Trusting God through Trouble
Trusting God In Difficult Times, Pt. 2
01-13-13 Sermon
Definition of Trust:
·
To allow someone to do something without fearing the outcome.
“The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in
the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” Nahum 1:3 (NKJV)
“In God I trust, I will not be afraid.” Psalm 56:11 (NIV)
·
To run into a shelter or hiding place; to seek refuge.
“He who dwells in the
shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and
my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” Psalm 91:1-2 (NIV)
“In you my soul takes
refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow
of your wings until the disaster has passed.”
Psalm 57:1 (NIV)
·
To lean the weight of your soul on the faithfulness, reliability,
integrity or friendship of another person.
“Trust in the Lord
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)
·
To take someone at his/her word.
Get a New Perspective
“We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet
inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all. So we
fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.” 2
Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you...” Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
“We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 (NIV)
In the Meantime . .
.
1.
Feed______________________________________—it
is the water, milk, bread, and meat of the spiritual life. Feed yourself daily.
2.
Pray for______________________________________of
the Holy Spirit to soften the ground in your heart and quench your thirsty soul.
3.
Pull______________________________________—get
rid of anything that entangles you and trips you up, or chokes the life of
Christ in you (worries, unforgiveness, bitterness, envy, etc.)
4.
Guard______________________________________—those
things that steal your joy, rob your energy, or deplete your resources (habits
and behaviors, poor choices, unhealthy relationships, etc.)
5.
Prepare______________________________________
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for
at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NIV)
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called
you...” Ephesians
1:18 (NIV)
Trusting God through Trouble
01-13-13 Sermon
Last week I started
a series on trust. I talked about how
you trust God through the changes of life.
There are all kinds of ways we can think about trusting God. Trusting him when we’re taking steps of faith,
taking risks, trying something new.
What I want to talk
about today is how do you trust God in trouble, when you’re going through
trouble and hardship, how do you keep your trust in God?
On your sermon notes,
I’ve put at the top some definitions of trust.
I think there are some words we use so often we actually forget what
they mean and they just become commonplace. And it’s good to go back and say, what does that
word really mean? So that when we talk
about trusting God we know what we’re talking about. We have a bigger understanding of that word. I’ve given you some definitions.
·
Here’s the first
one: To trust is to allow someone to do something without fearing the
outcome.
You may have a hard
time doing that with people. It’s hard
to delegate things to people. You always
think, I’d rather just do it myself. Because what if they mess up or what if they
don’t do it the way I would do it. Or
what if they fail?
So when you’re trusting
God you have to delegate, and allow him to do what he wants to without fearing
the outcome. I have to let God do what
God wants to do. I have to trust God enough
to let him do what he wants to do on his own terms in his own way on his own
time, and not fear the outcome.
One of the neat
verses about trusting God actually comes from the Old Testament. From a little tiny book called Nahum. The Bible says “The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds
are the dust of his feet.” He has
his way in the whirlwind and the storm.
My tendency when
I’m facing the storm, when I see trouble coming, I want to run way from the
storm. I want to try to find a way
around the storm. But somebody once said
the quickest way around is through. The Bible
tells us “The Lord has his way in the
whirlwind and the storm. And the clouds
are the dust of his feet.” So if there
are clouds on the horizon, that just might be the dust of his feet. I’ve got to follow him.
There are a couple stories
in the New Testament where Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a storm. One time Jesus is with them. He’s asleep in the boat while they’re in the
storm. Anybody ever feel that Jesus is
asleep in your boat? Another time he
comes walking to them out on the water. But
in both of those storms they are in the storm because they are doing what Jesus
told them to do. They’re obeying him. They haven’t done anything wrong. They’re doing everything right. Because they’re following Jesus they find
themselves in the middle of a storm.
But there were lessons
that they learned about Jesus that they could not have learned anywhere else
under any other circumstance. It had to
happen in the storm. There are things we
learn about ourselves, about God, about life that we can only learn when God takes
us through a storm. When we’re following
him, looking for the clouds, the dust of his feet, and we follow him into the
storm. We have to be willing to let God
do what he wants to do and not fear the outcome.
The Bible says this
in Psalms 56:11, “In God I trust, I will
not be afraid.”
