Chase the Lion - Part 3: Overcoming Adversity

The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.

Today, we are continuing our series called “Chase the Lion” where we are looking at how God uses challenges, difficulties, and tough circumstances to bring about the life that he wants for us. And it’s based on this passage in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah. 2 Samuel 23:22 says, “He chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.”

The day Benaiah stared that lion in the face and wrestled with him in that pit was a tough day. But just a couple of verses later, the Bible tells us that King David made Benaiah the captain of his bodyguard. What better qualification for being a bodyguard than saying, “One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit, jumped into the pit with the lion and killed it.” So, what seemed like a very bad day to Benaiah becomes the source of what God wants to do in his life in the future. And that’s what this series is all about. It’s about how God wants to use the biggest challenges in your life to bring about the incredible, awesome, amazing life that he has in store for you.

During this seven-week series, we are exploring seven lion chasing skills: defying odds, facing fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish. So, today we’re going to look at overcoming adversity. How do you deal with problems, difficulties, overwhelming situations in life. For Benaiah, a 500 lb. lion was certainly an adversity. Yet, he faced the challenge and overcame the adversity.

Now, in case you haven’t figured this out yet, life is tough. Adversity comes in life. Things don’t always work out the way you planned. Tragedies and heartaches and difficulties come in life. And just because you are a follower of Jesus Christ does not mean you are immune from adversity in life. I am not one of those preachers who will tell you that if you love Jesus and you live the kind of life that pleases him that your life will be free from heartache and you’ll have plenty of money and a nice house and you’ll never get sick and never suffer. No! In fact, following Jesus can be tough. Now, I believe it’s the best life you could possibly have, and I don’t know how people get through the adversities of life without Jesus, but it’s still tough. To quote from the great theologians Poison, “Every rose has its thorn, just like every night has its daw-waw-hawn, just like every cowboy sings a sad, sad song. Every rose has its thorn.” In fact, Jesus promised that life would be tough. He said, “In this world you will have trouble.” Can you identify with that? In this world you will have trouble. And why is that? Because this ain’t heaven. So, you are going to have adversity, and today we are going to talk about how you overcome adversity.

But before we get started, let me tell you about one of the lion chasers in my life. Almost eight years ago, I moved to north Texas to pastor a church in Sherman, and I rapidly became friends with the associate pastor of our church, Brick James. After my wife, Brick is the very best friend I have ever had in my life. From the moment I first new Brick, he had cancer. He had been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. For the next six years, Brick fought the battle against cancer. But unless he told you he had cancer, you would never know it. Cancer did not define him. He was a happy guy. He loved life and he lived it to its fullest. Brick used to say, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good.” And he lived his life that way. Right up until the very end, Brick never let cancer win. He lived life with joy and peace and contentment.

At one point in the progression of his cancer, the cancer had moved to Brick’s brain, and he had surgery to remove the tumor. He had surgery on Monday, and on Sunday, he was sitting in worship, praising God. That day, I thought, what right do I have to complain about anything? Anytime I’m tempted to think about how bad things are, how tough my life is getting, I just think about Brick.

You know, a lot of people going through those kinds of circumstances would have become bitter. Their spirit shrivels until nothing is left but bitterness or anger or depression. But I don’t know that I’ve ever met anybody who was a greater encourager or who had a kinder heart or a more positive attitude than Brick.

What is it that enables someone like Brick to overcome that kind of adversity? Here’s what I learned from Brick: who you become is not determined by your circumstances! The outcome of your life is determined by your outlook on life. Your altitude is determined by your attitude. Our greatest problems in life aren’t circumstantial. Our greatest problems are perceptual. It’s your attitude that determines how you handle adversity in life. I can show you people who have been through some horrendous things in life, and yet they have joy and peace in life.

