Biblical Lessons in Dealing With Troubles

The title of my sermon today is Biblical Lessons in Dealing with Troubles. Biblical Lessons in Dealing with Troubles. And as you may surmise, you can guess, the topic of today's sermon is troubles. Troubles. Who doesn't have troubles? Anybody? Anybody? No troubles? Maybe little babies, but they don't know. They're born into it. We all have our fair share of troubles, we feel, don't we? And sometimes, just sometimes, I do feel I have more than my share. And we may all feel that way from time to time. Have you ever noticed we don't have to go searching for trouble? It finds us out, doesn't it? Troubles always find us out. Troubles can be called different things by different people. Sometimes we call troubles problems, difficulties, cares, worries, afflictions. That's only to name a few of the synonyms out there in the English language. But whatever we call them, troubles often lead to fear, don't they? And sometimes, doubt, good dose of misery, despair, and at least one or two sleepless nights. Troubles are no fun. Where do troubles come from? Where do troubles come from? Let's turn back to the book of Job. Scratch a little bit at the surface of this large topic. The book of Job has a lot to say about troubles. Job was well acquainted with troubles more than him. In Job 14, verse 1 through 2, what we read here suggests that trouble is simply the typical human condition. That's the way it is. Job 14, verse 1, we read, Man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. That's not a very cheerful scripture, is it? These two scriptures are really pessimistic, a little bit nihilistic. Almost sounds like a modern point of view. You've heard it. Life is short, filled with troubles, and we die. There's an old cowboy quote somewhere. I can't quite bring it up. But we're born, we're live, we're dead. That's it. Let's also turn back to Job 4.8. Job 4.8 adds that we bring trouble upon ourselves. We bring trouble upon ourselves because of sin. Here we read, Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same. That's a good farmer metaphor there. It's very interesting. If we plow our fields, that means our lives, if we plow our lives with sin, sowing seeds and then sow seeds of trouble, we shouldn't be shocked when we harvest bigger trouble, more of it.

When we sin, troubles will follow. And that makes sense because we all know, as we sow, so shall we reap. Now, trouble also comes upon us from other people, I find, and their sin. David describes this type of trouble in Psalm 69, verse 3-4. Let's turn there. We're investigating, as we begin here, where do troubles come from? Because we sure have them. Where do they come from?

In Psalm 69, verse 3-4, David describes the type of trouble that comes from other people and their sin. He writes, in verse 3, I am weary with crying. My throat is dry, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, though I have stolen nothing. Even as we strive to obey God and practice love towards others, haters do exist. That's a good word. In the high school realm, don't be a hater. I don't know if you've heard that. There are haters out there. We're doing nothing, but we're being hated nonetheless. People hate us without reason and stir up trouble against us. Other common troubles we experience may be due to things that afflict people in general. Some troubles are due to old age. Some are due to being young and less experienced. Then there's sickness, poor choices, fame, and fortune, even so-called good things, if you notice, can cause trouble. Failures at something? Miscalculations, poor choices, time and chance. Really, just about anything can create troubles in the distress that follows. What kind of does that distress feel like sometime? Let's look at Psalm 102. We're there in the book of Psalm. Psalms 102 verses 1 through 5.

Look what we read here. This describes a sort of psychological distress that troubles often cause. And this Psalm is often attributed to David as well. Hear my prayer, O eternal, and let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble. Incline your ears to me in the day that I call, answer me speedily, for my days are consumed like smoke and my bones are burned like a hearth. My heart is stricken and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. Because of the sound of my groaning, my bones cling to my skin. Again, trouble is usually something we don't purposely search out. And this psalm tells us why. We don't want troubles if this is what they make us feel like. So, as we can see, the Bible verifies what we very likely already know. We will have troubles in our lives. But the good news, we're going to look at the good side of this, the good news is God's Word also provides us lessons about how to deal more successfully with those troubles. And some of those lessons will be my focus today in the sermon. In today's sermon, we are going to consider several tried and true lessons for dealing with the troubles of life. Lessons from the Bible and drawn from the experiences of people like you and me who relied on God for their help.

When we nurture our hearts and minds in the Word of God and allow God's Holy Spirit to work with us and in us to obey Him, then we are building the strength and firmness of heart and mind and spirit we need in order to face troubles in life. We got to go to Him. Mr. Crane spoke of God being our refuge. God is our strength of help and need, the place we need to go to and need when we're suffering from troubles.

