Phil 2 JSC, How Do You Handle Tough Times

This message originally delivered August 18, 1991.  

Episode Transcript

Kimber Kauffman (00:00):
Have you turned First Peter, chapter one, and

(00:04):
look with me to verses six andforward. It says this. In this
you greatly rejoice, though now,for a little while, you may have
had to suffer grief and allkinds of trials. These have come
so that your faith of greaterworth than gold which parishes,

(00:26):
even though refined by fire, maybe proved genuine, and may
result in praise, glory andhonor when Jesus Christ is
revealed. We're now in oureighth week in studying the
Bema. We got sidetracked intostudy through Philippians on the
Bema. And we've now beenstudying it for eight some
weeks. And we can see now everytime I think it's about to
close, I can see about threemore weeks on the horizon. But I

(00:49):
will say to you that the Bemateaching teaching about the Bema
that is the judgment forbelievers, the believers will be
judged and teaching about theBema cuts at the very heart of
Pharisee ism. If you want toknow something that a Pharisee
can't stand, it's this teachingabout the Bema. Why because the
beam is the opposite of aPharisee. For instance, a
Pharisee wants to feel superiorand be judgmental and look down

(01:12):
on people and despise them. Youcan't do that because Romans 14
has written about the Bema Youbetter not do that because
you'll give account of yourselfyou've got enough to worry about
in that aspect. Or the Phariseewants to see results now whereas
the Bema says you may not alwayssee results until the future day
the Pharisee wants to look goodexternally as long as he's looks

(01:34):
right dresses right goes theright places says the right
things. He's gonna be alrightwith God as long as he's alright
with the people of Godsupposedly. Yet, the Beeman says
no, God is going to judge themotives of our hearts. God is
going to scrutinize the Aryantest the very thoughts of our
hearts. So you see Bhimateaching cuts at the very heart
of Pharisee ism, it also cuts atthe very heart of our secular

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society. Do you know whatsecular means? secular means
now. Now this means living inlight of the present, you know,
the beer commercial, you only goaround once, right? That's the
whole idea. So go for all thatyou can living as if there were
no tomorrow one theologian saidthis. People today feel lost in
astray. Modern art, poetry andnovels or five minutes of

(02:19):
conversation with any sensitiveperson will assure us of that.
It may seem odd that this is soin an era when we have more
control over the forces ofnature than ever before. But it
is really not. It is God'sjudgment which we have brought
down on ourselves by trying tofeel get this too much at home
in this world. For that is whatwe have done. We refuse to

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believe that once you live forsomething more than this present
life, that listen, we refuse tobelieve that once you live for
something more than this presentlife, even if we suspect the
materialists are wrong anddenying that God and another
world exists, we have notallowed our belief to stop us by
living on materialisticprinciples. We have treated this

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world as if it were our onlyhome we shall ever possess and
we concentrate exclusively onarranging it for our comfort. We
thought we could build heaven onearth. We just concentrate and
focus now. Now now, well, whatis the Bema some of you can
groan because you're gonna seesome of these again, but they're
quickly and you gotta remembersome people are here for the
first time they need to learnabout it that they have it. The

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Bema is talking about the greatjudgment. At physical death,
there'll be a judgment forbelievers called the Bema. A
judgment for unbelievers calledthe Great White Throne. The Bema
is again for believers it has todo with reward or loss of
reward. Again, I say thiswithout trying to wear you out
Heaven will not be the same foreveryone. Make sure you
understand that because this hasbeen misunderstood in Christian

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circles. Hell will not be thesame for everyone. Clearly the
Bible teaches degrees ofpunishment in hell and degrees
of reward or loss of reward inheaven. Something else here's a
new one for you so you can learnsomething new when it comes to
the Bema it's a matter of thisis for believers and it's a
matter of reward or loss ofreward. Notice it says things

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like this gold, silver, costlystones or loss of reward wood,
hay and stubble, which will beburned up as Christ eyes, try
our lives. The Bema well donegood and faithful servant That's
what Jesus says where he sayswicked lazy servant. You didn't
use the talent that I gave you.
Or this treasure and haverheaven no treasure rejoicing
great rejoicing sadness, a richwelcome or lack thereof ruling

