Four Things God Wants Us To Know About Our Troubles - From My Heart to Yours - Part 12

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now, let's get to the Word of God. Well, I'm sure many of you have heard the words of the old spiritual, Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, Nobody knows but Jesus. Man, can I relate to that and I bet you can too.

The truth is it seems like the older I get, the more trouble I got. Now why is that? Well it's because Job said man that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. And this is what as we continue our series from my heart to yours, this is what we want to talk about today. So here we go in Psalm 42 we find David has got trouble. In verse 3 he says my tears have been my food day and night. In verse 6 he says my soul is in despair. In verse 8 he says Lord have you forgotten me? In verse 10 he says my pain is so deep.

It feels like a shattering of my bones. But look what David says in verse 11. He says why are you cast down oh my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. Friends the bottom line is when we got trouble we need hope. And hope the Bible says that we will find only in the living God of the universe and His promises to us if we believe them.

Not just in our head but in our heart. And there are four of these great promises that God makes us about our troubles. But first let me say that if you are here and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ right now. You have never given your heart to Christ in a real and personal way then I want to tell you that these promises I am about to tell you about are not yours.

They don't belong to you. These promises only belong to people who are children of God through their faith in Jesus Christ. And we can fix that problem right here this morning. If you bow your head right now and just say Lord Jesus come into my heart be my Savior I repent of my sins before you. I want to make a hundred and eighty degree turn in my life back to you God. My friend then you can tag along with us for the rest of the message and for the first time in your life these promises now belong to you. Hey we got a major on the majors and that is not the promises of the Savior but the Savior Himself. Because when you get the Savior you get the promises of the Savior right along with Him. So if you don't have the Savior that is your issue today and that we have to solve first.

I sure hope you will. Amen. All right now if you got the Savior these promises belong to you and me.

Here we go. Number one the first promise God makes us about our troubles is that they have all been inspected. I love Job chapter one because here in this chapter God peels back the clouds and allows us to see some of the inner workings of heaven. In Job one the Bible says that Satan shows up in heaven and he says to God verse 10. You have placed a fence around Job and all that he has the Hebrew word that's used here for fence is the word hedge as the King James translates it but Satan says I tell you what you let me get inside those walls and let me go after him and I'll get him to curse you to your face. And so the Lord said to Satan behold all that Job has is in your power but upon him personally you may not put forth your hand Satan. So Satan went and he destroyed his houses and his property and his animals but Satan failed to get Job to curse God to his face. So in chapter two of Job he's back and he says to the Lord put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh let me go at his body and he will curse you to your face and the Lord said to Satan behold he is in your power but you must spare his life. Now what does the Bible teach us here in Job one and two? Well the Bible teaches us three things a that God has a hedge of protection set up around every one of us as followers of Jesus Christ. Number two be that Satan must get God's permission to do anything to us inside this hedge and see that even when God gives Satan permission he puts definitive limits. You may not touch his body you may not take his life he puts definitive limits on what Satan can and cannot do to us.