Now, most people in the world face their troubles without the benefit of God's Word and Spirit. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about just how blessed we are that we do have God as our refuge? We can go to Him. The vast majority of people don't even know about God.

They don't know He even exists. But God has blessed us now with His invitation not only to understand His Scriptures, but also to become like Him. Troubles could sidetrack us, however, if we don't handle them carefully and in the right way. That's why it's so urgent that we acquire great understanding of God's Word.

You see, the lessons to be learned from God's Word are endless. I don't know how old you are, but I know you're still learning from your study of the Bible, aren't you? Some of you have been at it for a very long time, much longer than me. The lessons to be learned from God's Word are endless. We must become ever more familiar with the people of the Bible, more familiar with the place names, its poetry, its history, its prophecy, all of it.

Everything that's in the Bible. Why? Because all of it composes God's written Word. John 1717 tells us that God's Word is truth. All of it. Not just some of it, not just our favorite passages. All of it. And in John 6.63, Jesus Christ said, it is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh, prophets, nothing, the words that I speak to are spirit and they are life.

The Bible is God's Word. It is truth. It is spirit. And it is life. The Bible reveals to us the path to eternal life. And it instructs us in how to live our present mortal lives. These lives, as we've read, that are full of troubles.

It tells us how to do that by living according to the laws and ways of God. Let's talk about the first lesson we can take from the Bible. Now, I know there are hundreds, thousands... I don't know how many lessons in the Bible we can draw, just how to deal with troubles. I've only pulled out a few, but that can be your homework to sign it. See what else you can add to the little list I'm going to give you today. Lesson 1. Here's lesson 1, and I've given this little heading.

Lesson 1, build and maintain a close relationship with God. You've probably heard something like that before through the years. But build and maintain a close relationship with God. We must build and maintain the habit of studying God's Word. This habit of studying the Bible is especially important to implant early. Early, not only into our own hearts and minds, but especially into the hearts and minds of our children and our grandchildren. Grandparents still have a huge impact on their grandchildren. All of God's children, both young and old, even us kids with the wrinkles and the gray hair, we all need to be studying and learning from God's Word so we can better handle life's giant-sized problems.

Those giant-sized problems. And that is a true statement. And it's also the segue to our first lesson in dealing with troubles. Let's turn to 1 Samuel 17 and consider why David was able to confront one unexpected trouble standing about nine feet nine inches tall called Goliath. We're going to pick it up in 1 Samuel 17. Now, Goliath, I saw last Sabbath, was back in our eating area wearing a hula skirt. He had a grass skirt on. If he didn't weigh so much, I've moved to Goliath. If you know what I'm talking about, the big structure that Mrs.

Crane made for us many years ago, he's heavy. I thought about bringing him out here and standing him up. He's a giant, but he weighs too much. But imagine, nine feet nine inches tall. What can we learn about this trouble that is so tall? Now, I call Goliath an unexpected trouble, an unexpected trouble for David, because scripture does not say that David had planned to confront Goliath. David was visiting the Israelite army.

If you read through there in 1 Samuel 17, I'm not going to go through every scripture. David was merely visiting the army on an errand for his father. He was delivering food for his brothers, and his father wanted to know if his brothers were okay. Now, verse 16 tells us that Goliath had been insulting the Israelites. Excuse me, he had been insulting the Israelite army every morning and evening for 40 days.

Twice a day, 40 days a week. And verse 8 through 10 tells us what he told them. Twice a day, 40 days. Goliath's been telling the army, why have you come out to line up for battle? Like, why are you here? Why are you even bothering to show up? Am I not a Philistine and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. Well, have you ever been in a schoolyard listening to little boys? Sadly, little girls do nowadays. Them's fighting words, aren't they?

They're calling you out. Well, David heard Goliath's words and he also saw how Saul soldiers responded. How did they respond? Look down in verse 24. Verse 24 tells us, in all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, when they saw Goliath, they fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. In my mind, I see them scattering like little witless mice, heading for cover, getting away as fast as they can.

David's response was different. He was stunned, I think, by Goliath's words and also by the Israelites' response. In verse 26, he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Who does he think he is? This is God's army, God's anointed king. Well, David's words were soon reported to King Saul, who sent for him because he wanted to meet this young man that was so bold a speech.

And then David said to Saul, verse 32-37, David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him, because of Goliath. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth. He suggests here that, David, you're just a teenager. You haven't fought a battle. Do you even know how to hold a sword? You want to go fight this guy?

But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing how he has defied the armies of the living God.

And moreover, David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go, and the Lord be with you. Now, David's confidence so moved King Saul, I believe, that he quickly agreed to send out David, this mere youth, this teenager. He sent him out as Israel's champion to fight Goliath.

My question is, what made this teenager, this David, so confident? Where did he get his confidence from? This is a huge problem, a huge trouble. He wasn't looking forward to this. Where did he get his confidence from?

David knew he could trust God, and we need to appreciate what that means. David's resolve to face Goliath just didn't materialize, you know, poof, out of nowhere. That's not the way it happened, I believe. His confidence, his resolve to fight Goliath, did not automatically appear from nothing. David knew God could protect him against this beast of a pagan because God had protected him many times before against the lions and bears, as he has just said. David's personal experience, since, what, a boy, I guess, because he's only a teenager now, his experience had taught him to trust God completely when facing troubles. But could there have been much more than just personal experience underlying David's trust in God? I think there is. Although David was still just a teenager, I think his trust in God was also based upon his understanding of God's Word. It just wasn't experience. He knew about God's Word. He knew he had been taught something about God. Let's turn to Psalm 71. Psalm 71. Read a few scriptures here.

Psalm 71, you're going to find, does not have a title. There is no subtitle. There's no references to who wrote this psalm.

But tradition holds the Septuagint and other versions, older versions of God's scriptures. The tradition holds, and most scholars believe, that David wrote this psalm as well. It's not David, a young man, that wrote this psalm 71 then. It's David as an old man looking back, looking back in hindsight to his youth. Notice what the psalmist says here in Psalm 71 verses 5 through 6. Verse 5, For you are my hope, O eternal God, you are my trust from my youth. For you I have been upheld from birth. You are he who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of you. And also, let's look at verse 17. O God, you have taught me from my youth. And to this day I declare your wondrous works. I believe David wrote this psalm, although I can't prove it. It doesn't say his name here, but tradition holds he did. It would set with what we know about David. Now, David would have learned, as a young boy, he would have learned God's commandments from his parents. His parents would have taught him when they walked along the way, when they went to bed at night, and when they arose in the morning. That was the directions from Deuteronomy, how to rear your children. David would have grown up hearing the history of his forebears. They weren't stories, it was history. The history of his forebears, and through them he would have been inspired to trust God. He would have listened eagerly to the historical accounts of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would have listened to the history of Joseph and his dreams, facts, not fiction and fantasy, as the world tries to tell us about these old stories from the Bible. These were facts to him, as they should be to us. So he heard the the history of Joseph and his dreams of Moses, and Joshua, and Caleb, and of Gideon, too. He probably knew the story about Jericho and of Rahab's trust and faith in God. Rahab was his great-great-grandmother. He would likely have known about the faith of his great-grandparents, Boaz and Ruth. This wasn't storytime, this was history. This is a part of what he was. By the time he was a teenager and then facing down Goliath, I believe David already had a strong relationship with God based upon his life experiences and instruction about God's Word. That's why I believe, would argue, that when David confronted Goliath, his trust in God did not suddenly and instantaneously appear out of nothing. David had been steadily building it and maintaining that trust in God since he was a very little boy.

Now, we know how the story of David and Goliath ends. David uses his shepherd's sling to sink a stone deep into Goliath's forehead. Little boys love the story. It's got the boy stuff in it. But it's not a children's story alone, is it? No. So the stone gets set deep into Goliath's forehead. Goliath crumples to the ground. And then David pulls out the giant's massive sword and cuts off his head. Probably not politically correct, but that's what he did. The Philistines flee and the Israelites give chase. And David praised God for his victory over Goliath, and he was right to do so. But David's victory had been essentially assured before he ever saw Goliath. Why? David had already learned to trust God to deliver him from his troubles, including those obnoxious, giant-sized ones. Maintaining a close relationship with God gave David the confidence to manage life's unexpected troubles. This would come in handy in his later years if you continue to read about David in his life. We need to follow young David's example. When we build a routine of daily prayer and Bible study and maintain that constant relationship with God through prayer, our attitude and way of thinking is going to change. We will become more hopeful and positive because we're nourishing our hearts and minds on God's wholesome spiritual food. It's not junk food.

