Jesus Offers Hope - When Life Doesn't Make Sense, Part 2

Do you know someone right now that is going through a horrendously difficult time? Maybe they lost their job. Maybe they're coming out of an addiction.

Maybe they've got a major problem with one of their kids. And you said, well, pray about it. And they've prayed about it.

And the fact is, it's gone from bad to impossible. Now what do you do? Today we're going to talk about how God meets us in our times of deepest, deepest need. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. I'm Dave Drouie, and thanks for being with us as Chip picks up where he left off last time in his series, Jesus Offers Hope. He reminds us that we all experience times when life just doesn't make sense. Chip uses the life of the Apostle Paul as an example for what we're to do when our circumstances go from bad to worse. But before we begin, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. They include his brief outline and all the supporting scripture he references. To download these message notes, just go to the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap fill in notes. If you have your Bible, turn now to John chapter 11 for part two of Chip's message, When Life Doesn't Make Sense. Notice Jesus' response to her hurt and to her pain.

When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Here's what I want to remind you. It may be hard. You may not understand it.

It may be difficult, but I'll tell you one thing I learned. When I was crying in my basement, Jesus was crying with me. And he had not abandoned me. And he loves you and he's for you. And he may not turn the switch and fix the problem, remove the cancer, give you your house back, cause your marriage to come back all together, all at once, find the person you're looking for as a single person, give you the job that you're always looking for. But in the midst of what you can't understand, if like Martha and Mary, you'll come and then be honest and tell him, you know what, this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

And shoot it really straight, and then sit and listen. He says, I'll meet you here. I do love you. Your pain elicits the heart of God. Then notice his response.

Where have you laid him, he asked. Come and see, Lord, they replied. And then you had this short, powerful, Jesus wept. God's purposes are bigger than fixing my problems and your problems and getting your life to work out and my life to work out when and how we want.

It's way bigger. But he cares deeply. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? I mean, this is the third time.

What are they basically saying? Well, yeah, it seems like he really cares and he's crying now and he's very compassionate, but if he was really compassionate, he'd have been here four days ago and helped the guy. In the midst of our difficulty, our temptation is to begin to believe that God doesn't really care. I got a letter from a lady, I never know how God does all this, but it came in the mail yesterday and she's a listener to Living on the Edge and she says, I'm a Romans 12 school teacher and I continue to get down on my knees in my classroom and I pray each morning for each of my students.

Since last year, we've joined a Bible teaching church with community groups or small groups and my marriage has been restored and that's no small accomplishment on God's part since we buried a teenage son and both of us are recovering from addiction. Our son Chris that we lost died of leukemia. He was diagnosed when he was 10 years old and at the time there were no books out there for children with cancer. As you read the whole story, you find a woman who is in a really, really difficult, painful, life doesn't make sense and a 10 year old boy gets leukemia and they go through a journey to his early teens and if you know anything about what happens when you lose a child, over 80% of people that lose a child end up in divorce. In the journey and the pain as they were trying to deal with those things, they found that alcohol would relieve some of the pain and both she and her husband become alcoholics. Somewhere along the line, she began to listen and ponder and seek after God and she realized that she needed to draw near to him and she got in a good Bible teaching church and she began to seek after God and then she had this dream that maybe God could use this difficult, painful thing with my son to help others. I tried for two years to get a publisher for my book. She entitled it The Bald Headed Princess. You get it when you go through chemo and you lose all your hair and it was a book about dealing with it as a child and eventually I got discouraged. So I surrendered it to God and I asked him to teach me whatever I was supposed to learn from that experience.

Do you see the process God takes us through? Martha, surrender. Mary, surrender. You, surrender. Me, surrender. A horrific losing of a child. Finally wanting to do something good and saying, God, what's the deal?

I don't understand. And finally it's okay, tell you what, your agenda, your way, your timing. I'm going to surrender it to you. Do you see a theme here? Surrender, just believe, believe. Do you believe?

Do you trust me? Then one special day I received a phone call from an interested publisher. They wanted the book and the day they called it was our son Chris's birthday. God was telling me that he has the perfect timing for everything. He knows how impatient I am and he wants me to trust him and have faith in him even when it seems like nothing is working out.

Just like my marriage and my alcoholism. Since last year I've been reading the Bible daily and I came across Hebrews 11 one. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I am certain that our Chris is in heaven and that God will continue to use my writing to help others. See the journey? God doesn't always show up and wave the magic wand of answered prayer to take us out of. Sometimes he delivers us through it and his purposes are beyond. If you never begin to look at life through the lens of eternity you will never be able to make sense of this life through just the now. God's purposes are bigger and his love is greater.

Notice what happens now. Jesus decides in this case he's going to go ahead and solve the problem. Jesus verse 38 once deeply moved came to the tomb and it was the cave with the stone across the entrance. Take away the stone he said but ever the pragmatist Martha.

