Thank you so very much. 15 hour flight from New York to Johannesburg. 15 hour flight. and so leaving Thursday morning. So please be in prayer a long, long day on Thursday, uh, on into, on into Friday. Um, well, God bless you. Take your Bibles please. And, um, I'm going to try to cover a lot of territory in just a little bit of time. So I did have some notes available if you didn't get some, and if you'd like to have some to help you, That'd be fine. If if if not, that's fine, too. But if you if you would like some, I don't know, guys are young guys. I appreciate that. God bless you. Jump up and grab some. I don't know if there's any back there on that table, but they're back there on these other tables. Thank you. Thank you, folks. Just just bear in mind for a moment and and and they will. Okay, here they come. Here they come. All right, you put your hands up now. God bless you, good. How to respond in difficult times. Do you know in the Bible, the word trouble or troubles or troubled, some kind of variation of the word trouble is in the Bible 209 times. The Bible knows what it's like to talk about trouble in troubled times, in difficult times. And so I do hope that we will be blessed by this. Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6. And let's begin reading, please, in verse 24. Oh, thank you, guys. Appreciate your help. Good, good, good. Thank you. Almost, almost got it covered. All right, Matthew chapter six, gonna read several verses here, about 10 verses. Follow along as we read the words of our Savior. The Bible says, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say. Now, look up at me please. This key, this verse is key to understanding the subject he's dealing with after this. It's a key verse. It says, therefore, and so you have to decide who you're going to serve. If you're serving yourself, then forget the next 10 verses. If you're trying to get more than the folks down the street, then forget the next 10 verses. The Bible says that godliness with contentment is great gain. And so, if you adopt hook, line, and sinker, the American mentality of materialism, if that is your God, then this message is not gonna make any sense to you. It really isn't. You have to determine, once and for all, that you're gonna serve Jesus Christ, that He is your King, He is your Lord, and you're gonna serve Him no matter what. So, verse 25, let's read on. Therefore, I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" Pause there for a moment. Jesus is on the side of a hill, okay, on the side of a mount. And he's talking to his disciples and to followers that are with him. Do you hear the tenderness of his voice? He's reasoning with them. Come now, let us reason together. Read on verse 27. Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. I wonder if he picked one up and picked it right in front of him, I wonder. Verse 29, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall not he much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Read aloud verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we look at our world around us and there's battles being fought, there's burdens being carried, there's sorrow in the streets. Lord, I pray now that you would bring peace, but I know that peace only comes from the Prince of Peace. I pray, Lord, that even through tragedy, may you bring glory to your Son. And Lord, I pray that you would help us now as we look into your Word. Lord, would you comfort and would you strengthen, would you equip us, and would you encourage our hearts? Lift up the fallen hands, and I pray, God, that we will go out encouraged with a new plan and desire to serve you. And Lord, I thank you that you have already blazed the trail for us and you've shown us how suffering can come for our good and can go for your glory. May you direct us and guide us. Fill me with your spirit, I pray, anew and afresh. And we give you the praise and the glory for all that you're going to do. In Jesus' name, amen. How to respond? in troubled times. If you do have a page there or something to write on, I'm going to give you something that is not, just by way of introduction, and I'm going to move quickly, but it's not on your notes, but I think it's very helpful. When we're talking about suffering, when we're talking about affliction, we're talking about times that no one would necessarily choose, there are three kinds of suffering that a person might have. One could be called common suffering. Common suffering. Now, common suffering, this world is cursed by sin. Common suffering is, I'm sorry, arthritis. Common suffering is, an accident many times. Common suffering is the curse of sin upon this world. And every one of us are going to suffer. The Bible tells us in Nahum 1, verse 7, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him. In common suffering, we must rely on God's goodness, that God is in charge, that He is in control. Romans 8.28 is still in the book. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Things break down, folks. They do. The second law of thermodynamics was not part of the Garden of Eden. all things are wearing down. That means that when the washing machine, when it breaks, and the hot water heater isn't working, and other things just kind of fall apart, it's seemingly sometimes they all go at the same time. Have you ever noticed that? Hence the little phrase, when it rains, it pours. I don't think that Job said that, but he could have. Job chapter 5 verse 7, he said, Yet man is born out of trouble as the sparks fly upward. He also said, Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. So just take the poochie lip and stick it back in, you know, and realize that you're not the only one that's having a hard time. Everyone is going through times of suffering. Everyone has afflictions. We all have medical issues at some point or the other. Except for Enoch and Elijah, you know. These are two guys that didn't have to die. Then you got Lazarus that died twice. I mean, that's just, that's tough, you know. He had to die twice. Resurrected from the dead and he had to do it all over again. Common suffering, rely on God's goodness, that God loves you and He is a good God. Carnal suffering, carnal suffering, that's suffering that happens because of sin in our own life, our own choices, our own, excuse me, stupidity of our life, and choosing against God, and choosing to our own pleasure and our own sin. Let me illustrate. Let's say that somebody is drinking and carousing and all that kind of thing, gets in the car and he's drunk and he's in a car wreck. And as a result of that car wreck, his right arm is severed from his body. Let me tell you something. If that man repents of his sin, God will forgive his sin, but God's not going to regrow that right arm. That's a suffering due to his carnality, due to his fleshly desires and fleshly sins. And there are some things that are results of sin. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. 2 Chronicles 15, 4, I'm glad I can tell you this. But when they, speaking of Israel, in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel and sought Him, He was found of him. Even in the midst of carnal, sinful decisions, I'm thankful that He's still the forgiving God. I'm thankful that He will restore our heart and our fellowship with Him. A carnal suffering. In carnal suffering, we need to repent in God's grace. In common suffering, we need to rely on God's goodness. And then third, Christian suffering. That's when you suffer for the cause of Christ. That's when someone lies about you, misrepresents you. There's a meaning that they just draw and assume and imply certain things based on how they want to try to tear you down. The Bible says that we should not go over in a corner and suck our thumb and say, I quit God. The Bible says we should rejoice in God's glory. If you're jotting things down, 1 Peter 1.7. that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be founded of praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Christian suffering. Rejoice in God's glory. So three different types of suffering that can happen in your life. It helps you if you can categorize, if there's any way to tell what kind of suffering that is. And if you can eliminate whether or not it's God's chastisement upon you, and if you can eliminate that, then it's either usually common suffering or perhaps it's suffering as a result of your testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's my way of introduction, but I think it'll help us. Now, in your notes there, I want to call your attention to something that Jesus said. Number one, don't worry about future troubles. We look at verse 34 in our text, take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient under the day is the evil thereof. You've got enough on your plate right now to handle today than to worry about tomorrow. Philippians 4, 6 says, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. With thanksgiving, thanking God somehow, someway, this thing that you're tempted to worry about, instead of it dragging you down, allow it to lift you up to Jesus Christ. With thanksgiving, thanking God for it in advance. That takes faith. I'll be honest with you, that takes faith. For you to get a gut punch from someone in your family, for you to have something happen to you on the job that was not your fault, for someone to lie about you, and for you to say, thank you, Lord, for allowing that to happen. Don't worry about future trouble. Don't worry about it. Give Him the glory, give Him the praise, and be careful. Don't worry. That's the same word, be careful. The word like anxious, don't be anxious, and that kind of thing. So don't worry about future trouble. God's already in tomorrow. He already sees tomorrow better than we see today. And so don't worry about that. Someone said worry is a rocking chair. Lots of action, but you never get anywhere. Okay? And if you're one that tends to worry, guess what? It's going to eat at you. And it's going to rip a hole somewhere in your body, usually in your stomach, and you're going to be popping pills and trying to stop ulcers and all that kind of thing when Jesus said, Hey, go ahead and go to sleep. I'll take care of it. I'm on the job. Don't worry about future trouble. Number two, don't forget that God must allow