How To Benefit From Adversity

Tom Shrader teaches that adversity is inevitable in life and that believers can benefit from it by being coachable and willing to learn. He outlines six things to consider during difficult times: who God is and what He's like, what God has done in creation, what God has done in history, what God has done for you in the past, what God has promised to do today, and what God can do for you through adversity. Using James 1:2-4, he explains that trials are like spiritual aerobics that test and strengthen our faith, producing endurance and maturity.

“Consider it pure joy, my brother, when you encounter all kinds of trials because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance or perseverance.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Stay Afloat in a World Circling the Drain (2013)

Recorded: 2013 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 46 min

Themes: adversity, trials, faith, endurance, maturity, growth, suffering, perseverance, going through hardship, facing difficult times, struggling believer, seeking spiritual growth, new to adversity, questioning god's plan, parent, mentor

Scripture: James 1:2-4, Job 2:10, John 9, Ecclesiastes 7:14, Deuteronomy 32:7, 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Samuel 12:24, Luke 12:24, Job 37, Romans 1

Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, providence, sovereignty, faith testing, character development, divine purposes, spiritual formation

Full Transcript

Great to see you this morning. We want to get right after it. How many of you have been in Cannon Beach on the 4th of July before? Oh, a whole bunch of you. So you know what's in store. I was here, I don't know how many years ago, on the 4th of July and had an absolute blast. The minute we're done here, you go get your kids and you see the chairs out there lined up for the parade. It was so cool. It was just a great time and the fireworks. So the only thing standing between you and the parade is me. And I don't want to screw this up. So I want to be diligent about it.

Also address the fact that I have on shorts. I like to wear shorts. Heather Goodenough's mom and dad are the couple that started Cannon Beach. Their picture's back on the wall. So if you look back, that's them. And I mean this with all sincerity. Every time I get up here. Happened to me last night. I get up here and I look at that picture and I see the two of them looking at me saying, don't screw this up. You know, we invested our life in this thing. Don't come along and screw this thing up.

Well, I like to be comfortable and wear shorts. So years ago, I said to Jana, is it okay for me to wear shorts? And she said, sure. Well, Heather on Sunday typically comes to church here. And when she does, she's reluctant, but when she does, I try to get her up and to interview her and to talk about the past. And I say, what's the biggest difference? And she said, well, now it's so casual. She said, look at you. You have on shorts. And I said, well, I have bad legs. I have really, well, I said bad legs. I have great legs for a girl. But I mean, I've heard everything. Man, look at mom, a man riding a chicken. So I've heard everything there is to say. But I love to be comfortable.

The J. Vernon McGee Shorts Controversy

Heather was telling me the first pastor she ever saw in shorts was J. Vernon McGee. Oh yeah, you even get a reaction. And I was telling Jeff that at breakfast this morning. And he said, when J. Vernon came and wore shorts, it created a great controversy in that shorts were viewed as something you shouldn't wear. And if you were spiritual, you really didn't wear them. And here came this guy who had all the credentials of being spiritual. So people were all bent out of shape. You don't need to be bent out of shape. We're just comfortable. That's what we want to do.

The Series Overview

When you came in, you have an outline on your seat or the seat next to you. I gave them to the guys. They copied them. They're out there. We're going to use this for the four sessions. Not this, but this type of outline for the four sessions that we're here. And today you will see some blanks on that outline. And you're going to have to fill those in. I will tell you this, that outline is really important and really helpful. What's missing are not just the blanks, but also the scriptures that go with this. So I want to move through this fairly quickly.

Let me tell you, this is a series that we put together in 1990. And I discovered it or rediscovered it three or four months ago. And knowing I was coming up here, I thought, well, I'm going to take this and tweak it. And I started to redo the outlines. And then I thought, no, because there's something important, especially if you get into a couple of them for tonight and tomorrow, that it's very dated. Talks about Simon and Garfunkel and the challenges of the 80s. And so I thought, well, gosh, these people are going to think I'm slugs if I don't update this. But then I realized there's something profound in looking at what we did in 1980 and realize it's just like today. Because though things change all around us, we're still the same. We're still human.

