Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / 2026 Summer Series | Norm Glock | Connecting To God Through Challenges
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
- 0:37Speaker B: How many of you have been in some kind of conflict, crisis? Just had a weird moment where you didn't know what to do. I think we all have, because God talks a lot about hard times, trials, and one of the things he talks quite a bit about is how we stay connected to him in trials. But he never comes out and says, here are 10 steps for you to use to stay connected to me. They're buried in here. And so tonight we're going to look through some passages in the Psalms where David helps us to see how we stay connected to God. Now, staying connected implies that there is some distance between the two parties that are trying to stay connected. Now, back in the olden days when Aleena and I were dating, that's where you laugh. We got to stay connected with one 20 minute phone call a week. It was on Friday night. It was after 5 o' clock when the long distance rates dropped. Now, none of you know about that, right? Because you use one of these things that it all connected all the time. No rates, no change. We also had to write letters on paper, by hand, in ink, put a stamp on the envelope and put it in the mailbox and then wait for two weeks for the letter to get there, the reply to be written, and the answer to get back to you. Yes, it was a dark time in our history, but that's how we stayed connected. That's how we built our relationship together. That's how we grew to know each other. And we did that for years. We never lived closer than 170 miles away from each other until we got married. She never cooked a meal for me until our honeymoon. We learned a lot about each other in the first week of our marriage. God wants us to be connected to him, but things don't go easy, do they? The storms of life come along and in any relationship, it doesn't take long for that to happen. See, the point of what I just told you was, is that we had to work at staying connected in our early part of our relationship. And it's the same for us and God. We have to work to stay connected with Him. God wants us not just to have a maintainable relationship, he wants us to have a very personal, intimate, close relationship with Him, a daily relationship with Him. And we can't do it if we don't work at it. Our relationship with God begins and is maintained, and I hope for all of us will end through prayer and the study of him and His Word. It's prayer and study, these two tools that will enable us to develop that personal, intimate relationship with God. But this level of connection, will we have that same level of connection with our God when it feels like our world is coming apart? It seems Scripture tells us what we need to do now. We don't have to just stay in the New Testament for this. We can go all the way back into the Old Testament. Goodbye, Deuteronomy, where Moses is telling the new generation of Israelites that are about to go into the promised land. They're standing on the plains of Moab, and Moses is instructing them about what they're going to face. And one of the things he tells them is that no other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to Him. You see those other people? They had to call their gods off of a mountaintop, out of the ocean, in from the universe somewhere. But Moses says our God is near to us when we pray to Him. Moses knew that whenever we pray to him, our God is right here. And that is something that we need to understand and keep at the forefront of our thoughts. But why is it possible for us to have this intimate connection with the Creator of the universe? Well, first of all, he made us. He made you and me. I know you think your mom and dad did that, but actually God did that because he created the first man and woman. And from there he set into motion what we have today. But he knew us from the moment we were created, when we were just cells in our parent. He knew us. But most importantly, he came to Earth. He lived in the flesh. And he had the same trials, the same pain, the same frustrations, disappointments that we have. He knows us. We must always remember that when all else fails, that our God never will. Through His Word, we always will know that there is hope when all seems hopeless. So what does it feel like when things are falling apart? Well, there are three things that we can boil down to that kind of makes our world disrupted. First is conflict. Now, conflict can be something as simple as a fight, a quarrel, a struggle, friction, or maybe an argument. The pretty low level stuff. Crisis is when we experience a dramatic emotional or personal upheaval in our lives. And this might be the death of a spouse or a parent. It might be the loss of a job. It might be us even relocating somewhere that we've never, ever lived before, where we're separated from our family. And then there's chaos. A lot of us feel like we live in chaos every day. Because you know what? Chaos is different for everybody. Chaos is the state of utter confusion and disorder in our life or in the world around us. And as I said, it's different for you and me. Chaos for me might be that my calendar is too full and I'm having to run here and there, and I'm barely making everything that I have on my calendar. Or I'm not making all of them, and that's frustrating. Or it's the fact that Delta took my layover in Salt Lake City and cut it down from an hour to 30 minutes. How am I going to make that flight? Because I'm going up to watch my grandson graduate from high school. I want to be on that flight to Spokane. I don't want to spend the night in Salt Lake City. That might cause a little bit of chaos for me. But for our parents and young families, it might be for you guys. Getting your kids up, getting them dressed, getting them fed, getting them out the door so you can get to work on time. Or if you've got toddlers, it might be just struggling them into their clothes. Chaos. It's different for everybody, but we all experience it. David says that the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them and he delivers them from all their troubles. And that's nice to know. But the most important thing is the Lord is close to the brokenhearted. He's not far away. He's right here and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Does that mean that he takes away the trouble? Does that mean you won't feel the pain? No, but the Lord is near. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. You see, our God is always working in our lives, but we have to have that connection. Psalms 34 is one of the many psalms that David wrote while things were falling apart around him. But by keeping his eyes on God. He never ever doubted that God would care for him. We learn from David that God is with us through our hardships and has the ability to do anything. Here are a few ways that we can connect and draw close to God so that we can make it through the conflict, crisis and chaos life and find comfort and peace and courage even if our prayers are not answered the way we hoped they would be. The first way is that we must trust in God's protection. Now sometimes that's easier said than done, but trust is the basis of any healthy relationship. If you don't have trust, you don't have a relationship. And without a relationship you have nothing to connect to. The psalmist here trusted in God's protection first because he already had the relationship with the Lord, and second, because of that pre existing relationship. His faith enabled him to trust that God was listening closely to his plea for help. When you are pleading for help, do you feel God's closeness? Do you have that connection? How many times do we try to rely on our own strength in order to protect ourselves from being hurt? Whether it's by circumstance or by other people? How many times do we try to manage the outcome to fulfill our desires, but by doing so, we miss out on an opportunity to trust God and those he sends to our aid. Proverbs 3, 5, 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. I think each one of us elders are going to have this verse in our presentations. But Proverbs 3, 5 urges all of us to give God the opportunity for us to trust Him. Our job is to put our trust in God. That's what we're to do, and he'll do the rest. God knows what we need and he'll take care of everything. Isaiah 26 also says something very similar. Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is an everlasting rock. If you ever go out onto the Pacific coast in Oregon, out there there are big rocks called the haystack rocks. I see Mike and Kim nodding because they've been out there. And you go out there and you see these gigantic rocks and you watch the waves beat up against them all the time. And you know what? As big as those rocks are, they are not everlasting rocks. Sooner or later they're going to break down. Our God is not a God that when the toils and troubles of life beat up against him that he's going to break down. He doesn't do that. He is an everlasting rock. God wants us to hang on to him. Now, these are just a couple of the many scriptures that remind us that when we are faced with the impossible, when we don't know what to do or say, sometimes all we have to do is drop down on our knees and say, God, I have no idea what to do, but I'm trusting you to take care of this. The truth is, when facing difficult situations that we don't understand, the best things that we can do sometimes is to stop, take a breath, pray, let the Holy Spirit intercede for us, and then put our trust in God for him to show us the way. Now, the second thing is, is that we're to depend on God's power. Now, you can see from this set of scriptures that David is going through some of the same things that we see today. David was facing impeachment. He had fake news going on. He had backstabbing. None of these things are new. But David says with all of that going on around him, he alone and he's talking about, God is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. And then he stops talking about him and he focuses out to his people and he says, oh, my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Then we drop down to verse 11 and David continues on. God has spoken plainly and I have heard it many times. Power, O God, belongs to you. When David faced conflicts, criticisms, betrayal, he poured out his heart to God in prayer. He recognized where the true power comes from. Not in his own earthly power, not in his military might, not in his political power, but in the power that comes from God Almighty. This is what we have to realize as well. So how do we stay close to God? Well, now, this is going to seem kind of easy. Study, make it part of your daily routine. Now, all too easily, we think this is Bible reading. It's not. All too often we read, and five minutes later we don't remember what we read. God wants us to study His Word. He wants us to know Him. And to know someone, you have to spend time with them. And it's more than just surface reading. He wants us to study him, pray throughout the day. All too often, we let the day blow by. Where did it go? And we get to the end of our day and we lay down in bed and it's, O Lord, thank you for the and we're gone. Not a bad way to end the day. But have we talked to our God from our heart. Pray throughout the day. Maybe it's something as simple as you've driven to work and you got there without an accident or some idiot cutting you off or whatever it is. And you pull into your parking spot and you take a moment and you say, thank you, Lord, for getting me here safely. Give me a good and productive day. Thank you for letting me be healthy today. Amen. And go about your day. We need to talk to our God. Be thanking him for maybe what you think are simple things, but they are things that our God has given us. See every interaction as a way to represent his love. We all have people that that's tough with, don't we? Not every interaction is easy, but we need to take every interaction as an opportunity to show God's love to that person, Even the tough ones. We also need to love everybody that we see, talk to and think about. Now this doesn't mean that we have to like them. We kind of try to equate liking and loving as the same thing. It's not. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. Love is a decision. I'm gonna get personal, babe. Watch out. I decide to love my wife every day. It's a decision. It's not a feeling because feelings are fickle. Feelings come and go. I might not feel like loving her tomorrow, but I decide that I am going to love her until the day that I die. That's a decision. God wants the same kind of decision from us on everybody that we meet. He wants us to love everyone that we see, talk to or think about, not a few. And then finally to walk in the power of the spirit. And I know you're going Holy Spirit. We need to take advantage of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And I'm going to share with you a couple of things about that. First of all, I know this is going to be hard on us, guys. Hang in there with me, guys. We're going to have to submit to God's will. We're going to have to put our plans, our wants, our desires on the back burner and submit to his and put his on the front burner. We're going to have to put other people's desires, needs on the front burner because that's his will and put ours on the back. We're going to have to do what he wants us to do first and our later. It's tough. I don't like it any better than you do. We have to follow godly desires. We have to choose obedience instead of just our own selfish impulses as Described in Galatians 5. We don't get to live any way we please. We have made a commitment for those of us who are married, just like our marriage vows. We've made a commitment before God and man to love our wives until the day we die. We have made a commitment to God when we go into the water of baptism to serve him until the day we draw our last breath. I had a good friend for some reason in my life. I collect Ron's. My dad was Ron. People call me Ron for some reason. I had a good friend in high school named Ron. One of my fellow elders up in Spokane was named Ron. Ron got the same geoblastoma as Ronnie's son Ron. Center of the brain. Thing was the size of a grapefruit when it was discovered. Had tentacles all through the brain. There was no saving it. He was in the hospital and while he could barely talk, when nurses would come in to his hospital room, one of the first things he would say to them was, do you know Jesus? As he was dying, he was doing God's work. He did it until the day he drew his last breath. He was a great example to me and I loved him dearly. That's what we're supposed to be doing next. We're supposed to be displaying our fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. All those wonderful things that we see in Galatians 5 all the time, even when we don't feel like it. And that's tough. Ask Alain if I do it all the time. She'll tell you not really. But our God wants us to do that. And then we're supposed to have active dependence, rely on the Spirit's strength rather than our own to resolve and handle situations. Next, we're supposed to rely on God's provisions. This is the most famous, probably the most quoted passage in scripture. Even non believers, many of them know this passage. And you love it because of the language. You see how David talks about what God does, how God leads, how God gives, how God. Protects, prepares, welcomes, gives, mercy, Restores. You see, David writes about his reliance on God to provide his needs of rest, nourishment and restoration. You can tell right away how personal his relationship is. You know, David understood that while God's promise for him is not a rose garden existence, he would supply everything necessary for his physical, emotional and spiritual well being. And the truth is the same for us because one of God's names is Jehovah, Yahweh. The Lord will provide. And as God is the giver of all things and don't confuse that with some kind of celestial Santa Claus because God gives to fulfill our needs and his purpose. But you know, a lot of times I forget that. Do you? A lot of times I forget that God is right there ready to be the giver and all I have to be is ready to receive. But instead when things are falling apart around me and my needs aren't being met, I put my efforts into overdrive and I try to work harder and faster and longer, but I only end up being more tired and more afraid and more frustrated. One of the ways God has helped me conquer my self reliant tendencies is through spiritual friendships. And I'm thankful for those friendships. These God given friends have supported me when I needed their strength, encouraged me in my faith, realigned my perspective when I needed it, and think of that as a spiritual attitude adjustment. Taught me how to show my gratitude to God in all things. Thank you Ronnie. Fourth thing is we're to wait for God to fulfill his plans. And Here we have two passages from Psalms 139 that show us that our God is omniscient. I. I can never say that word and I've been practicing it for days now. He knows it all. How about that? He has complete unlimited knowledge. He's fully aware of everything. He understands all things. Yeah, God doesn't see the future. God knows the future. God knows everything that's going to happen until time stops. Doesn't that give you confidence? God has it all under control? That's why we can do that whole Psalms 46:10 thing. Be still and know that he is God because he's got it all under control. And while he may not fulfill all our desires just the way we want, God will work out the circumstances and situations in our lives to fulfill his purposes. For me, it's comforting to know that when life is crazy and chaotic that God has a plan for my future and is working it for my good. Jeremiah reminds us this is probably one of the most used passages around graduation time. That I know that I have plans for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then I will call. Then you will call on me. Come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. You know, one of the darkest times in Aling's and my relationship was when we discovered we couldn't have children. Now when we Were talking about everything before we got married. We wanted to have a big family. Big family. We were young, we were stupid. We didn't know anything, you know, but we wanted that big family. And we tried for years to have it, just have one. Our friends were popping them out like Pez. It got to the point where they wouldn't tell us that they were pregnant. We'd look at them at church and go, bonnie, putting on weight, be