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[00:00:24] Well, good morning, everybody. You know, when Jesus gave the the Lord's Prayer, or we call it even the model prayer, where he was teaching his disciples and then ultimately he was teaching us how to approach God, how to do so in prayer, he did so mindful of the fact that soon he would be leaving. He was going to be going to the cross. And from the cross he would have that wonderful resurrection. And after the resurrection, and he would then go back into heaven, the Ascension, you see that in Acts, chapter one. And he knew that once he was gone, once his physical presence left the presence of those disciples, they were going to encounter a pressure, they were going to encounter a persecution. They were going to encounter problems like they had never faced before.
[00:01:12] And what was going to be very different for, for them this time around is that they would not have his physical presence with them.
[00:01:21] He would be with them in spirit, but he would not be with him physically.
[00:01:26] And he knew that was going to be an adjustment that they were going to have to make. It reminds me of that little boy on a stormy night, was calling out for his mom. He was so afraid. He said, mom, can you come in here? I'm afraid she's assuring him, son, you're fine. You're gonna be okay, Mom. But I'm afraid she said, son, Jesus is with you all the time. You don't have to worry. He's with you right now. He never leaves you. Son, Jesus is with you.
[00:01:49] He said, I know that, Mom. I just need somebody with some skin on them, you know?
[00:01:54] Well, the apostles knew they. They were going to. Jesus knew rather the apostles were going to need somebody with some skin on them, that though he would be there in spirit, he would not be there physically. So with that in mind, Jesus was writing this beautiful prayer and giving them the example of how to pray.
[00:02:13] And for those of us in this room, and certainly for those of us that lived on this earth past the ascension, we didn't have the privilege of seeing Jesus in the flesh. We've only seen him through the eye of faith. We've only felt him through the power of His Holy Spirit. So in Many ways we can appreciate what the apostles were adjusting to as they were facing problems and they were facing persecution, and they were facing the difficulty of life without the physical presence of Jesus being with them. Even though they could access him at any time through prayer, even though he was available to them at all moments through the presence of His Holy Spirit, they were adjusting to this new dynamic of how God would work in and through them.
[00:02:58] In fact, if you'll read John 17, it's a beautiful prayer. And in John 17, Jesus is praying for his apostles. And then when you get down to about verse 20, he says, and not only do I pray for them, but I pray for all of those following them. Who. Who will believe in me? Well, that includes us.
[00:03:14] So in John 17, you and I are included in what is called the high priestly prayer of Jesus. He's praying for us as well because he knew everyone who would believe on him. Everyone who would know him as Savior will face problems, they will face persecutions, and they will face difficult times in life.
[00:03:33] In fact, when you read the Bible and when you understand what Jesus even said, he. He said that he didn't come into this world necessarily to keep us out of trouble. He kind of came into the world to get into trouble with us.
[00:03:46] In fact, the Bible says all that will live godly. In other words, those who will pursue God will suffer persecution. We're going to go through difficulty in life. We're going to go through storms in life. We're going to go through what I'll call this morning some of the dark seasons of life.
[00:04:02] And I just wanted. In the middle of our series on the Lord's Prayer, I wanted to take a weekend and talk a little bit about how to navigate through those dark seasons of life.
[00:04:11] There's not one of us that have not been touched and have not been moved by the flash flooding down in the hill country.
[00:04:18] Many of you, like me, have been there and actually have seen the flash floods and how quick they can occur.
[00:04:24] We hunted down in that part of the world for a lot of years south of Sonora and south of Ozona, and we've been down in that area a lot for 20, 30 years of my life. And I've been there when flash floods came in these dry riverbeds and how with just. Just in a matter of minutes, those riverbeds would become rushing streams that could sweep your vehicle away. So we've all understood and we've been very well aware of how these flash floods can occur and how quickly they happen.
[00:04:52] And yet we are I think so moved and touched by the loss of life from this last flash flood.
[00:04:59] Particularly, I think we would all agree that we were touched by the loss of life from. For so many children.
[00:05:05] I think that's been the thing that's been so hard for most people to navigate through, especially when we understand that God is sovereign and in the sovereignty of God, we know that means God is in control of everything.
