In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of counting it all joy when faced with trials and difficulties. He emphasizes the importance of shifting our perspective from our circumstances to the scriptures. The speaker highlights four key points to remember when going through trials: we are not alone in our difficulties, God is faithful, God will not allow us to be tested beyond our ability, and God will bring an end to our trials. The speaker concludes by stating that while everyone faces hardships in life, the difference for Christians is that God intervenes in their difficulties and uses them for His purpose.

1 Corinthians 10.13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. To begin, let me say that this verse has been a source of great comfort and hope to me on many occasions. Several times in my Christian life, in those moments of desperation, God has brought this verse to mind. And as I've taken a few moments to consider it, it's resulted in peace and confidence in the fact that God is in control. It's one of those verses that is packed with practical truth of the most powerful sort. It's one of those verses that most believers early on commit to memory. And if you haven't done that yet, I think after today you'll want to do that. So we want to look today closely at this 13th verse here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. So beginning with the word temptation. Now, the word temptation can also be translated trial or testing. Actually, it's the same word in the Greek that's translated variously in our New Testament. In the English, the same word, the same Greek word is translated temptation, trial and testing. The context really depends on how you would translate it. Now, I think generally when we think of temptation, we think of temptation as the solicitation to do evil. And therefore, I think temptation is probably a weak translation of the word at this point. I think it would have been better had they translated the word here into English as trial or testing, because I think that's the idea here in the context. And that's how we want to look at it today. We want to look at it not from the perspective of being solicited by the world, the flesh or the devil to do evil, but we want to look at it from the aspect of a Christian going through a trial or through a testing. What is a trial? Well, a trial is a difficulty, hardship or suffering due to circumstances beyond our control. A difficulty, hardship or suffering due to circumstances beyond our control. That is what we would refer to as a trial from the Christian perspective. It might manifest itself in family related problems. Something's gone on in the family. Maybe there's been a death in the family. That's brought difficulty or hardship. Maybe there's been a divorce. Maybe there's some sort of family crisis that's going on. It's brought hardship and difficulty and suffering into your life and you have no control over it. There's nothing that you can actually do about it. That is a trial. A trial can also manifest itself in the area of financial problems, loss of employment, things of that nature. Again, circumstances beyond your control that are making life difficult for you, making things hard, causing suffering. Of course, a failure in your health could also be seen as a trial. Bringing difficulty, hardship and suffering into your life. Job is an excellent case in point. He experienced suffering in each one of these areas. As you go back and you study the life of Job, it all begins with a crisis. Job was an upright man. He was a man who feared God. He was a man who loved God and was very concerned about his relationship with God. And one day, Satan went before God and he challenged God's goodness to Job. He said, Does Job serve you for nothing? He said, The only reason Job is serving you is because you've blessed him. Now, if you withdraw your blessing from him, he will curse you to your face. This is Satan speaking to God. This is what he said. And God said, Oh, no, you don't. You don't know my servant, Job. He's an upright man. And so Satan requested that he might afflict Job to prove his point. And God allowed him to do so, to prove his point. And so as we look at the life of Job, we find that his problems began in the realm of his possessions. The first thing that took place is that he lost most of his possessions. And there's a list of things that he lost there in the first chapter. The second thing that occurred was that he lost his health. Or excuse me, he lost his family. There was a family crisis. He had 10 children and all 10 of his children were killed at one time. And then finally, after the loss of his belongings and after the loss of his family, Job declares, Naked I came into the world. Naked I will leave. The Lord gives and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. End of part one. Satan appears before God again and God says, Oh, have you considered my servant Job? He is an upright man. See, you have afflicted him, but he hasn't cursed me. And then Satan responded and he said, That's because you won't let me touch him. He said, Skin for skin, all that a man has, he will give for his flesh. If you let me touch him, I guarantee he'll curse you. God said, All right, go ahead. But you can't take his life. So Satan went out and then we find Job is is stricken with boils. He's gone into a deep depression. He's suffering