90 Sermon Illustrations on Troubles

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength."

-- Corrie Ten Boom, cited in The Best of BITS & PIECES

"The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."

-- Robert Frost, quoted by Rev. Brett Blair, July 22, 2001

"I have had many problems in my life ... many of which never came to pass."

-- Mark Twain

"Worry is the interest we pay on tomorrow's troubles."

-- E. Stanley Jones

"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. In encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

-- Arthur Somers Roche

"Ain't no sense worrying about things you got control over, because if you got control over them, ain't no sense worrying. And their ain't no sense worrying about things you got NO control over either, because if you got no control over them, ain't no sense worrying."

-- Mickey Rivers, former outfielder for Texas Rangers;

Dallas Morning News, May 20, 1984

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."

-- Charles Schultz

"Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it."

-- Lily Tomlin, comedian, B&P 11/15/02

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

-- George Muller, SermonCentral 1/6/03

"Burnout is not the result of too much activity. It is the result of the wrong kind of activity."

-- John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing, 1996

"Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow."

-- Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970), minister, B&P 8/22/03

"Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit."

-- Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918), historian, B&P 9/4/03

"We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often."

-- Winston Churchill

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

-- Benjamin Franklin

"The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came."

-- James Russell Lowell

"God never built a Christian strong enough to carry today's duties and tomorrow's anxieties piled on the top of them."

-- Theodore Ledyard Cuyler

"The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety."

-- Norman Mailer

"Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbors."

-- Rudyard Kipling

"Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."

-- Anonymous

"Where everything is bad it must be good to know the worst."

-- Francis H. Bradley

"How much have cost us the evils that never happened!

--Thomas Jefferson

"The thinner the ice, the more anxious is everyone to see whether it will bear."

-- Josh Billings

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

-- George Muller, SermonCentral 7/27/04

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Abraham Lincoln on devotion to God, to a delegation of Presbyterians from Baltimore on October 24, 1863:

"I have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am. Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my Administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance in God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right."

There are many stories about Sophie, the scrub woman, who lived in New York City, and made her living scrubbing floors in the skyscrapers of New York. By that means, she earned thousands of dollars to send out missionaries. That one woman supported some twenty or thirty missionaries, alone.

Sophie had a wonderful character of glory about her all the time -- so much so that she used to cause people to stop her and ask what her secret was. On several occasions, while she was working, some office worker would come to work late and would say to her, “Sophie, I wish I had your faith -- I wish I knew God like you know him.” And she would say, “Well, if you would read your New Testament right, you could know him.” This person would say, “Well, I read my Bible.”

In fact, she said this one time to a minister. He said, “I read the Bible -- I read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew.” And she said, “Well, you don’t read it right!” And he said, “What do you mean?” “Well,” she said, “when it says g-l-o-r-y in tribulations, you read it g-r-o-w-l, growl. That is the trouble with you, that is why you don’t have joy in your heart, you growl in tribulation.”

How to get the most benefit from God's correction.

Most of the discipline I have received from the Lord has been in secret and coated with His grace.

1. Ready or Not. 2 Sam 12:13; 1 Cor 10:12

2. No pain, No Gain? Matt 11:29

3. Why is God doing this to me? Jam 1:2-3; 2 Cor 12:7-10

4. Finding Comfort in Conviction. Heb 12:7-8

Have you ever had one of those day, weeks, months, even years when you felt like nothing was going right? If you have, let me tell you about some people in which things really turned out bad.

In 1983, in Naples, Italy, 45-year-old Vittorio Luise's car was blow into a river by a fierce gust of wind. He managed to break out a window, climb out and swim to shore. When he got to shore, the wind blew over a tree that fell on him and killed him.

In 1983, 31-year-old Mike Stewart of Dallas, was filming a movie on the dangers of low-level bridges when the truck he was standing on passed under a low-level bridge, killing him. In 1983, George Schwartz, owner of a factory in Providence, R.I., narrowly escaped death when a blast flattened his factory except for one wall. After treatment for minor injuries, he returned to search for files. The remaining wall collapsed on him, killing him.

In 1981, 42-year-old Romolo Ribolla of Pisa, Italy, sat in his kitchen, with a gun in his hand, threatening to kill himself. His wife pleaded for him not to do it, and after about an hour, he burst into tears and threw the gun to the floor. The gun went off and killed his wife.

In 1977, a man hit by a car in New York got up uninjured, but lay back down in front of the car when a bystander told him to pretend he was hurt so he could collect insurance money. The car rolled forward and crushed him to death.

Surprised while burgling a house in Antwerp, Belgium, a thief fled out of the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall, dropped down and found himself in the city prison.

In 1976, 22-year-old Irishman, Bob Finnegan, was crossing the busy Falls Road in Belfast, when he was struck by a taxi and flung over its roof. The taxi drove away and as Finnegan lay stunned in the road, another car ran into him, rolling him into the gutter. It too drove on. As a group of people gathered to examine Finnegan, a delivery van plowed through the crowd, leaving in its wake three injured bystanders and an even more battered Bob Finnegan. When a fourth vehicle came along, the crowd wisely scattered and only one person was hit - Bob Finnegan. In the space of two minutes Finnegan suffered a fractured skull, broken pelvis, broken leg, and other assorted injures.

