The Reality of Your Problems

How to understand and live with problems in our life.

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Reading of the Word

Genesis 3

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Prayer

Father is we consider your word, allow its light, its wisdom, clarity, its voice be louder than all that the world noises have to offer

Warm up

Good morning my name is Eric Mattie and I give you greetings from your sister church LaCrescent Evangelical Free church and thank you again for the invite come and worship and share the word this morning

I want to start out this morning to asking if you have noticed any problems that have happened in the world this week?

How about problems yourself, like within your own life. Have there been problems that have come into your life.

When I became engaged and was being mentored and learning what I’d have to do in order to lead my wife and home, I learn that I’d have to man up and make decisions.

Little did I know that I lot of life and “adulting” as we call ity today was manning up and make decisions.

And the aspect of decision making included dealing with problems.

If you’ve heard this before I apologize but a few years ago I received a ministry email from Paul David Tripp in which he identified 4 realities about our problems.

Well I put this list to the test at my work.

You seeI deal with problems all day. I work in the service department. I identify problems. I correct mistakes, I make solutions happen for both my co-workers and our customers. There isn’t a day that I don’t have someone coming to clarify procedures and how to handle a rough email or if they have computer trouble- including my supervisor. And I go to them for the same things its very much a cooperative effort.

But I wanted to gauge with this list if the everyday problems of real work life filter down to these 4 realities.I put them on a yellow sticky note So as the years have gone by and I look at this list it helps me gain a perspective of both the temporal and eternal value of problems, but its also helped me grow up in the Lord and to sanctify me as I stride smoothly some days and even on the days or even weeks that I stumble humbly.

Today I want to give you the overview of the reality of your problems. I ‘ve included notes in your bulletin to follow the train of thought. But I thought could help you form a biblical view point and a starting point o have problems not just be something that you are stuck with, but Lord willing gain wisdom on how to honor God in it and throughit

It all start with the familiar passage in all of Scripture and you can turn with me in your Bibles Genesis 3 The Fall of mankind

Our good God created a good world and a good human race who reflected his goodness. Suffering and evil, pain and problems were not a part of God’s original design. We understand that problems we have today and that make up a big part of our lives, is a by product of sin.

Here in Genesis 3 it shows us 6 realities of the problems we face. And at the core of the mystery of problems many question God’s providence: Why does a good and big sovereign God run the universe the way he does? Why does such a loving heavenly Father cause or allow suffering and problems to be used in his universe that he originally did not create that way?

More personally, why do some seem to live in relative ease while others are consistently pounded with heavy blows? And why does this particular circumstance happen to this person—or worse, to me or my family?

Those are all good probing questions, ones that undoubtedly you may have asked. I will sketch along the edges of those questions and we will have some insights about problems I will conclude our time asking the practical question How do we live with problems?

Let’s consider 6 realities of your problems.

1. We live in a broken world

· In the Genesis 3 account of history and then subsequently through the rest of biblical commentary of it we understand that God says that Adam’s sin brought consequences of a curse, a condemnation and a corruption, into this world

· Consequences includes—estrangement from God, shame, alienation from others, suffering, banishment, lost identity and death.

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;

Genesis 3:17

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law Romans 5:12,13

For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, Romans 5:16b

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. Romans 8:20-22

· The present condition of creation is not it final one. It is like a mother groaning in labor pains. There is something better coming.

Time today does not allow a fuller discourse on the suffering and the presence of evil in world that God created good. It is a massive subject. To talk about disorder on every level, disability physical and mental, disease, depression death and disasters natural or consequential all these a massive subject. All these mentioned and to remind us, we live in a broken world.

I like it when Pastor Matt Chandler talks about it- he says the world is “busted” and if you don’t believe that- shadow a week in the life of a social worker for families. Follow a day with a undercover police officer. Intern with an Oncologist—the ones who diagnose and treat tumors. Consequently, they watch people either survive or die under their care. These are rough jobs They are dialed in to how busted the world is.

Yet we can gain a Biblical perspective on problems by understanding that the some problems we face is because we live in a fallen world where everything and everyone is currently decay and is not as God originally intended.

When we have Problems as a result of a broken world, it screams “Confusion” Problems of suffering and evil confuse us:

· “its not supposed to work this way” “This isn’t the way I was taught life goes” “as we get older it supposed to get better”

· “I’ve already faced this problem before.” “ I’m only supposed to have this happen once in a lifetime and then I learn my lessons and graduate and move on”

· “ Why does life seem so unfair” “Why does this always happen to me”

So the first reality of our problems is that we live in a broken world that doesn’t always run the way we think it should.

2. We have a real enemy

· In Genesis 3 we clearly see and understand the serpent here is Satan a real enemy who hates God and who hates you.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”” (Gen 3:1)

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” 1 Peter 5:8,9

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. “

John 10:10

o The Bible has many Scriptural Accounts of Spiritual activity and involvement in our world that creates problems. We see that even Satan’s action are an attack on God himself and realizing he will never win, he goes after the Father through his children. And what he is after is to steal God’s glory.

o It is so important for a believer to live our lives for the glory of God that is something bigger than ourselves. If Satan can get us to live a life of mediocrity that we don’t reflect the glory of God, than he has accomplished his purpose. One way he does this is by making us preoccupied with possessions of this world. The 2nd is to be preoccupied w/ problems of this world.

There are times we have problems in life because we have a real enemy who hates us and when those troubles come -the devil with also be screaming “Condemnations” and lies to us the whole time. Our Savior himself names the devil the Father of Lies. In Revelation 12:10 we hear that he is called the accuser of the brothers.

o “this always happens to me.” “God doesn’t love me” “If God Loves me why does he allow these problems?”

o “I am such a loser and this is what always happens to losers” I’ve failed again” “I must have sinned again “ “Am I that bad of a sinner that God has to discipline me”” what’s wrong with me”

So the second reality of our problems is that we have an enemy who hates us.

Now let me say, that not all of our problems come from the devil.