When Your World Is Shaken Up – Part 3

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad that you found us today. And whether you're at home or in your car, we're so glad that you're here. And we pray that God will give you hope in times of difficulty. 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 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. This has been such a great message, and I'm so excited to hear what Rick has to say today. In the final part of the message called when youn World Is Shaken up.

Do you remember the story of. Of Joseph in the Bible? You know, he had this vision, and one day he'd be a great leader. And literally, for the first 40 years of his life, everything went wrong. He's betrayed by his brothers. He's sold into slavery. He's taken down to Egypt. He gets a job as a slave in a boss's home. The woman, the wife of the boss, is attracted to him. She comes onto him, offers herself to him. He refuses. He said, I have integrity. I'm not gonna have an affair with my boss's wife. And so she feels spurned. She accuses him of rape. And he's put in prison for the rest of his life for a crime he never committed. Everything's gone wrong in his life, but it's exactly where God wanted him in a series of circumstances. The second half of his life is like this. And he ends up second in command, helping Pharaoh save the most powerful nation of that time. You don't know. Sometimes God is protecting you with a problem in your life. And when it was all over, Joseph said to his brothers who had betrayed him, Genesis 50:20. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. Now, there are people in your life. There are people in this world who intend to harm you. Not everybody's nice in this world. There are evil people. There are mean people. There are people who don't like you because you're a Christian or because of a moral stance or an ethical decision you've made. Cause you won't go with the flow and won't party with the crowd. And they think you're too good, or they think you're self righteous and they misjudge you and all and they want to bring you down. They mean it for bad, but God means it for good. And God is bigger than your enemies. God is bigger than your critics. God is bigger than the people who put you down. You intended to harm me, but God intended for good. Sometimes God shakes things up just to protect you. It's kinda like a fever when you get a fever and you feel really bad. Fever's not the problem, friend. Fever is just a symptom. The fever is telling you something worse is going on in your body. And if you didn't have the fever, you wouldn't get the help. A fever warns you of an infection that needs to be dealt with. And sometimes a small pain can alert you to a life threatening disease. Now this goes true with your emotions too. Sometimes you're feeling really bad and you're feeling really, really bad and you're down and you're depressed and you're discouraged and you got all these bad negative feelings and you're praying, go, God, take away the feelings. He doesn't take away the feelings. You're going, why don't you take away the feelings? God said? Cause the feelings aren't your problem. The problem is what you're thinking about is causing those feelings. You gotta stop believing the. And when you stop believing the lies about you, the lies about me and the lies about other people, you're gonna feel better. I'm not gonna take away the feelings. The feelings are telling you that your thinking is stinkin'. You need a checkup from the neck up. You know, you gotta get your thoughts right. I remember when we were doing the 23rd Psalm series and I read about how shepherds in the Middle east will sometimes intentionally break a leg of a healthy sheep. Why? Because that sheep is prone to wander and it'll wander off. In order to protect that sheep from wolves and bears and other predators, they will break the leg of the sheep. And the sheep walks with a limp so it doesn't wander off. And if God has to break your leg to keep you from wandering off and getting in a worse problem, he will. He loves you that much. Now, it's no fun to hurt somebody you love. But just like a surgeon will cut you to heal you, God will break you to save you, if that's what it takes. Sometimes God may do that to you. You see those things that you think are disappointments. Disappointments are his appointments. Disappointments are actually his appointments. God has appointed them and there's a reason behind it for your own good. Now, sometimes God removes a harmful person in your life and it breaks your heart. Don't run after him. Some of you, that's all you need to hear. You just needed to hear your pastor say that sometimes there's a harmful person in your life, but you're addicted to them, and God will remove them from your life. Don't run after them. God is shaking things up to protect you. So ask this question. Question number four. How could this problem protect me? How could this problem be protecting me? What's being prevented? What could be worse in my life than this problem? Well, there are a lot of things that could be worse. All right, number five. The fifth way that God shakes things up in your life and the fifth reason for shaking things up in your life is not to correct me or inspect me or direct me, but God uses things and problems to perfect me. To make you more like Jesus Christ, to. To grow your character, to grow you up. Margaret Carlson, years ago, wrote a book