Walking With God Through the Dark Times – Dr. Charles Stanley
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www.aberdeen.io 1-800-688-6621 male announcer: "In Touch"
with Dr. Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the
gospel of Jesus Christ through sound biblical teaching. Next on "In Touch,"
"Walking With God Through the Dark Times." Dr. Charles Stanley: We all
walk through those dark times in our lives, things we
don't understand. And oftentimes they're things we
don't understand why they happen and why they happen
when they happen. Times we feel overwhelmed, don't
understand what's going on. Times we just want
to give up and quit. Times when we feel like
everything seems to be hopeless and we feel so helpless. It may be that those dark times
come with something financial, something that is continually a
burden in your life, or it may be because the marriage breaks
up, and it's a time of dread darkness in your life. It could be grief over your
children for something that's going on in their life. Maybe you lost your job. Maybe it's a time of ill
health, and it just goes on and on and on. Maybe your fondest dreams have
been dashed and the future looks so gloomy. All of us are going to go
through dark times in our life. We won't always understand why. Sometimes they're gonna be
short-lived, sometimes they're gonna be prolonged, and we do
not understand why God doesn't stop it even now. But even though that happens,
there's a way for us to respond, and God has given to us in His
word the principles by which you and I are to operate in every
single circumstance of life, no matter what it is. And when we talk about walking
through darkness, I want to be sure we understand something,
and that is it's one thing to walk in darkness; it's something
else to walk through darkness. Now the scripture says, for
example, in Colossians chapter one Paul is talking about our
relationship to Christ and where we are in that relationship. And here's what he says
in this first chapter. He says we know, for example,
that "He has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and
transferred us to the kingdom of His dear Son," so that we, as
believers, in Colossians 1:13, we as believers do
not live in darkness. We may walk through dark times. So there's a difference in
walking through dark times, which are those times of
difficulty and hardship and pain in their life, and not
walking in a life of sin. For example, he says in
1 John chapter 1-- listen to what he says. He says, "If we say that we have
fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and
do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He
Himself is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." So we're not talking about
living in darkness, we're not talking about walking in
darkness as a sinful situation, but through those
dark times in our life. And that's what I want to talk
about in this message entitled, "Walking with God
Through the Dark Times." And somebody, you may say, "Oh
my goodness, I've been there." Well, what did you do
when you were there? And you may say, "Well,
that's where I am now." What are you doing and how
are you responding in these dark times in your life? And so I want to choose the life
of Joseph, for example, and you may turn to the 37th chapter
of Genesis, because it's interesting that though he was
not the most important one of Jacob's sons, that 37-50
chapters of the book of Genesis is all about the life of Joseph. And he's a perfect example for
us to look at and examine and see how God helped
him walk through a long period of darkness. So, I want to read these first
four verses to give us a little background, a little capsule
about Joseph's life, because some of you will say,
"Well, who is Joseph?" And I can tell you all
about him in just about a couple of minutes. But listen to these
verses, beginning in the thirty-seventh chapter. "Now Jacob," one of God's chosen
servants, "lived in the land where his father had sojourned,
in the land of Canaan. These are the records of
the generations of Jacob." And so, he tells us about that. And so, here's what he says:
"Joseph," one of his sons, "when seventeen years of age, was
pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a
youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of
Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought back
a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel," that is Jacob's
other name, "loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he
was the son of his old age; and he made him a varicolored
tunic," which you have heard about, the many-colored colors
of Joseph's particular robe that his son--father made for him. Very special one; coat of
many colors, we call it. "His brothers saw that their
father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they
hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms." So let me give you a
little idea who he is. Joseph is the youngest son of
Jacob--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, God's genealogical line--and
so his brothers hate him. And the Bible says many times
how much they hate him because he is the protected one. And so when he goes out and
