Privileged with Problems

Before we get into the word today, I'm excited also about next Sunday. So next Sunday will launch us into Vision Week. And so I know that you miss a Sunday or two as the year goes on. I just don't want you to miss next Sunday. Okay, so you just can't miss that one or you'll be in big trouble with me personally. Alright, we will have to have a talk. Alright, so make sure you're here next Sunday for the first of our two vision Sundays. It's, you know what, it's a great time for you to be here, but it's a great time to bring somebody to church because they will get a just an overdose on kind of what we are and where we're headed and what we value. And so, you know, it'll be a great Sunday for anyone new to be here. So bring somebody with you. Don't miss next week vision, the first of our two vision Sundays. Alright, so Romans chapter 5 verse number one, we're going to read the first five verses of the fifth chapter of Romans. Paul says here, "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 our faith, 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, develop 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. Oh, may the Lord fill your heart with His love today. Let's pray over God's word. Today I'm going to preach a message just simply entitled privileged with problems. Privileged with problems. And as we pray, I want you to pray with me if you would, just that we'll gain the most out of these moments that we look into God's word that we kind of get out of this, what God would have us get out of this. Will you join me in praying that? Pray that with me. Father in Jesus name, we do come to you and we thank you for your word. And I pray, Lord, by your spirit that you would deposit in us this word in exactly the way that we need it. And so God help us to hear what you are saying to us. And I pray, God, we would put it into practice today. And we do love you. We do bless you in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Amen. Amen. Just preach with me today. Just say amen. Amen. Yeah, privileged with problems. And I love that Paul lays this out. And I like the way he lays this out to the Roman Christians here. He's saying, hey, there's going to be times when you're blessed. But even in times of great blessing, there comes with it many times. And most of the time, some burdens, even in the midst of blessing. That you can be in this state of privilege. I'm privileged to be here. I'm privileged to get to do this. But then even with privilege, there also comes with it. Problems. And the presence of a problem does not mean that there's no privilege in my life. Or the presence of a burden does not mean there's no blessing in my life.

No, those two things happen all the time. And the New Testament actually talks quite a bit about the theology of problems and suffering. And so we're going to try to get into that a little bit. Because sometimes with great blessing, some burden does come. Like I heard one read about one girl this week. This happened about four years ago. She enters into a contest. There's like 140 million people entering into this contest. And she wins. She's the one winner of all these people. And she wins this mansion in Vermont and a car and money. And the total price package of the mansion and the car and everything she won was like $2.4 million worth of price that she got. And the problem with that is she's so excited that she's privileged to be the winner. But it came with a problem. It came with about an 800,000 tax burden, okay? So yeah, there's a blessing. I got a new mansion and I got a new car. But the burden that came along with it was $800. She had to come up with liquid $800,000 cash just to keep the keys to the house. Just to keep the keys to the car. Now, if you want to put me in that position, I'll be like, let's do it. I'll figure it out. I'll still take the blessing even though it comes with some burden. And though maybe no one here is one, that kind of prize, that also carries with it a burden. Like maybe it's your job. You're like, man, I prayed for this job and then you get your job and I'm, man, it's such a blessing where I get to work. Or maybe you prayed for a new position at your job. Hey, I got this new position at my job and I got more income. It came with a raise in this new position but also with that new position what comes with it, new responsibility, new burden. And you go in, sometimes we go, oh, man, I just wish I was back. I wish I, man, I hate this job. And that's the very thing, we called it a blessing but then when there's burden attached to it, we now think it's no longer a blessing. Now, like when we get into a college

