United Church of God

Giving Your Troubles to God

You are here

Giving Your Troubles to God

Downloads
MP3 Audio (23.59 MB)

Downloads

Giving Your Troubles to God

MP3 Audio (23.59 MB)
×

You roll over and look at the clock. It’s 2 a.m. If you don’t get some sleep you are going to have a horrible day tomorrow. The problem is you just can’t clear your mind of your troubles. You have prayed about it, you have asked God to take this from you. You have even tried to give Him your burden so you can get some sleep. But here you are, now it's 2:30 a.m. Mr. Richards gives a message about the concept of truly giving your troubles to God and some practical tools to help you do it.

Sermon Notes

You roll over and look at the clock. It’s 2 AM. If you don’t get some sleep you are going to have a horrible day tomorrow. The problem is you just can’t clear your mind of your troubles. You have prayed about it, you have asked God to take this from you. You have even tried to give Him your burden so you can get some sleep. But here you are, now its 2:30 AM. Who hasn’t been here at some point in your life? We know that we will endure trials and we are supposed to trust God to get us through them but sometimes we can’t clear our minds of worry. 2 Timothy 1:7 Tells us 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Who doesn’t want a sound mind? Especially at 2:30 in the morning. But that seems easier said than done in this world sometimes.

Why is it so hard to live by these words without doubt and fear? Hebrews 13 reminds those in the first century that were suffering and had even more hard times ahead how to live a Christian life, honoring marriage, and being happy with what God has blessed them with, and to know that He tells His people that “He will never leave nor forsake you”. Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" The problem is that we do fear what man can do to us. We do fear what sickness can do to us. We try to have faith but we often times find ourselves obsessing over fear. The title of today’s sermon is, Giving your troubles to God How wonderful it would be to never worry. To always have peace of mind and get a good night’s sleep. Over the years I have met some that never seemed to let the trials of this life overtake them. Of course, we are all human and weak sometimes but we can learn to truly give our troubles to God.

There are a number of home improvement shows on TV where a homeowner is in desperate trouble and someone comes to the rescue and fixes all of the problems in their lives. You are introduced to someone who cannot fix their problem and does not know what to do. But help comes in and now all of their problems are over. Isn’t that what we hope for when we cry out to God for deliverance? That God would swoop in and take this problem away. We pray to God to come in and rescue us from our trials. Sometimes the trials are brief and are over as quickly they arrived, But so often the trials seem to go on and on. Is it because we are being punished? Is there something we are supposed to learn? Is it just about perseverance? These are some of the questions that can keep us up at night. I am going to talk about the concept of truly giving your troubles to God and some practical tools to help you do it.

To start, I would like to give you a demonstration on what typically happens when we try to give our troubles away. The Balloons here represent the many trials in our lives. Some are big problems (BIG BALLOON) and some are annoyances (small Balloon). (Describe the balloons – needs, debt, bills, worry, sickness )If I had a hundred of them then we could find names for them all. Sometimes we can even ignore them for a while. It’s like my glasses, sometimes I will get home from work and sit down to relax and notice I can hardly see out of my glasses. And I wonder, how did I drive home? How did I not notice them before now? But if you work hard enough you can get through your day without having to think about them but soon you will have to go to bed and then, at 2 AM there you are with your problems. They never went away but they sure waited for you. And at times they seem to multiply – (Take all balloons) We try to release them but they don’t seem to go very far away. It’s usually at this point that I first think “I need to give these troubles to God”. But since they overwhelm us we think, maybe we have waited too long to give them away and now were stuck with them. As you go through your day the problems are all around you.

Sometimes you get your mind of them even though they are still here. Now what? You see, what we want it for God to take the problems away. (Pop balloon called troubles) But that’s not how it works does it. It doesn’t mean that it has never happened. We have all heard about people have this need and then, POW, out of the blue someone comes and fills that need. It does happen sometimes. But if that is how God wants our problems to go away you have to ask yourself, why did I have this problem in the first place? But Matthew 7 tells us to keep asking for a solution and we will receive it. Matthew 7:7-11 7 "Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks. 9 You parents-- if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. This is what we want right. We need so we ask God for it. Now if it was something frivolous then we would understand if God did not answer but when it is something important then we want to believe that God will take care of it. But we also know that sometimes trials have a purpose to try to teach us lessons that we haven’t learned when things were going well.