Staying Afloat in a World Circling the Drain

And so the title of this series is How to Stay Afloat in a World That's Circling the Drain. The idea when we first developed this is that everything is changing and everything has cycles. My background is commercial real estate. And when I came into the business, here's all you need to know. When I came into the business, Jimmy Carter was president. That's all you need to know. So interest rates are at 18 or 19 percent. I'm in real estate. You can't do anything. Imagine now you borrow money at 3, 4 percent. Well, imagine getting a home loan at 18, 19 percent. Everything is dead.

And my friend said, this is a perfect time to come in the business because it gives you time to get up to speed and to learn it because all this is going to change. And I would say to them, how do you know it's going to change? And they'd say, because it'll always change because there is a real estate cycle. What I've discovered is that life has all these cycles to it. Relationship, spiritual. There are times when you feel so rich, it's like you can see, feel, touch Jesus walking with you. And there's other times it just feels like, what happened? Well, how do I stay afloat in the midst of all this change?

External and Internal Changes

There's things that happen to us. Some of those are external. You watch the news. There's things that just happen to you. We'll talk about them. And I don't like this because we have a tendency to paint ourselves as victims always. That's the problem, if you ask me, with so many people today. Always a victim, never a villain. So there's these external things that come, but then there's these internal changes in life. Things have just changed.

Sandy and I, and I say Sandy and I, really Sandy, my daughter Haley just had her 11th wedding anniversary, which seems so weird. If you met her, she looks like she could be over there in the children's ministry. She still looks like she's about 12. And she has four kids, and they wanted to take a kind of a staycation. So for a day, Sandy had the four grandkids, and I came and I didn't do anything, but hung out for a while. But I think about Haley's life and all the things. Well, man, once you get married, that's going to change stuff. And then you start dropping these little kids.

Adversity Is Inevitable

Look at the title for today's session: How to Benefit from Adversity. There are two things that are implied in that title. One of them is you're going to have adversity. Now, you may have driven up here this week, and you're flying higher than ever. Life has never been better than this. And all of a sudden, you're going, this is incredible.

That's how I feel. I'll be really honest with you. That's how I feel about the majority of my life. Sandy and I, as I said, have been married about a year and a half. Right after we got married, in fact, when I was here last year, I was so sick. I felt sorry for the people. I have been diagnosed with this thing called lupus.

So I've got this lupus going. I'm up here trying to teach. I'm sweating. Patrick's never heard me before, and he's going, how did this guy ever get in here? And I mean, it was unbelievable. It was everything I could do. I slept probably 20 hours a day. I'm worried about Sandy, because we've only been married like three or four weeks when this whole thing starts.

She's younger than I am. Younger, you can tell by looking. But even a bigger gap. I mean, her resting heart rate is like 12, and mine's like 212. I told her before we got married, I said, listen, I'm going to die way before you, which is good. But I'm going to be sick leading up to that. You're going to have to step in the gap. And she said, I didn't know it was going to happen three weeks into this thing.

We got through that. She's been awesome. We were just talking about this morning, our relationship and our life is spectacular. Isn't that amazing? But here's what I know: that too shall pass. And other things come into life.

The Need to Be Coachable

So you're in the middle of all of these things. How to benefit from adversity? Number one, it implies adversity. So you're flying high, and it's never been better than this. Or you're down here, and it's never been worse. We say the same thing to both of you. This too shall pass.

Number two, if you're going to benefit from adversity, and here's a characteristic that I will tell you is absolutely crucial in life, and that is you're coachable, that you're willing to learn. There are three ways that I can think of to learn. One is book knowledge. You read, you study, you watch something on television, you learn. The other is personal experience. Now the problem with that is the tuition is very high.

A great way to learn is just from other people. So I read a lot of biographies, I enjoy history, I enjoy talking to people. I've always had around me just a flock of old people. I used to have two guys who came to my study, how ironic is this, who both landed at Normandy on D-Day.

Learning from Veterans

One of them was in charge of reconnaissance for the 29th Division, and I went to visit him. He would have me come to his house, and he would tell me these stories. He had this magnificent picture, because after they landed at D-Day, what he would always say is, and everybody goes, okay that was incredible, it was. He said that we then fought 42 days without a break.

There's an amazing picture of him and some guys with a stringer of fish, big old fish. I said, how'd you have time to fish and tools? And he said, well, we'd take these German hand grenades and throw them in the water and blow the fish out, and we'd grab the fish. There's a wonderful picture, and he was now in the process of dying, and I'd say, let me get the scrapbook. He said, I don't want to look at all that old stuff. I said, Bill, please. There was a great picture of him and Eisenhower standing on a tank. He taught me so much about life.

