When Your World Is Shaken Up – Part 2

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad you're here. Today we're going to continue our series called Unshakeable. Rick is taking us through the Book of Daniel, and that's so we'll be equipped to handle whatever curveball life throws at us, even the most difficult trials. Hey, before we get started, I'm very excited because I want to let you know about Rick's new book, the Daily Hope devotional. 365 Days of Purpose, Peace, and promise. Please tell your friends and family about it. It's now available at your favorite bookstores. Go grab your copy today. And now, here's Rick with part two of a message called when youn World Is Shaken Up.

Anytime the world, your world is shaken up. Number two, look for ways that God might use it for good. Look for ways. I look for ways that God might use it in my life for good. Because he wants to use everything, even the bad things in your life. He wants to bring good out of even those. And if you want to succeed and thrive rather than just survive in a hostile culture, you need to look for ways that God takes the things that shake you up and can use them for good. Jeremiah 29:11 says this. God says, the plans I have for you are plans for good and not to harm you. They're plans to give you hope and a future. The devil has bad plans for your life and therefore bad, and for destruction. God has plans. His plans are always good. They're to give you hope and they're to give you a future. Now, I'm gonna give you a sneak peek at where we're going in the next eight weeks, because in Daniel's life, God did five things with the problems that he had to face. And they are the same five things that God wants to do you in your life, regardless of what kind of problems you're going through. So you might write these down. This is kind of an index to Daniel's life. Number one, sometimes God shakes things up. I'm talking about in your life. Sometimes God shakes things up in my life to inspect me. To inspect me. And what I mean by that is, God will bring a problem in my life that reveals a motivation that's out of whack or a character or a thought or an emotion or a motive. He examines and he checks it out, and he does it all the time. And when you somebody said people are like teabags. You don't know what's in them till you drop them in hot water. And God will use problems to inspect you and show you what's wrong, what's out of whack in your life. You got a fear, you got a wrong motivation, you got a value, you got a misperception. There's some lie that you're believing. God uses problems to inspect you. Now of course God already knows what's going on in you. He doesn't need any problem to tell him. He knows you better than you do. When God allows a problem in your life, it's cause he wants you to know what's out of whack. And sometimes when things are just flying off the wall and you're in a crisis and you're just. Your whole world is shaken, God is saying, I want you to see what, what I want you to work on in your life. We're gonna inspect this in your life. I remember in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned. And then the Bible says one day God comes walking through the Garden of Eden, metaphorically and says, adam, where are you? Now let me let you in on a little secret. Anytime God asks you a question, he already knows the answer. It's not like God didn't know where Adam was. He knew exactly where Adam was. Every second of his life. He wanted Adam to know where Adam was. And Adam goes, oh, well, God, I was afraid and I felt guilty and I hid. And we've been afraid and guilty and hiding from God ever since. When God asks you a question, it's never for his benefit. He already knows the answer. He's asking you cause he wants you to know. And sometimes God shakes things up to inspect you. Jeremiah 17:10 says this. The Lord searches our hearts and examines our deepest motives so we can give to each person his right reward according to how he has lived. Now notice, God examines your motives. Listen to this. Why is always more important than what in life. What you do in life is not nearly as important to God is why you do it. Not what you do, but why you do. There are a lot of things you could do in life. God said, that's fine, go ahead and do that. I made you. You could do that or that, or that, or that. That'd all be fine with me. I just wanna know, why are you doing it? God looks at the heart, he looks at the motivation. And God inspects us because he's much more interested in your integrity than he is in your image. Image is what everybody else can see. Integrity is what you are in the dark. Integrity is what you are when nobody's listening, nobody's watching. And God Says, I want to test you so you can see your own heart. Have you ever thought about the fact why it took the Israelites 40 years to get across the desert from Egypt, where they were set free as slaves, to Israel? You could walk across the Sinai in a couple months easily. It took them 40 years. Are you kidding me? Why did it take them 40 years to get from Egypt to Israel? Because the Bible says that while they were in the desert, God kept testing them to show them that their faith was insufficient and they weren't ready to go into the promised land. And the Bible says over those 40 years, God gave them seven tests. Seven. And every time they failed, God