While motorcycling through the Hungarian countryside, Cristo Falatti came up to a train crossing just as the crossing gates were coming down. While he sat idling, he was joined by a farmer with a goat, which he tethered to the crossing gate. A few minutes later a horse and cart drew up behind Falatti, followed by a man in a sports car. When the train roared through the crossing, the horse was startled and bit Falatti on the arm. Not a man to be trifled with, Falatti responded by punching the horse in the head. The horse's owner jumped down from his cart and began scuffling with Falatti. The horse, still startled, backed up, smashing the cart into the sports car. At this, the driver of the sports car leaped out of his car and joined the fray. The farmer came forward to try and pacify the three flailing men. As he did, the crossing gates rose and strangled his goat.

Two West German motorists had an all-too-literal head-on collision. They were driving in heavy fog. Each was driving at a snail's pace near the center of the road. Both drivers had their heads out the window when they smacked together. Both were hospitalized with severe head injuries.

And you thought you have had a bad day!

When I told our kids that we were going to Buttermilk Falls, I could expect two equally sincere reactions - “Oh good!” ... “Oh no!” See, the “oh good” part was because it was just one of the “coolest” places in our area to go - there was this high, cascading waterfall, tucked in a remote place that few people knew about, magnificent to look at and it was fun to hike around. The “oh no” part was because of the road to get to this special spot. Think moonscape - potholes big enough to swallow an old VolkswaGen. You couldn't avoid these craters - they were everywhere. So you went about as slow as a car can go, bracing yourself for big bump after big bump. And then you were there. And it was great!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Bumpy Road to a Beautiful Place.”

You know, lots of life's beautiful places are accessible this very same way - by means of a bumpy road. Maybe you're traveling one of those hard, even painful, bumpy roads right now. I imagine some people never made it to the majesty of the falls because the bumpy road made them decide to turn back - a temptation that may have occurred to you on your road. But any member of our family can tell you it was worth the trip. We did, in fact, go back multiple times, knowing full well that the process was not going to be fun. It's kind of like labor in that regard - a painful process every birth mother goes through, with a beautiful result that lasts a lifetime. And, often, she'll go back and do it again.

Our word for today from the Word of God may be a picture of the journey you're on right now. In Deuteronomy 1:19, God says to His ancient people, “We set out from Horeb (that's Mt. Sinai) ... through all that vast ... Desert.” That could be where you are right now - traversing one of life's “vast and dreadful deserts.” But that's not the end of the story. Listen in Deuteronomy 1:21 to where that desert journey led: “See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

That's what the desert road, the bumpy road can do to you - make you afraid, make you discouraged - unless you focus on your Lord instead of your load, or on the result more than on the process. The bumps can make you wonder if you're even on the right road - which you are, if God led you on it. The long, hard ride can leave you confused and hurting from all the bumps, all focused on yourself. If you're not careful, you will turn around and leave the road God put you on - the road that ultimately leads to the Promised Land that He wants to give you.

But it doesn't feel very much like Promised Land now. It's just downright bumpy. What a tragedy, though, if you went through this painful process and bailed out before the beautiful result. The desert, the bumpy road are all part of the Plan. It's in the wilderness that you, like God's people of old, see Red Seas part and water come from rocks and manna come from heaven. It's on the hard road that you get rid of the junk that's keeping you from God's best, that you are forced to abandon all self-reliance and to learn total reliance on your Lord. That's when you're ready for your Promised Land.

So don't doubt in this darkness what God has told you in the light. There is no Promised Land without a wilderness. There is no new life without the pain of labor. There is no Easter Morning without a Good Friday. Yes, this is a very bumpy road. But it leads to a very beautiful place if you don't turn back.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #5859]

There is a beautiful figure, in one of Wordsworth's poems, of a bird that is swept from Norway by a storm. It battles against the storm with desperate effort, eager to wing back again to Norway; but all in vain. At last it yields, thinking that the gale will carry it to death, and the gale carries it to sunny England, with its green meadows and its forest glades.

Ah, how many of us have been like that little voyager, fretting and fighting against the will of God! And we thought that life could never be the same again when we were carried seaward by the storm. Until at last, finding all was useless, perhaps yielding to the wind that bloweth where it listeth, we have been carried to a land that was far richer, where there were green pastures and still waters.

I was one an early-morning airplane flight, packed with business people. And as we landed that morning, we had one of those "two for the price of one" landings. We bumped and jumped along the runway as we landed, suddenly commanding the attention of all the passengers who are usually numb from frequent travel. I thought, "I wonder what the flight attendant is going to say - this was not just a routine landing." Well, the attendant simply got on the P.A. and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, now that I have your attention, I’d like to make a few announcements..." Man, did he have our attention!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bumpy Landings."

