Illus: Did you hear about the four expectant fathers that were in a Minneapolis hospital waiting room, while their wives were in labor?
• The nurse arrived and announced to the first man, "Congratulations sir, you're the father of twins." "What a coincidence" the man said with some obvious pride. "I work for the Minnesota Twins baseball team."
• The nurse returned in a little while and turned to the second man. "You sir, are the father of triplets." "Wow, that's really an incredible coincidence" he said. "I work for the 3M Corporation." My buddies at work will never let me live this one down.
• An hour later, while the other two men were passing cigars around, the nurse came back. This time she turned to the 3rd man, who had been quietly sitting in the corner. She announced, “Your wife just gave birth to quadruplets.” Stunned, he barely could reply. "Don't tell me another coincidence?" asked the nurse. After finally regaining his composure, he said "I don't believe it, I work for the Four Seasons Hotel."
• After hearing this, everyone's attention turned to the 4th guy, who had just fainted, flat out on the floor. The nurse rushed to his side, and after some time, he slowly regained consciousness. When he was finally able to speak, you could hear him whispering the same phrase over and over again.
"I should have never taken that job at 7-Up!”
"I should have never taken that job at 7-Up!”
"I should have never taken that job at 7-Up!”
Everyone has troubles, EVERYONE!
This psalm was written by David. As you can see from the words of the Psalm, David was having some serious difficulties in his life.
One of the biggest mistakes that some Christians make, is to assume that TROUBLE ONLY COMES TO THE UNGODLY. I am here to tell you that this is not what the Bible teaches.
Look at Job 14:1, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Notice, Job did not say a CHRISTIAN MAN or a SINNER MAN. He is addressing all mankind, saved and unsaved! Job is simply saying that every man that is born among women, will have a life of FEW DAYS, and FULL OF TROUBLE.
David was a godly man. He had trouble before he was king and he had trouble after he was king.
We all need to recognize that we are going to have TROUBLE IN THIS LIFE. What is EQUALLY IMPORTANT is that we learn HOW TO DEAL WITH THESE PROBLEMS WE HAVE!
Let’s look at the life of David to see how this great man of God dealt with trouble. We have three OPTIONS as we face trouble.
I. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO FLEE
There were times in David’s life when he felt the solution to his problem was to FLEE. Now I want to remind you that this was a courageous man, he was not a coward. This is the same fellow that had the courage to stand up against an almost ten foot tall giant. He had real COURAGE!
Many times, we call people courageous when they are not courageous at all. For example, consider Evil Knievil who is always using a motorcycle to jump cars and buses. Some say he HAS COURAGE. I have to disagree with their assessment of this man. There is a difference between COURAGE and STUPIDITY!
Many times the actions we call courageous are not courageous at all.
Illus: Consider the beautiful girl that said to the fireman: “It must have taken a lot of courage to rescue me as you did”. The fireman said, “Yes, I had to knock down three other guys who wanted to do it.”
Illus: A very wealthy rich man had a very beautiful daughter. There were three young men that wanted to marry her. Her father suspected one of the reasons they wanted to marry her was because she would inherit his money. So one day he decided he was going to see if these three young men really loved his daughter for who she was, and not for what she would inherit. He invited all three of them to his house and took them out to the swimming pool and said to them, “I will allow my daughter to marry the first one that swims across this Olympic size swimming pool and comes out the other side.” They were all eager to dive in, and he said, “Before you dive in I just want you to know that I have stocked it with Piranhas.” About that time, one young man dove in and swam across to the other side in record breaking time. The father rushed over to him and said, “You will be the young man that will marry my daughter. Do you have anything to say?” With anger all over his face he said, “Yea, who pushed me!”
So many times in this life we see things we call courage, and there is no courage involved! But when David took on that almost ten foot tall giant, that was courage!
When we see him facing this giant, we can not help but conclude that this man is not afraid of anything. Yet we see him fleeing like a scared rabbit in some situations.
For example, when Saul tried to kill David, he FLED!
• Look at 1 Sam. 19:10, “And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and DAVID FLED, and escaped that night.”
• Look at 1 Sam. 19:18, “So DAVID FLED, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.”
• Look at 1 Sam. 21:10, “And DAVID AROSE, AND FLED that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.”
All of these verses tell us that David, the man that once had the courage to face an almost ten foot tall giant, now was living in fear. David was living in a fearful situation and he really felt the best thing for him to do was FLEE! People handle fear in different ways.
Illus: A school teacher got a note from Victor's mother that read: “My son Vic is a very sensitive boy. If you have to punish him, just slap the child in the next seat. That will frighten Victor and straighten him out.”
FEAR IS NOT ALWAYS BAD. God made man so when danger confronted him, DANGER SIGNALS would go off within him telling him he was facing imminent danger. There are things we sometimes face, and we do not need to SAY ANYTHING or DO ANYTHING, we should FLEE!
Illus: That reminds me of the woman that boarded her plane and was seated. A parrot was strapped in next to her.
• After she was seated, she asked the stewardess for coffee whereupon the parrot squawks, “And get me a soda you old witch.”