[00:05:17] I don't believe God causes everything to happen that happens, but I do believe God permits the things that happen to happen.
[00:05:27] And I'll say right at the beginning of my talk to you this morning that in the dark seasons of my own life and my own personal experiences with people like my wife who had a terminal illness and died from a granddaughter who was born and lived with us for less than a year before she died, I can tell you I understand what it's like to navigate some dark seasons. And I can understand what it's like to go through things that don't seem fair, that aren't fair, that make no sense, and things that even to this day I cannot fully understand.
[00:05:58] And I can tell you this morning, as I go into our talk today, that I can't answer the question of why.
[00:06:05] I don't know why. Why would God allow this? And why could not God save them? And why did God permit the things that happened to the people in the way that they happened? I don't know that answer.
[00:06:16] And I have to tell you this morning that if you demand those answers, you may never be fully satisfied. And that demand of answers and explanations will take you down a rabbit hole.
[00:06:28] That would just bring about just trouble in your spirit. And it'll bring about, if you're not careful, some bitterness because you are going after something that this side of heaven you will never discover.
[00:06:39] I honestly believe there are some mysteries the Bible even speaks of the mysterious things belong to God. There are some mysteries that we will never fully understand this side of heaven. I think there are some things only when you are, you and I are in the presence of God that we'll understand why the children die and why God allows some of the things to happen that happen. And only in heaven will we fully understand. But here's what I would tell you again as I go into our talk.
[00:07:07] We really, as Christ followers, we don't live by explanations. We live by promises.
[00:07:13] We live by promises where God says that I will never leave you and I'll never forsake you.
[00:07:20] We live by the promises that the apostles had in watching Jesus work the promise that he gave them is I do all things well.
[00:07:28] God is too good to do wrong. He's too wise to make a mistake. And so we rely on the character of God. We rely on what we know about him.
[00:07:37] And we move from the explanation mode into the trust mode, into the promise mode. And we say, God, it makes no sense. And we don't understand and we don't even agree, but we choose to trust you.
[00:07:50] Now, I get that stuff. I understand that that's a tough place to be.
[00:07:55] And I can tell you when you're walking through it with the loss of your loved one, that's really hard to get your head around that initially.
[00:08:04] And I'll give you enough graces I try to give myself to, to be able to understand that the very same things in life that we go through that draw some people to Jesus, drive other people away from him, the same experiences of life, some people turn to God, turn. Some people turn away from God. And can I tell you if I can comprehend that? Don't you know the God of Heaven can comprehend that?
[00:08:30] That he understands that we're frail and he understands that we don't have all the facts. And he understands we're only dealing with what we're dealing with. You know, the word understanding means the truth I stand under and I my truth and my understanding of facts is evolving all the time. I'm learning more.
[00:08:49] I mean, I hope I'm growing and I hope I'm learning more and more how to trust God and I hope I'm growing.
[00:08:56] One guy said, I feel like I'm just getting ignoranter and ignoranter all the time.
[00:09:01] Well, you hope you're growing a little bit and hoping in your understanding, your faith becomes stretched. And as I've said before, none of us know how strong we are till we're tested.
[00:09:11] That's why a teacher will give a test to make sure the students are comprehending what's being taught. That's why a trainer will give you a test to understand what you're capable of and where you are on your fitness journey. So we understand that God will allow these tests into our life to evaluate where we are in our faith, not for his knowledge or understanding, because he's sovereign, but for ours.
[00:09:33] And it's interesting in the Bible that storms are often used as metaphors.
[00:09:38] They're often used as a metaphor to help us understand the difficulty of life. That's why we'll even use in our conversation, well, I'm just going through a storm right now. And when you say that we all get that if you say, bill, I'm going through a storm on my job, I'm going through a storm in my family. Everybody connects with the metaphor because we've all been there, we all understand the idea of storms.
[00:10:01] I read a report from the National Weather Service and it said the number one weather related killer in the United States is flash floods.
[00:10:09] In fact, the deadliest flash flood in US history was May 31, 1889 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania where, where levees broke and a wall of water hit the town and 2200 people died.