The Difference Between Ignorant and Stupid

So that's another way to learn. If you're coachable, we can help you. There's a difference between being ignorant and stupid. Ignorant, you just haven't been taught yet. Stupid, that's not good. John Wayne is reported to have said this: life is tough, especially if you're stupid. And that's true.

So let's work through this. Let's work through this outline, and I'm going to help you fill in the blanks, follow along, do your work. I'm telling you, especially when we get to those top six on the right-hand side, those are important.

Influences Affecting Your Circumstances

Here you go. Influences affecting your circumstances. So this is how you look at life and evaluate how you got there. Number one stays blank, and it's what we think in good times. Well, it's education and energy and my ability and some time and things are good, and why wouldn't they be? Because look at how sharp I am. Even as Christians, we do a little bit of this. Oh, God has blessed me, but the undercurrent of that is, and why would He not? He's going to bless this guy over here? He's an idiot.

So that's good times. Bad times, so that second one. It's this idea of education plus energy plus ability plus time, here you go, plus luck. Well, when things are not going well, you tend to look around at the people who are doing well, and you say, well, they're lucky, or if I'm not doing well, I'm unlucky.

Lessons from Business Experience

At the end of my career, I was the senior guy in a very young office, and out of that office, we were talking about the other day, came about six or seven guys that are huge real estate guys in the Phoenix market. So what they would do is the new guys would come in, they'd hook me up with the new guys, we'd go to lunch, we'd spend time, and they'd always ask this question: what do I need to do to succeed in business?

I would give them four things, I'll give them to you. Number one, you need market knowledge or product knowledge. You need to know what it is you're selling or dealing with. Number two are people skills. Sandy deals with a lot of young women, and I deal with a lot of young men, we deal with a lot of young people. It is astounding to me how socially inept this next generation is. I go, I'm Tom, glad to meet you. They'll go, yeah.

Good to see you too. And I tell kids, because all I hear—I'm so sick and frustrated about most of the world around me, but I'm sick and frustrated about all these young people saying life is so tough and the job market's so tough. Listen, if you can give correct change and smile when you do it, you're in the top 10%.

I'll give you this—there's a whole bunch of stuff here that's free today, and this is one of them. There's an old book called How to Win Friends and Influence People, and I heard about that book and thought, that's goofy. A couple summers ago I got it and we did a conference—essentially a one-night conference on it. I don't know if you've read that book or if you have a copy of that book. If you have students, teenagers, junior high kids, you should go through that book with them.

A Generation Connected Without Relationship

A couple Sundays ago, Sandy and I were going to a graduation celebration for a young lady and we wanted to take her something. We figured a gift certificate is safe—coffee—so we'll go to Starbucks. Well, no, not anymore. Starbucks is the man now. So we go to a place called Lux, which is the local coffee café. I'm sure you guys have coffee—you invented coffee up here—but you have this place.

We walked in and Sandy and I were going, this is bizarre. The place is full, but there is no noise. No one's talking. They all have one of these or an iPad, and I discovered that you have a generation that deeply desires to be connected, but to be connected without relationship—to be connected on their own terms.

The Power of Relationship in Business

I didn't come along and say you need market knowledge and people skills—you need to be relational. I was great at, and still am, at developing relationship. As I said last night, I'm from Iowa, and so when I came down there, I went to work for Motorola and they saw Iowa, so they put me in agribusiness.

The first guy I ever called on was a guy by the name of Dwayne Dobson. If you're in Phoenix, you know Dobson Road, Dobson Ranch. These guys were all farmers who then sold to the developer, and they retained the name. I remember calling Dwayne Dobson, and I said, "Dwayne, I'm your new Motorola rep, and I see you got a ton of stuff. I'd like to come out, and I'll tell you—let me tell you—I got two things. One, see everything's working. Two, sell you more. That's what I want to do."

So I said, "Why don't I come by Monday for breakfast?" He said, "That's perfect. We meet at the ranch house"—which is down, he gave me the directions—"We meet there, let's meet there Monday morning for breakfast at 4:30. The girls will have the tortillas ready and everything." I said, "You know what? Why don't I meet you at 8 o'clock for lunch? I'm not a really early morning guy."

