We're looking at the words of Solomon here, and the temple is being dedicated. It's just been built. Solomon has initiated that and seen to it, and he's before the people standing in front of the bronze altar there and praying to the Lord for the future of God's people. So we look in the middle of his prayer at verse 35 of chapter 8. This is God's word, eternal and true. When the heavens are shut up, and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain in the land you gave your people for an inheritance. When famine or flag comes to the land, or blight, or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by any of your people Israel, each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart and spreading out his hands toward this temple, then hear from heaven the dwelling place. Forgive and act, deal with each man according to all he does since you know his heart for you alone know the hearts of all men so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers. Herein's our reading, we have a response of thankfulness to printed force in our volicence, the word of the Lord. Thanks indeed. Let's pray. Hardships and difficulties happen. When I was a younger man, when I was a high schooler and playing soccer in junior high high school, I was pretty much injury free and all of that. I mean, I get picked in the shins and that kind of thing, but that was it, nothing major. But then when I went on after high school to play, three of the four years, I had major injuries and things were going well for me as I arrived as a freshman to play soccer and by the time we were starting our first game, for the first time was was in the starting lineup playing left pullback, which is kind of like playing right field and baseball, but you know, but I'm glad to be on the field and things were going well, the coach liked me and all that. But the third game of the third game of the season, I was brutally chopped down from behind on my Achilles tendon which actually hurt so badly, I didn't realize I also had a first or third degree sprain on my ankle. So both things were going on, but it knocked me out until about five games left in the season, sophomore year, same game, third game of the season, hyper extended me. Junior year, I was all set, went through the whole season, no injuries, fourth year, senior year, injured in the second game, cracked into somebody with my kneecap and it made it uneven on the back side and so then it didn't slide up and down as it should. I played the next game and then it was basically crippled. But all those three out of four seasons, I was out after the third game and then came back with about five games left and I thought, you know, I just before going to college had made this conscious, conscious decision to walk with the Lord so to speak. To walk by my faith, I made a decision to read through the Bible in a year which I did my freshman year of college. I had seen older friends go off the college year older than they go off the college and come back kind of marred by the immorality of the college scene and I said, you know, that summer before going to college for I want to be faithful to you and so now I was in better spiritual shape than I'd ever been in in my life and God injures me, freshman year and then sophomore year and then senior year and in the midst of that too went from a coach who was thrilled about me to a coach who kind of put up with me in some ways and liked me in other ways but but I never got to play the position I wanted to play which was center half back and I'd played that in high school and and such and got to play at one game in my senior year in college. The same game I got injured that senior year and it was a great time playing that position but the question was why what's going on God I am committed to you like I've never been before, committed to walking in your ways with all kinds of immorality happening around me in my dorm room and my fraternity and all that kind of stuff but yet things weren't going my way and there was hardship and I started my freshman year of college my first day classes on crutches and I walked a class on crutches with a backpack on me and back then it was like the nerdiest thing you could do to put your backpack over both shoulders so the backpack over one shoulder here old enough you remember that all right now people wear them over both shoulders in about 15 years ago when our older start seeing that we're like what a nerd now it's like well I would you wear yeah I do have one my backpack shoulders is actually lower and my mom back to back shoulders today but why does God hardship is in the world and you've experienced it and your Christians almost all of you here are born again regenerated by God and you're still experiencing hardships why is that the case when we look at this passage here Solomon foresees that he knows God people have been in hardships during his father's day during David's younger years and he knew that hardships would come their way and so it goes through this this litany of hardships in this prayer and we see in this part of the prayer he talks about when there's no rain that's the first paragraph verse 35 and then the first 37 he kind of hits everything he can think of right plague blight mildew locust grasshoppers an enemy and they just covers it all it says whatever disaster disease they come all right when these things happen and this is he's talking about not a broad culture not the earth he's talking about God's people living in the promised land God chosen people that he cares for and that they will experience their little experiences these various hardships and so Solomon gives his insight and how to handle that what's going on when God allows hardship to come our way things that we would rather not go through so your introduction point there if you like to fill up Langston and that one you're welcome to do that if you want to just listen that's fine too but it's this when hardships happen to you when hardships happen to you what is going on that's what we're talking about this morning that's what this text brings out hardships happen to the people of God and when they do what's going on number we