Staying close to God, taking in of his nourishment, that helps us keep our selfish attitudes and our own fears in check. With God's Word always fresh and our hearts and minds, we're going to find it easier to deal with these unexpected troubles that come our way. You know what they are. That flat tire when you're trying to get to work on time. That pop quiz in English that you didn't know was coming.

Bad news on the phone from the kids. Or even that very pleasant traffic cop. Yeah, unexpected troubles. Having a vibrant and close relationship with God will steady our hearts and minds so that even larger troubles, such as losing our job, or a car accident, or a serious medical diagnosis, won't send a screen like those witless mice.

We must build and maintain a close relationship with God like young David did. That was lesson one. So we can handily manage the unexpected troubles of life. We can do this. Lesson number two. Do your best to prepare for trouble and trust God with the rest. Do your best to prepare for trouble and trust God with the rest. Some troubles are like Goliath.

They come at us unexpectedly. But other troubles we can see headed our way long, long before they actually arrive. For example, we can see that our nation's economy is headed for financial disaster. Some 18 trillion dollars now in counting in the national debt. Trillion dollars. 18 trillion. This financial tsunami is what economists call it, is headed our way.

It's going to happen. Could we be doing anything to protect ourselves from this financial disaster or this trouble we can see coming down the road? Well, perhaps we could try to eliminate our own debt. And improve our spending habits. Maybe we can simplify our way of life. That would be wise for us to do in this case.

Yet even those actions will probably still not be enough to protect ourselves financially. It won't be enough. It's too big. On the other hand, we could do nothing. Ring our hands and wait for the disaster to come. And some people do choose to do that in our society. A better way, a more effective way to deal with troubles, those troubles that we can see headed our way, is to prepare for them the best we can, do all we can, and then turn to God and trust Him to do the rest, to deal with those things we can't cope with.

They're too big and much for us. I'd like for us to look an example to back up this point. 2 Chronicles 32. In 2 Chronicles 32, I'm going to read about an incident concerning King Hezekiah. 2 Chronicles 32. When we look at verse 1, we find that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has decided to invade Israel. Excuse me, invade Judah, in this case. He's already dealt with Israel. He's invading the kingdom of Judah. For seeing the threat to Jerusalem, King Hezekiah did not sit there and wring his hands in despair, but he quickly decided to take action.

Let's read in verse 2, and see what did Hezekiah do. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. Verse 4, Thus many people gathered together, who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water? And he strengthened himself, built up the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers.

And Hezekiah built another wall outside. He also repaired the milo in the city of David, and he made weapons and shields in abundance. And then Hezekiah set military captains over the people, gathered them together to him in the open square of the city gate. And he gave his people encouragement, saying, Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid, nor dismayed, before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him. What could he be talking about? And with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. Hezekiah took action. Nowadays, we'd say he was being proactive. He did not fret in idleness and do nothing. He consulted with the people that knew how to get things done. He turned to his leaders. He got organized.

He strengthened the city's fortifications. He prepared the troops and materials of war. He blocked up the water sources from the invading army. He was not going to let them have an advantage over him if he could help it. He did his best to defend his people from the vastly superior force of the Assyrian army. And then, most importantly, he exhorted the people. Trust God. Trust God for deliverance. Hezekiah prepared for the trouble, headed his way. But ultimately, he trusted God for victory.

Troubles come, however, and they don't always go away very quickly, do they? They sure don't. And neither did the Assyrian army. Once invading force encircled Jerusalem, Hezekiah had a different sort of problem. Same one, but it was changing. Hezekiah had to deal with the temptation to surrender to the enemy, to stop trusting in God, and to cave in, to give up.

Sinacharib, we see in verse 10, Sinacharib sent his deputy with a dire message to Hezekiah and his people. Today, we call this propaganda. Verse 10, the messenger said, Thus says Sinacharib, king of Assyria, in what do you trust that you remain under siege in Jerusalem? Skipping down to verse 13, Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands?

Were the gods of the nations of those lands in any way able to deliver their lands out of my hand? Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you like this, and do not believe him.

For no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand? Furthermore, his servant spoke against the eternal God and against his servant Hezekiah. Verse 17, he also wrote letters. So not only was he giving verbal propaganda, it sounds like he was writing things and making a literary campaign to get the word out, this propaganda to turn their backs on Hezekiah and God.

Verse 17, he also wrote letters to revile the eternal God of Israel and to speak against him, saying, as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people from my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand. What a discouraging message! But what arrogance towards the living God! Hezekiah knew what to do, though. He knew what to do. He knew what to do with his ever-increasing troubles, and with that letter, too. And I find this interesting. Let's turn to 2 Kings 19.