Now, maybe you’ve been experiencing some bumpy landings lately. It could be that God is saying, "Now that I’ve got your attention, I’d like to make a few announcements." Often, life’s bumpy landings are God’s way of getting our attention to tell us things and show us things that we could otherwise never see.

My experience has been that God has three tools that He seems to use over and over again to show us His glory and to shape our lives. One example is in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 135:5-7. God’s wakeup tool here is the weather. "I know that the Lord is great ... The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from the storehouses."

OK, well there’s nothing random about the weather - God uses it, God designs it, to accomplish His purposes - and to show us His greatness. We can have the most elaborate plans, but one storm can change all that. The weather is beyond our control. God uses it to get our attention, to change our plans, and to accomplish His plans.

Another tool God loves to use when He’s trying to get our attention is our health. Again, it’s something we have little control over. It’s amazing how one visit to a doctor’s office can change our life. But sickness and disease aren’t random either. They, like the weather, are ultimately subject to the sovereignty of Almighty God. And God accomplishes His perfect will through our health - and does some amazingly beautiful things through painful times.

One other tool God uses is our finances. Again, our financial situation is at the mercy of so many things we cannot control - but God can ... and does. And our financial needs become a powerful tool in God’s hands to draw us much closer to Him, to make us evaluate our priorities, to put His Kingdom first.

The weather ... the money ... your health - three power tools that God uses to show us His Lordship and power, to get our attention, to restore or maybe deepen our dependency on Him, and to surgically remove the spiritual cancers in our life. Our God reigns, and He is using the things we can’t control to get us to give Him greater control of our lives. Things aren’t out of control just because you’re experiencing some bumpy landings. God is using those bumpy landings to get your attention and give you messages from Him.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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"Pebble Beach on the coast of California is a lovely area that typifies the advantages of friction. Ceaseless waves thunder ashore and dash the beach. The pitiless pounding of the waves tosses and grinds the stones together. They are dashed against the rugged, ageless cliffs... This action goes on year after year. The result is round, polished stones that are collected by tourists as ornaments. Near Pebble Beach is a quiet cove. A natural formation serves as a breakwater. Sheltered by the cliff are numerous stones. They are unsought and unwanted. They have been spared the wear caused by the pounding waves. They have remained rough and unpolished."(1)

When testing times come, we may be buffeted about; but the rough edges are knocked off of our lives. The friction of trials can cause wonderful features to be brought to the surface. Believers who understand the friction of trials will be able to face life's hard times.

__________

- Emile Rousseau, Jr.

1. Nelson L. Price, {Supreme Happiness}, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979), 31-32

I was standing on my front porch one recent Saturday enjoying the sights and sounds of a beautiful morning when I heard it. I had heard the sound before, but I realized something for the first time: the faint, musical sound of wind chimes indicated a storm was coming.

Springtime in Texas means storms. One of the worst tornadoes ever to touch down in the United States tore a path through Moore, Oklahoma, just a few hours north of here three years ago. The F-5 tornado had winds of 360 miles per hour. I had never seen such devastation. A tamer tornado hit Fort Worth two years ago, nearly destroying several skyscrapers.

A storm blew through my life last May. My father, in tremendous pain and deep sorrow, took his own life. I was devastated. I spent months questioning God's existence, battling guilt and looking for reasons to live. Fortunately a counselor, family and friends helped me survive. While God didn't answer my questions as I'd hoped, I learned some important lessons.

The bad news is a storm is headed your way. Maybe not this week or this month or even this year. Maybe you're in one right now. But sooner or later, Jesus warns in John 16:33, an F-5 is going to blow through your world, and when it does, take cover.

In the worst storms you go numb. Your memory is gone. (Amid the storm I was in, I could not remember the reasons God created us I taught in my Sunday school class only weeks before.) You have little energy. You feel lost, isolated, separated from God. So how can you survive life's storms?

My first suggestion is watch for life-giving reasons. Put a note on your refrigerator that says, "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it." Sunsets remind me that the Creator loves me. 1 Kings 19 says God allowed Elijah to gripe and complain, and then he gave him a reason to live: "There are 7,000 others who have not bowed the knee to Baal." This removed his sense of loneliness.

Perhaps God has a message for you today: I am with you. Perhaps his message for you is from the parable of the lost sheep: you have a father who will seek you when you are lost. Isaiah 42:3 says he will be gentle and merciful when we are weak, injured and not very useful.

Second, look for resources. A friend gave me a book I highly recommend: "Where Is God When It Hurts?" Numbers 11:16-17 tells us God provided helpers for Moses. 1 Kings 19:5-13 says God himself ministered to Elijah. God usually uses us to minister to people, but sometimes he supernaturally touches us.

God's resources may be difficult to see in storms. In "The Hiding Place," Corrie ten Boom told how she and her sister complained to God about the fleas in their barracks. Only later did she discover that the fleas kept the guards out which allowed them to pray and have Bible studies.

