Jesus Christ the son of God had to go through suffering in order for him to be able to help us in our suffering did you know that that's what the book of Hebrews says let me read these verses to you from Hebrews 2 and 4 here they are therefore in all things he had to be made like his Brethren he had to be made like us so that in that he himself has suffered being tempted he's able to Aid those who are tempted for we we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with
our weaknesses but was in all points tested as we are yet without sin listen to me ladies and gentlemen if the sinless son of the Living God had to experience suffering so that he could identify with our suffering then we should not be surprised that we have to do the very same thing on November 27th 1965 Howard rled parachuted into the hands of the North Vietnamese when his fighter plane exploded under heavy anti-aircraft fire the story of his subsequent 7-year captivity was popularized a few years after when it was put in a book called in
the presence of mine enemies I remember getting that book and reading it from cover to cover on December 1st just a few days after his capture Rutledge was placed in cell 2 in Heartbreak Hotel the name given to one of the prisons in Hanoi he tells in vivid language in his book of the pain of his imprisonment he wrote when the door slammed and the key turned in that rusty iron lock a feeling of utter loneliness swept over me I lay down on the cold cement slab in my 6x6 prison the smell of human excrement
burned by nostrils a rat as large as a small cat scampered across the slab beside me the walls in the floors and ceilings were caked with filth bars covered a tiny window high above the door I was cold and hungry my body achd with swollen joints and sprain muscles it's hard to describe what solitary confinement can do to unnerve and defeat a man you quickly Tire of standing or sitting down sleeping or being awake there are no books no papers no pencils no mag azines the only colors that you see are drab gray and dirty
Brown months or years may go by when you don't see the sunrise or the moon green grass or flowers you are locked in alone and Silent in your filthy little cell breathing stale rotten air and trying somehow to keep your sanity intact a question that comes into our minds whenever we read something like that about a Believer is why would would God allow something like this to happen in someone's life why would something as evil ever take place in anyone's life the life of a Howard rutage or anyone for that matter why would God allow
problems and prisons and excruciating circumstances to hurt a person and bring them to the very edge of their lives before he was finished writing his book Howard rutage would tell of the things that God did in his life while he was in prison he would help us understand that never does a problem come into our life that there isn't some purpose behind it that we may not know and it was that way with Joseph whose life we find in the 40th chapter of Genesis 11 years have passed in Joseph's life since he was sold into
Egypt by his brothers as we look in on his life now he's probably 27 28 years old and he is serving as the aese to potier the captain of the guard in Pharaoh's Court was a very important and prestigious position for a Jewish man to hold in the Egyptian government Genesis chapter 39 the chapter previous to the one to which we've opened today tells the story of Joseph being thrown into prison Piper's wife had tried to seduce Joseph and in spite of the fact that he did not yield to her temptation and expressed his faithfulness
to potier and to God Piper's wife falsely accused Joseph and had him thrown into the Royal prison by potier himself and from this story of Joseph and all the circumstances surround it I would like to suggest five reasons why God allows problems in our lives first of all reason number one problems often provide greater opportun ities for us Joseph is about to learn that in his prison experience he has not been forgotten by God and that God in his Mercy sees him and it is while he is in prison that God brings him into a
relationship with the one man who would ultimately be able to link Joseph to his Boyhood dreams and to his place in the palace and to his freedom from the prison so sometimes when you're in the midst of a problem if you're not careful you miss the fact that God is up to something he's got you in a place where you don't want to be so that he can prepare you for something greater number two problems promote spiritual maturity as you rewind Joseph's life it's not hard to realize that he probably had a very soft Life
as a child I mean you read about him as a young boy he's not out in the field with his brothers he's at home with his father he's the Pampered favorite son of the family wearing that colored coat that was given to him and if God was going to use Joseph he would have to toughen him up he would have to make him ready to be prime minister of Egypt during a worldwide famine and the psalmist alludes to the hardening process in Psalm 105: 17 and 18 where Joseph is mentioned by name he sent a
man before them Joseph who was sold as a slave they hurt his feet with feathers and he was laid in irons now I remember when I studied that passage that there's a marginal rendering to that verse and it goes like this his soul came into iron and I read an Old English translation that translated it this way an iron entered into his soul Joseph went to prison and iron entered into his soul when he came out of prison he was an iron sold man he was a man of wisdom and courage and determination and he
acts every bit like a born leader in Egypt when he ascends to the high place of government by himself he carries a nation that is foreign to him through a terrible famine without one single sign of any Revolt he was prepared for the hardship of famine because he experienced the hardship of prison and God wants and needs today men and women some iron sold Saints he really needs some men and women who are not going to wilt when the pressure's on and the only way Iron ever gets into our souls is when we go through
