Speaker 1: Now you know, folks, today, it seems like that all
Speaker 1: the values that create a healthy society have been turned
Speaker 1: upside down. You agree with this. It seems like everything's
Speaker 1: being shaken. Our economy and the foundations of our economy
Speaker 1: are being shaken. The way we've done government in America
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years is being shaken. Our freedom, our
Speaker 1: freedom of speech and conscience and religion being shaken. Marriages
Speaker 1: are being shaken, Families are being shaken, so many things.
Speaker 1: Education is being shaken. The foundations of our moral and
Speaker 1: ethical values are being shaken. Now we're living in a
Speaker 1: time of great upheaval, when there's a lot of shakiness
Speaker 1: going on. But I'm not here to talk about doom
Speaker 1: and gloom because this book is not about doom and gloom.
Speaker 1: It's about the answer. It's about the answer to those
Speaker 1: and God says, no matter how bad the world gets,
Speaker 1: in a rapidly changing world, and even in a decaying culture,
Speaker 1: God says, I want you to survive, and not only that, thrive,
Speaker 1: and not only that, I want you to succeed. What
Speaker 1: should you do when your life is upended, when your
Speaker 1: world is shaken up by a death, a divorce, a failure,
Speaker 1: a bankruptcy, and a hundred other things that could up
Speaker 1: in your life. How can you thrive in this culture?
Speaker 1: First suggestion when your life is thrown into chaos, when
Speaker 1: your world is shaken up. Number one, don't be surprised
Speaker 1: by adversity. Now here's what the Bible says in one
Speaker 1: Peter four twelve. Dear friends, don't be shocked or surprised
Speaker 1: when you suffer painful tests and trials, as if something
Speaker 1: strange is happening to you. He said, you know, shakeups
Speaker 1: are a normal part of life in a broken world.
Speaker 1: We do not live in heaven. In heaven, everything's perfect,
Speaker 1: everything's done great, there are no tears, no sorrows, no suffering.
Speaker 1: But on earth everything is broken because of sin. Every
Speaker 1: relationship is broken, every body is broken. We don't have
Speaker 1: healthy minds, the weather's broken, the economy is broken, and
Speaker 1: so we shouldn't expect things to be perfect here on earth.
Speaker 1: And when something bad happens in your life, instead of
Speaker 1: going why me, you might want to say why not me?
Speaker 1: I live here on earth and this is not heaven
Speaker 1: that's coming later, and so there are going to be sufferings.
Speaker 1: There are going to be trials, and don't be surprised
Speaker 1: by it. Jesus said it like this, John sixteen thirty three.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, in this world you might experience difficulties. Well,
Speaker 1: that's not what he said. In this world you what
Speaker 1: circle that will? Now if Jesus said it, you can
Speaker 1: count on it. You will have problems in life. You
Speaker 1: are going to face adversity. You are going to have
Speaker 1: times where your world is tossed upside down and everything
Speaker 1: is shaken and bacon and flying, and you don't know
Speaker 1: which way is up. In this world, you will experience difficulties.
Speaker 1: Jesus promised that, but he said, take heart, I have
Speaker 1: conquered the world. He said, I've told you this so
Speaker 1: that in trusting me, you will be unshakeable and deeply
Speaker 1: at peace. Jesus warned us that adversity is going to
Speaker 1: be a part of life. Don't let it blow you away.
Speaker 1: Don't be surprised, don't be shocked. But you need to
Speaker 1: be unshakable. I'm telling you so you won't cave in.
Speaker 1: Now you know what the typical response is when you
Speaker 1: go through a crisis. The typical union human response when
Speaker 1: I or you go through a crisis is this. The
Speaker 1: first thing we do is try to figure out who's
Speaker 1: to blame. That's the last thing you need to work on,
Speaker 1: whose fault is it. As long as you're fixing the blame,
Speaker 1: you can't fix the problem. To blame is to be blame.
Speaker 1: That's how you spell blame. And so when you when
Speaker 1: you blame other people, you're not You're just perpetuating the problem.
Speaker 1: You're not solving anything. Politicians love to blame each other.