·
Here’s another meaning of trust. This comes
actually from a biblical word, an Old Testament word. It’s a word picture. It
means to run into a shelter or a hiding place; to take refuge in something.
So when you read in
the Psalms where David is saying “The
Lord is my fortress, my hiding place,” he’s talking about trusting God. It’s not a passive attitude. It’s an active, deliberate state of mind and heart. He was saying I’m going to hide myself, I’m going to run into God and take refuge in
him.
How do you actually
do something like that? It’s a beautiful
phrase, but how do you hide in God?
There are a couple
of things you can do to do that. Because
remember he’s talking about your state of mind and the state of your heart.
So one of the
things you can do to hide yourself in God is hide yourself in the Word. Get into the Scriptures. Sometimes it’s just a verse or a phrase or a
promise. Find something from the Word of
God and think about it. Think deeply
about it. Mull it over and repeat it to yourself
over and over and over again. Because as
you fill your mind with God’s word you begin to fill your heart with God’s
peace. His presence becomes even closer.
You can choose a
verse out of our outline today. But if
you’re going through trouble you want to find some part of the Word of God and
let it steep into your soul. Chew on it. Memorize it.
Repeat it to yourself. Repeat it
to God. And you’ll find that your
perspective begins to change.
Another thing you
can do is create an atmosphere of worship by tuning out all the bad news,
tuning in the good news, and listening to worship music. Put in CDs at your house, on your IPOD, in
your office, in your car. And create an
environment where you’re focusing yourself on the Lord. That’s what it means to take refuge and to
hide in the Lord.
Here’s what the Bible
says will happen when you do that. Psalm
91, “He who dwells in the shelter of the
most high will rest. [You’ll find
rest in the shadow of the almighty.] I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and
my fortress, my God in whom I trust.”
And Psalm 57:1 says “In you my
soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in
the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” You hide in the Lord until the disaster has
passed.
·
Here’s another definition of trust. It means to lean the weight of your soul on
the faithfulness, reliability, integrity or friendship of another person.
To lean the weight
of your soul, it’s like a ladder leaning against the wall. It needs to be leaning against something
that’s going to hold it up. And because
you know that wall is not going to move, the ladder is safe to climb on.
So what are you
leaning your life on? Are you leaning it
on the trouble? Are you leaning it on
something that is uncertain? Or are you
leaning the weight of your soul, all of your life on God and on his Word and
climbing that ladder and taking him at his word and believing that it’s not going
to fall--That you will not fall.
That’s why the Bible
says this in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the
Lord with all of you heart, [all of your heart – fully committed] and lean not on your own understanding.” You’ve got to lean on the Lord.
·
Another meaning of trust is to take someone at his
word.
Friends take
friends at their word. To trust God
means I’m going to take him at his word.
You cannot say, “Yeah, I’m trusting
God but I’m really not sure I believe what he says.” It doesn’t work that way. You can’t say, “Lord, I’m going to trust you to meet my needs, but I’m really not sure
I believe that the Bible is true. Lord,
I’m trusting you but I’m really not sure I believe that if I do things the way
you want me to they’re going to work out the way they’re supposed to.”
To trust God is to
step out in faith and to take him at his word.
But in order to take God at his word you’ve got to know what his Word says. That’s why you’ve got to hide yourself in the
Word and then live your life as though you believe it’s true.
To trust God is to
say, “Lord, you said you’ll never leave
me, so I’m taking you at your word…. Lord, you said you’ll meet every need I
have, so I’m taking you at your word… Lord, you said I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength, so I’m going to take you at your word. I’m going to lean the weight of my life into
you and take you at your word and believe you.”
So when God asks
you the question, Do you trust me? You’ve got a decision to make. You’ve got to decide-- Am I going to set my
heart and my mind to follow God and to find him, to take refuge in his Word, to
take him at his word? Am I going to lean
all of my life on who God is and believe in him?
When you make the
decision to trust God, fully trust him with all of your life, it will not make
your troubles go away. So if somebody tells
you when you give your life to Jesus all your problems disappear, that’s just
not true. Your problems will not go away. What will happen is your perspective will
change on your troubles in life. You get a new perspective. It will change the way you see things.
The apostle Paul
knew this just about better than anybody else.