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Dominion or lack thereof crowdsand honors or lack thereof
repaid for doing good or repaidfor doing evil. Scriptures teach
there's gonna be a day whenbelievers will be judged.
Remember, though, veryimportantly, that we're not
talking about salvation. Yoursalvation is dependent upon
faith in Christ Jesus, themoment you receive Christ, you

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will be in heaven. It's byfaith. It's a free gift. It's
the doctrine of grace. It'sGod's work for man. It affects
Your eternal position is basedon a one event, you come into
faith in Christ, and it bringsentrance into heaven. However,
the beam our heavenly roars issomething quite different. It's
works of service, compensation,man's work for God, such and

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such. And all through the agesof the church, different people
have believed that and it justseems like it's been sort of
slack in recent years in theChristian church. How does God
motivate fear of punishment,hope of reward love of God, how
does Christ motivate fear ofpunishment, hope of reward love
of God, how did the apostlesmotivate fear of punishment,

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hope of reward love of God, butI bet you that most of your life
you've even been motivated,you've either been motivated by
fear of punishment, or love ofGod, but you've never also seen
hope of reward, which was one ofthe great things. Remember, Paul
said, they do it to get acorruptible crown, we do it to
get an incorruptible crown. It'sone of his great motivations. In
case you're wondering. Evenmore, I want you to see this

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famous quote that I found thisweek. As CS Lewis points out
that listen what Lewis said, ifyou read history, you will find
that the Christians who did mostfor the present world were just
those who thought most of thenext, the apostles themselves
who set foot on the conversionof the Roman Empire, the great
men who built up the MiddleAges, the English evangelicals,

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who abolish the slave trade, allleft their mark on Earth
precisely because their mindswere occupied with heaven. It is
since Christians have largelyceased to think of the other
world, that they have become soineffective in this. Many
Christians, however, do not readhistory, and so are unaware how

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wrong the Marxists are and howright Louis is now now we're
going to jail packers quote. Atthis point, they again, those
who live then again, those wholive in the post Christian West
breathe every day the poisongas. So we may call it a
materialistic secularism in boththe popular form of the media
and its sophisticated form thearts of higher education. This
damages our spiritual eyes,lungs and heart, destroying both

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the vision of and the passionfor realities beyond the present
world, order of space and time.
The combined force of thesefactors have made Western
Christianity this worldly in away that can only be described
as a radical distortion. That ispowerful. Do you understand
that? The great men of God, thegreat women of God down through

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the ages that have affected thislife the most had been those
who've had their minds on thenext life. Paul said in Romans
three, if you've then been withit, risen with Christ, seek
those things which are aboveJesus Christ said, Woe unto you
that are comfortable now. grobywords, the day in which we live,

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important, very important toconsider one last one I want you
to see, these are long quotes,but they're important. I put
them up here, you can get copiesof these if you want. Does the
world around us seek pleasure,profit and privilege? So do we,
we have no readiness or strengthto renounce these objectives for
we have recast, get this, wehave recast Christianity into a
mold that stresses happinessabove holiness, blessings here

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above blessedness. Hereafterhealth and wealth is God's best
gifts and death, especiallyearly death, not as a thank
worthy deliverance from themiseries of a sinful world, the
view that the old Anglicanprayer book expressed, but as
the supreme disaster and aconstant challenge to our faith
in God's goodness, is ourChristianity now out of shape?
Yes, it is. And the basic reasonis that we have lost the new

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testament to the worldperspective that views the next
life as more important than thisone and understands life here as
essentially preparation andtraining for life hereafter, and
we shall continue out of shapetill this proper other
worldliness is recovered. We canread on but that's powerful

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enough, as you see it, so thickwith me now.
Think with me, concerning howimportant the beam is to affect
our lives, we are supposed to bethinking Bhima we are supposed
to have Bhima mines, we aresupposed to remember that every
single day even the most mundanetask will be evaluated in light