brings back his father's report, it was a bad report, and so
they see him as a tattletale. And then he had these dreams. One of these dreams was these
sheaves, each one representing his brother, and they were all
bowing down to his sheath, which was in the center. That made them
that much more angry. Then he talked about this
dream of the sun and the moon bowing down to his sheath. And so, the Bible says
that they hated him because of his attitude. They thought he was prideful,
egotistical, and cocky, and so what happens is his father
sends him to check up on them. They see him coming and they
say, "Here comes that dreamer." They decided to kill him. Finally Judah, the most
important brother of all in the genealogical line--Jesus, the
lion of the tribe of Judah-- he says, "He's our brother;
we must not kill him." And so here comes a caravan. They said, "So let's--OK,
we won't kill him, we'll just sell him." So they sell him to a caravan,
takes him down to Egypt, and he's bought on the slave block
to--bought by Potiphar, who's the captain of the
guard of Pharaoh. Brings him into his
household; he's doing fantastic. His wife tries to seduce him
and so he's thrown into jail, and there he is for a
season of time. Pharaoh has a couple of dreams,
and Joseph interprets the dream, and he ends up, after this
prolonged period of darkness, as the prime minister of Egypt. With that in mind, what I want
to do is lay down six very, very valuable principles that all of
us need to remember when we go through those dark times. So here's the first one, and
I want you to be sure to get 'em jotted down now. The first one is this,
that is, God is with us in our dark times. This is the
foundational principle. God is with us in
our dark times. And what I want you to see
is how he was with Joseph. First of all, his
brothers were going to kill him. God was with him. He spoke to Reuben and then he
also spoke to Judah, and instead of killing him, they sold
him into Egyptian bondage. Well, he was with him again. Potiphar purchases him as a
slave, and so in doing so, here's what happens. The scripture tells us
how God worked in his life. In the 39th chapter, the
scripture says, "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt;
and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain
of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had
taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, so
he became a successful man. And he was in the house of
his master the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the LORD
was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did
to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his
sight, became his personal servant; made him an overseer
of the house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. It came about that from the
time he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he
owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house on account of
Joseph; thus the LORD's blessing was upon all that he owned,
in the house and in the field. So he left everything he owned
in Joseph's charge; and with him there he did not concern
himself with anything except the food which he ate." So now he's the absolute
total administrator of everything that Potiphar owns. But here's what happens. The scripture says "that his
wife looked with desire at Joseph, and said, 'Lie with me.' But he refused and said to the
master's wife, 'Behold, with me here, my master does not
concern himself with anything in the house, he has put all
he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in
this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except
you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great
evil, and sin against God?'" And so, the scripture says,
"And she spoke to Joseph day after day." Didn't listen to her; she
frames him, and so when Potiphar discovers it, naturally,
he throws him in prison. So now he's in prison. Well, he was with him all
throughout the time he was in Potiphar's household. Now that he's in prison, listen
to this, thirty-ninth chapter and the nineteenth verse:
"Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she
spoke to him, saying, 'This is what your slave did to
me,' his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and
put him into the jail, the place where the king's
prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail. But the LORD was with Joseph and
extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the
sight of the chief jailer. And the chief jailer committed
to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail;
so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not
supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the
LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD
made it to prosper." Now, here's the perfect example. When we go through difficult
times, those dark times in our life, you can, listen, you can
rest on this truth that even as God was with Joseph,
he's going to be with you. Does he not say in that
thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, chapter five, he says, "I will
never leave you nor forsake you. I will not abandon you in
any situation, any circumstance, at any time." He says, "I'm gonna be with ya." And turn if you will to the
