Tragedy and Triumph

Beautiful. Thank you very much. Very inspirational. I really appreciate all the effort that went into that. Thank you so much. Well, I'm not Ed Smith. If you're reading your announcement bulletin, I'm not him. I'm not quite that tall, not quite that animated as Mr. Smith. But I did agree to take his place this morning. The Smiths had a kind of rough week this week.

Their air conditioner went out. And so if you can imagine, the beautiful weather that we've been having can work against you when the air conditioner's not working. And so they've had a hard time getting that repaired. And of course, when you're hot and having to deal with all of those things, it's hard to get the rest that you need and hard to get other things done. And so it's been a tough time.

So pray for the Smiths that the weather would be just cool enough, especially in the evenings, that they could get the rest that they need. They get that air conditioner fixed as soon as possible, too. They can get the repairmen over there. Of course, they're here, of course. They wouldn't miss. And so it's good to see them.

But I thought, okay, we'll jump in and try to help out a little bit because sometimes unexpected things come up. They seem to happen. And it seems like we're oftentimes faced with challenges. Doesn't life seem to work that way sometimes? In fact, I was thinking the other day about this passage. It's over in 1 Kings 8, verse 10. 1 Kings 8, verse 10 is one of these sections of Scriptures.

It's so inspiring, like the special music that we heard. It just really lifts you up and encourages you. You're just ready to go because it's so inspirational. 1 Kings 8, verse 10 is a section of Scripture where the temple is being dedicated. 1 Kings 8, we find Solomon and all of Israel gathered before this brand-new temple. Finally, they've come out of the wilderness. They built a permanent home for God.

What a fantastic blessing! And here Solomon is dedicating that temple. He says right here in verse 10, it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord. So the priests couldn't continue ministering because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. What a remarkable experience this would have been! Can you imagine the inspiration that would have been? There probably was a little hesitancy while we carried around this tent for the last 40 years.

Is God really going to put His presence here with us? And boom, here it comes, this unbelievable cloud. And it was so difficult to see. They had to break services early. All right, don't pray for a cloud right now. We'll try to finish services. But they had to stop, it says. They had to quit ministering, quit serving because the glory of the Lord filled the house.

Wow! What a remarkable triumph for the people of God, that God was with them. In fact, you look down to verse 22, here Solomon standing before the altar of the Lord, it says, in the presence of all the assembly, and he spread out his hands toward heaven. And he says, Lord God of Israel, there's no God in heaven above or on earth below like you.

You who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants, who walk before you with all their hearts. So here Solomon is dedicating the temple of God. He knows God has been with them. Look down to verse 54, so it was when Solomon finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up toward heaven.

And he stood and blessed all the assembly with a loud voice, saying, Blessed be the Lord, who's given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. And you remember, that was the promise from Egypt. The promise was rest. Rest, finally, in this land that we heard about a little bit earlier, land flowing with milk and honey, this beautiful, wonderful, sticky place. Well, no, it wasn't sticky. Not that much honey. But God fulfilled his promise of rest, and this was a triumph, a fantastic victory that God awarded to his people by keeping his promise.

Wouldn't it be great if life was always like that? We have a tendency to think that way, don't we?

But when you go back a little bit further, look at 2 Kings 25, verse 8. Did it continue that way for Israel?

I think we know the story of Israel. We know that when there were good kings, things went pretty well. When there were bad kings, they started to go downhill, and that eventually continued to decline as the kings became worse and worse and more numerous, until finally, God had to intervene. He had to intervene. So here in 2 Kings 25, Israel has been long gone. Here we are at verse 8, 2 Kings 25, and in verse 8, we see a devastating event. Absolutely devastating for the people of God. Look at verse 8 of 2 Kings 25. It says, in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the guard, or the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. This wasn't a friendly visit. What did he do? Verse 9, he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house, all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great he burned with fire. Here we have the destruction of that temple that Solomon had been dedicating just a few years earlier. Devastating events, unbelievable events, tragic events. Just tear your heart out to see that.

Now, some of us, maybe all of us, have experienced difficulties in our life over the last year. Have there been life events that have happened to us that were devastating? That were just events that just broke your heart? Probably all can identify with events like that. What is our response to those things? What do we do when we're faced with things? Because we want it to be good. We want to be blessed. We want the best. And yet, tragic things happen. Difficult trials occur. Maybe our own personal failures.

Maybe the things that devastate us, that throw us off course, they happen to us. So what can we do about it? What should our response be to tragic events? Well, there's an interesting section of Scripture in the book of Haggai. Probably when you think of trials and difficulties, Haggai is the very first book that comes to mind, right? No, it isn't for me either. But there is an interesting circumstance that I think sets an interesting example for us. Because if we fast forward from this time that we just finished reading about, we started with the awesome dedication of the temple. Then the people eventually were just disobedient to God, worshiped faults, idols, phony gods, terrible kings. The temple is in ruins. The people are carted off into captivity. And yet there comes a time that we read about here in Haggai where God wants to change things. He wants to bring people out of their captivity. So right here at the very beginning of the first chapter of Haggai, we start to read about that. It says, in the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, the high priest. Well, what did God say? Verse 2. Thus speaks the Lord of hosts. This people says, the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. God says, rebuild my temple.

And what was the people's reaction? No. It's not time for that. Are you kidding? We're in captivity! We can't be rebuilding anything. Look where we're at! That's impossible! Are you kidding me? We can't do that. And yet, what does God say? Look at verse 3. The word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple to lie in ruins?

Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. In fact, he says it again. Verse 7. Consider your ways. Go, bring wood, build the temple. Don't have your own selfish ways at heart. That's what he says in verse 6. Do you think you're warmed and filled? Do you think you're so comfortable in your houses? Do you think you've got it made? While the temple is in ruin, he says, that's unacceptable! Unacceptable! He says, my house, the end of verse 9, is in ruins. While every one of you, you're one, you're running to your own house. You've got a house, but God says, where's my house?

Which one's more important? God's telling them. God's house is so much more important. And so, he tells them, rebuild my house. Why didn't they do it? Why were they so fearful? Why were they so selfish? Why were they so self-centered? Well, their focus became material things. Look how well off we are. Things aren't so bad here. Yeah, we're not in Jerusalem, but this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. We're actually doing pretty well, I think. So they had this material focus.

They had this self-centered focus, while the temple was in ruins. You see, their thinking became atrophied. They lost their perspective. In fact, I heard an interesting story, a true story. It was about the Soviet cosmonauts. If you've been around for a while, you probably remember back in the day when the United States and Russia were in this competition in space. First it was, who could get to the moon? Who could put up some kind of spaceship that could circle the Earth?

Who would orbit the Earth first? That's where it started. Then it was the next thing. Who could go to the moon? Who could be up in space the longest? Well, the Soviets sent some cosmonauts up, and they sent them there for 211 days. They were up in that mere space station.

That's like seven months! Seven months they were up in space. They broke the world record for the longest amount of time spent in space. Of course, if you remember, the cosmonauts, when they re-land, they landed on ground, when they'd bounce along. They went there, and they went to get them out. I don't know if any of you had seen any footage from that. When they finally got those astronauts or those cosmonauts out from the space capsule, those cosmonauts stood up and walked out and greeted everyone and waited.

No, they didn't, did they? Do you remember how they opened that space capsule and they had to carry those cosmonauts out? They couldn't hardly move. They had high pulse rates. Their heart rates were irregular. They were dizzy. They couldn't walk for a week. Because while they were up in space, their muscles atrophied. They were losing muscle mass. They didn't have the muscles they had seven months before that. In fact, it was a month later, they still were under treatment. They were undergoing therapy in order to get those muscles working better, in order to strengthen their hearts back up to where they should have been. Because without gravity, you know, at zero gravity, those muscles began to waste away.

You see, I think Israel, Judah here, felt that they had it made. They were kind of floating in space over there. And they needed to get back to Jerusalem. They needed to come back to the ground. They needed to get back to earth. They needed to get back to where they really should be living. Now, it is interesting, it was just a few years later that the Russians broke the record again. Their cosmonauts were in space for 326 days.

