Dealing with Difficult Times

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I wish life had a remote control. I wish life had a remote control because then you could change things whenever you wanted to, sort of like when you're sitting across the room in your living room. Something comes on the television you don't like, you just hit the button and it changes. Commercial comes on, you just hit the button and go to a different channel. The story comes on that's just too sad for you right now, you hit the button and it goes off to something else. It's a drama on the screen, you switch it and you can go over to sports or you can hit a comedy. It's just as quick as that. In an instant, you can take away whatever you don't want to see and see what you do want to see.

I wish life had a remote control, a remote control so when things went wrong, when things sort of fell apart, just a click of a button could make it all better. Many times, as a pastor, I wish life had a remote control. I wish I could just flip a button and make things all better for people. I wish I could reach out to Brandon's family and I could just click a button and take away the pain from Bob and Shelly. I wish I could reach out to Brian Peter, our Director of Youth, and his wife, Jen, who has been sitting in the hospital since Monday. I wish I could just reach out and click a button and make it all better. I wish I could reach out to Kim Phillips, Pastor Tim's wife. Her cousin is sitting in critical condition after an accident. I wish I could just reach out and click a button and make it all better.

Life doesn't have a remote control. Life just doesn't work that way. And sometimes in life, when you least expect it, the bottom just sort of falls out. Tragedy happens in our life. We like to think we're immune to it but one moment everything can be going great and the next moment absolutely nothing can be going right. That's what life is like living this side of heaven.

Given the circumstances of this past week and everything that has happened in the community and everything that's happened for us as the community of believers here at Gloria Dei, the message I was going to preach on today I put on the shelf for some other time. We were going to talk about family and communication, an important topic and we'll get to it. We have more pressing matters today, though. More pressing matters and more important matters because each and every one of us have had times when our life has spun out of control. Each and every one of us, at times, wish we had a remote control and we could just change things in an instant. Each one of us had things happen in our life that we never saw coming, we didn't expect and, in a moment, we went from everything going right to everything going wrong. The question we need to address this morning is how do we handle that? How do we respond to those kinds of circumstances? What do we do when tragedy strikes us? What happens when everything goes south? How do we deal with the fact when the bottom falls out from underneath us?

St. Paul addressed that when he wrote his letter to the Church of Rome. The first part of Chapter 8, he talked about how, being a Christian, sometimes life doesn't go the way we want it to, that everything doesn't happen as we planned it and that sometimes we endure pain and trial. Sometimes we endure persecution, and he lays that all out then in Verse 28. He says this, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." And then he goes on in Verse 31, "What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" Then he continues, "Christ Jesus who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What shall we say to all of this? How do we respond when the bottom falls out? How do we react when tragedy comes into our world? The first thing God tells us is don't believe the lie. Don't believe the lie that God doesn't care, because that's going to be tempting for you to believe, tempting to believe that God doesn't care, that God is unconcerned, that somehow God is out of touch with what's happening in your life. That's the number one attack the devil is going to use. As soon as something goes wrong in your life, as soon as tragedy hits, the devil is going to be there whispering in your ear when you lose someone you love, when the boss tells you your career is over, when a relationship ends and you never saw it coming, he's going to be there telling you God doesn't care, that God is not going to do anything. It's going to be easy to believe that lie. It's going to be easy to focus all of your anger, focus all of your frustration on God. It's going to be easy to blame God and ask all of the questions. Why did this have to happen and why did it happen to me? Why didn't it happen to the other guy who curses God's name? Why to me? I'm the one who praises God's name. Why didn't God intervene? Why didn't God change the circumstances? And each time the devil is going to be whispering, "Because God doesn't care."

The anger and the frustration can build up to such a point that you end up walking away from God. You lay all the blame at God's doorstep, all of the pain you're feeling, all of the circumstances that are out of your control and you walk away from God. And you couldn't make a bigger mistake. You couldn't make a bigger mistake than walking away from God. Don't believe the lie. Don't believe the lie that God doesn't care and don't walk away from God. Don't walk away from the one person, the one source of power and strength that you're going to need, the one person who's able to help you, the one person who's able to get you through those tough times. Don't walk away from Him. Don't believe the lie that God doesn't care, because God cares more than you can imagine. In fact, God cares more than what we can comprehend. St. Paul said, "He who did not spare His own Son for us," and we talk about that all the time. We talk about the cross and the crucifixion. We talk about the death of Jesus for our sins. We talk about His resurrection as He comes up out of the grave, but have you thought about it lately? Have you really considered what God has done, that God the Father stood by in heaven and He watched His Son die, that God cared so much for you, that God loves you so much, that God wanted to restore His relationship with you so desperately, that God would stand by in heaven, meanwhile all the power of the universe there at His fingertips could have sent down a legion of angels at a moment's notice and stopped the proceedings, but God stood by and He watched His Son die. And all of our guilt and all of our punishment died along with Him. How can we comprehend a love that deep? How can we even begin to believe the lie that God doesn't care? God cares deeply for everything that's happening in our lives, and God is intimately involved with every moment of every day. He's right there along side you when things are going great, and He is still right there along side of you when everything goes wrong.

