Romans 5:3-5

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Did you just read what you just read? Is God really serious here in His word, that we have the ability through Jesus to actually rejoice when we suffer hardship? Was Paul crazy when he told us to rejoice when we run into problems and trials? This passage flies in the face of those who preach a theology of health, wealth, and prosperity. For it is here that the bible clearly teaches us to expect to experience trials and tribulations. Not only does the Bible tell us to expect problems in our Christian walk but it goes a step further to tell us that God actually allows them. Now we often respond to hardships and trials by asking the question “Why” it is our first reaction and it’s by no means wrong. In fact God wants us to know why and so He clearly states it here in His Word. God allows difficulties because difficulties develop us. As much as we dislike the difficulties the truth is challenges can cultivate our character. When we move beyond the place of constantly questioning God to a place of confidence as we put our hope and trust in Him we discover that God is developing our character through the trials. It is this strength, this character that enables us to hope in Christ when our difficulties seem hopeless. We may not like the challenges but when we realize that they develop Christlikeness in us not only will we embrace the trials but we will rejoice in them. Peter mentions this very fact to the suffering Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. A group of churches that experienced severe suffering when Nero the emperor of Rome was persecuting thousands of Christians by imprisonment, starvation, and death. I Peter 1:6-9, “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” The truth is out trials can be a benefit and not just a burden, because they can work for us and not against us. But only we can determine the course. So what does Paul mean when he tells us to rejoice when we run into trials? It’s here that we need a good definition of the word rejoice. The Amplified Bible describes rejoicing as “being full of joy right now, it means to exult in the triumph of our troubles. There is something powerful and magnetic about people who praise in the midst of their problems. The opposite is also true, there is something that repels us when we run into the woe is me Christian. This is the person that has never learned the principle of giving God praise in the times of trial. If you ask a “woe is me Christian how they are doing they will always answer by giving priority to their problems instead of the praise. They will talk about their troubles and trials more than they will about God and His truth. After talking to a woe is me Christian for about 5 minutes, because 5 minutes is about all you will be able to handle, you will feel like all the life has just been sucked out of you. If you are not careful they will pull you into their pity party, because woe is me people never like to party on their own. Instead of inviting you to join them in the joy they will drag you down and drown you in their junk. Why do they do this? Because a woe is me Christian has bought into Satan’s lie that all is hopeless and so they have lost their ability to exult in joy at the coming triumph of their trials. Why doesn’t God just deliver us from difficulty and keep us from experiencing pain? Because trials develop us in three areas of our lives, the first is:

• Endurance

The truth about trails is that when you are face to face with a difficulty you are actually up against a discovery. Think over the times in your life when you have faced trials, it is during these trying times that you have probably discovered something life-changing about Jesus? An attribute of God that you can anchor your hope on, knowing that when you face further difficulty in the future God can be trusted. To endure is the ability to carry through despite the hardship. Sometimes God allows difficulties in our lives to develop our endurance and teach us not to quit. When we do we learn the life-changing lesson that God can be trusted through all our trials. Take some time to read the following poem:

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When funds are low and debts are high,

And you want to smile but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As everyone of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don’t give up, though the paced seems slow –

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

It seems to a faint and faltering man;

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victors cup.

And he learned too late, when the night slipped down

How close he was to the golden crown

Success is failure turned inside out –

The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It might be near when it seems afar;

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

As a pastor, I often hear prayer requests to be delivered from difficulties, hardships, and trials. But often I can see the hand of God in them trying to teach the person something about themselves they never realized. Often it’s to trust Him in an area of their life they have never trusted Him in. Endurance teaches us quite confidence and trust in God. What about you do you have a proper perspective when it comes to trials do you see them as profitable or just as a problem?

