Finding Peace in Christ Amidst Life's Challenges

uh... june nineteen sixty three when i committed my life to gideon said given uh... me a bible and so i've been on this journey for a while but uh... it doesn't matter kind of where i came from uh... there's always issues it seems like in believers lives and uh... this section we'll talk about this was at the end of jesus ministry he was trying to comfort his disciples and i and i've always found that comforting in my life one of the versus my chapters my mom help me memorize the songs twenty three and the only child if my parents were late ten minutes i always thought they were killed in a car wreck or or whatever you know how that is ur i'd get sick and always think it's a brain tumor but i would always go back to the twenty-third song on that god was my shepherd and so i think uh... got his creator in jesus uh... when he was not he knows that they know how we are and so that that's comforting uh... to know that even though we go through trials and problems and issues in our lives as believers because he was talking to the disciples he understands how we are he's always there for since i thought we'd look at this passage and uh... look at some of the details of the cycles and then look at some of the things about how it applies to our life in the challenges that go along with that pray with me if you would father we do thank you for another opportunity uh... see the life of jesus and what that meant to his disciples and what that means to us in the great messages uh... and lessons and principles and truth that he taught them so we ask for that you'd help us to learn those uh... in relation to who you are and who we are and and uh... develop a better relationship with you and your son jesus but also be able to apply that in our lives that will be able to share uh... with the people around us the great life that they could have through you and we do thank you for the great life we have through your son jesus christ we pray these things in his name amen so we're gonna start uh... i gave you a little up to that but uh... jesus starts discomfort with the in chapter fourteen says do not let your hearts be troubled trust in god and also trust in me so that's kind of thing through this whole thing uh... jesus last kind of conversation with his disciples and then he talks about uh... divine in the branches and then he talks about god's in the holy spirit and it gets right down to the end and you would think and and i get frustrated with myself i don't know if you get frustrated with yourself at all but i get frustrated sometimes in life when i go through these things and i get so worried and upset and then i and then god you know does something to make my life better i think why in the world do i have these fears the disciples were the same way they spent almost three years with jesus may get down to the end in verse twenty nine uh... uh... i would start verse twenty five uh... it helps understand this so the decide he's talking to the cycles he says though i have been speaking figuratively uh... a time is coming when i will no longer use this kind of language but i will tell you plainly about my father in that day you will ask in my name in i am not saying that i will ask the father on on your behalf know the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that i came from god i came from the father and entered the world now i'm leaving the world and going back to the father then jesus disciple says now we are clearly speaking clearly and without figurative speech now we can see you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions this makes us believe that you come from god and jesus says you believe it last sometimes i think jesus says that to me on a weekly basis uh... and then it goes on it says but a time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each of you on his each of you to his home you will leave me alone yet i am not alone for my father is with me i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble but take heart i have overcome the world and then after jesus said these things he looked toward heaven and prayed father the time has come glorify the sun your son and your son also that your son may up your son may glorify you for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to those you have given him now this is eternal life that you may know that they may know you the only true god and god and jesus christ whom you have sent and so uh... i don't know if you've gotten situations i've had lots of situations in my life i've been blessed with that have really caused me to trust in christ and the disciples have gone through the life with christ and they had all these uh... i know when i was young and naive i used to think everything was going to work out just the way i wanted it to uh... everybody around me was nice people i worked with good people uh... and eventually i came to a realization that uh... it wasn't really the way rusty wanted it to and then i got frustrated with god i'm like god how how can these people be this way i mean and so uh... now that i'm a little more mature uh... i still get frustrated with the same things not only frustrated with myself but frustrated with the people around me but god knows how we are jesus knew how the disciples were and even though as believers and i think most of us here tonight are believers and followers you don't have to be a christian very long that you run into obstacles uh... sometimes it can be ourselves sometimes it can be our family and sometimes can be the people we trust and sometimes it can just be the world and satan and different things and the disciples had gone through all these and they had jesus right there with them and they still had trouble understanding how all this fit together but i think god's purpose in that that i've learned is that that's where faith came in that's where faith comes in on my part i used to think i had it all figured out if everybody would just listen to me then uh... everything would be okay well you know what i found out even if everybody does listen to me sometimes it just doesn't go according to plan and so i don't know if you've been there uh... in your life as well but uh... we're gonna focus here on verse thirty one through the first part of uh... chapter seventeen it says you believe at last so jesus had been working all this time and i was encouraged that fedra said that she'd got a uh... bible when she graduated here in our youth group if you've worked with children or you've worked with youth sometimes you wonder lord what in the world am i doing but jesus worked with disciples and it was jesus you know and it took them almost three years and when they say we