Living Victoriously and Joyfully through Trials, Tests, and Disappointments / David Shedd

David Shedd walks the students through the story of Elijah the Prophet and his conversation on the mountain with God, seeing that He was not finished with him yet.

He examines the scope of God’s infinite love, that what God has in store through trials are unexpected blessings, and that there should be no presumptions to try and know God’s reasons for these trials.

Scripture Text

1 Kings 18-19

Main Points or Ideas

The Reality of Trials and Disappointments

• Life comes with trials, tests, and disappointments—they're a fact of life
• The existential question: How do we respond to what God allows in our lives?
• Disappointment is often described as "the gap between expectations and reality," but this definition is too shallow
• Trials can be unexpected and unfair (or feel that way)
• Trials and tests are intended to grow believers in dependency on the Lord and mold them into Christ's likeness

Elijah's Mountaintop and Valley Experience

• 1 Kings 18: Elijah's mountaintop experience at Mount Carmel—contest with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah
• God's fire fell, consumed the offering, and the people declared "The Lord, He is God"
• Elijah slaughtered all the false prophets and the drought miraculously ended
• 1 Kings 19: Immediately after this victory, Elijah ran for his life from Queen Jezebel
• Elijah reached Beersheba, went another day's journey alone, and his despondency deepened until he asked God to take his life—"I've had enough"
• After being miraculously fed by an angel, he traveled another 40 days to Mount Horeb in the Negev desert
• Elijah remained discouraged, despondent, and wanting to die—but God was not finished with him

God's Encounter with Elijah (1 Kings 19:9-18)

• God asked: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
• Elijah's response (twice): "I have been very jealous for the Lord...I, even I only, am left and they seek my life"—feeling sorry for himself
• God's demonstration: great wind, earthquake, fire—but God was not in any of these
• God spoke in "a low whisper" or "still small voice"
• God's correction: "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal"
• Elijah completely underestimated and underappreciated the hand of Almighty God

The Scope of God's Love is Infinite

• Nothing surprises God—no exceptions to what we go through
• God uses disappointments and trials so we further depend on Him

What God Has in Store Emerging from Disappointments is Full of Unexpected Outcomes

• God delivers unexpected blessings and outcomes from disappointments
• God's ways are not our ways—Isaiah 55:8-9

Do Not Be Presumptuous About What God Intends

• Don't try to know what God intends amid disappointments
• You may not understand it even afterwards—God's ways are not your ways
• God's answers for Elijah were not in the wind, earthquake, or fire—they were in the "be still and know that I am God" whisper
• Elijah's presumption that no believers were left was completely wrong—there were 7,000 who had never bowed to Baal

Conclusion

Think of tests, trials, and disappointments with your eyes set upon eternity. Ask how God is speaking through your testing.

Will you face difficulties with joy? Will you seize this as an opportunity to mature in the nine characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit?