Is Life Getting You Down? Rejoice!

Rom 5:1-8

Many of you probably watched Sinefeld. George Castanza has to be one of the biggest whiners I know. Nothing seems to go right in his life and he makes sure it doesn’t. He would sabotage anything good just so he could be ready for the bad when it happened to him.

Then There’s Becker. A grouchy doctor that only sees the negative things in life. He doesn’t believe in silver linings, just the rain clouds. If there is a negative way to look at it, he finds the way.

Some people just seem predisposed to look at the bad in life and never see any hope. If you know one of these people, you know that you never ask how their day is because it will just depress you. Guess what? Some Christians do the same thing! I can excuse the world, they don’t know any better, but we Christians should.

PRAYER

I. The Producers

A. Example from economy

1. In the world of economy, commerce revolves around the producers.

2. Some sectors produce a tangible product like cars.

3. Other sectors produce intangible products we call services.

4. In our text we see Paul talking about a spiritual economy.

5. verses 3-4 he talks about the producers.

B. No pain, no gain

1. As you can tell by this fine physical specimen standing before you, I am really into working out. When I take off my shirt and flex my muscles, girls swoon. Okay, they actually laugh.

2. I’m not a body builder and I don’t like to work out, but I remember the most famous line of all weight lifters. “no pain, no gain.” What they are saying is that you have to push your body past what it wants to do in order to build good muscle and definition.

3. It’s the same with Character. James deals with it in his letter and Paul deals with the concept here in our text.

4. The pain in your life shapes who you are.

5. How you respond to those times tells everyone who is in you.

C. Our text gives us a list of things that produce something else

1. READ Rom 5:3-4

2. Suffering produces perseverance

a) I would be a lot happier if God could have used pleasantness to produce perseverance, but he didn’t. He uses suffering.

b) Whether we are Christians or not, we grow from how we deal with the negative experiences in life.

c) The Christian has the advantage of knowing that the Holy Spirit is right there with us helping us deal with the pain of those trials and overcoming them.

d) We can persevere through those hard times.

e) This week has been a little reminder of that for me. We won’t be having an afternoon class so that means Helene’s income drops significantly. On top of that we got the annual letter that our health insurance is going up again and as usually that increase alone is greater than any raise I get. But it didn’t stop there, Helene needs new glasses and of course my very expensive insurance doesn’t cover anything but major medical, so we have to pay for that. Then my sinuses started acting up and I got sick, couldn’t sleep well at night and struggled with my voice going all in the face of teaching a singing class, doing Aric and Melody’s wedding and of course teaching class this morning, preaching and then teaching another class tonight. On top of that one of our preschool dad’s that we know was killed in Afghanistan. But things didn’t stop there. The church was robbed again as they broke into my office and took some cash we had there. Any of these things by themselves are a bummer to one degree or another, but all piled on top of each other can really ruin your week.

f) I could get mad at God, I could become really depressed, I could get really frustrated and make bad decisions based on those frustrations or I can realize that no matter what, God is with me and this reminds me of what a better life the life to come is.

3. Perseverance produces character

a) When we can look at our trials and know that God will give us the strength to get through them, it develops character.

b) Character is the definition of who we really are during those times.

c) It’s the resolve to overcome or at least not let the trial drag you down.

4. Character produces hope

a) Here’s were Christians really differ from the world.

b) Everyone can gain character from trials, but only Christians can gain hope from them.

c) We are guaranteed a better life after this one, so anything this world throws at us needs to be put into perspective.

d) We’re never going to enjoy trials, but we can rejoice because those trails are a reminder of how this world isn’t as good as it gets, the next one is.

e) Every time we deal with a struggle reminds us of how great a promise God has given us by promising us his eternal love and all that comes with it.

f) Strength to deal with the struggles of this world and rejoicing in the eternal bliss of the next.

g) That’s our hope, our expectation.

II. The Product

A. Economy

1. As I mentioned earlier, producers produce a product.

2. Successful companies produce things that people want.

3. Really successful companies produce things that people need.

4. It’s the same in the spiritual economy as well. All those producers produce products that everyone needs whether they realize it or not.

B. The Products

1. Peace

a) I may hate the struggles I am going though.

b) I may feel overwhelmed by them.

c) I can’t begin to imagine what Nicole McLoghlin is going through right now. She is the wife of the soldier killed in Afghanistan. All I know is that my petty struggles don’t even being to compare to what hers must be right now.

d) In times of great or small struggles, Christians can have a peace of knowing it will get better. It’s that hope and the knowledge of the love of God that makes it possible to even imagine a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.

2. Grace

a) Verse 2 talks about the product of grace.

b) Verses 6-8 explain exactly what that grace is.

"When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:6-8, NLT)

c) It’s incredible enough to know we can find peace in difficult times, but to know that God also gives us grace too should fill us with unbridled joy.

d) That’s why Christians should rejoice.

e) We need peace and grace more than anything else… and God has produced them just for us.

C. Conclusion

1. We can’t escape the bad in life.

2. Even though we don’t like it, those experiences shape our character.

3. Remember, for us, even those struggles are simply a reminder that we have something so much better to look forward to.

4. When life gets you down, rejoice.

5. Your silver lining is grace and peace.