God takes no delight in the tragedies of our lives. God takes no delight in the pain you and I experience. But the fact is we live in a sinful world. We live in a fallen world. That means we live with pain. We live with tragedy. We live with circumstances that are out of our control. It isn't that God doesn't care. It's the reality that we live this side of heaven, and we will always live with pain at times. We will always live with circumstances that are out of our control. We will always live with tragedies that will come crashing in when we least expect it, but we will also live with a God who loves us desperately and a God who offers to us His strength, His comfort, and His courage.

So don't buy into the lies. And let God's strength be your strength. Let the strength God has be the strength in your lives, because God promises us He will never walk away from us. God promises no matter how bad the situation is, no matter how tragic it may be, no matter how evil it may be in your lives, nothing can take Him away from you. St. Paul says, "And angels can't do it. Demons can't do it. All the powers on earth can't do it. All the powers in heaven above can't do it. Nothing, absolutely nothing can take God's love away from you that He has for you in Christ Jesus."

Let His strength be your strength. Know God will never leave you. God will never forsake you. Those times when you don't know what to think, you don't know which way to turn, when you can't make any sense out of the situation, when you can't see anything good in what's happening, those are the times you turn to God. Those are the times you turn your life over to God, you rest in His arms, and you let Him carry you through those tough times. Those are the times His strength becomes your strength, His courage becomes your courage. Those are the times for you to hit your knees and to pray to God, to ask God the tough questions, to tell God how you're feeling and the confusion that is going through your mind. In fact, it's interesting, two points Paul points out in Romans 8. One of them is Verse 26. We didn't read that, but it says this. "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Or if you come down to Verse 34, "Christ Jesus who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." In nine short verses, St. Paul tells us that not only is the Father listening but the Spirit is interceding for us, that the Son is interceding for us, that the entire Trinity is involved in your life. The entire Godhead is concerned about everything that's happening, and the entire Godhead is pooling together to give you exactly what you need exactly when you need it. What a comfort to know that when we don't even know what to ask for, life has gotten so confusing and the circumstance is spinning so far out of control, we're so overwhelmed with emotions, we don't even know what to ask God for. We don't even know what to pray to God about. And He says to us at those moments, the Spirit comes in and intercedes for us, speaks to the Father for us with groans that words cannot express. So everything we're experiencing, everything we're feeling, all of the emotions, all of the confusion, even God understands that. Words can't express it and yet God intimately knows exactly what we're going through.

Let God's strength by your strength. Come to Him in prayer. Let Him give you comfort. Let Him give you strength and courage that you didn't know you had, because it's His strength. It's His courage. And then trust. Trust that God is going to turn things around, because that's what God has promised. God has promised that He's going to turn things around. 28 says, "God works together for the good of those who love Him so all things work together for ultimate good." What God is saying there is, when things are going good, God's going to use that as a blessing in your life. When things are going bad, God's going to use that as a blessing in your life. And when evil has come into your life, God is going to use that for something good in your life. Now that doesn't mean that what has happened to you is good. The opposite is true, and I don't want to give the impression that somehow you shouldn't be feeling the pain of the circumstances. That's not the point at all. The point is that God will take every circumstance, even the circumstance that causes you the most pain, the tragedy that really caught you off guard, and He will turn that around and He will work out His will and He'll end up using it for good. It doesn't mean that the pain goes away. It doesn't mean that there isn't sorrow or an empty spot in your heart, but what it does mean is God is still at work and God is still active in your lives and sometimes God even allows us to see how He takes bad events and turns them into something good.

Some are easier to see than others. Maybe, all of a sudden, you have an unexpected health problem. You go to the doctor. You end up spending a couple of days in the hospital. What happens? It's a wakeup call, a wakeup call for you and for your family. You have to change the way you're living. You have to change your diet. You have to start getting some exercise, and God turns that around and uses that for your good. Maybe it's the loss of a job. All of a sudden, the career path you were on is gone. But now you reevaluate. What are your priorities? What really is important in your life? Sometimes it's easy to see God using bad things to bring about good.

But there are other times. There are other times when you just can't see it, when the circumstance is so bad and the tragedy has crushed you so much that you can't even imagine how God could have anything good come out of this. That's when you trust. That's when you trust the promise God has given to us. That's when you trust and you believe that God somehow, someway, and at some time will use this for the ultimate good. The fact is, I'll be honest, we may not see it. We may never know how God took a circumstance and turned it around. Part of that is because we don't know many lives God touches through us. People that see you going through a tough time, they see how you're handling a tragedy. They see your faith in action. You don't know it, but they're watching you and God changes their heart and ends up changing their life and we don't know.

Sometimes, through the eyes of faith, years later, then maybe we get a glimpse of how God took a situation and turned it around. But the bottom line is we can trust that God is active in every situation, the good and the tragic. And because of our love for Him and for His Son, Jesus, He's going to use that for the ultimate good. That's how we respond. That's how we respond when the bottom falls out in our life.

I wish I had a remote control. I wish I could just change the circumstances in many of your lives, but I can't do that. But what I can do is point you to God's Word, and God says how shall we respond? We respond this way. We don't believe the lies, because God cares more about you than you can imagine. He was willing to sacrifice His Son for you. His strength is your strength. Turn to Him in prayer even if you don't know what to pray for, He'll understand. And then trust Him. Trust that God is going to be active and, ultimately, He'll use this for His good. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church