believe they still didn't get it all okay so one of the points is don't be frustrated if you haven't got all figured out yet couple reasons one it's always changing uh... the other thing is god has part in there that if we get it figured out we don't need him and so that's what faith is about it's a constant being uh... dependent on god and we talk a lot about being a disciple jesus told if you want to be my follower take up your cross daily deny yourself take up your cross daily okay so those are things that we can have to do on a daily basis and i see myself uh... doing that and sometimes i wonder uh... how i get in the situations i do and we're gonna look at that in a little bit uh... later here says but a time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each to his own home you will leave me alone yet i am not alone for my father is with me and i don't think i've been in a situation like i said i grew up pretty much an only child and uh... it was just me my mom and my dad if you don't have any brothers and sisters you get pretty good at doing things by yourself and and you learn to kind of live alone and when i got married was kind of a uh... something i had to figure out you know and uh... some people are used to that but then there's some people that just can't stand to be alone but there's going to come a time and there's coming may come a time every day and uh... more more studies says that's the biggest problem in our world today is loneliness and depression the guy that won the pga tournament today was ranked like three hundred ninety something and he struggled with depression he's a professional golfer he plays golf all day we all can suffer from depression you can have the best in life and the disciples had jesus with them that whole time he was miracles almost on a daily basis if they needed food he could just turn you know couple baskets of bread and fish into whatever they need they needed money said go down there and catch some fish brought up a fish and had coins in its mouth okay so jesus was able to bring all those things into their lives but they still had a problem believing it there's something in all of us uh... innately and it goes all the way back to adam and eve god made us in a way that there's something very strong in us we have god's image we also have our own mind and uh... i think about my children and uh... and myself they get i think a lot of the bad things for me uh... i could be pretty hard-headed and so that's what was happening with the disciples they had all these preconceived ideas about how the world should be and some of them were very learned jews they knew that they knew the old testament inside and out that can be frustrating as well because jesus always kind of puts a new light on those things uh... he has done that in my life as well and it's an aha moment i don't know if you've ever had aha moments but i've had several of those uh... and it's been i don't know probably ten or twelve years ago i really took to the idea that god says we're supposed to love our enemies you talk about a radical idea and i don't think many people in uh... the old testament and even in the new testament if you take what jesus tells you literally there's some head-shaking moments in there but if you look at our world hating our enemies and going to war we've learned that doesn't really work god's way is to love people like he loves us and we talk about our mission statement loving god with all your heart mind soul and strength when you can get that figured out and you can start making that a priority in your life that's what was happening to the disciples they'd given up everything in their life and they'd come and follow jesus uh... and then once they started this relationship with jesus he kept asking him for more and more and more so don't get discouraged if in your life things aren't going the way they're supposed to if god keeps asking you for more and more sacrifices uh... we used to talk about this when i was a football coach i was talking to one of the young guys mike miller who was out west and he said their guys just haven't been willing to pay the price to be successful but until somebody's invested something it's a lot easier to quit and give up jesus had got the disciples where they really didn't have much left except their relationship with him and sometime god has to get us to that spot and i'm sure we could all give testimonies about different things about how god has brought us into relationship with him but that's pretty normal uh... but just like jesus the father was always with him we're created in god's image and he is always with us uh... cecil was talking today about being witnesses we're always a witness we're either a good witness or we're not a very good witness or we're letting christ shine in our life or we're not god is always with us even if you're not a believer god is right there with them because they're created in his image and i used to think sometimes you know why people can do that but you know that's a whole other message but on the believer's side god is always with us and jesus understood that better than anybody because he was kind of here all by himself nobody knew who he was nobody understood what his mission was even his closest friends didn't really get it and we say that sometimes at school people we work with just don't get it and so but jesus because he had such a complete relationship with the father that was what carried him through and so that's the message here is that you'll never be alone now that you've made that commitment to christ and you have that relationship with god there's not anything in your in this world that can separate you from from god or or anything and christ went and verse thirty three says i have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world you have trouble and so there's always kind of a attention in in my life about whether i might have peace and depend on what god tells me have that completeness in the old testament they call it shalom which is a completeness that you have in god or am i going to be torn apart by those things that either inside me these desires that i have or the desires of the world or the desires of the pressures of the people around me my job am i going to give into those things and not have peace or am i going to be able to rest in god's peace and we all struggle with that because you know i love my family and i love my friends i love my job you know and i think this is a great place to live but all of those things can let you down at one time or another and unfortunately all of us have experienced that but the good news is just like christ he doesn't ever he didn't give up on the disciples one of the