Spiritual Lessons from our Walk with God - Part 5: Spiritual Preparedness for Abundant Life in Times of Trouble | Dr. Craig H.

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. I feel so privileged to

be here this morning with you. As we go through

this series, Spiritual Lessons from Our Walk

with God, one thing that impresses me about this

church is that over 70 nations are involved in

this church. People from 70 nations. And right

now, not just listening in this room or during

the first service, but there are 40 nations that

are listening online from all over the world.

And so, as we go through this morning's lesson,

And as we look at something that's deeply impacted

my life, we're going to be talking about this,

spiritual preparedness for abundant life in times

of trouble. And we're going to be looking at

it from Jeremiah chapter 17, predominantly in

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

verses 7 through 8. Now, I know that in this

room right now, there are people who are in troubled

times. I know because I'm a human being and I'm

a hot mess. All right? I know that as a human

being, Life is not just this upward trajectory

in which we experience life with less and less

problems. In fact, what happens is the more responsibility

oftentimes we have, the more problems that we

experience. And so right now, around the world,

there are some people who are listening, and

maybe you're a Persian in this room, and you

are from the country of Iran. In the last three

weeks, over 40 ,000 Iranians have been murdered

by the Islamic regime in Iran. I have friends

that are Persian that when I talk with them,

their eye is twitching. You know that nervous

twitch, that one -eyed twitch? I have friends

that have been persecuted by the... Islamic regime

in Iran where they've had plastic bags put over

their heads and where they thought they were

going to suffocate and die and then removed right

when they were passing out. If you are Persian

and you are listening to this message, I just

want you to know that you're not alone. That

as you're going through this troubled time, we're

praying for you. But I know that in this room

are nations where you, I know that in this room

there are people who have been persecuted before

because of their faith in Christ, because of

evil in this world that has caused you to experience

great pain. The truth is, is that every single

one of us has gone through troubled times and

we might be going through troubled times right

now. You might be in a troubled marriage. You

might be a teenager, you might be a junior higher

and a middle schooler and you're suffering at

school because you feel so alone and you feel

like you're just being ostracized, like you're

being pushed out and you feel like, does anybody

love me? You might be at work right now wondering

if you're going to keep your job. You've been

giving your life to this company and all of a

sudden this company is downsizing and you're

being pushed out. The truth is, is that I could

list a hundred different problems that are being

represented in this room right now because of

the troubled times that you're facing. But at

the root of every single bit of those times of

trouble is one cause. And it's not God. It's

sin. You see, when sin entered into the world

originally, we... The world broke. And we live

in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world

and we have a problem and the only solution is

what we're going to be talking about this morning.

And so if you've come here today and you have

problems, please understand that if you are experiencing

trouble, you are not alone. I will tell you that

I've experienced so much trouble in my life,

and you're going to learn about some of my troubles

in this message as we talk about these lessons

that we learn in our walk with God. I've experienced

some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows.

But one of the lowest lows for me at the time

was when I was a high school student. You see,

from the age of... of middle school, of being

in 6th grade through 12th grade, I had one dream,

and that dream was to go to the United States

Military Academy, to go to West Point. And I

worked so hard, and I worked hard academically.

I work hard, at least as hard academically as

a teenage boy can work. But, yes, I was one of

those. And I worked hard athletically. And I

got two nominations to West Point. I was a shoo

-in. All I had to do was pass my physical. So

I went to the army base where I was taking my

physical and all of a sudden I discovered something

about myself that I never knew in all of my 18

years of life. I'm colorblind. I had no idea.

Some of you are going to ask me, well, what does

it look like when you look at colors? I don't

know. It just looks like what I see. But I can

tell you that it disqualified me at that time

from going to West Point. And so all of my dreams

were completely dashed. All of what I thought

was my achievement was all of a sudden just crumbled

underneath me and I thought to myself, if there's

a God, he must be cruel. And so I will tell you

that I hated the concept of God so much so that

I was an agnostic at best, but I basically became

an atheist. And I went to a school that I wound

up just going to because I didn't really care.

And I went to this school and somehow, and I

don't think it was by chance, but somehow. on

the residence hall that I was in, in the dorm

room I was in. I was in a dormitory, and there

was a resident assistant, a person who's supposed

to care for the students, and his name is Jay

Condor. And he would talk with me about Jesus.

And of course, I did not receive that well. I

argued vigorously that there must not be a God.

I had all these arguments, all these proofs.

I thought that Jesus was just a fairy tale. I

thought that if there is a God that he must be

cruel and Jay just kept loving me and he kept

sharing Jesus with me. He kept sending me to

read some passage of the Bible and I would go

ahead and read it just so I could argue with

him and I was a real pain in the rear end in

his life. But then one day it was like I felt

my loneliness. And I felt my sinfulness. And

I felt all this trust that I had put in myself.

And what a disappointment I was. And that all

of my dreams had been dashed. And there I was

feeling lonely and feeling like, you know what?

I would like to trust in somebody who loves me.

In this God that Jay was talking about that so

loved the world that he gave his only begotten

son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him

would not perish but have everlasting life. And

I wanted to believe, but I couldn't. I couldn't.