(09:11):
of the beam and it is notlisten, it is not just to
discourage us. I want to saylast week's message if you
remember, I was going to preachto you on the Bema in light of
tough times. And all we gotthrough was the introduction.
And the reason for that is westarted I started realizing
again how even the men who knewChrist the best John who walked
with Him who loved him whom wetrust, trusted his mother tubes
while he was on the cross. Allof this the one who laid his

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head on Jesus wasn't even heconsidering and facing the
judging Christ fell at his feet,though dead in horror. And some
people asked me afterwards willkill I'm a little confused. Does
that mean we're going to bekilled but held accountable for
our sins? No. Christ paid forour sins, we will not be held
accountable for our sins. Butwhat you need to understand very
clearly is this. It is not thesin that John fell at his feet

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because he felt he was such asinner. He knew he had been
forgiven. It was the awesomepresent So the Holy God. And the
reason we cannot reallyunderstand that is our view of
God is he's some little buddyout there to sort of help us
through some dark our. Andbasically, when we're doing
good, we don't need them. And soit's a view of God that causes
the men to fall at their facebefore God. And so we have
considered things concerning theBema, such as a criterion for

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judgment of the beam as such asthis, how you treat other people
will be criterion for how you'reevaluated the Bema. How you deny
self, will be some criterion forhow your handle will be now this
week trying to catch up the lastweek, how do you handle tough
times? Now, the Bibleemphatically links, trials,

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tough times sufferingpersecution with the Bema and
with glory of heaven. Jesus saidthis, or Paul said this, all
that live godly in Christ, Jesusshall suffer persecution. Now
listen, without a doubt, trialsdifficulty suffering, the
problems come into the life ofthe believer, all sunshine makes
the desert, there they come fora purpose. However, I want us to

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make sure we stay balanced,because this has to be a heavy
message talking about how trialswill be part of the criteria for
judgment, the Bema how youhandle tough times. But one of
the things that I think isessential is that you also
understand that there is to bethe other side. And that is,
just because I'm going to speakso much about trials and how
they shape us. It doesn't meanthat we are not also to enjoy

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the wonderful times ofrelaxation that we have now in
this life. One man saidcertainly a rhythm of life, that
includes relaxation is right.
The fourth commandment showsthat alternating hard labor with
fun times is right. All work andno play makes Jack a dull boy,
you get this. Jesus so oftenwent to banquets, the fun times

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of the ancient world. And he gotcalled a glutton and a drunkard
for doing so. You were aroundJesus, man, he had good times.
Do you think children like torun up and be with somebody
that's walking around like this?
No. Why did the children loveJesus so much? Because he was in
the life he loved it. I bet youhe loved looking out upon the

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Sea of Galilee. I bet you loveto see the fish that were caught
the sunrise, the sunset,enjoying the breeze, all of that
it had to be absolutelywonderful for him. It is part of
discipline of gratitude to ourCreator, that we praise Him and
thank Him for the experiences oflife, the good vacations, the
wonderful events that we get togo on and have. And for us to

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miss this is to completely missit. Otherwise, we'll have our
minds so much over on all theChristian life's trials. Oh,
it's bad. Listen, do enjoy agood conversation with a friend
over a hot cup of coffee.
sitting out in the sunshine inthe back patio somewhere does
your heart leaf and prays toGod? You should it's from him?
Do you enjoy that? First, I amso pumped that when you first
get in the car to take off onthat vacation, and you just go

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on down the road and you realizetwo weeks or you got 10 days or
I got 48 hours or whateveryou've got, you know, I'm so
glad for this. Yes, we need topraise God we need to be
thankful to him. Listen,unbelief makes us fear that God
is hard and unfriendlytaskmaster, who will be grudge
us pleasure and require us to dothings that we do not want to do

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and cannot enjoy. Unbelief doesthat of you have got the reason
in so many fundamental churchesthat the young people are so
sick of what goes on in thechurch is because everyone in
the church has made it seem likeif you're a good Christian, you
won't do anything that's fun.
You'll never enjoy anything.
What a bunch of baloney. Listento this famous him for some of

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the verses that you don't knowcome we that love the Lord and
let our joys be known. Join in asong with sweet accord and thus
around the throne. Get this thesorrows of the mind be banished
from the place. Religion neverwas designed to make our
pleasures less. So many peopleout of bad testimony because
they don't enjoy life. Iremember after I first became a

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Christian, one of my old buddieswho was unsaved invited me over
to his house for a weekend hewas one of my best friends
before it was a Christian. I hadmoved away and I went back to
see him. He says, Hey, you wantto do this? No, you want to do
this? No. Because I had abouttwo months of telling me all the
things that you're not supposedto do. If you're a Christian,
I'll tell you something. I neverinvited me back and he wasn't
interested to hear about Christ.
Why? Because there wasn'tanything I can do.

