With God You Can Overcome Your Struggles and the Storms of Life

Dr. Tony Evans shares profound truths regarding the struggles of life. With God’s help, you can overcome the pain of life, stay steady through the storms of life, and be close to the heart of God even when you don’t know if you’ll make it through. This sermon will encourage, inspire, and equip you to come out of your test a better follower of Jesus than when you started.

If we were to tell the truth and shame the devil, there have been those times when we have to raise the question like Martha and Murray, where were you when I needed you?
Cause if you would have been here, It wouldn’t be this painful.
It wouldn’t take this long, and it wouldn’t hurt this bad.
Teacher, Do you really care, or is that just theological nonsense I was raised to believe?
Let me serve notice on you right now.
God is hard to understand.
He can be extraordinarily confusing.
His understanding is inscrutable. It doesn’t off always add up.
You think he’s going this way?
And he does a curve on you.
And he doesn’t make sense Junioronomy 2929 says, god has secret things, things that he doesn’t tell anybody.
Things that he chooses not to explain.
Sometimes he will explain. Sometimes he will give you reasons.
Other times, he will hold it close to the vest.
Either for a time or for all time.
You can ask god a question, but you can’t question god.
Amen. Let me say that again.
You can ask god a question, but you can’t question god.
Now what’s the difference? To ask him a question is to say, god, would you help me to understand that?
To question god is to challenge him.
Your children can ask you a question but that’s different than your children challenging get an answer when you challenge, you’re demanding an answer.
God will allow a question. He will not allow a challenge.
His understanding is inscrutable.
You try to figure out what god has chosen not to reveal and you’re gonna need all of Walgreens there, etcetera, PM, you’re gonna need all of Walgreens to deal with the headache of his inscrutability.
He says, you have to understand this because if you do not understand it when your world is unraveling, Then you will fall prey to the circumstances and not to the creator everlasting omission god who is overseeing the circumstances.
I must admit I have had my series of questions. Why this?
Why this much? Why this now? Why this in light of all these prayers?
I have had my questions, and I’ve had to back up because sometimes I move from question to question And then I have to jump back because I’m in territory.
I’m not allowed to go in. Can ask a question? I can’t question.
Because it is up to him what he will explain and what he will refuse to explain.
And if he refuses to explain it, it’s because it is sovereign knowledge.
It’s best for us not to know it. Don’t we do that?
We answer some questions by our children, and others, we don’t bother to answer.
Because they wouldn’t understand it, appreciate it, or benefit from it. Maybe not then, maybe never.
These people are in crisis.
And in this chapter, a chapter worth reading, over and over a chapter I’ve had to read as I’ve wrestled with these months of one thing after another.
Let me just read a few verses from chapter 40, verse 18, to whom then will you liken me?
Who will you like in god, or what likeness will you compare with him?
He says, as for the idol of craftsman cast it, he says, don’t go away from god to something god made because that’s idolatry.
Who will you like of me?
You’re gonna go to something I made and try to get from something I made information that I’m not giving you?
In verse 22, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and it’s inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
Who searches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
He sits over the earth. He’s not in it. He’s over it. Verse 25.
To whom then will you liken me? I’m the incomparable one.
That I would be that I would be his equal, says the holy one.
He says, let me help you out.
Lift up your eyes verse 26 and see who has created these stars.
The one who leads forth their host by number, he calls them all by name.
You know how many stars? There are there are millions of stars.
He says, 1, I created them all.
2, I got a name for each one of them and I’ve never forgetting forgotten any one of their names.
Thirdly, because of the greatness of his might, and the strength of his power, no one of them is missing.
They’re not allowed to fall out of heaven.
He created them, named them, and told them to stay there.
So he is powerful to make stars but he’s personal to know each one by name.
So he’s the big god up there, and he’s the intimate god down here.
He’s a a god who created you, but he still knows your name.
We call that transcendence of their imminent involved down here.
And he says, who do you know that can do that?
To whom were you liking me?