The sister of the dead man said by this time there's a bad odor for he's been there four days. Then Jesus said did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone and Jesus looked up and said father I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here that they may believe circle it that you sent me. When he said this Jesus called out in a loud voice Lazarus come out. The dead man came out his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face and Jesus said to them take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Now did you notice how Jesus chose to solve this problem? What did he do? What did he do?

Did he touch him? He spoke. He spoke. In the midst of your pain he speaks. When we talk about life in Christ and bio before God in community on mission this is about in the midst of your pain and hurt you end up living in the Psalms and you live in the gospels and you say God this doesn't make any sense and God I hurt and God I want this to be fixed and God I want her to come back or God I want him to change from this addiction that he has or God do something with one of my kids or God please do not been single oh God please I need a job God turn my house around and through all that you draw near to him he draws near to you but I will tell you he speaks life through his word. David followed him in Psalm 119 would say if your word had not been my delight I would have perished in my affliction. I do not understand how it works but I will tell you it's a living and active intuitive sword piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of joint and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It's a written word but in the heart of a person who is desperate and hurting it will become the living word and the spirit of God will take the word of God and it will begin to give you promises and hope and by the way it's not hope for next week you know when you have thoughts like I can't take this I can't do one more week like this God says absolutely not you can just do the next 10 minutes I'll give you grace for the next 10 minutes I can't live one more day like this you're absolutely grace comes tomorrow for the pain that you feel when you get to tomorrow but God will be in the tomorrow all you have to do is say I don't know how but I'm going to hang on I'm going to hope I want to meet you and what will happen is he'll speak and often instead of solving or fixing your problem or making your life work out or mind the way I want when I want he'll begin to reveal himself to you in ways that you never dreamed and reveal things about you to you that you never dreamed and in that process a transformation occurs the apostle Paul would take the same truth in Romans chapter 5 and I put it in the discussion question so you don't need to write it down but he says therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God he says and then in verse 2 of Romans 5 he says and not only this but we exalt in our tribulation or our difficulty our pain our adversity knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance brings about character and character brings about hope and hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God is poured out in our heart in the midst of that process when it's so difficult there's nowhere to go and there's nowhere to go and you know what the will of God is you just don't give up and you don't give in and what happens is the perseverance produces a character change a level of trust and when you see that kind of change you realize there's hope forever and there's hope now and in the midst of that you feel the compassion of God he pours his love into your life and your heart and he does it through his word and you heard he does it through community he does it through the lives of others and he does a purging purifying supernatural thing through you I will guarantee the most loving kind Christ-like people that you will ever meet in the world have suffered deeply it's part of the agenda the epilogue is two responses therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did put their faith you can circle that phrase it's the same as believe put their faith in him they watched them suffer they watched what happened they watched Jesus in the midst of your pain and my pain and our struggle and how respond that's the most powerful thing in the world many people around you will believe not because God shakes the magic wand and wow but they watch you go through the process and not give up hope but there's always the other group the skeptics that no matter how much evidence they respond the same but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done their little tattletales then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin what are we accomplishing they ask here this man is performing miraculous signs if we let him go on like this everyone will believe in him and then the Romans will come and take away our temple and our nation one translation says our place in our nation put a box around temple put a box around nation these are the two enemies of your faith now imagine this someone reports their eyewitnesses this guy was dead he was dead for four days this Jesus rabbi guy you know the controversial guy we watched him he really loves these ladies he prayed you know and he wept and then he just went and he just spoke words and the guy came out you know like mummy the first movie and they peeled off this stuff and they run Pharisees Pharisees Pharisees did you see what he's doing and their response instead of bowing down saying what more evidence could anyone ever need that this man is God instead what if everyone believes in him will lose our place the temple and our nation our place or the temple is your position and our nation underneath you can write power see the two enemies of faith are they knew that if Jesus reigned and was identified as the Messiah that their role their status their position is going to change and they knew the Romans would come in and they would change their nation and so they would lose their power they lose their control and your desperate attempt to hang on to your position and your power or control over your life and your circumstances and your family and your job and your world and your self-made security in home and money are the things that prevent you from simply believing and they what they prevent me somehow we've grown to believe that unless there's so much money in some account somewhere and we own our own home and our marriages if we're married are deep and intimate and wonderful and our kids are getting into the right schools and all these little circumstances are lined up then life is good and God is faithful and that may pass for 20th century or 21st century evangelical American and much Christianity around the world but it has little or nothing to do to the gospel or the New Testament of Jesus Christ God never promised