John Hagee - Triumphant in the Day of Trouble
This message from the Word of God is relevant to every person in this assembly and the millions that are watching by television or listening by radio around the world. How many of you've ever been in trouble? Let me see your hand. One hundred percent participation. I will tell you this is the sermon for the day. Going out to meet trouble is life's shortest walk. If you're not in trouble today, you're headed for trouble. If you're in a day of trouble, listen and stay tuned. You want to hear this. Let's read Psalm 50:15, David writes: "Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me".
Father God, let us hear the Word of God today, and call upon you in a day of trouble, and experience the joy of your victorious deliverance from every form of trouble. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. Trouble, it's the gateway to discovering the power of God. Listen. God himself cannot deliver the man or the woman who is not in trouble. God cannot show you his power until you get in real trouble. You will never know God in all of his glory until you get in real trouble. How many of you've ever been in real trouble? How can you know God is a healer without having been in a battle with sickness or disease? How can you know that God is a provider without ever having been in need? How can you know that God is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother without having been lonely, or rejected, or cast aside by those who said they loved you? How can you know that God is the healer of broken hearts without sobbing in some personal Gethsemane, when God seems so silent, the night seems so long and so hopelessly dark? How can you know God is a deliverer until you have seen him come to your assistance and raise up a barrier against those who were accusing you, and crushed the opposition, trying to destroy you?
That's the kind of God you serve. I repeat, "Are you in trouble"? That's wonderful. It's absolutely thrilling. You're in a beautiful position to discover the God of the Bible. You can discover the power of God, because he's a God who answers prayer. You can discover the God that heals the broken hearted and heals the sick, and restores shattered dreams. You will discover, in the day of trouble, a God that will lead you and comfort you and be the shepherd through the valley of the shadow of death. He is the God who gives you victory over your enemies. Let me tell you something. When you really start to do something that counts for God, the devil will line up his troops to knock you off. And on the other side of the line of scrimmage, swiftly will come the Lord of hosts and all of his delegated force. And he will scatter your enemies like the straw of the summer threshing floor. Let me tell you: I know that to be true. I would not be alive if it were not for the fact that we serve an Almighty, all-sufficient, prayer-answering God! Give him praise in the house of God!
When you get in trouble, you will discover the God that comes to your rescue. You will discover joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. You will discover the God that gives you hope. The God that gives you the hope that is the anchor of your soul, who opens the gates of heaven to the righteous, you will discover him only when you come into great trouble. Notice the position. David says, "Call upon me". Say that with me, "Call upon me". I want you to say it like you really mean it. "Call upon me". As powerful as God is, God cannot answer your prayers until you pray them. I have had people all of my life come into my office, and explain something that's very complicated and full of problems. And I said, have you prayed about it? No, I was wanting you to do something about it.
Prayer is doing something about it. God is not involved until you pray about it. When you pray about it, it is recorded in heaven by Jesus Christ, who is your intermediary. And he makes sure that it's recorded in the Chronicles of heaven. And then what you bind on earth is bound heaven in, and what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. And supernatural powers come into play. And God begins to answer what you think can't be answered. He starts to control what you think is out of control. He does the impossible. And suddenly the storm clouds are gone, because we serve a prayer-answering God!
So what I'm saying is prayer should be your first choice, not your last chance. God's proposition is: you call: I'll answer. It's that simple. Hear this: when the three Hebrew children were in the fiery furnace, they called upon the Lord, and the fourth man appeared in the flames. When you get in trouble, God does not send someone: he shows up himself. Question: if you were the king or the queen of unlimited wealth, and you saw a ragged, hungry, starving child begging in the streets in great need, and you said to that child, here's a royal decree. I want you to call me tomorrow at the palace and I will give you every desire of your heart. And the next day that child came to the palace and presented the royal decree to you with a face of hope and eyes of expectation, wouldn't you help that child? Yes.
Jesus Christ, the king of glory, the king of unlimited wealth and power, the Creator of heaven and earth, has written a royal decree to his children called "The Word of God". He says: call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. I will find a way. You don't think there is one, but I will show you the way. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you will find. What you ask the father in my name, he will do it. No good thing will he withhold from those that diligently seek him. He is greater than the giants you're fighting. He is greater than the mountains you're climbing. He's greater than the burdens you're carrying. Greater is he that's in you than he that's within the world! Give him praise in the house of God!