Speaker 1: These groups and that groups blame each other. You know
Speaker 1: what blame is not blame is blame. And instead instead
Speaker 1: of asking whose fault it is, you need to be
Speaker 1: asking what should I do now? Just so you'll know,
Speaker 1: let me tell you there are four sources of the
Speaker 1: problems in your life. The first source of the shakeups
Speaker 1: in your life is your own nature, your old nature,
Speaker 1: which is your own biggest problem. You might want to
Speaker 1: write next to that. Roman seven. Roman seven is the
Speaker 1: classic chapter explains how you are the biggest problem to you,
Speaker 1: and I won't go into that. The second source of
Speaker 1: the problems in your life is the world, the world
Speaker 1: and the world. Your nature is within you. The world
Speaker 1: is around you, and it wants to pull you down
Speaker 1: and The primary way the world tries to pull you
Speaker 1: down is through ridicule and through withholding approval. We are
Speaker 1: desperate for the approval of other people, and so we
Speaker 1: will lower our standards, and we'll change our convictions, and
Speaker 1: we'll give in and give up simply because we want
Speaker 1: somebody to like us. You don't need the world's approval
Speaker 1: to be happy. You're as happy as you choose to be.
Speaker 1: You don't need the world's approval. But the world causes
Speaker 1: a lot of problems in your life too. The third
Speaker 1: source of problems is, of course Satan. The devil is
Speaker 1: real evil incarnate, and the moment you wake up in
Speaker 1: the morning, he's plotting to discourage you, to defeat you,
Speaker 1: to create doubts, depression, discouragement, distractions, all these different things.
Speaker 1: When you get up in the morning, if you don't
Speaker 1: meet the devil head on, it just means you're headed
Speaker 1: the same direction because he's been planning to take you down.
Speaker 1: He hates you. God has a good plan for your life.
Speaker 1: He's got a bad plan for your life. Okay, so
Speaker 1: my old nature, the world, the flesh and me, and
Speaker 1: the devil, they all work on me. But the one
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about this weekend. Is
Speaker 1: the fourth source of problems in your life, and it's God. God. Yes,
Speaker 1: some of the problems and pressures and difficulties you have
Speaker 1: in life actually come from God. God will sometimes shake
Speaker 1: up your life for very good reasons. And that's why
Speaker 1: I want to cover this in detail, because this is
Speaker 1: the one that's unexpected, and I want you to look
Speaker 1: at that now. It really doesn't matter where your problems
Speaker 1: came from. They could be caused by the devil, they
Speaker 1: could be caused by the world, They could be caused
Speaker 1: by you. They could be brought on in your life
Speaker 1: by God. It doesn't really matter. God will use every
Speaker 1: one of them for your good if you will trust him.
Speaker 1: You mean, even the bad thing in my life, even
Speaker 1: my own sins. Yes, even God can use those for
Speaker 1: good in your life. He can turn crucifixions into resurrections.
Speaker 1: He can bring good out of bad. Anybody and bring
Speaker 1: good out of good. But God can change even bad
Speaker 1: things into good if you will trust him. So, regardless
Speaker 1: of the source of your shaking. What's got you all
Speaker 1: shaken up? I lost my job, I can't get married.
Speaker 1: I want this and it hasn't happened. I have this
Speaker 1: dream and I'm hitting the barrier. Regardless of whatever is
Speaker 1: shaking you up, God wants to use it for good,
Speaker 1: So the source isn't nearly as important as your response.
Speaker 1: Now here's the second step based on that. Anytime the
Speaker 1: world your world is shaken up. Number two, look for
Speaker 1: ways that God might use it for good. Look for ways.
Speaker 1: I look for ways that God might use it in
Speaker 1: my life for good, because He wants to use everything,
Speaker 1: even the bad things in your life. He wants to
Speaker 1: bring good out of even those And if you want
Speaker 1: to succeed and thrive rather than just survive in a
Speaker 1: hostile culture, you need to look for ways that God
Speaker 1: takes the things that shake you up and can use
Speaker 1: them for good. Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven says this.
Speaker 1: God says, the plans I have for you are plans
Speaker 1: for good and not to harm you. Their plans to
Speaker 1: give you hope and a future. The devil has bad
Speaker 1: plans for your life, and therefore bad and for destruction.