[00:10:22] So flash floods come suddenly. These storms create, create despair, they create panic and they create darkness.
[00:10:31] And these dark seasons of life that are brought on by the storms of life you and I go through are sadly, they're inevitable and sadly, they are inescapable.
[00:10:42] But what I know about God is even in the storm, even when he calls people home through the storm, he has promised to never leave them or forsake them.
[00:10:52] There is something the Bible speaks of called dying grace, meaning the moment that God calls one of his children home. There's no fear in the experience.
[00:11:02] We put ourselves in the minds of the people caught up in the flash floods and how terrified they would have been based on how we feel we would have been if we were in their situation. But what I know about that in the moment of their passing, Psalm 23 said, even in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
[00:11:21] It's a mystery that I cannot explain. What I do believe that at the moment that a person leaves this earth, that there's an overwhelming peace that comes over them where fear leaves them and they embrace the presence of God who is ever with them.
[00:11:36] And the moment someone dies, they slip from the present into the eternal. They say good night down here to say good morning up there. And their spirit and soul leave their body and their body returns to the earth. But the spirit and soul, according to Solomon, returns to God who gave it.
[00:11:54] That's all death is anyway, by the way. By definition, death means separation, separation of our loved ones from us. Well, that's obvious, but it's more than that. It's the separation of the spirit and soul from the body.
[00:12:07] In First Thessalonians 5, he said, I pray to God that your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of the Lord. We call that trichotomy, some call it dichotomy. But believing the spirit and soul are one and the body is separate, which is fine, potato, potato.
[00:12:24] I just call it trichotomy. Because Paul separates it in that way. Spirit, soul, body, spirit is the part of us that communes with God. The soul is the emotional part of us. Suke we get psychology from that. It's the part of us that relates to other people.
[00:12:39] And the body is the physical part of us that is only temporal. The body returns to the earth, ashes to ashes, cremation, dust to dust, just normal decay.
[00:12:49] And the body then sleeps within the earth to await the morning of the resurrection. And according to 1st Thessalonians 4, one day those bodies will be resurrected, recreated and reunited with the spirit and soul that are now at home with God.
[00:13:03] So though I can't tell you this morning why that happened, and though I don't, I cannot begin to comprehend all of God's purpose, I can tell you with certainty God was with those people.
[00:13:15] His presence was there. He said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. I know at the moment of their passing, he removed the fear from the experience based on Psalm 23. Cause God's promises are true.
[00:13:26] And so though I cannot explain it, or though I don't fully comprehend it, I do believe that that is what happens when the child of God leaves this earth.
[00:13:36] And for those of us who still remain, and those of us on this Sunday morning, watching online or in this room, we still try to comprehend those dark seasons that we go through in life.
[00:13:46] It may be not as devastating as what those people in the hill country have dealt with, but we still go through them.
[00:13:53] There was a 16th century Carmelite priest, St John of the Cross. He coined a phrase to describe these experiences. He called them the dark night of the soul.
[00:14:04] We've heard that expression, the dark night of the soul.
[00:14:08] Darkness is one of the things that accompany storms. But can I tell you this morning, darkness is not a thing.
[00:14:15] Darkness is the absence of the thing.
[00:14:18] Darkness is not a thing. It's the absence of the thing. Darkness comes as the absence of light. When light is withdrawn, there is then darkness.
[00:14:26] By the way, darkness can't be measured. There's no wattage on darkness. Nothing moves at the speed of dark.
[00:14:33] We measure light, but we don't measure darkness.
[00:14:37] So if darkness is the absence of a thing, that means when the absence of something hits our life, maybe it's the absence of a job, maybe it's the absence of, you know, of, of. Of income, something, maybe it's someone. When someone leaves our life, maybe it's a divorce or maybe desertion, or maybe death.
[00:14:58] When there is the withdrawal of something from our life, the withdrawal of the light of that life can bring about darkness.
[00:15:07] And suddenly you find yourself, as St. John said, we're in a season, a dark season of the soul, that we're sitting in a bright room and we're sitting under a beautiful daylight, but we're going through a dark experience in our life and one we're trying to comprehend and one that we're trying to understand, and one that certainly we're trying to navigate through.