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Isaac Watts said, concerningChristianity, some people
believe it breeds gloom.
Actually, it drives gloom outsin is what brings sorrow but
piety produces pleasure. Weought to be thankful to God and
enjoy God for the blessings ofthe good times. I'll tell you, I
had a struggle with this thefirst few years of the ministry.
I'll tell you why. I got tunedin and turned on by the doctrine

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of man's depravity you all knowthat they actually nicknamed me
the depravity pastor back inworry when I was over there.
Okay, Mr. depravity. I got sotuned on to the Bible teaches
about the helplessness of manapart from God's good Raise,
there's nothing man can do. Itcame as a revelation from God
that literally knocked me off myfeet. Nothing filled my heart
with more excitement than toconsider the truth of man's

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depravity. At the same time, Ithen started to see about
justification. I stood righteousbefore God, but you know what? I
was reading certain writers andI was listening to certain
preachers, and everything was sosober and so serious. And I
started thinking, you know, Imust be a terrible preacher,
because I get excited aboutpreaching. I really love it. And
I'm sort of happy about it. Ilove to laugh, you know. Then I

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would listen to Chuck Swindoll.
And I'd hear him laugh. You everhear him preach right in the
middle of one of his sermons?
Like that. I thought that guydoes not know what I know, you
know. But you see, there's thatbalance. And finally, I've
understood there's a time tomourn, there's a time to
rejoice. There's a time andthere's a balance for both. And

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I want to say that what hasoften happened in fundamentalist
Christians accepted, especiallyBaptist fundamentalism, I want
to tell you, there has been thisput down of worldliness as if
the things of the world are notto be enjoyed. Listen, sin is to
be hated. But the world is to beenjoyed by God's people, you
must understand that there's abig difference. And one of the

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reasons that we have so turnedoff our young people and so
turned off so many Christians iswe've made it seem as if the
world has nothing to enjoy.
Because all you can do islisten, if you're really going
to be happy, just read yourBible read biographies of people
that live the missionary life,and, and pray. And then you
know, I guess you could gobowling and rollerskating you

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know, something like that. Andwe've we've ruined the outlook
of life instead of enjoying andpraising God. Now listen,
there's also a very balancehere. Some people will only want
to emphasize this best aspect ofChristianity. Some people, all
they want to do is joins happymama, you know, Jesus has never
recorded his laughing, but he'soften recorded his crying. So

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there's always this balance.
We've got to keep this in mind.
In fact, so much so do we needto keep this in mind that it's
not just this because we'retalking about trials today, at
least we're supposed to getthere and talk about trials. But
anyway, Tim massengill, our newintern, we wrote a song and I
want us maybe to considersinging that right now. You
know, the tune to give me thatold time religion, you know that

(17:16):
song? Okay. You know, it says,give me that old time religion.
You know how it goes. You knowhow it goes. Alright, well,
listen, I want you to considersinging this with me. I don't
really expect you to, but I'llsing it for you. This is the
first verse we're gonna havemore verses. But then we started
realizing that people that onlywant pleasure and only want that
one side of Christianity wouldnever say more than one verse
anyway. All right. So here's howit goes. I don't want to hear

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about self denial. I just wantto relax for a while don't want
to go the extra mile that's notgood enough for me you like it?
Want to try with me? Don't wantto hear about self denial. Just
want to relax for a while. Don'twant to go that extra mile.
That's not good enough for me.
Here's the course I think you'regonna like it. Give me that hot
tub religion. Give me that hottub religion. Give me that hot