things that i think about is judas was with them the whole time and and christ treated him the same none of the disciples knew and it was just this big revelation when judas did what he did but jesus said go do what you're supposed to do he knew and so there's a lot of things about the way jesus treated people that leads me to believe there's a lot of things that i do that aren't quite the best that i can be and so god is always with us in all those circumstances and if we'll believe in him he'll take care of us and there's a lot of really encouraging things in in these three or four chapters about he was encouraging the disciples not only will you do what i do what i have done you'll do greater things than i have done that's almost mind-blowing uh... then jesus starts to pray in chapter seventeen he's gonna pray for his disciples and he's praying for us believers and it said after this he looked toward heaven and prayed father the time has come glorify your son that your son may uh... glorify you for you granted them authority you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given now this is eternal life that you may know that they may know you the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sent sounds kinda simple doesn't it i'm on a i'm on i'm on a eating right phase in my life i'm gonna start eating right losing weight is easy sounds easy it's a simple process if you take in this many calories and you burn this many calories you lose weight if you take in this many calories and you only burn this many if you take in this many calories you only burn this many you gain weight sounds like a simple thing just don't eat as much and so this sounds like a simple process but there's a lot more to it uh... just like talked about earlier god wants us to love him with all our heart mind soul and spirit i pray sometimes about god how am i supposed to do that you know what what does that look like uh... there's a couple ways that god shows us turnover to psalms nineteen it's the best way that i can explain it and uh... the songs are uh... poetry but they give us a good idea of how david thought about his relationship with god uh... there's a lot of ways to look at that and basically this song has two parts there's the general revelation that you should see god in everything you do and then another way we get to see god is in his uh... scripture so we're in psalms nineteen and i think it's one through seven is the first half where it talks about no one through six we'll read that first uh... the heavens declare the glory of god the skies proclaim the work of his hands day after day they pour forth speech night after night they display knowledge there's no speech or language where their voice is not heard their voice goes out into all the world their words to the ends of the world in the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion like a champion rejoicing to run his course i rise at one end of the heavens and make it circuit to the other nothing is hidden from its heat and so one of the ways is kinda general revelation i can remember when i was when i was a kid something would happen to me and i would always think about you know what god did or up until about a hundred years ago scientists did the same thing when they were trying to figure out how things worked einstein and all those guys they tried to figure out how did god do this what's the simplest way to understand this that god made our creation they started taking got out of the equation they think they know how the universe runs and they've taken got out of the equation so that's caused a lot of confusion in the world we live in today it happens in school uh... but the good news is uh... god doesn't need to know all the questions because he has all the answers so don't get confused because you don't know all the things you may not know the future you may not know those things you may not understand why the sun comes up and the sun goes down they explained in the best terms that they had now the neat thing that i found out uh... that word there where it's talking about the sun uh... in the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun that's the same word they used to use for tabernacle and i think it's john one fifteen it said jesus came and tabernacled with us god's plan from the very beginning is to have a relationship with us everything he's created in this world either shows himself to us or is trying to give us information about himself that's the best information they have you know what in a hundred years the scientific information that they have now they're gonna scoff at that in a hundred years but god still the creator of the sun and he's still the one that controls it and he's the one that's put it in that orbit even if we don't understand or we orbit around it even though we don't understand that that's okay and in the old testament they knew less than we did and one thing that kind of gives me peace about this if god tried to explain all that to us if he i'm i used to be a science teacher and have a pretty good understanding of atoms and different things but if god tried to help me understand all that stuff and seems like the more you learn about stuff the less you know and that's the way it is and so they're still trying to understand a lot of things that god has revealed not only about the earth but even about the human body they have more and more information but the part that they're missing is god's involvement and to get it to make sense to get it so it works in your life that's god's purpose in the creation it's not that we have to understand everything because even if he tried to explain it to you or me we wouldn't get it at some level but if we're looking at it the other way as it's a relationship thing when i get up in the morning sometimes and i see the stars out i think man what a magnificent god or when the sun comes up there it talks about uh... it rises at the end of the heavens in verse six and makes it circuit to the other nothing is hidden from its heat i don't tend to be cold-blooded but i don't know if you've ever been out camping and it's really cold in the morning and you're like man i wish the sun would come up and the bible tells us that god sends rain on the wheat and the chaff god sends that heat for all of us to bless us but also that everybody could know that he is god and so paul talks about this in the first chapter of romans that's why god says everybody should be able to be able to see me and that's his purpose in kind of general revelation and uh... he starts in verse seven you should be able to see if you're looking for those things you'll find them uh... terry and i when there was present we used to go pheasant