pregnant. Finally went to a fertility specialist. And these were his words. He told me, he says, after all the tests are over, he says, norm, he says, you have a better chance of being hit by a meteor than you do having the chance of making a baby. Now, sitting in that doctor's office and hearing those words and all my dreams of a family were just dying on the vine. And while I wasn't feeling any physical pain, my emotionally I was being crushed. I was devastated and. But looking back on it through this time, although this time was one of the most challenging in our life, it was also one of the. I know it sounds crazy, but one of the best times in our lives because it brought us closer together as a couple and it brought us closer to God because we found out that we don't rely on us, we rely on Him. And we prayed through that discouragement and that disappointment, and we remained in scripture. And God sent us some really special brothers and sisters that reminded us that he had planned out our days. And not only that, he was working to give us a lasting hope and a great future with him as well as a family. So we decided to stop trying to control our circumstances and wait for God's plan to unfold. Now, does that mean we sat back and did nothing? No. No. We did what we could, but we didn't try to control the circumstances. It wasn't easy, but God faithfully answered our prayers by blessing us with that large family. Just not in the way we ever expected. Along the way, we had two children of our own and about 20 kids that came into our orbit over the years. Some a long time, some a short time. But many of them still call us mom and dad and their kids call us Nana and Papa. God is good. That promise of God for our hope and future is a promise for this life, but it is also a guarantee for the next life. This is why he challenges us to seek him, to find him with everything that we have, with all our heart. Okay, Bell five. Focus on God's perfection. God's way is perfect. Not only is God all knowing and all of that, the Word. I can't say our God is omnipotent. He doesn't make mistakes. He's got everything perfectly planned. He executes perfectly. As one of my Bible professors often said, God never says, oops. God is not sitting up there on his throne, wringing his hand, wondering, I wonder how it's going to turn out down there. He's not doing his version of as the World Turns. That's an old soap opera for you younger people. God knows how it's going to be. And even though I can't see how, I can be confident that God knows how and is working for my good as well as his glory. You see God with God we can take confidence that his promise to us is resolute. You see, God is not human. That he should lie, should change his mind. He does not speak and then not act. Does he promise and not fulfill? God's abilities are never hindered by the same faults that limit us or make us human. He doesn't make empty promises. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't forget to respond to our request for help. Now he might answer yes. He might say, wait. He might even say, no. We don't ever want to hear that. But sometimes we do. But regardless of God's response, we should never forget that he loves us. He wants the best for us and is always there for us as he works out his plan. Many times the hardest thing for us as his children to remember is, is that he is God and we are not. And we cannot comprehend all his ways. But the more we trust in his perfection, the more confident we can be and that he will work out his plan, even though things may seem to be coming apart all around us. And lastly, we hold on to God's promises. You keep track of all my sorrows. You've collected all my tears. My enemies will retreat. David talks about all the things that God is doing here. David was captured by the Philistines at this point and he was imprisoned in Gath. He's not writing this from the comfort of his own palace. His prayer shows that by holding on to God's promises, even when chaos of life surrounds us, that we can be grateful and confident because we know that God is on our side. David believed that if God cared enough to collect and record each one of his tears, he would also keep his word to guard and protect Him. We will face struggles in life, guaranteed, because life is not predictable. Because we lived in a broken world, there is evil, sickness, death, accidents happen. We make poor choices and we must face the consequences. And sometimes we're merely victims of somebody else's poor consequences. Jesus even told his disciples, in this world, you will have trouble. But he also told them, take heart, I have overcome the world. So what will our responses be when chaos hits? Will we continue to rely on him and trust as David did? Will we be like Job, who lost everything and yet trusted in his God when he could not even hope for the blessings that he could not even see? Or will we be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and be able to trust God as we stand in front of a fiery furnace and say, if you throw us into that hot furnace, the God we serve can save us. And if he wants to, he can save us from your power. But even if God does not save us, we want you to know, King, that we refuse to serve your gods. Will we have that certainty? Will we have that connection? Remember, we connect to our God through trusting his protection, depending on his power, relying on his provision, waiting for his plans to unfold, focusing on his perfection and holding on to his promises. If we do that, our connection will be strong. And when chaos hits, we'll reach for God first and doubt last. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you thanking you for always being there for us. We thank you for never leaving our side, even though sometimes we step away from you. We ask that as we live our lives and we experience the chaos and conflict and crises of life, that we will always remember that we have a connection to you. Help us to hold on to you, to be there, to never abandon our promise to you, because we know you will never abandon your promise to us. Watch over us, Lord. We ask you this as we finish out this day and as we go through the rest of this week. And it's through your son's name that we pray. Amen.