and they accept us into the college and we're like, yes, I'm getting, I made it at some, I'm blessed, I'm into this college now. And then you pay professors to burden you. You're paying professors to make life difficult on you. Like that, it comes with the territory. Or maybe like if you're blessed to own a car and you don't have to walk or you don't have to write a bike or you're blessed to own a car but then with that, those tires are gonna wear out at some point and some of you get every single mile out of your tires. I see them out there in the parking lot just steel running out everywhere all over those tires. But no, it comes, the blessing comes right, it comes with some burden. You, we pray for maybe to have a baby and then you're blessed with a little little baby. You're like, oh, what a blessing from the Lord. And then at two AM, you're not referring to that baby as a blessing from the Lord. You're burdened with a lack of sleep. Sometimes with a blessing comes a burden. You pray to be married and man, your spouse is such a blessing to you. But I'm just gonna move on. I'm not even gonna, I'm not even gonna spend any time on that shame on you for going there in your minds. No, it comes with it, right? There's moments of patience and moments of testing and carrying on someone else's short comings, okay?

Like, that's part of it. All right. And so we understand that and that's what Paul's point is here in Romans chapter five is that with blessing comes some burden. And so we better have an understanding and a good theology. And really before the big problems come, we need to have a good theology of suffering. And in multiple places in the Bible, there's a lot about the theology of suffering and the theology of going through stuff. And I know some of you're going through stuff right now and this message is going to be, it's gonna be right where you are at. So I want you to hear from heaven today. It's important that we get this theology right. And I think it would start with this maybe a new awareness of the privilege, okay? A new awareness of my privilege in Christ. And by this, we're not talking, I know the word privilege gets used a lot in culture. And I'm not talking about any of the cultural definitions of privilege. So we're not talking about status, we're not talking about wealth, we're not talking about political power, we're not talking about race, we're not talking about those things. We're talking about a privilege that so supersedes

any of those things. And it's privilege that we are privileged to be in right standing with God. And if you have forgotten what a privilege that is, come on, we are privileged that we could be at peace with God. That's how Paul describes it. He describes it that we have been made right in God's sight. He describes it that we have peace with God. How incredible is that? That our baseline as Christians, like I know you're going, we're gonna go through some things. I know that the things are not gonna be perfect. I know that sometimes the world is gonna be turning upside down and it's gonna be all kinds of confusion and all kinds of things that we're walking through. But our baseline and all of that, come on, is peace. What a privilege that is that we can come from a, you realize that some people live from a place of chaos. I mean, their baseline is just chaos. It's just like that's where they start their day. And you're gonna wake up tomorrow, I don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring for you at work or whatever, but you're gonna wake up tomorrow from a baseline of peace, peace with God. That's incredible, amen. What a privilege that is. So he calls it peace with God. He calls it this place of undeserved privilege.

Like we didn't earn it. And I think the more we can realize that because this amazing privilege, some versions call it grace, this amazing grace. You see, when grace no longer is amazing to us, that's a dangerous place to be. Paul spends the first three chapters, maybe even more than that, of Romans, okay? So we're in the fifth chapter of Romans here. He spends the first part of Romans just going on and on and on about how much human, because of our desires that we give into and the cravings of our flesh. I mean, he's laying it out that, man, we're not, we're not just apart from God. We're going the opposite. We are enemies with God. And so the fact that someone that was an enemy of God, I mean, y'all look great today here at church and at every location on Sunday morning at church, but listen to me. The fact that we were once enemies with God, and now we're not just, it's not that there's just been a peace treaty between us and God, we're aligned with God. We are allies with God. We are on God's side. Like that's amazing that we can be standing right with God. And this peace that we have with God is not just a feeling. No, it's a, it is a position.

Like we live in this peace with God. And so why is it so important that we understand and we're aware of this privilege and that we understand it, this privilege in Christ being so important? Well, it's because it's that understanding of our privilege in Christ. We've got to start there in this because it positions us to process problems and suffering in a way that's productive to our life. So I got to start from this place of going, actually, no matter what I'm going through, no matter what problem is happening, I am so blessed to know God. I am so blessed that I'm not walking through this alone. It starts with privilege, right? Now with privilege, it's almost like Paul was like, "Which do you want first, the good news or bad news?" And they said, "We want the good news first." Okay, you're privileged. Now with privilege comes problems, that's the bad news. But then there's good news attached to the bad news. Here we go. He says, "We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials." And that's not a verse that most of us live out very well. It's not one we like to claim. You can rejoice too. You can rejoice too when you run into problems and trials. And then he goes on to why?