that God promised that he'd be with you God promised that he's good God promised that you have an eternal hope and God promised that regardless of what you go through in a fallen world he'll never leave you or forsake you and that he loves you and that you and I need to surrender and ask how do I fulfill your agenda that's what that prayer is your kingdom come your reign and your will be done how on earth as it is in heaven and every time we get to see that kind of a person that Romans 12 kind of Christian what you find is life in them and around them the very bottom I put a couple questions that I like you to ponder sometimes we God lets our problems go from bad to impossible so we can you fill it in might believe Jesus said this is the work of God that you might believe in him who he has sent what are you supposed to believe exactly two things believe in the depth of his love for us and second choose to believe in the extent of his power available to us he is the resurrection in the life he can bring life he can change circumstances he can do anything but he does it to us according to our faith so I would ask you where in your life do you have a bad or impossible situation I'd encourage you with the family or friend or in your small group to maybe read out loud Romans 5 one to five and kick that around if this is the process God takes normal people through I'd encourage you a question three to read second Corinthians twelve nine and ten and realize that people who love God with all their heart that are far more holy than we will ever be asked God specifically like the apostle Paul for some deliverance and God said no and told him that his grace is sufficient for him and that he does supernatural amazing things in our difficulty in our weakness and then I would encourage you to ask yourself who do you need in your life to make it through your present difficulty God doesn't want you to go through it alone and for some of you you're sitting here and go you know I don't have one of those right now then ask the next question who in your network might need you to jump into their life and say could I help you through this I really want to love you I want to be the Christ who will sit with you cry with you pray with you and that's how the body works Chip will be right back with his application for this message when life doesn't make sense from his series Jesus offers hope does it feel like you've hit rock bottom like you've done everything right only to have your circumstances go from bad to worse are you in desperate need of hope right now well in this four-part series Chip reveals how it's possible to experience God's supernatural hope even in the midst of the worst life throws at you hear from the Gospels why we can place our absolute confidence in God and hang on to the hope he wants us to have every day for a limited time the resources for Jesus offers hope are discounted and the mp3s are always free you'll find everything you need at Living on the Edge org or give us a call at triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 that's triple 8 3 3 3 6 0 0 3 or Living on the Edge dot org app listeners tap special offers well before we go any further here's a quick word from Chip I want to ask you something really important would you choose to become a financial partner with us now I'm not using that language to disguise the fact that I'm asking you to give or or trying to be fancier asking for money but when you invest in this ministry it's more accurately saying yes I will partner with you yes I'll go to work with you yes I want to be on this mission with you when you give you become a part of all that we do a part of the hundreds of thousands of people hearing God's Word a part of discipling new Christians and encouraging persecuted Christians in China in the Middle East it's a part of supplying teaching and training and resources to pastors right here in the US so will you ask God what part he would give you in all of this and then just do whatever he shows you if all of us do our part however God leads it'll be exactly what we need to fulfill exactly what God wants us to do I want to thank you in advance for whatever God leads you to do and thank you thanks so much for being a partner thanks Chip if partnering with Living on the Edge is an idea that makes sense to you we'd love to have you join us helping Christians live like Christians will change the world we live in now to give a gift just give us a call at 888-333-6003 or if you prefer to give online you can donate securely by going to livingontheedge.org app listeners tap donate your generosity is greatly appreciated now with some final thoughts here's Chip as we wrap up today's program I want you to go back with me in your mind to how I finished you know I did some teaching there from 2nd Corinthians 12 and about how God's power is perfected in our weakness and I really encouraged you to think to really think about someone who's going through something that's just maybe it's horrific but they're really really hurting maybe they're ready to say you know God didn't show up for me this doesn't work but you know they're hurting and that's the person that you need to reach out to you know our program isn't just about what do you get but we want to equip you to love people to be the hands and feet and Jesus himself right now in my life it's been a sort of a tragic last 10 days so much so that I sat down with Teresa and I made a list on a yellow pad and it was this person has cancer this person's cancers returned this close friend his wife 43 years old three kids just died of cancer I don't know about you but how how in the world do we grapple with those kind of things when life doesn't make sense here's what I do know I know that when Jesus is present and he's present in you as his follower and he's present in his word and there's not a need to give people a lot of advice you just need to be with them you need to hug them you need to pray you need to call them today you need to ask them how are you really doing don't say can I bring something over take something over don't say if there's anything I can do what it would be just do something and just love them oh when we hurt Jesus is going to show up but I want to remind you that he often shows up inside the body of another believer video screens and podcasts will never hug anyone they'll never cry with anyone that's what we need to do here's the question who needs you today don't delay don't procrastinate meet them love them care for them today let's be the body of Christ you know a great way to soak in the truth like Chip was just saying is with the Chip Ingram app you'll find this series there and many more all free let God's Word pour into you in such a way that you get perspective and the freedom he longs for you to enjoy in him well until next time this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.