[00:15:31] Job wrote these words in Job 19, verse 8. God has set darkness in my path.
[00:15:38] Ecclesiastes 12, verse 2. The stars grow dark sometimes and the clouds return after the rain.
[00:15:44] Solomon's describing an experience where the clouds return after the rain, meaning that now the storm ends and we're thinking, thank God that's behind us now. Now the clouds come back and we're going to go through another storm. You ever had that hit your life.
[00:15:57] You've got finally blue skies. It's going to get better. Oh, thank God it's over. And all of a sudden another storm comes moving right in behind it.
[00:16:04] That was one of the things they were so concerned about down as they're trying to do the rescue and then finally trying to do the recovery as another storm moving through that area. Well, that's what Solomon said that happens sometimes in life where the clouds return after the rain.
[00:16:19] So I guess what I'm saying is, folks, we can't escape dark seasons. We can't avoid dark seasons. But here's what I've learned in life, and this is really the heart of what I want to share with you guys before we go. There is a way you can see in the dark.
[00:16:33] There is a way you can adjust your eyes of faith and you can navigate and you can actually see through the dark experiences of life.
[00:16:42] Darkness is an unending darkness, is not unfruitful.
[00:16:47] Can I tell you, there are some things that actually will grow in the dark.
[00:16:51] There's some things you'll see about yourself that you don't see any other way until you go through a dark season of life.
[00:16:58] Years ago, Cindy and I were in one of the Weiland Galleries in Hawaii, and if you've ever familiar with his artwork, it's really beautiful of marine life and that sort of thing. He does big murals on buildings, and we went in one of his galleries, and so the proprietor there of the gallery said, hey. He said, the kids were with us. He said, I want to show you something really great. He said, come back with me. So we go back in this little back area of the gallery and he took us behind a curtain into this room and said, hey, sit down here. I want you to see something. And so he turns off the light. And I thought, well, now it's getting weird.
[00:17:30] I'll buy something, dude. You don't have to freak me out.
[00:17:33] But I mean, he sets us in the dark, and he said, the reason I'm turning the light off is he said, you've got so much of the light of the sunlight in your eyes that you aren't going to be able to appreciate the brilliance of some of these colors. So he said, I want your eyes to adjust a little bit to the darkness so you can see the beauty of this painting I'm about to show you.
[00:17:51] So after we sat in the dark for a few moments, he brought up the light on this amazing and beautiful painting, and you could see the brilliance of the colors. But the point he was making is as long as we had the light in our eyes, we would not be able to appreciate the beauty of the painting.
[00:18:07] And so I've learned that sometimes you can see things in the dark that you don't see in the light.
[00:18:13] We in Texas love that song. The stars at night are big and bright.
[00:18:19] Thank you.
[00:18:21] Deep in the heart of Texas, right? And they say, well, the stars only come out at night, but that's really not true. We learned that. What about seventh grade? Stars are out all the time.
[00:18:31] It's just there's so much light, you don't see them.
[00:18:34] So I'm just driving at a point here, and I'm just simply saying that sometimes the dark experiences of life, sometimes God will use dark seasons of life to show us things that we would not have seen otherwise.
[00:18:45] Maybe some things in someone else, maybe some things, and see some things in ourself, maybe to appreciate our circumstances. And we might not have been able to appreciate them, the brilliance of the color, if we'd not been able to go through the dark season. So I'm just saying, when you go through a dark season and you try to understand, there are reasons that you can hold onto and you can find that helps you navigate through those dark seasons. And those are a few that I've just mentioned.
[00:19:12] Let me give you the text for what I want to share with you before we go. It's in Isaiah, chapter 50.
[00:19:17] And Isaiah certainly knew about dark seasons of life. He knew what it was like to lose someone you love.
[00:19:24] Isaiah opens with that idea. And you don't get to about chapter six. And then King Uzziah dies. And King Uzziah was the Cousin of Isaiah.
[00:19:33] And by the reading of that record, Isaiah was heart was broken and his soul was crushed at the loss of his cousin. He had looked up to his cousin. He loved his co. He admired his cousin. And when his cousin dies, it devastated him.
