INTRO.- Life is full difficulties and sometimes it’s more of a disaster than a difficulty. Like Hurricane Sandy hitting New York and New Jersey. That was one of the worst, at least, for them. Or like that tornado that hit Joplin, MO, a year ago last May.
ILL.- Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, and more than 1000 other things. December 1914 he had worked for 10 years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. This particular evening spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room. Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film, and other flammable goods were in flames. Fire departments from eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile. Everything was destroyed. Edison was 67. With all his assets going up in flames (although the damage exceeded two million dollars, the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof), would his spirit be broken?
The inventor’s 24-year old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He finally found him, calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind. "My heart ached for him," said Charles. " He was 67--no longer a young man--and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ’Charles, where’s your mother?’ ‘When I told him I didn’t know, he said, ’Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.’"
The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start all over." Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.
Not all disasters turn out so well as this one did. And whenever difficulties or disasters of any kind come, what do we do? Do we ask for help or do we try to “gut it out” on our own?
Life’s difficulties call for help: Work problems, financial problems, raising kids, aging, health problems, etc. We all need help along the road of life. We often find ourselves in difficult or desperate situations.
PROP.- What should we do when we find ourselves in a distressing or desperate situation in life?
1- We cry out to God
2- We look to scripture
3- We offer our praise
I. WE CRY OUT TO GOD
1 I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.
2 When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands
and my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
ILL.- Jim happened to meet the minister on the street one day, and during the conversation told him of all the troubles he had had during the past year. He wound up with: “I tell you right now, preacher, it’s enough to make a man lose his religion.” “Seems to me, Jim,” the minister told him quietly, “it’s enough to make a man use his religion.”
Job 14:1 “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”
Any time we experience difficulties, trials and troubles in life we should turn to the Lord. Some people don’t know where to turn for help, but we should!
ILL.- Sarah Winchester’s husband had acquired a fortune by manufacturing and selling rifles. After he died of influenza in 1918, she moved to San Jose, California. Because of her grief and her long time interest in spiritism, Sarah sought out a medium to contact her dead husband. The medium told her, "As long as you keep building your home, you will never face death."
Sarah believed the spiritualist, so she bought an unfinished 17-room mansion and started to expand it. The project continued until she died at the age of 85. It cost 5 million dollars at a time when workmen earned 50 cents a day. The mansion had 150 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 windows. And Mrs. Winchester left enough materials so that they could have continued building for another 80 years.
Today that house stands as more than a tourist attraction. It is a silent witness to the dread of death that holds millions of people in bondage.
That woman was looking for help in the wrong place. And there are many substitutes in this world for God, things that take the place of God but never satisfy the soul or give the answer to life and death.
ILL.- The atheist lawyer, Clarence Darrow, called for three clergymen, a minister, a priest and a rabbi, just before his death. He said, “ Gentlemen, I have written and spoken many things against God and the churches during my lifetime. Now I wished I hadn’t! Now I realize it is entirely possible that I may have been wrong. So I should like to ask a final favor that each one of you intercede for me with the Almighty.”
I think perhaps there are many people who may do similarly when faced with their death. They may plead for help or plead to God for mercy! They may suddenly realize they’ve been wrong all their lives and want God to demonstrate mercy. And God may well demonstrate mercy, but why take the chance?!
Many people are procrastinators in life and especially, when it comes to getting serious about God, Christ, and eternity! Where do you turn for help in life? And does it depend on what kind of help you need? When it’s a matter of life and death, where do you turn?
1 I cried out to God for help. I think smart is the person who knows where to turn when trouble comes their way.
Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” We should remember God first in life and in all situations.
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
If we remember Him, He will most certainly remember us. And we should always seek Him first in life, no matter what we’re facing.
II. WE LOOK TO SCRIPTURE
4 You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.
5 I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;
By thinking about the former days, we are remembering the past and for us, this could well mean to remember what God did in the past for His people and this is recorded in scripture. So it may mean to look to the scriptures. And it’s always a smart thing to look to God’s Word for answers in life.
I Corinthians 10:11-12 “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
The scripture records how God’s people responded during difficult times or how they failed to respond. These things are written down in the scriptures as warnings and also as encouragement.
ILL.- At Sunday School they were learning how God created everything, including human beings. Johnny was especially intent when the teacher told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, "Johnny, what is the matter?" Johnny responded, "I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife."
Aren’t you glad that we have recorded for us what happened when God created the world? And Adam and Eve in the Garden? And Noah’s time and the flood? And Abraham’s call? There is so much to learn from these people who lived by faith.
ILL.- After many years of studying human behavior at one of the finest universities in the world, Harvard psychiatrist Robert Coles remarked: “Nothing I have discovered about the makeup of human beings contradicts in any way what I have learned from the Hebrew prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos, from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and from Jesus and the lives of those He touched. Anything that I can say as a result of my research into human behavior is a mere footnote to those lives in the Old and New Testaments.”
Psychiatrist Robert Coles was saying that the Bible was right after all about human nature and life. How could that be? Because it’s the Word of God! Scripture is always right.
II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”
The Holy Spirit has guided into all the truth and that truth is recorded in the scriptures. We will never go wrong if we go by the scriptures.
2 Timothy 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
III. WE OFFER OUR PRAISE
6 I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired:
I definitely think we need to remember praise God always and especially, during times of difficulty when it may be hard to do.
Psalm 22:3 “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” KJV. It may be that God comes to dwell in us to a greater degree the more we praise Him in life.
ILL.- A man had a habit of grumbling about the food his wife placed before him at family meals and then he would ask the blessing. One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, "Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?" "Why, of course," he replied. "He hears us every time we pray."
She paused a moment, and then asked, "Does he hear everything we say the rest of the time?" "Yes, dear, every word," he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters. However, his pride was quickly turned to humility when she asked," Then which does God believe?" (our prayers or our complaints?)
Acts 16:16-34 16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. 19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. (and someone else was listening as well!) 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
Could it be that our prison cells, whatever they are, might be opened by an angel of God and we would be let free if we concentrated more on praise?
CONCLUSION----------------
ILL.- Alexander the Great conquered Persia, but broke down and wept because his troops were too exhausted to push on to India.
- John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the U.S.--a decent leader--wrote in his diary: "My life has been spent in vain and idle aspirations, and in ceaseless rejected prayers that something would be the result of my existence beneficial to my species."
- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote words that continue to delight and enrich our lives, and yet what did he write for his epitaph? "Here lies one who meant well, who tried a little, and failed much."
These stories sound much like the Psalmist.
7 “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? 8 Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? 9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? The answer is “no,” the Lord will not reject you? HE WILL SHOW YOU HIS FAVOR. His love has not vanished from you. He is faithful.
I Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
2 Thessalonians 3:3 “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”
2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” Even when we are faithless or have less faith, HE REMAINS FAITHFUL TO US. And He will not fail us nor forsake us.
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
