Get prayed out then get moving. Let's talk about it on this edition of key life. That's Steve Brown. He's no guru but he loves Jesus Christ. He loves the Bible and he loves to teach you. A program is key life and here is Steve with a teaching for you there. Steve?
Thanks Mike. If you have your Bible, keep it there close because I'm going to be referring to various and assembly scriptures as we go along and talk about the problem of pain and suffering. This week we're dealing with the problem of bitterness. How easy it is when things aren't going well and you don't get your way and it hurts really bad to keep from being angry and in the use of people who seem to have everything. Who seem to always have blue skies who seem to have everything go their way. We recently babysat for our granddaughters and they are wonderful, a lot better than yours. But it was an interesting three or four days. I'm ready to do it again on another 10 or 20 years and gave me new respect for my daughter and my son-in-law. But we have three beautiful granddaughters but when they don't get their way, they get angry. And I remember telling one of the granddaughters, I understand I feel exactly the same way when I don't get my way but I'm the boss and you're not going to get your way. And that didn't help a lot but he got better. But I looked at our granddaughters because they're very human. They're wonderful but they're human and I thought I'd just that way. And a lot of people are that way. How do you deal with the bitterness when it doesn't work? Now yesterday if you were listening and some of you weren't and I know your name, we gave you the statement that people say often. Life is the only school where you take the test and then you learn the lesson. And I suggested that while that sounds good, it's not always true. The God gives you three particular lessons or ways you can prepare for the exam before it comes. And yesterday I mentioned and I'm going to talk a little bit more about it today, the prayer before the panic. We looked at Daniel when all of King Darius and his court decided to get Daniel. They wanted him and everybody else in the kingdom not to pray to anybody but the king for 30 days. They knew Daniel wouldn't make it and then we looked at Daniel's 16. Now with Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home and in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem. He knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before God and here it comes sports fans as was his custom since early days. Well, you know the rest of the story. Daniel ended up in the lion's den but the lions weren't hungry. The story of Daniel is not given to us to illustrate how God delivers his people from lions. The story shows how a man or a woman of God should face lions because Daniel had prayed regularly long before he faced the lions. Daniel didn't become bitter. Daniel's ministry spanned the entire horrible 70 year period of the Babylonian captivity of God's people. You would expect Daniel to have been bitter. I mean, he had every reason to be bitter and yet in the midst of the slavery of the destruction, you find Daniel an incredible hope and power. When you see Daniel's demeanor before he faced the lions, you know why. Farmer said to his son they were working in the field. They looked up and saw a tornado coming in their direction. Farmer threw down his hole and started running toward the farmhouse. He looked back over his shoulder and he saw his son and followed on his knees and was praying and he said, son, don't pray, run a scared prayer ain't worth a dime. Well, a scared prayer is worth more than that but a prayer prayed in the quiet before the storm is worth a lot more. Now is the time to draw near to God so when the rope breaks, when the pain comes and the clouds come, you will have a solid relationship which will prevent the horror of bitterness. Too many Christians pray only in storms. I suppose it's better to pray in the storms than not to pray at all. But God's call is for a daily walk with Him which prepares you for the test when it comes. Now the second lesson, a Christian not to learn before the rope breaks and bitterness follows, is the lesson of knowledge before the kickoff. The writer of Proverbs said this, this is Proverbs 1815, the heart of the prudent acquires knowledge and the year of the wise seeks knowledge. The Christian life is a lot like being in school, took me a long time to understand how to study in college but when I did learn I began to make good grades. I found that cramming for an exam didn't work. If I didn't know it by the night before the exam I probably wasn't going to learn it so I learned to study regularly throughout the course and the night before the exam I reviewed what I already knew. One of our great problems is believers that some of us think nothing bad will happen to us when we begin to follow Christ. Some feel that God is in the business of preventing tragedy and we're devastated when the rope breaks. People like that become bitter. You see they haven't prepared themselves by learning sound doctrine and studying the Bible seriously. Disney World Christianity may work in a world where everything is clean and fun and right, but it simply won't work in a world where there's disease and death and heartbreak. You've got to have a tough faith for a tough world. That's why I grow so irritated sometimes with people who say that Christians, if they have enough faith we'll never suffer. We'll never have pain, we'll never have loss. We'll always be healthy, we'll always