hunting interior is an amazing pheasant spot will be driving down a lot road and i'll look out the field and he'll look out the field he'll say forty yards out there there's three roosters seven hands and sure enough will go out there and that's what will be there he's got great vision for those things and so if you're looking for those things if you're looking for god and you know what you're looking for he'll always show up there and that's away that he blesses our lives and help us know that in this world that he's created he's there for us to have a relationship with us so that's the first part of loving god with all your heart mind soul and strength you should see him in everything you do in your life and if you're not okay you're missing god and so i challenge this week to be looking for god in those in those situations where maybe you haven't seen him in the past or maybe you're not looking for he's there he's he's he's in everything that we do because he's the creator of the world this last section is a pretty long one uh... when i read anyway uh... verse seven the law of the lord is perfect reviving the soul the statutes of the lord are trustworthy making wise the simple the precepts of the lord are right giving joy to the heart the commands of the lord are radiant giving light to the eyes the fear of the lord is pure enduring forever the ordinance of the lord are sure and altogether righteous they are more precious than gold much more pure gold they are sweeter than honey than honey from the comb by them is your servant warned in keeping them there is great reward who can discern his errors forgive my hidden faults keep your servant also from willful sins may they not rule over me then i will be blameless innocent of great transgression may the word of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight oh lord my rock and my redeemer that's the other part i heard something good that made sense to me our spiritual wells have to be hand-dug by ourselves there's some things that you're going to have to learn on your own because god's created is different the principles are the same but how they apply in your life is different because we're all different we all work at different places uh... helen i raised a son and a daughter we had different ways of looking at things but when you can get god's principles and you can understand those precepts laws rules and regulations that's how you get to know who god is well why does god want me to love my enemy that was one of the first questions that was so counterintuitive to me well any other way doesn't work if they don't love you and you don't love them back you can't buy their love you can't punish him enough to make them love you it's it just doesn't work so the only way in relationships that'll ever work and that's the way god has been with me is that he loves me now does he ever always give me everything i want no does he always everything work out the way i want no it's bad thing bad things happen to me yes for lots of reasons okay so back over here to uh... chapter seventeen jesus says in verse two for you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him now this is eternal life and a lot of translations turn that the other way life eternal that they may know the only true god and jesus christ he whom you have sent so life eternal is a little different aspect of that some people have the idea that i'm on a uh... make a professional be baptized and do all those things and i'm gonna go to heaven okay so there's a gap there life in terms a little different if you look at it that means learning to live the way god intended it for you to live for the rest of your life and that's what the disciples did jesus changed them and then they started to learn and learn and learn and eventually they started doing what jesus did and even more even took a guy like paul who was trying to kill the church he killed people he killed stephen he was their blessing those things he struck him with lightning he must've been really hard-headed that worries me sometimes when i get hard-headed if god's gonna strike me with lightning to help me c he blinded paul but that's what it took for him so it takes something different for all of us but it took paul a long time to kinda get all that straight the disciples have been with jesus for three years you can get a straight down it took paul a long time to get straightened out to so this sounds like it's a simple process that they may know you that only true god you're gonna have to dig your own spiritual well to get that water and a lot of cases you're gonna have to spend time studying you have spent time praying you can have spent time in broken relationships good relationships with your enemies love in them because that's what jesus did is our example that got people that put him on the cross people that tortured him what did he ask god to do forgiven they know not what they do you talk about a challenge when people are mean to me i'm an assistant principal at a middle school people say things about me they write things in the bathroom about me you know that's tough i had to turn a case over to the principal derrick and i said here you need to do this i don't want to seem biased that i'm the person you know it kind of got the guy red-handed with the marker and everything but i didn't want it to appear that i was being vindictive or mean to him because i care for him the student and he's really struggling uh... so there's times that that's a hard thing because our natural inclination with somebody pushes us what we want to do pushing back, jesus wasn't that way, he loved them he loved them into submission and that sounds you know all these things sound like they're pretty simplistic and they're not the idea is to know you the only true god and just like ab and eve, just like everybody in the bible we get confused about god is the true god and the reason he sent us here and all the things that he's done for us everything in this world james says all good things come from god everything we have in our life is from god and we joke about hitting the lottery and rusty is going to have a yellow hummer okay we always want more we want to hit the lottery but you know what in jesus christ we have hit the lottery everything we need in life this life and the next life and he'll even make this life like jesus life it'll be a good life we'll be complete we'll have shalom we'll have peace that's what he told them don't get worried about the world have peace because i've overcome the world the one thing that we can't do he took care of we're all going to pass away this life is going to be over here on earth there's not anything we can do about that and that's one of the