[00:19:47] In Isaiah 6, he said, when that year that King Uzziah died, he said, in the darkness of the experience, I saw the Lord.
[00:19:55] And when you get to chapter 50 of his book, he's writing more about dark experiences. And listen to what he says in verse 10 of Isaiah 50. Who among you fears the Lord?
[00:20:04] Well, I would stop to say if I ask that as a rhetorical question, most everybody in the room say, well, I'd be among that group.
[00:20:11] I don't mean fear the Lord like you have cringing dread of God, like he's going to squash you like a bug in a rug. It's not that kind of fear. Fear is reverence.
[00:20:21] You wouldn't be in the service this morning, you certainly wouldn't be watching online right now if you didn't have a certain fear of the Lord. So you would answer, that's me, Isaiah. I have a fear of God. I respect him. I revere him.
[00:20:33] Remember the first line of the Lord's Prayer. Hallowed be thy name, reverence of God. We all fear God. We all respect God. We all understand that he is worthy of our praise and he's worthy of our respect.
[00:20:47] We honor him as a child would honor their mother or their father.
[00:20:51] So he says, who among you fears the Lord? Notice now the next phrase. Who obeys the voice of his servant?
[00:20:57] Well, yeah, the best I can. I try to walk in obedience. I mean, I'm trying to live up to that bar of God. If you tell me to do something, I want to do it.
[00:21:07] I don't think anybody would be in the room this morning if we're in open rebellions against God. Because if we were in open rebellion against God, we wouldn't be here.
[00:21:15] So the fact that we're here, it indicates not only do we have a respect, but we also are trying to be obedient.
[00:21:22] You know, we do the check of the list. Well, Lord, I try to read your word and I try to pray, and I try to give, and I try to be nice, to treat my fellow man with respect. I try to do unto others, you know, as I would want them to do. You know, we do all that. We check those boxes so we would say, okay, Isaiah, you're speaking to me. I fear the Lord.
[00:21:42] I obey the voice of his servant. Speaking of Jesus. But notice the next phrase, and it almost doesn't look like it goes here. Who walks in darkness and has no light.
[00:21:52] What?
[00:21:54] How is it again that you could have respect of God? You could revere God, you could fear God, you could obey God, you could serve God, you could love God and live for God and walk in darkness without light.
[00:22:08] And remember, for a servant of God, for a child of God to be in a dark experience, the only way that can happen is for light to be withdrawn.
[00:22:16] Remember, darkness is the absence of a thing.
[00:22:20] So it would take God not removing his presence, but removing his light from one of his children and removing that light from his child for a purpose.
[00:22:29] Otherwise, we'd never have the dark seasons of the soul. We would never walk in darkness unless God sovereignly either caused it or allowed it.
[00:22:39] Wow, again, that's where your faith gets stretched.
[00:22:43] That fact that I'm on right there, that fact will either draw you to him or drive you from Him. And I'm just saying, when you find yourself at that crossroad, and many are there, if you haven't gotten there, you'll get there. And some of you have been there.
[00:22:59] Here's what he says to do, and this is the heart of what I want to tell you. Number one, he said, let that person, let him take trust in the name of the Lord.
[00:23:09] Let that person. Secondly, I'll talk about, rely upon his God. And then he gives a warning in verse 11.
[00:23:16] Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks, and the walk in the fire of the sparks you've kindled. Be careful now, don't make your own light. Here, you'll have this of my hand. You'll lie down in sorrow. Meaning if you try to get yourself out of this without relying on me, you're going to make matters worse.
[00:23:33] Jump out of the frying pan into the fire, more or less.
[00:23:37] So let's look at what he said to do. And in what he said to do, you'll learn how to see in the dark. Number one, look to God when you're in a dark season, he said, let him trust in the name of the Lord, look to God.
[00:23:50] My favorite illustration. I've shared this with the church before, but it was my mentor. One of my mentors in ministry was Adrian Rogers.
[00:23:57] Pastored the Bellevue Church in Memphis.
