I want to speak a message this morning entitled, "Purpose in your problems". Aren't you glad that you're not going through what you're going through for no reason?
Psalms 34:17-19 says, "The righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such that have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers Him out of them all".
Father, we thank you for the promises of your word and we thank you for your presence. May we decrease and may you increase and be glorified in this place, in Jesus name, amen.
Psalms 40:12 says, "For troubles without number surround me". One of the other versions says this, "Problems far too big for me to solve are piled higher than my head".
Sometimes life gets deep. I've found that there are different levels of problems. My daughter is a math major in preparation to be a teacher: she wants to teach middle school math. I can't imagine why anyone would want to teach middle school math but I'm thankful that my daughter does. There are a lot of different levels of problems, kind of like math. You start out with addition and subtraction, mutiplication, division, and fractions. Next it gets a little harder; statistics, algebra, and geometry where you have to figure out the angle that you're going to deal with that problem. Then you've got trigonometry, and calculus. My daughter is taking Calculus I in college and she asked me if I could help her. I didn't even know what I was looking at, I was completely lost.
How many have ever felt that way when you started looking at your problem and you realize you don't even know what in the world you're looking at? It's important to understand that we're going to have problems in life and our attitude is important when it comes to dealing with problems. As a Christians, our attitude towards what we're dealing with matters. When problems come, many people become confused, frustrated and disillusioned. They get all turned around and don't know what to do with themselves.
Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge but the simple keep on going and suffer for it". Another version of that same verse says, "A prudent man forsees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them but the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences".
I think it's one thing to avoid danger and evil and quite another to try and avoid our problems. It's one thing to stay away from evil and sin and it's another thing to try and stay away from problems. Why? Because you can't avoid all problems all the time. The Bible says that a prudent man prepares himself for problems. How? Number one is to prepare yourself for the fact that there will be problems and to refuse to let that certainty surprise you or sink your faith. The prudent man knows, the wise man knows that there's going to be stuff in life. You're going to have difficulty and problems, it's a fact of life.
What usually seems to cut most people off at the knees is the thinking that there will be no more problems in their life if they pray hard enough and if they're in the word enough, if they're a person of faith and strong in God then another problem will never face them; they'll never get sick, never be afraid, their finances will never have a problem, their kids will never rebel and everything will be dandy. How many know that is just not realistic? Problems are going to come, so prepare. When I say that, some people think they have to have a contingency plan for every problem that's ever going to come up. We can't do that, we're just not that good. God doesn't tell us everything that's going to come our way and that's wisdom.
When I say "be ready", I mean this; to be ready for your problems you need to be rooted in the word of God, solid in your prayer life, familiar with God's promises and His help, and His power. If we wait to read the word and know His will when problems come, we are already going to be behind the eight ball. I've watched this time and time again in 20 years of ministry, how all of a sudden when a problem comes, that's when people decide to get their prayer life going and to get into the word. That's when they start showing up in church every Sunday after not going for a long time. Then they get the preacher on the phone asking for prayer. Of course we will but they want us to somehow wrap our arms around them and drag them out of the problem. You can be counseled through the problem but if you were already prepared before the problem came then you'd have half the battle fought. Be prepared ahead of time, be in the word, be in prayer, come to church and fellowship with other believers; Have that support system already in place.
The prudent and wise person stays close to God always, not just when a crisis arises. Be ready before the crisis comes; already be seeking His face and be a person of prayer. It is hard enough when you've already got yourself close to God and you're going through then to try and figure out if God loves you or not when the problem comes. If you know He cares and that He loves you, and you know the promises of the word, and you've got all this hidden in your heart so that you can use it, then you've already got the tools in place to walk through what you're going through.
Number two is recognize that God does not look at troubles and problems as we do. Genesis 18:14 says, "Is anything too hard for God?" Part of being prepared and being ready to walk in the power of God, and to see Him through the troubled times is to know that there's not a thing in the world that's too difficult for the Lord. I love it when my kids come to me and there's stuff they don't understand. I was talking to someone the other day who was going through a hard time. I said, "What you're going through right now is that you're young, you're thinking like a young person. So let me give you some insight because when I was that age, that's how I thought but now that I'm older I don't think that same way any more. You need to begin to see what God's word says". God wants to pour that kind of wisdom and help into each and every one of us. There's nothing too hard for God.
Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". How many have ever been in a problem and said, "I just can't do this"? but the truth is we don't want to. The truth is that you can. If you are a Christian and love God, if you're serving Him and He lives inside of you and you have made Him your Savior, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It doesn't mean we want to do all things but if it's there, you can do it and Christ can help. We need to begin to see things the way God sees things. It assures us that our problems and our goal is to be like Christ in everything and He is our everything.