have everything they want no matter what. Guys, I know people I love who teach that. Who believe it with all of their hearts but with all of the love that I can muster, their twists, they're wrong. That's from the pit of hell and it smells like smoke. Jesus said in this world you're going to have tribulations. Now, take that to heart. That's the way the world is, the Apostle Peter Sina. It's been a considerable amount of time warning believers of the trials they must face and I'm going to be teaching this at the Cove, not too distant future. We're going to be looking at first Peter at the Cove and we'll give you some information about that in our magazine. But I'm going to be teaching the Billy Graham Training Center first Peter as he talks about these kinds of problems but if you have your Bible, turn to first Peter 4-12. He said, this is first Peter 1-13 and then I'm going to drop over to first Peter 4-12 but listen, therefore, gird up the lines of your mind. Be sober and rest your hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Beloved he wrote, don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though something really weird or happening to you. One of the things I've noticed and I've been a pastor for a bunch of years is that most people die in the same way they live. We hear a lot about deathbed conversions but to be honest with you, those conversions are few and far between. You would think that one would get it right with God as one would cram for finals. However most people who would have nothing to do with God during their lives will have nothing to do with Him in their last moments. People are always coming to me and saying, I'm going to show you the real world. Listen, as a pastor, I saw more of the real world in a day than most people saw in a lifetime and I've stood before more deathbeds than I even remember anymore. If a person blasphems during his or her life, he or she will probably blaspheme just before death. Those who have had a mild concern for God during their lives have a mild concern for God who's there dying. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, I cared nothing for God during my life and I will not be a hypocrite male. And I want to say, be hypocrite! Listen, He'll still love you if you go to Him. But it isn't just in matters of death where one's colors remain the same. Let me give you a principle. Most people react to breaking ropes to suffering and pain in the same way they react to the good things in their lives. In other words, if you're faithful loving and obedient when things are going right in your life, you'll probably be faithful loving and obedient when things are going wrong. Bob Greasey, the former quarterback of the Miami Dolphins, was not known for his great physical prowess. Bob's mind made him great. When the defense was on the field, Bob was sitting on the bench that he is playbook. He didn't learn the game of football after the kickoff he knew in his head before he played the game on the field. Similarly, you can allow the Bible to teach you about breaking ropes before your breaks. Then, when you get into trouble, you'll be able to live out what you've learned. Bitterness results from expecting the rope to hold. If you expected the hold and it breaks, you're apt to be surprised and also bitter. So, read the Bible even if you're not scared. Acquire knowledge. Even if you don't feel like you need it right now. Listen to your pastor teach even when you are bored because those are the things that will make a difference in your life. Now, I'm going to give you a third lesson you can learn and then we'll talk a lot more about it tomorrow. But the first lesson is prayer before the panic. The second lesson is knowledge before the kickoff. And the final lesson, thanks before the tragedy. Ephesians 5, 18-20. And do not be drunk with wine. In which is dissipation but be filled with a spirit speaking to one another in Psalms and inns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Here comes giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the principal, teach it tomorrow, thanks before the tragedy. You think about that, I'm in. Hey, if you're not a part of our key life tape family, let me tell you how it works. Once you give us a call at 1-800-Keylife or your right key life post office box 5,000 Madeleine Florida, 3-2794-Keylife-Canada, post office box 3-2150, Cambridge, Ontario, in 3-H5-M3. Or you can email us, Steve at keylife.org and ask to be a part of our key life tape family. Then we do it for you and you start getting tapes every few weeks, seven or eight weeks, and they come automatically as long as you want them. And they're absolutely free. Now these are not the tapes of the broadcast. You can subscribe to those and if you'll ask us how we'll tell you how. These are tapes of places where I teach the Bible. It reformed theological seminarian, the chapel, at the Cove, at the Lake Markley Fellowship, etc. And when I say you're free, I really mean that. But man, if you could help us financially, you help a whole lot of other people who receive the hundreds of thousands of tapes and prejudices of literature who stand up. He is generous as you can, seeing the little or seeing the lot if you can afford it. And for any contribution of any size, when you request it, I'll send you the cassette teaching from Matthew 14 singing in the storm. You can charge your contribution on your Mastercard Visa Discover Guard. Hey listen, I've got to go except for one other thing, key life is a listener supported production key life network.