139th Psalm and notice if you will in this passage, a familiar
passage of scripture, and listen to what God says in
this particular passage. He says, for example, as the
Psalmist is asking beginning in verse seven, "Where can
I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee
from Your presence?" And the answer is nowhere. And then he says in verse eleven
of this same 139th Psalm, "If I say, 'Surely the darkness
will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,'
Even the darkness, listen, even the darkness is not dark
to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light
are alike to You." Therefore, no matter what you
and I go through, there is no physical darkness in
God's eyes as far as He not being able to see. And when you and I walk through
dark seasons of our life, God sees every single event and
every single part of it, so that the basic bottom-line
principle, when you and I walking through the dark times,
no matter how dark, no matter who caused it, no matter
what the source is, the basic, bottom-line principle is this:
God is with me in this darkness. And as a child of God, you
have the right, you have the authority, listen, the
privilege, the anticipation, the expectation; you can have
absolute confidence in this, that no matter what you're
facing in life, God is going to be with you in that. Now you say, "But I'm
not even a Christian." Then cancel everything that I
said, because the promise of God with you--when you have
rejected his Son Jesus Christ, when you have spurned the work
of the Holy Spirit who's trying to convict you and show you
how much God loves you, when you have turned your back
upon his Son Jesus Christ, you do not have the privilege,
listen, you do not have the privilege of claiming
God's presence in your life. You say, "Well, doesn't he say,
'Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death I
will fear no evil, for thou art with me'?" How, listen, how do you develop
a relationship with God? We all came into
this world as sinners. Listen, we violated the
principles of the word of God, we disobeyed God, we've
rebelled against God, we're separated from God, and now,
what is it that brings sinner and holy God together? One thing, and that is
the cross of Jesus Christ. The shedding of his blood at
Calvary makes it possible for me to cry out to this
holy God, asking him to forgive me of my sins. And the moment He
does, what happens? I am saved by his grace. He comes to, listen, to live on
the inside of us, to abide in us, and now we have the living
God living within us to take us through every single
dark season of our life. That is, listen, that's the
unwavering, unfaltering, eternal promise of every single
child of the living God. Basic principle, God is
with me in this darkness. Now the second principle is
this, and that is that God has a purpose for allowing these
dark times in our lives. You say, "Well, but you don't
know what I'm going through." Doesn't make any difference. If you're a child of God, God
has a very specific purpose for allowing whatever
darkness you're going through in your life. Look at Joseph's
life, for example. God was preparing him, listen,
for a place of service that would be an awesome place of
service, because the truth is, in human terms, he was
he was acting as savior. Savior of his family
by bringing them down. Savior of the whole civilization
of Egypt, because seven long years of famine--had there been
no preparation, people would have died by the thousands
and thousands and thousands. And so what appeared to be an
evil act on the part of his brothers became, listen, an act
of salvation in the eyes of God. And so the principle is
simply this: God has a purpose in it all. The third principle I want you
to notice is this, and that is, listen, the darkness will last
as long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose. Somebody says, "Well, how
long is this gonna last?" As long as is necessary for
God to accomplish his purpose. If you and I could look down
through the darkness and look down through our life in the
future, and we could see what God sees that he is doing in our
life and what he's going to do, if we could see through the
darkness and see on the other side of the darkness
what He had in mind, you know what you and I'd say? We'd say, "Yes!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" Because I wanna
tell you something. I've lived long enough to know
and have been through enough dark times in my life that
every single solitary time-- now, I acted just like
everybody else at times. "God, what are you up to? Why don't we get over this? Let's move on; you
know what I have to do." You know what? He didn't say a word,
absolute dead silence. Watch this. I've lived long enough to know
that every single solitary time that when I got through that
period of darkness, I could look back and think, "Ohhhh, now
I see what you were up to. I understand what you're doing. Thank you, thank
you, thank you." Do I want to go
back through it again? Absolutely not, absolutely not. Am I grateful He
brought me through it? Absolutely yes. Am grateful for what I learned?
Yes indeed. Do I wanna go back
through it again? No, no, no.