There is a 2 Kings rendition of the same story.

2 Kings 19 puts it a little more succinctly. 2 Kings 19. Let's look here. 2 Kings 19. Let's see what Hezekiah did with that letter.

2 Kings 19, verse 14.

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the carobim, you are God, you alone.

I'm going to stop there because Hezekiah knew there were no other gods. Those aren't gods that did not deliver the other people to Zhenach. They were pieces of rock, sticks, hollow images, junk, a chunk of wood. That is no god.

And Hezekiah knew it, and so do we.

You are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear.

O eternal, and hear. Open your eyes, O eternal, and see. And hear the words of Sennacher, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

Truly, Lord, the kings of Israel have laid waste to the nations in their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood, and stone. Therefore, they destroyed them.

Now therefore, O eternal God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the eternal God. You alone, you alone, are God. And Hezekiah humbly and wisely placed his trouble before God.

In this situation, he literally placed the Assyrian's arrogant letter before God, spread it out right there in front of him.

Years ago, when I was struggling with exams and working on my degrees, I can't tell you how many times I would take an assignment or a paper and do the very same thing. I thought, if this works for Hezekiah and his troubles, it's going to work with me.

I'll tell you another secret from some of the speakers.

There's a lot of times we go to God the same way, don't we? We take our notes, we take our Bibles, and they're on our knees, and we ask God, please help us write a sermon.

Give us something to feed the brethren with. It works. If you haven't tried that, tell your kids.

Take a research paper before God. See if he won't help you. I think he will.

It works. Okay, that was a digression. Back.

This does work.

So he placed his trouble before God. He put the letter before God.

I think it's neat. He's presenting his case with evidence before the judge of the universe.

And he pleaded for God's mercy, and God heard him and delivered Jerusalem in a miraculous way.

God did for Hezekiah, you see, and his people what they could not do for themselves. Let's look at verse 35.

Let's see, am I in the same place?

Yeah, same chapter. 2 Kings 19.35.

And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Eternal, the Lord, went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand.

One hundred and eighty-five thousand.

And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead.

Pretty impressive miracle.

This is exciting when you read about it. Look what God can do when his people face troubles.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home and remained at Nineveh.

Of course, God wasn't done yet. And it came to pass when Sennacherib was worshiping in the temple of Nesrock, his God, that his sons, Adremilech and Sharizer struck him down with a sword, and he escaped from the land of Ararat.

And then Ezra had, and his son reigned in his place. God took care of Sennacherib, snuffed him out, took care of that problem for Hezekiah and his people.

Hezekiah anticipated trouble, you see, and prepared it the best way he could. And yet he knew that God was his only real hope of deliverance, not his own human effort.

He trusted God ultimately, and God answered, and God delivered him from his trouble.

Like Hezekiah, we too would be wise to prepare for trouble coming our way before it actually arrives. So perhaps we should strengthen our financial situation before the economy collapses.

Maybe we should fill up the sandbags for the hurricane actually strikes. I don't think one's coming, just a remnant, okay?

Or maybe we should begin to put money aside for the kids' college fund now, while they're just still babies. It's easier to do when they're younger than when they get older. You have less time.

Do all we can now to manage troubles before they strike, and try to do it the best we can.

And yet while we're doing that, know that if we stay close to God, God will be right there with us, and he will intervene as need be to deliver us from the unforeseen troubles, or excuse me, from the forcing troubles coming our way.

So again, lesson two, do your best to prepare for trouble, but trust God with the rest.

Very encouraging.

Lesson three, this one's the harder lesson.

Think of troubles as blessings.

Think of troubles as blessings.

When we obey and trust God, we can be sure that troubles will benefit us spiritually.

Troubles will be good for us.

Sometimes God will choose not to remove the cause of our troubles, or even the suffering that comes along with it. Think we've all experienced that.

God knows what is best for us.

He knows what we need to experience, what we need to undergo, in order to develop his righteous character, in order to become more like he is.

He wants us in his kingdom, and he's going to do what it takes to help us get there.

Sometimes trouble is part of the getting there.

That's not always what we want.

When troubles hit us, we just want it over and done with, don't we? Okay, come on, let's get it over with. I'm tired of this.

Been half a day. I want it done.

Maybe God wants you to suffer whatever it is for a month or two? Years?

