Romans 5: 3-5 “Facing Adversity” 8/4/2019 Rev. Jerry W. Krueger
Boardman United Methodist Church
One gray November afternoon, I was driving down I-35 from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Tx. to San Antonio during college Thanksgiving break. I saw a car with the hood up and a white cloth tied to its car antenna indicating, “Need help”. Way before cell phones! I stopped and saw a couple, not much older than myself, with a flat tire. They didn’t have a jack or lug wrench, so I dragged mine from my car and jacked up their car. Their spare was bald, and the car owner was none too quick to assist me with jacking the car, busting overly tight lug nuts loose, or getting out his spare. After the tire was changed with absolutely no help from the stranded motorists, the woman said, “I’ll put your jack and lug wrench in your trunk.” I thanked her, and they got in the car and drove off. Later, I realized they had stolen my lug wrench and base to my jack. As my Dad gleefully chortled, “Jerry, no good deed goes unpunished.”
Sometimes when we help others, we expect a certain response of gratitude and thanks. But sometimes helping people can create conflict for ourselves. Anyone who has engaged in deeds of compassion or service to others knows it does not always turn out rosy. This is the underbelly of living out God’s purpose for our lives. It can be hard as heck!
Make no mistake, as we seek clarity in following God’s direction, we may take steps that will lead us into great hardship or difficulty. That is what happened to Paul the Apostle early in his journey.
Paul spent about 17 years in Tarsus, discerning what a change in direction would mean for him. After his Damascus road conversion moment 17 years later, Barnabas, sent by God, asks Paul to help him with a church in Antioch.
Paul had left a successful career only to wind up back in his parents’ home. Yet he knew as his relationship grew with Christ, his time was not being wasted.
As Christians we must realize that we are never simply waiting, we are living out laying groundwork for what we are yet to do.
Calls to serve God are not just for clergy. Sometimes, it is to teach Sunday school, or lead a group or ministry. Sometimes I think we fail to answer our calls, because we hesitate, and we think hesitation is some sign of unpreparedness.
With any call by God, the feeling either grows or diminishes, and that is how we know if the call is legitimate.
As Paul served the Antioch church, some of the people must have been impacted by Paul’s actions as the persecutor of Christians in his past.
Paul, open to God’s voice, travels to Cyprus where he encounters a Jewish sorcerer named Bar-Jesus. Paul rebukes the sorcerer for resisting God and says the Lord will strike him blind, which he does. Then Paul and Barnabas head to Asia Minor, landing in Antioch of Pisidia, where Jewish leaders expel them from the area.
It’s on to Iconium and receiving positive response to their preaching, but the Jewish leadership plan to stone them to death. Paul heals a man unable to walk from birth, then the Jewish leaders stone Paul and drag him out of the city.
Opposition, expulsion, resistance, and stoning is the pattern for Paul’s ministry.
After returning to Antioch of Syria, both Paul and Barnabas reflect and say, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”. (Acts 14: 22)
God doesn’t change lives and the world through those who play it safe. God changes the world through people who pick up their cross, follow a crucified Savior, and endure trial.
Somewhere in modern Christianity, a strain of thought has crept in that faithfulness and comfort belong together. Some perceive adversity as a sign that we are not following God. But try telling that to Moses at the Red Sea, Elijah in the wilderness, and Jesus on the cross.
We may believe suffering is part of God’s will and work, but allowing ourselves to embrace it is another matter.
Who knows what directions open to us when we choose to reject the myth of easy obedience? I wonder at times, was Mary, Jesus’ mother, the first woman asked by the angel Gabriel to bear the Savior of the world? Did other candidates evaluate potential hardship and suffering related to bearing the Son of God?
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The end of life if not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.”
I admit, as a follower of Jesus, at times I would like to influence how God leads or directs me. “God, are you SURE that this is what I am supposed to do? Do you need more time to think it over?”
God’s way is not guaranteed to be easy, and our life’s journey is not always straight and smooth. Sometimes we are on a raggedy, rough road with high hills surrounding it, and we feel that we cannot see our way out.
But our cry in the midst of joy AND adversity should ring the same, “Lord, lead me where YOU need me!”
In 2 Corinthians 1:9, Paul says, “We stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.”
Which may bring to mind unhelpful cliché’s like, “Just turn your problems over to God.” “Don’t worry, God will make it all right.” Or, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” That last statement is not biblical and turns God into the perpetrator of our problems.
God tells us, having many gifts is not enough. Even if you are good swimmer, at some point, you will need a life preserver.
Our admissions of being unable to do everything on our own, is an admission of honesty before God. Our weakness makes room for God.
Know there is a difference between adversity and obstacle. Hardship in life can be viewed as an obstacle to following God. Obstacles block us.
Adversity is hardship but not an obstacle. Viewing adversity as a hard experience, when viewed in that vein, can be part of our witness and testimony which offers us opportunity to continue to follow God.
People of God, God can use conflict, adversity, and suffering, not that HE causes it, but God can use adversity and us, to bring about something better than had the conflict or adversity never existed at all.
Hear this scripture again from Romans 5: 3-4, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”
We close with this question, “What will sustain you, even in disappointment or adversity?”
Is it Jesus Christ? What do you say?
May God bless his faithful followers in all situations in life. Amen.