For three months, it was like I was just in this

fog. And Jay was working with me. I read Mere

Christianity, the whole liar, lunatic Lord. He

talked with me about Blaise Pascal's theory of

probability and Pascal's wager. And those things

made sense to me and I wanted to believe, but

I couldn't believe. And then one day after three

months, it was like the fog just lifted. And

I saw through those troubled times, I saw the

beauty of Jesus Christ. And I trusted Him. And

this morning what I want to argue is that God

is trustworthy. That no matter what circumstances

you are going through right now, whatever troubles

you are going through right now, that God is

trustworthy. And that Jesus Christ is trustworthy.

And so we're going to be looking at Jeremiah.

After I became a believer in Jesus Christ by

the drawing of the Holy Spirit, what I saw was,

is I saw this beautiful book that when I read

it, I felt like it was speaking to me. And one

of the books in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew

Scriptures, that I really loved was the book

of Jeremiah because he was the weeping prophet.

But he gave me so much hope. And so... What I

want to give you is the context of Jeremiah,

particularly Jeremiah 17 and 29 this morning.

The context is a sharp prophetic warning to the

kingdom of Judah during a period of national

crisis and impending exile. They're going to

be exiled to Babylon. During this difficult time,

Judah was tempted to rely on biblical allies,

or not biblical allies, political alliances,

particularly Egypt, and military strength. In

order to save themselves from the Babylonian

empire. Rather than trusting in God. And they

had a choice. And Judah had the choice of. They

could either trust in the flesh. Or they could

trust in the Lord. And really that's always.

The decision that we make. We can either trust

in the flesh. We can trust in someone else. That

we think is going to save us. Maybe it's a political

figure. We can trust in. our own accomplishments

and our own self -reliance, thinking that somehow

we're going to be able to save ourselves. Or

we can trust in the Lord. Israel has this choice

just like we have that choice. And yet, let's

not talk about our sin. Let's talk about Israel's

sin because it's always easier to talk about

someone else's sin. So let's talk about the kingdom

of Judah's sin and let's feel the weight of it.

Alright, Pastor Pablo, he gave some beautiful

passages that were not that encouraging about

the state of the kingdom of Judah last week.

When the word of God was not even in their mouths.

And look at what Jeremiah 7 says in verse 23.

It says, Obey me and I will be your God and you

will be my people. Do everything as I say and

all will be well with you. God is telling them,

trust me. And yet... In Jeremiah 7, verse 24,

Jeremiah 7:24

God says, but my people would not listen to me.

I mean, how hurtful is that? God offers them

a solution, but they wouldn't listen to God.

They kept doing whatever they wanted, following

the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They

went backward instead of forward. Have you ever

felt that feeling? Maybe, you know, you've been

trying to lose weight. And you're like, I got

to get healthy. I've been there. I still am there.

And so, and all of a sudden you go, you know

what? Maybe I don't need to be eating five or

6 ,000 calories a day. And every time I see a

muffin, I got to eat it. And every time I see

a donut, I got to eat it. And every time I see

this, I got to reach and grab something and eat

it. And yet every time you see that donut, you

grab it. And it feels like you're going backward

instead of forward in your health journey. And

you feel like, man, What is it about my stubborn

desires and my evil heart that I can't just say

no to a donut? Now, there's nothing wrong with

donuts, all right? So don't feel convicted, okay?

They're good. It's just I wouldn't eat six of

them at the same time, all right? Which I've

been prone to do. And so... When we look at this,

we look at the fact that Jeremiah 7, 28 says,

therefore say to them, this is a nation that

has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded

to correction. Truth has perished. It has vanished

from their lips. Have you ever noticed that just

like the kingdom of Judah, we make excuses when

we're living in sin? Maybe we're watching things

that we shouldn't be watching on the internet

and we make excuses for it. Well, you know, I

don't have any intimacy with my spouse. And yet,

we have to ask the question, what does the word

of God say? What did Jesus say? You know, there's

no temptation that is not common to man. Every

single person in this room has experienced temptation

in many different forms. And I'm one of them.

Like the apostle Paul said, I'm the chief of

sinners. All right, I'm a hot mess. And some

of you in this room are hot messes and you're

doing things that all of a sudden you go, man,

wish I didn't do that but the things that I don't

want to do I do and the things that I want to

do I don't do and you're like the apostle Paul

and yet in Jeremiah 7 verse 28 says therefore

Jeremiah 7:28

say to them this is the nation that has not obeyed

the Lord its God and responded to correction

truth has perished it has vanished from their

lips and this is where we come to Jeremiah 17

Jeremiah 17:1

verse 1 the sin of Judah is written with a pen

of iron. Something's going to happen because

God knows that they're just not going to change

their heart in this moment. They're not going

to trust him. They're going to trust in their

flesh. And so he says in verse four, you shall

loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave

to you and I will make you serve your enemies.

We're talking about exile here in a land that

you do not know for in my anger, a fear is kindled

that shall burn forever. And you're like, whoa,

God's serious. You know, have you ever had that

experience? Remember when you were a kid and

all of a sudden you're like, wow, mom and dad

are serious. If I don't shape up, they're going

to shit me out. I'm going to be in real trouble

here. There's going to be real consequences.

And there are real consequences for the kingdom

of Judah. And so in Jeremiah 17, 5, we see that

this is what the Lord says to them. He says,

and we're going to see in contrast. to the next

two verses after this that are absolutely beautiful,

but these two verses show what happens when we

don't listen to what God says. It says, Cursed

are those who put their trust in mere humans.