trouble. Don't forget that God must allow trouble. Now, what I mean by that is this, that the trouble that comes, He must have allowed it. He must have given His permission slip for it. You see, you're His child. He is omniscient. Nothing happens without His knowledge. And there's nothing that can touch you, touch your life without His knowledge and without His consent. And be careful now. Some people look at that and they say, well then, why God are you doing this to me? Wait a moment. Go back to the key verse that we read a moment ago. Who are you serving? Are you serving God? Or are you serving yourself? Are you serving the things that you grasp? The things that you can hold in your hands? Well, I don't see how God could allow something that's evil to happen to one of His children. I call your attention to 1 Samuel 16, 14. This is talking about King Saul. Remember King Saul? A very odd verse. Listen to it, please. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. It's as if this evil spirit came from the Lord, waving his permission slip, I can get at him. I've got a permission slip, just like he had when he attacked Job. He had a permission slip from God. He had limitations of what he could do to Job. So God allowed this to happen. He allowed it. Say, that's Old Testament. That's Old Testament. We're in a New Testament, all right? How about this? 2 Corinthians 12, 7. Remember the apostle Paul? Remember, he told about how that whenever he was stoned and left for dead, and they believed that he was dead, and sure enough, he was. But God wasn't finished with him yet. And in that twilight, in that moment there, God allowed him, the Bible says, to see into the third heaven. Now, the first heaven is where the clouds are and the birds fly. That's our atmosphere. That's the first heaven. Second heaven, that's where the stars and the planets are. Third heaven, that's in the presence of God. And because of the revelations that he saw, the Bible says the Apostle Paul wrote, he said, lest I should be exalted above measure, Chapter 12 and verse 7, lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. This was a directed messenger of Satan, some evil spirit that God allowed to cause him difficulty. to cause him trouble. Now, unless you believe that God is fully in charge, and unless you believe that God is watching that evil spirit, unless you believe that he's making sure that he only does exactly what the parameters and the properties that he gave him and the allowances that he gave him, you say, well, would God do such a thing? Absolutely. Absolutely. He can do that. He's God. He's sovereign. He did it with Job. And by the way, God never designs and desires to do us harm. He always designs and desires to do us what? Good. And He saw the end from the beginning, and He saw in Job's life, and He saw that glory would be brought to His holy name, and that good would be brought to Job. Read the end of the book and you find that to be true. Don't forget that God has to be the one that gives a permission slip, that he must allow trouble. Number three, don't ridicule others in their trouble. In their times of trouble, don't ridicule them. Romans 12, 14 says, bless them if they persecute you. Bless and curse not. Well, they finally got there, just desserts. Be careful, watch it, watch it. That's a dangerous thing. Now, you see, God is the avenger. God does bring vengeance. 2 Thessalonians 1, 6, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. But that's God's business. And we better keep a humble heart and we better hide behind Jesus Christ and realize that we're not for His grace. There go I. And so never ridicule others. If you see them having trouble and perhaps they're someone that has harmed you or hurt you or something like that, don't rejoice in that. Not even within your heart. There's something wrong with our heart if we do that. There is. It's a selfishness there. Don't ridicule others in their trouble. Number four. Don't close your eyes to others' trouble. It's a little different, a little different. Matthew 5.44 says, But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Now, the last point was, in our heart, getting joy and satisfaction and ridiculing somebody. This is doing good to someone. I mean, they're down, they're hurting, they have needs. And this is someone who troubled you? This is someone who brought pain into your life? Jesus said, love them and do good unto them. You see, it depends on who you're serving. This goes against the human grain. It goes against, you know, everything that seems right to us as human beings. But if I'm serving Jesus Christ, He makes the rules. So don't close your eyes to other's trouble. Oh, I don't see that. God knows exactly what we see and we don't see. Number five, don't be negative about trouble. Don't be negative about trouble. Whenever trouble comes into your life, oh, it's just terrible. I'm just so... I'm being picked on all the time. Let me ask you to think about James 1. Notice verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy. Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. You say, temptations? Yeah, diverse temptations, all kinds of trials, all kinds of temptations. Sometimes you're tempted to doubt God. Sometimes you're tempted to get mad at God. Sometimes you're tempted to quit on God. Sometimes you're tempted to do all kinds of different things. Okay, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, diverse trials, knowing this, that the trying of your faith work with patience. But let patience have her perfect work. that you be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. God is building into us the character of a servant of Jesus Christ, that one day He's going to use you as He has planned to use you for His honor and His glory. It's a patchwork of praise, you might say. Brother Larry over there, he's got one part. One part in that patchwork of praise. Doris has one part in that patchwork of His praise. Now, as we go through our life, now, there's a lot of other people that we touch, a lot of other people we can give a witness to. But there's something special that God prepared Larry to do in this life, in this life. Something special that God prepared Doris to do. Something special that God prepared Sally to do and Russell to do. And when we come to that point, we want to be fully versed, fully prepared for Him to have His way in our life. Hebrews 12, 15 says, looking unto Jesus, lest any man fail, listen, of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Say, what's so important about that verse? Loved one, let me tell you something. Sometimes we can look within ourselves about the things that we're going through and the trials that are going on in our lives, and a person can become bitter. Don't you think for one moment that that bitterness is going to stop with you and your heart. It's going to come out. It's going to come out to your spouse. It's going to come out to your kids. It's going to come out to the people eventually that you sit around that you fellowship with. Eventually, whenever you're just kind of shooting the breeze and just conversing and talking, somebody's going to say something about something that they know about in your life, and the way that you respond is going to affect them. May I say, it's going to infect them. Infect them. And thereby many be defiled. A root of bitterness. A root of bitterness. Folks, I understand that what I'm talking about is something that affects the pulpit and the pew. All of us, all of us, there's none of us that are exempt. Don't be negative about trouble. Give God the praise. Thank Him and praise Him on credit. He's worth it. Number six, don't measure trouble by your ability. God, I can't take it anymore. If you knew how much I've been carrying thus far, of course He does. If you knew all the things that are going wrong in my life, you wouldn't have given this to me too. I found in my own... Can I just share something with you? I found that whenever He brings me to a breaking point, I found that I have needed to depend more fully upon Him. I'm not depending on Mark Sears. He doesn't need Mark Sears. God needs a vessel that He can fill for His honor and His glory. And sometimes He breaks us to the point that we have nothing left so that He can fill us and put us back together again. You've probably heard this story, I don't know. I've never seen one of these vessels. I'd love to. If you all run across them in Africa, I'll pay you whatever it costs, okay? But they tell me that back in these days, and some have in Africa, that they would take a pot, a pottery, like a water vessel, and they would take that, and they would, make it and be beautiful, just gorgeous, and ready to be set out to be used. And then they would take it and drop it on a hard surface and break it into hundreds of pieces. And then they would very carefully pick up those pieces, very carefully, and they would glue those pieces back together and use wax or whatever, and then They would take that and as they masterfully, and they had to know exactly what they were doing, as they masterfully put it all back together and the last piece was in place, then they would set it there on the shelf, not with the other water pots, but with the masterful pieces. And they would take a candle and they put a candle, some kind of light down inside of it and would light that. And not only would they see the beauty of the craftsmanship, they would see how the piece was put back together again. It was broken and the light shining through. What a beautiful picture of what Jesus wants to do, how He can take a broken life and put us back together, and so that the light shines through, through those pieces and through those cracks. Don't measure trouble by your ability. 