 Yeah, keep your place in Romans chapter 8, so you're going to put a bookmark in Romans chapter 8 because we're going to be going back and forth and back and forth and always coming back to Romans chapter 8. So kind of the point of this morning's sermon is going to be kind of to explain to you Romans chapter 8 and verse number 28, what that really means and how that actually works in our lives. The Bible says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. I'm going to explain that to you this morning. That's kind of a bumper sticker. You'll see that verse on people's fridge at their house. But what does that actually mean? You know, people take that to mean that, oh, everything just works out good for everybody all the time. That's not what that means. I'm going to show you the context of that verse this morning and how we can understand that verse in our lives. As a matter of fact, the title of the sermon this morning is, you know, on dealing with hard times. The title of the sermon this morning is four steps to deal with hard times in your life. Four steps to deal with hard times in your life. So I'm going to show you this morning four things that we can look at in the Bible that will help you get through difficult times in your life. So the first thing before we even get into those first steps, look down at Romans chapter 8 and verse number 18. Before we even get into those four steps, let's just do a little bit of introduction on hard times in our lives. Look at verse number 18 of Romans chapter 8. The Bible says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. So Paul is saying that the sufferings of this present time, and then Okudi says, For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him has subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Saying that, you know, there's corruption in this creation. In verse 22, he says, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. So the point, the first thing you need to understand in your life is that in this world that we're living in, in this corrupt world, in your corrupt body, in this corrupt earth, this corrupt creation that has fallen into sin, we have to understand that hard times will come. Hard times will come in your life. Even Paul talked about the sufferings of this present time. So in John 16-1, to actually turn to John chapter 16 real quickly. So John chapter 16 is, you know, if you have a red letter Bible, it's mostly all red, it's just Jesus talking. But Jesus actually talked about these hard times. And in John chapter 16 and verse number one, look at Jesus, actually look at verse number two first. Let's go verse number two and then verse number one. Look what Jesus says in John 16 and verse number two. The point being as introduction is that hard times are going to come in your life. Maybe you say, you know, things aren't hard for me right now. Well, that's great, but hard times are going to come in your life, okay? And if you're, you know, if you're over the age of 15, you know this. I mean, you know that hard times are inevitable in your life. Look at what Jesus says in verse two of John 16. He says, they shall put you out of the synagogues. Ye the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, thinketh that he doeth God's service. And then he goes on and says, you know, more things that will happen to the Christians. But look at verse number one. He says, these things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended. So this right here is the problem with the prosperity gospel preacher right here. This preacher that gets up and just says, hey, become a Christian. Maybe he's even got the correct gospel. I don't know. But this guy that gets up and says, become a Christian so your life will be great. You know, that's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying, look, bad things are coming. You know, things that bad are going to happen to you in Matthew chapter 24, Mark chapter 13, all these different places in the Bible. Jesus tells us, you know, about the end times, bad things that are going to happen, tribulation that's going to come in our lives. And Jesus says, I'm telling you these things so when those things happen to you, you won't be offended. Because guess what? This is the problem with the prosperity gospel is that, you know, it's kind of like having a fair weather friend. If you've ever heard that term, fair weather friends. That means that's a friend. So like, say, you know, this is like, you know, celebrities and wealthy people. They have a lot of fair weather friends. They have a lot of friends that just love being around them because they have a great big house and they're always doing great big things and they have all kinds of money to do fun things. And maybe they have all these luxurious things and they live this luxurious life. And they have all these friends that are only there. But if all their money would go away, they would have no friends because those friends are just there for that prosperity that they have. We don't want to be fair weather Christians. And that's what Jesus is telling us this in John chapter 16. He's saying, look, I'm saying, I'm telling you, it's not that there's not going to be blessings in your life as a Christian. God would love to bless you if you're doing things that are worthy of blessings or pomegranates, right? God would love to just pour pomegranates on you. But we're living in this corrupt creation and you're going to be oppressed. Bad things are going to happen. Look, just hard times are going to come. And Jesus doesn't want people to be like, oh, I thought this was all supposed to be good. You know, living this Christian life where you think that it's just all good and Joel Osteen, you know, if I just go to church and do what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to be rich and I'm going to have nothing but blessings in my life and no hard times will ever come to me. Because then when those hard times do come and they will come, you'll be like, hey, what's the deal? And you'll walk away. You'll be offended. You'll walk away from that Christian life. This is kind of the biggest problem with the pre-trib rapture people. I mean, I don't really care if somebody is like pre-trib rapture, but this is the biggest danger for them is that they think that, because what's the biggest selling point for the pre-trib rapture? It's not in the Bible, but the biggest selling point is it sells because people like to hear that they're never going to go through trouble. Like, hey, you're not going to, God wouldn't put you through trouble. Look, that's not even close to what the Bible says. That's not even close to what we can look at throughout history that Christians have gone through. Christians have gone through nothing but trouble. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Just talking about all the pain and suffering that all the prophets and all the great men of God in the Bible went through. Look, the Bible says that hard times will come to us. And the reason that we need to know this is so we're not offended when they do come, okay? So that's the first thing you need to recognize before we even get in to these four points is that you're either in hard times or hard times are coming in your life. I'm not trying to depress you this morning. I'm just trying to tell you these things and then prepare you so when those hard times do come in your life, you'll be ready for those hard times. And you'll be able to weather those storms. I mean, that's the kind of friends that I would want to have, friends that are with me for the good times when things are going well for me and then friends that are there with me through the bad times. We should have a Christian life that is there in the good times and that is also there in the bad times in the hard times, okay? That should be our Christian life. I mean, look, life has suffering in it. What's the reasons for it? Maybe, I mean, one of the reasons is you could be going through chastisement of God. God could be chastising you. So whenever you're going through hard times, you should always check yourself. Look, we shouldn't do this to other people. We shouldn't see somebody going through hard times and be like, we shouldn't be Job's friends. But we should always check ourselves when we're going through hard times like, hey, is there something God's trying to teach me here? Is there something where God's trying to correct me? Is there something where God is trying to get something out of my life? Is he trying to show me something? Takes a humble person to be able to look at that, but you should always do a check on that. But look, God's chastisement is not the only reason that you will go through hard times. You know, you could go through tribulation. The Bible says that you will suffer persecution if you're living godly in Christ Jesus. You could go through tribulation, which is other people persecuting you many times for your faith in Christ. So it could be chastisement, it could be tribulation, it could be persecution, but here's another thing. It could just be life. It could just be life. It just could be the fact that, you know, we're living in this corrupt creation that's corrupted with sin. We're living in these fleshly bodies, these unglorified bodies. You know, life happens. So all I'm trying to get you to understand this morning is that hard times happen to all of us. Hard times happen to all of us. So let's look at four things we can do to get through those hard times. Because we wanna get through those hard times and come out of those hard times into, you know, into joyful times in our Christian lives. So here's the first thing that you can do. Turn to Genesis, chapter 49. Genesis, chapter 49, and look at verse number four. The first point is this. The first point to get through hard times is this, muscle memory. You say, what do you mean? I'm gonna tell you what it means. You can't be, you can't be in hard times. In hard times, if you don't have muscle memory in your Christian life, you know, you are going to falter in those hard times. Look at Genesis, chapter 49, and verse number four. This would be classified as instability. And Reuben, Jacob, when he was talking to Reuben, he didn't really bless him. He kind of cursed him here. He says, unstable as water. He says to Reuben, thou shalt not excel, because thou went up to thy father's bed, then defiled its thou it, and he went up to my couch. So he's talking about, you know, something Reuben sinned in the past, and he's cursing his son, Reuben, with this. But he says to Reuben, he says, unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. In James 1, 8, the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Turn to 2 Peter, chapter two, 2 Peter, chapter two, and look at verse number 14. 2 Peter, chapter two, verse number 14. So the Bible here is saying, talking about Reuben, it says if you're unstable, you will not succeed at anything. Thou shalt not excel at all in your life, okay? A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. 2 Peter, chapter two is talking about evil people. It's talking about people that are reprobates, people that are trying to do evil to other people. And in verse 14, it says about these evil people. It says having eyes full of adultery that cannot seize from sin, talking about these evil people. But then look what it says. It says beguiling, that means deceiving. So these evil people, they deceive unstable souls. So you see here this unstability in your life is a terrible thing. It says that you won't succeed at anything. You're gonna be deceived by evil people. I mean, stability in your life, and this is the first point right here, stability in your life is such a big deal. It is such a big deal for the Christian life. And look, you'll find this with people. You'll find this even with semi-stable people that a lot of semi-stable people or people that are generally stable, if they do fall out of the Christian life or they do falter in the Christian life, it'll be in transitionary times in their life. Those are the most dangerous times for the Christian. You think about big things like moving, like changing jobs, moving cities, whatever. You think about a death of the family. You think about major life-changing things like maybe a divorce, which hopefully no one ever goes through that. But just major changes in people's lives, they damage their Christian lives many times. Why? Because it creates instability, that's why. And the Bible tells us that instability will make you not successful. Just that idea of instability being unstable will just make you unsuccessful in your Christian life. So even somebody that's stable and then just has a shake up in their life, that's a very dangerous time for them because they could be beguiled, they could be deceived, they could be knocked out of the Christian life. This is why consistency is so important in your Christian life. So this is the first thing. You need to have, this is like church consistency, soul winning consistently. Look, it's not a decision in my family whether we go to church, we just go. You're like, obviously you're the pastor. But even before I was the pastor, we just went. No matter what. No matter what was happening, we went to church. No matter what was happening, we went soul winning. Because why? Because then when hard times come, it's just muscle memory. It just, that's just what we do. That's just what we do. I mean, look, think about the last couple of years with COVID. Go read. You just like, there's constantly articles coming up like, and I figured that this would happen, but there's constantly articles coming up on how the last two