establish this at first which is contained in this passage in many other places in scripture as well everything that's your blank number one everything that happens to you God has brought to pass God is let's put it this way God is that fault for everything that has happened to you and immediately after something happens to you you are able to say this is that was the will of God that's what we declared the scriptures to say when we did our confessing our faith where the decrees of God the decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his own will as he's not affected by anybody else what he himself has decided to do his purpose whereby for his own glory he has four ordained whatsoever comes to pass and yet I'm singing this song in my head okay so whatsoever comes to pass he has ordained for his own glory total control even as we have free will and if you're new to all that you'll you'll get used to it and it'll start to come together in the head just be patient with yourself I got values us as free agents of having free will this is why sin can happen in the garden of evil God doesn't create robots he values free will when someone a non-believer asks you about well what about you if God is good wise all there's evil in the world because the good God has declared what's good is that we have free will that we're not robots non-believer will love that right no one wants to be a robot and we're not God allows us to freely special enough believers obey him and freely whether we're a believer or not a believer this will be the thing for us as Christians is we obey him it brings him glory if we were just robots it wouldn't right it could in some ways right if you control something and it works out and that's that's great but when someone freely chooses to be liked you ever had someone to be liked you to see how you do something close you wear and copy you all right copying is the plagiarism the greatest form of compliment or whatever that saying is and so when we obey we're saying God's ways great and we get him to give him praise but everything that happens to you God has brought to pass and so a couple of things about that a this includes good circumstances Jim Redford James 1 17 James 1 17 says every good and perfect gift comes from the father about perfect gifts to non-believers perfect gifts to believers you will not receive something good that the father has not given to you he is sovereign over all of that that's why it makes sense to walk in his way he controls all things right you're not going to get good things from somebody else you're not going to be getting good things from your disobedience you're not going to be giving good things from Satan though he promises you those things when you walk in his ways he laughs that he doesn't give you what he's promised and he laughs that you in your misery all good things come from the Lord this one makes this one makes sense to serve him for love to be a good citizen this kingdom he's the giver of every good every good and perfect gift comes from him so it includes good circumstances be it also includes difficult circumstances verse 35 see that there when the heavens are shut up that's a bad circumstance no rain no food they couldn't get like I got I just got some food line as blueberries on sale two pints for five bucks for two fifty for pint and then from Peru right our blueberry season is the game it's a lot if you go pick blueberries so I thought I wonder where these are from so I looked at all I will Peru because they're southern hemisphere right and they're really good they're really good blueberries now why isn't it talking about that when the heavens are shut up you know well we don't have blueberries we just import them from the southern hemisphere so it's not a threat when we don't get rain unless you're a farmer then you have hardship but if you're not a farmer that the grocery store they're going to get food even if people won't work we're going to get some kind of food right but back it is real if they they didn't rain they had starvation or they went kind of hungry so big threat when the heavens are shut up when bad circumstance comes just and there is no rain why because the impersonal climate just didn't work out this year no that's not why it's not something outside of God's control that they had received no rain why did they not receive rain because God is sovereign and read on in the verse because your people have sined against you God is sovereign he brings the rain rain is a blessing of the covenant Deuteron 28 Leviticus 26 as God's people walked in his ways he sent abundant rain for them not too much not too little so they had fruitful harvest so that as the prophets speak of they could tie their donkeys to the grapevine right we talked about that before what's that mean it meant you had so many grapes if the donkeys just had their fill if the donkeys were eating your grapes it didn't matter because you had so much right you had all you needed all you needed for your family all you needed for your friends you were selling as much as you needed you had all the money you needed and the donkeys could eat your grapes and you weren't upset oh man I got to sell that because these things were so abundant but God is in control of all things good circumstances and bad circumstances so we see that here the bad circumstances that come on God's people are because God is in charge God is sovereign and when he sees his people there in the promised land the Israelites those who claimed him to be their God not obeying him worshipping other gods he withholds the rain so God is sovereign over difficult circumstances and look at the end of that verse 35 it talks about the people later than turning from their sin why because you have afflicted them Solomon's very comfortable with this and we should be too the God afflicted his own people with bad circumstances God is sovereign this yes this is not the prosperity gospel God is in control of all things and he can afflict us but Hebrews 12 5 to 11 fits with that Jim also read that for us and if this hardships happen there in that passage right hardships are happening but when God sends you hardships