Because the apostle Paul went through troubles like nobody else had gone
through before. Paul was beaten, he was
imprisoned, he was shipwrecked, he was snake bit, he was whipped, he was put in
chains, he was thrown into prison, was sentenced to death. That’s what I call trouble. But he had a perspective, a faith- filled
perspective that we need to look at.
Here’s what Paul wrote
in 2 Corinthians 4 “We do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by
day. For our light and momentary
troubles [shipwrecked, snake bit, beaten, imprisoned, sentenced to death. Our light and momentary troubles he calls
them] are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all. So we
fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.”
How do you fix your
eyes on unseen things? Obviously he’s
talking about the eyes of your heart. A.W.Tozer
calls it the gaze of your soul. Later on,
in Ephesians 1, Paul is writing again about the eyes of your heart, about
seeing the unseen things. He says this “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be
enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” When the eyes of your heart are enlightened
it fills you with hope. When the eyes of
your heart become enlightened, when you begin to see things the way that God
sees them. When you begin to think about
things the way he thinks about them. And
you say “Now I get it! Now I can see
what God is doing.” Because it gives you
hope. It gives you a new vision, a new
perspective on the things you’re going through.
What does it mean
to see unseen things, to fix my eyes on the unseen?
As many of you know
in enjoy gardening. I have fruit trees
and berry bushes and a large garden and I grow fruits and vegetables for Peg
and I and the Joelton Hope Center. As a
result of ordering seeds and trees and bushes around this time of the year, in
the cold of the winter, when the trees are bare and only weeds seem to grow, my
mailbox gets flooded with seed catalogs and gardening supply catalogs.
Here’s the reason
I’m telling you all this. It’s because
it’s a great word picture of the passage we’re looking at in 2 Corinthians. How our troubles achieve a glory that far
outweighs them all. Because when I plant
that seed in the ground I’m fixing my eyes on what is unseen. As I look at the pictures of the vegetables
and fruit in the catalog I understand the potential that is inside of that seed
if I were to order it. I know the beauty
that is hiding there. So I understand the
process. I understand that it has to be
buried. I understand the pressure, the
darkness, the sense almost of abandonment if you’re that seed. I understand the transformation of trouble. Because I can see the glory that is coming and
I know the trouble that seed is going through is only for a season. There’s something great coming when that season
of growth is over.
Getting back to our
text if we look again at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, “We do not lose heart. [You can’t just give up and say, “Oh gee! Nothing’s going to happen!” when you put the
seed in the ground. We do not lose heart.] Though outwardly
we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are
achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
What are these
light and momentary troubles he’s talking about? Back up in the text to verses 8 and 9 he says
this “We are hard pressed on every side,
but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, by not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed.”
Look at those
phrases. There’s something wonderful in
each of them. It’s something very small
but very significant. It’s the commas. Look at the commas and listen as I say this
again: “We are hard pressed on every side
[comma] but not crushed; perplexed
[comma] but not in despair; persecuted
[comma] but not abandoned; struck down [comma]
but not destroyed.”
Here’s my question
for you: Which side of the comma are you living on? Do you live on the trouble side of the comma? Or do you live on the trusting side of the comma? It’s a choice that we each can make. Which side of the comma do you live on?
If you’re on the trouble
side of the comma, you may be saying, “I
am hard pressed right now. I am under
pressure. I feel like I’m being buried
alive.” That’s the troubled side of the
comma. But the trusting side, the faith-filled
side of the comma says: “But I will not
be crushed.”
The trouble side of the comma says “I’m perplexed today. I don’t understand what’s going on. None of this is making sense and I don’t know
how much longer I can go through this. I
am stretched to my limit.” That’s
what the word “perplexed” means in the Greek language. Stretched to my limit. That’s the troubled side. But if you’re living on the trusting side, on
the faith side of the comma you know that you do not need to despair. You will not lose heart.
If you’re living on the troubled side
of the comma then you may feel like you’re being persecuted. That’s the fertilizing that happens. We all know what fertilizer is made of, don’t
we? Need I say more? The fertilizer is the persecution. You’re being persecuted for your faith –
misunderstood, people are out to get you.