Speaker 1: God has plans. His plans are always good, there to
Speaker 1: give you hope and there to give you a future.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God shakes things up. I'm talking about in your life.
Speaker 1: Sometimes shakes things up in my life to inspect me,
Speaker 1: to inspect me. And what I mean by that is
Speaker 1: God will bring a problem in my life that reveals
Speaker 1: a motivation that's out a whack, or a character or
Speaker 1: a thought or an emotion or a motive. He examines
Speaker 1: and he checks it out, and he does it all
Speaker 1: the time. You've got a fear, you've got a wrong motivation,
Speaker 1: you've got a value, you got a misperception, there's some
Speaker 1: lie that you're believing. God uses problems to inspect you. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, God already knows what's going on in you.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need any problem to tell him what. He
Speaker 1: knows you better than you do. When God allows a
Speaker 1: problem in your life is because He wants you to
Speaker 1: know what's out of whack. And sometimes when things are
Speaker 1: just flying off the wall and you're in a crisis
Speaker 1: and you know yours just your whole world is shaken,
Speaker 1: God is saying, I want you to see what I
Speaker 1: want you to work on in your life. We're going
Speaker 1: to inspect this in your life. Jeremiah seventeen ten says this,
Speaker 1: The Lord searches our hearts and examines our deepest motives.
Speaker 1: So he can give to each person his right reward
Speaker 1: according to how he has lived. Now, notice God examines
Speaker 1: your motives. Listen to this. Why is always more important
Speaker 1: than what in life. What you do in life is
Speaker 1: not nearly as important to God. That's why you do it,
Speaker 1: Not what you do, but why you do. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of things you can do in life. God say,
Speaker 1: that's fine, go ahead and do that. I made you.
Speaker 1: You could do that or that or that or that.
Speaker 1: That'd you all be fine with me? I just want
Speaker 1: to know why are you doing it? God looks at
Speaker 1: the heart, He looks at the motivation. You see. What
Speaker 1: matters in your maturity spiritually is not how high you
Speaker 1: jump when you feel God in a worship concert. The
Speaker 1: test is how straight you walk when you don't feel
Speaker 1: God during the rest of the week. And I have
Speaker 1: no emotion, I'm in the desert, I'm in a dry period,
Speaker 1: I'm in the wilderness. Will you trust me? Will you
Speaker 1: obey me? You see what God is saying is that
Speaker 1: the problems that come into your life, they're a measuring tool,
Speaker 1: and your reactions to difficulty actually measure your faith and
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff. Your reactions to difficulty. Measure your faith,
Speaker 1: measure your commitment, measure your mature. They measure your integrity.
Speaker 1: What does this problem reveal about me? When your whole
Speaker 1: life is being shaken and everything you're on shaky ground,
Speaker 1: the foundation is unstable, what does this problem reveal about me?
Speaker 1: Here's another reason. Sometimes God shakes things up in your life,
Speaker 1: not to inspect you, but to correct you. God wants
Speaker 1: to correct me. And here's a very important verse Hebrews
Speaker 1: Chapter twelve, verses eight to twelve, eight to eleven. God
Speaker 1: corrects all of his children, and if he doesn't correct you,
Speaker 1: then you don't really belong to him. WHOA So if
Speaker 1: you can sin and get away with it, you should
Speaker 1: doubt am I really in God's family? God corrects his children,
Speaker 1: and if he doesn't correct you, then you don't really
Speaker 1: belong to him. God corrects us for our own good,
Speaker 1: because He wants us to be holy as he is. Now.
Speaker 1: It's never fun to be corrected. How many of you
Speaker 1: agree with that part of the Bible? It's never fun
Speaker 1: to be corrected. In fact, at the time it's always painful.
Speaker 1: But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we
Speaker 1: will do right and live at peace. He Ultimately it's
Speaker 1: for your good so you can live at peace. Job
Speaker 1: chapter five, verse seventeen. Consider yourself fortunate when God all
Speaker 1: Powerful chooses to correct you. He says, it's a privilege.
