Purpose: To show how God gives peace in a difficult circumstance.
Aim: I want the listener to trust God’s love when life is hard.
INTRODUCTION: Has anyone ever asked you how you were doing and you said, "I’m fine" when you didn’t mean it? I know I have.
A farmer named Joe made that mistake once. He decided that his injuries from an accident were serious enough to take the trucking company that was responsible for the accident to court.
In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe.
"Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’?" questioned the lawyer.
Farmer Joe responded, "Well I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..."
"I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’!"
Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine.
Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer so he said to the lawyer, "I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.
"Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me. He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?"
It was then that I said, "I’m fine."
Today we may say "I’m fine" but honestly that may not be the case
The author of Psalm 130 was willing to admit that things were not fine.
In the first two verses we hear the psalmist:
➽Vs.1-2 I. Crying Out to God
➽Vs.1 A. A cry of desperation "Out of the depths"
"The depths in Hebrew refers to the depths of the sea, the watery chaos of life." [ Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Vol. 14: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 14 : Psalms 73-150. Formerly The Communicator’s Commentary. The Preacher’s Commentary series (425). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.]
There are times when we are crying out to God because we have reached the bottom. Just when we think that things can’t get any worse, they do. Those times come when we have done everything we know to do to fix it and nothing seems to be working.
Real prayer begins when desperation sets in. The instinct of a Christian is to pray when life gets hard. I believe this is at least part of the reason why God brings believers through trials.
What does God want from us more than anything else?
Matthew 22:36-39 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (NAU)
Love the Lord, love your neighbor. God is not interested in anything we do if it is divorced from a love for Him.
➽Vs.2 B. A cry of doubt "hear my voice"
The psalmist is crying out to God, but he isn’t getting an answer.
Habakkuk 1:2 How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save. (NAU)
The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God. William Gurnall[Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations. Includes index of authors. General index created by Christian Clasics Foundation. (electronic ed.). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.]
Psalm 143:6-7 6 I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land. Selah. 7 Answer me quickly, O Lord, my spirit fails; Do not hide Your face from me, Or I will become like those who go down to the pit. (NAU)
Psalm 28:1 To You, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not be deaf to me, for if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. (NAU)
➽Vs.3-4 II. Recalling God’s love
At first glance, these two verses seem out of place. Forgiveness is nice, but what does that have to do with suffering? If our sins are already forgiven, how is that going to help me through this time of disappointment and suffering?
Let me show you why forgiveness is so important in suffering. The worst kind of panic comes when we feel disoriented. It’s like being hit by large wave while you are swimming at the shore. You get spun around under water, and for a moment you don’t know which way is up.
When life hits us so hard that we don’t know what to do next, we need to remind ourselves of what we DO know for sure.
➽Vs.3 A. Sin is fatal "who could stand"
If God were to leave even one sin on our account we would be doomed. Revelation 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (NAU)
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. (NAU)
➽Vs.4 B. Forgiveness is available "there is forgiveness"
Paul reminds us that we are already wealthy beyond our wildest imaginations. Ephesians 1:3-8 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. (NAU)
If you know that Christ has carried away your load of guilt it gives you great hope. Dr. Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he "could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 % of them could walk out the next day."
Don’t beat yourself up with guilt if God has forgiven you.
"When we truly understand God’s forgiveness and the cost of it, in sending Christ to the Cross, we are broken and humbled, as we bow in awe before God. There is no presumption here. There is no flippancy here. We deserve judgment; we receive mercy. Like the returning prodigal son, we are staggered by the Father who welcomes us home free." [Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Vol. 14: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 14 : Psalms 73-150. Formerly The Communicator’s Commentary. The Preacher’s Commentary series (426). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.]
Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (NAU)
➽Vs.5-6 III. Longing for God’s Presence
A.W. Tozer: "O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made thirsty still."
"Spiritual good is of a satisfying nature; and for that very reason, the soul that tastes, and knows its nature, will thirst after it, and a fullness of it, that it may be satisfied. And the more he experiences, and the more he knows this excellent, unparalleled, exquisite, and satisfying sweetness, the more earnestly he will hunger and thirst for more . . ." Jonathan Edwards
Charles Spurgeon, the peerless British Baptist preacher of the 1800s, elaborated on the blessing of thirsting: "When a man pants after God, it is a secret life within which makes him do it: he would not long after God by nature. No man thirsts for God while he is left in his carnal [i.e., unconverted] state. The unrenewed man pants after anything sooner than God: . . . It proves a renewed nature when you long after God; it is a work of grace in your soul, and you may be thankful for it."
Psalm 63:1 O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. (NAU)
When a Christian longs for God’s presence, he will do two things:
➽Vs.5 A. Trust His promises "in His word do I hope"
Hebrews 10:35-39 35 Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. 38 But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (NAU)
Martin Luther was asked: "Do you feel that you have been forgiven?" He answered "No!" and then wrote this poem:
"Feelings come and feelings go,
And feelings are deceiving;
My warrant is the Word of God--
Naught else is worth believing.
Though all my heart should feel condemned
For want of some sweet token,
There is One greater than my heart
Whose Word cannot be broken.
I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word
Till soul and body sever,
For, though all things shall pass away,
HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!"
-- Martin Luther
➽Vs.6 B. Expect Him to work "My soul waits for the Lord"
A guard on the graveyard shift is pictured here. Imagine having to stay up all night on an ancient city wall watching to see if an enemy would come. You would count the hours, maybe the minutes, until the sun would break over the horizon. You would wonder, is that sun every going to show up? But, just as sure as the sun will come up the Lord will answer those He loves.
Habakkuk 3:17-19 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places. (NAU)
Jesus told us to expect God to satisfy. Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (NAU) We would not value God’s blessings if they always arrived at the instant we felt a need for them.
We must know who God is. If He is a God of lovingkindness (as we see in the next verse) then we know what He will do. "LOVINGKINDNESS--God’s loyal love and favor toward His people. In the Old Testament, the word translated as "kindness" or "lovingkindness" refers to God’s long-suffering love--His determination to keep His promises to His chosen people in spite of their sin and rebellion [Hayford, J. W., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Hayford’s Bible handbook. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.]
Who God is will determine what He does.
Psalm 62:5 My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him. (NAU)
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. (NAU)
➽Vs.7-8 IV. Sharing the Blessing
At this point, the writer is so joyful that he wants others to experience his joy. But notice, there is no evidence that anything has changed in his circumstance.
➽Vs.7 A. God’s love is abundant "with the LORD there is lovingkindness"
Titus 3:4-5 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, (NAU)
➽Vs.8 B. God’s forgiveness is abundant "From all His iniquities"
2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (NAU)
Titus 2:14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (NAU)
CONCLUSION: When we learn the secret of how to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of a hard situation then we know how to help someone else. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. (NAU)
Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
Robert Leighton [Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations. Includes index of authors. General index created by Christian Clasics Foundation. (electronic ed.). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.]