physical ailment. And, of course, Job retains his integrity through it all. But we see in Job, I think, that the consummate picture of. A believer going through trials. Trials, difficulty, hardship or suffering due to circumstances beyond our control. Now, the question that we most often ask in relation to trials is this. Why do we experience trials? Why would God permit us to go through such things? As you look at the situation with Job initially, as you're looking at it in the early stages, you wonder, God, what are you doing? This man loves you. You said he loved you. You said he's an upright man. How is it that you've allowed these things to come into his life? Now, some people who have a twisted theology, they just cannot for a moment allow for Job to actually be a righteous man and suffer. So they look at it all as Job having some sort of secret sin. And this was all retribution by God. But that's entirely contrary to the biblical text. God over and over again affirms the righteousness of Job. But you see, early on, as the trials begin and in those difficulties, we don't understand the purpose of God. But in the end, we see God's purpose. And that's the thing that we have to keep in mind when we ask ourselves the question, why do we experience trials? We have to understand that God has a designated purpose in our trials and his purpose is to bring us to know and to experience and to trust him in a greater way. That is really the purpose of trials. Trials are permitted by God. In order that we might come to know and to experience and to trust God in a greater way. And as you study the lives of individuals or the lives of God's people collectively going through their various tribulations, that's exactly what you see. You see that the tribulation itself is producing a greater experience with God. Think of the children of Israel. The children of Israel, you remember, Jacob had gone down to Egypt. Joseph was there in Egypt. Jacob had gone down and he and his family settled in Egypt. Jacob died. Joseph died. The patriarchs died. The people remained there in Egypt and they lived in Egypt for approximately 400 years. And in the course of that period of time, they became slaves. They initially went into Egypt as peers of the Egyptian and because of Joseph, because of his position as prime minister, the Israelites originally had an equal position in the society. But as time went on, the Egyptians began to oppress the Israelites. And finally, the Israelites were in a place of slavery. And they were the ones who were building the great cities for Pharaoh, and they were they were basically the slave labor. They were the people that had no rights at that time. And so here they are in Egypt. They're suffering as slaves. And they've got these distant promises that God had made to their forefathers. But now 400 years have passed. And there hasn't been any significant intervention by God into their lives. It's just been a sort of a silent time in many ways for 400 years. But suddenly, this man, Moses, appears on the scene. And Moses comes, he says, as appointed by God to be the deliverer for the people. And so he comes to the people and he says, the Lord has sent me to you. And they said, well, who's who's the Lord? They had, in a sense, lost all touch with who God was at that point. What is his name? Moses said his name is I am that I am. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And he sent me to deliver you. And, oh, there was so much excitement. We're going to be free. We're going to be liberated. No more slavery. And so Moses said, OK, you just hold on and I'll go to Pharaoh and I'll tell him that God sent me and it's time to let you go and we're going to go serve the Lord. So Moses does that very thing. He goes into Pharaoh and he says, the Lord God of Israel has appeared to me and he's told me to come to you. And he wants you to let his people go. And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? And as the story goes on, we find that Pharaoh says, what is this? There must be idleness among the Israelites. Maybe they don't have enough work to do. Let's give them more work to do. So they're already living in difficulty, but not. Not to the extreme that they were so much bothered by it, but suddenly a new sense of domination comes upon them. More a more severe oppression comes upon them and they enter immediately into a trial as we've defined it. Difficulty, hardship and suffering is now brought upon them because God says he's going to deliver them. And Pharaoh assumes that they're idle and they need more work to do. So the trial is brought upon them. But. As the trial is brought upon them, the Lord says, OK, now I'm going to demonstrate my power. And God then began to systematically deal with the Egyptians and to subsequently liberate the Israelites. But at the end of God's dealing with the Egyptians, you know what the Israelites had come to? They had come to know, experience and to trust God in a greater way. Now, after God deals with the Egyptians, he liberates the Israelites. He sends them out of Egypt. They march out of Egypt victoriously as they're going out. The Egyptians that are left are giving them all of their belongings and they're going out with rejoicing and excitement. And they march for some time and they suddenly come to a place where they have the sea in front of them. Mountains on both sides of them. And