Like it tells us in James 1 James 1:2-3 NKJ My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Now you might look at this and say Yea Right: But let’s read this passage again from the NLT James 1:2-8 NLT Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. 3 For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. 5 If you need wisdom-- if you want to know what God wants you to do-- ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 They can't make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do. Now that’s how it feels to give your troubles to God and then we have them back again. We go one way and then back the other. On Tuesday we are strong; Wednesday we are doubtful; and by Thursday we devastated again. The only good that comes from this back and forth is maybe on Tuesday we get a good night’s sleep. So how do we give our troubles away? Can you imagine going to the Mall and asking someone to pay your bills? Give you a Car? Give you a place to live? They would probably tell you to take a hike, wouldn’t they? Well Jesus tells us that he is willing to take our problems in Matthew 11.

Matthew 11:28 - 30 NKJ "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." There are many parts of this passage. Jesus says so much with just so few words. So let’s take a closer look at this passage since it has many things to teach us. Matthew 11:28 - 30 NKJ "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, Who hasn’t seen a picture of Oxen Yoked together? You see this massive wooden Beam that fits over the neck of each Ox and binds them together so that both move together. When I was studying the Hebrew language and looking at the pictographic script that preceded the Aramaic script we see today the image of the Ox and yoke come alive. Pictographs preceded the alphabetic languages today. They used familiar pictures to give meaning to text. Cuneiform script and the Egyptian hieroglyphs are among the oldest known. Hieroglyphs tell their story much like a photo album does. Each picture tells a story that is obvious to the reader. But the Ancient Hebrew and Phoenician script come from what’s known as Proto-Proto-Canaanite script which is a bridge between the pictures and their meanings and the alphabet letter that is used to form words.

It is in these Picture’s meaning that so much controversy surrounds. I first started studying this when I was looking at the names of God. What I found was not only in harmony with the bible and our beliefs but it helped to bring dimension to our understanding. Like this concept of being yoked to Christ. The first time God is mentioned in our bibles we read the God created the heavens and the earth. The word God is Elohim. The Hebraic root of Elohim is EL which itself is translated as God some 250 times in our bibles alone. The two Semitic pictographs that make the name EL is the Ox head and the Shepherds Staff. The Ox being the strongest of the domesticated animals and the shepherds staff the symbol of authority and is the origin of royal scepters today. But in the pictograph of the word El the Shepherd’s staff is inverted to mean one of two things or even both. One is that in motion to show that it is a tool that has to be used to be important like a shepherd rescuing a lost sheep. But secondly it also represents a yoke and with the Ox give the meaning of the one leads by example. For an Ox that is seasoned will teach a new Ox how to work by being bound together. One teaches the other by doing.

This is how Christ leads his disciples by example. He never asked them to do what He was not willing to do. Lowly also means Humble- 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Wouldn’t you rather confess your sins to someone who is humble and gentle? That is why he tells us to come to Him, give your troubles to him and learn from Him. Without the learning from Him we really can’t be free of our problems. He will then teach us how to live a life that will give us rest from our burdens. So how do we learn to give these troubles away? It’s simple, just become 2 Corinthians 3:18. 2 Corinthians 3:18 18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. You see, just become a clear reflection of the spirit of God and all of our troubles will be gone. But that is what we are called to become. If there is a lesson that God wants us to learn from a trial it is this. But there are clues that teach us how to do this. First of all we have to want to be that reflection. God loves us but will not bring people into His Kingdom that don’t want to be there. But this journey has many trials and Psalms 55:22 offers some important advice what to do with them.

Psalm 55:22 22 Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. This word cast is very important to this process. Think about your trouble like a hand grenade. You wouldn’t just let go of a live grenade and say “God will take care of it”. You would throw it as far as you can from you. Let’s stay in Psalms and go to chapter 147 to see more of this process. I will read from the New Living Translation as it helps to bring to life this concept of God’s restoration. When we are heavy laden and needs God’s intervention it helps to see how He has worked to restore his people because that is a winning formula.

