When Trouble Comes
Pastor Rex E. Faile, Sr.
Lakewood Christian Church
March 7, 2007
Job 14:1-2
1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
(KJV)
Intro. The question is not if, but WHEN trouble comes. Job had lived a quiet and prosperous life. God had blessed him and given him increase in family, wealth, and friends. But God allowed trouble and tragedy to touch Job. In this time Job learned that life is not about us but about God and our knowing Him in our troubles.
I. A FEW Days - In light of eternity what is 70+ years.
A. Word Study
7116 qatser (kaw-tsare’);
from 7114; short (whether in size, number, life, strength or temper):
KJV-- few, hasty, small, soon.
A. Our years seventy, eighty if we still have strength
Ps 90:4-10
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning--
6 though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered.
7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
10 The length of our days is seventy years-- or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
(NIV)
II. FULL of TROUBLE
A. Full - Have enough
word study:
7646 saba` (saw-bah’);
or sabea` (saw-bay’-ah); a primitive root; to sate, i.e. fill to satisfaction (literally or figuratively):
KJV-- have enough, fill (fullself,, with), be (to the) full (of), have plenty of, be satiate, satisfy (with), suffice, be weary of.
B. TROUBLE
7267 rogez-
agitation, excitement, raging, trouble, turmoil, trembling
a) turmoil, disquiet, raging
b) trembling, trepidation, fear
III. His Life is “As a flower…a shadow” that is cut down and is over
A. It has a brief glorious appearing…then gone!
IV. We Do Not Despise the Trouble but EMBRACE it!!
A. God is TEACHING us in our troubles!
1. Let our trouble come BECAUSE we are doing the will of God!
NOT because we bring it upon ourselves with wrong behavior and choices.
Will Rogers said, “Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that (experience) comes from bad judgment” ….In other words much of what we learn come from the bad choices we have made!
1 Pet 4:11-19
11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
15 If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.
16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
18 And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?"
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
(NIV)
2. Our troubles are God’s way of “chastening” or “training” us
Heb 12:5-17
5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
7 Endure hardship (If you endure training) as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?
8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.
11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
(NIV)
3809 paideia-
1) the whole training and education of children (which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, and employs for this purpose now commands and admonitions, now reproof and punishment). It also includes the training and care of the body
2) whatever in adults also cultivates the soul, especially by correcting mistakes and curbing passions.
a) instruction which aims at increasing virtue
b) chastisement, chastening, (used of the evils with which God visits men for their amendment)
3809 paideia (pahee-di’-ah);
from 3811; tutorage, i.e. education or training; by implication, disciplinary correction:
KJV-- chastening, chastisement, instruction, nurture.
This word chastening (this is the same word in the original greek as the 2 following words but the KJV translates them “nurture” and “instruction” in the following verses:
Eph 6:4
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture (chastening) and admonition of the Lord. (KJV)
2 Tim 3:16
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction (chastening) in righteousness: (KJV)
2 Cor. 1:3-11
3. He is teaching us to TRUST in HIM ALONE!!!
We run to every one else first….bank, doctors, counselors, church
4. He is teaching us to RELY SOLEY ON HIM vs.9
5. He is teaching us to COMFORT OTHERS as God has comforted us
Vs. 4
6. He is teaching us to have HOPE that He will Continue to Deliver Us! Vs. 10
2 Cor 1:3-11
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks
(NIV)
(Deliverance)
Isa 14:1-5
1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear (trouble), and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
(KJV)
Habakkuk’s Prayer
Hab 3:1-2
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath (trouble) remember mercy.
(KJV)
In Conclusion: God is teaching us to trust and rely on His comfort, presence, and deliverance from our troubles. The troubles may come but we do not have to fear, fret, or be anxious because we know that God is for us and this short life will one day give way to an eternity with no more trials, no more pains, no more tears. Bless!