When my world, your world, our world, is collapsing as life would have it happen, unfortunately.
He says, you run to this god, not from him.
You don’t go to anything that competes with him. Which is idolatry.
You don’t position him in an inferior location just because life has collapsed on you.
It reminds me of the humorous story of the the pope who had to make an address at the United Nations.
When his plane landed, the chauffeur pick them up, open the door, let the pope in to get a seat.
The chauffeur got behind the wheel to drive him from the airport to the United Nations where the pope was to make a key address.
The pope, however, was running late.
And said to the driver, I need you to go fast. I’m running behind.
I’ve gotta make important address to the United Nations. That’s when the driver said, I’m sorry, sir.
I’ve already gotten 2 tickets. That are unpaid.
If I get a third ticket, they will arrest me, and I can’t risk speeding and getting a ticket.
The pope said, but I have got to get to the United Nations on time.
I’m in a hurry. He then told the driver to pull over.
The driver pulled over.
The pope got out the car and told the driver to get in the back seat.
He said, I’ll drive.
The pope then got behind the wheel and sped to get to the United Nations.
As he was speeding down the road to get to the United Nations, he passed a police car.
Going a hundred miles an hour. The lights on the police car began to flash.
Pull up behind the limousine and pulled it over.
There were 2 policemen in the car. The police car.
One of them got out, went over to the window, roll it down.
The window was rolled down.
The policeman looked at the driver, turned around and walked away.
He went back to the police car.
His friend who was still in the car said, You didn’t give him a ticket.
He said I sure didn’t. He was speeding almost a hundred miles an hour. He sure was.
But you didn’t give him a ticket. I sure didn’t.
Why didn’t you give him a ticket with that kind of speeding?
Says because you don’t know who was in that car. He said, well, what was it?
The mayor? No. Was it the governor? No? Was it the president?
No. Then who was in the car that you wouldn’t give him a ticket?
He said, I don’t know who was in the car, but the the Pope was a chauffeur.
See, a lot of us have this backwards.
We want god to be our chauffeur.
We want god to serve us. We want god to adapt to us.
He says to whom were you liking me?
A low view of god in a crisis means the crisis will control and own you.
A high view of god in the crisis.
Means that the crisis has no longer the last word do not settle for the creation.
Don’t go looking at the stars for your horoscope.
He says I made those stars. They don’t dictate your future.
I dictate your future.
I am a king, and I’m not a burger king.
Where you get to have it your way.
He says, I want you to recognize me even in the crisis of life.
But we live in a day of the dumbing down of god.
A god who only exists to bless us, help us deliver us, empower us, but not a god who can dictate to us.
We we we live in a day where if I give you your 2 hours, you ought to be happy god.
And so when the world caves in and we’re not used to dealing with the character of this god, We got all these blame games on god because he is god when times are up And I had to remind myself he is god when times are down.
He is god when babies are born, and he is still god when mates are deceased.
He has to be still god in both scenarios for you to make it through any scenario.
He must be god and treated and respected as such.
To lose heart means to quit the throw in the towel to one away, to abandon the circumstance in one way or another.
That’s what the Bible talks about when it talks about losing heart.
The book of Hebrews was written to Christian’s who are losing heart.
This is a book written to discourage Christians who didn’t know whether it was worth it to keep going.
The struggle was too great. The difficulty was too daunting. The pain was too palpable.
And the question was is it worth keeping going?
And many wanted to quit and want to go back to the old way they wanted to abandon Christ, to abandon Christianity, So the author of Hebrews writes the book to challenge them not to lose heart.
So we find ourselves in Hebrews chapter 12.
Where he says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and in, which so easily entangles us, and let us run with Endurance, the race that is set before us.
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of god for consent him, who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
My challenge for me as I preach to me as I preach to us is simply to never give up.
As hard as things have been, as hard as things are.
The author of Hebrews is telling them and is speaking to us, and he’s saying never give up.
In chapter 10, for example, he says, in verse 35.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of god, you may receive what is promised.
1st 39. And we are not of those who shrink back to destruction.
But of those who have faith to the to the persevering of the soul.
What he is simply saying is don’t give up as hard as it is, as challenging as it has been for me, for you, and I speak to us.
The word of the lord for today in the reset that he is doing is don’t give up.
Now that’s easy to say.
And I’m sure most would agree with having heard it But a lot of things are easier to save and to do, especially when you’re overwhelmed by life’s negatives re negative realities.
So he’s going to say three things to help you and me and us, in spite of all the turmoil we are in personally occlusionologically, culturally, racially, politically, socially, economically, never give up.
The first thing he wants to say is to encourage you never to give up Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, Now whenever you see the word therefore in the Bible, you must ask what it’s there for.
Therefore, means in light of what I just said, that’s what I’m getting ready to talk about, but it’s predicated on what I just said.
Now you have to read all of Hebrews 11 to get his point about the cloud of witnesses.
A witness gives agreement or testimony to something.
A witness in the courtroom gives testimony to the reality of what is being said.
He calls them a cloud of testimony givers or witnesses. He says these witnesses are surrounding us.
Present tense. They’re right here right now, and they will testify.
Many of you who grew up in the old church, remember the preacher saying, can I get a witness?
What he was asking was, is there anybody who can confirm what I’m saying?
The author Hebrew says there is a cloud of witnesses.
There is a body of people who will testify.
That you can make it and that you are never give up.
That testimony is given by men and women who are described in chapter 11.
Now, obviously, time will not allow us to go through 40 verses in chapter 11 over each person, but I will sum it up with the first couple of verses of chapter 11.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
The conviction of things not seen for by it, the men of old gained approval.
By faith, we understand that the world were prepared by the word of god so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
The cloud of wit is that he goes on to describe, he will say the words by faith, then he’ll give the name of the witness and then he’ll tell you what the witness did.
He will say, by faith, this witness, Abraham, Abel, Noah, Sarah, Rahab, on and on, and then it’ll tell you what they did by faith.
So the testimonies that he gives in 11 leading him to talk to us beginning in chapter 12 is a testimony that the key to making it and not giving up is learning to live by faith.
So that that’s the key.
The way you’re gonna make it, I’m going to make it in spite of the headache and heartaches of life, is to learn what they modeled, and that was learning to live by faith.
He says faith is the conviction or persuasion of what you don’t have empirical evidence to validate.
In other words, faith has to deal with unseen reality Faith is different than sight.
Site is something you have empirical reality. You can look at it with your own two eyes.
He says faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It involves an expectation, hope.
It is being confident about the expectation.
And the way you know you’re confident about the expectation is that you move in faith even though you haven’t seen it yet.
So you don’t see it, but it’s real.
And you have to move by faith in light of what you do not see.
He says, let me illustrate what I’m talking about.
He says, we know that the worlds were created by the word of god.
But I don’t know that anybody has seen god.
So what you see the world came from somebody you don’t see.
In other words, we know god is real, not because we’ve seen god, but we’ve seen what he can do.
I’ve never seen Picasso, but his work speaks for his name.
I’ve never seen Mozart, but his work speaks for his name.
There are many things we believe that we’ve never seen, the source of If you and I are going to not quit, give up, throw in the towel, we must learn to live by faith And faith is not merely the event when you got saved.
It is supposed to be the lifestyle that you live now that you are saved.
Romans 117, for example, says that we are to go from faith to faith for the just shall live by faith.
Faith is supposed to be a lifestyle, not an event. Hello?
He says in Romans 1423, whatever is not of faith is sin.
So to not live by faith is to live sinful. Right.
He says in 2nd Corinthians 57, that we walk by faith, not by sight.
So if you’re from Missouri, And you need to see it first, then you will be subject to the circumstances around you and be limited by them.
Since we have a cloud of witnesses, Witnesses testify. Amen.
You know, when they have a professional boxing match, heavyweight boxing match.
