Overcomers Sermon Iv: Overcoming Hard Times By Remembering Who's In Charge Series

Overcome Hard Times by Remembering Who’s In Charge

“When the going gets tough, the tough keep going.” Well, maybe. I might have thought I was tough but when excruciating pain unexpectedly floored me, it not only turned my smiley face upside down but triggered an involuntary verbal response of “Oh, God”!

Apropos to my experience are the words of the psalmist: “I cried out to God for help, I cried out to God to hear me. In distress, I sought the Lord; at night I extended my hands, but my soul refused to be comforted, my spirit grew faint . . . Has God forgotten to be merciful?”

“Then I thought: ‘to this I will appeal: the years of the mighty hand of the Most High.’

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember. I will meditate on all your works and consider your mighty deeds. Your plan, O God, is holy. Who is as great as our God?” (Ps. 77)

Having called on the Lord for help, it was now up to me to use the common sense which God gave me and to utilize the services of caring professionals whose exercise of God-given abilities prepared them for medical crises.

What I had to understand was, in principle, what we all need to understand whenever we face a crisis: God has a plan to see you through any crisis!

If there is any doubt in your mind that God is still in charge and has a plan for seeing you through your crisis, overcome that doubt, as did the psalmist whose mind-set was reflected in a thought he had: “to this fact I will appeal: the years of the mighty hand of the Most High.” “I will remember: God is great, great things He has done.”

A guy named Joseph thought so too! You might say that Joseph and David were on the same page, in that, both of them overcame hard times by remembering who is still in charge and that He who is in charge has a plan to see you through.

A simple formula that works for me is one that I recommend to you:

Look back . . . Look around . . . Look up . . . Look ahead.

Joseph no doubt spent much of his time while in prison engaged in those four exercises – ruminating about his past and how God brought him through the pain and suffering associated with hatred, betrayal, false accusation . . . looking around at the plight of inmates whose burdens he shared while, at the same time, pointing them to the Lord God . . . looking up to Father God, asking for wisdom and courage for dealing with issues with which he was confronted . . . looking ahead in faith to the time when all would be well.

Joseph is about to discover that his two years in prison were not wasted. They prepared him for a future only God could see. In and through it all, Joseph concluded, “it is well with my soul” – due to that tremendous attribute of God which we the people of God would do well to remember: God is sovereign! He rules! He reigns! In Genesis 41, we see seven instances of the sovereignty of God: (connecting the dots)

* Pharaoh had two bizarre dreams. In his first dream seven fat cows coming up out of the Nile River were eaten by seven skinny cows that came out of the same river.

Pharaoh awoke for a few moments, thought about his dream, and then went back to sleep. In the second dream he saw a stalk with seven plump heads of grain on it. Suddenly seven shriveled heads of grain appeared, and they devoured the seven plump heads of grain.

Verse 8 tells what happened next – Genesis 41:8 . . . The magicians couldn’t figure it out. A thousand years of pagan religion could not give the king an answer. Thus, we see that a crisis exposes the futility of the world in dealing with the things that matter most. Without divine help . . . revelation, human wisdom and power can never discover the answer to human need.

* God reminded Pharaoh’s cupbearer about Joseph – Genesis 41:12-13 . . . At just the right moment, God joggled the memory of the one person who knew about someone who could provide the right solution to the king’s dilemma. Just think of how it worked out that, had the cupbearer remembered Joseph earlier, Joseph might have been set free earlier and might have been anywhere, except close by, when he was needed most.

Joseph was just doing his job when he had interpreted the cupbearer’s and the baker’s dreams in prison, but now he is about to see the outcome of what God can do in and through a person wholly dedicated to the Lord.