time went on. About a year later, that missionary who was in charge of that orphanage was going to come to that small church in Chicago and give a report, and of course, this carpenter was interested, largely because of his glasses and his help with the situation, to wonder what happened.

So he came that night, sat in the back, and the missionary got up and was aglow. He says, I just wanted to tell this church, I’ve been so waiting to do this, but to tell you how much we appreciated that care package. But most of all, he said, I want to thank you for the glasses.

Of course, the ladies missionary fellowship began to look at one another and say, glasses? We didn’t give any glasses. Of course, the carpenter in the back, boy, he looked up, he perked up his ears.

He said, you know, he said the communists had come through and destroyed many things and my glasses were destroyed when they ransacked the orphanage. He said in wartime, it was impossible to get glasses in peacetime. It would have been difficult, but in wartime, impossible to get them replaced in China.

He said, as a result, I was having daily headaches and my staff was praying. He said, when your care package arrived and we took off the planks, and he said, they’re sitting on the top was a pair of glasses. He said immediately they brought them to me.

I tried them on. It was the perfect prescription, exactly what I needed. He said, I just want to tell you how much we appreciate those glasses.

By this time, the whole church was amazed. Where did those glasses come from? But there was a carpenter in the back of the church with tears streaming down his face.

And that carpenter realized that the master carpenter knew what he was doing. That’s the point, friend. I know we’ve gotten frustrated, just like that carpenter.

And we said, oh God, I’m trying to serve you. And now this. But let me encourage you, friend.

As soon as those thoughts hit your mind to say, no, say it out loud. God, I choose to trust you. You know what that is?

That is hupomeno. That’s when you can’t see, when you can’t figure it out. That’s the pathway to maturity.

And 2019, may it be filled with many of you listening to me saying, God, I’m choosing to trust you, even though I can’t figure it out. And I will tell you, that’s how you go to become perfect and entire, wanting or lacking nothing when your faith becomes strong. So that’s the pathway through the trial of faith.

2019 is going to have trials of faith for everybody listening. May you, by the grace of God. Tell God, I’m trusting you.

That’s what we’re talking about when we talk about total dependence. Remember the total surrender of the will of God, total dependence on his grace. The Lord.