the pressure cooker it kind of gives some new meaning to sever key passages that I want to give to you just so you can write down their addresses and have them available for you later Romans 53 we also glory in Tribulation or problems knowing that problems produce perseverance and perseverance produces character and Hebrews 12:11 says now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but it's painful nevertheless after after word it yields the Peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it and James 1 2 and 3 my brethren counted all
joy when you fall into various trials or problems knowing that the testing of your faith produces and the word there is really the word endurance but let endurance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking n nothing all of these passages say the same thing that when you're under pressure when you're in the pressure cooker whether it's persecutions or trials or problems or whatever you want to call them when you're in the midst of that one of the reasons God allows that is to bring you greater inward strength to toughen you
up to make you ready to face the challenges that are yet ahead in your life I often think that sometimes when we're out trying to help people we need to be careful that we don't rescue them from this process I mean I'm a rescuer I don't know about the rest of you I mean I got children and grandchildren I'm going to do everything I can to make sure if there's some way I can make their life easier and better I want to do it I'm not sure that's the right thing to do it's just who
I am and how I function but suppose for a moment that Reuben the oldest son in Joseph's family had been able to do what he wanted to do remember when Joseph was thrown into the pit by his brothers Ruben wanted to get him out and get him home because he knew this was going to break his dad's heart but he didn't do it if Ruben had been allowed to rescue Joseph we would never be reading the story of Joseph today because Joseph had to be in the pit on his way to the palace and Reuben
was kept by the hand of God from rescuing him I've always thought that when when potterer threw Joseph into prison because of the alleged um sexual advances supposedly Joseph made on his wife we all know that didn't happen I think potier knew it didn't happen either I think he knew his wife he knew what she was doing but he had to respond so he threw Joseph in prison suppose he had let him stay there for a couple of days and then gotten him out and rescued him Joseph would never have met the Butler and the
butler would never have introduced him to Pharaoh you see what I'm saying sometimes problems are there for God's purposes there are avenues that God uses to bring us from where we are to where we need to be and in the process God fired Joseph's soul with steel so he could face the challenges that were ahead problems promote our maturity here's the third thing that problems do they prove our integrity the one thing about Joseph that's interesting is that no matter what happened to him he never changed everywhere Joseph went he maintained his Integrity because Joseph
understood that circumstances don't make us what we are they reveal what we are and when we go through problems we give everyone around us a window on our reality I can't help but remember that when I was uh going through cancer I I would tell my wife when I'd got home honey I just feel like everybody's watching me to see what I'm going to do some of you know that when you are in the midst of some trials that's when who you are really becomes visible somebody says the people see you through the cracks in
your soul and Joseph proves to us that sometimes the reason we have problems is so that we can bear testimony to the world to the redeeming and Powerful grace of God people never know you as well as they know you when they watch you go through a difficult time in your life and number four problems produce a sense of dependency look back in your Bibles to the 39th chapter and verses 20 and 21 where we have a little descriptive verse about Joseph's initiation to the prison experience it says then Joseph Master took him and put
him into the prison a place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in prison but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of The Keeper of the prison if you read the book of Genesis and the life of Joseph you'll discover that wherever Joseph went God went with him when Joseph was in the pit God was with him when Joseph was in the palace God was with him and when he was in the prison God was with him and ladies and gentlemen I need
to tell you that what Joseph found out while he was in prison was that God loved him a whole lot that God was there with him he found out how much God loved him and I can't tell you how many times people have told me that when they've gone through family problems or marital problems or financial problems or physical problems that the testimony has been Pastor I knew that God loved me I've always felt close to him but never in all of my days have I ever felt the love that I experienced when I was
going through this difficult situation he's enough no matter what the problem is he's enough and finally problems prepare our hearts for Ministry they provide greater opportunities they promote spiritual maturity they prove our integrity they produce a sense of dependency and they prepare our hearts for Ministry in chapter 40 of Genesis veres 6 and 7 Joseph wakes up one morning and the Bible says Joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them he's talking here about the Butler and the Baker and he saw that they were sad and so he asked Pharaoh's officers who
were with him in the custody of the Lord's House saying why do you look so sad today now try to get this into context here he is a prisoner unjustly so notice that he sees their sad faces he is sensitive he's loving he's sympathetic he initiates the conversation he ministers to the prisoners and I've written down in my notes that there is no Ministry to the sufferer like the sufferer ministry to others and that is true isn't that what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians and the first chapter where he tells us that we
Comfort others with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted in other words when we have felt God's comfort and strength for us it's out of that experience that we're able to help others who are going through trouble listen to me carefully even Jesus Christ the son of God had to go through suffering in order for him to be able to help us in our suffering did you know that that's what the book of Hebrews says let me read these verses to you from Hebrews 2 and 4 here they are therefore in all things