[00:24:00] Been there a while, but he had a wonderful story he shared. He said when they were building one of the buildings at Bellevue. He said after a evening service he was cutting through the new construction to make his way to the car. It was the shortest way to the car. So he cut through this big area of construction that wasn't yet completed. So he said, when I stepped through the doorway, he said the door closed behind me. And he said, the room was just dark.
[00:24:25] I couldn't see anything. Couldn't see where to go. I couldn't navigate. So he said, I start feeling along the wall for the light switch, and I can't find it.
[00:24:33] And he said, all of a sudden my eyes are beginning to adjust. And he said, I looked, and standing in front of me was a man.
[00:24:40] And he said, so now I'm feeling not for the light switch, but for the door handle.
[00:24:45] And they haven't put the hardware on that side of the door yet. So he said, man, there was no getting out.
[00:24:50] And he said. So I spoke to the man. He said, I'm Adrian Rogers. I'm the pastor of the church here. And he said, you're probably as lost as I am right now, trying to lighten the moment. And he said, why don't you and I try to find our way out and we'll navigate out of this way. He said, I'm just trying to think, you know, my feet. This is a scary situation. And he said the man didn't respond to him at all.
[00:25:11] And he said. So I finally said, well, sir, I'm gonna make my way to the car, and you can join me and we'll walk out of this darkness together. He said, I took three steps and walked into a mirror.
[00:25:24] Well, sometimes those dark experiences, they seem worse than they actually are.
[00:25:29] And what Isaiah was telling us to do is when you go through these dark experiences, look to God, focus on him, allow your eyes of faith to adjust to him, begin to try to see what it is he's trying to say to you.
[00:25:46] In fact, Job got to this point where he said, in Job, chapter 13, in verse 15, he said, even if I die, though God slay me, yet I will trust him.
[00:25:56] What happens when you look to the Lord and you are really focused on him is a change begins to happen in your life, where all of a sudden, now you're not looking for the situation to change as you're looking for the change the situation will make in you.
[00:26:12] And I believe sometimes God uses those dark experiences just to change us.
[00:26:18] What I really know is that he didn't die for my experience. He died for me.
[00:26:23] And when I go through an experience in life, God is allowing it or he's caused it. Whether it's a dark season or not, he's allowed it or caused it. So for a purpose, for a reason. So I. I have to look to him. Okay, God, what are you trying to teach me in this season of my life?
[00:26:39] I don't want to miss the purpose of the test. Because you know what happens in school if you fail the test, you retake it.
[00:26:46] So if I want to benefit from the test, then I don't want to fail what God is trying to teach me, because I sure don't want to go through this again. So I want to say, God, I want to look to you. Isaiah said, in the dark seasons, look to him. Just absolutely trust him in that and try to discern what God is trying to speak into your life in that experience. So, number one, look to God. Number two, he said, and rely, or your translation may even have it, and stay upon his God. So if I'm to look to him, number one, the second thing I need to do is lean on him.
[00:27:17] The word rely or stay in the Hebrew literally means a staff. It's what a shepherd would do in the darkness, leaning on his staff for stability.
[00:27:30] So when I say rely on God or I say put your stay on him, I mean, you lean on him.
[00:27:37] There's an old song that says, learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. And that's the idea.
[00:27:43] The dark seasons causes us to lean on him more, look to him more. Let the eyes of faith adjust. And in that process, so I don't stumble and fall, I'm leaning on him to guide me and to give me stability in this.
[00:27:58] And can I tell you, in a dark season, sometimes the best decisions to make that may impact your life might be no decision at all.
[00:28:05] Sometimes what you need to do if you're going through a dark season is don't make a decision on your relationship. Don't make a decision on your job. Don't make. I mean, let me give you an illustration. In Acts, chapter 26, when the apostle Paul was on that Alexandrian ship on his way to Rome, as he had appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen, and he was going to be brought before the tribunal, he was going to be judged for preaching about Jesus. And so he's on this Alexandrian ship on his way to Rome, and the ship went through a storm.
[00:28:37] And in the midst of the storm, the Bible says that when they approached the shore, all of the guys on the ship threw the anchors out to slow the ship down.
