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Keep your place in Romans chapter 8 so you're gonna put a bookmark in Romans chapter 8 because we're gonna be going back and forth and back and forth and always coming back to Romans chapter 8 so kind of the point of this morning's sermon is going to be kind of to explain to you Romans chapter 8 and verse number 28 what that really means and how that actually works in our lives the Bible says and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose I'm gonna explain that to you this morning that's kind of a bumper sticker you'll see that verse on on people's fridge at their house but what does that actually mean you know people take that to mean that oh everything just works out good for everybody all the time that's not what that means I'm gonna show you the context of that verse this morning and how we can understand that verse in our lives as a matter of fact the title of the sermon this morning is you know on dealing with hard times the title of the sermon this morning is four steps to deal with hard times in your life four steps to deal with hard times in your life so I'm going to show you this morning four things that we can look at in the Bible that will help you get through difficult times in your life so the first thing before we even get into those first steps look down at Romans chapter 8 and verse number 18 before we even get into those four steps let's just do a little bit of introduction on hard times in our lives look at verse number 18 of Romans chapter 8 the Bible says for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us so Paul's saying that the sufferings of this present time middle could he says for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God for the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him has subjected the same and hope because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God saying that you know there's corruption in this creation in verse 22 he says for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now so the point the first thing you need to understand in your life is that in this world that we're living in in this corrupt world in your corrupt body in this corrupt earth this corrupt creation that has fallen into sin we have to understand that hard times will come hard times will come in even Paul talked about the sufferings of this present time so in on 16 one to actually turn to John chapter 16 real quickly so John chapter 16 is you know if you have a red letter Bible it's mostly all red it's just Jesus talking but Jesus actually talked about these hard times and in John chapter 16 and verse number one look what Jesus actually look at verse number two first let's go verse number two and then verse number one look what Jesus says in John 16 and verse number two the point being as introduction is that hard times are going to come in your life maybe you say you know things aren't hard for me right now well that's great but hard times are going to come in your life okay and if you're you know if you're over the age of 15 you know this I mean you know that hard times are inevitable in your life look at what Jesus says in verse 2 of John 16 he says they shall put you out of the synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you thinketh that he doeth God's service and then he goes on and says you know more things that will happen to the Christians but look at verse number one he says these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended so this right here is the problem with the prosperity gospel preacher right here this preacher that gets up and just says hey become a Christian maybe he's even got the correct gospel I don't know but this guy that gets up and says become a Christian so your life will be great you know that's not what Jesus is saying Jesus is saying what bad things are coming you know things bad are gonna happen to you in Matthew chapter 24 mark chapter 13 all these different places in the Bible Jesus tells us you know about the end times bad things that are gonna happen tribulation that's gonna come in our lives and Jesus says I'm telling you these things so when those things happen to you you won't be offended because guess what this is the problem with the prosperity gospel is that you know it's kind of like having a fair weather friend if you've ever heard that term fair weather friends that means that's a friend so like say you know this is like you know celebrities and wealthy people they have a lot of fair weather friends they have a lot of friends that just love being around them because they have a great big house and they're always doing great big things and they have all kinds of money to do fun things and maybe they have all these luxurious things and they live this luxurious life and they have all these friends they're only there but if all their money would go away they would have no friends because those friends are just there for that prosperity that they have we don't want to be fair weather Christians and that's what Jesus is telling us this in John chapter 16 he's saying look I'm saying I'm telling you it's not that there's not going to be blessings in your life as a Christian God would love to bless you if you're doing things that are worthy of blessings or pomegranates right God would love to just pour pomegranates on you but we're living in this corrupt creation and you're going to be oppressed bad things are going to happen look just hard times are going to come and Jesus doesn't want people to be like oh I thought this was all supposed to be good you know living this Christian life where you think that it's just all good and Joel Osteen you know if I just go to church and do what I'm supposed to do I'm going to be rich and I'm going to have nothing but blessings in my life and no hard times will ever come to me because then when those hard times do come and they will come you'll be like hey what's the deal and you'll walk away you'll be offended you'll walk away from that Christian life this is kind of the this is the biggest problem with the pre-trib rapture people I mean I don't really care if somebody's like pre-trib rapture but this is the biggest danger for them is that they think that because what's the biggest selling point for the pre-trib rapture it's not in the Bible but the biggest selling point is it sells because people like to hear that they're never going to go through trouble like hey you're not going to God wouldn't put you through trouble look that's not even close to what the Bible says that's not even close to what we can look at throughout history that Christians have gone through Christians have gone through nothing but trouble look at Hebrews chapter 11 just talking about all the the pain and suffering that all the prophets and all the the great men of God and the Bible went through look the Bible says that hard times will come to us and the reason that we need to know this is so we're not offended when they do come okay so that's the first thing you need to recognize before we even get in to these four points is that you're either in hard times or hard times are coming in your life I'm not trying to depress you this morning I'm just trying to tell you these things and then prepare you so when those hard times do come in your life you'll be ready for those hard times and you'll be able to weather those storms I mean that's the kind of friends that I would want to have friends that are with me for the good times when things are going well for me and then friends that are there with me through the bad times we should have a Christian life that is there in good times and that is also there in the bad times in the hard times okay that should be our Christian life I mean what life has suffering in it what's the reasons for it maybe I mean one of the reasons is you could be going through chastisement of God God could be chastising you so whenever you're going through hard times you should always check yourself look we shouldn't do this to other people we shouldn't see somebody going through hard times and be like right we shouldn't be Job's friends but we should always check ourselves when we're going through hard times like hey there's something God's trying to teach me here is there something where God's trying to correct me is there something where God is you know trying to get something out of my life is he trying to show me something takes a humble person to be able to look at that but you should always do a check on that but look God's chastisement is not the only reason that you will go through hard times you know you could go through tribulation the Bible says that you will suffer persecution if you're living godly in Christ Jesus you could go through tribulation which is other people persecuting you many times for your faith in Christ so it could be chastisement it could be tribulation it could be persecution but here's another thing it could just be life it just be life it just could be the fact that you know we're living in this corrupt creation that's corrupted with sin we're living in these these fleshly bodies these unglorified bodies you know life happens so all I'm trying to get you to understand this morning is that hard times happen to all of us hard times happen to all of us so let's look at four things we can do to get through those hard times because we want to get through those hard times and come out of those hard times into you know into joyful times in our Christian lives so here's the first thing that you can do turn to Genesis chapter 49 Genesis chapter 49 and look at verse number four the first point is this the first point to get through hard times is this muscle memory you say what do you mean I'm gonna tell you what it means you can't be you can't be in hard times in hard times if you don't have muscle memory in your Christian life you know you are going to falter in those hard times look at Genesis chapter 49 and verse number four this would be classified as instability and Reuben Jacob when he was talking to Reuben he didn't really bless him he kind of cursed him here he says unstable as water he says to Reuben thou shalt not excel because thou went up to thy father's bed then defiled defiled it's thou it and he went up to my couch so he's talking about you know something Reuben sinned in the past and he's cursing his son Reuben with this but he says to Reuben he says unstable as water thou shalt not excel in James 1 8 the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways turn to 2nd Peter chapter 2 2nd Peter chapter 2 and look at verse number 14 2nd Peter chapter 2 verse number 14 so the Bible here is saying I'm talking about Reuben it says if you're unstable you will not succeed at anything thou shalt not excel at all in your life okay a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways 2nd Peter chapter 2 is talking about evil people it's talking about people that you know are reprobates people that are trying to do evil to other people and in verse 14 it says about these evil people it says having eyes full of adultery that cannot seize from sin talking about these evil people but then look what it says it says beguiling that means deceiving so these evil people they deceive unstable souls so you see here this unstability in your life is a terrible thing it says that you won't you won't succeed at anything you're gonna be deceived by evil people I mean stability in your life and this is the first point right here stability in your life is such a big deal it is such a big deal for the Christian life and look you'll find this you'll find this with people you'll find this even with semi stable people that a lot of semi stable people are people that are generally stable if they do fall out of the Christian life or they do falter in the Christian life it'll be in transitionary times in their life those are the most dangerous times for the Christian you think about you know big things like moving you know like changing jobs moving cities whatever you think about a death in the family you think about major life-changing things like maybe a divorce which hopefully you know no one ever goes through that but just major changes in people's lives in people's lives they they damage their Christian lives many times why because it creates instability that's why and the Bible tells us that instability will make you not successful just that idea of you know instability on being unstable will just make you unsuccessful in your Christian life so even somebody that's stable and then just like has a shake up in their life that's a very dangerous time for them because like they could be beguiled they could be deceived they could be knocked out of the Christian life this is why consistency is so important in your Christian life so this is the first thing you need to have like this like you know church consistency so winning consistently look it just it's not a decision in my family whether we go to church we just go you're like obviously you're the pastor but even before I was the pastor we just went no matter what no matter what was happening we went to church no matter what was happening we went sowing cuz why cuz then when hard times come it's just muscle memory it just that's just what we do that's just what we do I mean look think about think about the last couple years with move it go read it's like there's constantly articles coming up like and I figured that this would happen but there's constantly articles coming up on how the last two or three years affected people's lives I mean it really messed people