or three years affected people's lives. I mean, it really messed people up. There's some people out there that were really just derailed completely by COVID. I just read an article just this morning looking at the news, talking about, you know, how like, and I knew I predicted this one years ago. Like, oh, there are all these like COVID negatively affected the health of the country. You think people just sitting in their houses doing nothing, eating Cheetos for two years? I mean, how could that possibly affect the health? I mean, they're not allowed to go and get heart screenings. They're not allowed to go and get their screenings for all other health problems or whatever. They're like heart diseases exploding now. They're like predicting that like all these deaths are probably gonna happen or have already occurred because of what happened over the two years. I mean, you have to think too hard to figure that one out. It really messed up people's lives, but why? Why is that? Why is it that it created a bunch of health problems with people? Why is it that, you know, there's gonna be all kinds of new, you know, just fatalities from all these diseases that would have been, you know, probably prevented if everything would have been normal? Why? Because they just injected a bunch of instability onto people. So you had people that were just, they were doing something in their life and they had a routine and they just, they got knocked off the rails and it ruined a lot of people. They're talking about just like diabetes and just how like, you know, people are more overweight now and all these different health problems. They'll be analyzing this for years and years and years, trust me. They'll be looking at statistics on this. They killed way more people by locking everyone in their house and telling everyone that it's the best thing to do is just to stay home, especially with what they did to the healthcare system, not to go off on this. But the point is, is what they did was they injected, they injected, they took away people's stability. They took away that stability and it ruined a lot of things for a lot of people. It is what it did, but how about us? What did we do? Same thing we always do. Think about it. Think about it. Think about, you know, all the different Christians that we know is like, our lives generally, yeah, I mean it was at the beginning there and there was a lot of confusion. People didn't really know what was going on. But generally, everyone that we know and especially here and churches that we know, we just kept doing the same thing. We just kept doing the same thing. Just kept going to church, kept going soul winning. Yeah, we tried to do a lot of different things soul winning at the beginning of the whole thing. But generally, largely, we still had our community of brothers and sisters generally things didn't change because what? We have a stable Christian life here. And that's what we're promoting is a stable Christian life. So I mean, COVID and that whole mess didn't really affect, didn't really affect you. If you just had a stable Christian life, you just practiced that muscle memory and you just did what you did the day before. You did what you did the year before. So the point is this, stability is key in your life. Stability is key in your life. You say, I'm not going through hard times right now. You say, my life's pretty decent right now. Well, here's what you should be doing when you're not in hard times. You should be shoring up. You should be shoring up your Christian life. You should be making sure that you don't get lazy in your Christian life. You should be extra consistent in your Christian life. You should be shoring up the fort. You should be refitting artillery in the quiet times when there's not a battle going on. And then, guess what? When the storm comes, you'll remain stable because you'll just have that muscle memory. You'll just have that muscle memory. Because look, I mean, nobody enjoys it through the storm. Nobody says like, hey, hard times, this is great. Nobody says that. Nobody's going through a difficult time in their life and it's just like, I'm really enjoying this pain and suffering that I'm going through right now. Nobody does that. But the key is, if you just do the same thing consistently in your Christian life, you'll just have that muscle memory and you'll just keep going and it'll get you through those hard times. Go back to Romans chapter eight. Look down at verse number 31. Romans chapter eight, look at verse number 31. So get a solid, consistent Christian life and whether you're in hard times or you're in down times or you're in joyful times, just shore up that Christian life. Look, people need to be saved whether it's you're going through a hard time or not. You know, people are just as lost out in this world. People are dying. I mean, I think Garrett did a sermon a couple of years ago where he said how many people in the world are dying every second or something like that. Like people are dying every second in this world. Think about this for a second. People are dying whether or not your finances are good or bad. Whether or not your emotional life is good or bad. People are dying and going to hell every single second in this life. So you gotta think about it from that perspective, shore up that Christian life because look, people's souls are going to hell whether you're going through a storm or not in your life. Look at verse 31. It says what shall we say then to these things? This is kind of the end of what we're gonna go through but the point is this. If God be for us, who can be against us? That's kind of the conclusion of Romans 8, 28 and the verses that I'm gonna explain to you this morning is that if God is for us, nobody can be against us. If God's on your side, so look, make sure God's for you. Get that consistent Christian life, be doing what you're supposed to do all the time, every time and guess what? God will be for you. Then these verses apply to you in your life. So that's the first one. Get that consistent Christian life. Get pulling in the right direction. Get diligent, get soul winning, get in church and just keep going no matter what you're going through your life because people are going to hell anyway. People are dying and going to hell no matter what you're going through in your life. Here's the second point. Turn to Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs chapter 26. You say hard times, what should I do? Okay, I'm gonna get a consistent Christian life, I'm gonna be in church, I'm gonna be soul winning, I'm gonna be reading my Bible, I'm gonna be having a daily prayer time, I'm gonna be doing these things all the time. So then when things get messy in my life or things get shaken up in my life, I can just continue doing those things. I'll just remember my training. All