as they look behind them, they find that the Egyptians have had a change of heart and now the Egyptians are coming after them. What happened? Suddenly, a new trial has arisen. They were free. Their bondage was over. God had demonstrated his power. They had left Egypt victoriously. But now they're up against the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army is coming. A fresh new trial, difficulty, hardship, suffering is upon them. What does God do? He says to Moses, take your rod and stretch it out over the sea. And Moses, as you know, he stretches out his rod over the sea. The seed. Separates and the Israelites walk through on dry ground and there once again, as a result of their trial, God. He demonstrates his greatness to them. He brings them to know, experience and trust him in a greater way. So they come through the Red Sea. They've got a greater appreciation for God, a greater understanding of God. A greater knowledge of God. They're going on in the wilderness and suddenly. They realize we don't have any food out here. It's great to be liberated from Egypt, but what are we going to eat? We're living out in the desert and a fresh new trial comes. Where are we going to find food for two million people in the desert? That's a real trial. What are we going to do? So you see here they are. They're faced with a trial. Moses goes to the Lord. What does the Lord do? Lord says, don't worry about it. I've got it taken care of, Moses. Tell the people to just be ready. And in the morning, I'll provide for them. And sure enough, they went out in the morning and God had provided this supernatural substance called manna. And this was to be what would sustain the people throughout their wilderness wandering. But you see, it was the trial that was brought upon them by a lack of food that gave God the opportunity to demonstrate his power. We talked in our last study about the water coming out of the rock. Another situation here they are in the desert. Suddenly they realize there's no water out here. What are we going to do? We're going to die of thirst. That's what we're going to do. They're faced with another trial. And that new trial gives God an opportunity to demonstrate his power and to bring them. To know, experience and trust him in a greater way. Now, going back to Job, who we talked about earlier. As I said, as we look at the initial stages of Job's difficulty. We could easily conclude that something is really the matter here. God, how could you allow such a thing to go on as this? How could you allow your servant, this upright man, to go through these kinds of hardships? But yet God had a plan and that plan was to bring Job to know, to experience and to trust him in a greater way than he ever had before. And the thing that I find so interesting is when the whole thing is finally accomplished with Job. Job never once looks back and says, God, that was unfair. God, I don't like what you allowed me to go through. Quite the contrary. Job, as a matter of fact, he praises God, he extols God, he worships God in a more intense way than he ever did previously. And these were the words that Job himself said at the end of it all. He said, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear. But now my eye has seen you. So you see, prior to Job's trial. Prior to going through this testing, Job's knowledge of God was a knowledge that was based on hearsay. He had heard about all of these things. He had heard about the greatness of God. But Job, up until this point, had not had the personal experience of God's greatness being manifest in his life. Now, after he goes through this deep valley of affliction, he comes through it and he says, now I know you myself. You see, you can read books and you can listen to sermons and you can look up to and admire people in whose lives God has worked. And you can know God in that way. But God wants you to know him as the one who works mightily on your behalf. I remember years ago sitting in church as a young Christian and listening to Pastor Chuck, who is my pastor, and listening to him tell these wonderful stories about God's provision. About God's work in his life and how God would take care of them through difficulty and things like that. And I honestly remember being envious of him as he would tell those stories. I would think those are wonderful stories and I'm so happy that Chuck went through those things. But I want something like that. Now, I didn't know you had to go through a trial to get that. I was a bit ignorant at the time. But I remember honestly being, in a sense, in a good sense, envious. I wanted that kind of experience with God. And of course, at that time I was in the ministry. I was teaching the word of God. And I remember so often as I would get up and talk about these kinds of subjects, I could tell a lot of stories, but they weren't really stories from my own experience. Oh, I heard of this one man who did this. And oh, you know, I read about this other fella and God did something wonderful for him. Well, that's fine. That's OK. But I want to be able to say, you know what God did for me? You know what God did in my life? But you see, I can never say that unless I've been in the furnace. I could never say that God delivered me unless I've been oppressed or suffered or been afflicted in any way. So God allows these things to come along so that I myself might come to know, to experience