Now do we see that yes okay and you say well Lon are you sure you're not pulling way too much out of this one passage? Well I'm positive because Jesus said the very same thing in the New Testament. Luke 22 Jesus said Simon Simon talking to Peter behold Satan has say the next two words out loud asked permission yeah he has to get permission. He has asked permission to have you that he may sift you like wheat and Jesus said I've given him that permission but but Jesus said I have prayed for you Peter that your faith should not fail and when you have turned back to me not if because Jesus said I know you will turn back to me Peter and how do I know that because I've already inspected what Satan wants to do to you and made sure that you can handle it. This is why the Bible says 1 Corinthians 10 13 that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can endure and the reason God can make this promise to you and me is because he inspects every single trial every single trouble before it ever hits our lives to make sure that we can endure it. Whatever you are facing as a follower of Jesus Christ God says oh yes you can with my help oh yes you can make it through because I inspected it before I ever allowed it to hit your life to make sure that you can make it through oh yes you can and that brings great hope. Number two the second thing God tells us and promises makes us about our troubles is that our troubles all have a divine purpose in 2 Corinthians 12 the Apostle Paul said I knew a man in Christ talking about himself who 14 years ago was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak that is here on earth and because Paul says of the surpassing greatness of these revelations and I saw up there in paradise for this reason to keep me from exalting myself here was God's divine purpose there was given me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me. The Greek word here translated buffet Cola Feaso means to beat somebody up now Paul said I've got a messenger of Satan that God is allowing to give me cauliflower ears by bashing on me again and again we don't know what that thorn in the flesh was that Paul had specifically but whatever it was it doesn't sound good does it no and yet Paul understood something listen he understood something very important that this trouble had a divine purpose namely to keep him from getting too big for his britches now in the same way the Bible says that his followers of Christ you and I every trouble we face has been calculated by God to produce carefully planned divine results in our lives and this is why the Bible says first Thessalonians 5 19 in everything give thanks in everything have hope why because this problem this trouble this whatever is not random but it is God's will for you in Christ Jesus perfectly calculated just for you perfectly designed just for you to produce spiritual growth and maturity just for you to the glory of your beloved Savior number three the third promise God makes this about our troubles is that in our troubles we are not alone in second Chronicles 32 King Hezekiah of Judah had some big trouble Sennacherib the king of Assyria and the whole Assyrian army this is 701 BC has captured the entire ancient Near East with the exception of Jerusalem and now they're coming against Jerusalem they surround the city and so Hezekiah gathered all the people the Bible says of Jerusalem into the square at the city gate and spoke encouragingly to them now stop for a minute what in the world could you possibly say encouraging to bring a hope to your people when the mightiest army in world history is now coming to get you well watch here's what he said Hezekiah said be strong and of good courage do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him for the one who is with us is greater than the one who is with him with him is only an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles and the people took courage in the words of Hezekiah king of Judah friends how did Hezekiah bring hope to the people of Israel he did it by reminding them that they weren't facing that problem alone but that they're mighty awesome God was right in there with them and just to complete the story you know Hezekiah was successful Sennacherib the king of Assyria never did conquer Jerusalem that night if you remember the story the angel of God killed 185,000 of the Assyrian soldiers and Sennacherib went back home to Nineveh with his tail between his legs and he never did conquer Jerusalem now as followers of Christ the same thing that Hezekiah said to these Israelites is true for you and me listen what Jesus said Hebrews 13 5 he himself the risen Christ has said I will never leave you nor will I ever forsake you you say even in times of bad trouble friends especially in times of bad trouble therefore because the risen Christ said I will never leave you nor will I ever forsake you I'm in there with you therefore we may boldly say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me and that comes from knowing you are not by yourself the living risen Christ is right there with you and if he's got to pick you up and carry you he'll do it praise God so let's summarize number one our troubles have all been inspected and oh yes you can number two our troubles have a divine purpose they're perfectly designed just for you number three in our troubles were never alone and finally number four is that our troubles will always turn into good for us now sometimes this is hard for us to believe and sometimes we even swear it's impossible but folks it can't be impossible because God promised it will happen Romans 8 28 says and we watch and we know because God promises and he cannot lie that God what's he gonna do he's going to cause all things together for good to those who love God remember the verse doesn't say God can do this the verse says God will do this and even if you're in glory when it happens and you might be God's going to see to it every trouble in your life is going to end up for good if not for you then for the people who are still on earth when he's ready it's gonna happen now I want to say to you don't you dare impugn the character of God by refusing to believe what God says here don't you dare say to God I don't see how you can do it I don't believe you can do it this can never turn into good or telling yourself that you were impugning the character of Almighty God has God ever not kept his word he kept it for Joseph he took him from prison and turned him into the Prime Minister of the country he did it for Esther he took her from being an orphan girl and turned her into the Queen of Persia he did it for Ruth taking her from being a childless widow to being the great-grandmother of King David and the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother of the Lord Jesus Christ he did it for David he took him from running and hiding in caves from Saul to be in the King of Israel and he did it for Peter he took him from being sifted like wheat by the enemy to being the leader of the church in the whole early church folks God has kept his promise to every single person in history who knows Christ and he's going to keep his promise to you you say but I don't see how listen to me God doesn't need you to see how he is gonna do it he just needs you to trust him and to believe him that's all he needs this is why I love this poem I'm not a big poem guy but I love this poem because I can understand what this one's saying listen my father's way may twist and turn my heart may throb and ache but in my soul I'm glad to know he maketh no mistake my cherished plans may go astray my hopes may fade away but still I'll trust my Lord to lead for he doth know the way though the night be dark and it may seem that day will never break I'll pin my faith my all on him he maketh no mistake for by and by the mist will lift and plain it all he'll make through all the way though dark to me he made not one mistake praise God for that huh amen and I want to tell you we have that poem posted in our bathroom it's been there 24 years ever since my daughter Jill was born and began having all of her problems and I almost daily I read this poem and I say thank you Jesus that brings hope to my life to know that you don't make mistakes and you're gonna turn this into good somehow thank you Jesus so let's summarize as followers of Christ we've got four promises that God makes us about our troubles number one our troubles have all been inspected and oh yes you can you can make it number two our troubles have a divine purpose for our character and our development to the glory of Christ number three in our troubles we are never alone the living Christ is there to help us and number four our troubles will always turn into good because God promised that he would do that now that's the end of where we want to go in our passage but we have a final question that we need to ask so are you ready right it's gonna be good you ready here we go one two three yeah well you know what I'm gonna close this up very quickly but just let me say to you you know folks I need to be honest with you and tell you that right now I got some real troubles in my life my son and his wife just finalized their divorce we have three grandchildren under the age of four who are caught right in the middle of that very nasty situation and it hurts to see that happening and my daughter Jill's health in 2015 wasn't real good she started having drop seizures again where she would just be standing up and it's like somebody hits her with a brick and she just drops like that with a seizure in fact she was at Target when it happened once this summer and she hit her head and it's a miracle she didn't kill herself or fracture her skull in fact she just had a seizure this morning before I came to church but the point is and all of these troubles friends I need hope just like in all of your troubles you need hope and I remember my mom used to always say well we just have to have hope in hope and I used to say mom that is the dumbest thing I ever heard of in my life have hope in hope folks you don't need that kind of hope I need real hope I need hope there's not gonna let me down even in the toughest seas and where do we get that kind of hope we get that kind of hope from knowing the promises of God and believing them praise God and so right now I want to ask you to bow your heads with me and close your eyes and what I'd like you to do with your heads bowed and eyes closed I want you to think of the one or the two biggest troubles that you've got in your life right now the biggest problems and struggles in your life the things right now that are bringing you the most pain and heartache you got them okay with them on the screen of your mind right now with our eyes closed I want you to say out loud after me here we go you ready this trouble has been inspected and with God's help I can handle it this trouble has a divine purpose and it's no accident in my life in this trouble I am not alone but the risen Christ is by my side to help me and somehow this trouble will turn into good because Jesus promised it would and he cannot lie so in all of this I will believe God and therefore I will have hope praise the Lord you've been listening to so what with dr. Lon Solomon so what is an outreach of Lon Solomon ministries to listen to today's message or for more information visit our website Lon Solomon ministries.org thank you for your support if you would like to contact us please visit our website or call us at 866-788-7770 we hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, so what.