It's because 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 us to disappointment. You can rejoice too when you run into problems. Now the word that gets translated problems, trials and tribulations, the word that gets translated into those English words is a word that, I mean, it's heavy pressure. It's like an olive press. When it presses in on that olive so hard to get the oil out of it, it's that kind. So it's not necessarily like the problems Paul is talking about is not necessarily like, you know, traffic jams and temper tantrums of a toddler. It's not that it's heavier things. And so these are major things in our life that it's when things crush us, we feel that it's crushing weight of our circumstances, are crushing us so much that what is inside of us is now coming out of us. Like that's the picture that Paul is painting here, that we go through things. And so you better have that inward theology and that inward mindset, you better have that right because we are gonna go through things and we can rejoice when we do it somehow. We're gonna go through things that's gonna bring the inside of us, it's gonna be on the outside. And the Christians Paul is writing to here,

they knew trials and tribulations and persecutions. They knew it because for those Christians to sign up for Jesus was to sign up not for less trials and not for less problems. See, in the modern church, you'll hear it if not preached out loud and clearly, you'll hear it hinted sometimes where if you just come to Jesus, all your problems will go away. And if you just come to Jesus, it'll be nothing but smooth sailing. And if you just surrender your life to Jesus, you won't have any more troubles. And that's not true. Now I will say this life gets easier when you are surrender to Christ because you have his power in your life, you have his direction in your life. But this idea that if I come to Christ, I'll have less problems, that's not really true. And so for these Christians, especially, they knew. They knew signing up to be a Christian, man, I am signing up for persecution. They knew it. I'm getting ready to make my life more difficult if I sign up for this. And so it's to this audience that Paul writes and you can be rejoice, you can rejoice when you're facing these trials and these temptations. I mean, Jesus in his own words, he warned believers of this.

John 15, he said, "Since they persecuted me naturally, "they're gonna persecute you." He said, "The next chapter later." He said, "I've told you these things "so that you may have peace." There it is again, but right after the word peace, he says, "In this world, "I have overcome the world." And so for many of us in this Western culture, in the Western church, watch this and stay with me on this, we are so blessed. I know that I know somebody's going through some stuff right now and you're like, man, it doesn't feel blessed, but hear me. We are so blessed and life in one sense is comfortable. You go past your my life, it's not comfortable, it's more, we could look at places in the world that would trade for your life in a second. So you hear me on this, right? Like I know we're going through stuff, but we are launching from this place of comfort where really pleasure, like we live in this thing where we expect pleasure and then when a problem comes, it seems so foreign to us because it's like, "No, I like comfort, I like pleasure. "What's this problem stuff?" And then we start to misinterpret what this problem means, what this means God has left me because I'm no longer comfortable. But sometimes you've got to go through something

to just experience God in a new way. And our current culture, our current climate doesn't prepare us for that. It made me think of about five or six years ago, I was preaching at a church on a Sunday in Minnesota and they invited me to come up to Minnesota in January to preach. Now, I'm not in that, like I had to pray about that. Lord, are you sure you want me to go to Minnesota in January? And the Lord said, "Actually, I wouldn't if I were you." And I said, "I'm gonna do it." No, he didn't. So I went up there and as, I mean, just as is my life, the weekend I'm there, they had a record low, like in decades, it was this polar vortex that came through, it was the coldest temperature that they'd had in, like I said, in the decade or two. And the Sunday morning when I went up to church, the temperature, the low that day, negative 20. I'm not talking about the windshield, I'm just talking about the actual temperature, negative 20. And I know they talk about hell being a place of fire, but I felt like when I stepped out there, I'm like, this could be a little bit of that too. I don't know what's going on. And I went to church and I ran into the building. I didn't even have any heavy clothes 'cause I don't even have that stuff. And I ran into church and we preached that day and had awesome services.