This is what happens when we don't trust in the

Lord, but we choose to trust in the flesh. Cursed

are those who put their trust in mere humans,

who rely on human strength and turn their hearts

away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs

in the desert with no hope for the future. They

will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited

salty land. Does anybody in here want to live

in an uninhabited salty land? Do you want to

be like a little bush in the middle of the wilderness?

That's not what God wants you to be. God wants

you to be a tree. He wants you to be planted

in a place of His planting. And so, The kingdom

of Judah is in big trouble here. They're in big

trouble. And you might feel like you're in some

big trouble right now in your life. And maybe

it's not just your own sin. Maybe it's because

of someone else's sin in your life. Maybe you're

not being treated very well by your spouse. Maybe

you feel like you're not being treated very well

by your boss. And you're thinking, I'm in some

real trouble. And the cause of that trouble is

sin. And sometimes it's our own sin. Sometimes

it's somebody else's sin. But it's always sin.

And there's only one way out of the messes we

make or the messes we find ourselves in. And

here's the way out. In times of trouble, how

do we spell relief? T -R -U -S -T. That's what

we're going to find out from the next verse.

We've got to trust in the Lord. You see, in Jeremiah

17, and this is where we're going to spend the

predominant amount of our time. In Jeremiah 17,

Jeremiah 17:7

verses 7 and 8, it says, But blessed are those

who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord

their hope and confidence. They are like trees

planted along a river bank with roots that reach

deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered

by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing

fruit. You see, if you want to be blessed by

God, you have to trust in the Lord. That's what

Jeremiah 17, 7 says. If you want to be blessed

by God, you have to trust in the Lord. Now, trust

is such a slippery fish, if you will. And let

me just say this, there's not a person in this

room that trusts God perfectly, including myself.

Trust is like a slippery fish. In one area of

my life, I'm trusting him. In another area of

my life, I'm not trusting him. And even in the

areas that I am trusting him, I'm not trusting

him perfectly because oftentimes I want to grab

a hold of something and say, yeah, but God, if

you did it this way, we could really be successful.

And with arrogance, the same arrogance that I

had before I was a believer, with even the same

hurt that I still had before I was a believer,

I find myself having a hard time sometimes trusting

God. You see, the Bible says in Jeremiah 17,

7, but blessed are those who trust in the Lord

and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

Now, what does it mean to be To be blessed. What

it means to be blessed is to have the favor of

God upon you. To have the favor of God upon you.

How many of you want to have the favor of God

upon you? Please raise your hand. Okay, now take

your hands down. Is there anyone that doesn't

want to have the favor of God upon them? Is there

anyone that wants to be cursed and be separated

from God in this room? Can you raise your hand?

No one. Wow. Okay. That's not surprising. You

see, the truth is, is that everybody wants to

be blessed. We all want to have the favor of

God upon us. And I'm going to talk about this

morning how we can have the favor of God upon

us. But you're going to be surprised that it's

not based upon anything that you can do. But

it's actually based upon who God is and what

he's already done. You see, blessed are those

who trust in the Lord. Now it's interesting because

the word trust in the Hebrew scriptures is actually

used twice in this verse. And it comes from the

root word batach or batachon. And we have two

words. One is a verb. That's the first time it's

mentioned. The next is a noun. With the verb,

it's the word yivtach. And Yiv Tak means to lean

on or to feel safe or to be confident. But blessed

are those who trust in the Lord. Those blessings

come upon those who lean on the Lord. Who lean

on the Lord. Who feel safe in the Lord. Who feel

confident in the Lord. Who realize that the Lord

is trustworthy. Because I can tell you that there's

only one person in this room who really is trustworthy.

And that's God. You see, God's in this room.

Did you know that? Because God is omnipresent,

meaning He is everywhere. And so God is in this

room. The Holy Spirit is in this room. And He

is trustworthy. You see, blessed are those who

trust in the Lord. And so it's giving us this

verb that we need to lean on and feel safe in

and be confident in the Lord. And yet, it's in

the imperfect tense, meaning that it's in a sense

of ongoing or future action, meaning it's something

that's continually needing to happen. It's not

just a one -time deal. It's something where we

need to keep trusting in the Lord. But then there's

the second trust, which is the word mivtach in

Hebrew, which functions as a noun with a pronoun

as a suffix. And it refers to the object of trust.

It refers to the person or the thing that provides

security. In fact, in the English Standard Version,

this is the New Living Translation, but the English

Standard Version says this. It says, Blessed

is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust

is the Lord. You see, that noun that is trust

is the Lord. He is trustworthy. And that's what

I want us all to see this. this morning, including

myself, that God is, the Lord is trustworthy.

And by the way, the Lord is in the Hebrew scriptures,

YHWH. Anyone know what that stands for? Yahweh.

But they don't say Yahweh when they read the

scriptures, they say Adonai. But the reason why

there's capitalized in your Bible and up on the

screen behind me is because whenever... Y -H

-W -H, the name of God is used. It's always capitalized.

And what does it mean? It means I am who I am.

He is who he is. And you know what he is? He's

trustworthy. He is our trust. You see, we're

not talking about the perfection of our trust.

