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So you'll be alerted when we have our next video. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope.
Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Sometimes we fall and we fall and we fall and we say, God, why is this happening? I have a friend of mine, an older guy who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and he's crying out to the Lord. He's praying to the Lord. And he's saying, God, heal me.
God, heal me. And he's going through a terrible time. And sometimes we have these things happen in our lives and we wonder why they happen. But God has a plan. God knows the end. God knows our ends from the beginning. And sometimes, maybe you're listening right now and you're going through a very tough time. I want to encourage you that you're not alone.
You're not alone. David had many victories. King David in the Old Testament had many victories. You know, there was one point where he said that the people were saying Saul killed his thousands and David killed his tens of thousands and that he was number one. He was on top.
He could have pretty much whatever he wanted. And then there were other times in his life where he was running from his enemies. There were times in his life where he hid in a cave. There were times in his life where he had to act like a madman so that people wouldn't come and kill him.
But he always trusted in the Lord. And so as you're going through these difficulties in your life, which inevitably we will go through our difficulties in lives, but as we go through the difficulties in life, we know that God is good. And we must trust in the Lord. You know, one of the things that I'm thinking of these days is that, you know, you're hearing what's happening in the world right now. You're hearing about the banks that are failing and you're hearing about, you know, you hear about the children who are going through child trafficking, sex trafficking. We're hearing about all the millions and millions of children each year who are killed in abortions and how many over the last, you know, 50 years.
It's terrible. And there's many abortions that I'm sure that we've heard about that have happened that we haven't even heard about. But we know that God is good. We know that God is good and he always is good. God never changes. He says, I am the same yesterday, today and forever. But see, sometimes in life, things may not always play out as we hope that they would play out. Things may not always look as they looked. And we say, God, why me?
Why me? But if we're a Christian, we know that no matter what happens in our lives, that he is with us and he will never leave us nor forsake us. We can stand firm on the Word of God. We can pray. We can fast. We can cry out. But sometimes things seem to happen in life that are tough and sometimes things seem to happen that aren't fair. And we wonder why.
We hurt. But as long as we trust in God, as long as we cry out to him, then nothing else really matters. If you have your Bibles today, please pull out to Psalm 73 and I've got the New Living Translation. This is an example of where, unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen to good people. And on the other hand, sometimes good things happen to bad people. But it says in verse 1, it says, Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
My feet were slipping and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives. Their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don't have troubles like other people. They're not plagued with problems like everyone else. They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty.
These fat calves, these fat cats have everything that their hearts could ever wish for. They scoff and they speak only evil. In their pride, they seek to crush others. They boast against the very heavens and their words strut throughout the earth. And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. What does God know, they ask? Does the Most High even know what's happening?
Look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. You know, that was written, that was written thousands of years ago. But isn't that true today? Isn't it true that sometimes the people who seem to do everything wrong, everything right seems to happen to them?
I remember when I was younger and I was training for one of my first jobs. And I saw a man who seemed to be doing everything wrong in life. He was, you know, he wasn't living by the Ten Commandments. And he was basically, you know, just scamming people, lying to people. But everything good seemed to happen to this man. You know, it seemed like by his lies, by his deceitfulness or whatever, everything good seemed to happen to this man.
And I wondered, I said, God, why is this happening? It doesn't seem to make sense because I thought, you know, if you work hard and if you seem to do the right thing, then things are supposed to go your way. And then on the other hand, it's like, you know, I've seen other people who, just like this man, who do everything wrong. And all the right things seem to happen to this man. And they do everything wrong and everything right seems to come to them.
And you go, this isn't fair. But then as I learned this man and as I talked to this man, I got to realize that even he was crushed in spirit. Even he was hurt. He was questioning God. He wanted to find out the truth, but he didn't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so it's like, you know, the Bible says, what good is it to a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul? What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul? All of these people who, you know, you hear about them in the news, they smile, they're rich, they have everything that this world could ask for. But then on the other hand, you find out their private lives and you look into their private lives and you realize that they're miserable and they're very unhappy because riches do not lead to success.