Don't be a Lone Ranger. Embrace loved ones and friends. Proverbs 18:1 says, "He who separates himself seeks his own desire." To Moses God sent 70 men to help him. To Elijah God sent Elisha to minister. To David God sent Jonathan and a band of loyal soldiers.

Leave a record of your journey to encourage others. I had to get away, so I went to the Rocky Mountains. On the trails I climbed were markers called cairns, stacks of rocks people had left to show the way. They testified that others had made it and encouraged me that I could make it too.

If you see someone else in a storm, look for your role. A well-respected psychiatrist once said the best cure for depression is to roll up your sleeves, cross the railroad tracks and help somebody. Hebrews 3:13 tells us to encourage one another day after day lest anyone be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

The Bible makes clear that God loves us perfectly, he knows what storms are ahead of us, and that, with time and tears, he will see us through. In Romans 8:35-39 God assures us that neither trials nor storms nor persecution can separate us from his love.

When the apostle wrote 1 Peter 4:12-13, he was aware that Nero was arresting Christians, covering them with pitch and using them as living torches to illuminate the imperial gardens. Even so, Peter was still able to write, "Rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings."

I confess I did not rejoice in or for my storm, and while I can write about it, I still can't talk about it. But once I made it through, I was able to rejoice in God's promises and in how he used the pain.

2 Corinthians 7:10 says one reason God uses storms is to draw people to himself when they otherwise would not respond to him. One of my former coworkers developed Lou Gehrig's disease eight years ago. I went to visit this big burly man about a year later. He was confined to a wheelchair and could barely talk. Remarkably, he said how grateful he was for the disease because it led him to faith in Jesus. I pray for his widow and daughters that they too will come to know Christ.

The topic of the Dec. 23 broadcast of NBC's "Meet the Press" was lessons learned from Sept. 11. Host Tim Russert asked First Lady Laura Bush why she changed the Scripture on the White House Christmas card to Psalm 27:8 ("...I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.")

"Because I think that's what happened," she replied. "I think we saw a few people commit a horrible crime, but we saw so many people showing the goodness of the Lord. ... I've actually been very comforted by the families. ... All the people that we see on television, the widows, the widowers, the ones who are decorating the Christmas tree by themselves this year for their children without their spouse."

We have been blessed by watching their response to this deadly storm, she said. Psalm 65:8 says, "Thou dost make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy."

Have you ever thought about what it takes to have a beautiful sunset? Obviously you need the sun, but only when there are storm clouds can you have a majestic sunset. That means someone is getting rained on.

My prayer is that the Son would shine through our responses to the storms that blow through our lives, painting a beautiful picture of God's love and faithfulness to the people around us.

_________________

Porter is director of Public Relations at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Now, I'm a passenger on airplanes, not a pilot. And that's a good thing. But I have a lot of friends who are pilots - and they've taught me a lot about my attitude. They tell me that "attitude" is actually a pilots' word. As they've explained it to me, the attitude of your plane has to do with its relationship to the horizon. Other things are variable - terrain, weather, even the pilot's perceptions. But the horizon is the one thing that doesn't move. So you want the nose of your plane properly aligned with that horizon. When it isn't, problems can develop - like friction, for example.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stabilizing Your Aircraft."

OK, enough about airplanes. Let's get down to what really matters to you and me today. How's my attitude? How's your attitude? It probably depends on how well you're lined up with the horizon. That's "horizon" as in the God you belong to - the fixed point in the midst of all the variables in your life.

In our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 73, we can literally watch the psalmist's flight going into a tailspin - and then suddenly stabilizing as he corrects his attitude. In the first half of the psalm, the writer says, "My feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold." Later, he says, "All day long I had been plagued; I have been punished every morning." He's feeling like a victim, like he's going down. He's focused on himself, his hurt, his frustrations, his vacillating feelings.

With everything spinning in his cockpit, he finally corrects his downward spiral. Notice the dramatic turnaround - you're about to hear the secret of stabilizing a sinking attitude. In Psalm 73:16, the psalmist says of his struggles, "When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me until I entered the sanctuary of God."

Now listen to his renewed perspective. "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant ... Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart."

How do you pull out of the tailspin that you're in? How do you avoid a tailspin in the first place? Make sure your eyes are focused on the horizon of your anchor relationship with Almighty God. Hope is ultimately a matter of focus - as is hopelessness. When your attitude is focused on anyone or anything other than your awesome Lord, you start to forget the big picture of all the good things you've got and you start to magnify out of proportion the negatives. And as your attitude slips from God-centered alignment, friction starts developing - people and circumstances just start getting to you.

So, in your earliest waking moments of the day, consciously start praising God right away, first thing, for good things that He is and for good things that He's doing. Focus your heart on Jesus as the only One you're doing things for, as the source of your joy, as your reason for living. And aggressively look for Him all over, all through your day. As long as your attitude is lined up with the holy horizon of the God who has your life, your flight will weather any storm and arrive home safely.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. 'Practical Answers to Real Life Issues'

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First, our kids couldn't feed themselves. Then they slowly began to learn to do it themselves. Since then, they've been really, really good at it! But in those very early days of teaching them to feed themselves, we didn't just hand them this big slab of meat to eat and say, “Go for it, kid.” Every parent knows the drill - you cut the big piece into bite-size chunks so it's manageable. I got so used to doing it, it was embarrassing when I was out to lunch with a businessman and I started cutting his meat up for him!