We're not talking about the perfection of our

faith here. Our faith is not perfect. But the

one that we have faith in is perfect. Our trust

is not perfect, but the one that we have trust

in is perfect. And we're going to see that throughout

this message. And so, to be blessed, to have

the favor of God upon us, we have to trust in

the Lord. And the Lord needs to be our trust.

He's the one who becomes our hope. and our confidence,

that our hope is not in ourselves, that our confidence

is not in ourselves, but in Him. So what does

it look like to trust in the Lord? Well, that's

Jeremiah 17 .8. And in Jeremiah 17 .8, it tells

us that if we trust in the Lord, we're like trees.

We're not like some stunted little shrub. Okay?

We're like trees that are planted along a riverbank.

With roots that reach deep into the water. Such

trees are not bothered by heat. They're not worried

by long months of drought. Their leaves stay

green and they never stop producing fruit. One

of the things I love about the missions organization

that I work for is that one of the metaphors

that we use is the tree. The tree out of Psalm

1. The tree out of Jeremiah 17, 7 and 8. We talk

about the roots. From roots to fruit. Because

oftentimes what people do is they wind up turning

the tree around and it's all about ministry.

Because the roots are our transforming faith.

The trunk is our transforming community and the

branches are the transforming ministry. But when

you turn that tree around and rather than having

those roots firmly planted, but instead you're

trusting in what you do, your ministry, that

oftentimes what it causes is it causes your ministry

to be unfruitful. And it causes a ministry to

lose its whole purpose, which is the Lord, which

is hope and confidence in him, and people become

burned out. And they dry up. And that's not what

God wants. God wants us to have our roots planted

somewhere. So here's the first application that

I'd like to give you from verse 8 in Jeremiah

17, and that is this. In order to trust in the

Lord, we have to recognize that with Jesus Christ,

you'll never walk alone. Do we have any Liverpool

fans in here? You see, before there was Liverpool

and you'll never walk alone, there was Jesus

who said, and lo, I'll be with you always till

the very end of the age. There was Jesus who

on the road to Emmaus, remember when Phil talked

about this, on the road to Emmaus, all of a sudden

they're walking along, this guy, he's really

insightful, he's walking with them, and they

don't know who he is, but he's asking them questions,

they're explaining things, and all of a sudden,

boom, they realize it's Jesus. And Jesus shares

with them all the things in the scripture that

are pertaining to him. You see, Jesus wants you

to understand that in him, you'll never walk

alone. Now, you might feel lonely at times. You

might feel like you are all alone, but you are

never alone. Jesus is always with you, even when

you're looking at stuff that you shouldn't be

looking at, even when you're doing stuff that

you shouldn't be doing. Jesus doesn't leave you.

Jesus said, and lo, I'll be with you always.

To the very end of the age. Jesus is never as

far away from you as you might think he is. In

fact, he's always right there with you. It's

just your perception. Because you think you're

far away from Jesus, but the reality is wherever

you go, he goes with you. If you're a believer

in Jesus Christ. So, in Jeremiah 17, it says

they're like trees that are planted along a river

bank. So this is how we know that we're never

alone because this word that planted is the word

shatul in Hebrew. It means to transplant or to

plant and the tense form is in the passive participle

meaning that it's not something that we do. We

don't plant ourselves but it's something that

is done to us. We've been planted by a reliant

and loving gardener. Who cares about us and who

wants us to succeed in this life. And so this

this gardener, this divine gardener plants us

along the riverbank. He doesn't just allow us

to be some wild shrub planted out in the middle

of the desert that's going to dry up when we

don't have any water. He always gives us what

we need to trust in him. Because he has planted

us along a riverbank. He has planted us along.

This river bank that gives us nourishment and

he's constantly with us and he's planted us in

something, in this water, and we're never alone

because this gardener cares for us. That's the

picture that we see in this passage that you

see on the screen. And so here's the second application.

The second application is we need to respond.

Respond with trust. to God's invitation to spread

your roots into the living water that Jesus Christ

gives. We need to respond with trust to God's

invitation to spread your roots into the living

water that Jesus Christ gives. Look at this verse.

It says that we're planted along a river bank.

Now that's God's responsibility. That is the

gardener's responsibility. We don't plant ourselves.

He planted us. He visits us all of the time.

He's constantly there watching us, taking care

of us, pruning us. He's given us everything we

need to grow in him. But we have a responsibility

and that responsibility is to respond to his

invitation. We have the responsibility to take

our roots and to extend them, to reach them deep

into that water that we have been planted by.

Now the word in the Hebrew here is, Yeshalach.

Which means send out its roots. And it's a verb

in an imperfect tense that suggests a habitual

or a persistent, or I like this word, a rhythmic,

a rhythmic action. The roots are constantly,

they're reaching out toward the water source.

That's who we should be. Now we're not always

that way, are we? I'm not. And my guess is that

you're not always that way too. The resource

is always there, but sometimes we don't reach

our roots deep into that water, and we'll discover

what that water is in a moment. But what we're

called is to respond to God's invitation to reach

our roots into that water. So what is that water?

Well, that water is Jesus Christ himself. You

see, they probably didn't understand this when...