Colossians 1:24-25

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. 25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness

It is here that Paul reminds us of our call as Christians, starting with what comes as not just a surprise but a shock for many Christians. For it is here that Paul reminds us to suffer joyfully for the Gospel. While many are shocked that suffering is part of serving, verse 24 makes it clear that Paul saw suffering as part of the job description of a Believer: “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Paul is in prison as he is writing this letter to the church at Colossae, yet instead of talking about his problems he is preoccupied with praise because he is focused on the privilege of serving and not the pain. The reason Paul is rejoicing in his suffering is because he understands that service involves sacrifice. Paul willingly and joyfully suffered as he served on behalf of others for the sake of the gospel. He saw pain as a part of proclaiming the gospel. The little word “now” at the beginning of the verse does more than just provide a transition. Paul is rejoicing precisely because of what he has just written and he’s rejoicing now in the present while he is in prison. Most of us spend our lives trying to get rid of suffering when it comes our way. When we’re in pain, our focus becomes removing and relieving, but Paul was different, his focus was on rejoicing. He found joy in the midst of the junk, in 2 Corinthians 7:4 he declares, “…In all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.” For Paul suffering was not some small fleeting season in his life, no his life plagued with pain and problems, just read 2 Corinthians 11:24-29. Prior to Paul’s conversion, he inflicted suffering on God’s saints, but after his salvation he suffer for them. From the very moment of his conversion, in Acts 9:16, Paul was told that difficulty was going to be part of his discipleship when Jesus said: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” Today many believers have bought into the lie that after they are saved everything will be great, that suffering and pain will no longer be a part of their life. Yet what we really see is that serving the Savior involves an element of suffering. Why are so many Christians limited in their service to the Lord, because at the first sign of suffering they stop serving. Their focus is fixed on feeling good instead of on following God. Paul was focused on a life of faith not on feeding the flesh and feeling good. When our focus becomes centered around feeling good instead of following God we start pursuing a pain free life instead of pursuing the provider of life. We become more concerned with our circumstances than we do with Christ. Now when Paul speaks of “filling up in his flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,” he is not implying that there is some insufficiency in what Christ accomplished on the cross. No, as Colossians 1:22 clearly states, we have been reconciled by “Christ’s physical body through death to present us holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” Christ’s death has brought us peace with God and there’s nothing left to be done, except to respond and receive what He has done on our behalf. You see the word “afflictions” is never used of the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, but instead refers to the “pressures” of life that Paul endured. Christ suffered in death to save the church, and now Paul suffered in life to spare it. John Piper says it this way “Christ’s cross was for propitiation; ours is for propagation. Christ suffered to accomplish salvation. We suffer to spread salvation.” Paul suffered for several reasons. First, he was suffering because of Jesus Christ and like the early believers in Acts 5:41, Paul rejoiced that he was “counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” Second, he suffered because of the Gentiles, those he sought to share the gospel with. Paul was committed to preach the gospel to all people, many of whom instead of responding with repentance responded in retaliation. In fact this is precisely why he was in prison, because he had taken the good news to the Gentiles, Acts 22:21-22. Unlike many believers today Paul had a proper perspective when it came to persecution, in Philippians 1:12 Paul wrote from prison: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.” Third, he suffered for the sake of Christ’s body, the church. As the believers saw him suffer, it gave them courage to face persecution in their own lives. Because the church is Christ’s body today, when Paul suffered, Christ suffered. What Jesus began as suffering with his persecution and rejection on earth, believers complete in His continuing body on earth. As such, we should not be surprised by suffering. The truth is we are going to go through tough and trying times. Jesus stated in John 15:20, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” Today we want to share in the promises we just don’t want to share in the suffering and persecution. We want the good news we just don’t want the groaning. Paul’s perspective on persecution, difficulty, and suffering can help us when affliction visits our life. Verse 24 reminds us to suffer joyfully for the gospel. But in order to sing in the suffering we have to keep the following in mind: Suffering is part of serving, difficulties are part of discipleship. Christ followers are recognized by the trials they endure because they follow a suffering Savior. 1 Peter 4:12 says: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” We can come closer to Christ when we go through trials, Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in death.” Suffering is a privilege not a pain as 1 Peter 4:13 says: “But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” Persecution is profitable because suffering deepens and develops us, Romans 5:3-4: “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” So let me ask you how far are you willing to go in suffering for the gospel? Are you spending more time trying to avoid adversity than you are proclaiming the Almighty? The painful truth is that many of us would be better off if we faced some persecution.