he had to be made like his Brethren he had to be made like us so that in that he himself has suffered being tempted he's able to Aid those who are tempted for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tested as we are yet without sin listen to me ladies and gentlemen if the sinless son of the Living God had to experience suffering so that he could identify with our suffering then we should not be surprised that we have to do the very same thing
you can't counsel others about something you've never really experienced don't go and say to somebody I know what you've been through if you've never been through it but the Lord God lets us all have our share of experiences doesn't he so that we then can go to somebody and say I got it people call me from all over the country don't talk to me about cancer and as much as I can I try to talk with them and pray with them but until I had cancer nobody ever did that nobody people want to know what
somebody who's been there and done that have to say about what it's all about here's Joseph he's in prison suffering himself not wanting to be there by any means but in the midst of his suffering he is serving before I finish my little talk today I want to answer one more question how do we deal with these things when they come what should our attitude be I'm very thankful for a little experience I had that will help me try to explain that to you some of you know that I am a Beach bike bum take
that any way you want I love to ride the Strand in Coronado I can tell you that from where I start it's 8 and 1/2 mil one way so it's a 17m round trip I try to do it every day that I can if I'm down there and I had an experience that will help me explain what you do when you face these problems I've learned at certain times during the day in Coronado the winds can be very Fierce and such was the case this last week as I headed on on my ride I knew
I was in for some challenges you see on the way down the beach the wind was at my back and I was flying so fast I could hardly keep my feet on the pedals have you ever ridden a bike like that I don't have a gear bike I just have a beach cruiser I can't gear down I got to try to keep up in fact on one occasion I stood up on my bike to rest my backside which is one of the downsides of riding a bike but anyway I I I stood up to just
get a little rest and all of a sudden and I realized hey I'm not pedling and I'm still moving my body became like a sail and I went for about a quarter of a mile without ever making one pedal stroke was amazing when I got to the end of my ride I found my resting place down at the halfway point went in and drank my tea and began mentally preparing myself for what I knew would be a challenging ride home I was not to be disappointed the wind was so fierce in my face that every
single stroke of the pedals was a challenge I had to promise myself that I would not look ahead or I would have become so discouraged I would never continue on one occasion I decided to stand up again and in that one moment my bike almost came to a dead stop I realized that I had only one way that I was going to make it all the way home without having to make several stops and here's what I discovered when the wind is in your face keep your head down and pedal with all your strength don't
think about how far you have to go don't think about quitting or resting keep your head down and keep pedaling as you can see I made it home and I made careful note of that ride and the time at which occurred and vow never to ride my bike down there at that time again and I was reminded of how much like life my riding experience really was I've been riding Against The Wind in my life in recent days and I must admit I'd much rather have the wind at my back I like the wind pushing
me ahead not pushing me back but I'm glad for the experience on the trail and in life I know that I can keep moving forward if I keep my head down in submission to God and in prayer and don't quit you see that's what the enemy wants you to do when you have problems he wants you to quit he wants you to quit pedaling he wants you to just give in and let the problem overwhelm you but I want to tell you something it's not just enough to keep your head down in submission and prayer
you've got to keep pedaling every stroke may be painful for a while when I can't cannot yield to my puny human nature and quit I will lean into the wind and keep moving forward sometimes at a very slow pace but never stopping and never standing up and God gets me through those moments God's allowed some of these things into our lives some of them more bitter than others some more difficult than others but here's the good news God is up to something he will never ever leave you alone wherever you are whatever situation you're in
he's with you he's promised never to leave you nor forsake you and you will come out better if you don't come out bitter make God the Lord of your problems don't run from them embrace them and keep your head down and keep pedaling amen amen and now with one last word for today's program here is Dr Jeremiah one of the most important verses in the Bible dealing with problems is Romans 8:28 it says everything including all our problems works for the benefit of those who love God who have been called by him so God uses
the difficult moments in life to change us into people who are more like Christ God is calling you to himself have you responded have you said yes to God through faith in his son I would like to encourage you to do so by sending you two free gifts from turning point a booklet called your greatest turning point and our monthly devotional magazine called turning points thousands of people just like you have benefited from these resources we will gladly send them to you free of charge if you will contact us here at turning point today next
time on turning point yes is the answer we want but no is an answer and I am so thankful for the times over my life as I look back over my shoulder when I have prayed for something and God has said no I didn't like it at the time but oh do I see it now join us next time for Dr Jeremiah's message why don't my prayers get answered here on turning point [Music]