And yet, when those cosmonauts got out of their space capsule, you know what they did? They did walk out. They were able to wave. They were able to just carry on life. They were in good health. Now, you know what the difference was between those first 211-day cosmonauts and then these 326-day cosmonauts? The difference was a penguin suit. Or at least that's what it became known as. A penguin suit. You know what a penguin suit is? No, it's not a tuxedo, you know, where you have the little bowtie and all that. That can be a penguin suit, too, I think. But a penguin suit was this thing that the Soviets came up with.

It was a suit that they would put on. And running through this suit was all kinds of elastic bands. I mean, I think of it like a bungee. So if you can imagine a suit that was made up with all these strong rubber bands all running through the fabric. So when they would move their arm in space with this suit on, it was almost like a bungee. And so they would have to work to move their arm.

And it would stretch and cause that tension, that resistance, so that their muscle had to work. Otherwise, in zero gravity, it would be simple. It would be no problem. And their muscle would hardly have to do anything in order to move. So because of these elastic bands, they were able to resist that motion, and their muscles didn't atrophy. Their muscles didn't wear out. They didn't begin to waste away, because when they had these suits on, it forced them to exert their strength.

Their hearts didn't wear out. So when they got back to earth, they were fine. So if you think about that in relationship with what's going on here with God's people in Haggai, what happened to their resistance? You see, life was good. It was fine. No big deal. Not that many problems. And yet, they became atrophied. They didn't see the spiritual significance in any of this. So if you catch yourself daydreaming, do you ever catch yourself daydreaming just about a perfect life?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if life was just free and easy? No problems? Everything would just be wonderful. No difficulties. No challenges. No trials. God knows better, doesn't He? Doesn't God know better than that? It seems the easier our life is, the weaker our spiritual fiber. Isn't that the case?

If life is so free and easy, where are we building faith? Where are we growing in grace and knowledge? If you're going to be strong, whether it's your muscles, in this case, with a penguin suit on, it's going to take effort. And it's no different spiritually. Strength grows by exertion.

Tough times come. A difficult situation. Trials face us. But it doesn't have to wear us down. It doesn't have to defeat us. It doesn't have to be a heartbreak or a failure or devastation. Because if we put our faith in the right order, God can bring us through. God can strengthen us. And we can come through on the other side, even in better shape.

So much better off. There's a great section of Scripture over in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. It tells us about these challenges. It tells us about the difficulties we'll face. It shows us that there are going to be tragic times. But what's our response to those things? How do we respond when we're faced with the difficulties? When we're faced with those trials? 2 Corinthians 1, 3 tells us, Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Verse 4 says, He comforts us in all of our triumphs.

No, it doesn't say that. He comforts us in all of our victories. No, it doesn't say that. He comforts us in all of our accomplishments, our successes, our achievements. No, it doesn't say any of those things, does it? He comforts us in all our tribulation. That's our challenges. That's our trials. That's our upheavals. That's our heartbreaks. God's there for us.

Why? So that we never have to have any problems again? No, he says that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That's kind of a tongue-twisting phrase right there. You see, it's not all about me. It's not all about being self-centered like those Israelites had become. It wasn't about them. The fact is, God comforts us and helps us through those challenges, not just so that we can get through them.

Yeah, that's part of it, of course. But the fact is, we're supposed to use that, then, to comfort others, to comfort those who are in any trouble. You see? So God doesn't promise us wonderful, beautiful mornings every single day. He doesn't like that. He doesn't say it's going to be like that in the church, that everything's just going to be perfect all the time.

Not going to happen. He says, verse 5, For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also our consolation abounds through Christ. So if we put on that penguin suit of Jesus Christ, we put on Christ, that's going to prepare us. It's going to make sure that our spiritual muscles aren't worn out, that we're not atrophied, that we're strong in our faith, that we have put on Christ, and then we can be comforted and then comfort others as well. Look at verse 7. Our hope for you is steadfast, Paul writes, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

There's going to be sufferings. There's going to be difficulties. The Bible even says we're called to suffering. So when it happens, we shouldn't be surprised about it. It shouldn't be any shocking development. It's how we handle those things that are the most important, isn't it? How do we handle those things? I was reading the other day about how life was at the turn of the century, and I ran across an interesting story. It never occurred to me before, but it was a story about southern farmers.