While we focus on the immediate present, and of ridding ourselves of troubles, God's view is eternal.

His view is eternal.

Those troubles we're struggling with can help us grow spiritually, you see.

Quite naturally, we don't like troubles, and the suffering, and the distress, all the mayhem that ensues sometimes.

But they benefit us if we stay close to God and trust Him. They will benefit us if we stay close to God and trust Him.

The Apostle Paul faced this situation with his own trouble, a trouble he called the thorn in the flesh.

And Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 12. Let's all turn there, please. 2 Corinthians 12.

2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10.

Now, Strong's definition tells us that the Greek word for thorn simply means a point or prickle. Typically, it's a bodily annoyance.

Obviously, that's why we call it a thorn.

It's a sticker. It's like a sticker.

And if you've ever had a sticker, I've had a thorn from a rose bush in my thumb.

That hurt for months.

It was just a little thorn, but it just seemed not to want to get out of my thumb very well. It was really annoying.

What was Paul's thorn in the flesh?

I know Dr. Ward touched upon this sermon or two ago.

I was nervous I thought he was going to take my sermon idea, but he didn't.

So, I'm coming back to what he just touched upon briefly then.

What was Paul's thorn in the flesh? No one knows, as Dr. Ward said. Nobody really knows. But it caused him some physical irritation, pain, and a good deal of suffering.

It's kind of fun to go see what scholars think it was.

Some think it was a kidney stone.

How do you get that? How do you get that out of the scripture? I don't know.

I know if you've had them and some of you have. I hear it's bad. I haven't yet.

Some think it was a nerve disorder. Some thought it was stuttering. Others, eye problems. Others thought it was an earache. I think sometimes, you know what I think is going on? I think sometimes we take our problems and say, Paul had what I had.

The point is, it was a thorn in the flesh. It was an irritating thing, just like we all have. Now, others also suggest perhaps it was a lust of the flesh. Perhaps it was a sin that he was constantly having to struggle with. He was human. And again, we fight with that ourselves.

Whatever it was, God allowed it to persist and test his attitude.

Just as God allowed Satan to test Job and his attitude, we know God does that sometimes. He lets things persist.

Let's read here, then, 2 Corinthians 12, 7-10.

Here's what Paul wrote about this. Paul says, verse 7, Unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations and teachings, and what are you sharing? A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Again, it was an affliction, a trouble, just like God had allowed to pester Job.

Paul seems to see this as something God has allowed to happen to him.

It was a thorn in the flesh given to me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the eternal three times, with the Lord, three times, that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect and weakness.

An incredibly important line.

Therefore, Paul continues, Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God never took that thorn in the flesh away from Paul.

Paul knows it was because it kept him humble. It prevented him from having spiritual pride.

I find it interesting in verse 7 that Paul says that it was given to him. It was given to me, he says.

Paul trusted that God would give him something he needed, even this thorn for spiritual benefit.

Now, very few people, very few of us possibly, with time I think we do understand this, but few people would see an irritating affliction as a gift.

Thank you, God! This is what I really wanted today.

Boy, that's hard to say, isn't it?

But Paul did. Paul understood that thorny trouble kept him humanly weak and humble, and hence more willing to trust and to stay strong in God. God will not always relieve us from our troubles and suffering.

Not immediately. We know in time he will in the resurrection.

But this is a sobering truth Paul understood and appreciated.

But do we have Paul's approach and attitude?

Do we trust God to use troubles to make us stronger spiritually?

Now, I'm not saying we should choose to suffer if we can avoid it. Paul tried to avoid suffering. I'm not encouraging us just to see how much suffering you can take on. That's not it. You go to God. If you're ill, we're told to seek an anointing from the elders. We don't need to suffer, but if for some reason God chooses to let it be, then we have to accept that humbly before God and ask for his help in learning what we need to learn. Paul tried to avoid suffering, playing with God three times to have this affliction removed. But God left it. He told him, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. We've got to trust this. We've got to believe this. We need to pray about this and ask God to help us accept this and to live it.

So, in trouble, what kind of trouble? What kind of trouble? Trouble like job loss, severe illness, family crisis.

Whatever it is seems to stay around no matter how much we pray to God for its removal.

Then we need to trust God that he knows what's best. We must believe that God allows what is best for us to occur, no matter what.

In time, we may come to appreciate it and accept it humbly as a gift like Paul did.