right, that's the first thing. What's the second thing? Look at Proverbs 26 and verse number 13. Here's the second thing that you can do in your life to make it through hard times. The second thing is this, stay busy. Stay busy. Look at Proverbs 26, 13. The Bible says the slothful man says, so this is a man who's not busy. This is a man who's doing nothing. He's lazy, he's laying around. He's just, you know, he's kind of on the couch, he's eating Cheetos off his chest. He's got nothing to do, look what he says. He says, there's a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets. Here's the thing, folks, if you are not busy and you are this man, you will find trouble where there is none. You will conjure trouble. You will conjure, I mean, look at this guy, he's like, ah, I can't go out there. He's like, scary stuff out there. You will make trouble out of nothing if you are not busy. This guy is just sitting there and he's just making excuses why he can't do anything. He's laying there doing nothing and he's making excuses on why he, you know, he just wants to continue doing nothing. I've told my kids this like a billion times, especially the boys, I told them whenever I send you to get a tool, don't ever come back without the tool. If I say, go get me a crescent wrench and you go out in the shop or you go out in the garage or wherever to get the wrench and you can't find it, make me come looking for you half an hour later as you're looking for it. Don't ever come back and say, you know, come back after 20 minutes and say, yeah, I don't have it because X because nobody cares why you failed. Your boss at work doesn't care why you couldn't get it done. All he knows is that you couldn't get it done. Yet there's people out there today that think all I have to do is think of a reason that I wasn't able to get this done and that'll get me out of it. No, you'll just be known as the person who's always saying there's a lion in the streets. There's a lion in the streets. You'll be known as the person that can accomplish nothing. So the first thing is stay busy, stay busy or you will, I mean, you know what? There's another kind of people out there that just refuse to let anything stop them. That's the opposite of this person in Proverbs 26-13. There's people out there that just refuse to fail. There's people out there who will just, they will just die looking for that tool. They will just look everywhere for that tool and they will just never stop looking for it until the boss comes and tells them, hey, the reason that you've been looking for three hours and you've torn this whole garage apart is because I had it in my pocket but he found you looking. He found you trying and trying and trying and he didn't find you making excuses. So the first thing is that people that aren't busy, people that are lazy, they will just see trouble everywhere. They will see trouble, they will see excuses everywhere. That's all they're looking for is excuses, trouble, reasons, turn to 1 Timothy chapter five. So number one, they'll make trouble out of nothing. They will find trouble, they will find excuses, they will find just problems that don't even exist to the average person. If you're not busy, if you're lazy. Look at 1 Timothy chapter five, look at verse 13. Here's another person, here's another thing that people that are not busy will do. They will not only make trouble where there's none, look at verse number 13. They'll make problems out of things that aren't problems. Look at verse 13. And with all they learn to be idle. So here's somebody that doesn't have anything to do. Wandering about from house to house and not only idle but tattlers also and busy bodies speaking things which they ought not. So not only will they find trouble out of something that isn't trouble, they will actually make trouble. People that aren't busy. They will make hard times. They will make difficult situations. So the answer here is stay busy. Stay busy through hard times. Because if you don't stay busy through hard times, you're gonna go and you're gonna, you're gonna see where there's none and you're gonna go cause trouble if you're not busy, just in general. So focus on staying busy through those hard times. And also, focus on your wheelhouse. Focus, I mean what does that mean? I mean that means focus on things that are yours. Focus on your family, your friends, your church. That's it. You don't have to go looking for trouble where there's none for you. Just focus on what's in your wheelhouse. Men and women that have nothing to do that are bored, this is consistent. They cause trouble for themselves and others all the time. It's so consistent in the Christian life. So stay busy. If you're in hard times in your life, those are dangerous times for you. Just focus on the things that you need to be doing. Focus on your family. You have first works with your family. You have first works, we have first works with the church. That's out soul winning. Serving in the church, whatever you do for the church. Maybe there's more you could do for the church. Those are good things to get involved in. Those are first works. But a mother has first works with her family. Stay busy. She's teaching the kids. She's raising the kids. She's keeping the home. Doing all the things that she should be doing. She should stay busy doing those things. Same thing with a husband. He should be working hard. He should be keeping himself busy. And that will help you get through hard times. And that will make it so you don't create more hard times. Turn to Philippians chapter two. So what's the first things? The first things, muscle memory. Get a consistent Christian life. Get a consistent Christian life. And that will carry you through hard times. If God be for us, who could be against us? Verse 31 of Romans eight says, the second thing is stay busy. If you're not busy, you will see trouble where there's none and you will cause more trouble for yourself. Look at Philippians chapter two and look at verse number four. Here's the second thing. So you're saying, well, you know, I don't know what I could keep busy with. Well, I'm gonna help you with that in the third item right here. The third item is focus on other people when you're going through hard times. Look at Philippians chapter two and verse number four. Philippians chapter two and verse number four. Now this is a really big one here. Focus on others through hard times. The Bible says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Look, this one may seem counterintuitive to you, but here's the thing, depression or being overly down in hard times in your life. You know, people that withdraw from people and they get really depressed and all these things. These people, look, I'm not saying that the hard times that you're going through or the trauma that you went through is not