Previous champion comes come into the ring and shake the contestant’s hands.
Previous heavyweight champions come in and shake the hand in this guy in this corner, the guy in this corner, What they’re saying is I’ve been in this ring.
I fought here before, and I’m here to testify you can come out of winter.
They bring past heroes to give testimony about a present battle.
Chapter 11 is full of men and women who went through what we’re going through in different times, different sagas, and they give testimony.
I’ve been there. I’ve heard where you’ve heard, struggled where you struggled, been rejected, where you’ve been rejected, but I’m here to testify.
You can make it by faith.
Now I’m often asked the question do people in heaven know what we are dealing with?
Are they are is there an awareness in another dimension of what we’re going through in this dimension.
He goes into it in more detail, uh, later on in his book in chapter 12, this same chapter when he begins to talk about verses 18 through 24, you can read that on your own.
But he says, we’ve come to Mount Zion, and he says that we’ve come to a place with burning fire And he said in verse 23, we’ve come to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.
He says, we have come to a place where folks have already gone.
So there is, in some mystical way, a place of contact between heaven and earth.
It’s another dimension So we don’t see it and feel it, but it’s real.
So when he says in verse 1, we are surrounded.
There is a sense in which in the intercessory work of Jesus Christ, those who have been faithful to god who have gone before partner with him in continuing us moving in faith.
There is a point of contact, the the details of which we can’t get into today, but the point is these witnesses are here to give testimony don’t you quit.
And I don’t know about you, but I need that testimony on some days.
So, yes, it’s the testimony of god.
It’s the testimony of his word, but it’s also the testimony of being surrounded.
When he talks about Abel in chapter 11, he says Abel who is dead still speaks.
There there is a voice even though he had already died.
So there is this point of linking between the dimension of the physical in which we live, but the contact with the spiritual in which we are to exist.
And so when I worked my way through this chapter 11 and was reminded of all of those who had to struggle by faith, Now some of these people, you don’t know how they got in here.
You don’t know how they got in there. You say, They don’t belong in here.
But that’s the good news. You can start where you are.
You can start where you are and say the rest of my life I’m going to live by faith I’m going to act like god is telling the truth, even though I don’t see the result yet.
They woke up Jesus and said in verse 38, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
See, that’s a spiritual story.
Because their circumstances were out of control, and their emotions have gone crazy.
Now they questioned whether what they have been believing is true.
See, if the truth be told and you would tell a truth and shame the devil, There aren’t many of us who haven’t questioned god.
Whoever said, I’m not sure I should be believing this anymore.
I’m not sure I could should be continuing this because what I’m hearing on Sunday and what I’m experiencing on Monday don’t match.
I I heard the preacher say that you care. I don’t see you caring for me.
I I heard the preacher say you can fix it, but you ain’t fixing it for me.
I heard somebody say, you’re a healer. I’m still sick.
I heard somebody say you’re a lawyer in the courtroom, but I’m in trouble.
I heard somebody say that that you will be a friend to the friendless, and I feel more lonely than ever.
So what I heard about you and what I’m experiencing don’t match.
And I’m not sure this is real.
If we were to tell the truth, and Shane the devil.
There have been those times when we have to raise the question like Martha and Murray, where were you when I need you.
Cause if you would have been here, it wouldn’t be this painful.
It wouldn’t take this long, and it wouldn’t hurt this bad. Teacher?
Do you really care, or is that just theological nonsense I was raised to believe?
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
There are those times in our lives, particularly when the storm rages.
We don’t have this problem when there’s no storm. We’re praising the lord.
We’re waving a hand in the air like we just don’t care when there is no storm.
But in the middle of a storm, especially one that just shoots up on you. Unexpected.
It looks like it’ll wipe you out, and you’re terrified, afraid, insecure. Because you’re overwhelmed.
That naturally leads to a spiritual question. Where were you, god?
Let’s go a little deeper because verse 38 says Jesus himself was in the stern asleep on the cushion.
No. You didn’t. Oh, no. You didn’t. Jesus?
