Our differences are revealed, not during our GOOD TIMES, but during the BAD TIMES in our lives!
One thing we all seem to do during the DIFFICULT TIMES in life is to turn to our friends for sound advice. Most of the time when we do this what we get is not good sound advice, but a lot of RHYMES and CLICHÉS.
Illus: When we talk to our friends about the DIFFICULT TIMES in our life they will says something like:
• “Grin and bear it!”
• “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”
• “When you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot on the end of it and hang on.”
I do not know how you feel about receiving this kind of advice, but I find no comfort in these witty sayings.
Illus: Much of the advice we get reminds me of the advice a father gave his daughter which was absolutely useless.
One day, his wife was sorting through some "treasured" stuff her daughter had accumulated over the years. She came across a questionnaire Elizabeth, her daughter, had filled out while completing her master's degree at the local university.
In response to the question, "What was the most important advice you received from your mother?" Elizabeth had written, "Always rely on your own good judgment."
The next question was, "What was the most important advice you received from your father?" Elizabeth answered, "Ask your mother."
(Stories for Preachers and Teachers © 1999 by Heavenward Inc.)
All these CLICHÉS and RHYMES do not do us a lot of good when we are going through the hard times of life.
• A lot of the advice that others give us is empty, because they do not even practice the things they are advising us to do!
• Often the advice we get is from people who do not know what they are talking about.
Illus: Those who give such advice, remind me of a city man that was traveling down a country road when his car sputtered to a complete stop near a field filled with cows. The driver, getting out to see what was the matter, noticed one of the cows looking at him.
• To his amazement, the cow spoke and said to him, "I believe it's your radiator," The man nearly jumped right out of his city slicker britches! He ran to the nearest farmhouse and knocked on the door.
• "A cow just gave me advice about my car!" he shouted, waving his arms frantically back toward the field.
• The farmer nonchalantly leaned out beyond the door frame to glance down the field. "The cow with two big black spots on it?" the farmer asked slowly. "Yes! Yes! That's the one!" the excited man replied.
• "Oh. Well, that's Ethel," the farmer said, turning back to the man. “Don't pay any attention to her. She doesn't know a thing about cars."
So much of the advice we received is from people who don’t know a thing about what they are talking about. To hear them talk, you would think they took nine years of college and majored in the subject they are giving you advice on. Most of the time they do not know as much as the person they are giving advice too.
Illus: The famous actress, Billie Burke, was enjoying a transatlantic ocean trip. The actress, noticed that a gentleman at the next table was suffering from a bad cold.
• She asked him sympathetically, "Are you uncomfortable?"
• The man acknowledged that he did not feel well.
• She said, "I'll tell you just what to do for it. Go back to your room and drink lots of orange juice. Take two aspirins. Cover yourself with all the blankets you can find. Sweat the cold out. I know just what I'm talking about. I'm Billie Burke from Hollywood."
• The man smiled warmly and introduced himself in return. He said, "Thanks. I'm Dr. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic." (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 21.)
Now it may sound like I am against receiving advice, but that is not true! Advice has to be weighed! That is, before we receive it, we need to consider:
• Who is giving the advice.
• What kind of advice they are giving
Illus: Someone said, “Good advice is like caster oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take."
God made it so we have family and friends who love us, and they can give us some wonderful advice!
Prov. 11:14 “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.”
The best advice we can get for HARD TIMES is from the Word of God. This is why you as Christians need to:
• Attend church every time the Word of God is preached
• Attend a good Bible-teaching Sunday School class
• Read the Word of God daily
You will never go wrong listening to the Word of God. NEVER!
The life of Joseph, in the Old Testament, is a perfect picture of what we should do when HARD TIMES descend on us. This man had some very serious problems, such as:
(1) His biological brothers, out of jealousy, despised him and threw him into a pit to die. Later they decided it would be better to sell him into slavery.
(2) If that wasn’t enough, later he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into Pharaoh’s prison for ten long years. Look at Genesis 39:20, we read, “And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison.”
We can rest assured that the whole time he was in prison, Satan was whispering in his ear, “God, does not love you, look at all the bad things He has allowed to come your way.” Joseph was able to go through all these horrible things.
HOW DID HE DO IT? Joseph was victorious because -
I. HE DID NOT DEMAND UNDERSTANDING
It is not wrong to try and understand what we are going through, but we are not to DEMAND UNDERSTANDING.
Illus: I have heard children ask, “Why?” every time their parent told them to do something. Sometimes parents get enough of “Why” and we just say, “Do it because I said to do it. You do not need to know why!”
Illus: Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God had to deal with His disobedient children: Adam and Eve. Picture this scenario:
• "Don't."
• "Don't what?" Adam replied.
• "Don't eat the forbidden fruit," God said.
• "Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve . . . we got Forbidden Fruit!"
• "No way!"
• "Yes WAY!"
• "Don't eat that fruit!" said God.
• "Why?"
• "Because I'm your Creator and I said so!" said God, wondering why He hadn't stopped after making the elephants.
• A few minutes later, God saw the kids having an forbidden fruit break and was angry.
• "Didn't I tell you not to eat that fruit?" God asked.
• "Uh-huh," Adam replied.
• "Then why did you?"
