And doing that gives us a chance, not to wallow in self-pity over areas where we have not grown, or even to gloat pridefully over our strengths…but instead, to celebrate how we have grown, see what God has done in us, and be affirmed by that, and then also to take an honest and humble look at the areas where we need to grow and focus on that moving forward. Suffering in our lives gives us a chance to honestly see how we are doing in our character development. So this first point tonight is very simple. That part was obviously not easy, but as I did it I felt freedom and clarity, and it also gave my struggles a much bigger purpose in my life and helped me to see the hand of God in them. Then I wrote out the ways that I failed to walk in a Christ like way and the character traits I need to grow in. I started by writing out the ways that I saw character growth in myself during this time, and I thanked God for that. And so I spent some time “assessing” myself in this struggle. I have shared with ya’ll a little bit about a difficult situation I have been dealing with this year which involved specifically two people who I have really struggled with. Last week as I was thinking about this lesson I spent some time on my own thinking about this in the past year of my life. When we are struggling we will see areas where we have grown AND areas where we are weak and need to grow. But instead, when the storms hit we will usually see a little of each. Practically, how does this look in our lives? When this happens, when storms hit our lives, it doesn’t mean that we will be overall found to be wise or overall found to be foolish, like the houses. ![]() To reveal in us areas that have been built on truth, and others that have not. So in the same way, the role of storms in our lives, or struggles/hardships/trials….is to reveal the good and the bad. It was the storm that revealed the unseen difference which in the end was the most crucial aspect of each house. So in this we need to recognize that before the storm came there was no visible difference between the two houses. So in essence, it revealed who was the wise builder and who was the foolish builder. But even more, it revealed which was built on sand and which on the rock. So my question for us is, what is the role of the storm in this parable? First, the storm represents trials in our lives. ![]() Now, I want to look at the houses from the angle of the storm. The one who did was called a wise man and the one who did not was the foolish man. But the difference was found in whether they put it into practice or not. The next time we looked at this parable we talked about what the builders had in common which was that they both had knowledge of God’s Word. But God’s version of character is like the house built on the rock because it’s built on a firm foundation. The first time we looked at this we talked about how the world has one version of what character is and it is built on a foundation that is faulty, like the house built on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. To start we are going to turn back to the story of the two builders in Matthew 7:24-27. So let’s look at this first point, that suffering reveals our character. Second, suffering develops our character. ![]() ![]() First, suffering and trials reveal our character. And there are two primary ways that suffering helps us as we seek to become women of character. Or to download to your computer – On a PC right-click “download audio” and select “Save As Target.” On a Mac Ctrl+click “download audio” and choose “Download linked file as.”įor the past three weeks we have looked at several overarching categories of the virtues that make up character, and next week we are going to end by talking about how to build and maintain character, so tonight is sort of a bridge between the two because we are going to continue looking at some of the virtues that make up character, but we are going to do it by looking at the role that suffering and trials plays in our character development. Press play on the player below to listen to this message.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |