Rick Warren - How to Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes in Your Life

As your pastor, I am deeply concerned about how you're

handling the trauma and the stress of all of the

changes that have taken place in your life in the

past eighteen months now. Certainly, the global pandemic of COVID

changed everything, and we're still not out of the woods.

We're still not free from it yet. But there's a

lot of other changes going on in the world at

the same time. And that's why I started this short

series a couple weeks ago that I'm calling strategies for

Stressful Times, Strategies for stressful times, and we're looking at

tips and strategies and skills from the scripture on how

do you handle when things aren't good? The first message

you remember a couple weeks ago, I did a message

called finding the strength to keep going when you're emotionally

worn out? Anybody ever felt that way? Emotionally worn out? Yeah?

And then last week we looked at how do you

be happy no matter what happens? And we talk about

how happiness is a choice. It doesn't depend on happenings.

You're as happy as you choose to be. If you're unhappy,

you can't blame your why for your husband or anybody else.

You're as happy as you choose to be. I know

people in much worse situations than us that have chosen

to be happy. This week, in Part three of the

Strategies for Stressful Times, I want us to look at

how do you trust God during changes you don't like?

How do you trust God for changes you don't like

during those changes? Now, we all know that everything constantly changes.

Everything is constantly changing. In fact, even material objects are

actually changing at the molecular level constantly. There are protons

and neutrons and electrons that are zipping around in these

metal bars. They look like they're solid, they're moving out

a molecular Now. While we love some changes, and we

all do, we love some changes, but there are some

changes we just hate. And there are seasons like the

one we're in right now, where change is so rapid

and so relentless that you just get tired of it.

And right now we have been hit with so many

unwanted changes that as I talk to people, they're reeling

from it. They are literally reeling. And so many people,

maybe you feel this way, just feel like they're in

limbo right now. They're just treading water because you're unable

to get on with your life, unable to get out

of what's going on, and it feels like we're we

can't really get on going because we don't know how

long this thing's going to last. And a lot of

people are just overwhelmed and they're just barely getting by.

I care about you if you feel that way, And

so today, as I've studied God's word all the I

want to give you some very practical guidance from God's

word on how do you trust God when you're going

through changes in your life that you don't like. You'll

have plenty of those in life. And what I want

to do is I want to give you I want

to summarize what Scripture says five things, five truths you

need to remember and five things you need to do. Okay,

so if you get out your message notes, we'll look

at these five things you need to remember when you're

going through changes you don't like, and how do you

keep trusting God in those situations. So anytime you're overwhelmed

by change, there are five things you need to remember,

So write these down. Number one, that's what's kind of obvious,

but we need to start with it. Change is unavoidable. Okay,

that's the first thing. We all know that, but we

just need to be reminded that change is unavoidable. No

matter how much you like a change, or how much

you dislike a change, no matter how much you like

the way things have been, they're not gonna stay the same. Now.

When change happens and it's constant, you can complain, or

you can grumble, or you can get mad, or you

can blame other people. You can even try to stop

the change futilely because you can't stop change. But things

are still gonna keep changing every moment of your life.

You are changing for good or for bad. Now. When

God created the earth way back in the beginning, here's

one of the first things he said in Genesis eight,

verse twenty two. As long as the earth remains, there

will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer,

day and night. What's he saying. He's saying that everything

on this planet is seasonal, Nothing stays the same. We

live in a world of opposites, and the world isn't

the same the way it used to be. Your family

isn't the same, the way it used to be. Your

job isn't the same it used to be. You aren't

the same that you used to be. As I said,

even inanimate audience objects like this table. It looks solid,

but actually at a molecular level, it's moving constantly on

the inside. Many of you know that I drove the

same green Ford truck for twenty years. Why I liked it, Okay,

I didn't. I don't buy a car for bling or

to show my status. It got me the same way

Rolls Royce would and it was comfortable, and frankly, I

would have driven that twenty year old truck for the

rest of the life. But after a quarter of a

million miles, it started changing, and it started breaking down,

and it started falling apart, and I couldn't stand to

give it away. So actually it's parked in my barn,

even though I don't drive it anymore. Now, I've taught

this for decades. Look there on your outline. I've taught

you that there is no growth without change. There is

no growth without change, There is no change without loss.

There is no loss without grief, and there is no

grief without pain. A person who wants to grow and

be better but not go through the pain of change

is like a woman saying I want to have a baby,

but I don't want my tommy to get bigger, and

I don't want to go through labor. It ain't gonna happen.

They don't call it labor for nothing. Any of you

ladies want to testify to that right now, every to

bring new life into the world requires pain. Things change.

But remember this, if if nothing ever changed, you would

have never been born, because you were a change. You

wouldn't have even been So change is unavoidable. Okay, we

got that one down. Here's number two. This is more important.

Change is not always good, but God uses it for good.

Change is not always good, but God uses it for

good in the lives of those who trust him. It's

not good for everybody, but it is good in the

lives of those who trust him. One of the greatest

promises of the Bible, Romans eight twenty eight. We know not.

We're confident that in all things God works for the

good of those who love Him, who have been called

according to His purpose. Now, as I've said many times,

that verse does not say everything is good. There's not

a lot of things in the world that are not good.

Evil is not good, cancer is not good, Rape Molestation

is not good, War, prejudice is not good. A lot

of bad things that are world, But the Bible says

God specializes in bringing good even out of bad. He

can turn crucifixions into a resurrection. And the way God

works all things together for good is kind of like

baking a cake. Now you may not realize this, but

I'm a master cake builder. I know how to bake

cakes because I figured if I want to eat them,

I don't know how to make them. I once made

of German chocolate cake from scratch, no box, for my

wife's birthday, so I know how to make cakes. Now,

when you make a cake, the individual ingredients don't taste

good at all. In fact, some of them are quite bitter.

If you eat flour by itself doesn't taste good. You

eat butter by itself doesn't taste good. If you eat

baking powder by itself, oil by itself doesn't taste good.

Even a little vanilla, raw eggs by themselves. None of

the ingredients in a cake taste good by themselves. But

if you mix them all together, stir it all up,

and stir and stir and stir, and then put the

heat on it, it's delicious, delicious in your life. There

will be elements of your life that are bitter and

unpleasant anyway that doesn't taste good. I don't like that

change in my life. I don't like what just happened.

I don't like what's happening in the world today. But

God takes it all, and he takes even the bad

and the bitter. If you ever drunk, some vanilla by

itself is not very tasty, and He mixes it all up.

All things work together for the good of those who

love God, who are called according to His purpose. Now,

the most important word in that verse that we just

looked at on your outline Romans eight twenty eight is

the word all, So circle the word all. What does

all include? In all things? God works for the good

of those who love it. That means all. It literally

means all. It means every circumstance you face, every choice

you make, every consequence you feel, and every change you experience,

including all of the changes we've just had in the

last eighteen months, all work together for the good of

those who love God. You know, some people act as

if God was caught off guard by COVID nineteen, Like

God goes wow I didn't see that coming. I didn't

imagine that world global pandemic ever happening, And I had

no idea what was going to do to all my churches. Man,

am I in a mess? God is not sweating this pandemic.

The church has outlasted everything for a two thousand years.

Every dictator, every pandemic, every fire, every flood, every revolution,

every critic is still here and none of those things

are now. The difference between whether you're going to be

bitter at the end of this season we're in a

rapid change and relentless change. Are you going to be bitter?

Are you going to be better? The difference is the

letter I the dear's being bitter, and better is I.

I make the difference my attitude. So I need to

remember that change is not always good, but God always

uses it for good if I trust him. Number three,

here's the third thing. To remember. God's purpose in every circumstance,

every one of them, including the ones we're going through

right now, is to make me more like Jesus. God's

purpose in every change in my life is to make

me more like Jesus. Now. The promise of Romans eight

twenty eight is a wonderful promise, but it doesn't really

make sense until you read the next verse Romans eight

twenty nine. So let me read you those two verses

together from the New Living Translation. Here's what it says.

We know, in other words, we're not guessing. We know

that God causes everything, even the bad stuff, even the

bad changes. God causes everything to work together for the

good of everybody, know, for the good of those who

love Him and are called to His purpose for them.

For God knew in advance who would come to him.

He already knew before you decided to accept Christ that

you were going to accept him. He knew in advance

who would come to him, and he chose them to

circle this become like his son, so that his son

Jesus would be the firstborn in his family with many

brothers and sisters. God doesn't just want you in his family.

He wants you developed the family characteristics of a daughter

of God or a son of God, a child of

God like father, like son, like father, like daughter. God says,

I want you to grow up, and who's the model

for maturity now you or me Jesus Christ. And God says,

my number one goal in your life is to make

you like Jesus Christ. His number one goal is not

to make you happy. His number one goal is not

to make you comfortable. His number one goal is to

not make your life pleasant. Those things are the result

of becoming like Christ. This is not heaven. In heaven,

there's no sorrow, suffering, sadness, sickness. But on earth everything's broken.

And so what are we doing here? This is a

school in character for the sixty or eighty at the most,

one hundred years you get on this planet. You're in

school for character. You're not taking your career to heaven.

You're not taking your cash to heaven. You're not taking

your reputation to heaven. What are you taking to heaven?

Only one thing? Your character? What you became, the man

you became on this earth, You're taking that to heaven.

The woman you became on this earth, you're taking that

to heaven. So his number one goal, God uses everything

for our good. And what is that good? He uses

it to build my character. He uses it to make

me more like Jesus. So what is Jesus like? The

best picture of Jesus in the Bible is Galatians chapter two,

verses twenty three. And twenty four, twenty two, and twenty three.

They're called the fruit of the spirit. Nine character qualities.

The fruit of the spirit are love, Jesus's love, joy,

Jesus's total joy, peace, Jesus was always at peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meetness, kindness,

self control. These nine qualities are a perfect picture of Jesus. Now,

how does God produce that kind of fruit in you?

How does God make you more loving? Are you just

walking down the street one day and all of a

sudden zap, You're filled with love and I'm so loving,

I love everybody. I'm just the lover of lovers. No, no, no,

it doesn't zapp There's no pill you could take. No, seminar,

are you going to tend that's going to turn you

from a hater into a lover or from a loving

person into a really compassionate person. How does God produce

love in your life? How does God produce joy in

your life? How does God produce peace and patience in

your life? Listen very closely. I've told you this before,

but I'll talk to you again by putting you in

the exact opposite situation where you get a chance to

learn and practice that character quality. How does God teach

you love? It's real easy to love people like you

who are cool. If God's to teach you real love,

He's gonna put you around some unlovable people, unlovely people. Now,

don't look at him right now, don't hit him in

the elbow with your elbow. Be cool. But God puts

people around you who get on your nerves to teach

you real love. Their heavenly sandpaper. They're running roughing down

your rough edges. Anybody can love the lovely. How do

you learn to love the unlovely the way Jesus loves

you in spite of all your hang ups and hurts

and stuff. How about joy? How does God teach you

real joy in the middle of suffering, in the middle

of grief. Joy is not happiness. Anybody can be happy

when you're out, you know, out a bonfire at the beach,

in the sunsetting. Man, it doesn't get any better than this.

Anybody be happy, fly fishing in the mountains. If God's

gonna teach you real joy, it'll be in the middle

when your heart's breaking. How about peace? How does God

teach you peace? It's easy to be peaceful when everything's

going your way. He'll allow chaos in your life, conflict

in your life to teach you inner peace, the peace

that passes understanding, which says there's no reason I should

be peaceful now, but I am patience. How does God

teach you patience? The department of motor vehicles, waiting in line,

traffic jams, delayed doctor's appointments, and honor any time you

have to wait. God is teaching you the quality of

patience to make you more like Jesus. I remember a

number of years ago when I was going through major

problems and I said, Lord, I need patience. And instead

of getting better, they got worse. They got worse. And

I said, Lord, I need patience, and and my problems

got worse, and that Lord, I need more patience. It

got worse. Finally, after six months, I realized I'm a

lot more patient when I started out. It's easy to

be patient. Everything goes your way. Have you thought about

maybe the last eighteen months, God has been trying to

teach you love for people who are unlovely, joy in

the middle of crisis, Peace in the middle of chaos

and uncertainty, and transition. When you feel like you're in limbo,

patience with people who won't be won't do what you

want them to do, and on and on and on.

This is a school we're in right now, and God's watching.

Change is not always good, but God uses it for

good and the purpose is to always make me more

like Jesus. All right, now, here's the fourth thing you

need to remember. Write this down. God can even can

use even human error and sin. God can use even

human error and sin. I'm talking about when you are

the innocent victim of somebody else's bad decision. My family

isn't what it used to because my husband broke it

up and left me, or my wife left me. Whatever.

God can use even human error and the sins of

other people, not even just my own, for the good

in my He can bring good in my life in

his plan to grow your character and make you like Jesus.

Do you remember the story of Joseph. You remember the

story of Joseph, How his brothers were jealous because he

was the favorite son, and so his brothers sold Joseph

into slavery, and he's taken to Egypt, and for the

first forty years of his life, everything goes wrong. He's

falsely accused of rape, he sold into slavery, He's thrown

in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and sitting

in a foreign jail. Forty years later, he's gone, nothing

has gone right in my life so far. First forty years,

his whole life's downhill. But God had put Joseph exactly

where he wanted him to be, and a series of

God's circumstances, Joseph is raised up to become the second

most powerful leader in the most powerful nation in the

world at that time, which is Egypt in the Age

of the Pyramids. And when Joseph later and he actually

saves two countries from famine. He saves Egypt and he

saves Israel from famine because of his wisdom. But it

didn't look like things were going good in his life

for a long long time. One day, though, he finally

has his brothers come to meet him, and he confronts

his brothers, the guys who had sold him into slavery

in the first forty years of nothing going right in

his life, And what was Joseph's attitude? He treats them

with grace, not bitterness. Why well, Genesis fifty tells us

his perspective that God can use even human error and

sin for good. And Joseph says in Genesis fifty twenty,

you talking to his brothers, you intended to harm me,

but God, that's the most important thing. But God intended

it for good. To accomplish what is now being done,

the saving of many lives. Two entire nations were saved.

So out of the sin of his brothers, two nations

got saved from famine and destruction. You intended to harm me,

but God intended for good. Friends, I'll be honest with you.

There are people in your life who intend bad. You

will face people in your life, people who resent you

at work. They're in co petition with you, they're critical

of you, they don't like you, or whatever. They intend

to hurt you. They intended for bad, but God intends

it for good. And so God can even use human

error and sin in all the circumstances of life. You

know here at Saddleback, we all know the story of

how God brought good even out of Danny Dushane's life

in prison. How he went to prison for a double

murder and was spending all his years in prison, was

in there nearly thirty years, but he came to the

Lord and he lived for God. And I called up

the governor and asked for a commutation and said I

need him on our staff around our prisons ministry. And

he wasn't. Today Danny is a pastor of Saddleback and

ministers to prisoners all over America. That's grace. That's grace,

and that's the kind of church we are. It doesn't

mat matter what your background is. I don't care what

you've done, how badly you've done it, or who you

did it with, or how long he did it. What

matters is the direction of your feet today. That's all

it matters, all right. Now, here's the fifth truth that

you need to remember when we're going through changes we

don't like. It's unavoidable, but God uses it for good

and he wants to make me like Christ. And even

he can use the bad things that other people do

in my life that spread the problems to me that

I didn't ask for. Number five, every change is always

a test of my faith. Write that down. Every change

in your life is always a test of your faith.

One Peter, chapter one, verse seven says this the purpose

of these troubles, you know, the ones you're in right now,

the ones we've been facing for eighteen months. The purpose

of these troubles is to test your faith. Circle that

as fire tests how genuine gold is, your faith is

more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it

gives praise and glory and honor to God. Now I've

told you before that having faith during a time of change,

major change, like we're going through these days, these ugly

days that we're going through, when it's rapid and it's relentless.

Having faith during a time of change is like a

trapeze act and a trapeze artist. You've all seen it,

and the circus of stuff. Trapeze artist swings out on

one bar. The other one comes from the other direction,

and at one point they let go of this bar

and then grab on to that one and swing across

the other side. At some point in that trapeze artist,

you have to let go of this one in order

to jump over and grab the other one. At that

point you're hanging, suspending in space with nothing holding you up.

That is the moment of faith in your life. But

when you grab on to that, it'll take you to

the other side. If you don't take that risk, if

you don't step out in faith. You'll get out there

and you go, I'm afraid to do that. Then you

swing back here, and you swing back here, swing back here,

swing back here. Pretty soon you're dead, sinner, and there's

only one way out, straight down. You gotta let it go.

You gotta stop wishing for the good old days. They're

not coming back. Besides that, the good old days weren't

as good as you think they were. There were problems

then too, and pressures and struggles then too. Now before

we look at what God says to do, and we're

gonna look at that now in a time of change.

I want you to consider how these five truths apply

to your life. Okay, so let's look at them again.

Number One, change is unavoidable. Are you going to just

stop complaining and gripe in and gone? I wish it

were like eighteen months ago or whenever your golden days were.

They're not coming back. It's unavoidable, and you're just gonna

make yourself miserable looking in the past. It's like looking

in the past like trying to drive looking in the

rear view mirror. You're gonna crash. But you need to remember,

you say God I believe You're gonna use all of this,

even the stuff I don't like, the changes I don't like,

You're gonna use it for good in my life. Okay.

And I know that you want to work on my character.

You're more interested in my character than my comfort. So

make me like Christ. Help me be more patient, help

me be more loving, help me be more at peace,

help me be more faithful, help me to have more

self control. All those nine qualities. And then though people

who've hurt you, or how society has hurt you over

the past, you just got to go, Okay, they intended

it for bad, but God can use it for good

in my life. And then to realize that everything in

my life that happens, every change, is a test of faith.

Write these down. Number one, how do I trust in

God when I'm stressed by changes I don't like? Number One?

Invest more time alone with God. Invest more time you

personally alone with God. Now, listen, the greater the changes

that are happening in your life, the more you need

time alone with God. You need to make a specific

time each day that you sit down that we call

this a quiet time, and you sit down and you're

just quiet and you don't turn on the TV of

the radio, and you read a little bit of the Bible,

and you talk to God in prayer, and you sit

there and you be quiet and go God, is there

anything you want to say to me? It's just a

time out. Your quiet time during times of rapid change

is the greatest stabilizer in your life. It'll give you stability.

It's also the greatest reenergizer in your life. When you're

worn out, it'll give you more energy. Now, have you

noticed over the last eighteen months that you don't have

as much energy as you did before the pandemic started.

You don't. Nobody here has the same level of energy

as you had two years ago. Why because that's what

rapid and chronic stress and change and trauma does to you.

It SAPs your energy. It drains your strength. So if

you get up in the morning and you go, I

have good night's sleep, and two hours end of the day,

you're going, man, I'm worn out. Welcome to the club,

Welcome to the human race. That's normal. It's natural when

you've been under eighteen months of chronic change. It's prolonged

stress and so fatigue, the fatigue that you're feeling these days.

It's natural, it's normal under prolonged stress, and you're just

trying to get by, and in many ways you're just

treading water. And this has nothing to do with your age,

because whether you're old or you're young, both young and

old are feeling this way, drained, undestabilized, and out of energy.

What's the antidote? Isaiah chapter forty in the Bible, they're

on your outline, Verses twenty eight and following. Don't you know?

Don't you know that the Lord is the everlasting God,

and he created everything on this earth and in the

universe too. That would have taken a lot of energy,

but it says this, and he never grows tired or weary.

That's why when you spend time with the God who

never gets tired or weary, you get re energized and

you get restabilized. He never grows tired weary. You're tired

and weary. Instead, he gives strength to those who are

weary that's you, and worn out that's you. And he

gives power to the week that's you. Even young people

become exhausted and want to give up. But those who

trust and wait on the Lord will find new strength,

flying high like eagles. They'll run and not grow weary,

and they'll keep going and they'll not faint. Now here's

the point. I just say it real quick. We'll move on.

When you're stressed by major change, don't seek a quick

fix in a drink or a drug, or TV or

sex or you name it. Whatever you do, don't look

for an escape, don't look for a short cut, and

certainly don't try to fight a change that you can't

possibly control. Instead, seek the Lord and do it on

a daily basis. Invest more time. The more change you

have in your life, the more you need quiet time

every day alone with God. If that's all you get

from this weekend, it'll help. Now, when you're having that

quiet time with the Lord, you do the second thing

Number two. Ask God to help me see his perspective.

Write that down. Ask God to help me see his perspective.

If you can begin to see all the changes going

on in society, in the world, in your life, in

your career, and your family, whatever. If you see all

those changes from God's point of view, you're gonna feel

a whole lot better and you're gonna be a whole

lot less stressed. Now this is so important. Everybody look

up here for a second. What I'm talking about is

the difference between seeing everything that's going on in the world,

all the current events, and seeing how God is working

behind the scenes, using it the way he wants to.

Big difference between needs two. Seeing what's happening and seeing

why it's happening. This is the difference between having knowledge

and having perspective. It's the difference between having information about

everything that's happened in the world and having wisdom. You

don't need any more information today. We are overwhelmed with information.

We have an information glood. There are unlimited channels, literally

millions of places now you can get information on what's

happening in the world. You can find out what's going on.

You don't need more information. What you need is more understanding.

You need more discernment, You need more perspective, you need

more wisdom. Anybody can be informed today. I want you,

people of Saddleback Church. I want you to be better

than people out there. How everybody is informed, but I

want you to be wise. And only wise people seek

God's perspective on the events that are happening in the world. Now.

In the Bible, This is the theres between Moses and

the children of Israel. Moses is probably one of the

greatest leaders who ever lived in history. And during the Exodus,

he led about a million people out of four hundred

years of slavery in Egypt across the desert to the

new promised land which became Israel. And during the Exodus,

everybody could see what was going on. They could see

the current events. They could see how God was acting.

They could see like those ten plagues in Israel, when

the river turns red like blood, and they can see

the parting of the Red Sea, and they can see

when they're in the middle of the desert and they

need water and Moses strikes a rock and a waterfall

comes out and saves everybody. And they saw all of

what was happening, and they could see what's going on.

Anybody can see what's going on in the world right now.

But only Moses understood God's reasons, God's perspective. God, only

Moses had understanding and discernment. Only Moses knew the ways

of God. Look at this next verse, Psalm one oh three,

verse seven says this God let the people of Israel

see his mighty actions that's all the current of ends,

but he revealed his ways to Moses. Now, friends, as

your pastor who loves you, I want you more than

anything else. I want you to understand the ways of God.

You can get current of ends and current information from

any media source, but that doesn't make you better than

anybody else just seeing what's going on in the world.

We have tons of information and tons of news, and

yet we are still so unwise. And my deepest desire

for you, my friends, is that you will handle this

COVID pandemic not just just with knowledge, but with wisdom

and with God's perspective and with true understanding, so that

you will be a woman of wisdom, or you will

be a man of wisdom. You'll be a wise man

or a wise woman. That's rarely what I want for you.

It sets you above others who just know what's going on,

but you know why it's going on. Where does that

wisdom come from? Well, you don't get it from the news.

You don't get it from talk radio. You'll get no

wisdom from talk radio or the social media or any

of that. None. You get knowledge, but you don't get

wisdom and discernment. You don't get understanding and perspective. Where

do you get that two sources? Write these down. Number

one first word is just two words, ask God. Write

that down. Ask God. You ask God for wisdom. When

was the last time he said, God, make me a

wise woman, make me a wise man. You have not

because you ask not. The Bible says in James one

to five. If you need wisdom, just ask God for it.

God is generous and he'll gladly tell you what you need.

You have not because you ask not. So you say, God,

make me wise. And then the second thing, this is as

you do is you learn from this book from God's word.

You learn from God's word and from those who teach it.

Many of you maybe have never seen this verse in

the Bible. It's from the Book of Two Peter, Chapter one,

Verse nineteen says this here on the screen, we have

greater confidence in the message of the prophets. Now hang

on there. What's the message of the prophets? It's the Bible.

It's this book. God inspired holy men over a period

of twenty five hundred years to write down what God

wanted written down. These are called prophets, and we got

this book called the Bible the Old and the New

Testament in this book. So when it talks about the

message prophets, it's just talking about the Bible. We have

confidence in the message of the Bible. Pay close attention.

Circle that pay close attention to what they wrote. For

their words are like a light shining in a dark place.

Culture is getting darker and darker. We don't know how

dark it's going to get. I started to call this

message how to trust God when life sucks, but I

just figured that might not be clear enough. And the

world is getting darker in many ways. Things are getting

worse in many ways. How in the world do you

cope with that kind of situation? Pay close attention to

what they wrote, for their words are like light in

a dark place. Pay close attention. So let me just

ask you, as your friend, friend a friend, what are

you paying the most attention to these days? What are

you paying the most attention to these days? The media,

social media, radio or God's word? This will always tell

you the truth. You can't rely on anything else. Here's

the third thing you do. Number three. You invest time

alone with God every day. You ask God, help me

see life from your perspective. Number three, Instead of asking

why is this happening? Ask what do you want me

to learn? Very important question. We don't know how long

the pandemic's going to last. It keeps flaring back up

again with different variants. Don't worry about the circumstances, worry

about your character. Focus on your character, not the changes

in your circumstance that you can't change. Instead of asking

why is this happening? Ask God, what do you want

me to learn? Look at this verse up here on

the screen. In the Book of Romans, Chapter five, Verse

three and four says this, we can rejoice even in

our troubles and struggles. Troubles and struggles. Troubles and struggle.

That sound familiar. Yeah, the last eighteen months have been

troubles and struggles. Troubles and struggles. We can rejoice even

in our troubles and struggles because we know they help

us learn endurance. They teach us endurance, and endurance develops

strength of character and character creates hope. Now leave that

verse on the screen for just a minute, because I

want you to notice two things about this verse. First,

it says life is a struggle. Everybody agree with Alan.

Life's tough. Life is not easy. Life is a struggle.

That's one of the first things you learned. We shouldn't

expect any less. This is not heaven. In heaven, there's

no sorrow, sadness, sickness, suffering on earth. Everything's broken. Life

is a struggle, and you are in a school of character.

You're in God is testing your strengthening your character, and

there's stuff he wants you to learn. And you need

to just start asking, what do you want me to

learn through this? Through this change in my life? I

do nunlike this change. What do you want me to

learn from it? Life's a struggle. By the way, have

you ever wondered why the struggle in life is so relentless?

You one thought about that? Why is life so hard?

Why is it such a struggle. Here's the reason. Because

God wants to change us and we don't want to change.

That's the struggle. God wants to change us and we

don't want to change, and so it gets a whole

lot harder than it should be. The second thing on

that verse, I want you to notice we can rejoice

even in our troubles. Know that it creates endurance. Endurance

creates character, and character creates hope. If you develop character,

you become a man of character, you become a woman

of character, You're going to have more hope. You're going

to be more hopeful when you look at society, when

you look at the future, when you look at not optimism,

that's different, that's whole, not a sermon, but you will

be more hopeful. If you develop character, You're going to

be full of hope. If you just complain about how

life is tough, you're going to be full of doubt

and unhappiness. Wise, mature people are full of hope. Wise

mature people are full of hope. Unwise immature people are

scared and bitter, and they're all around you, and they're

angry at everybody else in the world too. So you

got to decide, do I want to be wise and

mature and have hope or do you want to be

unwise and immature and be angry and bitter and doubtful. You, guys,

I love you, and because I love you, I want

all of us to eventually get to Paul Saint Paul's

level of spiritual maturity. I'm not there yet. You're not

there yet. What is Paul's level of spiritual maturity? The

next verse Olympians, Chapter four, Verses twelve and thirteen. I've

learned circle the word learned, because this is something you

learn remember talking about Ask God, what do you want

me to learn? Not why is all this stuff happening?

I've learned? What do you want me to learn? This secret?

So that anyone, anywhere, at any time I'm content. Anywhere, anytime,

I'm content, whether I'm full or hungry, or whether I

have too much or too little, I have the strength

to face all conditions by the power of Christ that

Christ gives me. I've learned this. This is not natural.

You're not naturally content. I'm not naturally a contented person.

How do you learn contentment when everything changes relentless and rapid.

You got to learn it. You got to learn it,

and say, God, help me to learn what you want

me to learn. Let me ask you an honest question.

What are you learning about yourself these days? I'm not

talking about the world. What are you learning about the

world in the last eighteen months? What have you learned

about you? About you? What do you know about your

strengths that you didn't know? What do you know about

your weaknesses that you didn't know? What have you learned

about you. I want you to write this sentence down. Everybody,

please write this down. Every situation is an education. Every

situation is an education. Everything that happens to you in life,

every change, you'll either get better or bitter. You're gonna

grow or you're not gonna grow. Every situation is an education.

There is nothing that happens in your life that you

can't learn from. Doesn't matter if it's a big thing,

big change or little thing, little change. Every situation is

an education. A right number four. Fourth thing you need

to do to trust God when everything's just blown out

of you know, out of the saddle. Focus on what

never changes. This is the fourth practical suggestion from God's word.

Focus on what never changes, because there are many things

in life that are never, never, never, never going to change.

And when you're going through a period of great change,

you want to let those unchangeable things be your anchor.

What's anchoring you right now for the last eighteen months?

What's been your anchor? Somebody goes, I don't have an anchor,

and that's why you're drifting around in the storm. What

anchors you are the things that never change in life,

the unchangeables now I can give you a whole list

of stuff that's never going to change, but let me

just give you three. God's love for you is never

going to change. Truth. The truth of God's word is

never going to change. If he says it's right, it'll

always be right. If he says it's wrong, it'll always

be wrong. It'll take a vote on it. And God's

plan and purpose for your life will never change. Nothing

can change that. No other people can't change it. The

devil can't change it. Society can't change God's plan and

purpose for your life. So you anchor your life in

the things that are never going to change. Look at

these three verses Jeremiah thirty one to three. I have

loved you with an everlasting love. Nothing's ever going to

change that. God will never, never, never stop loving you.

You can't make God stop loving you. You can try,

but she'll fail because his love isn't based on what

you do. It's based on who he is Isaiah forty,

verse eight. The Word of God shall stand forever. Stop

paying attention to stuff that changes. Opinions change, The truth

never changes. Pay more attention to this. So I'm thirty

three eleven and his plans endure forever, and his purposes

last eternally. Now, friends, I want to tell you something

with somebody who loves you, and you can bank on

this God. No matter what's going on in the world

and society and culture everywhere today, you can bank on this.

God will have the last word and it'll be good.

God will have the last word and it will be good.

So what are you scared of? What's got you so uptight?

Why are you so frightened? This is a chapter, but

it's not the whole story. We're going through a chapter

right now that does suck. It's not good. Nobody likes

what we're going through right now. Our church, We've got

these giant plans that are on hold right now. I

haven't even told you what were the cool things were

getting ready to do. But they're just on hold because

we're in limbo right now. But God will have the

last word and it will be good. Number five, here's

the fifth thing you do when change is relentless and rapid,

Keep telling God. And I'm saying this, say it verbally

to God every day. I trust you no matter what.

Keep telling God, I trust you no matter what. If

you do this, You're going to be a lot more

at peace, regardless of how long this pandemic lasts. What

I want you, what I want our church family to be,

as I said, is better than others in the world.

I want you to be a righteous person. What's a

righteous person? Look at this verse Psalm one twelve, verse seven.

The righteous man or woman does not fear bad news

nor live in dread of what might happen. For he

or she is settled in his mind that God will

take care of him. That's a righteous person. God. I

trust you no matter what happens. I will trust you

no matter what. I can't tell you the number of

times thousands of times in my life I've had to

say that when facing a problem, a difficulty, or a

change I didn't like. I trust you no matter what happens.

I remember when k was going through cancer treatments and

I thought I was losing and I thought I'm going

to lose the love of my life, and I had

to say over and over, Father, I trust you no

matter what happens, and I will serve you no matter

what happens, even if I lose my wife. And when

our youngest son, Matthew lost his twenty seven year battle

of mental illness and depression and took his life. Which

was the worst day of my life. And we're standing

on the driveway of his home waiting for the police

to come break the door down and carry my son

out in a body bag. The worst day of my life.

I had to say, I will trust you no matter what.

Doesn't mean I understand it. It just means I will

trust you no matter what. Any time things seem to

be falling apart in your life, this is the thing

you need to say. I will trust you no matter what. Now.

I don't know what's going on in your life personally,

I know what's happened in society. I know all the

stress that we're all feeling from all the massive changes

around us in society. But right now you may feel

under attack from every angle. And so I end with

Psalm twenty seven, verse three that says this, even if

a whole army surrounds me, I will not be afraid,

And even if enemies attack me on all sides, I

will still trust God. That's what you need to do.

Let's bow our heads for prayer. I want to pray

a prayer right now, and I invite you to pray

this prayer in your heart. You're not to say it aloud.

God brought you here today a thousand years before you

were born. He knew you'd be here today at the

end of August, so he could say this to you.

So you talk back to him. Now say this, say,

Dear God, just say that in your mind. Dear God,

realize that change is unavoidable and there's no growth without change,

and it can be painful. And Lord, I realize that

you can use even bad things in my life for good.

Change is not always good, but you can use it

for good. And I realize today that you want me

to grow in character. You want to make me more

like Jesus, more loving, more joyful, more patient, more at peace,

more in self control. And God, I want to thank

you that you can use even human error and sin

for good in my life. And what other people have

done against me, and I was innocent and they hurt me,

They intended to harm me, but you intended it for good.

You have a bigger plan and purpose for my life

than the pain I've gone through. Help me to remember

that every change is always a test of faith. And Lord,

I want to take these simple steps to be more

stable and to be re energized. Help me to invest

more time alone with you. I want to commit to

spending time alone with you every day. Read a little

bit of your word, talk to you in prayer, Listen,

be quiet, Say what do you want me to do?

Help me to see your perspective. I don't want to

just know current events. I want to know the ways

of God. So I'm asking for wisdom. You said, just

ask for it. I'm asking make me a wise person

and help me to remember that instead of going why

is all this stuff happening? Instead ask what do you

want me to learn? I want to learn, like Paul,

to be content in every situation. Help me to focus

on what never changes. Thank you that you'll never stop

loving me. Thank you that your word will always tell

me the truth about life and myself. Thank You that

your plans and purpose for my life cannot be changed

by anybody else. Lord. From here on out, and no

matter how long this pandemic lasts, I'm going to keep

saying to you, I trust you no matter what, And

even if i feel like I'm being attacked from every side,

I will still trust God. If you've never initially said

to Jesus Christ, I trust you. Say that Jesus Christ

come into my life. I want to trust you, not

just one. Want to know about you, I want to

have a relationship with you. So I humbly ask you

to be the manager of my life. In your name,

I pray Amen