Today on the Verdict with Pastor John Monroe. A serious illness, the death of a loved one, a betrayal, a business failure, devastating news about a family member, and most of us have experienced this: that in a split second, our lives can be turned upside down.
So the question is, how do we, as the people of God, how do we survive when life is turned upside down? Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. The pandemic has given way to rising inflation and global unrest. For many of us, these last few years feel as if our world has been turned upside down. Today, we're discovering what the Word of God can teach us about navigating these troubling times of uncertainty.
Now, with part two of a lesson titled "When Life Turns Upside Down." Here's Pastor John Monroe. Isn't it the case that every single one of us faces struggles in life? The question is, how do we respond in these difficult situations? The tendency is to focus on ourselves, our difficult circumstances, our needs, our expectations from others, the pain we're experiencing. Last time we began to think of the situation when life turns upside down.
These situations, which come like bolts from the blue, and leave us disoriented and devastated, these are not minor storms. These are some of the severest storms in our life. How have you responded? Let's think again of the situation where life turns upside down, so that we will not be destroyed or shaken, but rather mount up with wings like eagles. Open your Bible with me to First Peter one verse six.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. It's incontrovertible, isn't it? From this passage and throughout of Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament, that followers of Christ experience suffering. You are not immune. I am not immune.
Now Peter is not saying that we will always suffer, but he is saying that when suffering comes into your life, don't be too surprised. And I have found that one of the most important attributes of God that we must grasp, that we must understand, in a sense, almost feel in the depth of our soul when our life is turned upside down, one of the most important attributes. Of God is that God is sovereign. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is what an everlasting rock. He's the rock of ages.
I can absolutely depend on Him when everything around is shaking. When my life is turned upside down, I do know this: that God is good, that He is with me, and that there's nothing in the whole universe which can separate me from His love. Yes, you do suffer, but we do know this: that God is good. And says Peter that when these sufferings come, you can rejoice. And he gives at least two reasons for these in the verses we looked at.
First of all, when your life turns upside down, it's only temporary. First Peter one verse six again. In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, sufferings and trials are only for a little while. The same expression is read in. Chapter five, verse ten, that we read together.
And after you have suffered a little while, same expression, a little while. We sometimes saying, "All my trials, Lord, soon be over." Peter says in verse eight, "Though you have not seen him, that is Jesus." I've never seen Jesus. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him. My life has turned upside down.
I really don't see the hand of God in this. What am I to do? I am to love God. I am to believe in Him. I am to trust in Him.
You see, at the time, the suffering you experience, it seems as if it will never end. The pain, the distress, the confusion, the injustice of it all seems so intense. But I want you to grasp this: that the severest of sufferings, the blackest of nights, the fieriest of furnaces, the deepest of valleys, the most frightening of circumstances, only last. Peter is saying, for a little while, for a little while. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. You say it's light affliction. You say mine's not light. Mine's very heavy. It's light in this respect.
It's light compared with that heavy weight of glory in the future. It seems very long now, but compared with the endless ages of eternity, it's just for a moment. And Peter, and Scripture teaches something which is very difficult for us to grasp: that suffering precedes glory. That's the biblical pattern. Look at verse eleven, First Peter one, verse eleven.
Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicated when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. First, the suffering, then the glory. Luke, at Luke chapter twenty-four, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-six, we'll see the same thing. He's talking to the two on the road to Emmaus. He says, in verse twenty-five, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? First the suffering, then the glory." Romans chapter eight. Verse eighteen. Paul says, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us future. First the night, then the day; first the storm, and then the peace; first the tears, and then the joy." First the cross and then the crown, first the suffering and then the glory.
There is weeping in the night, but joy comes in the morning. That's the point that Peter is making. When your life turns upside down, remember, it's only for a little while. Corey Temboom writes: Although the threads of my life have often seemed knotted, I know by faith that on the other side of the embroidery there is a crown. Your life turns upside down; you see the knots.
It seems confusing. You can't make sense of it. It seems the last thing you would want it, but on the other side, there's a crown. And this great truth that our suffering is only temporary sustains us, doesn't it? Your faith shines in the darkness.