[00:28:47] Now you would think, well, why in the world, if you're in a storm and you're On a ship, why wouldn't you just, you know, just hammer down and make your way to the storm, to the shore, as quick as you can? Well, the reason you didn't do that, especially in that day, is because the storm was so. The waters were so troubled, you couldn't see the rocks or the reefs, and so you could literally wreck the ship.
[00:29:09] And being so close to shore, you could drown in shallow waters because you wrecked the boat inside of the shore.
[00:29:16] So what those wise navigators of that time would do is they would put anchors out and the anchors would drag, catching hold to slow the ship down, meaning we're not gonna try to get to shore until this storm settles.
[00:29:30] Now, what's one of the takeaways from that?
[00:29:32] Well, man, when you're in a storm and you're going through a dark season, sometimes you need to throw some anchors out, slow your roll.
[00:29:40] Just don't make any big decisions right now.
[00:29:43] Just say, I'm gonna slow this thing down because I don't wanna lose my cargo and I don't wanna wreck the boat here because I may make a decision in the darkness that I'll regret.
[00:29:52] I just want to slow the thing down. And in the midst of this, allow my eyes to adjust so that I can look to God and then lean on him and trust him to help me navigate safely to the shore. Lean on God.
[00:30:07] And when you're leaning on him and you're looking to him, believe me, he doesn't hide the ball. He will reveal Himself to you.
[00:30:15] One of the principles of the prodigal son in Luke 16 is a principle of life. And it shows us that people don't turn to God until they first of all come to themselves.
[00:30:27] They have to come to yourself. You have to have that epiphany. You have to have that moment in your life when you say, what I'm doing isn't working.
[00:30:34] How I've tried to do this without God isn't getting me anywhere. So, okay, God, I'm going to finally trust. I'm going to try to do it your way.
[00:30:42] I mean, in the pig pen, the. The prodigal had that, that. That epiphany where he said, he came to it. The Bible even uses that expression. He came to himself, he came to his senses, and he said, I'll just go back to my father. I'll try to reset. I'll try to make this thing right. And the principle of that, that point I'm making is sometimes in a storm, God will use a storm to bring us to our Senses to help us realize what we've been doing isn't working. And if I don't trust God to help me navigate through this, I may lose everything I' to gain. I may lose the boat and I may lose the cargo.
[00:31:21] So I need to look to God and I need to lean on God. And here's the third and the final thought before we go home. Thirdly, I'd tell you, leave it with him.
[00:31:30] Notice what he says. Don't light your own fire.
[00:31:35] Don't become. You ever had that expression, do something even if it's wrong?
[00:31:39] Can I tell you, that's the dumbest advice anybody could ever give you?
[00:31:43] Do something, even if it's wrong.
[00:31:46] You know, didn't you ever hear in school, two wrongs don't make it right? Your mama ever tell you that?
[00:31:51] I mean, the point is, you never do something you know is wrong, thinking you'll get the right outcome. It makes no sense. But I understand when you're frustrated and there doesn't seem to be an answer, sometimes the tendency is, well, here I go, you know, I'm gonna do it anyway. I don't have any leaders. I don't know if God's saying, here I go, I'm gonna change, something's gonna give.
[00:32:14] And he says, be careful doing that. God says, don't try to get out of the darkness by lighting your own fire.
[00:32:21] You know, back in the day they had sundials. Remember the study about sundials? Whereas the sun would move, they'd have. The dial would help them navigate and see the time of day. Did you know in the darkness you could take a flashlight and make a sundial? Say anything you wanted it to say.
[00:32:36] You want it to be 4 o'. Clock. If it's dark, hit the light on, hey, it's 4:00'. Clock.
[00:32:40] What's my point? Sometimes in the darkness we lie to ourselves, and sometimes in the darkness, we deceive ourselves.
[00:32:48] And God is just simply saying through the mouth of Isaiah, be careful out of frustration that you don't light your own fire because he said you'll lie down in sorrow. Meaning that you're going to bring more trouble on yourself by trying to get out of the darkness on your own than just waiting for God's timing in your life.
[00:33:08] Because I said a moment ago, darkness is not unending and darkness is not unfruitful.
