AdAgrA 2018: Something Better

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

AdAgrA: Adventist Agriculture Association

Jake Harraway

Morning Devotional

Why Trials are Important

David Obermiller

The Parable of the Fig Tree

Alan Seiler

Active Grace

Devotional


Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your love and your protection, for giving us all safe traveling mercies, and for waking us up this morning. I pray, Father, that as we have our morning devotion, that you will send your Holy Spirit to be with us, to open our hearts and our minds to accept the things you'd like to teach us. It's my prayer in Christ's name, amen. Well as I was thinking about what to share this morning, I was in prayer last week and the Lord brought something to my mind that is very important, especially for farmers, to learn and to understand. And I want to share that with you because it's something that I personally struggle with, but also something that the Lord has been teaching me and helping me grow in.

The title of my message this morning is, Why Trials Are Important. Why trials are important. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Luke. The book of Luke. We're going to be in Luke 12.

Luke 12, beginning at verse 22. And it says, And He said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, neither for your body what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouses nor barns, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls?

And which of you, taking thought, can add to his stature 1 cubit. If he then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take he thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow. They toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 1 of these. If then God so clothed the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is cast in the oven, how much more will he clothe ye, O ye of little faith?" As the Lord brought me to this text, I was immediately struck with the importance and the emphasis on how much the Lord provides for us.

The passage really is trying to underscore the fact that nature never worries about where they're going to sleep, never worries about how they're going to eat, never worries about anything that they need because the Lord always takes care of them. And so as the Lord was impressing me with these things, I just kept wondering what this had to do with the thought process and the struggles I was going through at the moment. And I came to verse 27. It says, consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 1 of these.

And so a logical conclusion to that text was, Well, how do lilies grow? Because it was the Bible saying, consider how lilies grow and then it gives, you know, how the Lord provides for them. So I took the liberty of looking up how lilies grow and their growth process And I came away with 3 very key points that were helpful for me. The first 1 is that lilies grow best after an extended period of cold. As I was looking up how to plant lilies, the site that I looked up said that they do best if you plant them in late fall, early spring, when they have an extended period of a few months where it's very cold, like it freezes and the ground is cold and the seeds have time to, it helps the seeds to germinate better.

The second thing I found out was if you want lilies to look nice all season long during their growing season, you have to continually prune them. They don't continue producing flowers. They kind of have their flowers, set their flowers, and then after a while the flowers start dying back. But if you want them to continue to look nice, you have to continually pick off all the dead flowers so that the plants still look like they're green and full. And the last thing is, once the season has ended in the late fall or in the early spring, all the dead foliage needs to be cut down to the ground in preparation for the next year's growth.

So how do these things help us further understand the scripture? So we have in Luke 12 many descriptions of different things, but what the Lord is trying to tell us in verse 27 is even though He's providing all our necessities, it doesn't necessarily mean that it will be necessarily an easy road or that We will always have or always feel like everything is going well and everything is doing nice and whatever. He's trying to tell us that sometimes he has to use things that don't feel good to us and don't seem to fit with what we're trying to do in order to place us in a situation and to strengthen our characters in order for us to move forward. A few months ago I was, I think my sister, who is very much into poetry, found this poem that I felt was a very good illustration of this point that I'm trying to make, and I want to read it to you. It's by Russell Keffler, and it's called Wait.

It says, desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried. Quietly, patiently, lovingly he replied. I pleaded and I wept for a clue to my fate. And the master so gently said, child, you must wait. Wait, you say wait?

My egg didn't reply. Lord, I need answers. I need to know why. Is your hand shortened or have you not heard? By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your word.

My future and all to which I relate hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait? I'm needing a yes, a go-ahead sign, or even a no, to which I can resign. And Lord, you have promised that if we believe, we need but ask, and we shall receive. And Lord I've been asking and this is my cry I'm wearing I'm asking I need a reply. Then quietly softly I learned my fate as my master replied once again you must wait.

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taught, and grumbled to God, so I'm waiting for what? He seemed to kneel, and his eyes met with mine, And he tenderly said, I could give you a sign. I could shake the heavens, darken the sun, raise the dead, cause the mountains to run. All you see I can give, and pleased you'd be, but you'd have what you'd want, but you wouldn't know me. You'd know the depth, you would not know the depth of my love for each saint.

You'd not know the power that I give to the faint. You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair. You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there. You'd not know the joy of resting in me when darkness and silence was all you could see. You would never experience that fullness of love as a piece of my spirit descends like a dove.

You would not know that I give and save for a start, but you'd not know the depth of the beat of my heart. The glow of my comfort late in the night, the faith that I give when you walk without sight, the depth that's beyond getting just what you ask from an infinite God who makes what you have last. And you never know should your pain quickly flee What it means that my grace is sufficient for thee. Yes, your dreams for that loved 1 or night could come true, but the loss if you lost what I'm doing in you. So be silent, my child, and in time you will see that the greatest of gifts is to get to know me.

And though oft may my answers seem terribly late, my most precious answer of all is still, wait." That's a very, a very hard answer to to get when you're really struggling and you're really in need of some answers. I know I've been there myself and as I was still struggling with my own problems, the Lord brought me to another text that really helped me even more. If you have your Bibles, let's turn to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 2. And I'm going to read verses 1-3.

2 Timothy 2. Verses 1-3. It says, "...Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." That's our calling.

Our calling is not to Feel like we're entitled to an easy life. To feel as though we could use God as a vending machine and ask Him for whatever we want and expect Him to answer. As we have surrendered our life to Christ, We are to do here what Paul has instructed Timothy to do. To endure hardness as good soldiers. To walk by faith and not by sight.

I'm going to end with Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. Galatians 6 verse 9. Actually I think I'm going to start with verse 7. Galatians 6 and verse 7 says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall reap flesh, the flesh of corruption. He that soweth to the spirit shall the spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not be weary in doing well, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. And that's what I want to leave you all with this morning.

You all will be hearing a lot of good information over this weekend. I'm so excited. I love coming to these conferences all the time and I just I love to garden and I just enjoy learning from people who've had more experience than I have. But let us always keep in mind that this is Not necessarily an easy path. We're going to run into hiccups, hardships, but it's just the Lord wanting to work things out in our own characters.

He loves us and He knows what He's doing and He knows what's best. So let us by faith trust Him and learn to love Him even through the trials. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your ministry of trials. Father as we begin a new day, I pray that we will each commit our souls to you anew.

Lord, you know what we will face today, and I pray, Father, that we will trust you and put all our plans at your feet. Use today in your service, Lord, and help us to be a blessing to those who come in contact with us. In my prayer in Christ's name, amen. This media was brought to you by AudioVerse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org

Back to Menu

Series

Morning Devotional

Why Trials are Important

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Why Trials are Important

13m

The Parable of the Fig Tree

30m

Active Grace

33m

Devotional

31m

Sound Doctrine