Riches do not lead to true happiness. You know, having a lot of friendships doesn't always lead to true happiness, but only a relationship through Jesus Christ leads to true happiness. You know, on this, today's the day before Palm Sunday and tomorrow I'm going to be, if you're listening to this on the radio, tomorrow I'm going to be preaching at New Vision Community Church over in Graham, North Carolina. And, you know, one of the things that I think about with this is that, you know, what truly is the message?
What truly is the message of Jesus? You know, because, you know, a lot of the times I talk about these things that happen to me and I talk about, you know, all of these good things that I see and I'm praying for people to be healed and they're miraculously healed. I'm praying for marriages to be restored and they're miraculously restored. I'm praying for the sick to get well.
I'm praying for people's lost ones to come to Christ. And sometimes, you know, I was talking to a lady named Karen this morning whose husband is very sick right now and she says, I know that God is going to do it. She says, but the hard part is in the waiting. The tough time is in the waiting. The truth is the waiting many times for a Christian is between now and eternity. You know, many times we pray and we pray and we pray and we ask God to answer our prayers and many times he does and it is wonderful.
It is absolutely wonderful what he does. But unfortunately, sometimes God does not give us the answer that we want and sometimes we are crushed in life by what other people say to us. We're crushed in life by how people treat us. We're crushed in life by things that we see, hear, and touch and for me, I'm more crushed in life by what I see happen to other people because it hurts me, you know, whether it's a pastor that I know and his marriage seems to be falling apart and I'm praying for the guy and I'm praying for his marriage, but it hurts in the meantime because I say, God, this guy, he's hurting and I see him and here he is, he's leading a church way far away, but he's leading a church and he's having a very difficult time himself.
Why does life have to be so difficult? Why do the people that we trust the most seem to hurt us? But the truth is that many times we've hurt other people as well. We've done the same things that we complain about to other people.
We've done those same things to other people and so when Jesus talks about forgiveness, one of the things that he talks about is he says, you know, if we don't forgive other people of their sins against us, he said that God will not forgive us of our sins, but the good news is that if we forgive people of the sins that they've committed against us, then God will forgive us of our sins as well. And sometimes it's easy to talk about stuff on the radio. It's easy to talk about stuff in theory, but what about when you're going through it yourself and you say, is Mike talking to me? Yes, I'm talking to you.
Yes, I'm talking to you. I'll go on in the verse. It says in verse 13 of Psalm 73, it says, Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? I get nothing but trouble all day long.
Every morning brings me pain. If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people. So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. Oh my gosh, do the wicked prosper, right? But what a difficult task it is.
And here it is. He says, But then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction.
In an instant they are destroyed, completely swept away by terrors. When you arise, O Lord, you will laugh at their silly ideas. As a person laughs at dreams in the morning, then I realize that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside.
I was so foolish and ignorant. I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you. Yet I still belong to you. You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anyone on earth. My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart.
He is mine forever. You know, in verse 26, and this is a hard part for many of us when we're praying for healing or when we're praying for miracles or marriages to be restored or for a lost child or a lost relative to come back to the Lord. And we don't always see what we want to see, but it says in verse 26, it says my health may fail and my spirit may grow weak. You know, we're only promised a certain number of days on this earth.
What does it say, three score and ten? You know, but there's times where we even die before then. And there's times, and I've talked about this before, where we look at the book of Proverbs, and it seems like, hey, if we do A and B, then it leads to our prosperous life. But what happens when those times fall apart? What happens when those times are tough?
What happens when we pray fast and do everything that we can and the marriage is still not restored and the sick person is still not healed? You know, I'm reminded of the story of Joseph Scriven. Joseph Scriven was living in Ireland, and he was a Christian man. He was a young man. And one of the things that happened to him is he was supposed to get married. And right before he got married, his fiancé actually died right before he was supposed to get married. He was heartbroken. He was heartbroken. And he actually, he was so heartbroken, he came to North America and moved to Canada.