They were talking about the terrible difficulties that they faced around the turn of the century. And this particular story focused on Alabama. And Alabama was a great cotton-growing area of the country. They grew cotton every single year. It was the most profitable thing they could do. It was a wonderful crop for them. Well, back in the early 1900s, there were some difficulties that came about. They'd pop their ground, plant as much cotton as possible, and they lived by that cotton year after year after year, until the dreaded bowl weevil came along.

Guess what bowl weevil's like? That was a hard question, wasn't it? Cotton! You guessed it! What happened to the crops? Devastated. Absolutely devastated. Guess what the farmers did the next year? Plowed up their ground? What do you think they planted? You guys are sharp. They planted cotton! That's what they know! We know cotton! They planted cotton! They mortgaged their homes. They sold as much as they could.

They planted that cotton. The harvest time came along, but so had the bowl weevil. And so, guess what happened? Another year of just crops that were totally wiped out. Most of the farms after that second year were gone. People just couldn't survive. But something interesting happened with those who were able to get by those first two years.

They learned something. They learned something. They figured, well, if we do this again, what do you think will happen? Well, that bowl weevil wasn't going anywhere. There wasn't the unbelievable pesticides that we have today. So they decided, we'd better do something different. And they planted something they had never planted before. Cotton! No, it wasn't cotton. Peanuts. They planted peanuts. And you know what the result was? The result was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. These peanuts, they were so hardy.

And there was such a demand for peanuts in the country. If you were able to survive those two years and able to plant peanuts, the harvest from that third year was so unbelievable that these farmers were able to pay off their debts that they had incurred from the last two years. And they just were unbelievably profitable. And so it was just an amazing story. And the results of that, to me, it was pretty surprising.

You know what they did? These farmers in that section of Alabama decided that because they had been blessed so thoroughly, that they were going to erect a monument in the town square. And so do you know what they erected the monument to? Not the peanut. It wasn't to the peanut. In fact, it's a monument still there today. It's of this lady, and in some ways it reminds you of the Statue of Liberty in one sense, because it's this lady all in flowing gowns, and she's got her hand in the air. You say, okay, what's that got to do with anything? Well, do you know what her hand is holding?

No, it's not a shining lamp guiding the huddled masses like the Statue of Liberty. She's got her hand up in the air, and here is this bigger-than-life sized bull weevil. That seems a little odd. I mean, that is really odd. Well, I looked up about this monument a while back, and in fact, there's a little plaque that's right near that lady holding this bull weevil. Here's a little picture of it. And in fact, here's what it says. In profound appreciation of the bull weevil, and what it has done as the herald of prosperity, that this monument was erected by the citizens of Enterprise, Alabama.

Isn't that amazing? They erected a monument to the bull weevil. Because if it hadn't been for the bull weevil, they never would have discovered peanuts. They never would have really discovered their full potential. They never would have got to the point that they could be totally self-sufficient. It is a fantastic story, and they learned the lesson that out of unbelievable tragedy can come fantastic encouragement, fantastic triumph. Out of disaster comes delight. Out of difficulty comes prosperity. As long as you learn that lesson.

You see, the lesson was, it's time to build. It's time to move forward. It's not time to quit. It's time to readjust and find new ways to do things. You see, that's what the difficulties taught them. It taught them there's more to do. There's greater things that lie ahead.

Now, you think that lesson is any different for us spiritually? I think it's exactly the same. I think it's exactly the same lesson that God was trying to show His people back in the day of Haggai that, hey, there's more to do. It's time to move forward. It's not time to sit there and think everything's all finished and you don't have to do anything and spiritually atrophy away. It's time to move forward. It's time to get going. It's time to do things in a bigger, better way.

That was the lesson God was trying to teach, and I think He still is teaching us. Remember what Paul wrote to Timothy? I think he wrote it to us as well. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, right at the very beginning of that chapter, here the Apostle Paul is writing to the young minister, Timothy, giving him instruction. I'm pretty sure by extension he's giving us that instruction as well. He's telling us what our perspective should be. We're pretty familiar with this section of Scripture, I think, but think of the context of what Paul's trying to tell Timothy as far as his perspective.