would say, okay, another lap around the desert. And some of them died in the desert. They spent their entire lives there. They didn't pass the test. Deuteronomy in The Bible, chapter 8, verse 2, says this. God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and to test you in order to know you would know what was in your heart, whether or not you'd keep his commandments. And by the way, when God takes you through a desert, he's doing it for the same reason when you're in the wilderness of life, what is the desert or the wilderness of life? It's when you can't feel God at all. It's when you're in that dry period of your life. You don't have any emotion. You don't feel close to God, and God's just gonna go, I'm gonna take away your emotion. See, if you're trusting in me or you're trusting in your emotion. You're not living by faith until you don't have any feelings. And so sometimes God will take away all your feelings and just go, will you do the right thing even though you don't feel it? Cause it's the right thing to do. This is a test. Will you trust me? God is testing you. You see, what matters in your maturity spiritually is not how high you jump when you feel God in a worship concert. The test is how straight you walk when you don't feel God. But during the rest of the week, and I have no emotion, I'm in the desert. I'm in a dry period. I'm in the wilderness. Will you trust me? Will you obey me? You see, what God is saying is that the problems that come into your life, they're a measuring tool. And your reactions to difficulty actually measure your faith. And a bunch of stuff. Your reactions to difficulty measure your faith, measure your commitment, measure Your maturity. They measure your integrity. The Bible often compares problems to a refining fire. You know how they get the impurities out of gold and silver is they put it in a vat and they heat it all up and it burns off the impurities. When you're going through the fire and when you're suffering, God is burning off the impurities in your life. In life, God is testing you. And what's he testing? Well, he's saying, do you really believe what you claim to believe? You say, well, God is first in my life. But when the heat's on, is he sidelined? When it's inconvenient and unpopular, you say, you know, I have integrity, but are you willing to lower your standards because you wanna be popular and approved by the people at work or school? You say, you know, I'm totally committed to you, God, but when the pressure's on, do you give up and walk away? So I want you to write down a question. I'm gonna give you a question in each of these. Here's the question to ask about. When God uses problems to inspect me, what does this problem reveal about me? When your whole life is being shaken and everything, you're on shaky ground, the foundation is unstable. What does this problem reveal about me? God is inspecting you. Number two. Here's another reason. Sometimes God shakes things up in your life. Not to inspect you, but to correct you. God wants to correct me. Now, this is exactly what happened in the nation of Israel 2,500 years ago. As I told you, they'd fallen into deep idolatry. And God says, you know, I'm gonna cure you of that addiction. We're just gonna get rid of those. There's only one true God, and I don't want you messing around with other gods in anymore. And when God allowed them to be hauled off into a foreign country for 70 years, 25% of the nation, when they came back 70 years later, they were cured. I mean, Israel never again reverted to idolatry. In fact, later on, I'll give you the seven things that changed in the nation of Israel after being in that period of captivity for 70 years. And they were all good things. Here's a very important verse. Hebrews 12, 8, 11. God corrects all of his children. And if he doesn't correct you, then you don't really belong to him. Whoa. So if you can sin and get away with it, you should doubt, am I really in God's family? God corrects his children. And if he doesn't correct you, then you don't really belong to him. God corrects us for our own good because. Because he wants us to be holy as he is now. It's never fun to be corrected. How many of you agree with that part of the Bible? It's never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time, it's always painful. But if we learn to obey by being corrected, we will do right and live at peace. See, ultimately, it's for your good so you can live at peace. I mean, did you benefit from correction growing up? Of course you did. It's how you learned to walk, talk, eat, bathe, read, write, and everything else you learned, you learned because somebody cared enough to correct you. A parent that doesn't correct their children doesn't love their children. And if they don't correct them, they don't love correction. As proof that I'm part of God's families. Now, how many of you who have been parents would rather not correct your children? Me. Okay. I'd rather not. It's no fun. It's not only not fun for the kids, it's not fun for the parents. Okay, if you like to correct. You got a masochistic problem, friend. Okay, but how many of you, even though you don't like to correct your children, you want to just let them get away? That would still have to do it anyway. Yeah, we would all do that. You don't have to raise your hand. I know you would. Because sometimes the