Troubles are a normal part of lives, but thinking of them from God's perspective as a tool to help us develop his righteous character, that right approach will help us deal with the distress and suffering in a more positive way. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but it'll help us accept it more and be humbled by it and have a more positive response to it. In James 1, 2-4, if we turn to God and trust God, letting him work with this, and the distress and troubles help us develop his righteous character, who knows? We might even come to rejoice in troubles.

That's what James says we should do.

James 1, 2-4.

James says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking, nothing.

Let's turn forward a few pages and also notice 1 Peter 4, 12. 1 Peter 4, 12. 1 Peter 5, 12.

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. Don't be shocked when bad things happen to us.

But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. And also, one more, 1 Peter 5, 10. Probably across the page. 1 Peter 5, 10. Peter writes, But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, perfect, established, strengthen, and settle you. He's called us to his eternal glory. He's called us to eternal life to put on glorious bodies, bodies that will never feel pain anymore.

Can we accept troubles and sufferings as blessings?

That's what we're exhorted to do.

We can, I believe, in that true perspective of what troubles are about, will help us manage anything that comes our way.

Lesson number four.

Stay focused on God and the purpose of our calling. Ties in nicely, what we were just talking about.

Stay focused on God and the purpose of our calling.

The troubles we undergo will make us better and stronger in Christ, if we stay close to God, as we've discussed.

Now, this sort of discipline, and I'm not talking punishment, but rigor. It's like spiritual gymnastics. It's spiritual exercise. It's what we need to go through to be better. This sort of discipline allows God to perfect us, to smooth away our rough edges spiritually, and to make us better instruments in his hands.

And it's all according to his purpose.

During times of greatest trouble, such as when others challenge our belief in faith, God needs to know whether we will endure faithfully with him, or will we seek relief elsewhere from our troubles and turn away from him.

When trouble strikes, will we compromise God's truth? God has to know that. He has to know what we will do.

The apostles went through this sort of intense pressure and testing early in their ministry, and we're going to read about that in Acts 5. I turn with me, please, to Acts 5. In Acts 5, verse 12, let's notice how mindly Christ was working with the apostles, first of all, to build his church. Acts 5, verse 12. And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people.

Verse 14. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing might fall on some of them.

And also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits. And they were all healed. Apparently, just the shadow of Peter falling across a sick person was enough to heal them. How incredible! God did this through the apostles because he was providing a powerful witness to the masters of the name and authority of Jesus Christ. The early stages of building his church, he wanted people to know where his authority was, who he was working with. And even though the apostles were working miracles, only God could do. What did the Jewish leadership think of this?

They hated it, hated it, and hated them. They hated the apostles for their good works, just as they had hated Jesus Christ. And in anger, they threw the apostles into prison.

But the same night they threw them in prison, let's skip down and look at verse 19. But that same night that they had been thrown in prison by these angry Jewish leaders, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out.

And he said to them, Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. I think it's great how God would not let his efforts be stymied by the Jewish leadership.

What a miraculous intervention. Talk about being pumped up. Wouldn't that be very encouraging to you?

Now, encouraging that was for the apostles. Now, the next morning, the officers did not find the apostles in the prison where they left them, much to the leaders' astonishment. And finally, someone spotted the apostles teaching in the temple. Just as the angel had told the apostles to do.

The officers, a little more humbly this time, I think, escorted them back to the council of the Sanhedrin. Let's pick up the storyline, verse 27. They were in front of the Sanhedrin.

When they brought them, they set them before the council, verse 27, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? Wouldn't even say the name of Jesus Christ. This name. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. This statement of theirs is very ironic. Very ironic, isn't it?

If you remember, it's the Jewish leaders who wanted Christ's blood upon them. Remember? And they said, Let this man's blood be upon us.

Matthew 27, 24, Pilate washed his hand, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.

You see to it, he told the Jewish leaders. And all the people answered, His blood be on us and our children. Now they're saying, You're trying to put this man's blood on us. No, you asked for it. That's how I would say it. Their words here in verse 28 also bear a second ironing, don't they?

You see, blood's Christ's blood. Christ's blood of sacrifice was on them. And also in all humanity. Jesus Christ died for them, those that hated Him, in all humanity. Isn't that ironic? We don't want this man's blood on us. And Christ said, In time, they'll come to understand, won't they? No, your blood, my blood is on you. That's how I'm willing to forgive you.

But they couldn't comprehend it at the time. So again, verse 28, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this man's name?

