Pray now that you'd bless the going forth
of your word to our hearts.
And Lord, you've been preparing us actually for
this discipline tonight in and with our lives.
So Father, please help the going forth of
your word now in Jesus' name.
Amen.
We'll grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if
you would, to Matthew chapter 28.
Put your finger there, Matthew chapter 28, in
the theme verse for the entire series of
the Disciplines of Life series.
Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 to 20.
You know that by now.
And once you get your finger there, I'm
going to want you to go back a
little bit and mark Matthew chapter 9.
Matthew chapter 28 and Matthew chapter 9, the
Disciplines of Life series.
Tonight we come to the Discipline of Difficulty.
The Discipline of Difficulty.
What can that mean?
And I got to tell you right now,
while you're going there, it is absolutely impossible
for me to not only cover this in
detail, even if I had all the time
in the world, it's impossible to do that.
Here's the reason why.
God has allowed, ordained, engineered, uses to his
glory difficulty.
And here's the worst thing of all, is
for the person tonight who might be here
or who may be listening or watching right
now to say, I will not confess that,
Pastor.
I will not see difficulty.
Oh, yeah, you will.
No, I'm not going to confess it.
Not going to say it.
Well, you're going to have it.
And just when I say it like that,
there's a little bit of a cringe because
you might think, oh, no, it's kind of
like when somebody says, yeah, yeah, to pray
for God's will for your life.
And then instantly your emotions lie to you
by telling you, oh, no, if you pray
for God's will in your life, he's going
to send you to Detroit or something like
that.
Or whatever.
I didn't mean Detroit.
I just realized people are probably watching from
Detroit right now, and it's not a good
thing.
But why do we do this is because
we don't understand, first of all, the very
nature of our God.
But when we talk about difficulty, every one
of us to some degree or another has
gone through, is going through, shall go through
difficulty.
It has to happen.
It's part of life.
But if you are a Christian tonight, it
comes with great instruction.
It comes with great purpose.
In fact, listen to these verses, Matthew 28,
18, Jesus said, all authority has been given
to me.
And remember, he's your pastor.
He's the shepherd of your soul.
All authority has been given to me.
Jesus said in heaven and on earth, go,
therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the father and
of the son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things, not some
of it, all of it, because it's good
that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, even
under the end of the world or the
end of the age, the culmination of time.
Now, Matthew chapter nine, listen to this beginning
at verse nine, as Jesus passed on from
there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting
at the tax office or the collection gate,
the toll booth in our day, literally on
a Roman road.
And he said to him, follow me.
And so he that is Matthew arose and
followed him.
And now it happened as Jesus sat at
the table in the house that behold, many
tax collectors and sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples.
And when the Pharisee saw it, those are
the professional religionists.
When they saw it, they said to his
disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax
collectors and sinners?
I want you to circle the word there
that they followed, that he Matthew followed in
verse nine, that he followed Jesus.
That word in Greek means that he decided
in an instant, in a moment's time to
get up and go in the quote, same
way.
That's what that word means to go in
the same way or to journey our video
on demand.
Our internet television program is called journey.
Why it's a form of discipleship.
It's following Christ.
When you follow Jesus, when he says, come
and follow me, my goodness, last Sunday, by
the end of third service, we saw close
to a hundred people make decisions for Jesus
last Sunday.
And what was he saying to them?
Why did they respond and make a decision
for Christ?
He was saying to them, come and follow
me journey with me.
We would also use the word to pilgrim
or to venture with Christ to take a
journey with him, to accompany him.
Jesus is inviting us.
Noah Webster in his dictionary defines the word
difficulty.
That which is arduous.
Do we even hear that word anymore?
Arduous.
That which is arduous, a thing that is
hard or hard to do, hard to understand
that which is occasioned by labor.
Listen to this by perplexity, hardship, something that
which requires perseverance, something that is to be
overcome, to be solved, to be defeated an
obstacle, which is between you.
Listen to this.
I love it.
An obstacle, which is between you and your
intended goal.
Difficulty.
It's been said that the greater the goal
in life, the greater the level of difficulty.
And no one wants to sign up.
Let's be honest for difficulty.
Maybe you're here tonight and it's your first
time in church and.
Your friends have brought you and believe me,
let me tell you, they've been praying for
you and they want you to come to
Christ.
They want you to make a decision for
Jesus.
They've been loving on you.
They might have been buying you lunch or
doing things to you all because they love
you.
They want you to be born again.
Jesus said they want you in heaven with
them.
But let me be the first to tell
you, you make a decision for Jesus tonight
and it is difficult, but it is a
difficulty that comes with great reward.
You see, Jack, you're not encouraging my friend
to choose Christ tonight.
Are you?
I am because listen, everybody in life will
have difficulty.
Only the Christian has it with purpose, has
it with meaning, has it with an intended
goal in sight.
There's a reason for our suffering.
A lot of people, I don't know what's
going on.
I honestly, I'm going to report to you
something that I'm hearing in the last couple
of months by so many people.
And it's not only here in this church,
I'm getting emails.
People are stopping me at other churches where
I might be speaking and I'm hearing this.
And I don't know, look, I don't put
any stock into this because God can show
me.
He hasn't shown me this.
I'm not saying he can tell him if
he wants me to know.
But so many people are saying, Pastor Jack,
the Lord is showing me great, great destruction.
And I see visions of tremendous difficulty and
peril coming to America and the world.
I saw a vision of this happening in
the Middle East and all of these words
of foreboding and impending judgment and doom.
And listen, I'm not discounting that.
I haven't seen it.
Do I doubt such things could happen soon?
I don't doubt it.
Is America certainly worthy of discipline from God?
Yes, we are.
But without those things, life is still difficult.
But with the world going on the course
that it is around the world and all
the threats that are out there in Europe
right now and in China, Russia, United States,
under constant terrorist chatter and threats, something's supposed
to happen.
What should that do to you?
Well, number one, as a Christian, you should
make sure that your faith is rooted and
grounded in Christ and that you're not soon
shaken by these things.
Jesus said everything that can be shaken shall
be shaken and only that which can remain
shall remain.
So your life needs to be anchored upon
Christ.
You need to be trusting Jesus.
And things are happening in the world that
is encouraging us really and is pushing us
onward to trust Christ.
But no one wants to sign up for
difficulty, I think.
And the reason why I put that in
there is because when we begin as Christians
to embrace the discipline of difficulty and understand
that there is a growth and a maturity
that comes through hardship, trials, that arduous journey
of following Christ, you can't buy it.
You can't go to Bible college and get
it.
You can't get it anywhere but walking with
Jesus.
There's no other way.
And in your life, you're going to have
a hardship.
You're going to have difficulty, no matter who
you might be.
But I thank God that for the Christian,
the Lord grabs our hand, does he not?
And does he not walk us through every
difficulty?
I have to confess, I've gone through difficulties
and I'm going through them.
And what's interesting, we're all praying backstage earlier
tonight.
And in my prayer with the guys, I
said, you know, Lord, it's amazing how good
and kind you are because I've been going
through stuff for so long in my own
private life.
Everything's great with my wife and I.
We love each other.
We're crazy about each other.
All that's fine and dandy.
My kids love Jesus.
Everything's good.
I'm talking about just physical things and continuing
on and decision things.
Lord, show me and what's next.
And if you don't come back, what about
the next 20 years?
What about the next 10 years?
And all that stuff and people's problems, your
problems, your situation, all that stuff weighs on
your hearts.
And you ought to hang out with Lisa
and I someday.
You probably never want to hang out with
us again, because when we're away from you,
we're talking about you, not about you, but
about you.
We're praying for you and we're discussing, well,
what do you think we should do?
And what about that?
And he said this to her, and she
doesn't want to be married anymore.
And then the child came home and she's
pregnant.
And the father wants to throw the little
girl out and all the stuff, difficulties.
And you have a tendency to say, oh,
man, this is too much.
And then you realize, wait a minute, in
my own life, as we were praying backstage,
Lord, there are difficulties in my life that
are now so constant, so there that I'm
used to them.
And I, I want to tell you right
now, publicly, I thank God for them now.
So how can you say that?
Pastor, don't say such things.
I thank God for them now, because it
has brought me to a place of knowing
Jesus, his faithfulness, his constant presence in your
life.
Listen, we haven't even gotten to the message.
This is going to be I'll just, I'll
just keep doing the introduction until we run
out of time.
Listen, here's the thing.
It's human nature for us to ask this
question.
Why do people suffer?
That's human nature.
The whole world asked that question.
Why are things difficult with people?
Why does it have to be difficult?
Somebody's asked this question.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Do you want Francis Schaeffer?
You ever read Francis Schaeffer?
Anyone ever heard of Francis Schaeffer?
Hello?
Read the guy, Francis Schaeffer.
Francis Schaeffer said it's an easy answer to
that question.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
You ever asked that question?
The reason why bad things happen to good
people is because there are no good people.
So I find I'm highly offended at your
statement right now.
I mean, come on, what's going on here?
No, the truth of the matter is, why
does anything good happen to us at all?
Have you looked around this world?
This world's nuts, man.
It's out of control.
But God's good.
The Bible tells us that every good thing
that comes to our lives comes from the
father of lights.
I love that.
The father of lights.
God is the light giver.
But it's also Christian nature to ask why
do God's people have to suffer difficulty?
In fact, in Genesis 47, seven, I love
this in Genesis 47, seven, it says, Joseph
brought his father Jacob in and presented him
before the Pharaoh.
This is cool.
Watch this.
After now watch after Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
This is awesome.
Look, Joseph brings in there in Egypt.
Joseph brings Jacob his pop before Pharaoh, the
the earthly God of the world to the
Egyptians into the world.
And look, watch what happens.
After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, I love that.
Pharaoh asked him, like, I don't speak Hebrew
didn't understand a word you said.
No, he didn't say that.
He doesn't say, my these are nice sons
you have.
He doesn't say Joseph, you raised a good
boy.
He's a great guy.
He's really saved our neck here in Egypt.
No, he didn't say that.
He says, how old are you?
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the years of
my pilgrimage are 130.
That's years.
And my years, he says, have been difficult
and hard.
Look at they have been few and difficult,
and they do not equal the years of
the pilgrimage of my father's.
Hey, I'm 130 years old.
I've had a hard life and I come
from a long line of people who have
hard times.
You ever feel like that in your family?
I come from a long line of losers.
I come from a long line of difficulty
who cannot say that we all can say
that.
But here's the tendency of our culture today.
I'm the only one.
Whoa, is me.
I'm a victim.
Hey, let's get over that once and for
all right now.
All right, let's just join this club.
All right, Adam and Eve ripped us off.
Okay, want to blame anybody blame Adam and
Eve.
All right.
Here's the deal.
If it would have been Fred and Wilma
or Barney and Betty, they would have blown
it too.
And if it would have been you, you
would have blown it too.
Okay, so we just need to get over
that.
As long as we see ourselves as the
victim, always, we will never conquer our own
lives in Christ.
We've got to take the difficulties of our
lives and lay them down at the cross.
We need to come to Jesus and say,
Lord, this is the beef that I have
with my life.
And I'm giving it to you.
I can't figure it out.
I can't do it anymore.
And Jacob says my life's been difficult.
Every believer can say my life has been
difficult.
But what if the very things that you
and I listen, despise tonight as a Christian
that's taking place in our lives?
What if the very thing that you and
I despise in our lives is the very
thing that we have failed to recognize that
has been engineered by God and given to
us?
Watch this.
Don't think for a moment that the world
has slapped you or hit you with some
difficulty.
Are you a Christian tonight?
The world does not slap you or hit
you with a difficulty.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you
church family that may be true for the
nonbeliever.
And that's even a big maybe.
I think God is in God's more involved
in the nonbelievers life than the nonbeliever would
ever dare to think, because I know how
he was involved in my life before I
came to Christ.
And I thank God now that he was
involved in my life before I even knew
who he was.
But in my life, in your life, Christian,
everything that comes to your life is handed
on a tailor made golden platter in the
sense that it is engineered by God.
Did you get a flat tire on your
way to church tonight?
God knew about it.
He's doing a work with that flat tire.
So I don't believe that.
Well, then you have a long line of
difficulties to continue on in before you learn
the lesson.
Jesus said a sparrow does not fall to
the ground without my father's notice.
How much more does God love every step
you take, every move you make?
He's watching you.
It's true.
That's why, listen, that's why the amazing truth
of God is that all of this stuff
you've never honestly, listen, you may be here
tonight and you are so not with God,
but you can honestly say to yourself tonight,
you'll never say this out loud, but inside,
you'll agree with me that down deep inside,
there's been a nagging constant thought that God
may be real.
What if he's real?
Is it Richard Dawkins?
Is that the guy, the famous atheist admitted
on film?
You can watch it, YouTube it, that there
may be a God after all.
This guy's the pillar of a long line
of losers saying there is no God, there
is no God.
And he said, well, I mean, you know,
there could be, but, but there can't be,
there can't be the very one that you're
kicking against as a nonbeliever is the very
one that you want to run into his
arms and be squeezed by him and be
hugged by him and bring all your stuff
to him.
But as a believer, whatever you're going through
in your life and whatever you've gone through
has been God's engineering thing.
Difficulty.
It's an amazing thing.
Point number one, it may be our only
point tonight.
The discipline of difficulty jotted down.
It's this it's discovering God in the difficulty,
discovering God in the difficulty.
And that comes this way, discovering the purpose
of what that difficulty is discovering the purpose
of difficulty.
The Bible is the book of deliverance.
You will never find another book in all
of the world that will help you assist
you and rescue you from the dilemma that
you're in every year.
God's book is the number one bestseller wherever
it's offered all around the world and where
it's not allowed.
It's stolen, smuggled, brought into.
Hey, listen.
I'm not going to point to these people,
but in that we have criminals in this
sanctuary right now, we have masterminds in this
room.
We have people that are dangerous in this
room right now, dangerous to the kingdom of
hell.
There are people in this room right now
that would cause a demon to tremble.
And here's the reason why these people take
their own money.
They take their own vacation time.
They literally dress up like tourists.
They get a camera and hanging around their
neck.
They have suitcases with false bottoms and inside
woven inside their, inside their stuff are Bibles
and Christian material.
And hang on.
They, they, they go on vacation and a
certain, a certain country that doesn't allow Jesus.
Jesus is not allowed.
And that particular country to give you a
hint owns this country.
And they take Bibles in there.
Some of them have been caught, but because
they're Americans, they're not allowed in the country.
And they're told to get back on the
planet, go back to insane Southern California, where
you came from.
But there are Bible smugglers in this room.
Think about that for a moment.
That's bringing the word of God, the greatest
book that brings deliverance to a man's heart
and a woman's soul, the Bible.
And when Jesus said, and when it's recorded
there in Matthew chapter nine, it says now
that as it happened, look at as Jesus
sat at the table in the house.
And I love this that behold many tax
collectors, many IRS agents, really of our day
and sinners.
That's where you and I would be sitting.
There's the IRS guys.
And then there's the sinners and they're all
around the table.
So we're all sitting there and they came
and sat down with him and his disciples.
Isn't that beautiful?
What does that tell you about Jesus?
What does that tell you?
If Jesus walked through this room right now,
roll the hands of time back 2000 years
ago, and Jesus walks through this room.
According to my Bible, are you listening?
According to my Bible, every tax collector and
sinner, that's a whole lot of people would
have gravitated towards Jesus.
If you and I would have seen Jesus
walk by, we would have said, you know
what?
I'll be back later.
I'm, I'm going with him.
Who is he?
I don't know.
I'm going with him.
There's something about him, which is radical because
the book of Isaiah says regarding Jesus's physical
appearance, he was not beautiful to look at.
There was no beauty nor comeliness that when
we beheld him, that we should desire him.
There was a sense of compassion, of love,
of care that a harlot, a tax collector,
sinners gravitated toward him.
Does this world not need Jesus today, man?
Imagine if Jesus showed up on Madison Avenue
today, tonight in New York or on Hollywood
and Vine.
Oh my goodness.
The absolute freaks of humanity on Hollywood and
sunset.
And Jesus would be there.
The people you and I are afraid of,
you know, you've been there walking down the
street.
Holy cow.
Crossover.
What is that common?
Is it honestly, you've been there?
Is it male or female?
Or is it, what is it?
Is it even of this world?
And Jesus would have been right there.
He didn't care.
So we'll leave.
Maybe they're from Mars.
Jesus would have given them the gospel.
He's there in the heart and the lives
of people in difficulty.
He's there.
And I love how that verse goes on
in Matthew nine, when it says in verse
11, and when the Pharisees saw this, they
said to his disciples, why does your teacher
eat with tax collectors and sinners?
They didn't have enough guts to ask him
himself.
Why didn't you ask God, ask God?
He's sitting right over there.
And when Jesus heard that, can you imagine
that they're all eating?
Oh man, they got hummus falafel going.
They got it all happening, man.
They're eating.
They're having a great time.
They're sitting around talking.
Jesus.
Can you imagine God in skin is looking
at these ones that are the off scouring
of the planet that nobody wants.
And what was going on in the heart
of God?
I bet you, if you could have stopped
right there, Jesus would have been able to
turn to the camera and say, you know,
to Wolf Blitzer, I'm having an awesome time.
Why are you having an awesome time?
Look around this table, sinners, tax collectors, rejects
of humanity.
These are the ones who need me.
And look at them.
They're eating.
They're talking.
They're sharing conversation.
And by this interaction, they'll follow me.
They'll follow me right into eternity, into heaven
and all of their difficulties.
Think about it.
What qualified them to be a sinner?
Listen, what qualified them to be a tax
collector and the Roman view tax collectors were
extension of the Roman arm, the Roman power.
Matthew was the worst of the worst.
He was a Jew turncoat working for the
empire.
He was the worst.
Surprisingly, in fact, his life would have been
under constant threat from his own countrymen because
he was an absolute trader.
And then to the religious zealots, these sinners,
they didn't even deserve to occupy a place
on the earth.
And when Jesus heard the criticism.
I'd love to have seen that.
Maybe his jaw got a little set.
I don't know.
Did you look over at those Pharisees?
Some of the strongest language found in the
Bible is the language of Jesus when he
said unto the Pharisees, woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites.
You travel land and sea to make one
convert to your cult.
And after you've converted him, you make him
seven times the child of hell.
Then you are yourself.
Woe unto you.
The word who I who I.
In Greek for woe unto you.
Is condemned or damned be you.
You are a child of hell and you're
leading people astray and you're condemned.
From the words of Jesus, woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, those who look down their
noses and say, this person is not worthy
of eternal life.
No man on earth has that ability or
power.
We are to instruct.
Yes, we are to give by line upon
line and by precept upon precept.
But no man has the authority to say.
You're condemned.
And Jesus comes along and looks right into
the heart of the human being and into
the heart of these soul judges.
It's been said that they were fault finders
and sin sniffers and all that stuff, you
know, sin sniffers, sniffing out sin, pointing it
out in everybody's life.
But what did he say to them?
He says, you point at the splinter and
you've got a beam stuck in your own
eye.
You think Jesus was a wimp, man?
And then he says, listen, in verse 12,
he says, when Jesus heard that, he said
to them.
Those who are well have no need of
a physician, but those who are sick.
That's his answer.
So what kind of answer is that?
Jesus was, listen, Jesus was calling the tax
collectors and the harlots and the sinners and
all that were there, sick people.
They were sick.
They were S I N positive.
They were sin sick and they knew it.
That's what he's meaning.
That's what he's saying.
You think he's insulting the center?
Listen, you think he's insulting you tonight because
maybe you're convicted because you're thinking I'm not
walking with Jesus and I'm not a Christian
and, and I don't, I feel uncomfortable.
Wait a minute.
Wait.
When Jesus says the center is the one
that is sick, he says, I've come to
heal those that are sick.
I have not come.
He said to heal those that are healthy.
It's a, it's a backhand.
He's saying to the Pharisees, you guys, you
guys don't need help.
You don't need a doctor.
You are so self-righteous.
You are so healthy spiritually in your mind
that you've become your own savior.
You don't need me only people.
Listen, only people who can recognize their need
of the savior see themselves as sick and
see me, Christ Jesus as the healer.
And so those are the ones I've come
for difficulty in life causes you and I
to see the purposes of God.
We don't like to hear this, but it's
true.
Listen, no one loves their eyesight more than
those who have it threatened.
What are you going through tonight and your
life?
Are you on the brink of losing something?
Is the, is it the life of your
child?
Is it the life of a parent or
what is it?
You never appreciate it more unless you're on
the brink of losing it.
And I think about my eyesight, whatever's dear
to you.
We all need our eyes, of course, to,
to live, to do our stuff, to do
what we do.
I read tons all the time.
And I think, well, if I, if I
lost my eyesight, I'm out of a job,
let alone out of a calling.
And then I have these things.
Well, it's just, I'll just have to teach
and preach from memory from my home God.
And then I think about my memory.
Oh God, my memory.
And then you start appreciating every day.
I remember something.
I go, yes, I remember that.
I remember that.
Hey, I remembered that.
It's a good day.
Years ago, obviously Ashley was only one year,
maybe two.
I don't know.
She was young.
I was, we had just moved to Chino
hills.
I mean, just moved like right then and
there.
And it was night.
We were not familiar with the street and
we were taking a walk.
And I was walking with Ashley in my
left hand.
I remember picking her up, walking on the
sidewalk.
I picked her up and I looked at
her and I'll never forget it because of
what is about to happen.
I take a step and I look up
and there was a branch hanging from a
pine tree and it went right in and
punctured my cornea and into my eye.
And without dropping my daughter, I, I went
right back and I set her down.
I, the first thing that I was terrified
about, and forgive me for not remembering the
name of that fluid, but I, I immediately
went back and held my head up because
if you puncture it that bad, that miraculous
God-given fluid can come out of your
eyeball and you're messed up.
You're blind and went to the hospital.
It was horrible.
And it took a long time to heal.
Let me tell you something.
Ever since that day, when somebody moves something
fast near my eye or somebody grabs a
piece of paper and you know, brings it,
I flinch because automatically I remember how precious
the thought was of the side of my
left eye or whatever it might be for
your life.
And when we have difficulties, my friend, listen,
when we have difficulties, it brings us to
a point of appreciation that otherwise we would
not have.
There's no way.
And so for that, we embrace difficulties.
You're, going to have them.
So embrace them.
Don't deny them next week on this same
topic, which is going to, we're going to
talk about how to embrace them.
Why should I embrace them?
How do I talk to God in the
midst of this discipline and the difficulties?
How, how do you know?
And a lot of people spend a lot
of energy.
Is this from God or is this from
Satan?
What's this?
You know, my house burned down.
Is this from God or is this from
Satan?
Let me tell you something.
It may be from Satan, but I'm a
Christian.
And I read the book of Job.
Don't Jack, don't say that book, right?
Read the book.
Job oldest manuscript confirmed manuscript in the world.
People will claim, no, there's, there's oriental writings
older.
Not so Job read it.
Nothing can touch the Christian's life without God's
permission.
Nothing.
You need to understand that the moment you
realize, wait a minute, this is going on.
And God knows he not only knows he's
got a victory plan.
All of a sudden now I want to
back up and say, okay, Lord, get my
emotions out of the situation.
I want to be out of the factor.
Lord, show me your will for this difficulty.
What's the problem.
Think about it.
What problems you got problems.
I got problems.
All God's children got problems.
And he asked God, Lord, what's, what's the
answer to this problem?
Show me the option is to panic.
You know what panic means.
Some of you have been to Caesarea Philippi
with this in Northern Israel, pan the temple
of pan.
That's where they get the worship act called
panic.
They would not know what to do.
They wouldn't know from pan like panacea, like
panorama, like pantheistic.
They wouldn't know what God to go to
my life.
My life is freaking out.
Where do I go?
And they panic.
Don't not knowing what God to cry out
to the Christian never is supposed to panic.
Do we weep?
Do we cry?
Do we have anxiety?
Yes.
Do we even worry about things?
Yes.
But the reason why we freak out is
because we're tempted to panic when there's only
one real God to go to in the
first place.
Yahweh Lord, he's the only one and we
don't have to be involved in that panic.
Our souls can be still and discover that
God is in the midst of the difficulty
and that there's a purpose to it.
The Bible says in Philippians chapter one, verse
12, but I want you to know, brethren,
the things which have happened to me, troubles,
difficulty, says Paul, have actually turned out for
the furtherance of the gospel.
Wow.
So that it has become evident to those.
In the palace guard and to all the
rest that my chains, so there you go,
Paul got himself arrested.
Are in Christ and most of the brethren
in the Lord having become confident by my
chains are much more bold now to speak
the word of God without fear.
Did you guys all hear that?
The purpose for Paul's difficulty in that situation
to men, if God was with Paul, why
did God love to get arrested?
Because God was going to use that great.
Fear that must have been in the minds
of the first century believers that Paul was
fearless.
Even in the face of being arrested for
Christ, he got in trouble for preaching, by
the way, we'll end with this.
That the last tour that we had just
this last spring with you in Israel coming
out, we had our tour of Rome.
And on your open time, your free time,
you go to the northwestern side of the
forum.
The famous Roman forum, and there's the Mamertine
prison where Paul spent his last night on
earth.
And it's there.
It's not one like it.
It's it.
And it was the his resting place the
night before he was beheaded.
And I challenge you, it's very exciting.
Find out why.
Go find out why Paul Paul was executed.
You go search and see why was Paul,
the apostle executed by the Roman Empire.
He was a Roman citizen.
The guy had degrees on both sides of
his arms.
He was a genius.
He was a brain.
We know this from the mail yields writings
that he couldn't even keep Paul in books.
He consumed everything.
He was brilliant.
A Roman citizen.
Why did they kill him?
So, oh, man, you know, talk about difficulty.
God didn't deliver him out of that difficulty.
Oh, yeah, he did.
You think this body of yours is something
to hang on to forever?
It's amazing.
You guys, a lot of you fanning yourselves.
Is it hot in here?
Some of you feeling hot, maybe, huh?
No, I'm kidding.
I'm just we'll end with this.
I told you on Sunday that the Chilean
miners had been rescued and the bells were
tolling from one end of the nation to
the other.
And Associated Press reported when at least 24
of the miners had climbed up out of
the rescue cage there, they were wearing their
T-shirts that said, Gracias, Senor, which is
thank you, Lord.
And while on the back of their T
-shirts, it was printed Psalm 95, 4, which
says in his hand are the depths of
the earth.
Isn't that cool?
It came out of the ground.
They had the shirt sent down.
They said, we're going to pull you guys
up.
And the Christian in the group that had
decided, I told you this on Sunday, didn't
I?
For whoever didn't hear that, you got to
hear this again.
It's awesome.
On the 17th day, when they had no
news that there was any, they didn't know
if up top, the people up top knew
if they were alive or not.
Can you imagine being in a hole 2000
feet in the bottom of the earth and
the bowels?
It's 93 degrees at that point at 2000
feet below.
And it gets hotter, the deeper you go.
And they're in there.
And they for 17 days, they have no
idea that the world on top knows that
they're alive, that they started to beat each
other up and fight over food.
And that Christian man, even if I knew
his name, I couldn't pronounce it.
He said, grow up.
We're going to die like men.
Stop it.
We're going to have a service at noon
and at 6 p.m. every day in
this hole until we either get rescued or
until we die.
So be here.
Like they're going to.
We're starting on time.
And when they were rescuing the miners, they
sent down a team of rescue guys.
And what's interesting was was not it was
not readily reported, but now it has been.
Did you know one of the big concerns
for the rescue team and the reason why
they sent down a contingent of guys into
the hole to make sure after being in
the hole in the earth for 69 days,
they said, what's going to be the effects
of a man?
Number one, the one who's most weak, physically,
mentally, spiritually, get him out first.
So the weaker listen, the weaker got out
first.
That's a great decision.
By the way, NASA come to find out
where the ones who said we've learned this
in space stuff with the guy that's easier
to crack gets out first.
The stronger guy gets out last, but even
for the strong guy, they said we have
to send down a team because here's the
deal.
We don't know what's going to happen if
we send down the little escape module thing.
If we don't send anybody down there to
help him, no matter how strong he is,
we don't know the spiritual and psychological effects
that if we take there's only two guys,
three guys left now, two guys left.
And then there's only one guy left that
within an hour and a half, that's how
long it takes to get the guy out
in an hour and a half.
They concluded that a man could go absolutely
utterly insane in an hour and a half
without hope.
And so they sent a team down there
of rescuers to put him in and send
them up.
And I want you to think about that.
Whatever you're going through in life, difficulty is
not for you to lose hope.
Difficulty is the opposite.
It is to build your hope.
Financial stuff going on, can't afford stuff anymore.
Our world is evaporating.
It's not bad.
You think it's the end of the world
because someone took your whatever.
My friend, you thought you needed that thing
and you're fine.
You lost your home and you're fine.
Look, your life, the troubles and the difficulties
of life, God has a great purpose for.
Let's bow our heads reverently in prayer right
now because you're going through something or you
have or you're gonna.
And I'll be right there with you.
But I want to ask you right now
in silence, I want you to right now,
right where you're at.
Thank God for your situation right now.
Just thank him.
Because one of the great things about understanding
God's will is to always know it could
always be worse.
Number two, understand that he has never left
you or forsaken you.
In fact, you've been listening to him more
than you ever have.
You've certainly been praying more and you've been
seeking God more.
The third thing is you don't need to
be scared of what's going on in the
world or in your life.
God is not panicking.
He's not the God of panic.
We get spooked and scared when we get
our eyes off him.
Like Peter, when he sank, you got to
get refocused on the Lord.
And the next is for you to tell
him right now, Lord, I'm giving you this
concern of mine.
I'm giving you this issue.
I'm giving you my difficulty.
You're going to be tempted during the week
to pick it up and take it back
from him.
Don't do it.
If you do do it, throw it right
back at him.
First Peter 5, 7 says that we're to
cast all our cares upon him for he
cares for us.
The word in Greek means to heave it,
throw it, to shop, put it back into
his concern, into his care.
And you do that.
Father, in our lives, there are things pressing.
We're asking you, Lord, now in Jesus name,
that you would give us the discipline of
difficulty.
That is, we'll deal with it, not conquering
it ourselves, not manhandling it or muscling it,
not throwing money at it, not trying to
deny it away, but to face it head
on and to say, Lord, I can't do
this.
I'm asking you now, Lord, to intervene and
show me your will and my difficulty.
Show me your fingerprints, Jesus, on it.
Show me your spend.
Show me your care in it.
Show me your presence in it.
My friend, nothing's too big for him.
And that means nothing can be too overpowering
for you.
I saw it tonight on the news of
a abducted child.
I can't think of anything worse than to
have your baby taken from you.
And to not know someone's still where's the
baby, what condition to think I can't imagine.
And even now that situation, God knows.
And the fear that we might have that
it might turn out bad, simply
profoundly speaks to us that in the end,
my friend, when we stand with him, I
don't know how this is going to work.
But in the end, the deepest, darkest, most
painful thing of your life that's ever happened
or shall happen when you stand before God
in the end, it will be to your
delight.
I don't get it, but it will be
to great joy.
The worst of the worst that you can
imagine, he will convert.
I don't know how it's beyond my ability
to understand, but it says he will.
And between now and next Wednesday, I'm going
to ask you to have your eyes wide
open and for you to recognize and to
discern the purpose, the plan of God in
your life so that none of these things
may move you.
While we remain in this attitude of prayer,
let's sing this song of worship unto the
Lord right now in devotion to him, my
friend.