• "I dunno," Eve answered.
• "She started it!" Adam said.
• "Did Not!"
• "DID so!"
• "DID NOT!!"
• Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own.
Mankind has not changed that much; we still have the children of God saying “WHY?” to everything God tells them to do.
In the Christian life, there is much we do and we may never know why we are to do it. We are to do it simply because God said do it! The Bible says the JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.
There are times when we go through things, and only God understands why we are going through them. This is when faith kicks in.
Illus: Have you ever been driving in the mountains and you come to a hill that is so steep it almost stalls your car, but your four wheel drive kicks in and all of a sudden you have more power then you need?
Many times we go through things in life and we do not understand why -
• People are treating us the way they are treating us
• Things are going the way they are going
During these times, we have to allow FAITH TO KICK INTO OUR LIVES, and simply say, “I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING BUT I AM GOING TO TRUST GOD ANYWAY!”
We read of Job, in the Old Testament, when he is being bombarded by all kinds of troubles. Job’s response is, in Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…”
Job had this thing figured out, and he said that no matter what else bad came his way, he was going to serve God!
That is the way we are to live our life. We just spiritually take God by the hand and say, “Lord, you are in charge, you lead me and I will follow.”
Illus: Steve Winger tells of a ski trip he took. He said, “I saw to my surprise a blind person skiing. The blind skier, wearing a bright pink vest, stayed directly behind an instructor, listening for directions on how and when to turn. Over the next several days I saw many blind skiers, invariably following the person who gave them the information they needed to make it safely down the mountain.” Remaining, or abiding, in Jesus means following him in the same way. - Steve Winger, Lubbock, Texas. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2.
Illus: An old saint of God who knew so much about faith, was George Muller. Here was a man who would sit down at a table with a group of orphans that needed to be fed, and he would pray for God to send the food that was needed to feed them. He said this about faith; “Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.” (George Muller, orphanage founder, 19th century. Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2).
There are some things we cannot understand until we get to heaven. We just live by faith and trust Him! This is why the Christian life is called a, “Walk of Faith”. If we knew WHY everything was happening to us, we would not have to walk by faith.
WHY DO SOME CHRISTIANS DEMAND UNDERSTANDING DURING HARD TIMES? BECAUSE THEY DO NOT LIKE TO BE FORCED INTO A POSITION WHERE THEY HAVE TO TRUST THE LORD.
We like to trust in things we CAN SEE and TOUCH, not things we can’t SEE and TOUCH. That takes faith!
One of the reasons that some people work so hard to have an abundant supply of money in the bank, is because when they see something they want, they do not have to trust God for it, they just buy it!
Illus: A man was walking in the mountains just enjoying the scenery, when he stepped too close to the edge of the mountain and started to fall. In desperation, he reached out and grabbed a limb of a old tree hanging onto the side of the cliff. Full of fear, he assessed his situation. He was hanging about 100 feet above a shear cliff and about 900 feet from the floor of the canyon below. If he should slip again, he'd plummet to his death. Full of fear, he cries out, "Help me!" But there was no answer. Again and again he cried out, but to no avail. Finally the man yelled, "Is anybody up there?
• A deep voice replied, "Yes, I'm up here."
• "Who said that?"
• "It's God."
• "Can you help me?"
• "Yes, I can help. Have faith in me."
• "Help me!"
• "Just let go."
• Looking around, the man became full of panic. "What?!?!"
• "Have faith in me. Let go. I will catch you."
• "Uh... Is there anybody else up there?"
WHY DOES GOD SEND THESE HARD TIMES? Simply because these HARD TIMES FORCE US TO TRUST THE LORD! It is during the HARD TIMES that we DRAW CLOSE TO THE LORD.
Illus: A young, new preacher was walking with an older, more seasoned preacher in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice.
The older preacher walked up to a rose bush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact. It wasn't long before he realized how impossible this was to do.
Noticing the younger preacher's inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem...
It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God's design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly,
Then in my hands they die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
So I'll trust in Him for leading
Each moment of my day.
Why is it that we seem to TRUST EVERYONE else before we are willing to TRUST GOD? We need to put our trust in the God of the Bible!
Illus: Elton Trueblood said, “Faith is not belief without proof but trust without reservation.” (D. Elton Trueblood, late Christian author. Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2.)
God sends the hard times our way because most of the time this is the only time when we will trust Him.
The reason the majority in our country are not trusting the Lord is because things are going too well for them.
MEN AND WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS SOUGHT THE LORD DURING THE HARD TIMES.
Joseph needed those HARD TIMES in his life. God had some great plans for his life, but he never would have been the great man of God he was had he not been allowed to face some of the difficult times in his life.
I need those HARD TIMES in my life and so do you. Everyone here, if we are honest with ourselves, will admit we spend more time with God in the HARD TIMES than we do in the GOOD TIMES.
Conclusion:
The devil seeks to come in and tempt us to compromise our faith relationship with God. He comes at times of weakness. He tries to get us to trust in anything and anyone but the Lord.
Joseph was victorious because:
I. HE DID NOT DEMAND UNDERSTANDING
(next message)
II. HE DID NOT BOW TO BITTERNESS
III. HE DID NOT FAIL TO BE FAITHFUL