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tub religion for it's goodenough for me, Kevin. Tim, we
think we may go famous on this.
All right. Look, that's thebalance. I want to make sure you
see it. But what we're talkingabout is the Bema. In regard to
handling tough times, you're infirst Peter to look what it
says. Did you see the beam here?
I'm wondering if you did. FirstPeter chapter one, verse six

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says this. In this you greatlyrejoice, though now for a little
while, you may have had tosuffer grief and all kinds of
trials get this now, two partstwo parts as to why trials come.
Number one, these have come sothat your faith of greater worth
than gold which parishes eventhough refined by fire may be

(18:43):
proved genuine, and may resulthere's the Bema and praise,
glory and honor when JesusChrist is revealed to aspects
which you must see concerninghow to handle tough times in
regard to the Bema. And that isthis, your faith may be proved
genuine. That's the here and nowyou understand in the here and

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now. A faith that can't betested, can't be trusted. One
man said it's important to knowthat trials come into our life,
so that our faith may be provedgenuine. Hebrews 12 says no
trial or no such discipline forthe present is joyous, but
grievous. Later on, however, isnot talking about the beam that

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he's talking about later on inthis life. It yields the
peaceable fruit of righteousnessto those who have been trained
by it. You see, now God bringstrials into your life. Have you
had trials come into your life?
One of the reasons there's somany bitter old people that
don't know the Lord and no oneever talks about them, because
through the trials of life, theyhave not handled them with
submission and love and stayedunder them. Who will men Oh, we

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may not have them, but theyfought them off. Chuck Swindoll
says this, many of you havesecond hand relationship with
God using someone else's hymns.
You say other people prayers,you follow others people's
faith, you live on othersheritage. And all those are
empty and bankrupt if they'renot personal and intimate trials
make them personal and intimate.

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What helps us to know God nowwhat strengthens our faith now
trial, listen to a testimonyservice next time is not. I'm
thankful for this. None of this,because of all these wonderful
things is because of the trialsthat have come into our life. In
fact, if you don't have trials,you may want to see if you're
really a child of God, that'show far it can go trials in the
here and now. Listen 32 year oldman that I pastored I had the

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privilege of leading him toChrist. He died two years later
of leukemia, left his wife andthree kids terrible suffering
death, horrible. His name wasRon. And he was a close friend.
And this was again in Ohio andafterwards, Rose, his wife wrote
this letter. Listen to what thetrial of the death of her

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husband brought into her life,dear family and Christ, due to
each and every one of you helpedme out in one way or another.
I've written this letter insteadof sending individual cards. We
wish to express our sincerethanks for the your constant
prayers, cards and letters,phone calls, visits ins concerns
and helping grandma with thegirls. I also wish to express
our gratitude for the foodflowers love offering. So it

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would be possible for me to bewith Ron, as well as the love
offerings afterwards. We thankall of those who gave blood
donations in Ron's name andblood platelets, also those who
were checked. I know this trial,we went through that each of
every one of you sacrificed andwent through it in some way with
us. I just hope that all of youtruly understand how grateful I
was just knowing we were in yourconstant prayers. I know each of

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your concerns are true, Godcause God causes all things to
work together for good for thosewho love him. I know this is
true, because all I went throughwith Ron, the Lord has molded me
in new ways for the better. Hehas taught me to be more patient
to endure. And through Ron'ssuffering to get this, this
struck me so strongly. Andthrough Ron's suffering, he

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truly opened my eyes wider tohow horrible it was for Jesus to
take his wrath for me and forall of us. The Lord through His
written Word has given me somuch comfort. And I always knew
I wasn't alone, he promised he'dnever leave or forsake us. And
just as that song footprintsays, The Lord will carry us
when needed. I know that I havea lot of peaks and valleys to

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travel through. But I also knowI won't be alone, and that your
prayers will be with me. And thegirls Lord never told us, it
would be easy. I've learned tovalue so many things I once took
for granted. I now ask that eachof you think of your blessings
when things go wrong. And Iguarantee you you will outweigh
your problems. I hope that justas God completed comforted me