up there's some people out there that were really just derailed completely by kovat I just read an article just this morning looking at the news talking about you know how like and I knew I predicted this one of years ago like oh they're all these like kovat negative negatively affected the health of the country you think people just sitting in their houses doing nothing eating Cheetos for two years I mean how could that possibly affect the health I mean they're they're not allowed to go and get heart screenings they're not allowed to go and get their screenings for all other health problems or whatever they're like heart disease is exploding now they're like predicting that like all these deaths are probably gonna happen or have already occurred because of what happened over the two years I mean you have to think too hard to figure that one out it really messed up people's life but why why is that why is it that it created the health problems with people why is it that you know there's going to be all kinds of new you know just fatalities from all these diseases would have been you know probably prevented if everything would have been normal why because they just injected a bunch of instability onto people so you had people that were just they were they were doing something in their life and they had a routine and they just they got knocked off the rails and it ruined a lot of people they're talking about just like diabetes and just how like you know people are are more overweight now and all these different health problems they'll be analyzing this for years and years and years trust me they'll be looking at statistics on this they killed way more people by walking everyone in their house and telling everyone that's the best thing to do is just to stay home especially with what they did to the health care system not to go off on this but the point is is what they did was they injected they injected they took away people's stability they took away that stability and it ruined a lot of things for a lot of people is what it did but how about us what did what did we do same thing we always do think about it think about it think about you know all the different Christians that we know is like our lives generally yeah I mean it was a at the beginning there I mean there's a lot of confusion people didn't really know what was going on but generally everyone that we know and especially here and in churches that we know it we just kept doing the same thing we just kept doing the same thing it kept going to church kept going soul winning yeah we try to do a lot of different things soul winning at the beginning of the whole thing but generally largely we still had our community of brothers and sisters generally things didn't change because what we have a stable Christian life here and that's what we're promoting is a stable Christian life so I mean COVID and that whole mess didn't really affect didn't really affect you if you just had a stable Christian life you just practice that muscle memory and you just did what you did the day before you did what you did the year before so the point is this stability is key in your life stability is key in your life you say I'm not going through hard times right now you say my life's you know pretty decent right now well here's what you should be doing when you're not in hard times you'd be shoring up you should be shoring up your Christian life you should be making sure that you don't get lazy in your Christian life you should be extra consistent in your Christian life you should you should be shoring up the fort you should be refitting artillery in the quiet times when there's not a battle going on and then guess what when the storm comes you'll remain stable because you'll just have that muscle memory you'll just have that muscle memory because look I mean nobody enjoys it through the storm nobody says like hey hard times this is great nobody says that nobody's going through a difficult time in their life and it's just like I'm really enjoying this pain and suffering that I'm going through right now nobody does that but the key is if you just do the same thing consistently in your Christian life you'll just have that muscle memory and you just keep going and it'll get you through those hard times go back to Romans chapter 8 look down at verse number 31 Romans chapter 8 look at verse number 31 so get a solid consistent Christian life and whether you're in hard times or you're in down times or you're in joyful times just shore up that Christian life what people need to be saved whether it's you're going through a hard time or not you know people are just as lost out in this world people are dying I mean I think Garrett did a sermon a couple years ago where he said how many people in the world are dying every second or something like that like people are dying every second in this world think about this for a second people are dying whether or not your finances are good or bad whether or not you know your you know emotional life is good or bad people are dying and going to hell every single second in this life so you got to think about it from that perspective shore up that Christian life because look people souls are going to hell whether whether you're going through a storm or not in your life look at verse 31 it says what shall we say then to these things this kind of the end of what we're gonna go through but the point is this if God before us who can be against us that's kind of the conclusion of Romans 828 in the verses that I'm gonna explain to you this morning is that if God is for us nobody can be against us if God's on your side so look make sure God's for you get that consistent Christian life be doing what you're supposed to do all the time every time and guess what God will be for you then these verses apply to you in your life so that's the first one get that consistent Christian life get pulling in the right direction get diligent get soul-winning get in church and just keep going no matter what you're going through your life because people are going to hell anyway people are dying and going to hell no matter what you're going through in your life here's the second point turn to Proverbs chapter 26 Proverbs chapter 26 you say hard times what should I do okay I'm gonna get a consistent Christian life I'm gonna be in church I'm gonna be soloing I'm gonna read my Bible and we have a daily prayer time I'm gonna be doing these things all the time so then when things get messy in my life or things get shaken up in my life I could just continue doing those things I'll just remember my training all right that's the first thing what's the second thing look at Proverbs 26 and verse number 13 here's the second thing that you can do in your life to make it through hard times the second thing