But if you’re living on the trusting side of the comma, the faith-filled
side of the comma, then you know that you are not abandoned, that God is not
turning his back on you.
The troubled side of the comma says “We have been struck down.” Not only have you been buried, but you’ve
been stabbed in the back, kicked to the curb.
All your dreams are turning into nightmares. We have been struck down, he says. But if you live on the trusting side of the comma
you know that it is not the end, that you will not be destroyed. You know that these light and momentary troubles
are achieving something. A glory that
far outweighs the suffering that you go through.
If you’re trusting God
and living on the trusting, faith-filled side of the comma you may be broke but
you’re not poor. Because your Father owns
the cattle on a thousand hills and he’s promised that he will meet your needs. You may be unemployed, but you are not
worthless. You may be knocked down, but
you are not knocked out.
Which side of the comma
are you going to live on?
Your seed right now,
your trouble, might be financial. It
might be something in your marriage, or something going on with your kids. It might be in your business or your home. Whatever kind of trouble that you’re going through,
you have to decide, am I going to live on the trouble side of the comma or am I
going to live on a faith-filled trusting side of the comma.
That seed, can sit on
a shelf for years and nothing will come of it.
Nothing grows out of it. The
beauty is not released until it begins the process, the transformation of trouble. It has to be buried. There’s something about the dirt and moisture
that begins to release the beauty for which it was created in the first place. Weeks might go by with no sign of life.
Our troubles that we
go through, some of them last weeks or months or years. Time can go by and you’re not seeing any good
come out of this. But you can’t dig the
seed up out of the ground and look at it and see if it’s making any progress or
you’ll have to start all over again. You
have to trust the process.
You have to trust
the gardener. You have to believe and allow
God to do what God wants to do and not fear the outcome. You have to enable God, release God, allow God
to take you through the transformation of trouble. You have to believe that he will not abandon
you. And as he says in his Word, as he
promises, he is working all of these things for your good. He works all things together for the good of those
who love him.
The seed of
adversity when it’s planted in the soil of faith and cared for by the gardener
will bring forth life and beauty in its season.
The Bible says that God makes all things beautiful in their time. Remember to trust God, hide in him, get into
his Word and allow his Word to get into you.
Taking refuge there.
So what trouble are
you facing today? “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed
day by day.” That means that life is
pulsing. You may say I’m losing my job. There’s life in that seed. Your marriage might be in trouble, but there’s
life in that seed. You might be going
through a health crisis right now. But there
is life in that seed.
Whatever suffering,
whatever trouble you’re going through, there’s life in that seed. God is at work in ways that you cannot see. It hasn’t sprouted up out of the ground yet. But there is an eternal glory that is coming. There is the character of Christ that God is
developing in you. There is fruit that
he wants to bring out of that. He will
grow joy out of your sorrow. He will grow
peace out of your troubles. He will grow
patience out of the adversity that you’re going through. He will grow kindness out of the mistreatment
that you’ve experienced. God will grow compassion
out of the pain you’ve experienced if you will surrender to the process and allow
him to do what he wants to do and not fear the outcome. Which side of the comma are you going to live
on?
Paul says this in 2
Corinthians 5:7 “We live by faith and not
by sight.” This trouble will not
last. It is only momentary. It’s all in your perspective. How you see your trouble is how you will face
your trouble. Don’t see it as the end. See it as a beginning, that God is birthing something
in you, something of glory and beauty and life that he is working in you.
How long does this
process take? Just as long as it needs
to. Some plants grow quickly. [Weeds certainly do!] Some of them take a long time before that
seed bursts open and life starts to come out of it. God will not make you go through it any longer
than is necessary. But the process has
to be followed. As I said, you can’t
take the seed out and then start over again.
You’ve just got to allow it to happen.
You cannot hurry the process. But
you can hinder the process by not feeding and nurturing that seed while you’re going
through this trouble.
There are some
things I want you to write down as I finish the message here. There are five things you can do to cooperate
with God in the process of turning your troubles into beauty.
The first thing you can do is feed on the Word of God. Feed on his Word. The Bible tells us that the Word of God is
the water, the milk, the bread, and the meat of the spiritual life. You’ve got to be feeding on the Word of God. Just like you can’t go more than a couple of
days without eating something, it’s the same way in your spiritual life. Don’t go without eating something every day,
even if you only have time for a quick bite.