2 Timothy 4, verse 1, he says, "'I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom.'" So he's telling him, you need to do this. What does he need to do? Sit back, relax, don't worry. Everything's going to be perfect. Well, no, it doesn't say that at all, does it? He says, "'Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.'" He says, "'The time will come when they will not endure,' sound teaching." He says, "'It's not the time to relax, it's the time to move forward, it's the time to get to work.'" Look at verse 5.

He says, "'You be watchful in all things, endure.'" Afflictions. "'Do the work.'" Timothy specifically, "'Do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.'" He says, "'I'm being poured out as a drink offering, my time's about done, my departure is at hand.'" He says, "'I've fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith.'" You see, Paul never gave up. He never took for granted the good times, and he never settled for the bad times.

You see, that urged him on. If Paul would have given up, boy, he could have given up so many times. Maybe after the first shipwreck, second one, the first stoning, the second stoning, the first beating, the second floor. When would he have given up? Well, he saw God in all of those difficulties, and he saw it as an opportunity. You know, where do you go from here? What's next? How do I deal with this?

And the lesson's the same for us today. You know, if we're faced with loss, if we're faced with sickness, we're faced with challenges in the church. When we're depressed, when we're faced with sickness, faced with death, perhaps. You see, those aren't easy things. We're not shortchanging the difficulty in those things. We're not saying, oh, buck up. No, we're not saying that at all. Those are life-changing events. But it should refocus us. It should redirect our thinking, because God gets our attention by those things.

We get refocused that God's way is most important. God says, pay attention. So when those life-changing events happen, I think it's a fantastic opportunity to realize God wants us to follow Him. God is leading us. You know, are we following? Because like those peanut farmers in Alabama, I think God's preparing us for something big. I think that's where we're at right now. God's prepared us for something big. I mean, is this the first time He's done something like this? I don't think so. I mean, we looked at the example of Solomon, we looked at the example of the captivity, we looked at the example of Haggai.

But boy, we could go to different examples over and over. Look at Abraham. Was he preparing Abraham for something big? How about Lot?

Was he preparing him for something big? How about Jacob? How about Moses? How about Joshua? How about the prophets? How about the judges? How about the crucifixion? Just go on and on and on and on.

God prepares His people for something big. And so here we are. Life-changing events have happened to every single one of us. This happened to God's church.

So I think it's time to be ready to follow, because something big is on the horizon. I think God allows situations, struggles, trials, difficulties to offer opportunity. And He opens a door for His greater accomplishment in us becoming more like Jesus Christ and in His work as well. Look at Philippians 3, verse 8.

Philippians 3, verse 8.

Boy, I'd love to have this perspective that the Apostle Paul has. I think as we grow in God's mercy, His grace, submitting to His Spirit more thoroughly, I hope I can have this perspective that Paul had to the degree that he had this.

Isn't this fantastic? Look at the way Paul fought. Philippians 3, 8. He says, Indeed, I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of not just a little bit, but of all things. And not only that, look at his perspective on this. He says, I count those things as rubbish. That's just trash. That's garbage.

He says that I may gain Christ. Gain Christ. Verse 10, he says that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. He says, Not that I'm there yet, not quite there yet, but I press on.

Because every time I'm faced with these challenges, it encourages me. It inspires me not to give up, not to be satisfied with where I'm at, but he says very specifically, I press on when I'm faced with those difficulties, so I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. In other words, I picture Christ has got His hand on my shoulder, and He's not going to let go. And I'm not going to let go of Him. I'm going to press on. I'm going to continue. I'm going to face those difficulties knowing who's supporting me, who's encouraging me, in whose hands I am.

I'm going to remember that penguin suit of Jesus Christ. That isn't going to let me atrophy. And I'm not going to let go, and He's not going to let go of me. And I think together, verse 14, we can press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.

I believe that's where we're at, brethren.

That's where we're at. We're positioned for growth. And God has something awesome in mind. I can't wait to see exactly how that's going to play off. But He's ready. He's ready to move us forward. He's ready to preach the gospel to the world, I think.

I think He's ready for us to preach the gospel in our everyday lives, each and every one of us, so that the world could be turned upside down.

So let's be dedicated.

Let's be inspired, even in tragedy, even in difficulties, realizing that God can bring every tragedy to triumph.

Thank you.