When he moved to Canada, he started working. He started to get his life together. And so what had happened to him was, finally, he met a second woman. And when he met this woman, he said, oh, wow, things are going to get better. I'm going to meet this woman, and my life is going to be restored, and I'm going to have what I didn't think I had before. And God is so good, and thank you, God, for giving me a second chance. So right before he was supposed to meet his spouse, they were going to meet on the riverbank, and she was meeting him, and she had her horse, and they were meeting. And just moments before he arrived, she was thrown off of her horse, and she was thrown into the river, and she drowned. And he said, this happened a second time.
How did this happen? And so what he did was, after this happened and after the loss of a second spouse, he wrote these words to his mother, and he said, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. See, the hope of Jesus, the reason that Jesus came into this world wasn't to just necessarily give us the best life now and for everything to go well, because sometimes we know that things don't always seem to go our way. Sometimes we know that things are difficult and that we have tough times. But he came here to let us know.
He came to die on the cross for our sins, and he said that if we trust in him, that we will have life and that we will have it more abundantly. But he also said, if we trust it, if we trust in him, unfortunately we will suffer persecutions. People will come against us, especially if we're in the ministry, especially if we're working hard for the Lord. If we're doing something, I can guarantee you, if you're doing something for the Lord, you can receive opposition.
Opposition will come your way. And I know that's not what you want to hear, and I know it's difficult, but it will. And there are times where we pray and we fast and we hope and we call on the name of the Lord, and we know that without God, without Jesus, that the person will not be healed, and we see miraculous healings. And then there are some times where it's just their time to go. And I know you don't want to hear that right now, but it's the truth. There's times where we pray for the healing and we see it and it's absolutely amazing. But there's also times where we pray for the healing and it doesn't come. What are you going to do when that day comes? Who are you going to trust in? Because I've seen people go two ways with this thing. I've seen people go and say, well, God, you surely must not have been there. You didn't care. Or we can go the way where we say, God, I'm trusting in you.
I'm trusting in you. You know, there was a guy who actually wrote another famous hymn. His first name was Horatio, and he lived in Chicago, and everything was going well for him. And everything was good. And so he ended up becoming a missionary. And he went across. He sent his wife and his children across the seas. And when his wife and his children went across the seas, one of the things that he said was, he said, this is going to be awesome.
We're going to do some wonderful things for the Lord. Because there was a great Chicago fire and he lost everything that he had. But he was still trusting in the Lord. And so he went over to the sea where his wife and his children were on this boat. And in the middle of the sea, he got a telegram that was back from his wife. And it said, all is lost. I'm the only one who's alive.
Maybe me and one of the children. And so when Horatio went over and when he went across the seas, he said, I want to know where the spot was where they had actually drowned. And when he wrote, when he went past the spot where they were actually drowned, he wrote one of the most famous hymns of all time. It is well with my soul.
It is well with my soul. And so I want you to think about this, friends, that Adrian Rogers used to say this. He said, you're either going in one of three places.
He says you're either coming out of a storm, you're in a storm or you're coming, you're either going into a storm, you're in a storm or you're coming out of a storm. Because there are many, many times in life, I don't care how good things look on the outside. There are many times in our lives where everything seems to go awry.
Everything seems to go poorly and we don't know why it's happening. But the truth is, is that's why we have our hope in Jesus. That's why we trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. That's why we have our hope in him and that's why we trust in him.
Because he is the way, the truth and the life and nobody gets to the Father but by him. If we're trusting in anything else, it'll fail. If we're trusting in the banks, as we've seen recently, the banks will fail.
As we trust in our 401k, as we saw in 2020 and 2008, that can fail us immediately. As we trust in our friends, our friends will stab us in the back. King David in the Old Testament talked about a friend of his. He said it would have been easier if it was an enemy who stabbed me in the back. He said, but it was you. It was a friend. It was a friend. You stabbed me in the back. You did me wrong. And it makes it even harder.
But guess what? Even in those tough times, God is here with us. He is with us until the very end. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us. He is always there.