greatest fears and that's why a lot of people get depressed when they start getting mature like me is because i can't run up and down the basketball court anymore i can't do all the things that i used to do just because i must have done that too long or i can't get the dieting thing right or lots of issues but they're my issues god still loves me whatever issues you have in your life god still loves you he wants you to help become an overcomer we don't have time to talk about that but jesus in in this paul said we're going to be overcomers like jesus and when you have jesus and one of the he talked about having power of the holy spirit that gives you the power to overcome those things people struggle with a lot of things and it doesn't make it any easier because we all have issues but god gives us the power to do those but it's not always easy just like digging your own spiritual well have any of you dug a well in here? had that pleasure? it's not an easy thing or digging post holes or any of those things it's a lot of effort and so to know the only true god and jesus christ whom you have sent the good news is we have the bible and the more time you spend in there and god points something out to you and you say you know I'm going to try that this week that's the way it works and it's a trial and error method just like anything you can make it a scientific investigation if then uh... but it doesn't always work out that way sometimes when you love your enemies they're not going to love you back but that's what god wants you to do so if you want to have peace in your life I challenge you this week as you're reading your bible and you're studying to learn more about who god the true god is the true creator of the world who's in control of this whole world why he lets all these things spin out of control I'm going to get to ask him one of these days but I think it has to do because he loves not only you he loves everybody in the world for god so loved the world so he's given everybody an equal chance at salvation and so and jesus christ whom you have sent the good news is jesus really has done it all in this section before jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and if we'll point people towards them just like frederick shared with us tonight in the youth group she got that bible when she graduated okay sometimes you get to see those and that you know made my heart feel good because I'm working with the youth group now and sometimes I wonder if we do things the way god wants us to no matter what happens we can have peace because when I do what god wants me to the results are on him the consequences sometimes I get to suffer but the bible tells us we get to fill up christ's suffering when we suffer along with him and that's not part of what the world enjoys or nobody wants to have but suffering is part of life seeing your parents pass away which a lot of us have gone through or your family or different people there's suffering that goes along with that but that's god's way of doing things and once you've been through that suffering you have a greater appreciation for life and so through all those bad things god is always able to make those work out uh... there's really no way we can fail if we are able to keep our focus on god jesus prayed for us he sent the holy spirit and god has always been on our team somewhere down the line there's this great mystery or this great misconception that god's against us he's not he's for us but the way god works things is we have to figure out who god is and what he wants us to do and do it his way and I was never in the military but I learned my dad wanted me to go to the military because I was a little hard-headed they kind of worked that out as you from what I understand when they tell you to do something they kind of expect you to do it that way god's that way too but he loves us enough even though we fail he'll forgive us and that's what jesus was just coming to the end of his ministry with his disciples and he was pointing to god so that they would get the most important information and here it is know this is eternal life that they may know you the only true god in jesus christ whom you have sent so that's your challenge this week get to know god better look to love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and spirit how do you do that? everything you do god is a part of that everything you see in this world he's made look for him in those things the other thing is be regular in studying the bible having a conversation with god, talk with your friends who are believers nothing helps him out more than raising our children, especially our son we get to talk to Kathy and Terry and pray together about will you pray for St. Anne and they say will you pray for Ty and Garrett so we pray together because it's hard to have all the answers but god does even if we don't know the questions sometimes he has the answers so I challenge you this week to look for god in all the situations plus study the bible if you're having challenges in your life there's special rules in the bible that can help you sometimes it's good to watch Dr. Phil and Oprah and all those things they're just guessing god's been around for a while and he has the answers but they're not easy answers so that's the challenge you're going to have to spend some time digging that spiritual well let's close in prayer what a great opportunity we have to spend our life enjoying our time with you as creator knowing that you love us you not only love us but you love the whole world it's not something crazy as it is you tell us that you sent your son to die on the cross for the world so as we want to try to learn to love you more and more each day with every part of us you also expect us to love the people around us and that's hard because they're many times unloving hard to love almost refusing love often times but we do pray that you would strengthen us and encourage us we thank you for your holy spirit we pray for that you would be dependent in order to listen in order to tell us things also we thank you for your son Jesus Christ who lived a life as an example we pray for the people to study and it's great to see how Jesus and our situations come to the reality and the truth you told us that if we hold on to your teachings Lord Jesus that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free from all those things that tear our lives and allow us to have peace so I pray Lord that you would give us the strength and the courage to dig into the spiritual world especially when our folks are studying who you are and that you intend for us in this life we thank you for the gift that we have in each of you that is in your name amen thank you