Sunday Message
6/14/26

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SEEING GOD’S PURPOSE IN MY PROBLEMS
Seeing Through God’s Eyes

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PSA 27: 1 - The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?
2  When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

3  Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
4  One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.

5  For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

6  And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

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A few weeks ago, I started a series called “Seeing Through God’s Eyes.” The first message was on “Seeing OTHERS as God Sees THEM.” Last week, we looked at “Seeing YOURSELF as God Sees YOU.” I want to keep that theme and speak on an area that ALL OF US CAN RELATE TO. Today I want us to look at SEEING OUR PROBLEMS THE WAY GOD SEES THEM – OR, HOW GOD “SEES PURPOSE IN OUR PROBLEMS.” A lot of people BELIEVE when they have problems, that God is MAD at them. “God’s ANGRY, God’s PUNISHING me.” “Something must be
wrong in my life…. I must be out of God’s will because I have all of these problems.”

LISTEN - God doesn’t “CAUSE” my problems, but He does “USE” my problems FOR GOOD. Truth is, “I CAUSE MOST OF MY OWN PROBLEMS, AND SO DO YOU.” As the old saying goes: “If you find yourself in a hole, THE FIRST THING TO DO IS STOP DIGGING."

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 OTHER PEOPLE can cause problems.
 The DEVIL can cause problems.
 The WORLD can cause problems.
 Even NATURE can cause problems.

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But, in the end, it really doesn’t matter WHO caused the problem in your life. Regardless of the source, GOD WANTS TO “USE THEM FOR GOOD” IN OUR LIFE. If you’ve felt a little down, discouraged or overcome with an ISSUE, you’ve picked a good week to come to church.

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The Bible says that God has a long-term benefit planned for those of us Who Handle Problems Correctly. So, it makes sense that we figure out what God’s “PURPOSE” IS IN OUR PROBLEMS.

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By the way, God doesn’t enjoy when we have problems. The Bible says in Lamentations 3 “He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way. For instance,

 1. Sometimes, God’s PURPOSE is to USE OUR PROBLEMS
TO “DIRECT US or REDIRECT US”

Sometimes to point us in a NEW DIRECTION, to give us DIFFERENT PATH. Sometimes you’re heading one direction and God says, I have a different path for you, so He puts a ROADBLOCK there. It forces you to go a different direction. Proverbs 16:9 says, “A person may plan his own journey, But The Lord Directs His Steps.”

** Humans make PLANS, but God DIRECTS them.

We can make all kinds of plans. We can set our goals, establish our objectives, lay out our priorities, clarify our values, EVEN DO A LIFE PLAN, and figure out everything you want to do and accomplish in your lifetime.

But the Bible says, “BUT GOD DIRECTS this MOVIE.” How does God direct or redirect when you’re THE ONE making your plans? One word: PROBLEMS. Have you noticed HOW JUST ONE problem CAN CHANGE your whole plan? WE make all these plans and then very few of them actually happen the way WE planned them.

Why? PROBLEMS GET IN THE WAY, and problems can change your plans. But God IS THE ONE WHO ORCHESTRATES THE DIRECTION OF OUR LIFE, and one of the ways He does it is, He allows ROADBLOCKS when GOD HAS A BETTER DIRECTION FOR YOUR LIFE.

Proverbs 20 “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.”

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Truth is... We Don’t Change When We SEE THE LIGHT; We Change When We FEEL THE HEAT.

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And PAIN is a very powerful motivator in our lives. It gets us going. It gets us moving. It gets us off of our blessed assurance. If everything remained comfortable in our life all of the time, We’d Never Change. Would you agree that?? “Sometimes it takes a painful experience to get us to change our ways!!”

ILL - Remember the story of the Prodigal Son. He asked his father for his inheritance, left home, and wasted it all on reckless living. Broke and desperate, he found himself feeding pigs. It was there that he came to his senses and said, “I will get up and go back to my father.”

That’s so typical. MOST OF US never change until we hit ROCK bottom, UNTIL THINGS GET REALLY BAD.

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Think about this. . . One of the benefits of problems is THEY
NEVER LEAVE YOU WHERE THEY’VE FOUND YOU.

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A problem picks you up at one place but when it finishes with you, DROPS you in different place. At least my experience has been, You’re Never The Same After You Go Through A Problem.