Verse 29, But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

We ought to obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him, God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

These leaders were hearing the gospel message of salvation.

They didn't want to hear it.

And we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

And when they heard this, the leaders heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them.

Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the apostles were not killed, but beaten and released. In verse 40, the Sanhedrin commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and then let them go.

The apostles departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

Did they stop preaching in the name of Jesus Christ? Did they stop preaching the gospel message of salvation?

Absolutely not. And daily in the temple, in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

So as we can imagine, the apostles had undergone a tremendous testing.

They had just endured troubles, the likes of which few, if any of us, have ever undergone.

They had been arrested, imprisoned, condemned by the community and the community leaders.

Death threats had been thrown at them, and severe beatings.

Why? Because they refused to disobey God.

They obeyed God first and foremost, and they rejoiced in their troubles.

Why? Why did they rejoice in the troubles?

I think they were somewhat relieved with themselves that through this hard test, they did it. We did it! We stayed true to God. We didn't cave in. I didn't know if we would.

We didn't. They had remained faithful and committed to God throughout this prolonged trial upon them, this trouble. They did not waver. They remained loyal to Christ and refused to deny Him or His gospel. They stayed true to God. They never hesitated. They never came up with an excuse and never said, well, the angel told us to do this. No. Yeah, the angel told him to do it. Yeah, they did. But to get the sense they gladly did it, because they were so filled with what they knew of Christ, they'd witnessed it, they'd seen it, they'd been with Him. They had kept their commitment to the Father and to Jesus Christ.

We are promised that trouble will come upon us because of our faith in God.

They hated me, Christ said, they will hate you. When trouble for our faith comes, we must remain true to God and to the reason for our calling.

You know, employers may threaten us with the loss of our job for keeping God's holy days.

Some of us have gone through that. Will we trust God if that happens? Will you trust God if it happens to you?

You know, our peers, maybe friends at school, may mock us and ridicule us for observing the Sabbath instead of going to the school functions. You know, you didn't go to homecoming. What an idiot! What a loser! Just because you went to your church, it happens.

Will you stay? Will we stay true in our hearts to God?

Activists may suddenly swarm us at our place of business one day and pressure us to support the latest Godless agenda.

I don't know what's left. The gay agenda is gone, transgenderism is gone, abortion. Abortion, you know, what's left to get on the bandwagon for?

They do that sometimes. They'll swarm with their cameras and ask you, do you agree with this? And you say no, next thing you know, you're on YouTube somewhere. Look what an evil person the so-called Christian is.

Will you cave in when pressured by the latest newest Godless agenda?

And we've seen enough of the world out there. It's going to get worse, I'm afraid.

Someday, captors may threaten us with knives held at our throats, threaten to kill us if we do not disavow our love for the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.

Will we renounce God at that time? Real troubles exist for those whom God calls. But God calls us to endure through the troubles of life, no matter what they may be, and to keep our eyes focused on the eternal glory He is offering us to have. We are called to become children of God. When troubles hit, that's what we have to focus on.

We must learn the lesson of the apostles and let nothing sway us from our trust and hope in God.

We must obey God and not men, no matter what they may do to us. Now again, as I said at the beginning, there are many more lessons, many, many more lessons dealing with troubles that we can find in the pages of God's holy scriptures.

I encourage you to dig in the Bible and find other lessons about dealing with trouble, handling trials, the distress. God wants you to get close to Him, to study His Word, to gain lessons from His Word, to share them with your children, to share them with your grandchildren, with your neighbors, to share with us your brothers and sisters in Christ. Try to add to this list of four I gave you today. Build and maintain a close relationship with God. Do your best to prepare for trouble and trust God with the rest. Think of troubles as blessings. That one, yeah, we're going to work on that one, aren't we? And stay focused on God and the purpose of our calling. So troubles, you got troubles? Yes, we will have troubles until the day we die, but God will help us through every one of them until they're gone.

One day, all the troubles will be gone. Can't wait. I absolutely cannot wait for that. Until that time, we've got to set troubles of life in the proper perspective. One last scripture, 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4.

2 Corinthians 4 verse 17. This is a proper perspective we need to keep. That's what Paul is exhorting us to do. And I'm going to read this one from the New Living Translation.

Paul writes, For our present troubles are small, and they won't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now. Instead, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

So, brethren, let's look beyond the troubles of this present, sometimes miserable life of ours, and remain true to the purpose of our calling, to receive eternal life in the kingdom of God.