real or anything like that, the things that are causing you to be depressed are not real, but here's the thing. People that are just like withdraw from people and get overly depressed, they're too focused on themselves. They're too focused on themselves. Look, maybe even people are more prone to depression than other people, but here's the thing and here's a big miss of psychology today, by the way. A big miss of psychology today, well, they may have recognized a lot of these things in the Bible that I'm gonna tell you about is that they never focus on the root cause. So somebody's going through depression, you know, psychology today, they'll just go right to medication. They're like, oh, take this pill, that'll make you feel better. They'll never focus on maybe the lifestyle that you're living, you know? Somebody's living a lifestyle of being promiscuous and drug and alcohol abuse or whatever. Look, that's gonna, you're gonna get depressed if you live that type of life. You're gonna have major problems that come upon you because of just unlimited sin in your life, but psychology today, they're just gonna give you a pill. They're not gonna focus, because there is nothing that's wrong. There's nothing that's shameful, there's nothing that's wrong. That's what they're telling us today and that's a huge miss by just trying to like medicate this away. The Bible will actually help us get this garbage out of our lives and help us focus, like Philippians 2.4 says, on other people. And guess what? Let me read you something from psychology today. Even science today, and I use that in quotes, even science falsely so-called today, recognizes that focusing on other people helps you psychologically. Psychology today says it this way. Research has found many examples of how doing good in ways big or small not only feels good, but also does us good. For instance, the well-being boosting and depression lowering benefits of volunteering and helping others have been repeatedly documented as has the sense of meaning and purpose that often accompanies altruistic behavior. So what it's saying is, is that people that are out there volunteering for some cause or whatever they're doing. They're out there and they're doing, and you'll see some silly ones, right? You'll see them like whatever. You'll see completely misdirected ones. You'll see people that their cause is like, I don't know, recycling or something like that. Just these silly misdirected causes, but the point is this altruistic behavior, this idealistic behavior, what it's doing is giving them a sense of meaning and purpose. This is exactly what Romans chapter eight is gonna teach us right here. Except our meaning and our purpose is the meaning and the purpose. It's the right one. It's not a motorcycle club. It's not some silly recycling drive or save the great squirrel or something like this. It's an actual, it's the actual purpose and meaning for our lives that Jesus Christ wants us to pursue. And it's saying like by focusing on other people because of this cause that we have in our life, even modern science says that this helps you. This lifts up a person. So look, here's the thing. The Bible says that it's who you should be and even secular science says that it works. It's just another example of science catching up to the Bible is all it is. Science in the Bible. So Philippians chapter two, four is saying, hey, you know what? You're depressed, you're down. Why don't you focus on other people? Why don't you go help somebody do something? Why don't you go find a brother and sister in the church who's having a hard time and go help them dig a hole in their backyard or whatever it is that they're working on or whatever. Look, that's gonna actually help you. That works. What's the opposite of this? The Bible talks a lot about the opposite of this too. You know what the opposite of this is? Turn to Ecclesiastes. The opposite of focusing on others is something that the Bible calls vanity. It's just complete focus on yourself. The Bible calls the opposite of Philippians two, four where you're focusing on other people and that actually helps you, stops you from being depressed. It's counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive to our flesh, right? I mean, my flesh says I'm in a bad mood. What do I need to do? I'm depressed. What do I need to do? I need to go buy a new car. I need to have more money. I need to have all these pleasures in my life. This is what our flesh tells us that we need. It's the exact opposite. The Bible is saying in Philippians two, four, you got problems, you're depressed, quit focusing on yourself. Because number one, that's part of the problem and number two, why don't you focus on other people? Because Ecclesiastes is a man that focused completely on himself. And let's see where it got him. Let's just look at a few verses here. Look at, you ever heard of keeping up with the Joneses? The thing that's dumb about keeping up with the Joneses, thinking you have to have a bigger house than everybody, a nicer car, a better job, all these secular things, is that you can never really win that game. Because there's always somebody with a nicer car. There's always somebody with a nicer house. There's always somebody with a better job. There's always somebody with something that's better than you in this life, but guess what? Solomon won the game. He won the game of keeping up with the Joneses. He literally had more than everyone. And look at where it got him. Look at verse number, look at verse number four. Verse number three says I sought my heart to give myself wine. He said I made me great works. Verse five, I made gardens and orchards. I made pools of water. I got me servants and maidens. I gathered me silver and gold. I gathered me silver and gold and peculiar treasures of kings in the provinces. Look at verse number nine. He won the game. So I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. I had more than anybody and I was smarter than them all. And he's happy because of this, right? Look at verse number 17. He had all these things. He said I did this and I did this and I gave. Look, he denied himself nothing, 700 wives. I mean, he denied himself no earthly pleasure. There was nothing that he could think of in his mind. He's like I want this that he couldn't have. How in the world could a man, I mean, that's what we all want, isn't it? My problems are because I don't have enough money. My problems is all my problems would be solved if I just could make more money, if I just didn't have this debt, if I just didn't have these bills that keep coming up or my car needs tires or all these things break and like this is my problem. And if I just had all these things, it would all be better. Solomon won the game. There was nothing he could conjure in his mind that he couldn't have. Look at verse 