Navigating Life’s Challenges: The Christ of Every Crisis

Chapter number three.

The Gospel of Luke, Chapter number three.

You may have heard this before, but laugh anyway.

That's kind of funny to me.

In a nursing home in Florida, a resident group was discussing the giant ailments in their lives.

My arms are so weak, I can hardly lift this cup of coffee.

Another one said, yeah, I know.

My cataracts are so bad, I can't even see my coffee.

Another one chimed in, I can't turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck.

Then a man said, my blood pressure pills make me dizzy.

He said, well, I guess that's just the price we pay for getting old.

And everyone agreed, except for one little lady.

She said, ah, it's not that bad.

Thank God we can all still drive.

Every time I read that, it makes me smile because I said, thank God I can still preach a little bit.

And I am so glad to be here with you this morning.

I want you to notice in the Gospel of Luke, Luke, chapter number three.

Luke, chapter number three.

We begin in verse number 23.

And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age.

This is when he started his earthly ministry.

And he's going to preach and teach and work wonderful miracles for three and a half years.

And then he's going to lay down his life.

He said, no man taketh my life.

I lay it down and he said, I'm going to take it back up again three days later.

And that's exactly what he did.

So he's 30 years old.

And then we go to chapter number four and pick it up.

In verse one, Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil.

Hmm.

Didn't take long after that, for the devil attacked him.

And then we go to verse number 17 of that same chapter.

And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

And then in verse number 28 of that same chapter.

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city.

Can you imagine that?

And led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built.

That they might cast him down headlong.

We would say head first, but he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.

I want you to think about this in verse number 32.

They were astonished because he taught.

He was preaching and teaching.

And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power.

And in the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean devil and cried out with a loud voice saying, let us alone.

What have we to do with thee?

Thou Jesus of Nazareth, art Thou come to destroy us?

I know thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God.

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, hold thy peace and come out of him.

And when the devil had thrown him in the midst of, he came out of him and heard him not.

And they were all amazed and spake among themselves, saying, what a word is this.

For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits and they come out.

And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.

So thus began the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, from the beginning of his earthly ministry, dealt with crisis after crisis.

And I want to preach to you this morning on that title, Jesus the Christ of every crisis.

The Christ of every crisis.

You've already been in some crisis.

You may be in one now, you could be in one by tomorrow.

But Jesus is the Christ of every crisis.

He never fail.

In the book of Jeremiah, you need not turn there, I'm going to read it.

But it says in the Lord God, thou hast.

Ah, Lord God, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm.

And there is nothing too hard for thee.

That's repeated in other places in the Bible.

But there's nothing too hard for God.

Say that with me.

There is nothing too hard for God.

Say it again.

There is nothing too hard for God.

Life encounters crisis.

I don't have to remind you of that today.

It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

And usually crises are never expected.

Am I right?

Most of us are not looking forward to the next crisis.

Life is fragile.

Sometimes God reminds us of that.

It's unpredictable.

But Christ is almighty and he is always predictable.

What do I mean by that?

We sang a moment ago.

Standing the promises.

If God made a promise, he'll keep that promise.

You can predict it 100% of the time.

If you can find a promise.

And there's a lot of them in the Bible.

Stand on the promises, you cannot fall.

Standing on the promises, you cannot fail.

Because he always Keeps his promises.

Christ is the Christ of every crisis.

Crisis comes into our life and most of the time we don't stop and think about it.

But most of the time there are divine appointments.

Divine appointments, because we would never choose one.

And so God sometimes bring them into our life for all kinds of different reasons.

Moments when life seems to stand still.

Have you ever gone into something that happened and you could feel like your heart was going to beat out of your chest?

You could almost hear it, the heart.

And panic sometimes, like a dagger with stick into your heart.

Jesus never panics.

He's the rock.

We just sang it a moment ago.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking sand.

You know what?

We need to learn to live on the rock.

To live on the rock.

Rock of ages, cleft for me Let me hide myself in thee.

Jesus says, come unto me over 600 times in the Bible.

God says, come.

That's a lot.

But yet people many times go the other way.

They run away or they walk away.

And a lot of times God has to call behind our back, hey, turn around, come back, listen.

But he's the Christ of every crisis.

And listen.

I believe that salvation is a crisis.

I believe when a person decides or realizes they need to be saved.

I don't think there's anything casual about it.