But these farmers—I was nothing like a farmer. I bought boots and kicked dirt out of them. I was nothing. I'd go, "Gosh, this smells out here." But they loved a relationship. So you got market knowledge, people skills, relationship, and then luck—right place, right time. Now you're going to argue Providence, I got it. But when things are going bad, that's what you talk about.

The Formula for Results

Here's the reality. This is the key. It's the third thing on your outline: when we look at life and we understand circumstances, it's education, plus ability, plus energy, plus time, plus God, equals results. It's to understand that we throw the dice, God determines the outcome.

So those two things, response to this influence in your life. Number one, accept the influence of God on your circumstances. Accept the influence of God on your circumstances. Job chapter 2, verse 10. Job has adversity in His life. Along comes His wife. It's funny—in Job's life, everything He wanted to keep, He got rid of, and everything I think He wanted to get rid of, He kept, and she was one of them. I don't know that that's accurate, but she's saying, "Listen, Job, curse God and die." And Job says, in Job 2:10, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?"

Sometimes we come along, it seems to me, and we're so afraid of protecting God's reputation that we edit who He is. God comes along and says, "Who made the deaf, who made the dumb, who made the blind? I did." Everything that happens in this world is either caused by or allowed by God, and if that's not true, He's not God.

God's Display Cases

John 9. I love this. Jesus is walking with the disciples into town. There's a man who's been blind from birth, and the disciples ask Him the prevalent philosophy of the day: "Who sinned, this guy or His parents?" And Jesus says, "Neither. He's blind that He might become a display case for the work of God." So I need to accept the influence of God on my circumstances.

Here's second: In this midst of adversity, I need to use the downtime to increase my perspective. So here you go. We've got roughly 25 minutes. You're going to have to think. I know you didn't come here to think. You came here to get away, but you're going to have to think. When we're in this room, we're here to think. We work in here.

The Power of Consideration

Let me read you Ecclesiastes 7:14. "When times are good, be happy. When times are bad"—get this now, here's the key word of the day—"consider. God has made the one as well as the other." That word consider means literally to see, to analyze, to think. Here's a great word that we don't ever use anymore: to ponder.

We're either so busy going from thing to thing to thing with so much noise around us that we love to distract ourselves, but we never stop to think. I just about finished a book on thinking, and this guy's view is this: we should think. I don't know how He got me to buy this book, but I did. But we should think. We're so busy reacting rather than proactively beginning to think of the things around us.

So as you look at your outline, in the upper right-hand corner, you'll see six things that begin with the idea consider. Consider who God, what God. If you're a Sunday school teacher, or you're a pastor, or you're looking—

Consider Who God Is and What He's Like

For something to meditate on, study, take in a quiet time setting, these six things are awesome. So here's what we want to do in the midst of this adversity. While you're in the process of working through adversity, six things.

Number one, consider who God is and what He's like. Consider who God is, not who you think He is, not who you want Him to be. How often have you had a conversation with somebody and you're talking about God? As we said last night, as long as we leave it in generic terms, everything's okay. Once we talk about God, conversation gets a little tight. Once we talk about God as we discover Him, as He reveals Himself in this book, as He reveals Himself, all of a sudden we see God as He really is.

God Is Objective Truth, Not Subjective Opinion

God, really important in the culture, God is an objective, not a subjective truth. So subjective truth, like every time I've taught here, in the morning, this room feels perfect. At night, it always feels hot to me. So when we were done last night, I said to Sandy, "Gosh, I'm just drenched." And she said, "Well, those lights are right there and it's warm in the room, but it's warmer for you." It was her way of saying, "Well, I don't think it's hot."

So last night, was the room in here hot or cold or just right? Well, here's what you, who's right? It's a totally subjective thing. When she says she's cold, she means it's cold. I'm hot, I'm hot. God is not like that. God is an objective truth. He is.

It's like two plus two. Two plus two is four. And we know that. Now, if I say five, what would you say? You're wrong. "But I believe it's five. I'm sincere, it's five. I've been taught it's five. I feel it's five. I looked at the paper, the kid next to me, he wrote five." Five. No, you're wrong.

The Problem of Creating God in Our Own Image

Now I come to God and you go, "This is what I think about God." And we can say, not in an arrogant way, we can say you're wrong. So you've had coffee with people where you're talking about God. And they say, "My God would never..." And they've tipped their hand, haven't they? They've done what we said last night. They've created God in their own image.

Well, boy, when things are tough, and frankly, any time, consider who God is, what He's like. And that only happens by reading His Word.

The Statistics Tell the Story

8% of the people in this country identify themselves as evangelicals. They go on to define that to say, in essence, people who believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God, virgin birth, substitutionary, atoning death, those 8% of the people. 35% of the people classify themselves as born-again Christians. That's interesting, isn't it? That tells me we're doing a fairly good job of getting people to make a decision for Christ, but we're doing nothing about educating.

These stats are amazing. 7% of the population identify with a faith other than Christianity. 69% believe in God when He's described as all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect creator who rules the universe. 4% believe everyone is God. 53% believe that if a person is genuinely good and does enough good, they go to heaven. 41% believe that while Jesus was on this earth, He committed sins. 57% of adults say that the devil or Satan is not a living being. 46% of born-again Christians deny Satan's existence. By the way, that gives Satan a bit of an upper hand, because you're really not on guard against something you don't think exists.

Well, I need to contemplate who He is, who God is, what He's like.

Consider What God Has Done in Creation

Here's the second thing. Consider what God has done in creation. Think about it. Job 37: "Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God's wonders."

I think that almost every time I've been to Cannon Beach, I've made this important distinction. You and I, even in an enormous rush of creativity, may build something, but we don't create. So, somebody came along and built this piano. They didn't create it. They took raw material that was here, some of this wood and metal pedals, and the strings that are here, and the keys, and they assembled. That's what we do as humans. We manufacture. God created. God spoke this into existence. And as we said last night from Romans 1, it gives us an insight into His eternal power.

The Vastness of God's Creation

The big controversy last week, they think they've discovered three new planets. Now, I don't know if Pluto's in or out. I still haven't figured that out. But they've got three new planets, and the universe is expanding every minute, and it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So, the question is, is there life, comparable to ours, on other planets? And of course, logically, they're saying, there has to be. Just look at the mass of this.

And I don't know. I don't take a hard stand on this. I'm not smart enough to know. I'm barely convinced there's life on this planet, to be honest with you. So, I don't know if there's life on other planets. But I know this. If there isn't, it wouldn't surprise me. That would be just like God to say, "Look at this great big thing that I created."

In the midst of this adversity, I need to consider what God has created. When Sandy and I got here yesterday, we put our stuff in our room, and the first thing we did was walk down. We wanted to check and see if there was a store here in town, see if it was still in business, because we had a bet based on last year. And it is, by the way. And then we walked

up and just looked at the beach. The tide yesterday, I don't know what it's like this morning, but the tide yesterday was so far out. Yet they could tell you the day before, well, this is where the tide's going to be. They can tell you, here comes this comet. It's going to come around every 172 years. God created all this, and He holds it together. Think about His power and His might.

Consider What God Has Done in History

Here's the third thing. Consider what God has done in history. Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 7: "Remember the days of old. Consider the generations long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you." It's like 1 Corinthians 10, where Paul's reminding the Jews, look at the past. We're running out of Egypt, and God parts the Red Sea.

We're in the middle. Two million Jews wandering around. Did you know that? Did you realize that's how large the nation was? Two million wandering around.

Not like now. Sandy and I, for our anniversary, drove over to Coronado. So that's San Diego. We were doing it after I taught on a Thursday. Here's what I know. If we leave about 2 o'clock, we'll get to Casa Grande at 3. We're going to go to the Circle K and get coffee. We drive two more hours to Yuma. We're going to be at the In-N-Out Burger. Then we're going to blow out three hours, and we'll be in San Diego. We'll get there about 8. We'll put our stuff in the room. By 8:30, we'll be at a little restaurant that Sandy in particular likes. They have this grilled cheese that she thinks is incredible. We'll be there by 8:30.

By the way, when we got there, the SEALs were in the final part of their training. So it's where they do the assault on those rocks out in front of the Dell. You see the helicopters. You see them dropping these guys out into the water. Then you see them coming up on the shore. Now they're carrying boats. This goes on for hours. They go back down. You think they're done. Then they come down, running down the beach, carrying a log. Every time I see that, I say, those guys are doing that so I can sit here and get a cheeseburger and watch them do it. That's amazing, these men and women.