is this stay busy stay busy look at Proverbs 26 13 the Bible says the slothful man says so this is this is a man who's not busy this is a man who's doing nothing he's lazy he's laying around he's just you know he's kind of on the couch she's eating Cheetos off his chest he's he's got nothing to do look what he says he says there's a lion in the way a lion is in the streets here's the thing folks if you are not busy and you are this man you will find trouble where there is none you will you will you will conjure trouble you will conjure I mean look at this guy he's like I can't go out there it's like scary stuff out there you will make trouble out of nothing if you are not busy this guy is just sitting there and he's just making excuses why he can't do anything he's laying there doing nothing he's making excuses I want he you know he just wants to he wants to continue doing nothing I told my kids this like a billion times especially the boys I told them whenever I send you to get a tool don't ever come back without the tool if I say go get me a crescent wrench and you go out in the shop or you go out in the garage or wherever to get the wrench and you can't find it make me come looking for you half an hour later as you're looking for it don't ever come back and say you know come back after 20 minutes and say yeah I don't have it because X because nobody cares why you failed your boss at work doesn't care why you couldn't get it done all he knows is that you couldn't get it done yet there's people out there today that think all I have to do is think of a reason that I wasn't able to get this done and that'll get me out of it no you'll just be known as the person who's always saying there's a lion in the streets there's a lion in the streets you'll be known as the person that can accomplish nothing so the first thing is stay busy stay busy or you will you will I mean you know what there's another kind of people out there that just refuse to let anything stop them that's the opposite of this person in 20 in Proverbs 26 13 there's people out there that just refuse to fail there's people out there who will just hope they will just die looking for that tool they will just look everywhere for that tool and they would just never stop looking for it until the boss comes and tells them hey the reason that you've been looking for three hours and you've torn this whole garage apart is because I had it in my pocket but he found you looking he found you trying and trying and trying and he didn't find you making excuses so the first thing is that people that aren't busy people that are lazy they will just see trouble everywhere they will see trouble they will see excuses everywhere that's all they're looking for is excuses trouble reasons turn to 1st Timothy chapter 5 so number one they'll make trouble out of nothing they will find trouble they will find excuses they will find just problems that don't even exist to the average person if you're not busy if you're lazy look at 1st Timothy chapter 5 look at verse 13 here's another person here's another thing that people that are not busy will do they will not only make trouble where there's none look at verse number 13 they'll make problems out of things that aren't problems look at verse 13 and with all they learn to be idle so here's somebody that doesn't have anything to do wandering about from house to house and not only idle but tattlers also and busybodies speaking things which they ought not so not only will they find trouble out of something that that isn't trouble they will actually make trouble people that aren't busy they won't make hard times they will make difficult situations so the answer here is stay busy stay busy through hard times because if you don't stay busy through hard times you're gonna go and you're gonna you're gonna see where there's none and you're gonna go cause trouble if you're not busy just in general so focus on staying busy through those hard times and also you know focus on your wheelhouse focus I mean what does that mean I mean that means focus on you know things that are that are yours focus on your family your friends your church that's it you know you don't have to go looking for trouble where there's where there's none for you you know just focus on what's in your wheelhouse men and women that have nothing to do that that are that are bored they this is consistent they cause trouble for themselves and others all the time it's it's so consistent in in the Christian life so stay busy if you're in hard time life those are dangerous times for you just focus on the things that you need to be doing focus on your family you know you have first works with your family you have first works we have first works with the church that's out soul winning you know serving in the church whatever you do for the church maybe there's more you could do for the church those are good things to get involved in those are first works but you know a mother has first works with her family stay busy you know she's teaching the kids she's raising the kids she's keeping the home she's you know doing all the things that she should be doing she should stay busy doing those things same thing with a husband he should be working hard he should be keeping himself busy and you know that will that will help you get through hard times and that will that will make it so you don't create more hard times okay turn to Philippians chapter 2 so what's the first things the first things muscle memory get a consistent Christian life get us consistent Christian life and that will carry you through hard times if God be for us who could be against us verse 31 of Romans 8 says the second thing is stay busy if you're not busy you will see trouble where there's none and you will cause more trouble for yourself look at Philippians chapter 2 and look at verse number 4 here's the the second thing so you're saying oh you know I don't know what I could keep busy with well I'm gonna help you with that in the third item right here the third item is focus on other people when you're going through hard times look at Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 4 Philippians chapter 2 in verse number 4 now this is a really big one here focus on others through hard times the Bible says look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others look this one this one may seem counterintuitive to you but here's the thing depression or being overly down in hard times in your life you know people that withdraw from people and they get really depressed and all these things these people look I'm not saying that the hard times that you're going through or the trauma that you went through is not real or anything like that the things that are causing you to be dressed depressed or not real but here's the thing