I’m in a storm and you’re snoring.
I’m in a storm and you’re sleeping.
What good is a savior who sleeps when you’re in your storm?
We call you savior Jesus, this is not the time to be tired because we’re in a storm.
Not only is Jesus asleep. He’s asleep on a cushion.
A cushion is a pillow. So he’d not only asleep.
If you asleep on a pillow, that meant you meant to go to sleep.
See, if you didn’t tuck the pillow up under your head, That’s not, like, nodding off. That’s I’m tired.
I’m going to bed. Let me get this pillow just right, and I’m a get on now while I lay me down to sleep.
Prayed along my soul and keep, you know, this is serious sleep. So that meant he sleep on purpose.
So my only is Jesus asleep. Now, only as asleep or perfect.
He’s asleep in a store. Okay.
Now I got another problem because he’s sleeping on me And he’s in the same storm. I’m in.
Because he’s on the same boat. I’m on. He’s asleep. On the store.
And the only way he gets up is I gotta wake him up.
It says they woke him up. So he deep he’s sleeping.
So the Jesus, why is it still not messing with you?
Cause it’s your messing with everybody else on this boat, and you are sound asleep, and we got to shake it and bake it.
We got to stir you. Uh, one version says they had to arouse him, which means they didn’t just say, Jesus.
Time to get up. No.
They had to shake and beg that. Jesus. Wake up.
That’s when you’re crying out because it’s so bad, so deep for so long.
And they they they they they shook him and they said, don’t you care?
Cause if you can, we wouldn’t even have even if you were We wouldn’t have to wake you up.
You got you’re getting wet like we’re getting wet.
The boats flipping and flopping you like it’s flipping and flopping us. And you are asleep.
Have you ever noticed something when you were taking your midterm exams?
How quiet the teacher was. Remember that?
The teacher would either leave the room or go sit behind the desk. She wouldn’t say anything.
He wouldn’t say anything. Why wouldn’t the teacher say something? Cause you’re taking a test.
So the teacher is quiet when you’re taking a test.
Because you should be taking the test off of information already received.
So So the teacher not saying much.
I know you wanna raise your hand and say, teacher, number 5. Number 5.
I’m having trouble with number 5. Wake up teacher. Wake up teacher.
But right now, the teacher it’s quiet.
Teacher doesn’t have much to say because you’re taking a test.
And so they’re in this storm. They’re struggling. Jesus is asleep.
And they had a question.
Where were you? You you don’t care about me.
You cared about me. I wouldn’t go be going through this like this.
Don’t you care how bad was it that we are perishing?
So this is major. We think we’re gonna drown out here and die. I’m gonna die.
We all have sponges in our homes.
Uh, you dip the sponge in water, it becomes full of it.
And then when you apply a little pressure what was soaked in comes out.
Now if you squeeze and unemersed.
You know, you you you you squeeze it, but you never immersed the sponge.
Don’t look for something to come out because there was nothing absorbed in.
What storms have an amazing ability to do.
Is to show you whether what you heard in the sermon was soaked.
Whether it got beyond the external hearing the message and whether it was soaked in.
But the only way what is soaked in the sponge comes out is when there’s a little pressure.
You put you squeeze it. You you press it. And all of a sudden, whatever was soaked comes out.
The reason why when we’re under pressure, a lot doesn’t come out.
There’s a lot hasn’t been soaked in. We were around the water.
We didn’t absorb it. So what the pressure reveals is air. Because it wasn’t solved.
Jesus had just taught the disciples. They had just come from church, so to speak.
And now they’re under pressure. And it’s tough because Jesus care about my pain.
My finances, my loneliness, my hurt, my depression because I’m in his will, and I feel all this.
And so they wake Jesus up. Verse 39.
Jesus gets up, and he rebukes the wind and says to the sea, Hushifas.
Hush be still. Notice who Jesus is talking to.
He gonna talk to them, but he’s not talking to him right now. He’s talking to the circumstance.