only way to train is through pain. Sometimes the only way to train is through pain. Now, the next verse, Hebrews chapter 12, is an extremely important verse for your life. When God spoke the ten Commandments and Moses chiseled them into the, you know, the tablets up there on Mount Sinai. When he spoke, the Bible says he spoke so loud, he's up in the mountains. The people down in the valley could hear him. Hebrews 12 says this. When God spoke from Mount Sinai, his voice shook the earth. But now he says, God says, I will not only shake the earth, but the heavens too. Now what's that mean? Well, by this, he means that he will sift out everything without a solid foundation, talking about your life so that only the unshakable things will be left. Okay, Sometimes you're gonna go through the fire, you're gonna go through a problem, you're gonna go through a difficulty, and you are being shaken. It's like sifting. When you're sifting flour or anything else. And what he's doing here is he's saying, we're gonna get rid of all the temporary stuff, all the man made stuff in your life, and. And we're only gonna keep in your life the stuff that's gonna last forever. That's why you're going through that problem. Job 5, 17. Consider yourself fortunate when God all powerful chooses to correct you. He says it's a privilege, it's an honor to be corrected by God. Cause it just means he loves you. Parents who don't correct their kids don't love their kids. And so he says, God whispers us to us in our pleasure, but he shouts to us in our pain. And we only change. The only time we change is when the fear of change is exceeded by pain. The only time we change is when our fear of change is actually exceeded by pain. When the pain gets bad enough, then you change. I don't know why, but sometimes God has to lay us flat on our back before we look up to him. And God wants to teach you about himself, and he wants you to teach you about yourself. And some lessons, really you're only gonna learn through failure. You know, don't touch the stove. You don't touch it a second time because you learn by being burned. And sometimes you know some things in life. You don't learn the value of money till you've lost it. You don't learn the value of friendship till you've lost it. You don't learn the value of your health until you've lost it. And so sometimes God allows pain and problems and shakeups to inspect us. What's really in you. But sometimes God used pain and problems and shakeups to correct you, like he did with Israel. So here's the question. Write this down. What is this problem teaching me? Instead of going, why me? Instead of asking why, you should ask, what? Don't ask why. When you go through problems, ask what? What should I be learning? Not why is this happening to me, but what should I be learning? Because God uses problems to correct you. All right, let's look at number three. Sometimes God shakes things up to inspect me. Sometimes God shakes things up in my life to correct me. And number three. Sometimes God shakes things up to direct me. To direct me. He wants to point us in a new direction. He wants to guide us down a different path. Proverbs 16, verse 9. A person may plan his own journey. You got your own life plan out there. But the Lord directs his steps. So you have all your plans, but the Lord is gonna direct your steps. Question. How does God direct your steps? Real simple problems. That's how he directs your steps. Have you Noticed that problems often change your plans. Have anybody had that happen in their life? Your problems change your plans. What is God doing? He's redirecting you. He inspects you, he corrects you, and he directs you when things are flying off the wall. Pain is a powerful motivation to change. You've heard me say this before. We don't change when we see the light. We change when we feel the heat. And when it gets hot enough, then we change. Proverbs 20, verse 13 says this. Sometimes it takes a painful experience to. To make us change our ways. And every one of you could give a testimony on that verse. Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways. Sometimes God has to light a fire on you. So you become uneasy, become uncomfortable. It gets hot. I mean, even Aristotle said, we cannot learn without pain. Aristotle, we cannot learn without pain. Some things, as I said, you learned by being burned. It's like when the prodigal son. He didn't change until he hit bottom. And everything's going great. He's living it up, his life. But when he hits bottom, he runs out of friends, money and food. Now he goes, hmm, he came to his senses. Maybe this isn't the way I should be living. God shakes things up to direct us in a new direction. We rarely think about the direction of our lives when things are going good. When your life's going good, you got it on cruise control. You're not even thinking about your goals. You're not even thinking about God. You're not thinking about anything but cruise control. This is fun. I'm in the driver's seat right now, but all of a sudden you have a traffic jam or car accident. All of a sudden it gets your attention. And God gets our attention many times, and he changes the direction. One of the values of pressure and problems and crisis in your life is it forces you to think about stuff you wouldn't normally think about on your own. You wanna just live in denial. And