But we can plan. Unless something extraordinary happens, that's our schedule. These two million Israelites are wandering around. They don't know. They don't have a Circle K and an In-N-Out burger. They're not going to get to Coronado. So they're running out of resources. Then they wake up one morning, and there's manna. Wow! Think about that.

The Importance of Remembering Our Past

History is so important. They tuck us in even, and I don't want to be controversial, but even in the idea of the Fourth of July, we've lost a little bit of the sense of the history of this country. A recent poll among high school seniors—so they're now a product of this system—they were asked what year Abraham Lincoln was president. The number one answer was 1915. Now, those of you who are struggling, it was 1860.

But as alarming as that may be, this is the one that stunned me. They were asked what the Holocaust was. The second most given answer was a Jewish holiday. Well, if I don't know history, is that what's wrong right now? I think so.

What makes America great? I'll tell you. This is easy. It's not the people. I'm going to puke if I've got to listen to another politician tell me how special the American people are. You aren't. You don't have a gene that's separated from everyone else. You see people who come here with a little bag and everything they own in it, and in five years, they own three apartment buildings and four restaurants, and their kids are now doctors.

I go to the doctor this Monday. This cat, how cool is this guy? He's done 187 lung transplants. You know where he's from? You don't even have to guess. If you're in Phoenix, you know this answer right away. India. You can't go to St. Joe's or Barrow's Neurological Center and not find a guy. All you got to do, if you try to guess the name, say, I buy a vowel, and you get half the letters. They're all from India.

Now, if you go to India, here are these people living in amazing poverty. The problem's not the people. What makes America great is the system, the freedom, the capitalism, and as you whittle away at that, you take America and make it less what it could be, and history will do that. When you have people voting for politicians the way they vote for dancing with the stars or American Idol without any sense of history.

But you know what? Let's not get distracted with that, although I could.

Consider What God Has Done for You in the Past

It's to consider what God has done in history. Here you go. Number four, consider what God has done for you in the past. 1 Samuel 12:24: "Be sure to fear the Lord God and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things He's done for you."

We have a tendency, I think, to look around and forget what God has done. You saw with the Israelites. We talked about it. Boy, they wake up one morning. They don't have anything to eat. There's manna, and they're going, "Manna!" and they're praising God. "Manna, look what He's done." The next day, manna. "God, thank you for manna." The third day, "Manna?"

My father was raised in Melrose, Iowa. One of six kids. His dad worked on the railroad. They lived in this dumpy little house, maybe 700 square feet. Two bedrooms. Grandma and Grandpa in one. Then a big room upstairs. All six kids, boys and girls, as long as you were going to live there, so right through high school and out, as long as you're going to live there, all six live together.

We're driving along one day. My dad came to visit, and we're out in the east part of town, out in all of these orange groves. We're at a red stop sign. I look over, and my dad is crying. I've never seen my dad cry other than when they were burying John Kennedy and they played Taps. I saw him cry that day. We're at this stop sign, and I said, "Are you all right?" "Yeah."

I sensed we weren't going to have this intimate moment that I'd hoped for. I said, "Is there something wrong?" He said no. But I couldn't leave it alone. I said, "What are you thinking about?" And he said, "When I was a boy, we would get an orange. My mom used to say that for Christmas, every Christmas, they'd get an apple and a nickel. I knew there were oranges, and once in a while, we would get to taste one. I knew they grew on trees, but I never thought I'd see that."

96% of homes in America have a stove, an oven. Let me tell you, some of you who are older, which is the vast majority of you, if you go back to when you were a kid and you started to list what you dreamt about having, you have it. You have a multitude. Food, to come to a place like this. But after a while, we take those things for granted. We forget.

The Problem of Entitlement

I hang around with a lot of conservative, white, Republican dudes. There's a problem with those guys, and the problem is they're pretty hardcore, and they're not the most gracious people in the world. They're mad about entitlements. Well, here's what I've discovered. Everybody has an entitlement mentality. Those of you who are Christians do. Early on, it was amazing grace, but not so much anymore. After a while, you may not even say it out loud, or when you do, you catch yourself, but after a while, you start to believe, "You know what? Why wouldn't He save me? Look at me."

Consider What God Has Promised to Do Today

Number five, consider what God has promised to do today. Luke 12:24. By the way, this is a passage we'll probably use tonight. Tonight we're going to talk about anxiety. We're talking about adversity this morning. I'm going to talk about anxiety, how to deal with anxiety and worry. Luke 12:24. Here's the word of the day. "Consider the ravens. They don't sow or reap. They don't have store rooms or barns, yet God feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than the birds?" By the way, the answer to that is yes, you are. "Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life? Consider the lilies of the field."