people that are just like withdraw from people and get overly depressed they're too focused on themselves they're too focused on themselves look maybe even people are more prone to depression than other people but here's the thing and here's a big miss of psychology today by the way a big miss of psychology today well they may have recognized a lot of these things in the Bible that I'm going to tell you about is that they never focus on the root cause so somebody's going through depression you know psychology today they'll just go right to medication they're like oh take this pill that'll make you feel better they'll never focus on maybe the lifestyle that you're living you know though you know somebody's living a lifestyle of being promiscuous and and and drug and alcohol abuse or whatever look that's gonna you're gonna get depressed if you live that type of life you know you're gonna have major problems that come upon you because of you know just unlimited sin in your life but psychology today they're just gonna give you a pill they're not gonna focus because there is nothing that's wrong you know there's nothing that's shameful there's nothing that's wrong that's what they're telling us today and that's a huge miss but just trying to like medicate this away the Bible will actually help us get this garbage out of our lives and help us focus like Philippians 2 4 says on other people and guess what let me read you something from psychology today even science today and I use that in quotes even science falsely so called today recognizes that that focusing on other people helps you psychologically psychology today says it this way reach research has found many examples of how doing good in ways big or small not only feels good but also does us good for instance the well the well-being boosting and depression lowering benefits of volunteering and helping others have been repeated repeatedly documented as has the sense of meaning and purpose that often accompanies altruistic behavior so what it's saying is is that people that are out there volunteering for you know some cause or you know whatever they're doing you know they're they're out there and they're doing and you'll see some silly ones right you'll you know like whatever you'll see we misdirected ones you'll see people that you know their cause is like you know I don't know recycling or something like that you know I mean just these silly you know misdirected causes but the point is this altruistic behavior this idealistic behavior what it's doing is is it giving them a sense of meaning and purpose this is exactly what Romans chapter 8 is going to teach us right here except our meaning and our purpose is the meaning and the purpose it's the right one it's not a motorcycle club it's not some silly you know recycling drive or you know save the the gray squirrel or something like this it's an actual it's the actual purpose and meaning for our lives that that Jesus Christ wants us to pursue and it's saying like by focusing on other people because of this cause that we have in our life even modern science says that this helps you this lifts up a person so look here's the thing the Bible says that it's who you should be and even secular science says that it works I mean that's it's just another read it's another example of science catching up to the Bible is all it is okay science in the Bible so Philippians chapter 2 for saying hey you know what you're depressed you're down why don't you focus on other people why don't you go help somebody do something why don't you go find a brother and sister in the church who's having a hard time and go help them dig a hole in their backyard or whatever it is that they're working on or whatever I mean look that's going to actually help you that works what's the opposite of this the Bible talks a lot about the opposite of this too you know what the opposite of this is turn to Ecclesiastes the opposite of focusing on others is something that the Bible calls vanity it's just complete focus on yourself the Bible calls the opposite of Philippians 2 for where you're focusing on other people and that actually helps you stops you from being depressed it's counterintuitive it's counterintuitive to our flesh right I mean my flesh says you know I'm in a bad mood what do I need to do I'm depressed what do I need to do I need to go buy a new car I need to have more money I need to have like all these pleasures in my life this is what our flesh tells us that we need it's the exact opposite the Bible is staying in Philippians 2 for you got problems you're depressed quit focusing on yourself because number one that's part of the problem and number two why don't you focus on other people because Ecclesiastes is a man that focused completely on himself and let's see where it got him let's just look at a few verses here look at you know you ever heard of keeping up with the Joneses you know the thing with the thing that's dumb about keeping up with the Joneses thinking you have to have a bigger house than everybody a nicer car a better job all these secular things is that you can never really win that game because there's always somebody with a nicer car there's always somebody with a nicer house there's always somebody with a better job there's always somebody with something that's better than you in this life but guess what Solomon won the game he won the game of keeping up with the Joneses he like literally had more than everyone and look at where I got him look at what look at verse number look at verse number four or verse number three says I sought my heart to give myself wine he's let I made me great works verse five I made gardens and orchards I made pools of water I got me servants and maidens I gathered me silver and gold I gathered me silver and gold and peculiar treasures of kings in the provinces look at verse number nine he won the game so I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem also my room wisdom remained with me I had more than anybody and I was smarter than them all and he's happy because of this right look at verse number 17 he had all these things he said I did this and I did this and I gave he denied himself nothing 700 wives I mean he denied himself no earthly pleasure there was nothing that he could think of in his mind he's like I want this that he couldn't have how in the world could a man I mean that's what we all want isn't it my problems are because I don't have enough money my problems is all my problems would be solved if I just could make more money if I just didn't have this debt if I didn't have this these these bills that keep coming up or my car needs tires or all these things break and like this is my problem and if I just had all these things it would all be better Solomon won the game yet there was