and to trust God in a greater way. Not only do I personally benefit from it. But then I have the privilege of letting other people know what God will do for them because of what God has done for me. In his first epistle, chapter one, verses. Three, four. Five and seven. Peter said this. Listen, he said, Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Listen to what Peter said. Peter talked about being grieved by various trials and he said, if need be, there are times when we need to be grieved by various trials. Why do we need that? We need that because we need to know God in a greater way. And that's the way we're going to get to know him. I can stand before you today and I can tell you from my own experience that I know God better today because of the suffering and the affliction in my life. Than I knew him when I was prospering. I know I'm better today because of that. I've learned to cling to him because of those things. I've learned to look with expectation to him. You see, it's like the Israelites at the Red Sea. My expectation is from the Lord and from him only. Who else am I going to turn to? No one could help them at that point. You see, there are times when God will bring us to a place where we are literally shut up to him. No one else can help us. We have a human tendency to look for help everywhere, but with God. Generally speaking, we look to ourselves, first of all. Our self-sufficiency. We feel that we are capable. We have the resources. I'm going to be able to to take care of this. But there are times when we find that our resources are are inadequate, to say the least. And then when we find our resources are inadequate, we start to look to other people. Oh, well, maybe they can bring relief. Maybe they can resolve this difficulty, this hardship, the suffering that I'm going through. And we find that, no, there's not a person that can help me. God will oftentimes shut us up to himself for the very purpose of getting us to cling to him so he can demonstrate his love for us and his greatness in our lives. That's the reason why we go through trials. Now. Here's another question. How can we count it all joy when we go through these kinds of experiences? Because James tells us in his epistle, chapter one, verse three, he said, Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. How in the world could anyone do that? I mean, realistically, you know, some crisis in your life, some difficulty has come your way, some hardship. Suddenly you're stricken and you're suffering. Oh, isn't this glorious? Is that your response to those types of things? I must confess it's not mine. But once I get my perspective right, I start to look at the scriptures instead of my circumstances. I can come to a place and say, OK. I can I can handle this. Now, God actually wants to take me beyond being able to handle it. He wants me to be able to count it all joy. But how can I do that? Well, our text right here, verse 13. Tells us four things, and that's what I want to look at now. Four things that we need to know and remember that will help us to count it all joy when we experience trials. Number one, we need to remember that we are not alone in our difficulty. Notice no testing or trial has overtaken you except such as is common to man. The first thing that generally happens to us when something goes wrong is we tend to think that we are the only one that is having this type of a problem. We tend in our minds to isolate ourselves and to think that no one else has ever gone through this. And of course, Satan is so often behind these things, seeking to use these kinds of circumstances to confuse us. And so he'll be there to suggest something like this. Oh, look what you're going through. No other Christians ever gone through anything like this. God must really be mad at you. You must have really done something to to anger the Lord. But you see, that isn't true. And the fact of the matter is this. The same sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Peter told us that he reminded us of that. And that is what we need to remember. And I know for myself sometimes that in and of itself has been enough to relieve that pressure just to know that somebody else is going through something similar or has been through it. And God has brought them through it. I sat down a few weeks ago with a friend over in Europe as I was doing a conference over there. And I had seen him throughout the week, but we never really had a chance to talk much with each other. But I noticed his countenance was down and I noticed that he was troubled. And and finally said, can I talk to you? And I said, sure, I'd love to talk to you. And as we sat down, he began to open up and he began to pour out his heart. And he began to really confide in me and he began to tell me some very personal things he was going through. And as he poured out his heart, I began to respond to him. And I think what happened at that moment just absolutely shocked him. I told him that I had gone almost experience by experience through the same thing he was going through. And he. Almost couldn't believe it. You've got to be kidding. You've been through this before yourself. You you know what I'm talking about by experience. Oh, yeah, I've been there. And because of having been there myself, not that that always has to be the case, but because of having been there myself, I was able to tell him how