When I first taught this, there wasn't an internet, so I took "consider the ravens" seriously. I went to the library, and I did a study, and here's what I kind of came up with. I don't know that this is accurate. It's what I saw. When I considered the ravens, here's what I decided they did. They ate, they discharged what they ate, and they procreated, which is not a bad deal if you can get it, really, but nonetheless, I digress. I tickled myself there. That just popped into my mind. I'm going to enjoy that moment just a second.

Here's what they did. They did what God created them to do, and that's what He's saying to you and me. What did I create you to do? He's not saying don't work, don't save, don't plan. He's saying I'm going to meet those needs. You don't need to worry about it. It doesn't mean don't work hard, don't save. I'm going to meet those needs. The problem, and we'll have this discussion tonight, the problem is He may not meet my needs the way I want them met. I need a place to live, and I'm thinking three, four, or five bedrooms, and He's thinking like a studio. But begin to consider what God has promised you.

Consider What God Can Do Through Adversity

Here's the last thing, number six. Consider what God can do for you through adversity. James chapter 1, "Consider it," there it is again, "Consider it pure joy, my brother, when you encounter all kinds of trials because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance or perseverance. Perseverance will finish its work so that you will be mature, not lacking in nothing." Here's what that verse says. One of the translations, I think it's the New American Standard, "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance." That word "various" is literally multicolored.

So along are going to come these trials in your life. They're inevitable. So suffering isn't optional. It's not mandatory. It's inevitable. You're going to have deals in business that close and those that don't. You're going to have days that are amazing and those that are awful. Consider it joy, my brother. I think it's the Phillips paraphrase that says, "Welcome these trials as friendly intruders." Why? Because you know something. You know the testing of your faith produces endurance.

Trials as Spiritual Aerobics

So this morning at six o'clock, the alarm went off. Now I knew that I had set my alarm for seven. I wanted to get up at seven, go through these notes, wanted to get over and eat because I know lunch today is going to be busy in town. A very thoughtful person. So I'm thinking about, well the alarm went off at six. Well it's not mine, it's Sandy's. Now Sandy's alarm goes off every day at 4:50 and she goes and she swims. She swims fairly competitively. So she'll swim two or three miles in a morning. She just swam nine and a half miles, open water swim. That's amazing. I got exhausted driving out to the lake. So I was impressed when she did it.

She'll run and she came in today and the sweats pouring off her and I want to say, "Why do you do that?" Now it's counterintuitive but here's why she does it. It's called aerobic activity. She does it, though there's a cost, especially high initially, she does it because as she pushes her body, that aerobic activity gives her strength and endurance.

I'm going to make a switch here. Trials are spiritual aerobics. Trials are those things that test us. They show us what's really there. Here you go. So here's what God does. It says, oh, we're a rubber band. He tests us and pulls and pulls and pulls and pulls. I stop. I can't take it anymore. He goes, "Really? I don't think so." And He tests it, He tests it, He tests it, He tests. And here's what He does. And He keeps going and finally you say, "No more." And He goes, "That's it right there." And we go, "I learned." And we think we're done.

Learning Through Loss

When you pray, "God, I want to be your kid. I want to grow with you. I want to break the tape. I want to hear well done, good and faithful servant," here's what He hears: "God, help me suffer. Bring the trials." Because that's what produces that growth. Consider it all joy.

Bobby Jones is arguably one of the greatest golfers that ever lived. He said, and I quote, "I never learned much from a match I won." Lisa's son is a good golfer, a competitive golfer. I know this only because she tells me this, and I assume that's true. I follow Lisa on Facebook—I'm on Facebook all the time, though I never post anything, just to watch what people do.

A couple of weeks ago, her son Jake was in a big match, and it was a playoff match. On the third or fourth playoff hole, he made about a 20-foot putt and won the match. The next day, next match, he lost. If his head is right, he learned more from the match he lost than the one he won.

Success is not a very good teacher. You get with the top five salespeople in an organization—they're not very coachable. How do you handle this inevitable adversity in your life? Well, you learn, but you think and consider God—who He is, what He's done, who you are in the midst of this.