When God Turns Off the Lights
Isaiah 50:1-3, 10-11
Have you ever felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel? Have you ever felt that God was far away? When you are hurting and need God the most, sometimes it may be that you can't sense His presence. The question is what will you do when God turns off the lights?
I. There will be times of darkness in our lives when God turns off the lights.
A. Isaiah 50:3, 10b “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering… “Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light?”
B. In John 8:12 Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
C. As believers in Christ, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “We no longer walk in the darkness of sin and ignorance but some may be called on to walk in the darkness of trouble and perplexity.” - copied
D. Job 5:7 “Yet man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.”
E. Most of us, if we live long enough, will face a day will when hardship and affliction will assault us.
F. The Psalmist cried out in Psalms 22:11 “Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help.”
G. There may be times when we don’t understand what God is doing
H. At times it would appear as if God has abandoned us, we don’t see where God is. We may even get to the point where we do not even see the marks of God’s grace in our lives.
I. Psalm 74:9 “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knows how long.”
J. Psalm 22:1 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?”
K. Psalms 10:1 “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble?”
II. What will you do when God turns off the lights?
A. There are three options that are open to you.
B. You can get mad at God, blame Him for your problems and do nothing.
1. When we are experiencing struggles and suffering in our everyday lives. We can get so focused on the oppression of the immediate that we get angry with God. We begin to question God as we examine the 'whys', ‘how comes' and 'what ifs'. We cloud our vision of God and begin to blame Him for our problems.
2. Romans 9:20 "Why have you made me like this?"
3. People get mad at God for allowing evil or pain to come into their lives.
4. Many just like to sit and stew. There's an Ozark story about a hound sitting in a country store and howling as hounds do. In comes a stranger who says to the storekeeper, "What's the matter with the dog?" "He's sitting on a cocklebur." "Why doesn't he get off?" "He'd rather holler."
C. You can light your own fire and try to walk in the light you generate
1. Isaiah 50:11 “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.”
2. Proverbs 3:7 “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.”
3. Psalms 108:12 “Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless.”
D. You can walk in the darkness holding onto God’s hand
1. Verse 10 ““Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.”
2. "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer." --Corrie Ten Boom
3. Trust in the Lord
a. Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
b. Psalm 118:8 “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”
c. Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in your friends, and they will die and leave you; trust in money, and you may have it taken from you; trust in reputation, and some slanderous tongue may blast it; but trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity.—D. L. Moody.
d. Psalm 62:8 “Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
e. Two Christians were once speaking of their experiences, and one said, "It is terribly hard to trust God and realize His hand in the dark passages of life." "Well, brother," said the other, "if you cannot trust a man out of your sight, he is not worth much; and if you cannot trust God in the dark, it shows you do not trust Him at all."—Courtesy of Moody Monthly.
f. Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that trust in him”
g. Trust Him when dark doubts assail thee,
Trust Him when thy strength is small,
Trust Him when to simply trust Him
Seems the hardest thing of all.
Trust Him, He is ever faithful,
Trust Him, for his will is best,
Trust Him, for the heart of Jesus
Is the only place of rest. - Author Unknown
4. Rely.
a. Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.”
b. Rely – to Lean on, Rest, Stay, place confidence in
c. Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
d. A lot of us are like old Uncle Oscar. Uncle Oscar was apprehensive about his first airplane ride. His friends, eager to hear how it went, asked if he enjoyed the flight. “Well,” commented Uncle Oscar, “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, but I’ll tell you this. I never did put all my weight down!”
e. Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
f. The Lord doesn’t always let us in on what He’s doing. Trust fills the gap when we don’t understand. We must give the Father the benefit of the doubt. - (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004, 150)
g. Hebrews 10:35 “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward”
h. Isaiah 31:1 “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!”
i. A man was once being conducted by a guide over a dangerous Alpine trail. At length they came to a place where a great rock jutted out over the precipice, leaving only the fragment of a pathway. The guide laid hold on the rock with one hand and put his other hand down on what was left of the trail, the hand extending out over the abyss. He told the other man to step on his hand and forearm and thus pass around the rock in safety. The man hesitated and was afraid; but the guide said, "Do not fear to stand on my hand. That hand has never yet lost a man!" Listen, the pierced hand of Christ has never yet lost a man who took that hand and put his trust in him. – copied
III. God is still there even when the lights are turned off.
A. God is still God – Trust in the Name of the Lord
1. Verse 10 “…let him trust in the name of the LORD…”
2. The LORD – Jehovah – Yahweh - the unique, personal name of God, the holy, eternal, unchangeable, self-existent One – I AM
3. Repenting means revising one’s judgment and changing one’s plan of action. God never does this; he never needs to, for his plans are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control which extends to all things past, present, and future, so that there can be no sudden emergencies or unlooked-for developments to take him by surprise. “The counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11). What he does in time, he planned from eternity. And all that he planned in eternity, he carries out in time. And all that he has in his Word committed himself to do, will infallibly be done. - Your Father Loves You by James Packer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986
B. His ability is not diminished
1. Isaiah 50:2 “…Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?”
2. Nothing is too big for my God to accomplish, and nothing is too little for Him to use in accomplishing it!
3. He Is Able to Save Us. “Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
4. He Is Able to Keep Us from Sin and Stumbling. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 24).
5. He Is Able to Supply Our Needs. “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Corinthians 9:8).
6. He Is Able to Heal Our Diseases. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2-3)
7. He Is Able to Deliver Us from Death. “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire” (Daniel 3:17).
8. But whatever He chooses He will be there even when the darkness hides His face to see us through. "Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3:25)
9. God will bring the light you need at the right time when you need it – trust His love for you.
Lord, I've never moved a mountain and I guess I never will.
All the faith that I could muster wouldn't move a small ant hill.
Yet I'll tell you, Lord, I'm grateful for the joy of knowing Thee,
and for all the mountain moving down through life You've done for me.
When I needed some help you lifted me from the depths of great despair.
And when burdens, pain and sorrow have been more than I can bear,
you have always been my courage to restore life's troubled sea,
and to move these little mountains that have looked so big to me.
Many times when I've had problems and when bills I've had to pay,
and the worries and the heartaches just kept mounting every day,
Lord, I don't know how you did it. Can't explain the where’s or why’s.
All I know, I've seen these mountains turn to blessings in disguise.
No, I've never moved a mountain, for my faith is far too small.
Yet, I thank you, Lord of Heaven, you have always heard my call.
And as long as there are mountains in my life, I'll have no fear,
for the mountain-moving Jesus is my strength and always near.
-Source Unknown.
