Finding God’s Presence in Life’s Fiery Trials

Fire is one of those things in life that reminds us real quick just how small we are. It's bigger than us. It's beyond us. It moves how it wants to move. It consumes what it wants to consume. It respects no title. It heeds no human voice. And, similarly, when right life's fires rage against us, there are things that assault us that are bigger than us. There's things that fill our minds. There's things that flood our souls. There's things that remind us how small we are and powerless we are. [00:49:40]

But instead of being consumed by the fire and the fear and the despair that that fire, facing the fire could have brought, they moved into an unshakable and relentless faith. and God met them in the fire. There's somebody this morning that God's going to meet in the fire. There's somebody this morning that God's going to touch in the fire. There's somebody for whom God's going to show up in the fire this morning. And you're not going to be burned or destroyed. You're going to beat the very thing that's bigger than you. [00:53:12]

The core theme and thought this morning is this. When life's fires rage around us and we feel we have no way out, we really do have two choices. We really do have two choices. Be consumed by the sorrow, negativity, and despair. Go with with what naturally comes to us, or we can lean and side and stand in faith. We really do have two choices. [00:54:17]

It's important because we can feel like nobody understands, nobody gets it. Nobody goes through what I go through. Nobody faces and feels what I feel. This is just my life is very unfair, unfortunate. My life is has just just I have battles that are unique to me and so on and so forth. And I want to help you to identify realizing you're not alone and you're not the only one. Our minds all work against us. We all have feelings that that we can't make it. We all hide stuff from others that go on in our hearts. [00:55:30]

A Psalm 77:2 moment is a moment where you identify with what the psalmist said where he talks about the troubles he was going through and he said, "No matter what came to help me in that, my soul refused to be comforted. My soul refused to be comforted. In the day of my trouble, the verse says here it is. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. I did what I could. I I I asked God. I talked to God. In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing. But the predicament, my soul refused to be comforted." [00:56:48]

Apparently insolvable, an irresolvable condition, a hopeless condition. I couldn't get it. I couldn't grasp it. I couldn't hold it. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't sustain myself in it. I couldn't rise up to the level of the attack. I couldn't stand against what was coming against me. I couldn't rise up. I I I I just laid in my sorrow. I just wallowed in my in my distress. I just struggled against that which came against me. And I was stuck there. [00:57:43]

That place of refusing to be comforted is a place where no matter what anybody says to you, it doesn't work. You know what the Bible says. You know what the promises are, but none of them seem to activate you. None of them seem to propel you or thrust you forward. None of them seem to pull you up out of the quick sand that you find your soul in. a place where no matter what anyone says, people will text you, "Hang in there. God's got this." You read it, but your heart just won't feel it. [00:58:17]

Let me tell you something this morning. Just because it feels permanent doesn't mean it is. Just because it feels like forever doesn't mean it is. Just because it feels like there's no way out doesn't mean there isn't. Oh, somebody give God some praise. Give him some thanks. That feeling of I'll never get through this is a lie dressed up as a fact. The danger is that it can become a fact if we don't act. If we don't make a move, if we don't shift some direction, if we don't take some kind of step, even if it's a baby step, even it's a if it's a small step. [01:01:26]

I found in my life that small steps go great ways with God. I found in my life that when I don't have the strength to come, if I just look that way, if I just point that way, I love my friend Charles Greenway where he used to say, "I'm going to make it. If I don't make it, I'll be pointing that way. But I'm going to tell you something. If you're pointing that way, you're going to make it. If you're pointing that way, he's going to come. If you're aiming that way, when you're swallowed up with sorrows, you refuse to point. But if you turn and point and look, he will come. He will touch. He will deliver. He will satisfy. He will bring his best promises to bear upon your life." [01:02:15]

They could have accepted or succumbed to their death sentence when they saw that the furnace got te turned up seven times hotter, but they didn't. I've often thought about what those boys could have thought after the guards grabbed them, they stood up to Nebuchadnezzar in the name of God and said, "We're not bowing down. We're not going to worship you. We only worship God. this is where we stand. And that was really cool. They expected now God's going to just take care of everything, right? Don't you think that when you do those kind of things for God, he's just going to take care of everything now? It's just going to go smooth." [01:03:11]