1 Peter 4, 19 says, Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him and well-doing as unto a faithful creator. In other words, he knows what he's doing. And he knoweth the way that I take. Don't measure trouble by your ability. I don't know if you have these. Don't worry about future trouble. Don't forget that God must allow trouble. Don't ridicule others in their trouble. Don't close your eyes to others. Don't be negative about trouble. Don't measure trouble by your ability and last. Don't think your trouble is forever. I mentioned my dad in the message this morning. My dad told me at one time, he says, favorite verse in all the Bible was this. And it came to pass. And it came to pass. He told me that. Listen, please. I know that we will think that sometimes the problem that happens in our life, and when I say problem, when I say trouble, I mean devastation. The Christians, you have two sons, right? In glory. Two. I don't know what it's like to bury a child. Some of you do, like the Christians do. I have no idea the heartache. I have no idea the heartache of watching a loved one as they waste away to nothing with some type of terrible, disastrous disease. I don't understand a lot of those things that many of you have gone through. But Jesus Christ does. But it is not forever. Not forever. 2 Corinthians 4.17 says, "...for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Our light affliction. Imagine some scales here. Imagine some scales. Our light affliction. Now, this is a guy who knew what it was like to suffer. The Apostle Paul understood what it was like to be beaten, to be stoned, to be arrested, literally lay down his life for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. W-E-I-G-H-T, weight. It's more important that we bring glory to His name. I leave you with this picture. I heard about a guy who was diagnosed with cancer. It was stage four when they found it. And he prayed this. He said, Lord, help me not to waste this cancer. I want this cancer to count for your glory. I want to make a difference in someone's life for eternity because you gave me and allowed me to have this cancer. Help me not to waste this cancer." I mean, he was genuine. He was honest. He loved the Lord and he understood that somehow, some way, God had to allow this. God saw it and God said, yes, I sign off on it. I give permission for him to get this. Okay, Lord, you have some plan. So, Lord, help me to fulfill your plan. Help me not to waste it. How to respond in troubled times. That's what we're talking about. And that's where the rubber meets the road, really, for us as Christians. Who are you going to serve? Our key verse that we just read, that Jesus was there on the side of the mountain, and he went on and talking about raiment and clothes and food and all that kind of thing. And he said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. So when it all boils down, all of us have trouble. The question is how we're going to respond to it. I hope you'll take these seven thoughts. There's probably more. I'm sure there's more. But these are just seven that I have for you here today. And I hope you'll help to our hearts. Let's stand together with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. With no one looking around, there may be someone in here that is going through a terrible, troubled time. May I remind you that Jesus, whenever He told the disciples that one of those that He had chosen was about to betray Him, the Bible says He was troubled in spirit. He was troubled. Jesus knows what it's like to be troubled. So He says, I understand. That's what He says. And He says, I love you and I care about you. And I want to carry you through this time. Maybe you might want to just come to Him tonight and just bow the knee. Say, Lord, I need you and I don't want to waste this trouble. I want to glorify you. I want to honor you. I want to please you. Job did it. He didn't have the Holy Spirit filling him. I've got the Holy Spirit filling me. I don't have an excuse. I've got the Bible. I've got the example of Jesus Christ. Help me, Lord, not to fail you now." In a moment, we're going to sing a verse of invitation. Might be some of you might just want to just put a landmark on this night tonight, asking God for His grace and asking Him to give you new strength to continue on looking up in the midst of your trouble. Heavenly Father, I ask you now that you would equip us, equip the saints, help us to love you and serve you as we ought. And Lord, trouble happens in every one of our lives. Every single person in here is going through something right now. At some level, every person is having some trouble. I pray now that we'll keep our eyes fixed on you. We're tempted to focus on the trouble. We should focus on the Savior. Lord, I ask that you would bring glory and victory to your name in Jesus' precious name. I'm gonna ask Brother Bob if he would sing the song. We won't sing. I'm gonna ask you to come if God has spoken to your heart to go and to come and to say, Lord, I need your grace. I need your grace, new grace. That's what he's promised you. New grace. Have an old way, Lord. You know, when we come to the end of ourselves and we're broken, that's when we tend to reach out. Don't make God break you down completely for you to reach out to Him. He knows how to do it. Just go ahead and surrender to Him. Say, yes, Lord. Even in my troubles, I'm not going to charge you foolishly. All people are praying. We'll sing one more verse. Would you come if God spoke into your heart? Have thine own way, Lord. Yes, let him have his way. Search me and try me. Master today Whiter than snow, Lord Wash me just now As in Thy presence Amen. Thank you so much.