17. It says therefore I hated life. He hated his life on earth. Why? Because he was focused completely on himself and not on other people, as the Bible says. He was focused in the wrong direction. So you go through hard times, take the focus off yourself. First of all, you're going through hard times. I guarantee you there's somebody who has worse times that they're going through. Probably somebody that you know personally that's going through worse times than you. Take the focus off yourself. And by the way, if you're going through problems that can be fixed by money, those are not problems in your life. Those are not real problems. If you can fix a problem, tires in your car is not a problem. You know, you think about your family and health of people. Look, those are things that are hard times. Those are things that are hard times. Take the focus off yourself. Solomon ruined his life because he was completely focused on himself. It's vanity. So in Philippians 2-4, just put a little arrow in your Bible that says the opposite of this is vanity. It's focusing on yourself. So that's item number three. What's item number four? To get through hard times. So what have we got so far? What have we got? We got, you know, you first got to understand that's not really a part of it, but you know, you need to have that muscle memory. You need to have that consistent Christian life. All right, when you're going through hard times. Number two is you need to stay busy. You need to stay busy in good times or you're gonna create hard times for yourself. Just stay busy always in your life. Being idle in your life is gonna cause you nothing but problems. So get a consistent Christian life. Stay busy. And then focus on other people is number three. Take the focus off yourself. Get rid of the vanity in your life because vanity is gonna make you miserable. The person that's just wallowing in self pity is just, they're wallowing in vanity. You need to get that focus off yourself. What's number four? Number four, turn to Matthew chapter eight. Number four is faith. You're like, all right, I have faith. What do you mean? I'm saved. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm assuming that you have saving faith. You've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. Nothing will ever change that. I'm talking about faith. Look at Matthew chapter eight and let me read you a story. Having faith, Jesus's miracles were always accompanied by something. They were always accompanied by something. Look at Matthew chapter eight. We see a Roman come up to Jesus. A Roman, he came up to Jesus. He was a Roman centurion, a high ranking Roman soldier. Look at verse number five. It says when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him, like asking him for something and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. Jesus says, I'll come to your house and I will heal this man. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof. He shows humility, first of all, just saying, I'm not worthy for you to come to my house. That's humility. But speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. That's an odd thing to say, isn't it? Just speak the word, Lord, my servant shall be healed. How does he know how Jesus' miracles work? How does he know that Jesus doesn't have to touch the man or how does he know how the power of Jesus works here? And look at verse number nine because he explains right here. He says, for I am a man under authority. He says, I know that you can speak something and it will happen. He says, because I'm a man under authority having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go when he goeth and to another come and he cometh and to my servant do this and he doeth it. He's saying, I'm somebody that is in charge of people. And he's like, when I command people, they just do it. He says, when Jesus heard it, he marveled. And he said to them that followed, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, know not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the kingdom of heaven. And he talks about how, you know, he's talking about just like this Gentile, this person is not even of, you know, the nation of Israel has this great faith. But he was not just talking here about faith in him being the Messiah. He was not just talking about the centurion's faith of Jesus being the Messiah, but or even about faith in him being God. I mean, he was literally like talking about how the centurion like had faith that he was God because this centurion believed that Jesus had the power to help him just by speaking. The centurion believed that God could do it. He had no doubt, that's why Jesus just marveled. He's looked at all these Pharisees and these religious leaders and they're just like they can't believe. And here this man, not only does he believe that he's the Messiah, he believes he's God and could just command this servant to be fixed just like that. He just knew Jesus could do it. Turn to Philippians chapter four. Turn to Philippians chapter four. Paul knew this too. Turn to Philippians chapter four. So the fourth point I'm trying to make is going through hard times, you need to have faith. You say faith in what? I already believed on the word Jesus Christ. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a further, a further faith. Faith in your Christian life. Look at Philippians chapter four. I'm talking about faith that Paul had. Look, it's the same saving faith that we all have. Look at Philippians chapter four in verse number 13. Don't forget who wrote this. Paul wrote this in the letter to the Corinthians and he said what? He said, I can do all things. Who's he talking about? Who's I? It's Paul. He says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Here's the thing, do you believe that? When you're going through hard times in your life, do you believe that you can do all things through Christ? Paul believed it. Paul believed it. Do you believe, because here's the thing folks, here's the truth of it. God can fix anything immediately. He can fix any problem that you're going through right now, just like that. Paul believed that. Do you believe that? Does that mean he's going to? Does that mean he's gonna answer every prayer that you pray just the way that you wanted answered? Now go back to Romans chapter eight and let me explain this to you. The faith I'm talking about, before we get into the Romans chapter eight explanation here, the faith that I'm talking about is, do you believe that God can do anything for you? Do you believe that God can fix anything? Do you believe that God has the power to intervene with whatever hard times you're going through? Do you believe that? How about this, if he doesn't do it, the way you want it done, do you still believe that? Or do you only believe, do you only have faith in what God can do if he answers your prayers the way you want them answered? Think about that. This is what Romans eight is talking about. Go to Romans chapter eight and everyone will listen very carefully. Look at verse 26. Romans chapter eight and verse 26. Everybody, you know, they have it on their refrigerator. Romans chapter eight in a false Bible version. Basically it says, you know, all things work out good. All things work out good. That's what it'll say in some false Bible version. Look at verse number 26. It says, likewise the spirit, that's capital S. If you're saved, you have the spirit in you. So this is only talking to saved people, first of all. That's lesson number one. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. Did you know that the spirit inside you helps you? You're like, what, how? I'm gonna explain to you, it tells us right here. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself make an intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You understand what the Bible just said right there? First of all, you should be praying. You're going through hard times, you should be praying. But the Bible just said right here, it said that many times, it actually didn't even say many times. It just says, we know not what we should pray for as we ought. You know what that's saying? We don't ask for the right things and we don't ask correctly. The Bible here is saying, is that we don't even know what we need. You're going through hard times and you're like, God give me $2,000 so I can pay for this repair bill or whatever. It's like, the spirit's gonna be like, no, no, no. God is gonna put his hand over your mouth and then he's gonna go intercede for you. And he's gonna pray and he's gonna speak for you to God, he's gonna make what? Intercession for you. The spirit is interceding for you which things that you don't hear. The Holy Spirit is gonna go to God so yes, you should pray. You should be praying. But what the Bible here is saying is that with our flesh and our simple mind and our lower ways that are not God's higher ways that we don't even understand, the spirit is gonna intercede for us to the Lord for saved people and intercede for us and tell God what we really need and tell the Father what we really need. Why? Look at verse 27, it says, and he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints, that's you according to the will of God. So you're gonna sit here and you're gonna be in hard times and you're gonna be like, God I need you to do this for me and solve this problem for me like this. And the spirit knows that that's not the will of God. God I need you to help me win the lottery. No, the spirit's gonna be like, no, don't let him win the lottery. Because that looked at, a lot of times we pray for things that would destroy us. We pray for things that would make us worse for us because we don't know. I'm glad that I have the spirit interceding for me. I'm glad that the Holy Spirit is going to the Father and interceding for the things that I actually need. And then look at verse 28. And we know that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. That's how they work together for the good because the spirit intercedes for you. And it says that you love God by the way. So this is why I gave you those points at the beginning. It says to them that love God, what does it mean to love God? It means that you follow his commandments. It means that you have a consistent Christian life. So if you have a consistent Christian life and you're doing these things and you're living that Christian life for the Lord, this is going to work for you because the spirit is gonna intercede for you in those hard times. So the question is, do you believe this? Do you believe that God will make it work this way? Because it's true, and look, here's the thing. You don't have to see how this is true because I can't think of a single time I've gone through hard times in my life where at that time of the hard time, I could look back or I could see how it was good for me. How I could see how it worked out good for me. These are things that you will realize after you have gone through it. Then you will look back and say, oh, that's what God was doing there. Oh, Romans 8, 28 is correct. So when you're going through hard times, you're gonna have to go through those hard times. You are gonna have to believe that Christ can strengthen you and that you can get through those hard times. You have to believe in Romans chapter eight by faith. And then you'll be able to look back and say, yep, that was right. But you gotta have faith that God can do these things. Look at verse number 29. Because look, you will not see it. If you look down at, let me turn there myself. If you look down at verse number 29, you will not see it at the time. Look at verse number 29 of Romans chapter eight. The Bible says, for whom he did for no, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So first of all, the thing is that those that love him are people that are serving him. People that have that consistent Christian life. But look, the Bible is saying here is that you don't have to know how God is gonna work these things for the good. You just have to know that it's true. That's all. Because God knows, God knew you before you were even born. That's what the Bible says in verse 29. He foreknew you. You know that? And before you were even born, he had predestinated you to be saved. Look, we're in Calvinism. God's will is that all men would be saved. God predestinated every man that they would believe on his son. If we don't, that's our fault, all right? He wants every man to be saved. And then once you're saved, he wants you to live that consistent Christian life, which would make you conform to his son. He wants you to conform to Jesus and walk that Christian life is what he's talking about in that part of the verse. To be conformed to the image of his son. That's your, you want, what's my destiny? That's your destiny. I just told you what your destiny was this morning. And then there's the whole point of everything right here. He wants you to be saved. He wants you to walk the consistent Christian life so you can be conformed to the image of his son. Why? So God can look down and say, oh, look at what I've, you know, look at that perfect Christian down there, which we'll never achieve. But he says why? It says so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. You know what that means? So you can get a lot of other people saved. That's what that means. He's predestinated a plan for you, your Christian life. So you would be the firstborn of many. So you would get saved. And then that's the whole point of the consistent Christian life. Look, that's the whole point of your life is that you would walk the consistent Christian life and you would go out and you'd be the firstborn of many people that you get saved. That's the whole reason we're here. That's the whole point. I mean, all you have to do is have that faith that God knows what he's doing. Have that faith that God, you know, here's a good prayer for you in hard times. Here's a good prayer in hard times. If you're wondering like, how should I pray in hard times? Pray for the things that you think that you should ask for. And if you're just like depressed and you're just down and you're just like, man, it doesn't seem like it's working out. It doesn't seem, I don't see it. Here's a good prayer for you. God, I don't see it right now. God, I just, I don't understand your ways right now. I don't understand how all this is gonna work out Romans 8.28 for me, but Lord, I believe it. But Lord, I believe you can do anything. And Lord, I believe that whatever you do to work this out that Romans 8.28 will be true for me and I'm gonna continue serving you, whether I understand what you're doing or not. That's a good prayer when you just don't understand what's going on. Cause there's gonna be times you just have no idea. You're just like, it's like it's all falling apart. It's all coming to pieces here. But here's the thing, you don't have to understand. You just have to have faith in what the Bible says is true. That's it. It's really, look, the Christian life, the Christian life, and I've said this a hundred times. Let me say it again. The Christian life is not necessarily easy all the time but it is very simple. It's very simple. Just good times, bad times, this is what we do. Don't understand what's going on? Is that faith that God's got this thing? Very easy. I'm sorry, very simple. It may be difficult to go through hard times but if you just keep those simple thoughts in mind and look just keep that faith in you. That's Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, just go ahead and turn there. Just go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Look, Hebrews chapter 11 is talking about, you know what's talking about all these men? It's talking about all these men and it even brings up Sarah. It just says like, these people, it lists all these people. Look at who it lists. It says, I mean just look at verse 37. I mean it's talking about all these prophets and you think about the prophets. You think about Isaiah, you think about Jeremiah. Look, their whole life was hard times. I mean, when you read Jeremiah, I mean are you finding any joy there? Are you finding any happy times that he's hanging out laughing with his buddies? It's just nothing but hard time after hard time after hard time and then God's like, do it again. Go tell him again. It's like they burned it the first time. Go write it again. It's just nothing but hard times. And look, these guys, they never came out of the hard times. It says that they were stoned, they were saunasunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they were wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. Look at verse 39, it says, and these all having obtained a good report through what? Through what? Through like, through the things that they received in their life? No, through faith. They just never lost that faith. They received, they received not the promise. They received nothing in their life. God didn't hand them some big blessing in their life. Like nobody here can say that. You all have so many blessings. We all have so many blessings in our lives. It's ridiculous in our lives. But these people, they had nothing but hard times. They received nothing till they got to heaven. The earth was nothing but corruption and pain and suffering for them. But they had faith. Their good report came through faith. You better believe they're getting rewarded in heaven though. These men and women. So look, you gotta have faith that God can bring you through it. You don't have to understand it at the time. But you just gotta have faith that God can make Romans 8, 28 come true, even for you. But look, you gotta be doing that you're consistent. You have to have a consistent Christian life. You better be loving the Lord. These blessings to come or these promises to come through for you. So what are we looking at this morning? We're talking about just understanding that hard times are coming. And then number one, we're talking about just having that consistent Christian life. That's point number one. Point number two is that you need to stay busy. You know, that's just a very practical, that's just a very practical thing in your life. If you're not busy, look, I don't care if you're going through hard times or not, if you're not busy and you just get, you just like wandering around, like you're just gonna cause all kinds of trouble for yourself. You're gonna cause all kinds of trouble for there's gonna be lions in your life that you're gonna make up lions. They're gonna be fake. There's gonna be real ones you're gonna create. I mean, it's just you're gonna cause chaos if you're not busy. That's like a sermon series in itself. But number three, focus on other people. You know, get the vanity out of your life. Stay busy helping others. The happiest people are those who help others. And then have faith that God knows the plan. He's got the Holy, not only does he know the plan, he's got the Holy Spirit in you interceding for you. When you're messing up what you even think you need, he's literally speaking for you. He's interceding for you and he's gonna make it work out. And don't be this person that just is a fair weather friend to God. And as long as you understand exactly how God's gonna make it right in your life, you'll have faith in him. But if you don't understand it, you just lose faith in God. No, don't be a fair weather Christian. Don't be a fair weather faith Christian. Look, you just have that faith and you just know that God can make that God can make his promises true for you no matter what you're going through. You don't have to understand it. You'll eventually see it. You'll look back on it and you'll be like, thank you God for interceding with me. Thank you God for not answering that prayer in my life. That would have been a disaster. You will look back on your life and you will say that again and again and again because God's promise is real and it always comes true and you can have faith in every single word of the Bible. So those are four things that you can do to get through hard times. You're gonna go through hard times folks. You know, notice when other people, you know, get to focus off yourself and maybe you'll know that other people are going through harder times than you. And then you can, you know, stay busy and stay focused helping your brothers and sisters in Christ as well. So hopefully that helps you this morning. And the Bible's got so much practical advice. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.