called Grace Grows Best in Winter. You know, it's possible to grow during the bright, fair weather times, but growth is faster and deeper, often during your darkest days, like when you lose a child. And that's where you grow deep. I could read you thousands of letters that have been written to me over the last 36 years from people who say, you know, I grew more Pastor Rick through that separation. I grew more Pastor Rick through that unemployment, through that illness, through that tragedy, through that loss, through that storm than I ever would have grown if things were going good in my life. I want you to write this down in your outline. Pain is the high cost of growth. Pain is the high cost of growth. If you wanna grow up in. You wanna be mature, there is no way to do it without pain. Pain is the cost of growing up. You can't grow up on Easy street and see, we want the product without the process. It is a cliche, but it is true. There is no gain without pain. There is no maturity without growing pains. And the very thing that discourages you is. Is the very thing that God is using to develop you. When you learn this, you're gonna be unshakable in life like Daniel was. We're gonna see all these things in his life. The things that discourage you are actually the things that God wants to use to develop you. And there is a reward coming. 1 Peter 5, 10. The Bible says this. After you have suffered a little while there, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory, God's gonna share his Glory with you in union with Christ will himself perfect you. Circle that will perfect you and give you firmness and strength and a sure foundation. Why? Because you're not taking your car or your cash or your career or your clothes or your china to heaven. You're taking your character. God is not interested in making your life easy on this earth. He's interested in growing your character. The easy part comes for eternity. You're in school right now. You're in school. And in school God says there are eternal rewards coming, and I'm going to perfect you. So knowing that God can even use the bad things in my life to inspect me, to direct me, to correct me, and to even perfect me, what should be my response? Romans chapter five tells us we can rejoice. We can rejoice. We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials. For we know it's perspective that they're good for us. We run into problems and trials, we know they're good for us. They help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character. Boom. In us and helps us trust God more each time we use it. So here's the fifth question. How can I grow from this problem? See, the bottom line, your problems are not your problems. All those things that you think are your problems, they're not your problems. Your problems are not your problems. Your real problems are how you choose to respond to your problems. And if you respond to them in a way where you trust God and you praise God and you thank God and you maintain your integrity and you don't give up and you don't give in, and you do the things that we'll see Daniel do in 70 years of his life, you're just gonna get promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted into eternity. How can I grow from this problem? And those problems you think you've got right now, really, when do problems really become problems? When do your problems really become real problems? Well, my problem becomes a real problem when I lose my perspective. My problem becomes a real problem when I give up on important values and I just say, forget it. I'm not gonna waste time anymore. I give up. I'm giving up in person. A problem becomes a real problem when you lose your sense of humor. Your problem becomes a real problem. When you start feeling sorry for yourself and have a pity party. Your problem becomes a real problem when you get bitter and you start blaming everybody else for your unhappiness. Now it's a problem. That's the real problem. So God is saying, and we're gonna see these. This is an index to Daniel's life. He's saying, don't be surprised. When you have adversity in the world, you will have tribulation. Jesus said, realize that I can use it five different ways. Okay? I can inspect you, and I can correct you, and I can direct you, and I can protect you, and I can perfect you. I can use all these different ways in what's going on in your life. And so what's the third suggestion? Here it is. Finally trust God for what? I don't understand. When there's a problem in my life, I go, this one does not make sense. I don't get it. I don't see the perfection. I don't see the inspection. I don't see the correction. I don't see the protection. I don't see the perfection. This problem does not make sense. Then I trust God for what I don't understand, knowing that he has my best interest in heart. Last two verses, Proverbs 20, 24. Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way? Hello. Some of us need to memorize that and tattoo it on our arm. Okay? If ever you're gonna get a tattoo, get that verse right there. Okay. Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way? It's foolish, you trying to understand God's ways like an ant trying to understand the Internet. You don't have the brain capacity. God is God and you're not. So what do you do when you don't understand? You trust. Last verse, Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Trust the Lord with all your heart. It doesn't say intellect.