Speaker 1: It's an honor to be corrected by God because it
Speaker 1: just means he loves you. I don't know why, but
Speaker 1: sometimes God has to lay us flat on our back
Speaker 1: before we look up to him. And God wants to
Speaker 1: teach you about himself, and he wants you to teach
Speaker 1: you about yourself. And some lessons really you're only going
Speaker 1: to learn through failure. You know, don't touch the stove,
Speaker 1: you don't touch it a second time, because you learn
Speaker 1: by being burned. And sometimes you know some things in line.
Speaker 1: You don't learn the value of money until you've lost it.
Speaker 1: You don't learn the value of friendship till you've lost it.
Speaker 1: So here's the question, what is this problem teaching me?
Speaker 1: Instead of going why me? Instead of asking why, you
Speaker 1: should ask what. Don't ask why? When you go through problems,
Speaker 1: ask what What should I be learning? Not why is
Speaker 1: this happening to me? But what should I be learning?
Speaker 1: Sometimes God shakes things up to direct me, to direct me,
Speaker 1: He wants to point us in a new direction. He
Speaker 1: wants to guide us down a different path. Proverbs sixteen,
Speaker 1: verse nine. A person may plan his own journey. You
Speaker 1: got your own life plan out there, but the Lord
Speaker 1: directs his steps. So you have all your plans, but
Speaker 1: the Lord is going to direct your steps. Question, how
Speaker 1: does God direct your steps? Real simple problems, That's how
Speaker 1: he directs your steps. Have you noticed that problems often
Speaker 1: change your plans? Have anybody had that happened in their life?
Speaker 1: Your problems change your plans? What is God doing? He's
Speaker 1: redirecting you. He inspects you, he corrects you, and he
Speaker 1: directs you when things are flying off the wall. Pain
Speaker 1: is a powerful motivation to change. Proverbs twenty, verse thirteen
Speaker 1: says this, Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make
Speaker 1: us change our ways. And every one of you could
Speaker 1: give a testimony on that verse. We rarely think about
Speaker 1: the direction of our lives when things are going good.
Speaker 1: When your life's going good, you got it on cruise control.
Speaker 1: You're not even thinking about your goals. You're not even
Speaker 1: thinking about God. You're not thinking about anything but cruise control.
Speaker 1: This is fun. I'm in the driver's seat right now,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden, you have a traffic jam
Speaker 1: or car accident. All of a sudden, it gets your attention,
Speaker 1: and God gets our attention many times, and he changes
Speaker 1: the direction. One of the values of pressure and problems
Speaker 1: and crisis in your life is it forces you to
Speaker 1: think about stuff you wouldn't normally think about on your own.
Speaker 1: You want to just live in denial, and you would
Speaker 1: just like to take that part of your life that
Speaker 1: needs changing and just forget it and go on with
Speaker 1: your life and go, well, I just isolate that over here.
Speaker 1: I'll compartmentalize it and that'll be just fine. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. What is a problem in your life that
Speaker 1: you're pretending isn't a problem. What's the big problem, the
Speaker 1: big elephant in your life, in your marriage and your relationship.
Speaker 1: Then you're just very well, it's not a problem. I
Speaker 1: know we got that there, but we've had it in
Speaker 1: this relationship all this time. No, it's still a problem.
Speaker 1: And God will use difficulty to correct you, inspect you,
Speaker 1: and redirect you if he needs to. We would rarely
Speaker 1: change unless we had problems. We postponed difficult decisions. We
Speaker 1: put it off. I mean, if you had a disease
Speaker 1: that didn't hurt you. You'd never go to the doctor
Speaker 1: about it. You just let it keep taking over your
Speaker 1: life until you die. Pain gets your attention. We ignore
Speaker 1: youll illnesses if they didn't hurt. So God uses problems
Speaker 1: to prod us and to poke us, and to push
Speaker 1: us and to prompt us, and he uses things to
Speaker 1: direct us. Write this down. Question where is this problem
Speaker 1: leading me? You want to ask yourself. You want to
Speaker 1: get the most out of your problems. Where is this
Speaker 1: problem leading me? Sometimes God shakes things up to protect us.