Faith looks to the future in your pain, in your suffering, in your disappointment, in your trials and testing. Today, brothers and sisters, don't despair. The heartache, the tears, the loneliness, the sorrow, the distress will soon be over. When Peter begins his epistle. In chapter one, verse one, he writes, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and so on." He says in chapter two, verse eleven, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles." Some translations say as strangers and pilgrims.
As a follower of Jesus, we're exiles. We're aliens for many, many years. For most of the time, I lived in the United States. I had a card which proved I was an alien. It said the card resident alien, welcome to America.
Now you're an alien. I was called an alien. There it was. What's a new? It was a recognition that my real home wasn't in America.
It was somewhere else across the pond. If you're a follower of Christ, you have eternal life, and your home, your real home, is not here. I understand we're citizens.
Now I am a citizen of the United States. I'm glad to say, but I'm also, more importantly, a citizen of heaven, and soon.
However severe the suffering, however difficulty the problem, it will soon be over, isn't it the case that the older we get, the faster time goes? Therefore, Peter is saying you can rejoice when life turns upside down because you are going home. You are a pilgrim. These trials, these sufferings, are only temporary. They're only for a little while.
You are a stranger. You are an alien. You are a pilgrim. My brother Sandy, when he was about eighteen, got a very severe brain tumor and lived quite a number of years thereafter. But it it affected him drastically.
He was never he was never the same as he got surgery and radiation and all of that stuff. And I remember when I were living in the United States when the Lord took him home, and and we went we went back, of course. He was five years younger than myself, my brother Sandy, and for his funeral. And we stood round our family, our friends, and we stood round his open grave, and and we sang a song that none of you know, but we sang it. Here it was: "Fallen asleep." Lying at rest, tranquil and deep, safe on his breast, life's journey o'er.
His life was a difficult one. A young man from our perspective, cut down in the very prime of his youth, with his future ahead of him, and now completely changed because, through no fault of his, he contracts this very, very serious brain tumor. Ah, but now. His life's journey was over. Heaven's portal passed.
Pilgrim, no more. No, his pilgrimage was over. Safe home at last. Safe home at last. No more to fear.
No more to die. Shed every tear. Breathed every sigh. All sorrows born. All trials past.
No more to mourn. Safe home at last. Safe home at last. The suffering, the frustration. All of that is now over, eternally over.
His pilgrimage is over. He suffered yes, very intensely, with great difficulty, but now it is over. That's the point that Peter is making. You can rejoice in this, my dear friend. That however severe the suffering, if you know Christ and in His grace have received eternal life, you can rejoice that you are going home, and soon all of this.
Will be over. Your upside down life then is only temporary. But secondly, Peter is saying, when your life turns upside down, God is a work. God has a purpose. I realize we sometimes don't see it.
If you're like me, you you you foolishly try to give God some advice to help you get out of the situation. You ever done that? You ever how bizarre it is to be advising God, whose understanding is unsearchable. But we think, well, Lord, if if this happened, this would this would solve this situation. No, God has His purpose.
There's much that is mysteries in life, isn't there? But God has His purposes. Look with me again, First Peter one verse six. In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. Verse seven.
So that here's the purpose.
So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, the sufferings are not without reason. They test our faith, don't they? They test our faith, the genuineness of our faith. We saw that three weeks ago when we looked at James, just a few pages back in your Bible, James one. Verse two counted all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Has your faith ever been tested? And Peter uses an analogy, a metaphor that we can all understand, of gold being refined. Even precious gold has impurities and dross. In subjecting the gold to the refiner's fire, the refiner's purpose is not to destroy the gold, but is to remove the dross which rises to the top, so that it can then be removed.
The refiner wants the gold to be even more precious. It is precious, but he wants it to be more precious. He wants it to be more genuine. And so Peter is writing of trials and sufferings in terms of the refiner's fire. You're getting the point, aren't you?
Your faith is more precious, is more genuine to God. Verse seven than perishable gold. The sufferings in your life act like the refiner's fire, which remove the impurities of your life. That's hard. Who wants to be in the fire?
I don't. Is there another way of doing it, Lord? This seems a bit too intense. That's in the purposes of God. We don't choose the test; God does.