nothing he could conjure in his mind that he couldn't have look at verse 17 it says therefore I hated life he hated his life on earth why because he was focused completely on himself and not on other people as the Bible says he was focused in the wrong direction so you go through hard times take the focus off yourself first of all you're going through hard times I guarantee you there's somebody who has worse times that they're going through probably somebody that you know personally that's going through worse times than you take the focus off yourself and by the way if you're going through problems that can be fixed by money those are not problems in your life those are not real problems if you can fix a problem tires on your car is not a problem you know that you think about your family and and and health of people like those are things that are hard times those are things that are hard times take the focus off yourself Solomon ruined his life because he was completely focused on himself it's vanity so if what he is to for just put a little arrow in your Bible that says the opposite of this is vanity is focusing on yourself so that's item number three what's item number four to get through hard times so what have we got so far what have we got we got you know you first got to understand that's not really a part of it but you know you need to have that muscle memory you have that consistent Christian life all right when you're going through hard times number two is you need to stay busy you stay busy in good times or you're gonna create hard times for yourself just stay busy always in your life being idle if your life is gonna cause you nothing but problems so get a consistent Christian life stay busy and then focus on other people is number three take the focus off yourself get rid of the vanity in your life because vanity is gonna make you miserable the person that's just wallowing in self-pity is just they're they're wallowing in vanity you need to get that focus off yourself what's number four number four turn to Matthew chapter 8 number four is faith you're like all right well I have faith what do you mean I'm saved that's that's not what I'm talking about I'm assuming that you have you have saving faith you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're sealed with the Holy Spirit nothing will ever change that I'm talking about faith look at Matthew chapter 8 and let me read you a story having faith Jesus's miracles were always accompanied by something they were always accompanied by something look at Matthew chapter 8 we see a Roman come up to Jesus a Roman you can't look to Jesus he was a Roman centurion a high-ranking Roman soldier look at verse number five it says when Jesus was entered into Capernaum there came unto him a centurion beseeching him like asking him for something and saying Lord my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy grievously tormented and Jesus said unto him I will come and heal him Jesus says I'll come to your house and I will heal this man the centurion answered and said Lord I am NOT worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof he shows humility first of all just saying I'm not worthy for you to come to my house that's humility but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed that's an odd thing to say isn't it just speak the word Lord and my servant shall be healed how does he know how Jesus's miracles work how does he know that Jesus doesn't have to like touch the man or you know how does he know how the power of Jesus works here and look at verse number nine because he explains right here he says for I am a man under authority he says I know that you can speak something and it will happen he says because I'm a man under authority having soldiers under me and I say to this man go and he goeth into another come and he cometh into my servant do this and he doeth it he's saying I'm somebody that is in charge of people and he's like when I command people they just do it he says when Jesus heard he marveled and he said to them that followed verily I say unto you I have not found so great faith no not in Israel and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven then he talks about how you know the the he's talking about just like this Gentile this this this person is not even of you know the nation of Israel has this great faith but he was not just talking here about faith in him being the Messiah he was not just talking about the centurion's faith of Jesus being the Messiah but or even about faith and him being God I mean he was literally like talking about how how the centurion like had faith that he was God because this centurion believed that Jesus had the power to help him just by speaking the centurion believed that God could do it he had no doubt that's why Jesus just marveled he's looking at all these Pharisees and these religious leaders and they're just like they can't believe and here this man not only does he believe that he's the Messiah he believes he's God it could just command this servant to be fixed just like that he just knew Jesus could do it turn to Philippians chapter 4 turn to Philippians chapter 4 Paul knew this to turn to Philippians chapter 4 so the fourth point I'm trying to make is going through hard times you need to have faith you say faith in what I already I already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about a further a further faith faith in your Christian life look at Philippians chapter 4 I'm talking about faith that Paul had look it's the same saving faith that we all have look at Philippians chapter 4 in verse number 13 don't forget who wrote this Paul wrote this in the letter to the Corinthians and he said what he said I can do all things who's he talking about who's I it's Paul he says I can do all things through Christ which strengthen with me here's the thing do you believe that when you're going through hard times in your life do you believe that you can do all things through Christ Paul believed it Paul believed it do you believe because here's the thing folks here's the truth of it God can fix anything immediately he can fix any problem that you're going through right now just like that Paul believed that do you believe that something's going to does that mean he's gonna answer every prayer that you that you pray just the way that you want it answered now go back to Romans chapter 8 and let me explain this to you the faith I'm talking about before we get into the the Romans chapter 8 explanation here the faith that I'm talking about is do you believe that God can do anything for you do believe that God can fix anything do you believe that God has the power to intervene with whatever hard times you're going through do you believe that how about this if he doesn't do it the way