God had helped me. And encourage him with the things that God had shown me and also give him hope that God was going to bring him through this because he'd brought me through it. And I think maybe more than anything else, more than anything I even said to him, I think just the fact that I had been where he was at was probably the most comforting thing of all. Because he's a man who's wanting to serve God, he's stepping out into a ministry, he's going into another country and he's going to. Take up a work there. But yet there's all kinds of opposition. And and I think that just being able to look at me and say, you've been where I'm at and God's using you. I think that just that itself was was greatly encouraging to him. I know it was. And that's something that we need to keep in mind when we're faced with a trial, that we are not alone. These temptations, these testings, these trials are such as is common to man. And in the context here, we're talking about Christian people. Of course, difficulties and hardships and sufferings are common to everybody, and we'll talk about that in a moment. But but we're talking about Christian people. This is what the Bible tells us, that we can expect these things in our lives. This whole thing known as the prosperity doctrine that we hear so much about today is unbiblical. It is contrary to sound biblical interpretation. Now, I'm not a person who is anxious for affliction or suffering or anything like that. But. I have to look at the scriptures honestly and say that we're not exempted from that as Christians, are we? There's nothing in the scripture to indicate that. Testings, trials, tribulation, difficulty. These are the things that all of us as believers are going to experience. Secondly, we need to remember when we're faced with a trial that God is faithful and that's what the apostle says here. God is faithful. Did you know that God loves you more than you could? Possibly imagine. Did you know that God cares for you more than you could possibly imagine? I think those are the things that we easily forget. We so often think that God doesn't care about us. But he's he's gone out of his way to prove that to us. He made the ultimate sacrifice in giving his son. And Paul tells us in the eighth chapter of Romans, if God did not. Withhold his own son, if God went to these lengths to show us his love for us, how could we imagine God withholding? Anything else from us? God loves us and God is faithful. God is he's interested in us. He's concerned on our behalf. And we can be confident that he's watching over us. And that leads us to the next point, that God being faithful will never give us more than we are able to bear. That statement right there has been the source of great relief for me on many occasions. This is a promise. This is something that you can stand on. God will never allow you to be tried beyond your ability to bear it. Isn't that glorious to know that means no matter how difficult the circumstance you might find yourself in, you can be confident this is not too much for me because God said he would never allow me to be tested beyond what I'm able to bear. And to know that, to have confidence in that, and this is where I can remember a couple of times. There was a one time in particular where I was going through such hardship, I had actually come to the point of thinking I cannot handle this. I can't bear it. I was on the verge of despair. And I remember one day very clearly how how it all happened. I was just in turmoil mentally over the condition that I was in, and I was thinking in my mind, I can't handle this. I can't handle this. I can't handle this. I was I was on the verge of despair. And suddenly, in a flash, this verse came to my mind. God will not allow you because of his faithfulness to be tested beyond what you are able. And suddenly I went, I can handle it. It's all right. I can't handle this because God said that I could because he said that he wouldn't allow me to be tested beyond what I'm able to bear. Now, the fourth thing. Is this now notice it says, but with the testing, God will also make the way of escape. I've always had a problem with this. I what is he talking about? Make a way of escape. And and I've. I've seen this as problematic, and yesterday the Lord showed me why it's a bad translation. And as I was looking at, I was thinking, you know, this this reference to escaping here, it it seems to go contrary to what's being said. And that's because it is actually a bad translation. This word, this Greek word here is only used twice in the New Testament. There's another word that's translated several times escape. It's a more proper word for escape. This word is better translated to make an end of. That's a better translation. And this is the only place that they translated it. Escape. The other place is translated, make an end of. And that's really what's being said. Know this, that every trial has an end. That is how I'm able to bear it. You see, when you look at it in those terms, God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able. And with the testing, he will bring an end that you may be able to bear it. So the final way. When we're faced with trials to to. Rejoice in the midst of them is to know that this thing is going to come to an end. It's not permanent. It's something that is temporary for the purpose of God doing a deeper work in my life. You know, it's