[00:33:13] God has a purpose in the midst of it, and he can be trusted.
[00:33:17] Best illustration I could give you of somebody that lit their own fire and got into more trouble was Elimelech and Naomi remember the Little Book of Ruth. It's a beautiful love story. It's tucked away in your Bibles back in the Old Testament. The pages will be stuck together when you find Ruth, but it's an incredible love story. And it opens with a time of famine in Bethlehem, Judea, meaning that it was a hard time among God's people. It was a time of darkness and difficulty. And what Ruth and Elimelech did is they made a decision to go to Moab, a land of plenty, and leave the land of God, which was a land of famine. They lit their own fire and they walk away.
[00:33:59] And what happens in Moab is they lose their sons, they lose their income, they barely get out with their lives.
[00:34:07] And the best thing that comes out of the experience is that Naomi meets Ruth and the beautiful story of Ruth unfolds.
[00:34:15] But the thing that the story opens with is this principle. You and I are better off with God in a time of darkness, with God in a time of famine, than away from God in a land of plenty.
[00:34:31] You're better off to trust God in the dark seasons. And just saying, God, I'm going to stay faithful.
[00:34:37] I'm going to be focused on you. I'm going to lean on you. I'm going to leave this thing with you, and I'm going to trust you. For some reason, you brought me to this, and for some reason you're causing me to go through this. It doesn't make sense. I don't even agree with you. God, that's okay, too.
[00:34:51] But just say, I trust you. I choose to trust you.
[00:34:55] And instead of allowing the season to drive me from you, I'm gonna allow this season to draw me closer to you. And every day I'm going to pray. God, help me make sense of what I'm going through. Help me to trust you.
[00:35:08] And I can tell you guys, little by little, God will begin to bring you out.
[00:35:14] He'll bring you through.
[00:35:16] And in the midst of it, he won't leave you and he will not forsake you, and you'll find yourself at a place in life when you look back at that experience and you'll begin to say, God taught me something.
[00:35:28] He taught me how to see in the dark.
[00:35:30] He taught me how to navigate through the dark seasons of life.
[00:35:35] Let's pray together.
[00:35:38] Lord, thank you for my friends who are here. And Lord, all of us go through dark seasons.
[00:35:43] We think about our fellow Texans who have suffered such incredible loss.
[00:35:47] What a horrible season that they're in.
[00:35:51] I pray that you'll guard their hearts and minds. And Father, I pray you'll make your presence known. And Lord, I pray you'll bring them through this season with a deeper trust in you, with a greater hope of heaven, knowing one day they'll see their loved ones again.
[00:36:07] For my friends in this room that have gone through or who are going through a dark season, encourage them today, Father, let this season or let that season be a time that draws them to you and not drives them from you.
[00:36:21] I pray they'll take the principles of this verse that we shared and they'll begin to apply that in their life so that they can truly learn how to navigate and how to see through the dark.
[00:36:32] Lord, that we don't understand. We know you're faithful.
[00:36:35] That we don't understand. We know you cannot fail.
[00:36:39] And Father, as we walk from this place, we walk away with the hope of heaven, the knowledge that one day we'll see our loved ones again, that those who have died, they've just stepped from this existence into your presence.
[00:36:53] They're absent from their body, as Paul said, and they're present with their Lord.
[00:36:58] Give them the hope of reunion one day.
[00:37:01] Comfort their hearts. Even though, Lord, we acknowledge this morning, that's a valley you'll never get out of. You'll always mourn and we'll always miss our loved ones. We don't get over it. We just learn to get through it.
[00:37:14] So comfort hearts today.
[00:37:16] Help us to see in the dark.
[00:37:18] And finally, Lord, if there's someone in the room or someone watching who've never trusted you as Savior, Father, I pray this would be the moment where they swallow their pride and say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me right now, I trust all that I know about you come into my heart.
[00:37:35] Forgive my sin, and I pray this in Jesus name.
[00:37:39] Amen.
[00:37:40] Thank you for being here this morning. Next week, I'll pick it up again. We'll talk about the Lord's Prayer. Have a great week. I'll see you soon.
[00:37:49] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