The circumstance is the wind and the sea. It’s a storm. He doesn’t speak to them yet.
He speaks to the situation. But when does he speak to the situation? After they wake him up.
So Jesus is asleep. They wake him up.
When they wake him up, He speaks to the circumstance that was causing the crisis.
So don’t let it be said your crisis continues because you never took the time to wake the savior up.
In other words, you were not so concerned about it that getting his attention to it was unimportant because we’ll wake up our friends.
We’ll wake up people with power. We’ll wake up people who we think can change it.
And a lot of times, we don’t try to wake up the savior. Now I’m explaining you.
I because I know what you’re saying. You say, well, he shouldn’t be asleep.
I got you. Stick with me here. Because see, I know what you’re thinking.
And the reason I know what you’re thinking is because I’ve had to think it too, because we all face storms, different shapes, different sizes, equally real.
And so Jesus now turns to his disciples.
Why are you afraid, verse 40? How is it that you have? No faith?
Now I don’t know about you, but I have issues with the question.
I got issues with that question, because that question doesn’t make sense to me.
They wake Jesus up. The boats filling with water. They’re in a lilac. It’s a terrible storm.
They don’t even know where they’re gonna live or die. And Jesus is gonna ask a question like that.
Why are you afraid? And why do you have no faith?
Oh, I don’t know Jesus. Maybe it’s because we’re getting ready to die.
I mean, a question like that is like somebody asking a swimmer who just gets out of the water while you wet.
Isn’t it pretty obvious? I mean, this is this is not that deep, gee.
Oh, excuse me, Jesus? It’s not that deep. We’re in trouble.
Why are you afraid?
Why the question Well, that takes us back to verse 35.
Because in verse 35, Jesus said, let go to the other side.
Not let me go to the other side. Not let go. Let us go halfway and die.
On our way to the other side.
I told y’all when we got in the boat, because Jesus got a little texting in him.
I told y’all, when we got in the boat, Let all of us go from here to the others.
I never said on our way there, there won’t be trouble.
I never said on our way there, there won’t be inconveniences.
I never said that on our way there, there won’t be circumstances out of your control.
I just told you where we’re starting and where we’re gonna wind up.
But between there and here and there, there may be circumstances.
I I didn’t talk to you about all that.
I just told you we are going to the other side.
In fact, disciples, when I told you that, I heard you. Amen, other side of the side.
Praise god for the other side. God’s gotta let me get to the other side.
We gonna make it to the other side. You left shouting.
You were excited to get in the boat with me.
But when the circumstances showed up, they overrode what I said.
In other words, your problem overrode my promise.
So you were now living in light of the problem, no longer living in light of the promise.
And when you live in light of the problem and no longer in light of the promise, the problem will dominate you, and it will totally erase the fact I ever made one.
God never wants your circumstances. He want them want you to deny them.
A storm is a storm. You don’t call it a sunshine. My day.
A storm is reality, but he never wants your circumstance to trump his word.
Not only does he not want your circumstance to trump his word.
He doesn’t want your circumstance to trump his presence. Because he’s on the boat too.
In John chapter 16 versus 31 to 33, Jesus tells his disciples on his way to the cross.
Peace, I leave with you, and I’m gonna leave my peace with you.
And then he says, but in this world, you will have tribulation.
But be of good cheer, because in me, you have overcome the world.
In other words, yeah, they’re gonna be trouble. And sometimes, there will be trouble in my will.
You’re doing exactly what I told you to do.
But because of the next level, I’m taking you to I will appear to be asleep.
You won’t hear anything from heaven.
You’ll be like Job Twenty 3 I looked for god in the north. I couldn’t find him.
I looked for god in the south. I couldn’t find him.
I looked for god in the east and the west, and he was unlocatable.
I kept searching for god while I was going through hell on earth, and he was nowhere to be found.
And then in that same chapter, yoke says, but when I come through this, I will be pure as gold.
Because storms are designed to deepen your faith and heighten your experience with him.