Speaker 1: Did you know that? Sometimes pain protects you from something
Speaker 1: worse that you're going through a problem, But it's actually
Speaker 1: preventing you from a bigger problem. It's keeping you from
Speaker 1: greater harm. You might have wanted a certain job at
Speaker 1: a certain business and it didn't happen, and God was
Speaker 1: protecting you because he knew that there was a relationship
Speaker 1: there that was going to mess you up, and he
Speaker 1: kept you out of that situation. Sometimes a problem is
Speaker 1: a blessing in disguise. Honestly, there will be times you
Speaker 1: have problems when you did the right thing, not the
Speaker 1: wrong thing. Not every problem is because you did something wrong.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have a problem because you did the right
Speaker 1: thing job thirty six, Verse sixteen. God led you away
Speaker 1: from danger. God often does this and you don't even
Speaker 1: realize it. God has led you away from danger, giving
Speaker 1: you freedom. Problems are the preparation for success, and it
Speaker 1: really comes down to a matter of faith. Will you
Speaker 1: trust God? There are people in this world who intend
Speaker 1: to harm you. Not everybody's nice in this world. There
Speaker 1: are evil people, There are mean people. There are people
Speaker 1: who don't like you because you're a Christian, or because
Speaker 1: of a moral stance or an ethical decision you've made,
Speaker 1: because you won't go with the flow and won't party
Speaker 1: with the crowd, and they think you're too good, or
Speaker 1: they think you're self righteous, and they misjudge you and
Speaker 1: on and they want to bring you down. They mean
Speaker 1: it for bad, but God means it for good. Now.
Speaker 1: Sometimes God removes a harmful person in your life and
Speaker 1: it breaks your heart. Don't run after him, some of you.
Speaker 1: That's all you need to hear. You just need to
Speaker 1: hear your pastors say that sometimes there's a harmful person
Speaker 1: in your life, but you're you're addicted to them, and
Speaker 1: God will remove them from your life. Don't run after them.
Speaker 1: God has shake things, taking things up to protect you.
Speaker 1: So ask this question, how could this problem protect me?
Speaker 1: How could this problem be protecting me? What's being prevented?
Speaker 1: What could be worse in my life? Then? What's than
Speaker 1: this problem? Well, there are a lot of things that
Speaker 1: could be worse, all right. Number five. The fifth way
Speaker 1: that God shakes things up in your life, and the
Speaker 1: fifth reason for shaking things up in your life is
Speaker 1: not to correct me or inspect me or direct me.
Speaker 1: But God uses things and problems to perfect me, to
Speaker 1: make you more like Jesus Christ, to grow your character,
Speaker 1: to grow you up. Pain is the high cost of growth.
Speaker 1: If you want to grow up, you want to be mature,
Speaker 1: there is no way to do it without pain. Pain
Speaker 1: is the cost of growing up. You can't grow up
Speaker 1: on easy street. And see, we want the product without
Speaker 1: the process. It is a cliche, but it is true.
Speaker 1: There is no gain without pain. There is no maturity
Speaker 1: without growing pains. And the very thing that discourages you
Speaker 1: is the very thing that God is using to develop you.
Speaker 1: One Peter five ten. The Bible says this, after you
Speaker 1: have suffered a little, while the God of all grace,
Speaker 1: who calls you to share his eternal glory. God's going
Speaker 1: to share his glory with you. In union of Christ,
Speaker 1: will himself perfect you. Circle that will perfect you and
Speaker 1: give you firmness and strength and a sure foundation. God
Speaker 1: is not interested in making your life easy on this earth.
Speaker 1: He's interested in growing your character. The easy part comes
Speaker 1: for eternity. You're in school right now. You're in school,
Speaker 1: and in school, God says, there are eternal rewards coming,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to perfect you. So knowing that God
Speaker 1: can even use the bad things in my life to
Speaker 1: inspect me, to direct me, to correct me, and to
Speaker 1: even perfect me, what should be my response? Romans Chapter
Speaker 1: five tells us we can rejoice. We can rejoice. We
Speaker 1: can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for
Speaker 1: we know it's perspective that they're good for us. We
Speaker 1: run into problems with drivers, we know they're good for us.