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Big Issues - Bite-Size Chunks.”

I love our word for today from the Word of God in Zephaniah 3:5. In just seven reassuring words, God points us to the way He wants us to handle this “big piece of meat” called our life. It simply says, “Every new day He does not fail.” God says instead of trying to do weeks and months and years, would you do life in these 24-hour increments He's obviously wired us for? Do days.

When we try to drag yesterday, with its baggage and its failures into today, we start to sink. When we try to drag tomorrow into today, with its worries and its fears, we run ahead of His resources, which are issued each new day for that day. I've got Monday's resources for Monday's needs. When I start worrying about Tuesday, or a week from Tuesday, I'm on my own and I'm going down.

There has never been and there never will be a day that our Lord has failed us. On different days our spouse may have failed us, our family may have failed us, our boss, our friends, our coworkers, the folks at church; even our income or our health. But “every new day, He does not fail.” That's called days without fear.

And here is your Lord's guarantee for each new day. He's promised new mercies for every battle. Surrounded by the collapse of everything around him, Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3, “I remember my affliction and my wandering.” In other words, on many new days, he had failed - just like you and me. “I remember the bitterness and the gall ... my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

God knows how to balance the grief with His goodness. He knows just when you just have to have an encouragement, and He sends it. He knows just when you need a hopeful sign, or some comfort, when you need some rest, an extra shot of strength, or a miracle. And He sends it right on time.

God knows when you've had all you can take and He raises His almighty hand and says, “Enough! No more!” He's promised to never let you have “more than you can bear.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) “Because of the Lord's great love,” you are “not consumed.” You serve the God of daily bread; of “strength equal to your days.” (Deuteronomy 33:25) The God of whom you can say every new day, “This is the day my Lord has made.” (Psalm 118:24) Not the day my condition has made, or my boss has made, or my frustrations have made, or my spouse has made. My Lord made this day and has promised me everything I'll need to live it.

Don't even try to handle that big piece of life you've got in front of you right now. Your Heavenly Father cuts it into bite-size chunks so it's manageable - bite-size chunks called “every new day”!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #18381]

Sermon on misfortune. Acts 28:1-7

DOES TROUBLE COME IN THREES?

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I. Why me?

II. Bad luck can be undeserved.

A. Disasters can happen to nice people, no fault of their own.

B. The supreme Bible example - Job.

III. Oppression by Satan.

A. The Bible says he is a real character, and out to harm us.

B. Satan has power, but it is limited.

IV. Oppression by God?

A. We can feel that God himself is out to get us.

B. Even Jesus faced temptation.

V. Jinxed by our own faults.

A. Many of our troubles are due to our own stupid choices.

B. Measure your life and attitudes against the Bible's commands.

C. Expectations of disaster can produce disaster.

VI. Have an overcoming attitude.

A. However bad it gets, God can turn it around.

B. The worse it gets, the more I can grow.

C. No matter how bad it is, someone else is worse off.

D. No matter how bad it is, I have much to be thankful for.

VII. Troubles are only temporary. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16734]

Every once in a while the sun decides to take a vacation for a few days. Recently, we had one of those stretches of weather when we didn't see the old boy for the better part of a week. It was just one rainy day after another. Everyone around here and everything around here was soaked. I was running into our Headquarters one morning at the same time as one of my co-workers, and we were both trying to avoid getting drenched in the process. I made some comment about the relentless rain, but he was looking at a little bigger picture than I was. Remembering last summer's withering drought, he said, "This is going to be good for us later on."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "When The Rain Just Won't Stop."

You may be going through one of those seasons in your life when the "rain" never seems to stop. It's been stress, bad news, struggle - maybe disappointment, confusion, grief. We all take our turn facing those seasons when we keep waking up to another rainy day.

Our word for today from the Word of God has been, for 2,000 years, a bright light for dark days. The well-worn words of Romans 8:28 have helped millions of believers see a bigger picture when it seemed as if it would never stop raining. As familiar as you may be with these words, they may literally have your name on them for this particular season of your life. Listen to them with your heart - "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

One great saint described Romans 8:28 as "a soft pillow for a long night." I hope you will let it be that for you. Because it gives you God's ironclad assurance that there is meaning in what you're going through ... that there is a holy purpose for God either sending or allowing those things in your life. His purpose for our dark times is seldom explained, but it's always there. No, it doesn't say everything is good here - it says everything is being worked together for good. For your good, if you're one of those who love Him.