that old light at the end of the tunnel thing. It's people say that, oh, if I could just see some light at the end of the tunnel, if I just knew there was some sort of relief coming, I think I could handle it. Well, you know what? In every trial is a Christian. You can know this. There's relief coming. It's not going to. Remain permanently. I heard the story of a woman and I don't know if this actually happened. You know, you hear stories over the years, you read them in books and so forth, and you wonder if there ever was an incident like this, really. But it's a good illustration of this. Probably did happen. But the story goes like this. There's a woman who was going through great, great difficulty. And was seeking relief. And was on the verge of despair. And feeling like she couldn't go on under this pressure. She came into church one day. And the pastor opened the Bible and he began to read. And he read these words and it came to pass. And she excitedly shouted, Hallelujah. He's just beginning his message. It came to pass. And he's going to go on and read. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus. It came to pass. But to her, it came to pass was God's message. The trial didn't come to stay. It came to pass. It's not going to be permanent. And she took hope in that. And that was the very thing that brought deliverance from that, that despairing attitude that she had fallen into. And we can be sure of that. Because that's what this verse is telling us. God will make an end of the temptation. It came to pass. It didn't come to stay. God allows these things to come into our lives. As Peter said, you remember, in this you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, if need be. Not indefinitely, not permanently. But now for a little while, if need be. There are these these periods. The Christian life is not one continual trial. But depending on who you are and God works in each of our lives differently. We all go through trials in varying degrees and some go through trials more frequently than others. But no one goes through a permanent trying situation without moments of reprieve or release. God is faithful and he won't allow you to experience that kind of thing. So these are the four things that we need to keep in mind when we're faced with a trial. That we're not alone. That God is faithful. That God will never allow us to be tested beyond what we are able. And that finally, God will bring an end to it. Now, in closing, life itself is full of difficulties, hardship and suffering for everyone. For the Christian and non-Christian alike. The difference is that for the Christian, God intervenes in the difficulties, hardship and suffering. And uses them to accomplish his work in our lives. You see, that's the difference between the Christian and non-Christian. The Christian is by no means exempt from difficulty, hardship and suffering. We can't find that promise in the New Testament anywhere. It's the common experience of all people in the larger sense. But you see, as a Christian, I have confidence that no trial can come my way without God's permission. And no trial can remain beyond God's appointed time. Isn't that glorious? No trial can come without God's permission. Going back to Job. When Satan went before God, he understood that he could not get at Job. That's what he said to God, actually. He said, you have put a hedge around this man. I can't get to him. What was true about Job is true about every one of us. As God's people, there is a hedge about us. And Satan or the difficulties of life, whatever they might be, cannot affect us without God allowing it to take place. And yet when God allows it to take place, we can have confidence that he allows it so we can come to know, experience and trust him in a greater way. That's the confidence I have as a Christian. And that, again, that trial cannot remain beyond God's appointed time. So there's a time. God will bring it to pass. Now, only a Christian has that confidence. Everyone has difficulty, hardship and suffering. But only a Christian has a confidence that in the midst of those things, God is intervening and he's using those things to work his deeper purposes in our life. Do you have that kind of confidence? Whoever you are, you can expect difficulty, hardship and suffering. That's part of life. But the question is this. Is God going to intervene on your behalf? Is God going to take these things and use them to bring you closer and closer to him? He wants to do that. But he only does that for his people. Are you a Christian? Becoming a Christian. Is. At one and the same time. The easiest and the most difficult thing in all the world. It's the easiest thing in that God has made it so simple. All we need to do is yield ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the difficulty is in doing that because of our own self-will, because of our own pride, because of our own love for sin. Those are the things that keep us back. But the moment we're ready to renounce those things and turn from those things. And just as a child would turn to God and say, I need you. He's right there to receive us. And as we open our hearts to him and as we just yield our lives to him, we can have that confidence that through the difficulties, through the hardship and through the suffering. God is working. He's working. To perfect me for eternity. That's the confidence we have.