Judah was reading this text because Jesus had

not been born into this world yet. They were

looking forward to a Messiah. Actually, they

probably weren't because they totally were not

trusting in the Lord at this time. But this promise

of a Messiah was there. And yet we know that

Jesus Christ is the living water. How do we know

that? Well, we're going to see a verse in a second

that will prove that. But before that, think

about it. When you were baptized, what were you

baptized into? Jesus, right? You know, the metaphor

of Jesus being the one that we are identifying

ourselves with through baptism. And we're baptized

in what? In water. And when we're baptized into

water, that water is a symbol of being baptized

into Jesus, into his death, into his resurrection,

into the blood that washes us clean of our sins.

It's Jesus Christ who is the water. And you say,

well, Craig, you're just making that up. Well,

the word water is mayim in the Hebrew text here,

but there's another place where it refers to

it and it says mayim chayim, which is living

water. Not some stagnant water that's like sitting

there building up scum and breeding mosquitoes,

but living water, moving water. You see, in Jeremiah

17, When it says that we are to reach into that

water, look at what this water is. Look at who

this water is. Later on in this very chapter

in Jeremiah 17 and verse 13, it says, O Lord,

the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you

will be disgraced. They will be buried in the

dust of the earth for they have abandoned the

Lord who is the fountain of living water. The

Lord is. The living water. He's the fountain

of living water. Jesus Christ, when he was talking

to the woman at the well, he said, you know,

I can give you living water. Why? Because he

is the living water. And we find ourselves in

a place where we can extend our roots and be

refreshed daily. by extending our roots into

him. And I'll show you that from the scriptures

in a few moments. But first I want to ask this

question. What are my rhythms? What are my rhythms

for deepening my roots into the river of God's

grace? And what are your rhythms? I mean, what

do you do on a daily basis, on a rhythmic basis?

What do you do on a rhythmic basis to send your

roots into the grace of God that is Jesus Christ?

Well, this isn't rocket science. I think you

probably all know the answers, and every one

of you might have a different way that you do

it, but I think it's probably centered in the

Word of God. It's probably centered in prayer.

Let me show you mine. One is I walk with God

every day. Now you're saying, oh, wow, that sounds

arrogant. No, I don't mean that I actually am

perfect at walking with God. I mean I actually

take a walk with God every day. I walk with my

feet. And I go, okay, Jesus, let's go on our

walk. And sometimes I don't feel like walking

with Jesus, but I walk with him. And sometimes

I say more and listen more than other times.

But I will tell you that when I go on this walk

with Jesus, it forces me to get away from where

I live. So that I'm not distracted by something

that I have to do or my computer all of a sudden

pops up some notification. Oh, sorry, Jesus.

But I go on a walk with him so I can focus. So

I can just spend time with him. I also do this

with my wife. When we're in the same country

together, we go on a walk every day. So I walk

with Jesus and then I walk with my wife. Because

I learned a long time ago when my wife and I

were having some problems in the beginning of

my ministry. That we needed time to be together.

But when we walked, we couldn't be doing other

things. We had to be either talking or mad at

each other or whatever. But we were with each

other. And that was very transformative in our

marriage. And so I just applied it to walking

with God. I want to walk with God every day.

What do I do on this walk with God? Well, I listen

to God. And so how do I listen to God? I've got

this app. It's the you version of the Bible and

I've got several different translations and I

pop them in there and I listen through a book

or I listen through maybe the New Testament or

I listen through the Old Testament. And what

I do is I'm listening because I want to pray

and I want to ask the Holy Spirit, I want you

to speak to me about something in my life. And

I will tell you that when you invite the Holy

Spirit to do that, God talks to you. All right,

he shows you something in your life that needs

to change or something in your life that you

need to learn or he gives you some kind of affirmation

that he loves you, that he cares for you, that

he's there with you. And so I listen to God's

word. And after I listen to God's word, I always

talk with God because I want to take the time

to be able to tell him whatever I want to tell

him because all of a sudden when I come to the

word, I'm like, ooh, ouch. God, there's something

in my life that needs to change. And I know you

already know it, but I'm going to just tell it

to you. Rather than being like Adam and Eve and

hiding in the bushes, I got a sin in my life

that we need to talk about. And so I climb up

into my heavenly father's metaphorical lap and

I let him put his big old arms around me and

I tell him, Papa, I screwed up. And I'm really

struggling with this. And I'm really struggling

with that. It might be I'm really struggling

with trusting you right now. I talk with God.

Oftentimes I go through the Lord's Prayer, not

saying it verbatim, but what I do is I say it

and then I use it as a guide to praying. Our

Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as

it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those

who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom

and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen. And I'll just say each of those phrases.

And then what I'll do is I'll just let that be

a springboard for things that I want to talk

with God about. Another practice that I have

every day is I practice gratitude. That's something

recently. Because I don't know about you, but

have you ever been around a six -year -old or

an eight -year -old? Anybody in here ever have

kids? They thank you all the time for everything

you do, don't they? I mean, you make them meals

and they're like, oh, thank you so much. Not.