again the writer of Hebrews says God's doing this to you and why is God doing this to you because he's your father and what father who loves his child does not discipline his child when his child is out of order what father who loves his child when he sees his child doing things that lead to his own harm and will lead to his harm later in life if he continues in that way what loving father doesn't say something and discipline is child and spank him or put him in time out or whatever people do now so the writer of Hebrews talked about this God brings difficult circumstances upon us so number two number two difficult circumstances God brings for one of two reasons difficult circumstances God brings on us for one of two reasons a first reason when you have not been walking in habitual or callous sin callous C-A-L-L-O-U-S for those of you who are younger or spellingly challenged spelling leads a word that's not when you have not been walking in habitual or callous it that is when you're doing fun when you are like me at Woodenburg University freshman year sophomore year junior year senior year when you're walking with Christ when you're obeying and great contrast everyone around you sometimes God brings hardship on you when you're you're not a cast you're not going after your other God money is not your God your popularity is not your God your job is not your God nothing else is your God but God sometimes God brings circumstances that are difficult around you this is what we call neckline there this is positive discipline this is positive discipline you know what a coach does in athletics if he wants you to win he runs you in practice he forces you to perfect skills that you will need in the game because he loves you that's positive discipline this is training okay so when you take a new job you get trained so that you know what you're doing so that you're not embarrassed in front of the customer or the client or your co-workers this is training instruction that's good and so God brings training force discipline like like running a certain amount or perfecting a certain skill of learning how to do a certain thing with your hands or learning how to do math in a certain way this is positive discipline from God God saying you know what you're doing great and you're strong so you're strong in your faith sometimes seeing some hardship this I'm gonna give you some you know I'm gonna infect you a little bit so you get some immunity to it right you're you're you're measles shop okay sorry today it's just so political but uh yeah you get a measles shot or you or whatever for and it gives you a little bit of the disease and so that you develop antibodies for so you're stronger against it right and that's what God does for us in the Christian life he gives us first you talk about this and tell me school first country at 1013 he doesn't give you more than you can handle but he allows and brings to you trials temptation tests so that you develop and strength and perseverance like if you're lifting weights and you're almost out and the guy that's spotting for you says come on one more um and so you do that he's wanting your best this is training this is instruction this is discipline for you um I used to you know I remember my my basketball basketball coach from elementary schools still live he's on Facebook and I told him I said you know you shot each talking to shoot the basketball with one hand with my elbow under the ball and and and I took that from basketball camp and my file shop started going in I told him that about a year ago and thanks for that I still have that basketball that I got for foul shooting and um but but through through my playing time which just through senior year in high school first thing I do when I go out there is I would I would just leave this with one hand just get that so the ball would be going straight up like that that was just training is instruction it is getting everything in line so ball was going straight up so that when then when I shot the ball was going straight not crooked one way and that was just having to feel the ball in my hand and that's what God does to us through hardship he makes us stronger he trains us so we walk in his ways through difficult circumstances so we can handle more later be second of two reasons that God brings difficult circumstances so the first is for positive for our building up for our maturity second is this be when you have been walking in habitual or callous sing this is verse 35 right they they had been in sin and that's why God brought no rain this is second line there this is corrective discipline sometimes we get that you know we we have a game where we play and the other team is running around us running circles around us in the fourth quarter and so our code says we need some more physical conditioning it's corrective or you guys don't know how to do this in this game we got really confused by this so it's corrective discipline so we learn how we're instructed in how to do something better that we were not doing well and God in Deuteronomy 28 Leviticus 26 talks about all these covenant purses he would send his people when they weren't faithful and these covenant purses things like no rain or locusts or disease or for mildew or foreign enemies they're all listed in these covenant purses they were God taking his people by the shirt and shaking them up and saying wake up if you continue in this it's going to get worse and the reaction to that was to be oh what's going on no rain what are we doing rain no rain is one of the covenant purses they answer exam in ourselves and to get ourselves back back in line back online so that we can walk in his waves and return return to blessing so this is corrective discipline from God it's God shaking us up it's God saying hey man you're killing yourself here quit I mean this is this is right you see the harm that this is brought you see the harm this is brought your spouse or your kids or your mom and dad or your co-workers you're killing yourself stop it this is a caring father Hebrews 12 right the loving father who disciplines this child so he can experience the peaceful fruit of righteousness or great