It is, as we read in chapter four, verse twelve, Peter calls it the fiery ordeal. The fiery. Have you been in the refiner's fire? Charles Spurgeon said, "Suffering is meant not only to burn out the dross." But to burn in the promises—that's very Spurgeon-like, isn't it? Very well said, Charles Spurgeon.
Suffering is meant not only to burn out the dross, but to burn in the promises. When your life turns upside down. Brother, don't fight God. Don't fight God. Don't be devastated.
God is at work in your life for good, and as you trust Him, as you wait on the Lord, He will give you all of the grace, the wisdom, and strength you need to endure these sufferings and trials. Without the sufferings, without the trials, we tend to be proud, self-reliant, unsympathetic, self-centered, and kind of harsh. You ever met someone who's arrogant?
Someone who feels superior to people—usually it's someone who's not gone through much suffering. See, when we experience these sufferings, the refiner's fire, our pride, our selfishness, our materialism, our unholliness, our bitterness, our superficiality—they're exposed, aren't they? They're surfaced, and God is surfacing them. As only he can, so that they can be removed, the dross being removed, and the promises of God being burned in. Praise God that the fire doesn't destroy the genuine article, but it brings out the best.
You presently feeling the heat? Rejoice. God is in control and is at work in your life. Seneca said, "A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." What does suffering do? It takes away the the self-made props of our life, doesn't it?
And it gets us on our knees. It gets us on our face before God. And we learn to trust God more and more, don't we? We're much less likely to take God for granted. And when we're flat on our backs, all we can do is to look up to behold God and to wait for God.
We rejoice not because we enjoy the pain. We're not spiritual masochists. We don't enjoy the suffering; far from it. But we do rejoice at the purifying results, the praise and glory and honor. I said two or three weeks ago, and a number of you came to me afterwards and said, "John, I have experienced that." I said, "Isn't it the case that most of us learn more through adversity than through prosperity?" We learn more about God in the tough times than when life is going the way that we like it to go.
The praise and glory and honor. What will sustain you when life turns upside down? Your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He's the source. He's the center, and He's the sustainer of all joy.
Do you know Christ? Do you know the Savior? Can you say like Peter, "I haven't seen him, but I love him. I haven't seen him, but I believe in him." That's faith, isn't it? To trust God in the darkness, and above all, to realize that without Christ we're nothing.
Without Christ, we're eternally lost. But as we repent of our sin, as we call out to our Savior, He gives us, in His grace, this marvelous gift of eternal life and the forgiveness of sins.
Some of you have not yet come to Christ. You know about Him. You enjoy coming to church. You enjoy some of the hymns, the choruses. You like the fact that we teach the Bible to your children.
But you still do not know Christ personally. I challenge you today to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. For those of us who are following Christ, be encouraged. George Swinok said, "A holy person is like a silver bell. The harder he is smitten, the better he sounds." We don't want to be smitten, but when we do, we want to sound praise.
To God, you see, when God turns your life upside down, fellow believer, He's not punishing you; He's purifying you. He's not working against you, but He's working out His sovereign purposes in you and through you in ways that we can't imagine. Trust the Lord, who, incredible ways, turns emptiness into fullness, sadness to joy, the bitter to the sweet, the barrenness to fruitfulness, death. To life, and His sovereign purposes are being worked out in your life, and in the lives of others. Perhaps God has turned your life upside down because it's never been the right way, and you've become too comfortable, and you don't know Christ, and your life needs to be turned the right way up.
Your life is looking down on yourself. On your achievements, on comfort, rather than looking up to the cross to behold the man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief. Today, will you look up? Will you behold your God? I pray that when your life is turned upside down, you will mount up with wings like eagles, that you will soar high above the challenges.
And the struggles of life, have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall walk and not be weary.
They shall run and not faint. You are listening to the Verdict with the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. John will be right back with more on today's message.
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Get full details on service times and ministry at theverdict. dot org. And now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, I want to assure you that God has not abandoned you. God truly cares for you. Continue to look to Him for comfort and strength in your time of need. If you're not a follower of Jesus, I want to bring you to the cross of Christ.
Our Savior died for our sins and rose again. He conquered death. He conquered suffering, and He is alive. Believe in Him, and you'll be saved. Join me next time as we continue with wings like eagles.
Thanks for joining us today on the Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