It doesn’t mean
that every time you sit down to the Word you’ve got to read five chapters. Sometimes you don’t have time to sit down to
a five-course meal but that doesn’t mean that you say, “I’m never going to eat again.”
No. You grab a quick bite. It might just be a verse. But take something you can think on that you can
feed yourself on throughout the day. Get
yourself into the Word.
The second thing to do is pray for the rain of the
Holy Spirit. Pray for the rain of the Holy Spirit to
soften the ground of your heart and quench your thirsty soul. God has his way in storms. So pray for the rain of the Holy Spirit to
come and water the seed. Say, “Lord, come and soften my heart. Don’t let my heart become hardened to you. Don’t let my heart become hard toward other
people.” But pray for a fresh rain
of the Holy Spirit every day.
The third thing you can do is pull the weeds, because they’re going to grow. Pull the weeds. That means get rid of anything that entangles
you or that chokes out the life of Christ in you. Get rid of the weeds of worry, the weeds of
bitterness, the weeds of unforgiveness. Pull
them out and let them go. Get rid of
those things so that the life of Christ is being nurtured and not being choked
by those things.
The fourth thing you can do is to guard against bugs. Guard against
the bugs. The snails and the caterpillars. All the bugs and critters that want to come
in and destroy the life that is growing in you. You’ve got to guard against those things. They will rob you of your energy. The things that will deplete your resources, the
bugs are habits, behaviors, life styles, addictions. They’re poor choices. Bugs can be unhealthy relationships that just
take all the life and the joy away from what God is working in your life. Guard your heart against the bugs.
The last thing to do is prepare for a harvest. “Weeping may endure for a night but joy will come
in the morning.” God is working
something new in you. He is promising
life and beauty and fruitfulness. He
makes all things beautiful in their time.
The Bible says this in Galatians 6:9 “Let
us not become weary in doing good, [Don’t give up he says ] for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up.”
What does God want
to do in your life? What will be the
lasting fruit of this trouble? It’s the
character of Christ. It’s the fruit of
his Spirit developing in you.
The lessons that
you learn through the hardship and through your trouble are just like the
flowers and vegetables and fruit in a garden.
They’re meant to be given away. Just
like a bouquet, they’re meant to be turned into gifts that you give to the people. The lessons you learn. The victories you win. The Bible says we’re to
comfort others with the comfort that we receive. So as God works things out in you, he wants
you to give those things away.
Here’s my prayer for
you. Back to the verse we read in
Ephesians 1:18. The Bible says this “I pray that the eyes of your heart will be
enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you.”
Prayer:
As you bow your heads I just want you to quiet yourself for a
moment. I want to give you the opportunity
to tell the Lord what’s troubling you today.
What’s the trouble? What’s the
seed? I want you to tell him about it. He already knows but tell him anyway. Go ahead and tell God what is troubling you
today.
Then in the quietness of your heart say, Lord, I’m at an end. I need your
help. I want to trust you with this. I can’t handle this trouble. Lord, I believe and I’m taking you at your
word when you said you work all things together for our good. That you make all things beautiful in their
time. That I can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength. That you won’t
let me go through something that you won’t give me the strength to endure. Lord, I’m taking you at your word and I trust
you today. I want to live on the
trusting side of the comma. I pray that
your will will be done in my life. And I want to lean all the weight of my soul
and my life on you. I want to hide in
you, Lord, and find protection until this storm has passed. I trust you, Lord, to bring life and beauty out
of my troubles.
If you’ve never opened your life to Jesus before maybe the trouble
you’re facing today is his way of getting your attention. If you need to open your life to Christ and
say, Lord, I surrender. I want life to come out of this. Then you just pray this way: say “Lord, I’m giving my life to you today. I want a new perspective. I want a new way of seeing. I want that eternal glory that your Word
promises. Lord, I give myself to you. I’m opening my heart to you. I ask you to forgive me of my sins, to cleanse
me, to give me a new life and a new hope, to help me to live a life that
pleases you. So I invite you to come
into my life, Lord. Bring life and
beauty and growth and fruitfulness out of my life. I give myself to you now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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