phrase they're peaceful the peaceful fruit of righteousness now see there both kinds of discipline train you in righteousness you can write in there or you yet train you in righteousness that you may become more mature and subject to more subject to more blessing we talked about this a lot of you just walking in God's ways God is free just to bless you he has nothing to discipline you about in a corrective way so both kinds of discipline train you in righteousness and how to be faithful to the covenant how to be faithful to the ways that you should live this way in order to glorify me so whether he's correctively disciplining us or we're doing well and he sends his hardship his discipline we respond to this realizing God's good purpose in this is good purpose is that when hardship comes to us and God is at fault for the hardship that is God making us stronger more mature more like Christ I remember going down the steps from the the gym floor my senior year and seeing our assistant coach Jim Morville didn't even just run us really hard at the end of practice we ran to begin to practice and we practiced and then if we were good we didn't have much running practice but man he ran his hard at the end of the practice and and he said how you doing he's coming up the stairs I was going down the stairs and I said that's the hardest ever run at the end of the practice I said that is good because you know our coaches they cared for so they think one of us to be better we had a good team and they didn't want us to they didn't want us to lose games unnecessarily so God's purpose is for us is that we have blessing that we know how to live that we understand life that we have perseverance and strength as we live our lives instead of being torn apart and distrust as hardship comes to us God disciplines us for us are good listen to this from Hebrews 1210 our fathers discipline our human fathers discipline does for a little while as they thought best but God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful later on however it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it so when hardship comes God's training us is training us so that we have this harvest of peace and righteousness we look to James 1 verses 2 through 4 this morning in in Sunday school James right consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials because you know that the testing of your faith in these trials develops perseverance and perseverance finishes its work that you're mature and complete lacking in nothing so God brings hardship so we'll be mature and complete and lacking in nothing this is God our Father saying okay we can handle this now okay go out there and do a little bit more than you did last time you can do that now and so as this discipline comes to us whether it's because we've been out of accord with God's word or whether because it's been we've been doing God's word and doing well spiritually next thing in your brackets there if you're wise and learn the lesson that comes from hardship there's a wrong way to respond to hardship your hardship comes was following God will screw him right a lot of people say that I'm out of here that's what Jesus was talking about with the rocky soil people come into the church they receive the news with glad the gospel with gladness and then trouble and persecution comes and they say I'm out of here and they had out of the church and they never produced fruit there's never this harvest of righteousness and and peace in their lives Proverbs talks about listening and heating God's word instead of returning to our vomit the wise man here's a Proverbs 1632 he who ignores discipline despises himself
he ignores discipline despises himself but whoever heaths correction whoever heaths correction gains understanding when correction when discipline comes to you gain understanding by heating it say what's going on have I walked into sin or is this God just God's testing me and if you've been doing well and God's just testing me say okay man I'm going forward I'm being strong I'm being faithful I'm glorifying God though hardship will come to me because of it but if you've been walking and saying you heed the correction and say this is my loving father rescuing me for much worse happening to me and we respond correctly to it we heed the correction and we gain understanding Solomon also puts it this way for those who don't heed correction who hate themselves by not responding correctly to discipline he says as a dog returns to his vomit so a fool repeats his folly so if we're walking in sin and God corrects us or disciplines us and we don't learn the lesson we just repeat our final we just go into the negative circumstances again and maybe next time they'll be worse because maybe people forgive us the first time for doing it but then we do it again they say well maybe that's part of this guy's character maybe he's a on the list for you know not being my friend anymore or whatever three three so how can you respond how can you respond to especially corrected discipline that you might be relieved of it and living what living blessing instead so how can you respond to corrected discipline a several things here that Solomon mentions a you must be humbled you must be humbled first thirty five first of all there's a humility and acknowledging that God is sovereign God we're not getting rain and that's because you're the center of rain we are not no matter how hard I work that field I can't send the rain God you are God I am not that's humility so we acknowledge God as sovereign we're humble in that way verse 38 look down to verse 38 there it says when a prayer or please made by any of your people Israel and then see the humility here each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart when they turn around and say I know God why we're not getting rain it's because of me it's because of my sin it's because my heart is if Jeremiah says it's black a heart of man is beyond top of the engine who can understand it we're good or as James puts him in James want we're constantly deceived and deceiving ourselves listening to our sin natures and so we have to have this humility acknowledging the afflictions or sinfulness of our own hearts that have brought about the difficult circumstances or even if it's not corrective discipline realizing you know I'm weak and I've got this sin nature and God yeah in my humility they say God you're bringing about these sovereign circumstances because I need to grow in mind the surety I need to be more like Christ than I am now then number one there you must realize that God sees all your sins in your heart God sees all so it's a thing of humility God sees all who am I like Isaiah and Isaiah six right a man of unclean lips who lives among the people of unclean lips how can I bring your message to the people and I'm I'm I'm ungun I've seen the Lord in his holiness but you must must realize that God sees all he sees your sins in your heart look at verse 39 Solomon prays deal with each man according to all he does since you know his heart for you alone know the hearts of all men that should make us very humble and a little bit scared right he's he even in good actions other people say oh that's so nice of you and we know all the motivations that went into it and we're like you can see my heart you'd say that's seventy percent nice God sees that it was seventy percent nice and thirty percent pretty selfish are not so nice
second thing about humility you must examine and admit to yourself that your heart does and admit to yourself that don't excuse it don't excuse your sin don't say oh that wasn't that bad or I was just trying to do this say you know what I've got you know it's like our pastor in Indiana said you know if I get a ticket from the state highway patrol man when I'm not speeding it's like what I've fed before so you know we just we look and we admit we admit to ourselves that our heart does and Solomon says at verse 38 when a prayer please made by any of your people Israel let each each one aware aware the afflictions of his own heart okay so we need to come to the Lord saying now I've got this super heart it's always faithful to you that's why we don't like a lot of the kind of worship songs and worship courses we hope sing a lot of this in our church here because they're all about how we how much we love Jesus and how we come to worship him and he's our all and that kind of thing and we sing that we're like that's a lot he's not my all every time I sin I advertise he's not my all you know and if there's an appropriateness that he should be our all we should have come to worship him but part we've come to worship him for other reasons all I care about is about you know you know I care about cherry pie too and I'm kind of wishing that that other person doesn't take the last piece and so we just we admit we're aware of our own hearts we don't blame others well I would have done it right up a word for him but that's his fault they'll always look to yourself always look to yourself and own your own part of the bad circumstances going going around you take the blame and then be the other part of humility now you must turn to God turn to God in your heart and in prayer so saying you know what if this discipline is coming upon me here's the most important thing I need to turn to God whether it's just I'm doing well and God's making me stronger or I've been in callous sin both sides I need to turn to God for strength to go through this test this trial to give me perseverance in it so that I become so that I become more mature so we turn to God in our heart if a God I need you and I need you more in my life and when I turn to him in prayer what I'm doing is I'm believing here here's your point here I'm believing in his mercy and kindness through Jesus when we turn to him what we're saying is I think God is kind and merciful and forgiving and this is really about Jesus notice what Solomon said here about prayer he says when people turn to you and pray toward this place what was this place it was the temple people turned toward the temple because that's where God's well and they believed that the temple was whether that the merciful God was the merciful God who in the temple told them I will put your sins on an animal and punish the animal for your sins so I can forgive you the temple was a place of mercy the temple was a place of God's kindness the temple was a place what God could work out people could remind themselves or be reminded of God's favor to them and forgiving their sin and so people turned toward and prayed towards the temples with Daniel's doing an exile in Babylon when everyone's commanded not to pray to anybody but there is and Daniel still turns toward the temple but faces back towards Jerusalem and he prays because he realizes God it's the merciful God he's the kind one and so how do we understand this is New Testament believers we don't turn toward Jerusalem or like a Muslim suit today turn toward Mecca and get our prayer rug and and pray how many times a day it is but how we turn to the temple we pray and Jesus made them Jesus John 2.21 is this destroy this temple and I'll build it up in three days and John said we didn't understand what he was talking about the time but after he was resurrected we understood he was talking about that temple of his body Jesus is the temple he's the presence of God among his people which is what the temple was he is the sacrifice he is the priest which happened in the temple he's the fulfillment of all the temple was God's presence among his people and his mercy and his kindness and his goodness and his favor to his people too and so when we are in these circumstances of hardship we turn to Jesus in prayer our temple we turn toward him and plead with him for his mercy and kindness in our circumstances of hardship it's a number four number four we respond to we respond to God we are a humble and we turn to him in prayer looking for his mercy and kindness through Jesus and then number four God's response God's response God's response when you turn from your sins and toward him now a first of all some is not a believer maybe they've been in the church maybe they haven't but there are hardships that come around them and they turn to God believing he's merciful and kind and the true sovereign he forgives them eternally so if you're out of a believer and you see life is tough and I think I'm created for something better than this and something tells me there's a God who cares for his creation and so when someone turns to God like that in initial what we call saving faith he forgives them and so that's what we see there in verse 39 and 36 as well God hears from heaven and forgives their sin but be for those of us who already have believed in Jesus and turned to him for eternal life he brings us out he brings us out of our discipline and blesses us and this is true for us whether we're a believer in discipline or non-believer in heart circumstances who just came to faith in other words verse 36 he sends rain we turn to him for his mercy and he sends rain he hasn't write us doesn't write us off