• When she returned, she had a soda for the parrot but she did not have the woman’s coffee. When this omission was pointed out to her, the parrot drains its glass and bawls out again, “Get me another soda you old witch before I get up and slap you.”
• Again the stewardess forgets the coffee. Unaccustomed to such slackness, the woman tries the parrot's approach. “I've asked you twice for coffee. Go and get me some coffee you old witch, or I will get up and slap you… do you understand?”
The next moment, both she and the parrot were thrown out of the emergency exit by two burly stewards. Plunging downwards the parrot turns to her and says, “For someone who can't fly, you certainly were brave to talk to her like that!”
Listen, it is wrong on our part to SAY ANYTHING or do ANYTHING FOOLISH in a fearful situation. Sometimes the smartest thing we can do is FLEE! When hard times come our way, WE HAVE THE OPTION TO FLEE, but also -
II. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO CONFRONT
There are some people who are wondering WHY GOD WILL NOT HELP THEM, and GOD IS WONDERING WHY THEY WON’T HELP THEMSELVES! For example:
• Some are wondering why God will not help them get out of debt. Why? Because God knows that if He helped some people get out of debt, they would immediately get back in debt.
• Some are wondering why God will not help them lose weight. Why? Because if God made them as skinny as a rail, they would be chomping down on hamburgers, hotdogs and sodas tomorrow, and soon be as big as ever.
• Some are wondering why God will not help them out of their depression. God could send a Reader’s Digest sweepstakes man knocking on their door, and they would be smiling from ear to ear today, but it would not be long before they would fall right back into that depression again.
God always expects us to take care of what we are capable of taking care of.
Illus: When the Lord came to the tomb of Lazarus, He told the disciples to remove the stone. Why? This is something they could do. But when it came to raising Lazarus, they had to step back and let Him do what they could not do.
Listen, I am convinced that there are some things you can pray about your entire life, and God is not going to help you, because you can take care of the situation yourself.
Illus: This reminds me of the church that had a financial problem. Someone suggested they have a special prayer meeting. The pastor was totally against having such a meeting. He said, “We do not need to pray about God sending the money, He already has. We just need to pray for God to make us willing to give what He has already supplied!”
Often, we are confronted about things that no one but ourselves can handle. And GOD EXPECTS US TO DEAL WITH THEM!
WE HAVE THE OPTION TO FLEE, WE HAVE THE OPTION TO CONFRONT, and -
III. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO TRUST
There are times in our life when we:
• Can not flee
• Can not confront
The only thing we can do is TRUST GOD TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE.
David was in such a place! WHAT DID HE DO?
Look at Psalm 143:5-7, we read, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.”
He did several things that we need to do as we trust God with our problems.
(1) HE EXAMINED THE GOD HE SERVED
Look at verse 5, we read, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.”
He thought about the God he served. Do you think about the God you serve?
• He remembered how God delivered His people from the bondage of Pharaoh
• He remembered how God fed the children of Israel
• He remembered how God gave him victory over Goliath
He said, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works…”
When he pondered all these things, he concluded:
• God is faithful
• God is good
• God is kind
• God is righteous
If Christians would spend more time thinking about the GREATNESS OF GOD, their problems would not seem that big. In this busy age, many people no longer have a “Quiet time!” That is, a time when they get away from everything and just think HOW BIG and HOW GREAT GOD IS!
If people did this more often, when they are being BEATEN UP by Satan they could stand firm because their God is BIGGER THAN THEIR PROBLEM!
Illus: For example, you can have a mud hole in your back yard that seems to be a big problem. But you can take a trip and look at the Grand Canyon, and all of a sudden that mud hole in your back yard does not seem that big.
David examined all the things God had done in the past. He saw how big God was, and all of a sudden his problems did not seem that big any more!
HE EXAMINE THE GOD HE SERVED, but also-
(2) HE TALKED TO THE GOD HE SERVED
Look at verse 6, we read, “I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.”
The simple reason that many are going lacking today, is because they are not stretching forth their hands to God. David stretched forth his hand toward God, and he told Him he was thirsting for him in his life. He said, “My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.”
Look at verse 7, we read, “Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.”
The book of James says, many simply HAVE NOT, BECAUSE THEY ASK NOT!
Conclusion:
Illus: An Arab chief tells a story of a spy who was captured and then sentenced to death by a general in the Persian army.
This general had the strange custom of giving condemned criminals a choice between the firing squad and the big, black door. As the moment for execution drew near, the spy was brought to the Persian general, who asked the question, "What will it be: the firing squad or the big, black door?"
The spy hesitated for a long time. It was a difficult decision. He chose the firing squad.
Moments later shots rang out confirming his execution. The general turned to his aide and said, "They always prefer the known way to the unknown.”
The aide said, "What lies beyond the black door?"
"Freedom," replied the general. "I've known only a few brave enough to take it." (Don McCullough, "Reasons to Fear Easter," Preaching Today, Tape No. 116.)
As we face the PROBLEMS OF LIFE, we always have these three options. And at the appropriate time, all of these are valid options that lead to freedom.
I. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO FLEE
II. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO CONFRONT
III. WE HAVE THE OPTION TO TRUST
What kind of problem are you facing? What option should you take?