Nothing is impossible unto you! Say that, "Nothing is impossible unto you"! You need not call from a stained-glass Cathedral to get God's attention. I've often had people say, "Well, I just couldn't get to the church and pray about it". God's right where you are! Jonah called from the belly of a whale, and God showed up. God heard his prayer. Elijah called in deep depression from the brook Cherith, hiding from Jezebel because she was killing men of God. He said, "God, take my life. I'm the last one". And God showed up. He sent angels and they fed him angel's food cake. He got up and ran 40 miles in front of the king's chariot. So energized was he by the power and the presence of God. Think about that. The king's horses were the fastest, best-fed horses in the country, and he ran for 40 miles in front of them. That's power!
The Bible says: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered". He says: "Call upon the Lord in the day of trouble and he will break the chains of misery and habit that have enslaved you". "For whom the son sets free is free indeed". He will heal your sick soul. He will heal your sick body, because he is the great physician. He is the balm of Gilead. He is the healing Jesus. And the healing Jesus is in the house today. He will restore your fractured marriage. He is the mighty counselor. He is the Prince of Peace. He is the healer of the broken hearted. He will bring you to prodigal son and daughter that's out in the far country right now back to you and restore your family. He will make a way where there seems to be no way! For your business to have a beautiful future, hope thou in God! He is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the God of the heavens, and there is none liken unto him on the earth. Give him praise and glory in the house of God!
Who is this God that David says to call on? He says he is the mighty God: even the Lord has spoken. The mighty God is Elohim. It actually translates "The mighty God of Israel". When you are talking the mighty God of Israel, God extends his ear suddenly. There's power in his name. There's power in the blood of his son. There's power in the authority of the Word of God. When you begin to speak the Word of God, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you can charge the gates of hell with a water pistol and be victorious. Don't you ever forget it: the God we serve is a God of power, more power than the world and all of its military power can possibly imagine. Creation was God's power on parade. The earth did not evolve. It was created by the spoken Word of God. He gathered a lump of dirt and breathed into it, and man became a living soul. He didn't rearrange what was here. He created something out of nothing. I believe God scooped up a handful of dirt, breathed into it, and man became a living soul. The word is the ruach of God. The Spirit of God lives in you! Give him praise in the house of God!
Who is this God that says, call upon me? He is Elohim, the mighty God of Israel. Isaiah called him, wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, and the Prince of Peace. Mary called him Jesus, for he shall save the world from their sin. I call him Lord and Savior. Who is this God? He is my friend. He is my deliverer. He is my counselor, my comforter. In the day of battle, he is my shield and buckler. He is my fortress and my high tower. He is the rock in the weary land from which the waters flow that refresh and restore. He is the great I am. He is the great physician who heals. He is the great shepherd who guides and provides. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the one who was and is and always shall be! He is still the bread of life! He is honey in the rock! He is meat for men! He is milk for children! He is the cornerstone precious and elect in Zion! He is Emmanuel, God with us, the hope of glory! He is the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's vein! He is the immortal, invisible God! He is the lion of Judah, the light of the world, the light of God! Give him praise and glory in the house of God!
David writes, "The mighty God has called the earth". David writes, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and all they that dwell therein". The title deed to the earth is right there. Who controls the earth? God, God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Who controls the environment? Certainly not Washington. God Almighty controls the environment. He knows exactly how warm it's going to be. Who controls the heart of the king so that his heart flows like streams in the desert in the hand of God? God Almighty. To whom does he respond? To his children who pray. If my children, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then will I hear from heaven. When we unite in prayer, we can move mountains. We can accomplish the impossible. We can bring a spiritual awakening to this nation. And together we can do it, and we must do it!
God controls nature. The Bible said: he rides on the wings of a storm. The other night, we were coming home from Washington, D.C., and our plane went through some pretty severe turbulence. And my companion, Diana, reached over and latched onto my arm. And I said, "It's just the Lord outside". And she said, "But I want it to stop". Yeah. The Bible says, Jesus and his disciples, when he was in the boat, and the storm came to the Sea of Galilee, the words in English are "Be still". But the Greek word is "Be muzzled". God in the form of Jesus Christ, looked at that storm, and said, shut down! And that was it. Instantly it stopped. They didn't wait for weather conditions to change over 24 hours. It stopped at the end of that sentence. God speaks through nature. In Noah's flood, God drowned every man, woman, child on this earth, and living creature on purpose. He did not open the fountains of the deep and say, oops. What was he saying? He was saying, through nature, to the world, I am the judge of all the earth. I am God. You will answer to me. And I will have the last word concerning the affairs of men on earth. Count on it.