How do you do that? How do you overcome adversity in your life? Well, first, you reframe adversity in your life. You change your attitude. You change your perspective. And you do that by looking at life through the frame of Scripture. You see things the way God sees them. Look, I’m no interior decorator, but I do know this, the type of frame you put around a picture determines what people notice in that picture. The frame determines the focus. If you want to see yourself and your life and your circumstances the way God sees them, you need to look through the frame of Scripture. And when you do that, you’ll begin to see your life differently. Scripture is about reframing.

Let me give you a few examples. Matthew 5:11-12:

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

That’s reframing your problems in the context of eternity. Problems now mean priceless treasure later. The book of Acts tells about the disciples after Jesus had died and rose from the grave and returned to heaven. They were preaching about Jesus and got arrested and told not to speak again in the name of Jesus. But during the night, they are set free by an angel who tells them to go back out and preach again. So, they do that, and the next morning the guards go to look for them and find them defying the orders of the court. So, they arrest them again. And look at Acts 5:40-41:

“They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”

Reframing suffering. Suffering for Jesus is seen as an honor. Now I want you to think of the next verse as a frame around adversity. Most of us don’t like adversity, but if we put a biblical frame around it, we begin to realize that there are some life lessons and some character traits that can only be learned and developed via adversity. In fact, adversity expands our capacity to serve God.

“It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.” Philippians
1:29 (NIV)

Now let’s be brutally honest. If you’re anything like me, there are certain passages of Scripture that you sort of wish didn’t make the Bible. You know they’re true, but you wish they weren’t in the Bible! They are hard to swallow and tough to digest! But those are the verses that often help us grow the most.

This is one of those verses. We like the belief part, but the suffering part not so much! Now, here’s the amazing part, the word granted in this verse means “to grant a favor.” It’s like God is saying, “Listen, I owe you a favor. So let me let you suffer.” We tend to see suffering as a necessary evil at best, but Paul calls it a divine favor. And here’s the thing. There is nothing theoretical about this approach to life! Paul is writing these words from a middle-eastern jail cell.

So, what’s the answer? How do you reframe your life? The answer is worship. Worship is the way to see our lives from a different perspective. One time Paul and Silas were preaching about Jesus in the city of Philippi. They get arrested, are beaten, then are placed in a jail cell with their feet bound. If I’m Paul and Silas, I’m physically, emotionally and spiritually spent. I’ve got nothing left to give. My back is bleeding. I’m in a maximum-security cell block, I’m uncomfortable, and I’m just a little ticked at God that he didn’t keep me out of this mess. And that’s why Paul and Silas’s reaction is so incredible. Acts 16:23-25:

“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.”

If that had been me, it probably would have read, “About midnight Shawn was complaining about his circumstances.” Nine times out of ten, when I am discouraged or depressed or getting beat up by my problems, it’s because I have fixated on my problem or my circumstances. And the answer is for me to zoom out and get some perspective. And the way I zoom out is worship. Here’s the principle: don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshiping what’s right with God. To reframe your problems, you stop focusing on what’s wrong about your circumstances and start focusing on what’s right with God. Paul and Silas made a choice to worship God in spite of their external circumstances. When my problems are greatest, that’s when I need to worship God the most.

So, to overcome adversity, I have to reframe adversity in my life. I have to have a different perspective, and I get that through worship. Then, second, you overcome adversity by letting God remodel you through adversity. Life is just preparation for eternity. This is just the preschool, the training ground. God wants to use adversity in your life to prepare you for eternity. God has a purpose for the problems in your life. Look at Romans 8:28-29:

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son.”

What is God’s purpose for problems in your life? What is God’s goal for your life? Once you become a follower of Jesus Christ, God’s goal for you is that you become just like his son. Now, if God is going to make you just like Jesus, then he’s going to take you through the same things Jesus went through. Did Jesus ever get tired or hungry? Was he ever criticized? Was he ever betrayed and abandoned by his friends? Was he persecuted? Did he ever suffer? Then you can be assured that we will go through the same things.

But the great thing is that God has a purpose in adversity.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4 (NIV)

Not lacking in anything. Wouldn’t you like that for your life? The only way to get there is by facing troubles. Did you know that if you break a bone, that bone goes through an initial period of weakness as it is healing from the break. But our bodies have a miraculous power to heal, and it actually overcompensates so that the bone is actually stronger than it was before the break. Very rarely does a bone break again in the same place because it is thicker and stronger than it was before the break.

So here’s the deal. Sometimes God breaks us where we need to be broken. He fractures the pride and lust and anger in our lives, but he does it to remodel us into His image. And once we heal, we end up stronger than we were to begin with. I wish I could get in shape sitting in a lazy boy watching football. We want to be in shape without the workout. We want to be smart without the homework. We want to be wealthy without the work. And we want spiritual maturity without spiritual disciplines. But it just doesn’t work that way!

There is an old saying: no pain no gain. But, you know, I think some of us operate with a slightly different philosophy of life: no pain no pain. But what we discover is that the path of least resistance is the path of least fruitfulness. The people God uses the most are often the people who have experienced the most adversity.

God wants to use us in incredible and amazing ways to change the world. God wants to give us a life of joy and peace and contentment and adventure and excitement. But to do that, God has to transform us. God is not content to leave us like we are. And I am so thankful. Think about it this way. What if God just left you like you are? What if he never did anything about the selfishness, the pride, the anger, the discouragement, the worry, the doubts in your life? What if he never did anything to overcome the temptations in your life? What if God just left you alone and let you stay the way you are for all eternity? And what if God did that for everybody? If that were the case, then heaven would just be this life forever and forever and forever. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I would like it very much.

God loves you and values you enough that he is not content to leave you like you are. And the greatest tool God uses for transforming us, for remodeling our lives, is adversity. 1 Peter 1:7 says,

“These [that is, suffering] have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

God values your faith over all the treasure in the world. God values your character over your comfort. He cares more about your long-term potential than your short-term comfort.

I don’t know what kind of adversity you’re facing, but I know that God is in the remodeling business. Instead of asking God to get us out of adversity, maybe we need to make sure we get something out of those adverse situations! There are lessons to be learned and character traits to be developed. And honestly, it is adversity that will present you with the greatest opportunity to prove yourself as a parent, a spouse, a friend, a neighbor, and a leader. Your greatest adversity, your biggest hurt, your greatest failure, your biggest pain is the source of the most amazing things God wants to do in and through your life. Your biggest hurt is most likely the area of your greatest ministry. Look at 2 Corinthians 1:4: “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” If you don’t turn your adversity into ministry, then your pain remains your pain. But if you use it to comfort other people, then your pain becomes someone else’s gain.

Here’s the beautiful thing: God never wastes a hurt. God never wastes a hurt. God uses the adversity in our lives to refine us, to fashion us, to transform us. And God is so amazing that he can use our biggest hurt, our greatest failure, our biggest disaster to be the greatest opportunity in life.
I think all three encounters recorded in 2 Samuel 23—taking on two Moabite warriors, a giant Egyptian and a 500 pound lion—could have ended Benaiah’s life! They were make or break moments! But if it hadn’t have been for those adversities, Benaiah wouldn’t have become captain of David’s bodyguard and he almost certainly wouldn’t have appeared in the pages of Scripture. It was adversity that turned into an opportunity for Benaiah to prove himself as a valiant warrior.

What you see, when you look through the frame of Scripture, is the way God used the adversity to remodel Benaiah. Each adversity remodeled Benaiah as one of David’s mighty men, captain of David’s bodyguard, army commander, and eventually Commander-in-Chief of Israel’s army!

Now, what about you? Where have you been broken? What adversity are you facing right now? Do you have any overwhelming problems? Maybe God is remodeling you. Maybe God is taking the problem you never thought you would be able to overcome and turning it into the greatest opportunity of your life. But that only happens if you give God control of your life and reframe your adversity and let God remodel you.