The Truth About Trouble

Our unique circumstances this morning has inspired me to break from 1st John this morning to speak on another topic. If we had stayed true to the path the passages that we would have considered together would have been 1 John 2:12-14 where John speaks about levels of spiritual maturity. He addresses little children, father’s and young men, all being symbolic of different levels of spiritual maturity, But today the text that I’m going to use to introduce the topic I believe that the Lord would have me introduce is from…John 16, just two verses….

John 16: 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” - NIV

Let’ Pray….

The statement that I want to focus on, is the one we spend a lifetime trying to avoid, this short statement in verse 33… In this world you will have trouble….and the word trouble, in scripture is a multi-facted, expansive word, I can mean--- afflictions, hardships, and pain, and sufferings, and test, and trails, and grief, and sickness, distresses and disturbances, and anything else negative that you can think of, if you’d like!

The Webster defines it as… problems · difficulties· issues · inconveniences · worries · anxietiese · distresses · concerns · irritations · vexations · annoyances · stresses · agitations · hassles · misfortunes · tests· trials · tribulation · trauma · adversity · hardship · burdens· pain · suffering · affliction · torment · woes · griefs · unhappiness · sadness · heartache · misery · messes · predicaments · dire straits · disasters · jams- pickles!

Jesus said in this world, we would have those things! So today, I feel led to bring to us a message that I’ve entitled…

The Truth about Trouble!

The Truth about Trouble, Truth being that which is in accord with facts or reality!

And so I want us to use the Word of Truth, to take a little journey with you this morning for us the see trouble, or whatever sort it is, for what it actually is, not what we hypothetically think that it is but what it truly is….

Let’s start out by making peace with the statement that Jesus made regarding it…that implies…

I. Trouble is Promised!

Therefore it is inevitable! unavoidable · inescapable · and in many ways, unpreventable!

A) Promised?

John 16:33b In this world you will have trouble

Clarence L. Haynes Jr. - Within the pages of Scripture Jesus makes a statement that very few people see or view as a promise from God. In the middle of John 16:33 Jesus said, “…In this world you will have trouble.” There it is. I know it doesn’t feel like it and you are probably not jumping up and down shouting right now, but that is a promise… Jesus is warning or foreshadowing that at some point in this life you will face trouble. Just like every other promise God has made this one will come true for you as well.

Chuck Swindoll in his book living on the ragged edge illustrates this well….

Living on the Ragged Edge by Charles Swindoll- Imagine for a moment that your world is dark, safe, secure. You are bathed in warm liquid, cushioned from shock. You do nothing for yourself; you are fed automatically, and a murmuring heartbeat assures you that someone larger than you fills all your needs. Your life consists of simple waiting—you’re not sure what

to wait for, but any change seems far away and scary. You meet no sharp objects, no pain, no threatening adventures. A fine existence…. One day you feel a tug. The walls are falling in on you. Those soft cushions are now pulsing and beating against you, crushing you ownwards. Your body is bent double, your limbs twisted and wrenched. You’re falling, upside down. For the first time in your life, you feel pain. You’re in a sea of rolling matter. There is more pressure, almost too intense to bear. Your head is squeezed flat, and you are

pushed harder, harder into a dark tunnel. Oh, the pain. Noise. More pressure. You hurt all over. You hear a groaning sound and an awful, sudden fear rushes in on you. It is happening—your world is collapsing. You’re sure it’s the end. You see a piercing, blinding light. Cold, rough hands pull at you. A painful slap. Waaaahhhhh! Congratulations! You’ve just been born.

B) Point?

1. Trouble begins from the moment that we are born!