And in between the couple of the services towards the last service, somebody came up to me and they said, "Pastor, it's really cold out." I'm like, I know it is. They said, "We're gonna send somebody out midway "through this service and they're gonna start "your rental car for you." And I'll turn the heat on so that when you go out, your car will be warm. And I said, "Thank you, that's the Lord's work right there. "Thank you for doing that." And I was so excited that that was happening. So I get done with that last service and we prayed for people and it was awesome. And it came time I got my stuff together and I bundled up my little light jacket, whatever I had. And I was running, not running, but I was probably jogging out to my car. And as I'm almost to my car, I hear this guy cross the parking lot goes, "Pastor." So I turn around and he goes, (audience laughing) and I'm gonna tell you everything within me just wanted to be like, "Peace, I'm out, like see ya." I'm like, "I can't do it." And so I kind of run over and he said, "Pastor," and he talked nice and slow. (audience laughing) I just want you to know that word today

just really blessed me. 'Cause I've really been going through some stuff. And he proceeded to tell me about his last couple of years and all that he had been through. And the whole time I'm just like, I mean, I'm not even exaggerating. I felt like my skin on my face was literally just breaking off my skull. I just, everything hurts so bad as I was out there with him. And finally we prayed together and I thought that would be a good time for me to run out for my car. So we prayed and I said amen and then he had one more couple added on to the story. And as I got finally back in the car and I survived it, I started thinking about man, I was so affected by this climate. And it just seemed like he wasn't. Now he was dressed a little bit better than me 'cause he had some coveralls and he had some stuff, but he's just out there doing life. He's like, "Let's talk, let's hang." And I'm like, "I would rather do anything but this." And I figured out what the deal was, is that this climate that I live in did not prepare me for the climate that he was in. Now he lived in that climate. So he was kind of like, he expected that weather from time to time. And so when that weather came,

it was not gonna take him out. Now that weather was ready to take me out because of the comfort climate that I, are you with me? Like sometimes we can live in such a comfortable environment in the things of God or comfortable environment in our little Western world that we think any time a problem comes, man, this problem is gonna take me out when the problem was not meant to take you out. Maybe that problem was meant to take you up. And we've got to understand and be prepared for that. (audience applauds) That problem, listen to me, when we have a problem, it is starting a problem. Like even in the problems, that's why Paul says, we can rejoice in this. I don't think what Paul was doing here was like, some sort of masochist type of thing, where like, oh, we just love being in pain, and we just love all the problems. Bring the problems on. I want more, I want more things to break down. I want more things to pay for. I want more problems in my family. I want more issues and stresses in my marriage. No, that's not what he's doing. What he's saying is this, we have a long-term theology when we do face a problem,

and we know that we're gonna come out on the other side of a different person because of it. That's what rejoicing in tribulation is. Like, I know what it's like to go through some things, and I think we all have the potential when we do face some problems and some trials. I mean, even just in the last few months, like it's, there's been some heavy moments. Like, I said a moment ago, we were joking about, you have a job, and then sometimes the job comes with some different pressures and stuff. And so, that's not just true for you guys, that's true for my job too. Like, I'm privileged to be your pastor. It has passed to the greatest people on the planet, but that comes with some problems from time to time. So sometimes we were just talking through some of the things that we're facing personally, we're facing as an organization. As we were talking about with some of the team, it just became very, very clear also. We were just like, man, if we're walking through some of this stuff, what are our people walking through? I'm just telling you, just give me such a burden for where you are at and the problems that you're facing right now. And problems and stresses and issues like that, trials, a lot of times they can cause us to isolate. Maybe we don't talk to our spouse because we're under all this pressure,