you would just like to take that part of your life that needs changing and just forget it and go on with your life and go, ah, just isolate that over here. I'll compartmentalize it and that'll be just fine. But it doesn't work. When David's life fell apart, he wrote this Psalm 119, verse 59. I have thought about my life. Probably didn't even think about it until the problem came. I've thought about my life, and I've directed my feet back to your written instructions. What's that? That's The Bible, your written instructions. He says, I'm redirecting my life now that I got problems. God, you got my attention. What is a problem in your life that you're pretending to isn't a problem? What's the big problem, the big elephant in your life, in your marriage, in your relationship, that you just forget? Well, it's not a problem. I know we got that there, but we've had it in this relationship all this time. No, it's still a problem. And God will use difficulty to correct you, inspect you and redirect you if he needs to. We would rarely change unless we had problems. We postponed difficult decisions, we put it off. I mean, if you had a disease that didn't hurt you, you'd never go to the doctor about it. You just let it keep taking over your life until you die. Pain gets your attention. We ignore illnesses if they didn't hurt. So God uses problems to produce and to poke us and to push us and to prompt us. And he uses things to direct us. Write this down. Question, where is this problem leading me? You want to ask yourself. You want to get the most out of your problems. Where is this problem leading me? Problems never leave you where they found you. You know, Jonah. God told Jonah to go east to Nineveh. We talked about this the other week. And he didn't wanna go there. He's racially prejudiced. So he went to Spain, Tarshish, headed that direction, went as far west as he could. And God arranged a custom made problem. A custom made fish swallowed him up. And sometimes you get swallowed up by a big problem. But when it spits you out, you're headed in the right direction. And sometimes you're going this way and a problem swallows you up. When it spits you out, you're going the right direction. God uses problems to direct us. Number four. Sometimes God shakes things up to protect us. Sometimes God shakes things up to protect us. Did you know that sometimes pain protects you from something worse? That you're going through a problem, but it's actually preventing you from a bigger problem. It's keeping you from greater harm. You might have wanted a certain job at a certain business and it didn't happen. And God was protecting you because he knew that there was a relationship there that was gonna mess you up and he kept you out of that situation. Sometimes a problem is a blessing in disguise. Honestly, there will be times you have problems when you did the right thing, not the wrong thing. Not every problem is because you did something wrong. Sometimes you have a problem Cause you did the right thing. I mean, I remember one time there's a guy here at Saddleback who good business friend of mine and he was asked to do on a corporation, something very unethical. And he said, sorry, I just can't do it. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I cannot be unethical in that area. And they fired him and he lost his pension and he lost his job and he lost his, you know, all of that. And it looked bad. But about a month later, the SEC hauled that entire corporation into court and they're all in jail now and he's not. And he's going well, thank God. Okay. The problem was getting fired. The bigger problem was going to jail for 20 years, which is the worst problem. Yeah, sometimes God, he did the right thing and he had a problem. He lost his job, but it saved him. Maybe getting fired might be the best thing to happen to you. Cause it keeps you from a real problem. Job 36:16. God led you away from danger. God often does this and you don't even realize it. God has led you away from danger, giving you freedom. Problems are the preparation for success. And it really comes down to a matter of faith. Will you trust God?

Hey, thanks so much for joining us today here on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, as we look at the unprecedented things going on in our world today, it is so clear that we need to be equipped with the biblical wisdom that gives us power to handle whatever life throws at us. So that's why Pastor Rick created a life changing Bible study called Unshakable. And it's based on the book of Daniel. In these eight powerful video lessons, Rick will teach you how to handle life's most difficult trials and situations and how to thrive under extreme pressure, how to pray the kind of prayers that God answers. And this video study includes a workbook. It's perfect for individual or small group Bible study. Please request your copy today. When you give a gift to help Daily Hope take the word of God to people around the world. You just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy. That's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70309. Again, the word hope to 70309. And thanks so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope means so much to us because it helps us share the hope of Jesus Christ to people all around the world. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.

Sam.