How about a teenager? You know, you do all this

stuff for them. You're trying to help them and

instead of like thanking you, they're like, ah,

get off my case, mom. You know, leave me alone,

dad. Kids can be so ungrateful. And all of a

sudden I realized, oh wow, I'm one of God's kids

and I'm one of those ungrateful kids. And I realized

I didn't thank God enough for the things that

he had done for me and the things that he does

for me on a daily basis in my life. And so I

just started thanking him for everything. All

of a sudden I might be heading towards the BTS

and all of a sudden I might be 30 minutes away

from getting there and a bus shows up right at

a bus stop when I'm walking by and I jump on

that bus and I pay my eight baht and I'm like,

thank you, God. That was really cool. Or maybe

the bus doesn't show up, and I have to walk 30

minutes to the BTS station. I'm like, thank you,

God, for the exercise. Practicing gratitude,

it's all a matter of perspective, but thanking

God for everything. Even our suffering, and you'll

hear some of my suffering in a moment. But living

a life of worship. You know, worship isn't just

about the songs that we sing. You can worship

God through song, but you can also worship him

with your life. In fact, that's how he wants

you to worship him. I mean, what's the greatest

commandment? To love God with all your heart,

mind, soul, and strength. And to love your neighbor

as yourself. And you know what? You can't do

that. I can't do that. But there's one who did

do that. His name is Jesus. And because he did

do that, we can do that. But that's the whole

key right there. Being in a relationship with

God is actually understanding that love is the

key to walking with God, metaphorically. And

so I love this quote by St. Augustine. He said,

love God and do whatever you please. And you're

saying, whoa, some of you are like, that sounds

dangerous. You can do whatever you please. Well,

you'll sin and you'll do this and you'll watch

this and you'll eat that and you'll go this place

you shouldn't be going. No, look, love God and

do whatever you please. Because if you love God,

what are you going to do? What's going to please

you? Pleasing Him. And so now all of a sudden,

rather than trying to live a life of behavioral

modification, rather than trying to live a life

where you're trying to follow this rule and not

do this and do that, instead you're just saying,

you know, what's the most loving thing I can

do for God at this moment because he's loved

me so much? Love God and do whatever you please.

God wants you to do things out of love for him,

not because you're just obeying the rules, not

because you're just trying to be a better person.

but because you realize how much he's loved you

and so you want to love him. But what happens

when we trust the Lord and trouble still comes?

You know, it's interesting because when we look

at Jeremiah 17 and after it tells us that we're

like a tree planted by water that sends out its

roots by the stream and does not fear when heat

comes for its leaves remain green and is not

anxious in the year of drought for it does not

cease to bear fruit. Look at what it says. It

says when heat comes. It doesn't say if heat

comes. It says when heat comes. And it says in

the year of drought. It doesn't say, oh, if you

experience a drought. Trouble comes in this world

because we live in a fallen world. And so don't

be surprised when all of a sudden you're having

trouble at work or you're having trouble in your

marriage or you're having trouble in your personal

life or you're having trouble in your walk with

God. Because there will be heat. That comes.

Maybe it's persecution. By someone who is acting

sinfully towards you. Or maybe it's your own

sin. But there will be heat that comes. But when

you trust in the Lord. Your leaves will remain

green. Even if they're barely hanging on. They're

going to remain green. And you don't have to

be anxious in the year of drought. because you'll

continue to bear fruit, even though you might

say, God, why are you doing this? And God says,

well, because you realize that the fruit of the

Holy Spirit is love, peace, patience, kindness,

gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self -control.

And so you're wondering why you're going through

this difficult time, because I'm trying to produce

in you the fruit of patience. And you're waiting

for something that you've been waiting for for

years. And God says, yeah, I'm letting you wait

for years. Because there's something more important

than you getting that. And that's you having

the fruit of patience. Because I'm a patient

God. Who's slow to anger. Who has a long nose,

the Hebrew scripture says. Because it takes God

a long time to get angry. Because he's so patient.

You see, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter

of when. And tough times will come. And so what

do you do during those tough times? Can I tell

you about a tough time in my life? You see, when

I got married, I married a woman that had a disease.

A literal disease. An autoimmune disease. And

she had been so sick that when she was 19 years

old, she almost died. And I married her kind

of fully knowing that she had this illness, but

not really understanding what that would mean

to my life. Because three times during our marriage

over the last 30 years, my wife has almost died.

Three times. One of those times was when we got

pregnant. I say we, I didn't really get pregnant.

But I like to think because I ate for those pregnancies.

But I will tell you that we had a daughter, we

still do, in 2000. And then we had four miscarriages.

I know there's a lot of you in this room that

have had miscarriages and you know how painful

they are. And we thought, I guess maybe we won't

be able to have a sibling for our daughter. But

we decided to try one more time. And when we

tried one more time, we got pregnant. My wife

started bleeding again. And then the next thing

you know, we go to the emergency room. We say

to the doctor, you know, she's bleeding. The

doctor says, well, you're probably having another

miscarriage. See, babies understand babies. And

so we go up to the ultrasound tech and all of

a sudden the ultrasound tech says, well, you

know, we expect him to say, well, I'm sorry,

your baby's heart is no longer beating. But instead

he said, well, baby number one's heart's beating

just fine. I said, baby number one's heart? Are

we having twins? And he goes, no. He said, but

baby number two's heart is beating just fine

as well. And I said, baby number two? You said

we weren't having twins. And he said, you're

not. And I'm like, what are you talking about?