Heart.

Trust the Lord with all your heart. Don't depend on your own understanding. Honor the Lord in everything you do and he will give you. What's the word? Circle that. Success. I want you to be a success in life. God wants you to be a success in life. As your pastor, as your spiritual coach, it is my goal, my job, my role to help you succeed in every area of the life that God has given you. I want you to be a success. Not just survive when times are tough, not just survive in a hostile culture to Christians, but to thrive and actually get promoted and have greater influence and be used by God in an amazing way. That's what we're gonna look at in this series. Let's bow our heads. Let me close with a little self evaluation. Why don't you ask these questions to God in your mind? Here's the first one, Just say, lord, are you using these problems to inspect me? You know, the ones I'm going through right now? Are you using these problems to inspect me? If so, what does it reveal about my life? Is there a weakness? Is there a misplaced priority in my life? Is there someplace I've compromised the truth and you're trying to show it to me? And then say, lord, are you using this problem to correct me? If so, what do you want me to learn? I'm not gonna ask why. Why is this happening to me? I'm gonna ask, what? What do you want me to learn? What do you want me to know? Lord, are you using this problem not just to inspect or correct? Are you using this problem to direct me? If so, what's the direction? What do you want me to change? What's the new direction? Where do you want me headed? Lord, are you using this problem to protect me? Did that thing not happen because you knew something that I didn't know, and I was walking into a bigger trap, a bigger problem, a bigger fiasco, a bigger difficulty, and you protected me? If so, Lord, then I'm just gonna tell you, I trust you. I know that you know best. Thank you for protecting me. And, God, I want you to protect me. And when there's something that I want that would be bad for me, don't let me have it. I want your will more than my will. And then say, lord, are you using this problem to perfect me? See, God's at work in your life even when you don't recognize it or even understand it. God's work in your life is not dependent upon you understanding it. So I want you to pray this prayer very simply. Say, dear God, I wanna trust you with all my heart. Just say it in your mind. I trust you with all my heart, not my intellectual. I'm not gonna depend on my own understanding. And God, I wanna honor you in everything I do, work, home, anywhere else. And if I trust you and I don't depend on my own understanding, and I honor you in everything I do, you've promised to give me success, and I'm gonna believe that. Teach me the life of Daniel in these weeks ahead. Jesus Christ, I want to trust you with all of my life as best I know how, and I'm doing it today, in your name I pray. Amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you. Just email rickastorrick.com we'll send you free tools to help Start your relationship with Jesus. And now let's hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope. Here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

I want you to listen to this testimony from a listener in Monterrey, Mexico. Jonas Alvarez writes. Hi there, Pastor Rick. My name is Jonas Alvarez, and I'm an English teacher in Monterrey, Mexico. I listen to Daily Hope every day by podcast, and it has profoundly enriched my life. I recommend to my students to listen to it and to practice their English skills. Hey, that's a great idea. And I know for sure that if they do, they're going to get much more than just learning English. Thank you so very much. Sincerely, Jonas. Well, thanks for writing, Jonas. My prayer is that Daily Hope will bring the hope that we find in Jesus to your students, just as we're praying that it brings hope to people.

All around the world.

By the way, did you notice how Jonas is sharing Daily Hope podcast with his students? I think that's a great idea.

My question to you is, who are.

You sharing the Daily Hope podcast with? Who could you tell about this good news? You know, good news is so good, we can't keep it to ourselves. You gotta share it. So if you shared Daily Hope with somebody else, would you let me know about it? Write me, you know the address rickastorrick.com it's just rickastorrick.com and tell me your story of how you're sharing Daily Hope with other people.

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.