Barry Meguiar 00:03
You know, bad things happen to good people. I mean, the Scripture, the rain falls and the just and the unjust, I’ve experienced that. I think most of you have. I mean, I’ve been through hell. I mean, have had so many bad things happen to me, but God has made them all good. Romans, 820, and he makes all the bad stuff turn into good stuff if you love Him and live your life according to His purpose. So why do we go through these tough things? I mean, I look back, I had a relative of mine that was a business partner tried to stab me. He tried to kill me. Okay? I had a relative sue me for religious discrimination. I had a daughter that lost a drug addiction for 10 years. I lost her. I lost her. I had a business partner, a venture capitalist, that came and tried to get me, throw me out of my own company. I mean, I’ve had unbelievable things happen to me. You know what? Every one of those things has made me better, not worse. When we when we want to build our trust, like building muscles, there has to be resistance. If we don’t have challenges, we’re all going to be spoiled Christians, meaningless. I mean, just go along because we’re just taken care of. I mean, we have too many kids like that now. You just bless them with everything, and they’re out of control. We would be out of control Christians if life just went along. God never promised us a rose garden, and we all know it when we get into those tough situations, don’t we have growth spurts in our Christian walk, in our spiritual walk, in our closest to God? Don’t we get closer to God in those tough situations? So the first thing is, as Christians, as lovers, as followers of Jesus Christ, we’re going to go through those tough times. Because it’s through those tough times that we grow stronger and stronger. I gotta tell you, I’m pretty strong right now because I’ve been through a lot of tough stuff. But that’s not the only reason we’re to be salt and light. You know, when God salts, salts the earth, it’s kind of like salting by a steak on the grill. I like to I like to grill. I like to barbecue. When I put salt, you know, the salt, some of it lands on top, and some of it lands down the crevices on the sides, and some on the grill. We’re the salt of the earth, and when he salts us, you know, not all the salt lands on God, not always lands on the, you know, the house on the hill and the big job and fame and fortune, whatever, some of that salt ends up in cancer wards and foreclosures on homes and unemployment lines and terrible situations. The fact that matter is the joy of the Lord. Is our strength, not our position. I learned from Bill Gothard many years ago, God is not nearly so concerned with what we go through as he is, and how we respond to what we go through and when we lose something of precious value, or, you know, there’s a tragic death in our family, or whatever we hurt. I mean, I’m not saying, you know, we’re not impacting us, but we don’t sorrow as people have no hope. We look at it and we say, God, we don’t understand why, but you’re God. You’re the God of the universe, and you love thee, and you prepared a place for me in heaven. And I know you’re going to make my path straight. I know you’re going to come in and I trust you, God. And it’s when you’re doing that, in those tough times that you have the biggest witness, same words you probably said just before the tragedy, but now they have so much more meaning. And you know what? The people? There’s a lot of people that are lost at hurting and can’t find God, and they’re in the cancer wards, and they’re on the employment lines, and they’re they’re out on the street, in some cases, they’re in all these just very difficult situations. I can’t reach them. I can’t I can talk to them, but you know what, I haven’t walked in their shoes. The best witness, the best encouragement, comes from somebody who’s walked in those same shoes, and he places those that’s our position. You know, I’d like to play pitcher, but sometimes he puts me in left field. No, I wouldn’t be the pitcher, but he has me on the left field. Because, you know what? There’s a role for me out there. Some of you right now have been put out, even sitting on the bench. You may be, you may not be able to actually be getting into the gate. You’re sitting on your bench warmer right now, or in the bullfight or what have you. I’m just trying to say, no matter where you are right now, your joy should be just as strong as your joy is not based on things or this world. I mean, this is all going to go what rain doesn’t matter. Our joy is based on him. And I was always troubled by this scripture. We are a peculiar people. I don’t want to be weird. I don’t want to be peculiar. But I found myself being peculiar over these last few years, not yet by being odd by the fact that when I’ve been in my tough situations, I almost died three years ago. Right now, I was in a hospital in Oklahoma. Okay, I know what tough times are. You know, in that hospital, I ministered to 23 different doctors and nurses. I was on fire. I thought to God, if I’m going to die, I’m going to go out with a bang. And he made the pass straight. We took me through the other side. It’s so much fun. So if you’re in that tough place, yeah, he lets us get in the tough places, one for our own personal development, and secondly, and maybe even more importantly, because he’s put you there because there’s no other way. He has to get a Christian there. He has to get a Christian at that point because he knows there’s somebody that’s hungry and searching and wants to know about God, and how is he going to get the message to unless he takes one. His choice people and puts them in that same place. So look at where you are and rejoice in it. I call it green pastures. When I was a kid, I thought, You know what? Why would God ever have to make me lie down in green pastures? In the 23rd Psalm, I said, that doesn’t make sense to me. You know how many times in my life he’s made me lie down in green pastures? But I didn’t know it. He’s forced me to go away. I didn’t want to go. I was unhappy. I was just like, wow. What is going on here? I was really kind of like, not handling it as way well as I’m talking about, we should handle it. Now, this goes back earlier in my life, and then eventually I would look down and say, it’s a green pasture. Oh, wow. And look how God has used me here. Thank you, God. David Morrison preached the sermon years back. Right song, wrong side. Right song, wrong side. I never have gotten and I’ll close with this tell where the children is over there. They’re leaving Egypt to get to the river, and now they see they can’t, they can’t get across. The Egyptians are coming down. The Army’s coming down on them, and they have nowhere to go. And so now they’re mad at God, they’re mad at Moses. I mean, they’re not happy campers. And of course, he puts Moses puts the pole down in the party of the waters. Amazing miracle. They get to the other side, and they rejoice. So they’re singing, they’re just and they build a monument, you know, and David works and said that night, right song, wrong side when you’re in the dark spot, recognize God is not saying oops. He didn’t forget about you. No, he’s placed you there for a purpose. You have purpose in your life, and all you have to do is look out and grab it and you will have joy again. It’s not joy that you just can’t lose. God has you right now, right where he wants you. I don’t care how deep the pain. I don’t care how deep the pain. In fact, the deeper the pain and the bigger the hurt and the darker the place that you’re in, the brighter your light is ready to shine for Jesus, Christ, you.
