OVERCOMING LIFE’S PROBLEMS
Jude 17-23
INTRO.- Is life ever stressful? Do we ever experience problems and pain in life? I say, when don’t we?
ILL.- A violinist was told by a surgeon that he needed an operation "But, doctor," said the violinist, "I
have concerts booked ahead. If you operate, can I be assured that I’ll be able to play the violin in two
weeks’?"
"Absolutely," said the surgeon, "the last patient on whom I performed this operation was playing a harp
within 24 hours."
ILL.- One man said, "After receiving the news that our son had been born, both sets of grandparents arrived at the hospital together. Just getting out of the car was quite an ordeal since all four were in various stages of recovery from knee operations and hip replacements. As the four hobbled toward the
hospital entrance using canes and walkers, my mother said, ’Mercy! I hope they don’t admit us before
we get to the maternity ward.’"
ILL.- A lady said to a friend one day, "I spend 40 percent of our income on food, 30 percent for housing, 30 percent for clothing, and 20 percent for transportation and incidentals." The friend replied,
"But that makes 120 percent." With resignation in her voice, the lady said, "DON’T I KNOW IT!"
Brethren, is life ever stressful or stress-filled? You bet and for a variety of reasons: health problems,
children, the possibility of death on the horizon, financial difficulties, etc.
ILL.- Marshall Hayden, a preacher from Columbus, Ohio, wrote an article several years ago entitled, "Would every non-hurting member please stand up?" He went on to point out that people who come to church may put on their best clothes and their best smiles, BUT MANY OF THEM ARE STILL HURTING PEOPLE. He wrote, "Think your way around the where the saints gather on the Lord’s Day.
- Over there is a family with an income of $550 and an outgo of $1000. (that might be stretching it a bit, but you get the idea)
- There are two children in one family who, according to their parents, are failures.
- The lady in the back pew just tested positive for cancer.
- Sam and Jane just had a nasty fight. In fact, the straw that broke the camel’s back. Each one is
thinking seriously about divorce.
- Last Monday Jim learned that he is going to be laid off from work at the end of the week.
- Sarah has tried to her best to cover the bruises her drunken husband inflicted when he came home last Friday night.
- The Smith’s little girl has a hole in her heart and needs surgery."
Brother Hayden went on to write, "there are the lonely, the dying, the bankrupt, the exhausted, and
others who are at the mercy of forces beyond their control. They’re all there. And there are those of
us with lesser hurts, but they don’t seem like small hurts to us: tired from being overweight and run to
death, an income that barely covers the essentials, an indifferent and unalert spouse, a boring job, poor
grades, a friend who is not much of a friend anymore, parents who don’t understand and don’t seem to
care."
Brother Hayden wrote, "You can travel down every pew in every church and find some hurting people." Isn’t that the truth?
Life is stressful or stress-filled. We do suffer from pain and problems. I hate it just like you. What can
we do about these things?
As I’ve said before: The Lord is the only one who can make things when things go wrong! He alone can lift us out of the mire of sin and into the choir of rejoicing!
PROP.- I believe our text in Jude offers some insight to overcoming our pain and problems in life. We must get our spiritual eyesight tuned up or focused in the right direction. We must have:
1- A Biblical focus
2- An inward focus
I. WE MUST HAVE A BIBLICAL FOCUS
V. 17 "Remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold."
ILL.- Someone said there are three stages in a man’s life:
1- My daddy can whip your daddy.
2- Ah, Dad, you don’t know anything.
3- My father used to say.
When we get to certain age in life we realize that our fathers and our mothers knew quite a bit and gave us a lot of good advice.
"My daddy used to tell me. Mama always said."
Or it may be that we remember someone else who made a great impact in our lives: a school teacher, a Sunday School teacher, a youth group sponsor, etc.
ILL.- My son-in-law, Chris Santasiere, is in the ministry today because of a very special youth minister
he had in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Chris was impressed with his character and his teaching.
DON’T EVER TAKE YOUR WORK AS A YOUTH WORKER FOR GRANTED! You just don’t realize the possible positive influence you are having on children!
Brethren, we all have been helped and blessed by the words of others! Thank God for those special
people and helpful words. But there is one place in life where we all can receive help to overcome life’s
problems.
"Remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold." In other words, remember the Word of God!
II Tim. 3:16 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
The word of God can thoroughly equip you for life! The Word of God can help you in every area of life,
if you will let it!
ILL.- Several preachers were discussing something in the Bible. One said, "Well, that’s what the Bible
says but that’s not what the Bible means." A little six-year-old girl passing by heard the conversation
and said, "Sir, if Jesus and His apostles didn’t know what they wanted to say how did you find out?" Smart girl.
We need to be careful about what we take away from the Bible and what we read into the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God and most of the time it doesn’t need to be interpreted, just practiced, just followed and obeyed.
We need to get into the habit that whenever we are faced with any problem in life that we go to the
Bible and consider what it says. AND THEN PUT IT INTO PRACTICE! That’s the only safe way to live this life! And that’s the only peace-filled way to live!
Heb. 4:12 "For the Word of God is living and active..."
The Living Bible paraphrases that verse this way: "For whatever God says to us is full of living power..."
The Bible is not a dead book. It’s principles are not dead nor out-dated. And it is very much alive with
the power of the living God!
ILL.- When missionaries in Nanking gave New Testaments to the Japanese soldiers, one Japanese official came to the missionaries and said, "Please don’t give our men any more New Testaments, for when they read this book, it takes the fight out of them. They don’t want to fight any more." PRAISE GOD FOR THE POWER OF HIS WORD!
Ps. 119:9 "How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word."
Ps. 119:28 "My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word."
If we want to overcome the forces of evil in this life and overcome pain and problems, WE MUST ALWAYS LOOK TO THE WORD OF GOD!
ILL.- When Sir Walter Scott was near death he wanted his son-in-law to read to him. When asked what book he wanted to have read to him, he said, "NEED YOU ASK? THERE IS BUT ONE." And of course, he was referring to the Word of God.
There power is in the Word! And if we want to be overcomers in life we must stick to the Word! We must continue reading and studying the Word! The word of all Words! The book of all Books!
Our focus must be on the positive and the powerful, not the pain and problems of this life. We must
have a Biblical focus in life in order to overcome.
II. WE MUST HAVE AN INWARD FOCUS
V. 20 "But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith...."
ILL.- Did you hear about the man who bought one of those expensive BMW’s? He kept careful records
for a month because everybody said the mileage was great. But he found that he didn’t get the gas
mileage that everybody said he would, so he took the car back to the dealership to have it checked out.
They found that the car was in perfect running condition. The owner protested, saying, "Look, I love
this car but there is something not right about the gas mileage I’m getting." The mechanic said, "Why
don’t you do what all other BMW owners do?" "What’s that?" he asked. "LIE ABOUT IT."
Brethren, what is it that you really want in life? A BMW car? A sports car? A new car? A new tractor?
A new home? A new wardrobe? A new this? A new that?
All of us have gone through that wanting stage in life. But seriously, haven’t we found that things are
just things? And that they are not lasting at all? That they are not really what gives true meaning and
purpose to our lives?
And if it is not things that we want in life it is something that we want to do. We want to go do this or
that or see this or that or experience this or that.
What is it that you’ve always wanted to do? Or where is it that you have always wanted to visit?
ILL.- Some years ago my older brother Larry and his wife Sharon went to Hawaii. He wrote back, "Great food, lying on the beach all day. Fantastic hotel room. Man, this is really living!"
After hearing his words, I used to think, "I’d sure like to go to Hawaii. Sure sounds like a world of fun."
But Jude said, "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith..."
The only thing that is truly lasting and brings any lasting joy into our lives is our faith in Jesus Christ.
Jude is saying that we must have an inward focus, i.e. we must focus on building our faith instead of
chasing after gold at the end of the rainbow, which isn’t there.
Sure, go ahead and enjoy life the best you can: go to ball games, take vacations, enjoy your sport’s
activities, etc. BUT DON’T FORGET TO FOCUS ON YOUR FAITH MOST OF ALL!