God has a way where there seems to be no way. God is bigger than any fire that rages against you. Any storm that comes your way. Can you say amen? Now to relate to this predicament, let me share a part of my own story and I must tell this quickly. You see, depression and hopelessness was never really a part of my life. I mean, I reached a crisis point of hopelessness where I came to Christ and he saved me and and when he saved me, I was back to being a cheerful, funny, humorous, jovial kind of person. [01:06:50]

But even when he restored my life and even when he brought my back and brought me back and all the alcohol and the drugs were gone, something remained. despair, depression, deep and dark depression that I had never known in my life. So dark, so deep I never wanted to leave my bedroom. I never wanted to see anybody. All my social skills, affinities, or desires to relate to people were gone. I just wanted to be alone. I was drowning in my sorrows. I was smothered in my circumstance. I was overcome by the things that had come upon me. The wreckage of the past, the ruination of my life, a dismal and dark future. [01:08:14]

It mastered me. It controlled me. And there was nothing I could do to rescue myself. I could not pull myself out. The fire without had become a fire within. And I was being consumed and destroyed. And I had nothing to look forward to. Nothing interested me. Nothing caught my attention except that which overwhelmed me until Psalm 16:11 became a lifesaving verse in truth to me. It is that great verse. It's not on the screen, but I know it. That great verse, Psalm 16:11, in my presence is the fullness of joy. [01:08:54]

It is imperative that we transition from predicament to the promise and not stay stuck. Don't stay stuck. Don't stay stuck. If there was hope for me, there's hope for you. If there was hope for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, there's hope for you. If there was hope for the Apostle Paul, there's hope for you. Don't stay stuck. In fact, read the whole of 2 Corinthians 1 where Paul said, "We were convinced we were going to die. It was above measure our distress and so on. Here's what he says. Yes, we had the sentence of death death in ourselves. And then he says, here's the reason. [01:10:40]

Your spiritual posture is the key to your ultimate victory. The fire may burn around you, but it doesn't have to burn in you. The furnace was real, but notice the fire never got inside them. It never got inside them. Despair isn't about what's happening to you. It's about what you allow to happen in you. And that refusal to be comforted and that need to look away to the comforter and the helper. You may hear me in my seat sometimes when we worshiping the Lord and I just say, "My helper, my helper." That's what I like to call him, my helper, because he is my helper. [01:21:20]

A preemptive strike means before the enemy attacks, I'm going to take out some of his forces. before the enemy launches all he's got on me, in advance of that, in anticipation of that, while I'm in this safe place, this good place, before the attack even comes, I'm going to launch because the threat is there, I'm going to launch a preemptive strike. So, we take out some of the adversaries tools, weaponry, etc. I love this. A preemptive strike isn't about waiting for the attack. It's about being so aware that of what could come that you position yourself in advance spiritually. [01:23:09]

When we fight fire with fire, we're fighting the fire that comes against us with the fire of the Holy Ghost that's in us. We're igniting something in our lives. We're propelling something in our spirits. We're stirring up something in our souls. Just like Paul told Timothy, Timothy, stop reeling to and fro. Stop wallowing in your weakness. Timothy, stir up the gift of God that is in you, that has come upon you, even by the laying on of hands. Activate that which you have. Stir up your faith in Jesus. Build up your most holy faith, praying always in the Holy Ghost. Come against that which comes against you. Fight fire with fire in Jesus name. [01:27:20]

The fire within you is greater than the fire around you, child of God. The fire within you is greater than the fire around you. Despair is a liar. The fire you face in fear is not the end. Refuse to bend or bow to your sorrow. Keep your posture of faith. Make a preemptive strike, a bold decoration. God is in the fire with you and you'll get through this. Don't Don't jump to conclusions that things are going against you. Give God an opportunity to demonstrate how he's working them for you. [01:28:14]