And he goes, well, baby number three's heart's

beating just fine as well. And I said, whoa,

you shut your mouth. My daughter started jumping

up and down and she says, four babies, five babies,

six babies, seven. I said, you shut your mouth

too. I said, I'm trying to wrap my head around

this. And I said, I said, okay, are we having

four babies, five babies? No, don't worry. You're

only having triplets. I look over at my wife.

My wife has her jaw on the floor and she's saying,

how am I going to carry triplets? And I said,

how am I going to pay for triplets? Seriously,

I was a pastor, you know, and we're not known

for making a lot of money. And so, and I lived

in America where healthcare costs a whole bundle.

And I can tell you that by the end of this story,

the medical bill was $1 .4 million. Okay, and

I was responsible for 20%. So you can do the

math. So, all of a sudden, we go, okay, we're

having triplets. We go home. My wife goes on

bed rest about the fifth month. All of a sudden,

she goes preeclamptic on me. It's where, you

know, your organs start to act kind of weird

and everything like that. It happens sometimes

like a week or two weeks before you're supposed

to give birth. This is three months, four months

before. And all of a sudden, she goes full on

acclamped at the end of that month. And now we've

got three months left to go, but they have to

do an emergency C -section and cut her from her

sternum down to her pelvis. And I watch these

three aliens come out of her belly. And that's

what they look like. Remember those frogs you

dissected in high school? Okay, that's what they

look like with little alien heads. They were

a half a kilogram each. They were one pound each.

They strapped them down. Started sewing my wife

up. Took them two hours to sew my wife up. I'm

up there with the babies and they're giving me

the good news of, look, you'll be lucky if one

of your kids lives. I go back down to see my

wife. 15 minutes after they finish sewing her

up, she goes into a coma. She's in a coma for

11 days. You see, it's not if, it's when. Talk

about the heat. Talk about the drought. She's

in a coma. My kids are getting worse and worse

and worse. My son's got 36 holes in his heart.

My daughter has brain bleed in both of her ventricles

of her brain. They're 14 times larger than normal

and her head is like three times the size of

what it should be. And all of my kids experience

retinopathy of prematurity where because of the

oxygen at such an early birth, it scars the eyes

and the blood vessels don't wrap around and the

retina detaches and so they're blind. My wife's

in a coma and they're telling me that three kids,

I'll be lucky if one of them lives. And I'll

be lucky if my wife lives. And I'm like faced

with what am I going to do? Now I want to tell

you what I wanted to do was get in our little

car and drive from the west coast of the United

States all the way to the east coast and never

look back. But I know that's not what God would

do with me. And so I want to tell you that I

didn't have that mustard seed of faith. I did

not have a mustard seed of faith because God

had already taken four babies through miscarriages

and I'm like, oh great God, now you're going

to take three babies and a wife. And I can remember

just feeling like, God, I got a choice here.

I can trust in my flesh and run or I can trust

in you and you can take my unbelief and you can

help me. And I can tell you that I thought of

that story of that man with the demoniac child

that was possessed by a demon and they were all

arguing, the disciples, because they were arguing

with the religious leaders because they tried

to heal this kid and cast out this demon but

the demon didn't come out. Jesus walks up. Jesus

says, what are you guys arguing about? Blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. you know,

oh, they tried to cast out the demon and they

couldn't. And Jesus, he talks with the dad. And

the dad says, well, you know, if you can, could

you cast this demon out of my son? And he goes,

if I can. And that father understood the insult

that he had just given to Jesus. And he said,

you know, I believe, but help me with my unbelief.

And that's what I had to say to God. I believe,

but help me with my unbelief. I don't even have

a mustard seed of faith, but help me with my

unbelief because I got a little bit there. I'm

crying out to you. And I can remember the doctor

who is an atheist. He came in, great doctor though,

but he said, you know, I don't want to ruin you.

You are your faith life, but I want to tell you

that we're going to have to do open heart surgery

on your son. This is the 11th day. We're going

to have to do brain surgery on your daughter.

You need to come in at 7 .30. Because their surgeries

are both going to be at 8. You need to say goodbye

to your kids because they're probably going to

die during surgery. And I can remember coming

in in the morning at 7 .30 and I said to that

doctor who's an atheist, I said, I'm here to

say goodbye to my kids. And he said, well, you're

not going to be able to say goodbye to them.

And I said, tell me the bad news. Did they die?

And he goes, no, I'll tell you the bad news.

I can no longer be an atheist. I said, what do

you mean? He said, last night in that NICU room,

the two nurses that were with your kids said

it was like Jesus walked into the room and all

of your kids' vitals went normal. We did scans.

Your son's heart is healed. Your daughter's brain

is healed. And all three of your kids were blind

and now they can see. And I can tell you that

it wasn't because of my great faith. It wasn't

because of my great trust. It was because of

the God who is trustworthy. And those four babies

that we had miscarriages, you know, you think,

oh God, why did you do that? Well, God saved

them from this hell on earth that we sometimes

experience and he took them straight to him.

And God doesn't always promise that we're going

to come out of our circumstances. Think about

the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians where

he based a letter to the Philippians. He said,

you know what? Either the Lord's going to deliver

me out of this jail cell or he's going to deliver

me up to be with him. We can't look at things

from our perspective. We have to look at things

from God's perspective. But God is always trustworthy.

And here's what I want to tell you. That this

is a testimony of God's grace because God healed

my kids. He healed them. And this is what they

look like today. Three 19 -year -olds and a 25

-year -old. And their two spouses right there.