and so we start to get maybe a little bit separated from our spouse. And sometimes we alienate ourself from God, because somewhere in our brain, we think that this is, well, God, I see how you're taking care of me. Here I am trying to do all this work for you. And this is how you treat me. And we won't maybe pray that out loud, but we think it, we're tempted to live in that. So we start to isolate ourself from God. We start to isolate ourself from maybe those that can help us get through this. And even though we may be even right now, even though we may be walking through some trials, we may be walking through some burdens, we may be walking through some problems. Listen to me, we're not gonna change what we preach, we're not gonna change what we believe. No, because we know that God is the one who's gonna work in us as we go through whatever we're going through. We're gonna come out. (audience applauding) Here's the thing, if you only encounter Jesus in times of blessing and comfort, you'll have a limited understanding of who God really is. I know that's what we want, we just want. God, can I have the good times, God? If you only have the good times, God,

you don't really know God. There are aspects of God's power, there are aspects of God's, like God being the lifter of your head. Listen, the Holy Spirit being a comforter to you. Some of us, we will never know what it's like for the Holy Spirit to be a comforter if we're never uncomfortable. But it's when we are uncomfortable that then we sense all the Holy Spirit brings me the comfort that I currently don't have right now because of what I'm walking through. And so the problem starts this, it propels us into this process that Paul lays out and I wanna kinda go through it real quick. So it starts with a problem. So we face the problem first, and then the problem Paul says, the problem's gonna take us somewhere. The problem forms in us this word endurance, okay? Endurance is literally this internal fortitude. It's the power, it's the inward strength necessary to withstand what I'm going through. So I'm not gonna sit here in my problem and then maybe that's the first mistake we make is like we have a problem and we just rest in the problem. We just stay in the problem. The first thing I wanna do when I'm gonna problem in my life is I'm gonna start to think about, okay,

what does endurance look like? How do I make it through this problem? How am I gonna get on the other side of this problem? God's working in me some endurance to get through this. And so that's our first mindset that has to be. Now I've been in the gym some for the last three months and I've been going three or four days a week, obviously as you can tell. No, I'm just kidding on that, not at all. Okay, not yet. It's coming though, wait. I mean, one of these Sundays I'm gonna show it off. It's gonna be awesome. And I told myself, I was not gonna talk about it in a message until I was here going at least for three months 'cause I wasn't gonna come in after like four days and be like, I'm in the gym, baby, like four days. where I felt like it's part of my habit and it is. But I'm gonna tell you what, man, when I'm in that gym, there have been so many times when I have been reminded of why I didn't go for about 30 years. (audience laughing) 'Cause it hurts, it's painful. I mean, if I could come up with some sort of, like, weight loss plan, body sculpting plan that included just this, you just put some lotions on, you get a massage, you go rest for a little while, and then you have some dessert. And you do that four days a week. Like, if I can, you know, you'll just,

your body will be sculpted. Your body will be sculpted, all right, it's not. And if I could do that, I'd be a bazillionaire. Now, the problem is that it takes work. The problem is those muscles have to, have to kind of tear a little bit, and then they come back stronger and a little bit bigger. Like, that's the problem with it, is that it has to go through some something for the strength that happened, and that's the same for us. We want to be all fortitude. We want to, I'm gonna make it through something. Well, if you know you're gonna have the power to make it through something, you gotta go through something to have that power. And that's what the problem does. The problem is gonna take us to a place of endurance, but then endurance takes us somewhere. Endurance takes us to this place called character, or strength of character, as our version put it. Endurance proves the character. And so this quality of character that the Bible's talking about here, that Paul's talking about, it means this. The word character means that they passed, they went through a test and they came out and they passed. It's like, I made it through a test. That's what the character is. And I didn't really love tests when I was in school,

maybe some of you did. I didn't really love tests. I'll tell you this, when I got on the backside of a couple tests, when the test came back graded, and I got a B plus or an A minus on that test, I would be like, I loved this test. I didn't know I loved it going into it. I didn't love it halfway through. But when I got that grade and I had passed, well, I loved that test. And it's the same for us. Oh, when you're walking through the problem, I don't expect you to love every aspect of it. But how about when you come out on the other side? And God says, well done, you kept your eyes on me. You went into a test and you passed the test. You can come out on the other side of that and be grateful for it. How about this? Some of you have lived long enough to have gone through maybe some of the roughest seasons of your life that you can look back on, but God did so much in your life during it that you wouldn't trade it. Who says stuff like that? Who says stuff like that? That's the toughest season of my life, but I wouldn't trade it. I'll tell you, people that understand that a problem will process something in their life, that God is the one that's gonna get them through