So you can say - no matter how many days it's been raining - "This is going to be good for us later on." God simply wouldn't let this happen if it wasn't going to be good for you later on. Romans 8:29 tells us that the ultimate good God is going to bring out of this is to make you more like His Son. I believe God shapes and allows the circumstances to come into our life that will best develop some quality of Jesus in us. There's nothing greater God could do for you than to plant in you the way Jesus loves people ... the way Jesus treats people ... the way Jesus is patient with people ... the way Jesus understands what a hurting person is going through ... the kind of bondedness Jesus had with His Father.

And it may take a lot of rainy days for God to make you the man or woman He created you and redeemed you to be. He's toughening you ... or maybe tenderizing you ... purging you of old ways of doing things ... squeezing you into new and better priorities ... sensitizing you to people you've hurt or neglected ... moving you to burn some old bridges or to treat some old wounds. What gets you through the rainy days is the calm assurance that "God is working all this together for my good ... to make a better me."

Are you going to enjoy one rainy day after another? Not necessarily. But it sure helps to see them in the big picture perspective. God is using these days to prepare you for better days ahead. So, if you got up this morning and found that it was raining again, lean hard on Romans 8:28 - and say, with all the confidence of a blood-bought child of God, "This is going to be very good for us later on."

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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An Israeli man requested a restraining order against God, saying that he’s fed up with the Almighty interfering in his life. David Shoshan told a court in Haifa that God “started to treat me harshly and not nicely” three years ago, and calls to the police had not put an end to the harassment. Judge Ahsan Canaan denied the request for a restraining order, saying Shoshan needed the kind of help the court could not provide.

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[The original illustration at this number was deleted for being obsolete]

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn't know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her he asked. "Daughter, what do you see?"

"Potatoes, eggs, and coffee," she hastily replied.

"Look closer", he said, "and touch the potatoes." She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

"Father, what does this mean?" she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity - the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

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There was a group of women in a Bible study on the book of Malachi. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three which says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled the women and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study.

That week this woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.

He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot - then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, how do you know when the silver is fully refined?

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."

Poem by Lindsay (Lionel) Gordon (1833-1870):

"Life is mostly froth and bubbles,

Only two things stand like stone,

Kindness in another's troubles,

Courage in your own."

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Sermon on overcoming troubles.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

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I. Desperate times require desperate measures.

A. Between a rock and a hard place.

B. When you don't think you can hang on, someone is there for you.

II. It can get pretty bad.

A. Cords of death and the grave. 18:4

B. David calls on his God. 18:6

III. God charges in.

A. Theologians call this a theophany. 18:7

B. Why doesn't God do this more often?

IV. Perhaps there is a reason for the delay.

A. David believes he is rescued because of his righteousness. 18;19

B. Do we have to be worthy to be rescued by God?

C. This part of the psalm may be hinting at something deeper.

V. With God's help we can do anything.

Codfish is a big business in the northeast, did you know that? And one of the things about codfish is that you have to ship them elsewhere because the market is huge. When codfish were first being shipped, they froze them and sent them out west or whatever and what they noticed was that the flavor was lost because of the shipping. The freezing didn't do it. So, somebody said, we have an idea, let's ship them in actual seawater, and we will put them in tanks, and we will transport them that way. Well, even with that, the codfish would arrive at the market three or four days later, and they not only had lost a little of their flavor, but they had a kind of mushy texture.

Finally, somebody got creative. And they took and put another fish in the codfish tank. It was a catfish. Because the catfish is the natural enemy of codfish, during shipping the catfish would chase the codfish all around the tank the whole time, and when they got to the place where they were going, the codfish tasted like you just pulled them out of the sea. Their texture was great; their taste was even better than before.

God knows that we are codfish in a catfish world. God allows all things, even catfish type things to help us grow strong and if He kept us from those things, we wouldn't grow into the image of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said, “In this world you are going to have struggles. You are going to have troubles, tribulations, but be of good courage. I have overcome the world and I am going to take those troubles and I am going to transform you more and more in to my likeness.”

“At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at that ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ... 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'“ Mark 15:33-34

When Jesus was hanging on the cross for my sins and yours, he uttered some of the most gut-wrenching words in history. “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Betrayal by friends, public humiliation, injustice, and pain caused him not to whisper meekly but to cry out loudly to the One who until now had been his constant companion and protector.

While comparing our struggles to Jesus' seems almost sacrilege, there are some parallels. Most of us have uttered similar frustrations to God during the dark days of financial strain, divorce, illness, loneliness, single parenting, betrayal, and pain. These troubles seem trivial next to Jesus' pain, but the despair is just as real. And these emotions matter to our all-knowing, ever-loving God. Unfortunately, we often allow our problems to obscure God's attempts to be our comfort and companion. When that happens, we often accuse him of abandoning us.

My own struggles have been no exception. Years ago I suffered a bout with mild depression. I would burst into tears for no apparent reason. As a believer in Christ, I knew I had the ultimate hope of eternal life in heaven - but somehow that didn't quench my hollowness and despair. I felt so distraught and alone all I could muster was a feeble, “God, where are you? Please help.”