This is my wife. On the 11th day, two hours after

the doctor said, your kids have been healed,

my wife came out of her coma. I will tell you

that I was so happy, but I have PTSD to this

day because of all the 11 days that I had to

go through. But I'm so thankful to God because

I have shared Jesus with so many people because

of this story. And I've used it to demonstrate

his power, especially in fear power cultures.

Now my wife, five and a half years ago, They

said, you have five years left to live. And she

was getting worse and worse and worse. And she

was supposed to die about a half a year ago.

And guess what happened a half a year ago? Look,

this doesn't always happen. Some of you may have

lost spouses. And it's not because you didn't

have faith. It's because God said, oh, I'm going

to take your spouse up to be with me. But six

to eight months ago, God healed my wife. Of three

major diseases that were taking her life. And

so now she actually gets to join me on the mission

field. And I'm going to bring her here in July.

So I want her to meet you guys. But here's what

I want you to understand. When you don't understand

God's hand. Trust his heart. Trust his heart.

Look at. Jeremiah 29, For I know the plans I

have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for

good and not for disaster, to give you a future

and a hope. This is to Israel. This is to the

kingdom of Judah that is trusted in the flesh

and is getting exiled. And now God says, For

I know the plans I have for you. They are plans

for good and not for disaster, to give you a

future and a hope. In those days when you pray,

I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly,

you will find me. I will be found by you, says

the Lord. This is what the Lord says. You will

be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come

and do for you all the good things I have promised

and I will bring you home again. And let me bring

you home again this morning. Let's close this

message with looking at Jesus. You see, the truth

is, is that we all deserve to be cursed because

none of us trust in the Lord fully. All of us

at times are trusting in the flesh. But here's

what's so beautiful about Jesus. Jesus became

that curse for us. Christ redeemed us from the

curse of the law in Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ

Galatians 3:13

redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming

a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone

who is hanged on a tree. Jesus hung on a cross

and became a curse for you so that he could cover

you in his righteousness. You see, 2 Corinthians

5, 21 says, God made him who had no sin to be

sin for us so that in him we might become the

righteousness of God. And this is such a beautiful

verse because what this is called is the great

exchange where we give to Jesus all of our sin

when we trust him. And he gives us all of his

righteousness. All the times he said yes to God

and no to sin, he gives that to us so that when

God... looks at us, instead of seeing our sin,

he sees his perfect son, Jesus Christ, and his

righteousness covering us so that he doesn't

see our sin, but he sees his perfect son. Because

you are a child of God, because you have trusted.

Even though imperfectly, you have trusted in

the person of Jesus Christ. You see, and we all

with unveiled face beholding the glory of the

Lord are being transformed into the same image

from one degree of glory to the other for this

comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. If you

want to know the secret of growing in your spiritual

life, guess what? The secret is beholding the

glory of the Lord is seen in the face of Jesus.

Even during those times when you don't understand

His hand, trust His heart. Because when you look

to Jesus, what happens is there's spiritual transformation

even during the difficult times of your life.

A friend of mine, actually he's a supervisor

of mine in Nexus International, he explained

this concept to me. His name is John Hoppen.

He said developing a lifestyle of repentance

through rhythm of... Of encountering and delighting

in God's grace. You see, if you think that the

spiritual life is becoming more and more like

God's perfect standard, you don't understand

how sinful you are. But when you understand how

sinful you are, all of a sudden the cross gets

bigger and bigger and bigger. And the more that

you understand that you have a trustworthy God,

the more that I understand that I have a trustworthy

God, the cross gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

The Pharisees were people who trusted in themselves.

They trusted in their flesh. But as followers

of Christ, we understand that this isn't a country

club for saints. This is a hospital for sinners.

That guy up there, that's Jay Condor. He's the

one that shared Jesus with me, my resident assistant.

He gave me the book, Mere Christianity. That

guy's smoking a pipe. That's C .S. Lewis, Chronicles

of Narnia. That's my story, and I'm sticking

to it. Let's bow and let's pray. Heavenly Father,

we come before you and we thank you so much for

giving to us the person of Jesus Christ. We thank

you that this world is not the end all be all.

There's going to be suffering because of sin

in this world, but we don't have to be people

who are... Who are controlled by our circumstances

because our circumstances, whether there be drought,

whether there be heat, we're planted in the source

that is Jesus Christ. So that even during those

times of difficulty, we can put our trust in

him and we can bear fruit. So I pray for the

people in this room, including myself, who are

struggling in times of trouble. Will you prepare

us? For this abundant life, even in times of

trouble, by helping us to extend our roots into

the one who is trustworthy. We thank you for

who you are. We thank you for what you've done.

And as we think of Jeremiah, we think of angel

armies. It says... In that chapter 29, that there's

the God of angel armies. So no matter what we're

going through, we have God before us. We have

God standing behind us. We have God to the left

of us, to the right of us. And we're friends

of his because of Jesus Christ. And if there's

someone here this morning who doesn't know Jesus,

who's never trusted Jesus, I pray that after

the service that they would come up and they

would say, I want to know this Jesus. I want

to believe, but help me with my unbelief. And

we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. If God is calling

you to support our ministries, you will find

giving options on our website. And remember to

join us next week. God bless you.