Some of you know what I'm talking about.

It was a crisis.

I mean, the day you were saved, God reached down and rescued you from sin and hell and death.

Because it was a crisis.

You were a heartbeat from hell.

And when you realized, and that's an important word, when you realize, it became real that God was holy and just, mighty.

But when you ask him, God, please have mercy and save me.

I'm calling on you and I'm putting my faith and hope in the life and the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's my only hope.

Jesus is my only way to heaven.

And he reached down and brought you up out of an horrible pit.

Anybody want to go back to that pit?

He set your feet on a rock.

He established your goings.

He even put a song in your mouth, even though you don't think you can sing.

But God put a song in your mouth and he gave you a reason to live.

And then he gave you eternal life.

You'll never die if you're saved.

Saved by his power divine.

Saved to new life sublime.

Life now is sweet and my joy is complete.

For I'm saved.

I'm saved, Saved.

But in this life, and only in this Life.

If you are saved, you're still going to have crisis.

Jesus never led any other way.

He said, in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world.

We live in a sin, cursed world.

This world is being run.

God's watching over it.

But the Bible says that Satan is the prince of this world and we're aliens.

When you get saved, we don't fit.

And it bothers people when we talk about Jesus or act like Jesus or quote scripture because we're in a strange world.

Once you get saved, everything changes.

And by the way, if you don't get saved, hell is a forever crisis.

Can you imagine a crisis that never goes away, ever?

That's what hell's going to be like.

We can't really fully comprehend it, but Jesus preached more on hell than he did heaven because the Bible says he's not willing that any should perish.

Nobody has to go to hell.

They have a lot of choices to make.

You have to climb to hell.

People say it's hard to get to heaven.

No, it is not.

You just trust in Christ.

But if you're going to go to hell, you got to climb over the Bible.

You got to climb over the preaching.

You got to climb over the hymns of singing that has the gospel in it.

You have to climb over people that are praying for you.

You have to really want to get to hell.

You say, well, I don't.

Well, then why aren't you saved?

Why don't you trust Christ as your savior?

Salvation ought to be a crisis, not casual.

I've been around a long time.

I've had people come down chewing bubble gum, saying they want to get saved.

Looking around, I know, don't hear something I didn't say, okay.

Whosoever will, may come.

Okay.

When somebody just kind of skips down the aisle, you may not have tears.

Some people don't shed a lot of tears, but they just casually say, yeah, I don't want to go to hell.

What do I got to do?

Something wrong with that?

It's a crisis.

There's a lot of crisis.

Our church could be possibly, we'd say in a crisis.

I mean, the future of the Heritage Baptist Church could be determined today.

I don't think.

I haven't noticed anybody that goes, yeah, I heard about that.

No, I can feel what you're feeling.

You have a weight.

You have a heart.

You're heavy.

You care.

You're saved.

If you're saved, the Holy Spirit's in you.

You remember when I first Came here a few weeks ago.

We had a picture of a ship in a storm.

I love that picture.

When the storms of life are raging Stand by me.

When the storms of life are raging Stand by me there's another picture.

We don't see a storm.

We see a battle.

In fact, on the left there, it almost reminds me a little bit of the church.

This church.

We're not sinking.

I said we're not sinking, but we've been hit.

When you're in war, there's casualties, there's damage.

Okay?

We're not on a pleasure cruise.

When you get on board of a church that stands true and solid and straight and strong for the word of God, you're going to be fired at.

In the midst of tribulation.

Stand by me when the host of hell assail and my strength begins to fail Thou who never lost a battle Stand by me the history of this church is great.

To the glory of God.

It is.

Believe me, it is.

I've been around.

This church has a wonderful past, a heritage.

But what about the future?

Christ is the Christ of every crisis.

It's his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Thank God for His grace.

Through many dangerous toils and snares we have already come.

And his grace hath brought us safe thus far.

And his grace will lead us home.

I'm nearer home than I was yesterday.

Because he's the Christ of every crisis.

The Christ of every crisis.

What about the crisis of death?

That's a crisis, I guess.

Amen.

But Jesus said, because I live, ye shall live also if you're saved.

Today you know Christ as your Savior.

You consciously realized there was no way for you to get into heaven except through Christ.

And you received Christ as your Savior.

If you know that, you're saved.

And the Bible says we can know.

We don't have to hope, we don't have to think, we don't have to try.