God has a purpose. Now watch this, he's going to
make Joseph second in command, so that in these
years, what is God doing? God is preparing him to do what? To be the prime
minister of Egypt. And how--what's important? That he learn, he learn every
single one of these things. He had to learn the
customs and the language. He had to learn. Besides that, what's he doing? He's learning to be an
administrator in Potiphar's household, down at the jail
house; he's learning to be an organizer; he's learning
to live under authority. In God's eyes, what is he doing? Getting him ready for this
awesome place of service. And oftentimes, we just wanna
rush through the bad times. I do just like you do. We wanna rush through them and
get on with something better, but you know what? God knows what he wants to
do with your life, and so, listen--watch this, all the dark
times you have been through have been preparation if
you've responded correctly, preparation, and have been times
of progress in your life that you didn't even understand,
and Joseph didn't understand it. He could have never have
foretold what was gonna happen. That's why the principles
are so very important. And that is, listen, God is
working a purpose in our life. Then think about this, we think
about all these principles. And the fourth one is this: we
learn more in the dark than we do in the light. We learn more in the dark,
in the darkness, than we do in the light. Think about what Joseph learned. I think one of the things he
learned was probably more of an appreciation for his family than
he had before, because he sorta had everything going his way. Probably began to realize that
one of the reasons his brothers may have hated him so much is
that he was his father's number one choice, and he
probably may possibly have taken advantage of that. And so when we talk about
learning more in the darkness than we do in the light, I
think about--probably he learned a lot of things. He learned how faithful God was
to him in all of this situation. He learned that even in his
darkest moments, God kept revealing his presence and
kept elevating him no matter where he was. He certainly realized and
learned in this period of time that he had skills and gifts. For example, he had skills
and gifts in the areas of administration and service that
he would never have known in his father's household, when
everything was just catered to him and his father favored him. He'd have never understood that
till he got in a situation where he had to, he was
forced to, and so he learned a great deal about himself. And he certainly learned,
listen, he certainly learned where he was morally,
because when he was tempted by Potiphar's wife, he learned by
his refusal to say yes to her. He learned that he had a quality
of basic godly, divine morality that tempted at--listen,
probably the greatest temptation of his life, he was able
to say no and walk away. He learned a lot of things
about himself, but look where he learned 'em. He learned them in the darkness. Then, even in the dark times,
we are walking toward the light. That is a basic principle:
even in the dark times, we are walking toward the light. Now look at Joseph's life,
for example. When he was up there with
his family, he was walking toward the light. When he was thrown into the
pit, he was still moving toward the light. When he was in Potiphar's
household as a slave and a servant, he was
still in the light. When he was falsely accused,
still moving in the light. When he was in prison, he
was still in the light. See, listen, don't
underestimate what God wants to do in your life. You're always moving
to the light, you see. If, listen, if my focus is
upon Him, he's always moving me to the light. And even in the darkest
moments, it's dark to me; it's not dark to Him. So anywhere we are in life,
God is always leading us to the light. Now listen, if I refuse to
follow the light that's in front of me, I'm gonna
stay in the darkness. You say, "Well, how much
light is God gonna give us?" I can tell you how much he's
gonna give you, no matter who you are: one step at a time. Not even one day at a
time, but one step at a time. What we don't realize is,
listen, oftentimes we hit forks in the road in our life in a
given day that God wants to use you in ways that you never
even dreamed of, wants to impact somebody's life that you didn't
even think were looking at you or watching you, or
whatever it may be. He's always moving us towards
the light, but if I shut my eyes to God's will and his
plan and I'm gonna do it my way, you know what happens? I'm gonna run around in the
circles in darkness until I'm gonna say, "OK, God, I'm gonna
focus on you, I'm gonna trust you, because
here's what you said. You said, 'I will never leave
you nor forsake you.' That's what you said. I'm trusting you, I'm
believing you for it. You cannot violate your own
command and still be God, amen? Therefore, I know that you're
with me in this, that I am learning, that you're--
I am progressing, I am moving to the light. You are accomplishing a purpose;
you've got something specific in mind in my life." You keep your focus on
God, and you know what? There's always a ray just in
front of you to know exactly where to step next, because
God is leading you to the light. Then I would give you
just one more principle. Think about this. What we learn in the darkness,
we are to share in the light. What we are to learn in
the darkness, we are to share in the light. I'm talking about being,
listen, being sensitive. Being available to people around
you who are walking in darkness and walking through darkness and
don't understand, and they're just throwing out hints, and
these hints are just saying, "I need help, somebody help me." Are you available to almighty
God to share what you've learned in the darkness? And I wanna challenge you,
all I've done is just said, look, you know what? I wanna help you become an
awesome tool in the hand of God to help other people who
are walking through darkness. And yet for many of you, you're
saying, "You know what, not for somebody else, but for me,"
because you're in the darkness. And maybe you're one of those
persons who's lost your loved one and it all looks dark to
you right now, or something's happened to your children;
it all looks darkness. Or physically, materially,
you've lost it all; everything looks dark. Or the doctor's come in and
said, "I hate to say this to you--I'm sorry to have to
tell you this," and everything looks dark. God's awesome, eternal,
everlasting, precious word will turn those moments of darkness
into absolute brilliant, radiant light if you
will simply read it. Trust Him to be who He is; He'll
turn your darkness into light. ♪♪♪