ILL.- I love Celine Dion. Does that sound bad? Perhaps put in that way, it does sound bad. Celine
Dion is one of the most popular female love singers of our time. And from the first time I heard Celine
Dion sang I liked her singing and her songs. Here are some of her more famous songs: The Power of Love, Beauty and the Beast, It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, My Heart Will Go On (from the movie Titanic), etc.
Celine Dion doesn’t excite Elaine like Richard Gene excites her, but one thing I have to say about Celine
Dion is that she has stayed focused through all her career, all her travels and tours. SHE HAS STAYED
FOCUS ON A PERSON AND HIS NAME IS RENE’, her husband.
Celine wrote to her husband, "Dear Rene", When we chose to get married five years ago, we promised
to help each other and to be totally committed and devoted, through the good and bad times, in sickness and in health.
"My love, I am promising again that I will always be there for you, no matter what. I love you more each day and forever." Celine
Brethren, you have to admire her focus, the fact that she has stayed focus on her man whether you like him or not.
And I am saying that if we want to be overcomers in life, in the sense of overcoming our pain and
problems, we too must stay focused on a person....THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST!
Gal. 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
I live by faith. I live by staying focused on Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Col. 3:2-3 "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
In other words, STAY FOCUSED ON CHRIST!
And Jude said, "Build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit." Jude is saying that we should stay focused on our faith in Christ in life! We must work at building ourselves in the faith!
Jude said, "you yourselves build yourselves up..."
ILL.- People have their favorites as far as preachers are concerned: Billy Graham, Max Lucado, Charles
Stanley, Charles Swindoll, Steven Brown, and a host of others. And we may receive a big boost in our faith from these Christian preachers. But in the long haul, it is still up to us to build ourselves in the faith of Christ! We have to read the Word of God for ourselves. We have to do our own praying, serving and surrendering.
ILL.- My granddaughter Hope Santasiere is only 6 weeks old. Right now she gets all her food from her mama but someday she’s going to be old enough to find the frig and feed herself. MOST OF US ARE ALREADY THERE.
And we should be there when it comes to feeding ourselves spiritually. Im not saying that we don’t
need one another nor the church. We do. But we spend most of our time away from one another and the church fellowship and because of this we need to learn to feed ourselves and build ourselves in the faith of Christ!
That means personal study, reading, private prayer times and perhaps evening writing in a spiritual
diary, which some people do. And this is a very good spiritual growth practice.
ILL.- When I ran my first marathon in 1986 I had run 20 miles only one time in preparation. And do you know what I found out? It wasn’t nearly enough. Consequently, I hit the wall badly at about 20 miles and ended up walking and jogging the last 6.
I discovered that to complete the marathon successfully and run the whole way I had to train for a
period of 6 months or more. And run a lot of miles and a lot of 22 mile runs.
Brethren, if you want to be victorious in the Christian life. If you want to be able to overcome obstacles in life, then you must learn to do your homework. It’s as simple as that. NO HOMEWORK. NO
TRAINING. NO WORKOUTS EQUALS NO STRENGTH. NO VICTORY. AND NO PEACE. Only more pain and agony.
And I want you to experience victory! Not defeat! Not more pain and trouble in life!
To overcome the trials of this life, we must be focused:
1- Biblically
2- Inwardly (i.e. on our faith in Christ)
CONCLUSION--------------------------------------
ILL.- The famous Christian singer Pat Boone said these words about Elvis Presley just after his death. He said, "I cared a lot for Elvis. But he went in the wrong direction. Ironically, we met for the last timewhen I was going to do a show back East and he was going to Las Vegas. He said to me, ’Say Pat, where are you going?’"
"I told him I where I was going and how I looked forward to being involved in some kind of Christian
ministry. He said, ’Hey, I’m going to Vegas. Pat, as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been going in the wrong direction.’ I answered, ’Elvis, that just depends on where you’re coming from.’"
Brethren, if this story about Elvis is true, then he was the one who was headed in the wrong direction.
At least, at that time in his life.
Any direction in life that leads away from Christ is the wrong direction! And any direction that leads us
to a more personal relationship to Christ is the right direction!
It is only by focusing on Christ that we will be able to survive in this life and overcome the pain and
problems of life.
If you haven’t put your focus on Christ then do so beginning right now.