so number five when we turn to God when we're humbled before him in our times of hardship when God is number five when God blesses you when God blesses you after discipline there's something that's supposed to go on in your soul God works something in our souls unless we're just resisting and rebelling against him but he works something in our souls when he blesses you after discipline and the first thing that he worked when he brings rain it's interesting that Salmints is when he brings rain again or relieves us of locusts or grasshoppers or whatever he brings to our souls a fear of him fear of him that is let's blank all of him out of a new found understanding that he is mighty sovereign I was walking in disobedience and a quit raining then I turned to him for his mercy and he sent rain he sovereign he controls the cloud he controls the decline it he sucks up water from ponds and rivers and in oceans and gets the salt out of it and keeps it up there somehow in the clouds and then gathers it and he sends it down on us and it soaks into the soil and lo and behold the plants need it and the plants grow from it and the plants grow food I can actually eat and I'm sustained take that evolution she was right and we grow in a fear of him because we realize he's in control and he's all powerful and it doesn't require me walking in his ways for four straight years look what Salmints said it requires of us turning to him in prayer facing the temple saying merciful and kind and good God who's promised to be faithful to us send rain again and he does in response to the prayer not after four years of being good boys and good girls in response to the prayer on a dime he makes things change and he sends the rain
and this gives us fear of him we're saying whoa like when our Chloe is the small bell first sees Clark ten she's the reveal that she knows his secret and so now that he knows she's confronted him that she knows who he is and and there's an emergency back in smallville and he just out of the room he's seen the show you know it's just you know it's a blur and he goes and she goes
or in my life and in the third grade I had a friend Robbie Flynn and he wasn't sure there was really electricity I guess in the light switch and so he was out we were working on our Christmas projects with yarn and those what do you call those grids classic canvas and so we're putting yarn in and out of that making our candy cane inside of green and red and white yarn and that kind of thing so we had these big yarn needles like with this big and I was inside the classroom but there were some who were outside the classroom working on their working on their candy cane or whatever they were making you know those wonderful gifts to give your mom for Christmas and all of a sudden there was this the fourth through sixth graders were just off the bus is coming in and a bunch of them saw there's this poop out there's this big noise and Robbie Flynn comes in and he's holding his hand and his hand looks black and our teacher Mrs. Smith takes his hand and she runs it under the cold water and Robbie Flynn had literally you know gauze wrap around his hand for the next like two weeks because he stuck that that needle in the light switch get a flick switch and he he believed that electricity existed in that light switch but we had different circumstances one of the things that God does in our hardships and when God released the hardships after we prayed to him for relief we say this was God working this was God doing this this wasn't a I didn't engineer rain coming right I didn't engineer these things and you all have things that you prayed for that you didn't work for that you didn't maneuver that you didn't manipulate to happen and they just happened maybe someone's attitude changed on a dime this is why James says in James 413 now listen you who say today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city spend a year there carry on business and make money as if you're sovereign you rich people and an anti-ocke walking with Jesus wealthy in your businesses don't say I'll go anywhere I want and create a prosperous business why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow what is your life you're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes instead you ought to say if it is the Lord's will we will live and do this or do that and so we grow in fear of God God controls all things he brings good and he brings bad he brings blessing circumstances and he brings hardship none number one number one fear of God is a good thing in scripture hey we should know that as Christians fear of God it's a good thing in scripture and something scripture says this would be present in all believers here of God is something to be present in all believers now I've got some Andrew can you take that take that we'll cover it off of that too many verses to mention here but they're all listed for you but can you see that can you see that okay okay so of unbelievers here's what said Paul in Romans 3 18 there is no fear of God before their eyes unbelievers don't fear God that's why they walk and sin they're not fearing God they're not thinking of final judgment they're not considering boy if I do this I have no reason to believe that good things will happen to me so I'll do this sinful thing or I'll treat this person bad in a bad way because they don't fear God they don't they don't