Speaker 1: They help us learn to be patient, and patience develops
Speaker 1: strength of character, boom in us, and helps us trust
Speaker 1: God more each time we use it. So here's the
Speaker 1: fifth question, how can I grow from this problem? So
Speaker 1: God is saying, he said, don't be surprised when you
Speaker 1: have adversity in the world, you will have tribulation, Jesus said,
Speaker 1: realize that I can use it five different ways. Okay,
Speaker 1: I can inspect you, and I can correct you, and
Speaker 1: I can direct you, and I can protect you, and
Speaker 1: I can perfect you. I can use all these different
Speaker 1: ways in what's going on in your life. And so
Speaker 1: what's the third suggestion here? It is, finally, trust God
Speaker 1: for what I don't understand. When there's a problem in
Speaker 1: my life. This one does not make sense. I don't
Speaker 1: get it. I don't see the perfection. I don't see
Speaker 1: the inspection. I don't see the correction. I don't see
Speaker 1: the protection. I don't see the perfection. This problem does
Speaker 1: not make sense. Then I trust God for what I
Speaker 1: don't understand, knowing that he has my best interest in heart.
Speaker 1: Proverbs three five and six. Trust the Lord with all
Speaker 1: your heart doesn't say intellect heart. Trust the Lord with
Speaker 1: all your heart. Don't depend on your own understanding. Honor
Speaker 1: the Lord in everything you do, and he will give you.
Speaker 1: What's the word circle that success. I want you to
Speaker 1: be a success in life. God wants you to be
Speaker 1: a success in life as your pastor, as your spiritual coach.
Speaker 1: It is my goal, my job, my role to help
Speaker 1: you succeed in every area of the life that God
Speaker 1: has given you. I want you to be a success,
Speaker 1: not just survive when times are tough, not just survive
Speaker 1: in a hostile culture to Christians, but to thrive and
Speaker 1: actually get promoted and have greater influence and be used
Speaker 1: by God an amazing way. Let me close with little
Speaker 1: self evaluation. Why don't you ask these questions to God
Speaker 1: in your mind? Here's the first one to say, are
Speaker 1: you using these problems to inspect me? You know the
Speaker 1: ones I'm going through right now? Are you using these
Speaker 1: problems to inspect me? If so, what does it reveal
Speaker 1: about my life? Is there a weakness? Is there a
Speaker 1: misplaced priority in my life? Is there someplace I've compromised
Speaker 1: the truth and you're trying to show it to me?
Speaker 1: And then say, Lord, are you using this problem to
Speaker 1: correct me? If so, what do you want me to learn?
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna ask why why is this happened to me?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask what what do you want me to learn?
Speaker 1: What do you want me to know? Lord? Are you
Speaker 1: using this problem not just inspect the correct or you
Speaker 1: use this problem to direct me? If so, what's the direction?
Speaker 1: What do you want me to change? What's the new direction?
Speaker 1: Where where do you want me headed? Lord? Are you
Speaker 1: using this problem to protect me? Did that thing not
Speaker 1: happen because you knew something that I didn't know and
Speaker 1: I was walking into a bigger trap, a bigger problem,
Speaker 1: a bigger fiasco, a bigger difficulty, and you protected me.
Speaker 1: It is so Lord that I was just going to
Speaker 1: tell you I trust you, I know that you know best.
Speaker 1: Thank you for protecting me. And God, I want you
Speaker 1: to protect me. And when there's something that I want
Speaker 1: that would be bad for me, don't let me have it.
Speaker 1: I want your will more than my will. And then say, Lord,
Speaker 1: are you using this problem to perfect me? You see,
Speaker 1: God's at work in your life even when you don't
Speaker 1: recognize it or even understand it. God has work in
Speaker 1: your life is not dependent upon you understanding it. So
Speaker 1: I want you to pray this prayer very say, Dear God,
Speaker 1: I want to trust you with all my hearts. Just
Speaker 1: stay it in your mind. I trust you with all
Speaker 1: my heart, not my Intellectum, I'm not going to depend
Speaker 1: on my own understanding. God. I want to honor you
Speaker 1: in everything I do. Work, home, anywhere else. And if
Speaker 1: I trust you and I don't depend on my own understanding,
Speaker 1: and I honor you and everything I do, You've promised
Speaker 1: to give me success, and I'm going to believe that.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I want to trust you with all of
Speaker 1: my life as best I know how, and I'm doing
Speaker 1: it today. In your name, I pray Ameno