He is our only hope. In verse 27, it says those who desert him will perish of Psalm 73. For you destroy those who abandon you. But as for me, how good it is to be near God, I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter.
And I will tell everyone about the wonderful things that you do. God is good. We have nothing else to hope in.
We have nothing else to trust in. But Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. He is the only way. You know, one of my favorite stories, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible is where Jesus said it like this. He said there were two men who went up to the church one Sunday.
And he says one of the men said to himself, God, I thank you. I'm not like this other man. He said, I give 10 percent of my money. I don't steal. I don't rob people.
In other words, I'm a pretty good person. He said the second man was over on the side. And he said he beat on his chest. And he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said the second man went away justified, not the first. He says because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.
If we're trusting in anything else, if we think that at any point by our own goodness we're going to make it to heaven, we're missing it. Charles Spurgeon, somebody one time came to him and he said that Jesus would never forgive me because I'm too bad of a person. And I've done too much to unfortunate. I've done too much and he wouldn't forgive me. And Charles Spurgeon actually said to him, he says, you're close.
You're close. Because the truth is, the truth is, is that it takes us humbling ourselves and realizing that we're not good people. That we've all made mistakes. We've lied. We've cheated.
We've stolen. And that at the depths of our heart we're all, we're all sinful. We're all self-willed.
We're all self-focused. As it says in the book of Isaiah that our best of works are like filthy rags. That without the hope of Jesus Christ, without the hope of this Resurrection Sunday that's coming up next Sunday, that we have nothing. Jesus said it like this. He said, he said, if somebody has a servant, he said, the servant, he said, does he tell that servant, okay, do this, do this and do this. And he said, if the servant does everything that the master tells them to do, the master doesn't say to the servant, oh my gosh, you're wonderful, you're this, you're that, you're the other.
No, he says, the servant will say to that master, master, we have done your will but we are only unworthy servants. Have you ever humbled yourself like that in this Easter season, in this Resurrection Sunday season? Have you ever humbled yourself and said, God, I can't make it on my own? Every way that I'm trying to go, I fail. Without you, Lord, I can't make it. Maybe you've had a financial disaster.
Maybe you've had a marital collapse. I want you to truly say this and I want you to know that from your heart, you know that Jesus is your Savior. I want you right now to repent of your sins. I want you to ask Jesus, just say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins.
I truly am a sinner. I can't make it without you, Jesus. I need you, Jesus. I completely surrender my life to you, Jesus.
In Jesus' name, amen. And see, what happens, friends, is if you just prayed that prayer, you could have had the best life before this was happening. But if you didn't trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, then when you died, it would have been awful. And it would have been awful for eternity.
It would have been eternal fire, eternal flames. But the good news is that no matter how bad your life is, no matter what happens to you, that Jesus Christ, if you've trusted in Jesus as your Savior, you've got an eternal hope. You've got something that these other people do not have. You've got the Savior of the world who clings to you and who walks with you and who will never leave you, who will never forsake you.
What else could you want? Yes, I know things are tough. Yes, I know there's difficult times in life.
I understand that. But we've got Jesus. We've got Jesus.
If we've got Jesus, what else do we need? In closing, I want to read to you something that my grandmother, when I was young, she had this in her bathroom wall and I never forgot it. And I want to share it with you right now.
And I want you to remember this and look it up. It's called Footprints in the Sand. It says, One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand.
One belonging to him and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life, there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and the saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you the most, you would leave me. The Lord replied, My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you only saw one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you. And the truth is, is that if we trusted in Jesus as our Savior, we've got the set of footprints that we need. Jesus Christ is our only hope. I hope you have a happy Palm Sunday and please join me this weekend at New Vision Community Church over in Graham. We're going to share the love of Christ. And if you need prayer, we're going to pray for you in Jesus name, if not for God. We're going to share the love of Christ. All right. For my YouTube channel, if not for God with Mike Zwick, just like, subscribe and hit that notification bell. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video.
