GRUMBLE OR GROW

We trust today’s message encouraged and guided you in your journey of following Jesus. These notes are meant to help you remember and reflect on the message, help you go deeper into study on the subject, or be used for a sermon group discussion. CLICK HERE to find a discussion group. Enjoy!

Sermon Title: GRUMBLE OR GROW

Let’s take a poll…
・How many of you are human?
・How many of you have experienced trouble, hardship, adversity, betrayal, and difficulties at some point in your life?
・How many of you have been confused, bewildered, discouraged, or in despair due to circumstances in your life?
・How many of you have grumbled, complained, shared your feelings about hardships and adversity at any time in your life?
AND…
・How many of you have considered that God works in you through your hardships, difficulties, adversity, and troubles?
THE REALITY IS…
・We will have adversity and trouble in this life.
・We generally don’t do adversity well. It disrupts our plans, goals, dreams, emotions, etc.
・It confuses us when we have such a great God who can protect us from these troubles.
・We expect protection – does not happen – we get confused; it can affect how we see God.
・We are not designed to be in this world of trouble. This was not God’s original design when He created man.
BUT…
・While we are here, adversity has a function, a purpose; a greater work within us.
・The wild card in all of this is our ATTITUDE
・We don’t have to like it, but do we grumble and complain through it or do we allow God to help us grow through it?
James 1: 2-4, NLT
”Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

Bible Expository Commentary:
JOY – to rejoice, rejoicing
・Closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice
・“Outlook determines outcome and attitude determines action.”
CONSIDER – to evaluate
・When we face the trials of life, we must evaluate them in the light of what God is doing for us.
・Our values determine our evaluation.
・“If we value comfort more than character, these trials will upset us. If we value the material and physical more than the spiritual, we will not ‘count it all joy.’ If we live only for the present and forget the future, then trials will make us bitter, not better.”
・“So, when trials come, immediately give thanks to the Lord and adopt a joyful attitude. Look at trials through the eyes of faith.”
・OUTLOOK DETERMINES OUTCOME – to end with joy, begin with joy.
ENDURANCE – patience, perseverance, or constancy under suffering in faith. The precept of constancy toward God.
“Patience is not a passive acceptance of circumstances. It is a courageous perseverance in the face of suffering and difficulty.”
“Spiritually immature people are always impatient, mature people are patient and persistent. Impatience and unbelief usually go together just as faith and patience do.”
“Going through difficulties, trusting God, and obeying Him results in patience and character. Knowing this, we can face trials joyfully.”

Romans 5:1-5, NLT
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 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.”
TRIALS LEAD TO ENDURANCE WHICH LEADS TO CHARACTER AND THEN HOPE

John 16:33, NLT
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

1 Peter 1:6-7, NLT
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 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.”

THREE LESSONS FROM THREE BIBLICAL GIANTS
Lesson #1 Endeavor to Focus on the Bigger Picture
JOSEPH
・He was sold into slavery
・Falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife – thrown into prison
・Betrayed by the chief cup-bearer – forgot Joseph after getting out of prison
・13 years between being sold by his brothers to becoming second in command in Egypt.

Genesis 45:5
“And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”
Genesis 50:20
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Lesson #2 Keep Your Eyes Focused on God Through Any Circumstance
JOB
・Righteous man
・His animals were stolen and farmhands were killed.
・His sheep and all the shepherds were lost.
・His camels were stolen and his servants killed.
・He lost all his children.
Job responded in this way in Job 1:20-21,
“At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Then he lost his health!
Job 3:1-3
“After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said: ‘May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’”
Job 6:2-3
“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been impetuous.”
Job 6:11
“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?”
Job 7:11,16
“Therefore, I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
“I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.”
Job 9:27-28
“If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will change my expression, and smile,’ I still dread all my sufferings, for I know you will not hold me innocent.”
Job 10:1; 18-19
“I loathe my very life; therefore, I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.”
“Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!”
Job 17:7
“My eyes have grown dim with grief; my whole frame is but a shadow.”
Job 23:17
“Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face”
Job 30:27-28
“The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.”

BUT…through all he was going through he uttered these words,
Job 13:15
“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.”

Lesson #3 Understand the Greater Purpose
Paul faced many difficulties in his ministry
He is the one who wrote…
2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 16-18
“We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
“Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

But a great paradox exists in this same letter to the Corinthian church
2 Corinthians 12:8-10
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

・God’s power is manifested in weakness
・He ran toward his weaknesses (embraced) (boasted) so Christ’s power would be fully realized
・In God’s economy – our weakness = God’s strength; our understanding – our weakness = failure and self-judgement

TAKEAWAYS
1) Adversity leads to growth.
・God’s strength and our endurance and our attitude about our circumstance can be the breeding ground for growth.
・It won’t work if we give in to grumbling, despair, discouragement, fear, etc.
・God always says for us to not be afraid or discouraged. He is with us. He will never leave us especially in times of trouble.
・To be stretched is to grow and mature as believers.

2) No matter what we face, God is ALWAYS with us and working in us.
・We are not alone!!
・His power is made perfect in our weakness
・We may not know why something is happening or what the outcome will be, but God always comes through for our benefit.

3) Adversity can purge us of what is in us.
・Many things inside of us can sabotage our victory – thoughts, emotions, experiences, attitudes, beliefs
・God wants to expose them to get rid of them for us to see things differently and gain the strength to endure.
・Healing our weaknesses comes through God’s power.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER
How do you typically respond to adversity and troubling times? 

How does adversity affect your relationship with God?

What can we do to grow through adversity versus grumbling?

Of the three lessons from biblical giants, which lesson spoke most to you?

Which of the scriptures stood out to you the most and why? 

The most important decision you will ever make!

Are you ready to experience salvation and be transformed we encourage you to say a simple prayer like this from your heart: Dear God, I see my sin and how wrong it is. I see how without Jesus I’m lost. I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for saving me from my sin, my past, this world, and your judgment. I repent, I turn away from that life and I put my faith and life in Jesus! Amen!

We would love to know if you made the decision to accept this wonderful gift from God. Let us know here.

Pray Together

We hoped you found this AFTER THE SERMON discussion helpful for your walk with Jesus. We pray you can find ways to apply it this week!