These things are written that you may know you.

You have eternal life.

Not everybody believes that.

In fact, most people don't believe that.

Most people believe you've got to try to live a good enough life to be accepted into heaven.

Well, who's good?

What's good?

How good do you have to be?

If you've committed one sin, the Bible says you're guilty of all.

But if you're saved, you put your faith in Christ.

Death is the least of your worries.

The least.

When a doctor comes into the room and sits down, he says, there's nothing more we can do.

And Jesus whispers in our ear, you're with me.

I'm the Christ of every crisis.

Home is straight ahead.

But if you're not saved, you don't have a home.

You don't.

There's no such thing as purgatory in the Bible.

Jesus never mentioned it.

There's no in between stage where God can think it over.

He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life.

But the wrath of God abideth on him.

You see, to be saved means to be rescued.

It means to be delivered from the wrath of God.

Because God poured out his wrath on Jesus as he hung on the cross.

All of his wrath, his wrath, was poured out at the flood.

And when Jesus comes back, he's going to pour out his wrath again in fire after the tribulation period in the millennial reign.

But in the middle is the cross.

And God poured out all of his wrath.

He paid for every man's sin that would ever be born and for every sin of every sinner that would ever be committed.

Jesus.

Jesus suffered for it.

And so if you're saved, the Bible says we're not appointed under the wrath of God.

Why would God pour out his wrath on us?

If we put our faith in Christ, who took the wrath of God for us.

But if you're not saved, you face eternal crisis.

Luke 16.

In hell, he lift up his eyes.

It is appointed unto a man once to die.

And after this.

After this.

That's not the end.

Death is not the end.

It's appointed unto man once to die.

And after this, the Bible says the judgment.

But there's still time this morning for you to get saved.

You're living right now.

You're breathing.

I don't know where you'll be or where I'll be an hour from now.

You got plans.

You plan to be here and do this and that, and that's okay.

But nobody's guaranteed, and you're alive.

And if you've never been saved, you can be saved today.

But if I were you, I'd run.

I'd run to the cross.

There's room at the cross for you.

Though millions have come, there's still room for one.

There's room at the cross for you.

Everybody goes through the same door.

Jesus has said, I am the door.

Okay, so everybody is saved the same way.

We like to categorize as big sinners and little sinners, but the Bible doesn't do that.

Everybody comes the same way.

The ground is level at the Cross.

And the Bible says there's no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 1.

Hallelujah.

No condemnation.

Jesus met that woman and the street.

An adulterous woman.

In fact, they not only heard about it, they actually caught her in the act.

And Jesus said, he that is without sin cast the first stone.

They were getting ready to stone her.

And the Bible says Jesus wrote some things in the stone.

Can you imagine that?

They're all holding these stones.

Nobody's smiling.

The woman is trembling.

And Jesus is writing something.

And the Bible doesn't really tell us what it was.

He could have written other sins, maybe he wrote their names.

Who knows?

But all of a sudden, you could hear the thump of rocks as they were dropped on the ground.

He that is without sin casts the first stone.

And the Bible says every one of them dropped their rocks and left.

And she's left on the ground kneeling before Jesus.

Where are those that condemn you?

She says, there's none, Lord.

He said, neither do I condemn thee.

Go and sin no more.

You think that lady had a good day?

You think she told anybody about it?

You think she went home different?

She was already condemned.

She was in condemnation.

She was on death row.

And all of a sudden, she's taken off the road to hell and put on the road to heaven.

If you're not saved, I beg you to come.

Hurry, get down to the place and trust Christ as your savior.

Get in the ark, Noah.

Noah preached for 120 years while he was building the ark.

The Bible says he preached the word of God.

He preached the gospel and nobody listened.

They mocked.

They thought this guy's crazy.

But he didn't make anybody get in.

The door was open for 120 years.

Jesus says to us, come.

And God said, noah, come thou thy family into the ark.

He didn't say go.

He said, come on into the ark.

I guess God was already in the ark.

Yeah, he was.

And then God shut the door.

You don't have to die.

You're going to leave the body.

Soul and spirit will leave the body.

Everybody's going to leave the body.

But you're a soul and spirit that's going to be alive in eternity, either in heaven or hell.

There's a lot of crisis.

But he's the Christ of every crisis.

What about the crisis of disease getting sick?

Can he handle that?

Nothing too hard for God.

In him we live and move and have our being.

He can heal, he can comfort, he can give grace.

And you know what I believe that when a Christian Dies, that's the ultimate healing.

Because if God heals you down here, and he may or he may not, he may have something better for you or a purpose, but when he heals a person, say, of cancer, there's probably going to be some other things down the road you're going to need healing for.

But when you get to heaven, there'll be no more healing because it won't be necessary.

The ultimate healing absent from the body present with the Lord.

You're not going to.

If you're saved, you're not going to.

You are not going to die until the Lord is through with you according to what the teaching of the Bible is.

So, evidently, pretty good crowd here this morning.

Evidently God's not through with you.

And maybe you're at gotten some news and you're facing a crisis and maybe you're praying and you're wondering if God could take you through this and add more years to your life.

Hezekiah did.

God said, hezekiah, put thy house in order.

Checking out here.

And the Bible says, Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed and wept.

God said, I've seen your tears and I've heard your prayer.

And he said, I'm going to add 15 more years to your life.

Isn't that something you say?

Well, I didn't think God changed his mind.

He did.

Then.

The crisis of disease.

You're in pain.

Christ knew all about pain.

He knew more about pain than anybody that ever lived.

What about disasters?

You see me almost like last night.

Well, we've seen real disasters, haven't we?

Storms that wipe out whole towns and cities and people and fires that they couldn't contain.

And floods not very long ago not far from here.

All those children, earthquakes.

Thousands of people perishing in an earthquake.

And then there's the disasters of war.

911 Was a disaster.

Jesus is the Christ of every crisis.

He said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee.

Never, you say, well, what about those three Hebrew boys they threw in the fire?

Well, when they got in the fire and the man looked in, there was four.

They only threw in three.

And who was the fourth one?

Christ was in the fire.

What about the crisis of discouragement?

Is that a crisis?

My wife and I like old movies and we watch It's a Wonderful Life sometimes at Christmas time, and if you don't, that's fine, but I'm always.

I'm always.

It's just amazing to me when.

When Clarence is talking.

God's talking.

Clarence, I'm Going to send you down.

Take care of George Bailey.

And Clarence says, is he sick?

And God says, no, it's worse.

He's discouraged.

Isn't that something?

Discouragement.

Did you know the Bible says the spirit of a man will save his infirmity?

It'll help him through his infirmity.

But it says, a wounded spirit.

Who can bear a wounded spirit.

Who can bear.

That's a rhetorical question.

It means nobody really can bear a wounded spirit.

I'm talking about a wounded spirit, not just having a bad day.

I'm talking when you're broken and smashed on the inside and you're discouraged.

And discouragement can lead to alcohol and to drugs and even to suicide.

And by the way, children and teenagers can be discouraged too.

It's not just an adult thing, but Christ.

You bring him into the picture.

He says, I can handle that.

I'm the Christ of every crisis.

No one understands like Jesus.

I've been there.

I know what discouragement's like.

What about the crisis of a divorce?

Don't raise your hand, but you've been through that.

Was it a picnic?

Was it hard?

Was it a crisis?

Most of the time it is.

Changes everything.

But Christ is the Christ of every crisis.

The woman at the well, she had five husbands.

And then she's living with another man.

When Jesus sat down with her and talked to her about the water, the living water, and she got saved and went back into town and told everybody about it.

She was a great soul.

Winner.

Bible says everybody came out and many got saved.

In fact, twice, it says, and then many more.

Come see a man.

Divorce is not the unpardonable sin.

God hates it.

It's a crisis.

But he's the Christ of every crisis.

God can forgive and restore.

And if you've been through a divorce and maybe you're in a second or third marriage, I don't know, that's between you and God.

But as far as I understand this book and the power of the blood, you're not a second rate Christian.

Now.

You're just as important to God, and God can still use you.

You don't have to go around in life saying, well, I guess I'll never be a good Christian.

You might even be a better Christian than a lot of Christians.

Division in the family, boy, that's a crisis.

People you love, your own family, blood, family.

Sometimes there's division.

That's a crisis.

Can Christ handle that?

He gave us a story of the prodigal son.

All is forgiven.

Come home.

A man and his son got In a bad fight in Spain, the country of Spain, years ago.

And it just really got out of hand.

And, I mean, they just disagreed.

Started out as an argument, but pretty soon the boy said things and the man said things.

And finally the young kid ran out the door.

And he didn't come back for a long time.

In fact, the father couldn't even find him.

And the father's heart was broken, and he wanted to forgive and he wanted his son back.

And he didn't know how to do it.

He didn't know where he lived.

And so he took out an ad in the paper.

The boy's name was Paco.

And said, dear Paco, I love you, I miss you, I need you.

All is forgiven.

Come home.

Meet me at the fountain at the center of the city.

And he had it splattered on the newspaper.

He said, meet me Saturday at the fountain.

And the father went to the fountain next Saturday morning.

And there was 200 kids there named Paco.

A lot of boys, a lot of girls, a lot of daughters and sons and grandsons and granddaughters and families and cousins and aunts.

It's a crisis.

And if they could just know that they were forgiven and they didn't have to earn their way back into the family.

Just come.

Dealing with the devil is a crisis, isn't it?

Jesus told Peter, satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

But Jesus said, but I have prayed for you, and when you are converted, strengthen the brethren.

You think that was a crisis when Peter denied the Lord three times?

Oh, boy, it was.

We meet him in heaven.

He probably won't want to talk about it.

I'll close, but I just want you to be encouraged that the crisis that you are in or may go into is not the end of the world if you know Jesus.

That woman that sat at the well, she told Jesus, we're waiting for the Messiah.

Are you listening?

You know what Jesus said when she said, we're waiting for the Messiah?

He leaned over to her and said, I'm he.

I am he.

I am the Messiah.

Wow, can you imagine her face?

And she became a Christian.

I am he.

You may be out there today saying, I wish I knew somebody who really cared about me.

Jesus said, I'm he.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus.

I wish I knew somebody who could understand me.

Nobody understands me.

I am he.

Jesus said, I understand.

I wish I knew somebody who'd tell me the truth that I could trust.

I'm he.

Jesus said, you can trust me.

I'm the way, the truth and the life.

I wish I knew somebody who would not condemn me all the time.

Jesus said, I'm He.

Some of you need a friend.

So I wish I could just find one good friend.

I am he.

Jesus said, what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.

I wish somebody could tell me what to do.

My wits end.

I don't know what to do.

I wish I had somebody.

Jesus said, I'm he.

I'm right here.

Guess what?

Jesus is sitting right beside you right now, says, I am He.

I'm whatever you need, and I am whenever you need, and I am wherever you need.

Come unto me, all you that are tired and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Boy, that sounds good, doesn't it?

Rest.

He wasn't talking about physical rest.

We're going to have that when we get to heaven.

Amen.

Won't be tired anymore or retired, But we'll have rest.

But you can have rest down here in the midst of chaos and confusion and all the things we see on television constantly every day.

You can sit down in the chair and say, I have the peace of God that passeth all understanding, and I have the joy of the Lord that doesn't depend on people or things or circumstances.

Would you bow your head, please, and stand to your feet?

Just stand quietly for a moment.

Could we take another moment or two and invite you once again to come to Christ?

If you're not saved, you say, well, I joined the church.

That won't save you.

The church can't save you.

Baptism can't save you.

Giving money can't save you.

Being a good person can't save you.

Only Christ.

Did you get in the ark?

Christ is our ark.

Do you get.

Have you gotten in?

Do you know how you got in or when you got in or how.

I mean, when did you get into Christ?

When did Christ get into you?

When did you become a born again believer?

Say, I don't know the answer to any of those questions.

Why don't you come today?

We're not going to embarrass you.

You're not going to have to stand up in front of everybody and repeat a prayer or say anything.

Why don't you just come and let one of our men or women just show you in the Bible?

I mean, you can trust the Bible.

It's never been wrong about anything.

Just read it and then do what it says.

And the Bible says, God will save you.

If you're a sinner, you're qualified to be saved.

Would you consider that?

I'll give you my word we'll not embarrass you.

We just want to tell you and show you Christian.

What about you?

Are you in a crisis?

Have you been through a crisis?

How'd you get through?

By the grace of God, that's how.

Maybe things are looking a little dark out there.

Christ is the light.

Why don't you come and kneel here for a moment?

If God's touched your heart, maybe you want to join the church.

You're not a member of this church.

You feel like God wants you here for some reason?

We want to invite you.

Just come and say, I'd like to become a part of this church family.