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that I can in some way comfortsomeone else. We just want to
say again, thank you for eachand everything. All of you have
done to us and help us in thisvery difficult time your sisters
in Christ rose Jeannie Katie inApril Jo, name one seven, the
Lord is good a refuge in timesof trouble. He cares for those
who take refuge in Him. Youknow, it's one thing to talk
about trials. It's another thingto see how trials worked in this

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lady's life. You know, even tothis day, she's still growing as
a result of what took place in1984. And I'm gonna tell you how
God brings these things into ourlife. In order that right now
our faith may be proved genuinebut notice the Bema it says then
later and may result in glory,praise and honor when Jesus

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Christ is revealed the wordreveal there's actually
Apocalypse when Jesus Christreturns just like it says in
Matthew 16, he'll return withhis reward with him. So trials
bring response to the beam andnotice proof of faith is our
response. And notice praiseglory and honor when Jesus
Christ revealed Luke with me toLuke six, I want you to see
something else flip over to Lukesix quickly. And I want you to

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see the next aspect of this Lukechapter six.
Notice what Jesus says here.
Verse 22, of Luke six, Blessedare you when men hate you, when

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they exclude you, and insult youand reject your name as evil.
Let's go back again. Verse 22Blessing are you when men hate
you, when they exclude you andinsult you and reject your name
as evil because of the Son ofMan. They get this look at the
response you're supposed tohave. Rejoice in that day. leap
for joy, because great is yourreward in heaven. But that is

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how they treated the prophets.
What are response? There'strouble this persecution is this
this people hate you. Do peopleinsult you. Do people overlook
you for promotions? Do people tomistreat you, what is your
response supposed to be? Look atthis, verse 23, rejoice in that

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day, the leap for joy, strongwords, for great is your reward
in heaven. If you get persecutedsomething we know very little
love in this world, in thissociety we live. But to be
persecuted for Christ means thatin the next there is going to be
a great reward. And the onlyresponse is this. The next
life's reward in comparison tothe persecutions now are such

(25:29):
that you will leap for joy, jumpand leap. Remember the disciples
that went into the town they gotthrown out, and it says, they
left praising the Lord becausethey've been counted worthy to
suffer for his name. Rememberthat, in the book of Acts, have
over and over this is the truth,difficulties and problems are
looked on by the world as thisOh, keep them away. That's
hedonism. stoics has all justendure it. But the Bible says

(25:52):
this, this persecution come yourway jump and leap for joy, be
happy, because isn't gonna meana great reward at the Bema think
of Noah he was called a fool.
Think of Daniel gets thrown intothe furnace or into the den,
excuse me, the three men in thefurnace John the Baptist lost
his head Stephen was stone Jesuscaused his very life. Why?
Because of his stance inobedience to the Word of God and

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to be like Jesus Christ,persecution, and trouble is
going to come. So in regards tothat it says, great is your
reward in heaven, somethingwe're just going to skip over
because we've gone over it somany times. It's tough
decisions. Moses had one but hechose rather to suffer
affliction with the people ofGod than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season because helooked ahead to his reward
that's talking about the Bema.

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And then the last one I want youto see is this second
Corinthians chapter four. Andlook with me, this is an
extremely important passage.
Look with the Second Corinthiansin the Fourth Chapter concerning
suffering, and trials anddifficulties.

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synchrony is chapter four. Andstarting with verse seven, look
what it says. But we have thistreasure in Georgia jars of clay
to show that this all surpassingpower is from God and not from
us. I get what he says. Look atverse eight, talking about
trials and difficulties. We arehard pressed on every side but

(27:26):
not crushed, perplexed, but notin despair, persecuted, but not
abandoned, struck down, but notdestroyed. We always carry about
in our body, the death of Jesusor the life of Jesus may be
revealed, he goes on to developit. But now please get this.
Look at verse 16. Therefore, wedo not lose heart. Though

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outwardly we are wasting away.
yet inwardly we are beingrenewed day by day, for our
light, and momentary troubles,are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs themall. So we fix our eyes not on
what is seen, but on what isunseen. For what is seen is

(28:09):
temporary, but what is unseen iseternal. This passage is amazing
passage to consider. He says inverse 16, through all of his
troubles, through all of histrials through all of his
sufferings through all of hisdifficulties. Look at verse 16.
Friends, listen, some of you Iknow are beaten down and
discouraged because of thedifficulties that come into your
life. One thing that Paul sayshe went through all that and

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please look at it in light ofthe Bema it says this, Therefore
we do not lose heart, though.
Outwardly, we're wasting away.
He had some terrible troubles.
Do you want to know I don't wantyou to turn there, but I'm just
gonna turn over about sevenchapters and read you some of
them it's pretty popular. You'veheard about this a lot. It says
this, I have worked much harder,been in prison more frequently

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been flogged more severely beenexposed to death again and again
Five times I received from theJews 40 lashes minus one three
times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned Three times Iwas shipwrecked. I spent a night
and a day in the open sea. I hadbeen constantly on the move I
had been danger from rivers anddangers from bandits and
dangerous for my own countrymen,in dangers from the Gentiles and
dangers of the city and dangerin the country and dangerous sea

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in danger from false brothers. Ihave labored and toil and have
gone without sleep. I have knownhunger and thirst and have often
gone without food. I have beencold and naked besides
everything else I face daily,the pressure my concern for the
churches, that is some of theoutward perishing that he's
talking about. And look what hesays though out we don't lose
heart even though outwardlywe're wasting away. yet inwardly

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we're being renewed day by day.
What is it? What is it? Whatkind of power what kind of truth
what kind of knowledge causedthis? What took a man like Paul,
we all think oh, he was justautomatically energized. There
was a Holy Spirit pack on hisback and it just energized his
heart. He never had trouble withthis. No. What is it that
energize them as though he wasbeing beaten down on the outside

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inwardly he was getting strongerhere comes The harder the
trials, the strength of theinner man became greater. The
harder the trials, the strongerthe inner man. What was it the
did it? Well, let's see, look atverse 17. For our light and
momentary troubles, listen, thatis hilarious. If you really
understand all that I just readand if you would just take one

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of those and go through them fora period of time, you know what
you would be doing? Worse thananybody else has ever had. Hey,
Paul calls, being beaten, almostdying, going hungry, going
without sleep, be thrown injail, almost drowning at sea,
you know what he calls them?
light and momentary troubles?

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Why? Why did you call them whitemomentary troubles? One reason
friends because of the Bemaliquid it says, For our light,
and momentary troubles areachieving for us and eternal
glory that far outweighs themall, do you think he's talking
about all this suffer is goingto earn him salvation? You know,
that's not the case. He's theone that taught salvation by
faith. He's talking about theBema. Suffering now means glory,

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there are light and momentarytroubles are achieving and
eternal glory, a very strongword, I mean, a strong word, as
you can imagine, in the Greek,but guess what, it's not just
one, it's to an eternal weightof glory. Awesome. It's doubled
up for the sake of emphasis inthe Greek. And the point here is
this. It's not just that we havesome troubles now that is just

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nothing compared to how greatHeaven is. So look at verse 18.
And the NIV does a great jobhere, get this. So we fix our
eyes, not on what is seen, whatis the things you could see,
well, trouble sorrow, sufferingproblems, but we don't fix our
eyes, it actually means toconcentrate, we don't
concentrate on the troubles, weconcentrate on what is eternal,

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what's eternal, the Bina. Andone of the things that can turn
you around, if you're in themidst of difficult times, is to
understand the emphasis that theafflictions will pass, the night
of sorrow will end while theglory of heaven and the rewards
are eternal. The Bema ought toturn us around, we can't sit
around and go, Oh, poor me. I'min these terrible troubles. Do

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you know what you're doing? AndI'm telling you, I am so guilty
of this myself, and it almostmakes me sick. I feel unworthy
to preach on this. Because weget our eyes fixed upon the
problems, we get our eyes fixedupon the trouble, we get our
eyes fixed upon the worries orthe difficulties or the whatever
it is, and guess what we do, weache, we get sick, we feel
terrible, we're all upset. Why?
Because we've got our eyes fixedon the troubles. Instead of

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understanding those troubleshave come from a loving God for
a purpose, that we may in theBema have a greater reward
because how you handle troubleswill be part of the criterion
for judgment. At the Bema getthis, we don't lose heart. It's
like momentary, they'reachieving for us eternal glory
that far outweighs them allfriends, if we can understand

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for just a second, how wonderfulheaven is the wonder the joy
that will be the receiver rewardat the Bema to be honored by God
for faithful service and forsacrifice. If we could
understand that just for asecond, it would change our
life, to live by faith.