think there's a just world and this is going to come back at me so unbelievers don't fear God now believers listen all these things these are not all the verses I just chose some Psalm 25 14 the Lord can fight in those who fear him who does God speak to quietly privately in in in in trust and give his secrets to like Jesus said to you it's been revealed the secrets of the kingdom to you my disciples the Lord can fight confides in those who fear him he makes his covenant known to them those who fear Psalm 33 18 but the eyes of the Lord are on those protecting those who fear him on whose hope is in his unfailing on those whose hope is in so people who trust in God's unfailing love they fear him and God's eyes are upon like the eyes of a ranger right into Walker Texas ranger fans out there okay next Psalm 347 the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear him he's protecting developing them he can't surround them a protective shield around him and he delivers them those who fear him Psalm 39 34 9 fear the Lord you think it command you have saved you believe you who are set apart fear the Lord for those who fear him black nothing God is not your buddy he's God he made the universe Psalm 34 11 come my children listen to me I will teach you the fear of the Lord why because you're a little too glass you're Lucy Lucy with God you need to be tossed the fear of the Lord you're playing with fire when you go against him God is awesome right sometimes in our our call to worship and say worship the Lord and reverence and fear for our God is an awesome God and God of fire who shakes him out but for those of us who don't believe the old blessedness you all be that's what our old test one of our old testers professors would say so say now I know you don't believe the Old Testament so I'll show you that this is true from the New Testament Luke 150 his mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation that didn't change from the New Testament started his mercy extends to those who fear him Luke 12 five if you don't didn't believe Zechariah there the father of John the Baptist didn't believe Jesus himself he says but I will show you who you should fear fear him who after killing the body it's the power to throw you into hell yes I tell you fear him Jesus says fear me fear my father don't fear him ask 1035 this is here talking about the gospel going to the Gentiles he says God accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right and then at the end the Jesus comes back again the second coming a voice comes through the throne saying praise our God all you his servants who are his servants those who fear him both small and great so this is a positive thing a positive thing in scripture okay you can cover that back up the thing a positive thing in scripture that we don't hear in evangelicalism because we're told God's our body he walks with me talks with me as I walk in the garden or whatever it is all right now number two what Christians are not to fear is final judgments nor death now because we know God because we believed in him we don't have to fear final judgment we don't have to fear we don't have to fear death John writes in first John 14 there is no fear in love and he's not talking about fear of God he's talking about fear of being punished for your sins if you love God and you know God's love there's no fear all fear has been cast out fear of judgment but we recognize the one who will be judging those who haven't received eternal one the one who will be judging those who haven't believed in Jesus that's the God we serve and he's not to be messed with he's not to be messed with perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment this is John's talking what kind of fear am I talking about John says fear has to do with punishment so if you've been perfected in the love of God if you understand God's love you don't have fear of punishment you should not have fear of punishment if you know Jesus you should not have fear of punishment the one who fears this punishment is not made perfect in love so God is he tender into caring does he love us does Jesus call us friends in John 1515 because he reveals to us his will that's what he said I reveal my will to my friends and you're my friends I've revealed to you my will yes he is but he's our awesome God too this morning in Sunday school we looked at like a pistol of James and it's hard to talk about the pistol truth both written by Jesus half brothers and they both refer to themselves as they introduce themselves in these letters not as the brother of Jesus but as his servants and they introduce Jesus as their lord they don't say always just my older brother you should have seen him when he was 12 they say no this is the Christ this is the Lord this is the God this is the one this is God from the Father to the earth who came to earth to be with us and I was with them and I didn't know who he was but I want better he's Lord so there's this this recognizing of Jesus the one who's tender and compassionate to his the Father who loves us as his children who's compassionate to us yet he's Lord God Almighty who spins the stars into space and places them there in perfect balance so be then when God blesses you you fear of him all of him you also have a teachability be teachability and a desire to be taught God's ways desire to be taught God's ways from the Bible we see this in verse 36 the prayers made the pleas made to God for mercy and kindness and reign again and then the ongoing result of this is someone says and teach them verse 36 teach them verse 35 having learned that discipline and hardship came because your people have sinned against him and so we saw in a preparation for the hearing of God's words this morning you can look at that in your bulletin there are Psalm 25 verses 4 and 5 what are those who have experienced God's blessing do they say like David says here show me your ways of Lord teach me your paths guide me in your truth and teach me for your God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long as I live my life so teach me teach me third thing see when we experience God's blessing we brings us out of discipline it