God is going to announce the coming of his son through nature. In Acts 2, he said: the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and notable day of the Lord. I have written a book about that called "The four blood moons". It's not going to happen: it has happened! One man said, well I don't believe Jesus Christ is coming back to earth. The fact is what you believe has no bearing on reality. Who cares what you believe? God doesn't. You don't get a vote! Hear me. God's in charge here. He's not a doting imbecile sitting benignly in the heavens out of touch and out of control like a lot of people are preaching and teaching. He's not wringing his hands over the acts of the ungodly.
The Bible says, Psalm 2, David writing: "He that sits in the heaven is laughing at the wicked, seeing the day of his judgment is coming". God is giving you a harsh laugh. He's not concerned about your armies, your atomic power, your riches or your wealth. He can snatch it from you quicker than dust can hit the ground, not threatened by the rich and the powerful. For every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
In closing, trouble is an asset. Say that with me, "Trouble is an asset". You know I can read lips. A guy said, "If that's true, I'm rich". We hate trouble. We run from it. We complain about trouble. But trouble has made you what you are. Wendall Wilkie said, and I quote, "What a man needs to get ahead in life is a powerful enemy". Our antagonist is our helper. It strengthens our muscle. It sharpens our wits. Our antagonist develops our skill. It transforms your spaghetti spine into steel. What does that? T-R-O-U-B-L-E, trouble. Do you know the difference between a priceless diamond and a lump of coal? A diamond is a lump of coal that made good under pressure. The trouble it endured made it valuable.
You need to write that down somewhere. The trouble it endured made it valuable. Saint Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:8 and 9: we are troubled on every side. Trouble is coming north, south, east, and west, from Christians and non-Christians, but we're not distressed. We're perplexed but we're not in despair. We are persecuted but we are not forsaken. We have been cast down but we're not destroyed. We've got big trouble, he says. But we serve a bigger God than all the trouble of the world. And we are victorious in the name that's above every name.
Remember that God permits trouble to develop you. Trouble is resistance. Without the resistance of air, a bird can't fly. Without the resistance of water, a massive ship cannot float. Without the resistance of gravity, you can't walk. The pedals of a flower do not yield their perfume until they're crushed. An olive will not yield its virgin olive oil until it is pulverized. Delicious grapes cannot make new wine until they are crushed. Trouble is the womb of greatness. Trouble is the womb of greatness. And God is shaping you to reach your destiny. Remember that God will not place a greater burden on you than you are able to bear. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tested above what you are able to bear".
There have been days that I have prayed, "God, give me the strength to live until dark". Think about that. Paul asked three times for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, and God said, "No". Why? Because there was so much of God's power flowing through Paul. He said: "If I remove that weakness, people will begin to think of you as God, and you might get to the place you leave it yourself". George Whitfield preached with asthma. George Whitfield was the field preacher of England. Thousands were brought to Christ, so many thousands that he called John and Charles Wesley to organize them into groups of 12. And the Methodist church was born. Think about that. You say two sentences and wheeze and gasp for the breath to say the next thing.
Smith Wigglesworth was a great healing evangelist. And after a night of touching people and they were instantly healed, he would go home and roll on the floor in pain with kidney stones. Charles Hadden Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, died before he was 60 with gout. But he preached two times every Sunday to a crowd of 5.000 people in metropolitan tabernacle. And when he died, the queen lowered the flag of England to support the great spiritual warrior of Great Britain. Trouble. Remember in closing, that Jonathan Edwards was so near sighted that when he read his sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God", ink was on the end of his nose and it was totally black. How would you like to hear a sermon like this? It wouldn't work on television. But it literally turned America upside down. And the first spiritual awakening in America happened because of Jonathan Edwards.
Remember that God can use our trouble for your own good. Psalm 119:71, David writes: it is good for me that I have been afflicted. And I'm going to pick that up next Sunday, "Joy in the day of trouble". You don't want to miss it. Stand to your feet while we're in the presence of the Lord. How many of you in this room can say, pastor, I am having a day of great trouble. I am in a day of trouble. Raise your hand right where you are. The vast majority of this congregation. Those of you that are watching by television, we're going to pray this prayer. You can join us in this prayer, because God hears you. There is no distance in prayer. congregation, pray with me.
Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I call upon you, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to deliver me in a day of trouble. I know that you are the Almighty God. I know that you hear us. And I know that whoever you hear, you will answer. And so today, in faith believing, I receive your answer for my trouble. I'm looking for the answer. With my natural eyes, I do not see it. But on the wings of faith, my answer is coming, because the Lord is my deliverer, in Jesus' name. Amen.