whatever problems they're facing. It's gonna bring endurance, it's gonna bring character, and then this character powers hope in our life. Character strengthens hope in our life. And that's ultimately where I pray we get to. I pray that we get to a place of hope, of greater hope. And I know what we're thinking. We're thinking pastor, look, problems is there. And can I just do the shortcut? Can I just, 'cause look, I'll just make that leap. I'll just go left instead of going right on. I'll just go to hope in first. It does not work like that. If I want to get to that kind of greater hope, now I'll start from a place of hope. Again, that's hope is our baseline. But if I want to get to greater hope, I'm gonna go through the avenue of problems. I'm gonna get on a road of endurance. I'm gonna be on a street of character, and then I'll get to a place of even greater hope. What does a life of greater hope sound like? It sounds like Psalms 46. God is our refuge and our strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. This word is for somebody here today. So we will not fear when the earthquakes come, or the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge.

I love what the psalmist has said. I am so trusting in God as my strength. Let it all crash. Let it all burn. I'm gonna be fine. Hope sounds like this in Psalms 34. The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He rescues those whose spirits are crushed. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the Lord comes to the rescue each and every time. I love hope. I love greater hope. And here's the beautiful thing. Here's the beautiful thing about greater hope, is that because now I've gone through this cycle, I've gone through this process, now I have a greater understanding. I actually wanted this message to end at greater hope. I just wanted to end it back and then you go through one trouble, you make it all the way through, you have greater hope and then it's smooth sailing, but that's just not the truth. I can tell you this, so the next problem you face, you'll be stronger than you were the last problem you faced. Come on, like the last problem almost took me out. The next issue, the next trial, is not going to come close to taking me out because I've been through some things. I have more endurance than I had before. I have more character in my life than I had before and I have more confidence and hope in who God is than I ever had before. Is anybody, can anybody figure out what Paul was saying when he said we've rejoiced in problems? He wasn't a lunatic. That's not what this was. This was logic, right? If I look at all the outcome, wait. I guess the next time I face a problem, maybe I can find one part of my life to rejoice knowing greater hope is coming. It's all in how you want to do it. You choose how you want to live

life. There's an author, Bruce Larson, he had an office in New York City where he would counsel people and he writes about how his office was on Fifth Avenue and so from time to time, he would be counseling somebody and they would be going through so much and they'd be trying to figure out if they want to maybe give their life to Christ or if they want to help have God help them through whatever they're walking through. He would do something with them. He said, "I would take them down Fifth Avenue to the RCA building." He said out in front of the RCA building is this statue of Atlas and their Atlas is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Here's this sculpted, like supposedly mythical, like strongest creature and he just is straining to hold the whole world on his shoulders and he would show the people of that picture and he would say, "That's one way to live." He'd walk across the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral and they're behind one of the altars in St. Patrick's Cathedral was this little statue of Boy Jesus and in the statue he's maybe meant to be seven or eight years old and there is Boy Jesus holding the entire world in his hands effortlessly without any trouble at all and he would say, "That's another way to live." And he would say, "You get to choose how you want to live." I think that's part of what Paul's saying here. When you go through a trouble, do you want to carry it all on your shoulders? That's one way to live. Do you want to have that burden and that trouble and that problem end up taking you out? That's one way to live or I could understand that God is the one that holds the whole world in his hands and I'm part of that and if I can trust him, I know I'm blessed but if I can trust him also with this burden, I know I'm privileged but if I can also trust him in this moment of problem, I'll come through with greater hope, greater confidence in him. I know some of us are walking through it right now. Let's process it right.