you want it done do you still believe that or do you only believe do you only have faith in what God can do if he answers your prayers the way you want them answered think about that this is what Romans 8 is talking about go to Romans chapter 8 and everyone will listen very carefully look at verse 26 Romans chapter 8 and verse 26 everybody tell you know they have it on their refrigerator Romans chapter 8 in a false Bible version basically it says you know all things to get work out good all things work out good that's what it'll say in some false Bible version look at verse number 26 it says likewise the spirit that's capital s if you're saved you have the spirit in you so this is only talking to save people first of all that's that's lesson number one likewise the spirit also help if our infirmities did you know that the spirit inside you helps you you're like what how I'm gonna explain to you it tells us right here for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered you understand what the Bible just said right there first of all you should be praying going through hard times you should be praying but the Bible just said right here it said that many times it actually didn't even say many times it just says we know not what we should pray for as we ought you know what that's saying we don't ask for the right things and we don't ask correctly the Bible here is saying is that we don't even know what we need you're going through hard times and you're like God give me $2,000 so I can pay for this repair bill or whatever it's like the spirits gonna be like no no no God is like it's gonna like put his hand over your mouth and then he's gonna go intercede for you and he's gonna pray and he's gonna he's gonna speak for you to God it may he's gonna make what intercession for you the spirit is interceding for you which things that cannot be things that you don't hear the Holy Spirit is gonna go to God so yes you should pray you should be praying but what the Bible here is saying is that with our flesh in our simple mind in our in our lower ways that are not God's high higher ways that we don't even understand the Spirit is going to intercede for us to the Lord for saved people and intercede for us and tell God what we really need and tell the Father what we really need why I look at verse 27 it says and he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints that's you according to the will of God so you're gonna sit here and you're gonna be in hard times and you'll be like God I need you to do this for me and solve this problem for me like this and and like the Spirit knows that oh that's not the will of God God I need you to help me win the lottery no the spirits would be like no don't let him win the lottery does that look that you know a lot of times we pray for things that would destroy us we pray for things that would make worse for us because we don't know I'm glad that I have the Spirit interceding for me I'm glad that the Holy Spirit is going to the Father and interceding for the things that I actually need and then look at verse 28 and we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose that's how they work together for the good because the Spirit intercedes for you and it says that you love God by the way so this is the this is why I gave you those those points at the beginning it says to them that love God what does it mean to love God it means that you follow his commandments it means that you have a consistent Christian life so if you have a consistent Christian life and you're doing these things and you're you're living that Christian life for the Lord this is going to work for you because the Spirit is going to intercede for you in those hard times so the question is do you believe this do you believe that God will make it work this way because it's true and look here's the thing you don't have to see how this is true because I can't think of a single time I've gone through hard times in my life where at that time of the hard time I could look back I could see how it was good for me I could see how it worked out good for me these are things that you will realize after you have gone through it then you will look back and say oh that's what God was doing there Oh Romans 828 is correct so when you're going through hard times you're gonna have to go through those hard times you are gonna have to believe that Christ can strengthen you and that you can get through those hard times you have to believe in Romans chapter 8 by faith and then you'll be able to look back and say yep that was right but you got to have faith that God can do these things look at verse number 29 because look you will not see it you will not see it if you look down it let me turn there myself if you look down at verse number 29 you will not see it at the time look at verse number 29 of Romans chapter 8 the Bible says for whom he did for know he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren so first of all the thing is that those that love him are people that are serving him people that have that consistent Christian life but look the Bible is saying here is that you don't have to know how God is gonna work these things for the good you just have to know that it's true that's all because God knows God knew you before you were even born that's what the Bible says in verse 29 he knew he foreknew you you know that and before you were even born he had predestinated you to be saved look we're in Calvinism God God's will is that all men would be saved God predestinated every man that they would believe on his son if we don't that's our fault all right he wants every man to be saved and then once you're saved he wants you to live that consistent Christian life which would make you conform to his son he wants you to conform to Jesus and walk that Christian life is what he's talking about in that part of the verse to be conformed to the image of his son that that's your you want what's my destiny that's your destiny I just told you what your destiny was this morning and then there's the whole point of everything right here he wants you to be saved he wants you to walk the consistent Christian life so you could be conformed to the image of a son why so God can look down and say oh look at what I've you know look at that perfect Christian down there which we will never achieve he says why it says so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren you know what that means so you can get a lot of other people saved that's what that means he's predestinated a plan for you your Christian life so you would be the firstborn of many so you would get saved and then that's the whole point of the consistent Christian life is what that's the whole point of your life is that you would walk the consistent Christian life and you would go