We're to see our problems as possibilities. Our problems are possibilities in the Lord, they are opportunities for God to move and for us to grow. Where we see stress, God sees opportunity. Where we see crisis, God sees growth and strength. Where we panic, God is calm; He's not moved. Remember when the disciples were in the boat with Jesus and the storm came on the water, and the boat was tossing and turning? Where was Jesus? Have you ever noticed that the first thing the enemy wants to attack when you're going through a hard time is your rest? You want to rest but when you start to rest you feel guilty that you're resting? How many know the devil is a liar? Where was Jesus? In the back of the boat asleep. He wasn't panicking or scared because He knew if the boat rolled over and everyone fell out, all he had to do was speak the word and everyone would be back in it. How many know that Jesus has your boat? He doesn't just have your back, he's got your whole life. He's got everything that is going on in your life. Jesus was in the back because He knew who He was and He knew who His God was and so can we.
Our problems are never in vain. The truth is that they will either defeat us or develop us. The choice is ours. A long time ago I began to realize that I can let the things and the troubles of life bring me down and defeat me or we can realize something in it when we have God in our life to help us understand that we're either going to be defeated or we're going to come out developed. That doesn't mean that I don't struggle with my flesh or emotions sometimes. It doesn't mean you're not going to face discouragement or depression or that you're not going to get scared sometimes.
When you were in school and you needed to learn something, and you needed to grow in a particular area, your teacher gave you homework problems. My teacher told us that this week we're doing every odd problem and next week we're doing every even problem. How many have had a lot of odd problems in your life? My wife and I call ourselves the fairly odd parents because we seem to get all the odd problems that come our way. How many have ever felt like that? God, can we just do something normal every once in awhile? I'm just waiting to find out what is normal. But in school if you needed to be more proficient in something they gave you more problems and every year you got different problems. Then when you told your teacher you don't understand something, what did she do? She gave you more problems. I hated going to the teacher because I knew they would give me more work. But the truth is, with that problem I wound up developing. The same is true in our everyday life. What a wonderful analogy that is, and we do need to grow.
I want to talk about some of the ways that God helps us to grow. The first way that God uses problems is to lead us and direct us, to point us in the right direction. Problems naturally steer our life. Sometimes we're not real good at listening when we need to go a certain way. Sometimes problems are like a cup of cold water that everyone of us needs. How many have ever found that refreshing? The truth is that sometimes we need a slap in the back of the head. Problems often cause us to look to Jesus instead of to our own way and understanding. God will not only direct us through the problem but He'll use the problem to steer the course of our life.
Proverbs 3:5,6 is one of the greatest scriptures that you could ever memorize, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path".
Today we were talking about the wonder of the cross, how it demands our soul, our life and our everything. I have found that in my problems I can either fight God or I can fully abandon myself to trust Him. The question is, do you trust God enough to fully abandon yourself to Him? Jesus was fully abandoned to His father and in the midst of the trouble He slept. When you're not sure what to do or where to go or where to turn, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
God uses problems to inspect and examine us. Faith will never grow and develop unless you have something to believe for. How many have ever said, "God, I want to be that person of faith, I want to be like Jesus". God never said to do these things without having some kind of understanding, because you don't have faith unless you have something to believe in. God will bring the problem so you learn to trust Him and to grow in faith.
James 1 says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience".
Problems produce and what they produce is up to us. When you are building that confidence and faith, you determine what it's going to build when you're going through the problem. Someone once said that if you want to know what's inside of a person, put him into hot water. People are a lot like teabags; you have no idea what you're going to get until you dip it in hot water. How many know that God already knows what's going on? Problems reveal a great deal about us; you find out a great deal about yourself and you find out a lot about others around you, God already knows.
Many people like to preach that problems help you to know God and they do, but I found that problems also help us to know ourselves. I have learned more about myself when I go through hard times.; my attitude, my tendencies, my fears, my doubts and what tempts me. You get in hot water and you find out a lot of things. Problems produce, so God will use the problems to lead us and direct us but then he uses them to bring out of us and help us to grow, to inspect and examine us. The truth is that in my life I have found some things that I'm not real proud of so I've begun to change them.
God uses problems to correct us. Some lessons are best learned through suffering and failure. I've found that pain is an incredible teacher. In the hardships and difficulties of life I have learned more in those times than I have in the good times. I've learned a lot sitting and reading the word of God and praying in the good times, but I've learned more when life gets intense. It is a focused teacher.
Psalms 119: 71-72 says, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver".
How many know that is not normal? That is not how most people think. It takes one who has walked with God, who has gone through the hard things, to say it was good that I walked through that stuff; I learned so much through it. Through pain we learn to love God, we learn to value His ways, it's where we understand the wisdom of this word, of his precepts and commandments. We learn the truth of what he says will happen with reaping and sowing; what follows sin and what follows obedience. How many have been tempted in your hard times to not obey God, but you obeyed Him and listened to His voice and His word and you had the fruit of your obedience? The opposite is also true where we've gone through the hard times and haven't obeyed God and we made it worse, and we learned. "Your statutes are more precious to me than silver or gold".
I have seen unfair problems come to people's lives and to my life. I didn't deserve them or bring them on myself, they were'nt right but they have corrected me. God allowed it to happen so that something good would come out of it. Pain teaches us so that we don't get burned. The truth is that most of us avoid problems in the way that we avoid pain. Many problems are painful but many of life's greatest lessons are learned in the hard places. Some of you right now are in hard places and I know you don't want to be there but it's all good. If you've abandoned yourself completely to the Lord, you already know it's all good. Why? because God works all things to the good who are in Christ Jesus.
It is in those painful hard places that we really learn what love is. We learn how to appreciate things more; we learn how to become determined and tenacious; we understand godliness and faith over temptation. We learn in the painful process. I know that "no pain no gain" is cliché' but it's true.
God uses problems to protect and shield us. In Genesis 50:20 it says, "Joseph said to his brothers, but as for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive".
Joseph faced many life altering problems but he believed in the promise God gave him. Have you ever noticed that when God gives you a promise, that many times the next thing that happens is a problem? God gave Joseph a dream; He showed him that he would be in leadership and that he would be there to help his brothers. He showed him a great vision of his future. After sharing that dream with his brothers, immediately he was sold into slavery. How many know this wasn't quite shaping up the way Joseph hoped it would? Things don't always shape up the way we hope they would. So here's Joseph, from promise to problem, but he believed the promise that God had given him. His problems were actually God's protection.
We must understand that people will trouble us but God has a plan for their wrongness. Some of you right now are dealing with people that are absolutely making your life miserable. I've got good news for you; God will use their wrongness for His glory. You know they're wrong and you want to tell them they're wrong, and you want to tell the world that they're wrong, but if you tell everyone they're wrong then you're in big trouble. So you have to be fully abandoned to God.
We must understand, God had a plan. Joseph's brother's betrayed him; he wound up serving a boss whose wife was absolutely ungodly and it resulted in his boss not trusting him. He went to jail and was a blessing to the people he was in jail with but when they got out, they forgot all about him. As soon as he got used to being where he was, he said, "God, I'm going to be faithful right where I am" and God promoted him.
In the midst of your problem, you just be faithful right where God has you and you'll find yourself being promoted right out of it. A problem can be a blessing in disguise. Many times what we perceive as huge problems are actually God's preventative maintenance, and sometimes us being selfless becomes an answer to many. Israel was saved because Joseph allowed himself to go through all that God had. Not only did God bless Joseph; God blessed a whole nation. Actually he blessed several nations because Joseph went through the hard things.
I've looked at my life now and if I were to tell you every problem that I've faced, some of you would sit back and think, "You're lying, because there's no way you've gone through that much in 40 years". But I have found that because of those things, not only have I become a better man but God has used those things to be a blessing to many people. God allows problems so that we have the tools to minister to others.
2nd Corinthians 1:3-7 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer; or if we are comforted it is for your consolation and salvation; and our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation".
When we go through the problems and the troubles, God allows that to make us a blessing to others. The purpose of going through problems is not so we can learn to solve them, it is so we can learn to put them in God's hands and teach others to do the exact same thing. You'll become a better problem solver the more problems you go through, but you'll become a greater blessing because you've gone through and God has been faithful. We learn faith; we learn sympathy and compassion; we learn encouragement and God's goodness so that we can minister that same comfort and power of God. Every problem, every sickness, every difficulty that you and I have ever gone through as Christians, God is using that to develop us, not only to make us better but to bring Him glory. Bring Him glory through your stuff.
Some of our problems are our own making but most of them aren't, they're just part of God's plan. They're going to happen so deal with the problem God's way. If you have made your problem, confess your sin. After you've made your own problems and mistakes, God is still going to use that so you can help others through theirs.
Next is trust by standing on His promises, just stand. Stand right where you are, stand on His word and trust Him with all your heart and let God do His work. Watch God be faithful to His word; watch God do a miracle where you thought there was no way; watch God be faithful. You can trust Him, there's a purpose in your problem. Aren't you glad you're not going through what you're going through for nothing? Amen