Here we see that God promises to restore Jerusalem Psalm 147:1-11 NLT Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how right! 2 The LORD is rebuilding Jerusalem and bringing the exiles back to Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. 4 He counts the stars and calls them all by name. 5 How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! 6 The LORD supports the humble, but he brings the wicked down into the dust. 7 Sing out your thanks to the LORD; sing praises to our God, accompanied by harps. 8 He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the green grass grow in mountain pastures. 9 He feeds the wild animals, and the young ravens cry to him for food. 10 The strength of a horse does not impress him; how puny in his sight is the strength of a man. 11 The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy. The word fear here has the basic meaning as we use it. 3373 arey" yare' {yaw-ray'} Meaning: 1) fearing, reverent, afraid Origin: from 03372; 3372 arey" yare' {yaw-ray'} Meaning: 1) to fear, revere, be afraid 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to fear, be afraid 1a2) to stand in awe of, be awed 1a3) to fear, reverence, honour, respect 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be fearful, be dreadful, be feared 1b2) to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe 1b3) to inspire reverence or godly fear or awe 1c) (Piel) to make afraid, terrify 2) (TWOT) to shoot, pour Origin: a primitive root; TWOT - 907,908; v Usage: AV - fear 188, afraid 78, terrible 23, terrible thing 6, dreadful 5, reverence 3, fearful 2, terrible acts 1, misc 8; 314 So we have learned that we are trying to become like God and when we have burdens we are to Cast them away. Also to become like God we must become Humble and we must Praise Him who cares so much for us. We can also look at 2 Corinthians 10 about how we are supposed to live. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, So here we see that we are not walking in the ways of this world but we are also preparing to do battle against any idea that seeks to exalt itself above the knowledge of God. Have you ever shied away from a discussion about God? Given someone a vague answer so there wouldn’t be a discussion about the hope that is in us?

1 Peter 5:5-10 5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect’, establish, strengthen, and settle you. So the suffering we endure is meant to be temporary as we are perfected by God. But we also should not underestimate the enemy we have in Satan. He is always looking for ways to distract us from growing through our trials. One of Satan’s primary tools of distraction is temptation.

We can read about in: James 1:13-15 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. But there is hope in 1 Corinthians 10:13 1 Corinthians 10:13 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. What does it mean to have a way to escape? Is it like the movies where we are rescued at the last second or can escape mean something else, like be where the temptation is not. The NLT says: ….When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it. So how does God make it so that temptation does not overcome us? Just like the advice to cast our troubles away like a hand grenade, I would hope that we would also run the other way as we throw.

1 Corinthians 10:14 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 1 Corinthians 6:18 18 Flee sexual immorality. 2 Timothy 2:22 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 1 Timothy sums up these concepts this way in chapter 6 starting in verse 8 1 Timothy 6:8-12 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Matthew 26 talks about avoiding temptation in the first place.

Matthew 26:41 41 "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." So we have seen that the path forward is about becoming the person we were called to be and to live a life that protects us from many of the trials of this life. But what can we do for others to help them be free of burdens? First of all you can be there. When trials hit we need support of family and we are all family here. Sometimes we can offer physical needs like food, but more important than that is emotional support. Using our gifts for the edification of the whole body is a subject we have studied but cannot be said enough. God called each of us to support each other so that we can grow. One of the minor trials I had in recent years was a dependable car to drive. Now I know no one here has had that worry. But because it ranks about a 2 on the serious meter I felt there were other things to focus my energy on. But it still bogged down my thoughts every time we needed to take a trip.

Now those problems that kept me up to 2AM were hard to give to God this one was not. I just told God that this one was his. I had too many other things to worry about than this. Then my transmission went out. My faith in God was being tested. I was supposed to undergo shoulder surgery and couldn’t driver for over 6 weeks and so I said, this problem is Gods and for the next 6 weeks I didn’t worry about it. After I started driving again I was told that someone in the church had a car that ran and we can have it. Here is someone in the family looking out for the needs of someone else. Of course it was the same age as the car that died and had many more miles on it, at least it drove. We drove it one year until it was wrecked in an accident. And the insurance helped us get the car we have now that we can drive long distances. The problem did not go away all at once but it was used to teach us that God is there and willing to take our burdens if we allow him to. For us to let go of a burden we have to be willing to never take it back again. To do this we need to learn with the small problems and use them to build our faith in God. We read earlier in James about being Joyful that we have trials.

Because it says in verse 3 James 1:3-4 NLT For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything. I have received much help from those in this room that has helped me through the trials of my life. And I have tried to help others just as I have been helped. I have also tried to learn from others that are enduring trials with grace and patience. I have marveled at the faith of some and decided to strive for that faith in my life. Faith is not just acquired but it is grown. We become more like God and we are able to act more like him when trials occur. In one recent trial that I went through I followed the advice from my many family members and asked myself, hasn’t God looked out for me up to now? Then what makes me think he won’t know? I asked God what I needed to learn but I was smart to ask it in mercy and he told me.

Humility and love was the way forward for me. Once I knew what God wanted from me and that I was actively doing everything I could to do it, Then I no longer feared 2 AM. I was able to sleep the sleep on one that is loved by God. In closing I would like to read 1 John 4:17-19 1 John 4:17-19 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.