out and you'd be the firstborn of many people that you get saved that's the whole reason we're here that's the whole point I mean all you have to do is have that faith that God knows what he's doing have that faith that God you know you know here's a good prayer for you in hard times here's a good prayer in hard times if you're wondering like how should I pray in hard times pray for the things that you think that you should ask for and if you're just like depressed you're just down you're just like man it doesn't seem like it's working out it doesn't seem like I don't see it here's a here's a good perfume God I don't see it right now God I just I don't understand your ways right now I don't understand how all this is gonna work out Romans 8 28 for me but Lord I believe it but Lord I believe you can do anything and Lord I believe that whatever you do to work this out that Romans 8 28 will be true for me and I'm gonna continue serving you whether I understand what you're doing or not that's a good prayer when you just don't understand what's going on because there's gonna be times you just have no idea you're just like it's all falling apart it's all coming to pieces here and but here's the thing you don't have to understand you just have to have faith and what the Bible says is true that's it it's really look that Christian life the Christian life and I've said this a hundred times let me say it again the Christian life is is not necessarily easy all the time but it is very simple it's very simple just good times bad times this is what we do don't understand what's going on that faith God had faith that God's got this thing very easy I'm sorry very simple it may be difficult to go through hard times but if you just keep those simple thoughts in mind and what just keep that keep that faith in you that's Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 just go ahead and turn there just go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 11 look Hebrews chapter 11 is talking about you know it's talking about all these men it's talking about all these men and even brings up Sarah it just it's like these people it lists all these people look at look at who it lists it says I mean just just look at the verse 37 I mean it's talking about all these these prophets and and you think about the prophets you think about Isaiah you think about Jeremiah look their whole life was hard times I mean when you read Jeremiah America you find it any joy there are you finding any happy times that you know he's hanging out laughing with his buddies it's just nothing but a hard time after a hard time after a hard time and then God's like do it again go tell them again it's like they burned it the first time go write it again it's just nothing but hard times and look these guys they never came out of the hard times it says that they were stoned they were saunasunder they were tempted they were slain with the sword they were wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented look at verse 39 says and these all having obtained a good report through what through what through like through the things that they received in their life no through faith they just never lost that faith they received they received not the promise they received nothing in their life God didn't hand them some big blessing in their life what nobody here can say that you all have so many blessings we have so many blessings in our lives it's ridiculous in our lives but these people they had nothing but hard times they received nothing till they got to heaven the earth was nothing but corruption and pain and suffering for them but they had faith their good report came through faith you better believe they're getting rewarded in heaven though these men and women so look you got to have faith that God can bring you through it you don't have to understand it at the time but you just got to have faith that God can make Romans 828 come true even for you but look you got to be doing the consist you have to have a consistent Christian life you better be loving the Lord these blessings to come or these these promises to come through for you so what are we looking at this morning we're talking about just understanding that hard times are coming and then number one we're talking about just having that consistent Christian life that's point number one point number two is that you need to stay busy you know that's just a very practical that's just a very practical thing in your life if you're not busy look I don't care if you're going through hard times or not if you're not busy you just get you just like just like wandering around like you're just gonna cause all kinds of trouble for yourself you're gonna cause all kinds of trouble for there's gonna be lions in your life that you're gonna make up lions they're gonna be fake there's gonna be real ones you're gonna create I mean it's just you're gonna cause chaos if you're not busy that's that's a like a sermon series in itself but number number three focus on other people you know get the vanity out of your life stay busy helping others the happiest people are those who help others and then have faith that God knows the plan he's got the holy not only does he know the plan he's got the Holy Spirit in you interceding for you when you're messing up what you even think you need he's literally speaking for you he's interceding for you and he's gonna make it work out and don't be this person that just is a fairweather friend to God and as long as you understand exactly how God's gonna make it right in your life you'll have faith in him but if you don't understand it you just lose faith in God no don't be a fairweather Christian don't be a fairweather faith Christian look you just have that faith and you just know that God can make that God can make his promises true for you no matter what you're going through you don't have to understand it you'll you'll eventually see it you look back on it and you'd be like thank you God for interceding with me thank you God for not answering that prayer in my life that would have been a disaster you will look back on your life and you will you will say that again and again and again because God's promise is real and it always comes true and you can have faith in every single word of the Bible so those are four things that you can do to get through hard times you're gonna go through hard times folks you know notice what other people you know you get to focus off yourself and maybe you'll know that other people are going through harder times than you and then you can you know stay busy and stay focused helping your brothers and sisters in Christ as well so hopefully that helps you this morning the Bible's got so much practical advice let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer you