Truth About Trouble

June 22, 2014

Job 5:6-7; 14:1

In this message I want to return to take a closer look at Job 5:6-7 and preach on “The Truth About Trouble.”

Trouble doesn’t just spring out of the ground like weeds (v.6). Trouble doesn’t come randomly or by chance. There is a reason behind trouble.

The basic assumption of Job’s three friends was trouble is “self-induced” or “self-inflicted.” They were saying, “Job, the reason you are having trouble is because you have brought it upon yourself.” While what Eliphaz said in our text is true, it is a truth misapplied to Job’s situation.

Trouble is linked with man’s BIRTH. Man was born wrong. He was born with a sinful nature (Ps. 51:5). So naturally trouble comes just as sparks naturally fly upward. That is why a man must be “born again”—His first birth was wrong. Your first birth will not get you into heaven (John 3).

There is no escaping trouble in this life. Trouble is part of living in a fallen world filled with fallen men and fallen angels. Much of our trouble may be attributed to “spiritual warfare” (Eph. 6:10-12; 1 Thess. 2:18).

THREE WAYS God uses trouble:

I. God uses trouble to REDEEM sinners.

The reason many remain unsaved is they are so busy and so affluent they don’t think they need God. They are getting along fine without God. So, God will allow trouble to come into their lives to help them recognize they need God. Many get saved when they are in trouble (disease… divorce… drugs… prison).

A. The case of Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:1-7,9).

B. The case of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

C. The case of Chuck Colson.

He was President Richard Nixon’s White House Counsel. He did not believe in God, and was ruthless about getting his way. His biographer said during his time in the White House, Colson had the coldest heart of anyone he knew—”Colson would walk over his own grandmother” if she stood in his way of doing what he wanted to do.” As Nixon’s “hatchet man” he was one of the most powerful and feared men in Washington during the early 1970’s.
Then trouble came—“Watergate.” Colson was sent to federal penitentiary. While in prison, some believers witnessed to him and gave him a copy of C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity. Colson was “born again” and his life changed. After he was released from prison he founded Prison Fellowship in 1976, which is “the nation’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families.”
Colson would have never acknowledged his need of God if it were not for the trouble of Watergate!