That's why I need Easter. It's an annual reminder that the only time God ever left anyone alone — his Son on the cross — was so that none of us would ever be alone again. Jesus paved the way for us to have a close, constant relationship with our Maker — which we all desperately need, whether we know it or not. Those of us who believe in Jesus are never alone no matter what. Praise God!

I wish Jesus wouldn't have had to go through the excruciating pain of carrying my sins and feeling abandoned by God. But the truth is, I needed him to.

And I wish I could remember God is always with me — even when I don't feel him with me or when the pain of this world obscures his presence. But in reality I need constant reminders that he's always offering his presence, comfort, guidance, and hope to me — to all of us.

This Easter may we all rejoice in our risen Savior — and in the God who never, ever leaves us.

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Copyright © 2000 ChristianityToday.com

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Since we call our outreach among Native Americans “On Eagles' Wings,” it's natural that I would have learned a lot about eagles in recent years. You only need to have seen one in flight to know that there's something singular and almost regal about these magnificent birds. It's no wonder they have been the symbol of great empires. One of the many amazing facts about eagles is the way they respond to an approaching storm. Other birds sense that storm coming and they head for cover. Oh, but not the mighty eagle. No, he literally sits on the edge of his nest, waiting expectantly for the storm to come. When it does, he locks his wings in an ascending position and he uses the storm's strong winds to help him spiral round and round, rising higher and higher all the time. Ultimately, the eagle begins to see sunlight around him and the storm below him. He rides the storm until he rises above the storm.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Flying Into the Storm.”

God seems to love the eagle like we do. One Bible picture shows the one whose hope is in the Lord soaring like an eagle (Isaiah 40:31). Even in a storm - especially in a storm. That may be a very important picture for you right now because “storm” is a good word to describe what you're going through right now. You have no choice about getting hit by the storm and you certainly have no control over it, but you do have a choice about how you handle this storm. You can let it frighten you into retreating, you can let it bury you, or you can fly into that storm and let it take you higher than you have ever flown before.

In his amazing words in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, our word for today from the Word of God, Paul talks about how he moved from being beaten down by his storm to capturing his storm as a means of soaring where he had never gone before. His storm was what he called his “thorn in the flesh,” an unidentified issue that, in his words, tormented him constantly; something painful and limiting that he had repeatedly begged God to remove. Instead of taking away the storm, God said to Paul, and He says to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Then, like the eagle, Paul realizes the storm can be his chance to experience a new level of power and spiritual altitude. He says, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Again like the mighty eagle, Paul in a sense, says, “Come on, storm! You're not going to beat me! You're not going to defeat me! You are my chance to experience Christ's power as only those in the midst of a storm can!”

Your storm strips you of your self-reliance, your ability to control things, your ability to contribute anything to a solution, and that's actually an exciting place to be. Because it means it's going to have to be totally God! Don't fight that. Open yourself up to the possibilities of letting God carry you to a new level of spiritual power, of knowing Him, of seeing things you've never seen before. It was only after his awful season of suffering and loss that Job could say to God: “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:15).

You can meet Jesus, touch Jesus, experience Jesus in a storm as nowhere else. And if you'll surrender to the mighty winds of God's great grace and empowerment, you will find yourself eventually able to look down on the storm that once held you down. You'll be looking at it from God's perspective. And you will be flying higher than you've ever flown before!

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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The builders of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) like to show us their products in mind-boggling situations. High on a mountain crag, where no truck could seemingly go. Or in a swamp so impassable you’d need a hovercraft to negotiate it. We’re supposed to think that SUVs are invincible.

That’s why I found unintended humor in the disclaimer in a recent ad for a four-wheel-drive SUV. A photo showed the vehicle up to its headlights in water as it forged across a foreboding river. The ad said: “Traversing deep water can cause damage, which voids the vehicle warranty.”

Deep water is a problem not only for cars but also for us. As we travel the roadways of life, we often find ourselves surrounded with oceans of grief or crashing waves of broken relationships. We need help.

The writers of the Psalms told of that needed assistance. They said God is “a refuge in times of trouble” (9:9), and that “in the time of trouble He shall . . .. set me high upon a rock” (27:5). No disclaimers here. Traversing deep water won’t affect our spiritual warranty. God will always be there to guarantee His support.

Are you in deep water? Reach up and grab God’s hand of mercy. — Dave Branon

When you’re passing through the waters

Of deep sorrow and despair

And you get no help from others,

Just remember, Christ is there. — Elliott

When trouble overtakes you, let God take over.

Our children got together and gave us a special gift for a recent milestone wedding anniversary - a couple of nights in the beautiful place where we honeymooned years ago. Part of their gift was a picturesque, horse-drawn carriage ride through some of the area's beautiful scenery. At one point, our carriage was headed up a relatively steep hill and another carriage was starting down that hill, full of people. It had to be a real workout for the horses. Our driver pointed out something that I found intriguing. He said, “Notice that the driver is holding the brake on as they come down the hill. That's to keep the horses from bearing a load that's too heavy for them to bear. With the driver holding the brake, they still feel like they're on level ground.”

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “The Burdens That Could Crush You.”

If you belong to Jesus Christ, you have a God who does for you what that driver did for those horses. He holds back the load you could not bear. Now you may be carrying a very heavy load right now - and you may even be wondering about the accuracy of what I said. Be assured that He knows how much weight will make you stronger - and He'll allow that much in your life. But He also knows when it's weight that would crush you - and that's when He puts on the brakes.

He promises that in many places in the Bible. One of them is in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:13. It says, “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted (or the word can mean tested) beyond what you can bear.” God never breaks a promise, and He won't break that one. Without Christ in your life, God is not yet your Father and there's no guarantee about how much of a load will come to you. But He promises His children, those who have opened their lives to the love and the power of Jesus Christ, that He will always protect you from what would be unbearable.

Protection is one way He will keep you from being overwhelmed by the weight. Provision is another way He does it. He guarantees that “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9) and that “your strength will equal your days” (Deuteronomy 33:25). No matter how much strength any given day's burdens require, He is committed to give it to you. Your load will never outweigh the strength He will give you. We're invited to “come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The Greek word there for “help” in that verse is used another place in the Bible to describe holding a ship together in a storm. That's what He's promised to do and to be for you.

God has one other way to keep you from a load you can't bear - it's His participation in carrying it. Psalm 68:19 says, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” In fact, He tells us that we should be “casting all your care on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He is the great Burden-Bearer for His own. But you have to leave it with Him, not just tell Him about it. Something amazing happens when you take a burden that you've made all your own and you roll it off on His shoulders and you tell Him, “Lord, it's Yours now. This battle is the Lord's.” You begin all bent over with this massive weight on your back. You walk away standing tall, knowing that Jesus Himself is taking that burden now.

So take courage if you've been trusted with a heavy load. Your Lord knows when to apply the brakes and when it's more than you can bear. Any burden you have He's either decreed or allowed - because if you only lift what you've lifted before, you'll never be any stronger than you are now. So, weary one, would you listen to this precious invitation from Jesus, not as if you're hearing me say it, but as if it's Jesus Himself speaking to you. “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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Recently, I attended a retreat where there was a great deal of personal sharing. I sat amazed as I listened to women from every walk of life, most of whom were established Christians, share of heartache, pain, and various aspects of struggle they had either just come through, or were currently experiencing. I was overwhelmed by their honesty and by the poignancy of their stories. But even more than this, I was overwhelmed by the beauty radiating from within as they shared their stories.

Beauty in brokenness? Without glorifying suffering, there is an unexpected beauty that can shine through stories of struggle. One friend is a paraplegic broken in the use of her body, and yet she has a beautiful spirit. Not limited by her brokenness, she uses her own difficulties to help others, and teach others about true ability and disability. Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary, considers his cancer a “calling” and in a recent article written in CHRISTIANITY TODAY said, “We are fallen. We are imperfect. Our bodies give out. But despite this -- because of it -- God offers the possibility of salvation and grace.”(1) That possibility of salvation and grace is beauty in brokenness.

Somehow, uniquely, God desires to use those difficult moments of our lives to bring forth something extraordinarily beautiful. Even the natural creation attests to this truth. In fall, we marvel at the gorgeous, lush colors of burnt amber, burnished orange, brilliant red, and bright yellow leaves, even as that beauty belies the slow and gradual death of those leaves. Winter buries those leaves under the cold, dark blanket of snow and frost. And yet, death brings forth life. Spring bursts forth year after year with jonquils, iris, lilies, and all the beautiful pastels of new life.

During a time of deep despair and suffering, King David wondered about God’s ability to be present in his dark places -- to bring about beautiful redemption in the midst of brokenness. He cried out to God, “Will your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Abaddon? Will your wonders be made known in the darkness? And your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (Psalm 88:11-12). David wondered about God’s work in his life -- had he been abandoned? Was God still guiding him even in the deepest, darkest places of brokenness and fear? And even in those places seemingly forgotten, would God continue to make things right? David struggled to see how beauty could emerge out of brokenness. And yet, he later affirmed in Psalm 139, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there... if I say, ‘surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” It is in those dark places of brokenness and suffering that God brings forth luminous light so that even the dark is illuminated.

The prophet Isaiah repeats this theme by promising one who would redeem the exiles, giving them “a garland of beauty instead of ashes” and “the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord... who summons you by name” (Isaiah 61:3, 45:3). Perhaps, these were Scriptures recalled by the apostle Paul when he declared that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:7-9). Indeed, Paul declares that “the God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). And so often, that face of Christ is demonstrated with beautiful radiance through the broken and dark places in our lives.

Today, if you are experiencing hardship, difficulty or personal darkness, seek the light and beauty of Christ, for he longs to be present to you, to give you a garland of beauty instead of ashes, to call you by name, and to bring forth treasures of darkness. He is there in the brokenness with you.

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1. CHRISTIANITY TODAY, (July 2007, vol. 51, Number 7), 30.

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Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.