God Knows Our Situation

Well, we're concluding a series that we've been in now, this is the fifth week about some of the great hymns of the church that we've called Worship through the Ages. How many of you have enjoyed hearing some of the history and the theology behind some of the great hymns of the church? It's been wonderful. It's been one of my favorite series, I think, that I've ever preached in, over 40 years of preaching this great news from the word of God. But we're going to conclude that series this morning.

There's a statement that I believe probably most of us have heard at some point in our lifetime. And the statement is this, that one man's trash is another man's treasure. One man's trash is another man's treasure. In fact, there's a television series kind of based on that statement. And the show.

The television show is called Storage Wars. Got any Storage wars fans in the house? Anybody ever seen the show Storage Wars? Well, here's the premise of the shows, that these certain people will bid on abandoned storage units where people just, for whatever reason, they just leave all the stuff in there. They never come back.

They don't pay their rent on it, and then at some point it goes up for auction. And so these people bid on those storage units in the hopes that somewhere buried in all of the trash, and they find a lot of trash in those storage units, that somewhere buried in there is going to be some valuable treasure, like something that's worth some money. Now, the reason that show has been on now for 15 seasons is that somebody's finding some treasure. Like, they wouldn't just keep showing it over and over if they were just finding garbage in there. They're finding stuff that's valuable.

And so therefore, the show keeps going. And it's amazing what they'll find that's buried inside of the trash of those storage units. Now, here's the thing, that we all have an enemy. And our enemy wants to make all of us feel like trash. Like the enemy wants us to reflect on our life of sin or our life of mistakes or our life of addiction or our life of rebellion.

And the enemy wants to make you. And I feel like that we could never really be used by God. That's his goal, that we're worthless. But how many of you are grateful that God specializes in reaching into the rubble of humanity and the shortcomings of mankind and finding valuable treasure that he then uses for his glory? Is anybody thankful for that today?

I know I'm personally grateful that the Lord could find anything of value in my life that he could use for his glory. There's a woman by the name of Charlotte Elliot. Charlotte Elliot. She was born in 1789 in southern London. Her grandfather was a very well known evangelical preacher.

Charlotte Elliot, at a young age, developed a real strong gift as a poet. But at the age of 32, she suffered from an illness that left her disabled for the remainder of her life. Her lifelong spiritual mentor, a person by the name of Cesar Millan, who was a Swiss minister and a hymnologist, counseled her to replace her rage and her inner conflict with peace. Cesar also encouraged her to just come to Jesus the way that she is, with her disability, with her feelings of worthlessness, with her feelings of uselessness. And so from that day on, she turned her poetic abilities, her literary skills and talents to writing hymns.

In 1834, Charlotte Elliot moved to Brighton and lived with her brother who was a pastor, the Reverend Henry Elliot. One day, her entire family left the house to go to a church bazaar where they were raising funds for a charity school. Charlotte was left by herself. And on this particular day, for whatever reason, those dark feelings of loneliness and worthlessness really came on strong. And as Charlotte is sitting there by herself, all alone, feeling useless, probably like many of us have felt at some point, feeling worthless, feeling like because of her disability, that the Lord, for whatever reason, would not be able to use her in that moment.

She recalled the message of her mentor, who told her not long after she was struck with this disability, just come to Jesus the way that you are. So she decided she would start writing in the midst of her loneliness, in the midst of her despair. And out of her flowed these words. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Our text today is drawn from John chapter 20. If you want to go there on your device, your phone, your iPad, or if you've got your Bible with you. John, chapter 20. Here we are, two weeks away from Resurrection Sunday, the day upon which all truth hinges, all theology is weighed and verified, and all hope lies on Resurrection Sunday. And Here in John 20 is a story of a woman who most have written off as useless too broken, buried for years in the ruins of being possessed by not one, but but seven demons.

And this woman makes a discovery, and she is entrusted with the greatest news known to mankind to this day. Think about that. A woman who had been possessed by seven demons is entrusted with the greatest message of all time. John chapter 20, beginning in verse 11, would you stand to honor the word of God this morning?

As always, the notes are available for you on the Refuge app. And I encourage you download the app, follow along, I encourage you listen, use social media for the kingdom's sake. Post things about what God's doing, what God's saying. Post things about your church. If you're excited about what God's doing in your church, you'll never, never know how God could use a simple post.

John, chapter 20, beginning in verse 11, says this. Mary was standing outside the tomb, crying. And as she wept, she stooped and looked in and she saw two white robed angels. One sitting at the head, one. And the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.

Dear woman, why are you crying? The angels asked her. Because they have taken away my Lord, she replied, and I don't know where they've put him. And she turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.

Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked her, who are you looking for? She thought he was the gardener. Sir, she said, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him and I'll go and get him. By the way, those of you who join us in November, you're going to have a chance to look into that tomb.

Whoo. It's powerful. I'm going to tell you something. Verse 16, Mary, Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, rabbi.

Which is Hebrew for teacher, don't cling to me, Jesus said, for I haven't yet ascended to the Father, but go find my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, I have seen the Lord and. And then she gave them his message. Now, also in Mark, chapter 16, verse 9 and 10, I think I put it in your notes, but. And it's on the screen, but it says this.

After Jesus rose from the dead early on Sunday morning, the first person who saw him was a woman who had been possessed by seven demons. Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom he had cast out seven demons, she went to the disciples who were grieving and weeping and told them what had happened. Wow. How many of you are grateful that no matter what you've done, no matter the depth of your sin, no matter how much trash at some point filled your life, that God can still use you today. Yeah.

Come on, let's make some declarations together. Everybody out loud. You ready? Go. I Will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God.

And health to my bones, I will be a doer of the word. And I'm confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it. In Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated.

I would imagine that all of us at some point have felt useless due to our issues, due to our past, due to the things that we still battle, due to our shortcomings. Maybe due to your repeated failures, maybe you showed up today, maybe you logged on today and maybe you feel useless. Maybe you're watching on the Pando app, maybe you're incarcerated, and maybe because of your crime, maybe because of your mistakes, maybe you feel useless. By the way, I want to just shout out my new friends at Allred Correctional Institute in Texas today. I had a chance to visit with them a couple of weeks ago, and I had lunch with JJ and with Marvin and.

And with Paul. And I don't know if you guys are watching, but, man, I was so blessed to meet you guys and maybe others there at the largest prison in the state of Texas or prisons all over America that are watching. Maybe you feel useless. Maybe you feel like because of what you've done that God cannot use you. I think all of us have felt that way at some point.

Now, listen, what I've learned through life is that the strategies and the tactics that the enemy uses to try to cause us to disqualify ourselves rarely change. They're just packaged differently through time. And so in order for us to overcome the lies and the deceit of the enemy, we need to remember a few key things.

A few key things. I want you to write these down because I think it's so important. And I'm talking to somebody today that feels useless talking to somebody today who has disqualified themselves. I want to help you. I want to equip you today to overcome the lies of the enemy.

I want to equip you today to overcome the deceit of the enemy. And there's some key things that we need to remember. Here's the first one. Our issues will either drive us towards Jesus or away from him. We decide which one is true.

We decide which one is true. You know the saying that things in life will either make you bitter or they'll make you better? And how we respond to suffering, how we respond to injustice, how we respond to tragedy will determine which is the case whether you become bitter or whether you become better. Now, we all know we cannot control the actions of others. The only thing that we can control is.

Is how we choose to respond. And your response determines everything. Your response is crucial because if you choose to respond in one way, it's going to produce regret and repeated cycles. Regret and repeated cycles. And you decide.

You decide how you're going to respond. And I think we have a. There we go. Regret and repeated cycles. Or you can choose to respond in a way that's gonna produce restoration and redemption in your life.

Now, obviously, the plan of the enemy is that you respond in a way that's gonna breed regret inside of your heart. That's gonna cause you to stay in sin cycles, cause you to stay in generational cycles. But how many of you know you can respond? It's not easy, but you can respond in a way that's going to produce restoration and redemption in your life. It's two examples from scripture.

Mark, chapter 5, verse 29 reads like this. A woman in the crowd, you know the story. Had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them. But she'd gotten no better.

In fact, she'd gotten worse. Can anybody relate to that? You've put your faith out there. You've had people anoint you with oil and pray over you. You've come to the front and had the elders pray for you.

You've had your small group praying for you. You've trusted and believed and you've pressed through the times of discouragement. And rather than getting better, things have gotten worse. Can anybody relate? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Well, that was the case with this woman. Rather than getting better, things have gotten worse. And she's exhausted her resources. She's put her faith out there in the doctors and in others that maybe could help her. And nothing has improved.

Verse 27. She had heard about Jesus.

Here's the point of decision. She has to decide in that moment, how will I respond to discouragement? How will I respond to this illness that has caused me to bleed for 12 years and listen, that would represent death. It was a disgrace for a woman in Jewish culture. She could respond with discouragement.

She could respond with anger. She could respond with frustration. And she has to decide in that moment, will this crisis push me away from Jesus or will it push me towards him? She couldn't control what was going on. She could only control her response to the situation.

She had heard about Jesus and something stirred on the inside of her. And rather than allowing the discouragement to push her away and she had every reason. 12 years, spent all of her money, done everything she knows to do. But at that moment, she decides, I'm gonna move towards him. So the Bible says.

So she came up behind him through the crowd, touched his robe, for she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I'll be healed. Immediately the bleeding stopped, and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. Her response, after 12 years of suffering and the issue of bleeding, was a desperate pursuit of Jesus, which then produced restoration and redemption for her. Here's another example out of Luke, chapter 19. Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town, and there was a man there named Zacchaeus.

Anybody ever sing the song about Zacchaeus when you were a little kid? The wee little man, and a wee little man was he.

There was a man there named Zacchaeus in Jericho. He was the chief tax collector in the region. Now, if you don't know much about biblical history, that would just mean he was not a very popular guy. He was not an honest guy, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short a wee little man to see over the crowd.

And so he ran ahead and he climbed a sycamore fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and he called him by name. Wow. Oh, my Lord. I could preach a whole message right there.

We could stop right there. But I'm just gonna tell you, out of eight, over 8 billion people on the planet, he knows your name today. He knows your name. Doesn't matter what the condition of your heart. Doesn't matter how long you've been in some sin cycle.

Doesn't matter if you're incarcerated. Doesn't matter what's going on in your life today. Doesn't matter what's happened in the past. Doesn't matter the depth of your sin or immorality or your addiction. He knows your name.

He knows your name. Come on, Somebody ought to be shouting about right now.

He calls him by name. He says, quick, come down. I must be a guest in your home today. How many of you are thankful that Jesus wants to hang out with us?

Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and he took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner. They grumbled. Let me tell you something.

Religious people will grumble about you when you start going close to Jesus. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and he said, I'll give half my wealth to the poor Lord. And if I have cheated people on their taxes, if that's a given, bro, you know good and well you've been cheating some folks, he says, I'll give them back four times as much. Jesus responded, salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. Hey, listen, here's a man who's not only short in stature, but he's short in character.

Like, he's dishonest, but his response is that he moves towards the man that he's heard about, not away from him. And somehow he had hope that Jesus could find treasure buried in the dishonesty and in the selfishness of his life. And the result of him moving towards Jesus was restoration and redemption. And the thing I want you to understand today, church, because bad things are gonna happen to all of us. Unfair things are gonna happen to every one of us.

You may get a diagnosis from a doctor that doesn't make sense after decades of faithfully serving Jesus. You may lose your job or lose your marriage or lose your home after you've been a tither and been faithful in giving. But you have to decide how you're going to respond, because one response is going to produce regrets and repeated cycles, but the other response is gonna produce restoration and redemption in your life.

I'm trying to help you, trying to help you today because at some point, the enemy's gonna come after you. He's gonna try to make you feel useless, gonna try to make you feel worthless. And you've gotta decide in that moment, how will I respond. I can't control everything around me, but I can't control my response to what happens.

Come on, I'm preaching to somebody today. Here's the second thing. That our being used by God depends more on our availability than it does our ability.

Listen, there's this thing called the comparison trap. The comparison trap, where we are so prone to comparing ourselves to other people. We see how God's using them. We maybe know their story, maybe we don't. But we just compare ourselves to them.

And by doing so, oftentimes, we will disqualify ourselves thinking that we don't measure up, that God cannot use us. In Matthew 25, there's a parable that Jesus tells about a wealthy landowner, wealthy man who's going away on a trip, and he calls his servants together and he gives some money to his servants. Your version might say, talents but it represents money. He gives five talents of silver, a bag full of silver, to one guy, he gives two to another guy, he gives one to another guy. And the Bible says, each according to their ability.

And then he leaves on his trip, and when he comes back, he calls them together and he says, hey, I gave you a bag full of money when I left. What'd you do with it? And the first one, the guy with the five, he says, well, I took it and I made some investments, and I don't have the five anymore. I've got 10. And so the master is very pleased, and his response is, well done, good and faithful servant.

And the guy with the two says, hey, I took the two that you gave me and I made some investments. And so here's four. Now, I want you to notice that the response of the master to that guy was the same as the response to the guy who had taken five and turned it into 10. He says the exact same words to him. Well done, good and faithful servant.

He didn't beat him up. He didn't verbally lash out at him and say, hey, hey, hey, what's your deal, man? That guy, he had five. He turned it into 10. I gave you two.

Why didn't you turn that into 10? And the reason he didn't do that was because the focus was not on how much he was able to produce. The focus was on stewardship. Then he calls the guy with the one, and the guy with the one says, oh, man, listen, I know you're a tough dude. You have high expectations.

And I was really afraid of what would happen. So I took the one that you gave me and I stuck it in the ground. I put it in a nice box, I kept it in the ground so that when you came back, I'd be able to give it back to you. And I gave it to you. And he calls him wicked and lazy.

Why? Because he didn't practice stewardship. Listen, God doesn't expect you to be used the same way somebody else is being used. God expects you to take whatever's been given to you, whatever ability, whatever, whatever talent, whatever resources, and to steward it well for the kingdom's sake. He doesn't expect you to do what somebody else is doing.

He just expects you to steward well what has been entrusted to you.

I can't think of a better example, Honestly, as I was preparing this message, I couldn't think of a better example of somebody who has every reason you're going to see why in a moment, every reason to disqualify himself from being used by God, had every reason way more than you and I. But yet somehow he realized God can still use me. His name is Nick Vujic. I want you to check out his story, his testimony. Hi, my name is Nick Vujicic.

And when I was born without arms and legs, my parents had no idea that their limbless boy would turn into the hands and feet of the love of Jesus Christ spread all around the world. As a child I was bullied and I went to Sunday school and learned that Jesus loved me, that he had a hope plan in the future for me as well. Well, I'm like, what kind of plan is this? Can I suggest a plan B? So I prayed for arms and legs and they did not come.

And when I didn't hear anything from heaven, I started doubting that he indeed had a plan for me. So I prayed for arms and legs. But what I realized what I needed more was heaven, peace, purpose and forgiveness of my sin. At age 10, I tried to commit suicide. Because of the bullying, predominantly at school.

I didn't feel like I would ever be independent and only a burden to my parents. I'd always be alone and never get married and never have a family and never find a purpose worth living for, hence a value worthy. So I tried to commit suicide at age 10 with 6 inches of bath water. I was stopped by one thought. And the thought was seeing my mom and my dad crying at my grave, wishing they could have done something more.

At age 15, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ because I. I realized more than arms and legs, I wanted purpose and salvation and healing, forgiveness of my sins. I wanted Jesus. But I still didn't know why I was born this way. Well, in John chapter nine, everyone asked Jesus, why was that blind man born that way? Jesus said it was done so that the works of God would be revealed through him.

What I realized I was actually as blind as the blind man. We had no idea what God had in store. And just because you don't see what God has in store doesn't mean his store is empty. Kids come up and say what happened? And I say, cigarettes, definitely.

As a child and a teenager, I'd never thought I'd be a speaker that would travel around the world and meet presidents and speak at congresses and be in stadiums as large as 110,000. I had no idea. And I just give God all the glory and all the praise for the people who pray for us, the people who support us and made this possible, to travel around and preach the gospel. To millions of souls. God loves me not because of what I can do or what I will do for the kingdom of God.

He just loves me for me. When I put my little foot on my wife's womb as she was pregnant with our first son, I felt him kick. And I looked at my wife in her eyes and I said, babe, I love him. I never touched him, saw him, heard him laugh, see him smile. He never earned my love.

That love was always there from the beginning, before he was even born. So be challenged today to know that God is not done with you yet. He wants to stretch you a little bit. And I dare you to believe in the greatness of our God because he has no living.

Come on, Church. God can use you. God wants to use you. There are no limits to what the Lord can do in your life. Here's the last thing I want you to remember.

When the enemy comes at you, tries to make you feel useless, worthless, that he's not able to use you, you've got to remember that God's promises will come to pass his time, not in ours. That's so key. We put God on the clock. We say, well God, I'm going to do this. I'm going to believe for this.

I'm going to make myself available. I'm going to believe that you can use me. But then we put God on the clock. And if God doesn't do it in our time frame, then we just lose hope and we give up. But God's promises will always come true.

But in his time, not in ours. First Chronicles, chapter 10 tells the story about when the Philistines invaded Israel and King Saul and his son Jonathan were both killed on the same day. They were both killed at a place called Mount Gilboa.

Second Samuel, chapter four, verse four talks about that same incident. But while the battle was going on, there in the palace was a little boy who was age 5 and his name was Mirab Baal. His name was a royal name. He was born to the royal family as the son of Jonathan, the grandson of Saul. His name literally meant opposer of baal.

He had a great destiny on his life. But on that particular day when the battle was raging and the Philistines were drawing closer and closer, and when they killed the king Saul and they killed his son Jonathan, the assumption was that the Philistines would come to the palace and they would destroy any heir to the throne. And that was a normal assumption. And so the Bible tells us that the attendant to Mirabel scoops this five year old boy up into her arms and she's running. She's fearful that they're going to come and they're going to destroy his life as well.

We don't know all the details. All we know is the Bible says she stumbled as she's carrying Mirabel, the five year old heir to the throne. And when she stumbles and falls, he suffers an injury. This five year old boy suffers an injury and he's paralyzed from then on. Paralyzed, Mirabel is sent off to a distant place, a distant land called Lo Debar to be raised.

And there he sits. It's interesting because the name Lo Debar means barren place. Anybody ever been in a barren place? Anybody ever been in a place that you feel like God has forgotten you? Come on.

Am I talking to somebody today? Have you ever been in a place that you feel like your prayers just bounce off of the ceiling? Because Lo Debar doesn't just mean bareness, it means no communication. And so there's Mirabel. And this five year old boy is being raised in Lo Debar and his name is changed from Mirabel to Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul.

Now one day there's a knock at the door in Lo Debar and David has sent one of his servants to Lo Debar to find Mephibosheth. This is years later. We don't know how many years later, but Mephibosheth has grown up some. Now what Mephibosheth did not realize was that David, who's now the king, who's sitting on a throne that he didn't rightfully deserve, he's enjoying the benefits of being the king when it really was somebody else's position. And David, who's now king, had a very close relationship with the father of Mephibosheth, Jonathan.

In fact, they were best buds, David and Jonathan. Mephibosheth had no idea that they had made a vow with each other. And the vow is found in 1st Samuel, chapter 20, verse 14 through 7, or 1st Samuel, chapter 9, verse 1.

It says. So now, when David was sitting on the throne, he remembers the vow that he had made. And so 2 Samuel, chapter 9, verse 1. One day David asked, is anyone in Saul's family still alive? Anyone to whom I can show kindness to?

Because David and Jonathan had said, whatever happens in life, I'll take care of your family. And they said that to each other. So years later, now David's sitting on the throne and he remembers the vow that he made to Jonathan and he begins to inquire, is anybody In Jonathan's family, in Saul's family. Is anybody still alive? And they say, well, yeah, there's this guy.

His name used to be Mirabel. That was the royal name. But we heard his name has been changed. He's way off in Lo Debar. And so David sends an attendant to go find him.

Psalm 105. 8 says this. He talking about God remembers his covenant forever. The promise that he made for a thousand generations. Are you thankful for that today?

So David sends his attendant. Now imagine the fear that Mephibosheth must have felt in that moment. Think about it.

If there was an heir to the throne and a king who had somehow come into that position, he would wipe out every. Every other threat to his authority. So the assumption on the part of Mephibosheth would be when he finds out there's somebody from the palace who's come, the assumption would be this. They've come to kill me because I represent a threat to his authority. I represent a threat to his position.

So he's come to kill me. Now think about this. Mephibosheth can't run. He can't escape. He cannot get away from the attendant who's come from the palace.

What's he going to do? So he's sitting there, and Mephibosheth thinks that what is the end in his mind? And he doesn't realize it's really the beginning. Because David didn't send somebody to kill him. David sent somebody to bring him back to the palace.

And so here's this invalid, this paralyzed man that David brings back to the palace. And guess what David does? David seats him at his own table. And he says to all of those around him, from now on, Mephibosheth will eat at my table.

He'll eat at my table. Do you know what the name Mephibosheth means? It means destroyer of shame. Destroyer of shame. Listen to me, my friend.

Whatever shame the enemy is trying to heap on you because of your past mistakes, because of your repeated failures, God wants to show himself faithful and true to his promises in your life in a way that will destroy shame. Come on, somebody say amen.

He's faithful to his promises. We don't know when it's going to happen. We don't know how it's going to happen. But what we can guarantee, what we can count on, according to Psalm 105, verse 8, is to a thousand generations, God is faithful. His promises.

And that he's going to restore to you every promise that he's ever made. And he's going to seat you at his table. Listen, if you're feeling useless or that you have too many issues, you don't have enough ability that you're forgotten, that you're too old, that you're too young, what I want to say to you today is let those issues drive you towards Jesus and not away from Him.

Don't let the enemy convince you that because of your past mistakes that God can't use you.