brings us to a commitment to live in God's ways again verses 36 in verse 35 verse 36 teach them the right way to live or verse 35 talks about when we turn to you and confess your name in other words when we say God you're our God not bail not molek not some God of the nations not money not my job not my parents approval not my co-workers liking me none of those things being my God but God you are my God I confess your name you're the one I'm going to follow teach me your ways that I might walk in bed and so that's what comes about when God brings us relief from hardship we say wow God I'm gonna follow you I'm gonna listen to your word I'm gonna seek out your word I'm gonna read your word and follow it so I know so I know how to live my life and note this the second thing and see there notice note that your faithfulness is not to earn God's blessing it's a response to it that's the order of things here in this passage verse 36 and verse 40 our faithfulness is after God has hurt our prayer has been merciful to us and has blessed us again then after all that we walk in his ways it's not the other way around he graciously blesses us I simply turn into him and then after he blesses us we walk in his ways all right so conclusion um we're to learn things from our hardships when I was uh in between my junior senior year in college I spent the summer notion city New Jersey and uh ocean senior jerseys on an island and cross over a bridge into summer's point New Jersey and in summer's point New Jersey you crossed over on this bridge onto the mainland mainland United States into summer's point um you go around around about which was you know that you've been there sharling hey you go on this roundabout which was hard back then it's tremendously busy I was there in a Friday night I forget we had gone to some restaurant or something and uh I had a car full of people three in the back and and one in the right seat in my 1983 or 79 Mercury Geffer four-tone oh it was up to you look that up it was brown and rust and burnt gold stripes really sporty it was sport in its cheapest of cheap state of things um but uh we were coming back and and there was this there was this hill it coming off the round coming off the roundabout it went up the hill and then there was this street that came off that I was turning off this street and to my right was a hill a little hump in the road and to the left was this roundabout and it was really busy car full of people and finally I had a break and I went for it but I didn't realize this there was a ninja Kawasaki ninja motorcycle hiding behind this this car that was turning right into the street I was at the stop sign at right so I'm here this car is coming it's all uphill like this this car turns right like this and I say okay this car is turning right no one's on the right boom I'm going or I'm going to be here for a half hour I got 10 cars behind so I went out like this and this ninja motorcycle this is a low profile racing bikes which I couldn't see you knew like that into the back of my car and I get out of my car and he's not moving and I thought he was dead um by way I speak good value wasn't that but I thought he was dead I literally went over got down on my knees in his front and he was just knocked out or I'm Jesus but um he was just unconscious and uh but he came he came to but then you know I this happens to me I'm all shaking up I've got this car people that kind of thing and then I got to go back to soccer practice in Ohio I got a fly from soccer practice so my coach I got this court date you know in a higher lawyer all that kind of thing and go back and testify in court and all that the judge was pretty merciful but you know what I've done since that point on except for maybe once I'm extra careful when I'm in situations like that and I don't pull out when someone's turning right in a busy situation when someone's turning right where I'm going to stop sign I don't turn in like that because someone could be behind them you know when I disobeyed that about five years ago I was having lunch with Nate that afternoon and I was pulling out of Riverwood parking lot and I went out and guess what got me wrecked but I caused but you know when when hardship comes it should cause us to change our lives to see you know what there are things I shouldn't do and I should be more alert to do what's good and right what I'm supposed to do and you know you're not supposed to pull out when someone has your parents are gone because they could change their minds well Monica had that happen to it some guy changes my and she went out and said all I'm going straight went right into her total cut but we should pay attention to the things going on when hardship and trouble comes into our lives as Christians because the question is for us from this text will we learn from the discipline he brings upon us for our good well I learned from the fact that it's a 21-year-old who knew out of you do nothing I had to go find some of the fix the car a body shop I've never done that before I had to go back and miss soccer practice in the pure court and I'm nervous before authorities like all get out I'm shaping my voice of quivering and court and that kind of thing and will I learn from that or not and that's the question for those who were in exile receiving first Kings what we learned from our past mistakes and just simply be faithful to God or will we not and here's the lesson God shows us here in this text a in your conclusion unfaithfulness to God leads to trouble in life unfaithfulness to God leads to trouble in life which in that trouble note is God's discipline upon you to make you more mature through the hardship it's God's discipline to make you more mature through the hardship and here's the exhortation who the exhortation of your name a command when God brings you blessing anytime or after you've been in sin you turn to him and he brings you blessing you should respond with greater fear of him looking to be taught in his ways respond with greater fear of him looking to be taught in his ways that you might walk in them and live in blessing which you might walk in those ways and live in blessing let's pray