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Remember, without faith, it'simpossible to please Him, then
to come to God must believe thatHe is and that He is a what a
rewarder of them that diligentlyseek and what does that mean, at
the Bema? There will be rewardsfor those who faithfully go
through hard times, and don't gostraight. How many times I've
heard people say this, while Iwas what I'm telling you, if

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people in this church, I wasonce preparing for the ministry.
This minister did me wrong. Youdon't know how judgmental these
people were? Or you don't knowhow bad it was? And I'm talking
about Christians. They did thisto me. Do you know what if that
is your attitude, I plead withyou as your pastor here today to
get on your knees and repent?
Because that's rotten. You'vehad your eyes fixed on people.

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You get your I don't know howlong I was been in the ministry,
about 10 months. I had about 10months with no problems.
Everybody loved me. All of asudden, the honeymoon were off
and there's some trouble in theministry and people are
critical. People don't like if Iwould have told you and go into
stories of things people saidthe criticisms, the lies the
deceit that's been said justabout me. I want to tell you

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something I had to quit longago. What is it? It's got to be
an understanding that there is aGod that will give an answer to
and we just don't throw off. Wejust don't throw in the towel
every time there's a little bitof trouble that has to do with
the way your your marriage goes.
someone criticizes you getmarried, someone's being
selfish. I'm with Hey, considerin light of the Bema you cannot

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divorce anything from the Bemait all has to be that the
suffering now remember whatRomans 818 says? I reckon I'm
quoting the King James I reckonthat the present sufferings are
not worth comparing with theglories that you'll follow. You
understand that? Do youunderstand that? All we need to

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do is focus on faithfulobedience now. Say today I will
live for you. I will obey you,Lord, the best I know how I feel
weak I feel frail strengthen me,I can't do it myself, help me
but I'm not going to turn asidefrom loving you I will see that
that day it will bring someglory that day it'll be
worthwhile at the Bema brands weneed to be reminded it's going

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to change our life. I amconvinced that God has directed
us into this because it's it'spowerfully impacting my own
life, the way we think. One morething. Look at this. Back basic
New Testament ethics is thebelief that Christians should
live on Earth in light ofheaven, should make decisions in

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the present where their eye onthe future should avoid behaving
here in a way that wouldjeopardize their hope of glory.
Hereafter store up foryourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust do notdestroy where thieves do not
break in and steal says Jesus, aman reaps what he sews says
Paul, the one who sews to reapthe sinful nature, from that
nature will reap destruction.
The one who says to please thespirit from the Spirit will reap
reap eternal life. Let us notbecome weary in doing good for

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at the proper time. We will reapa harvest if we do not give up
all the promises that theglorified Christ in His all the
promises the glorify Christ hasled us to the seven churches
holds out to those who overcomethe world, the flesh, the devil,
other Christians I may add,okay, which are sometimes as bad
as the devil relate to thefuture state. The many passage

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of this kind of New Testamentmake it obvious that once you
live in such a way that theledgers of eternity will declare
one rich before God this issomething no old time Christian
whatever doubtfriends I I say to you, let's be

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biblical. And let's be Bhima inour outlook on life, let's think
about the fact that we're gonnagive an answer to God and let
that change the way we live. Letus pray.
Father inscribe this into ourhearts. It's so easy. The

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easiest thing is to preach this.
The hardest thing is to live byfaith, remembering the Bema do a
work, father in people's heartshere that have had their eyes
and fix their attention onothers. Do a work in people's
eyes, your father that havefocused upon how everybody else
has hurt them, instead of why isthis happened from the your hand
to help them grow? Help usFather to handle tough times so

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that we could be mature now ourfaith would be proved genuine
now. And so that at the Bema itwould result in praise, glory
and honor. We ask this in Jesusname, Amen.