Remember the story of JONAH? You might say he was swallowed up by ONE BIG PROBLEM. But when that problem spit him out, HE’S NOT AT ALL WHERE HE STARTED. He’d been heading that way toward Tarsus, and God said, “No, I want you to go this way,to NINEVEH.” And between that way and this way there was a GIANT BLUBBER PROBLEM. And when his GIANT BLUBBER PROBLEM spits him out, he
heads in the RIGHT DIRECTION - doing the RIGHT THING.

WHAT GOT JONAH’S ATTENTION AND SENT HIM IN THE RIGHT

DIRECTION? A PROBLEM!

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That’s a parable of life for us. That God will use problems in our lives to say, “You’re Headed The Wrong Direction! I Want You To Go “This” Way!”

Truth is we’d rarely change if we didn’t have any PAIN or
PROBLEMS in our lives. We’d Postpone All The Difficult Decisions. We’d Put Off Getting Things Right In Our Life! Making Things Right With Other People!

WE ONLY CHANGE WHEN OUR FEAR OF CHANGE IS
EXCEEDED BY OUR PAIN. Isn’t that true? Because none of us
really want to change. TRUTH is… in our season of life, MOST OF US LOATHE CHANGE. Yet when the PAIN gets worse than the FEAR OF CHANGE, all of a sudden, we say, “I think I’ll change.” It motivates us. SO, SOMETIMES GOD USES PROBLEMS TO DIRECT US.

Sometimes God wants to put you in a different PLACE. He wants to put you in a different RELATIONSHIP, a different SITUATION, a different CIRCUMSTANCE. That’s the first question you want to ask. - WHERE IS THIS PROBLEM LEADING ME? God uses problems to DIRECT us and then…

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Sometimes, God’s PURPOSE in our PROBLEMS IS TO “INSPECT” US.

Sometimes He uses problems to REVEAL our CHARACTER, our INTEGRITY, our MOTIVES…ALL OF THOSE TO SHOW US WHAT’S INSIDE OF US. TO REVEAL WHAT’S IN OUR HEARTS. TO REVEAL WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT TO US.

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In fact, He does this all the time. Job 7:18 “You God, inspect them every morning and You test them every minute.”

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My question is Why? Why does God do this? Because God is
more interested in your INTEGRITY than in your IMAGE. He’s more interested in what’s on the INSIDE than what’s on the OUTSIDE.

Remember the story of the children of Israel in the Old Testament when Moses was LEADING them from Egypt to the Promised Land? They came out of Egypt, they went Through The Red Sea, They Went To Mount Sinai; Moses Rec’d The Ten Commandments. Then They Had A
Desert To Cross (a journey that should have taken a couple of weeks.) But remember how long it took them to get across that desert? FORTY YEARS!!

Why did it take so long? Because God kept testing them and THEY KEPT FAILING THE TEST!! Every time they failed the test, it was another lap around Mt. Sinai. They kept doing this for FORTY long years, going through the SAME PROBLEM, they HAD THE WRONG REACTION to a problem – THE SAME CIRCLE.

Have you ever DONE THAT? KEEP MAKING THE SAME POOR
DECISION OVER & OVER, WITH THE SAME OUTCOME?

** INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND

EXPECTING A DIFFERENT OUTCOME!

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Churches do this all the time. When someone INSPECTS what they’re doing and makes a recommendation for a CHANGE, they are met with OPPOSITION. And the LOGIC for the opposition is… “But We’ve Always Done It This Way!” And the resistance to CHANGE IS TRADITION. AND TRADITION TRUMPS CHANGE AND THE RESULTS STAY THE SAME! YOU CAN’T KEEP DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AND

EXPECT A DIFFERENT OUTCOME! WE ARE A LOT like tea bags. To see what’s inside of us, you’ve got to put us in hot water. The Bible tells us that when God turns the HEAT UP, when we go through difficulties it’s an INSPECTION PROCESS but it’s also a REFINING PROCESS. He uses those circumstances to do something in our hearts that REFINES us.

Isaiah 48:10 says, “I have tested you in the fire of suffering.”

I know some of you are going through some sort of suffering right now. YOU may have caused it. SOMEONE ELSE may have caused it. You may not have a CLUE what caused it. But my encouragement to you is… instead of thinking who’s to blame or what caused it, ask God this
question, “God, through this time of suffering, what impurities do You want to burn off in my life? What do You want to do in me through this difficulty of life?” Maybe God wants to burn off the impurity of SELFISHNESS. We all have that. Or maybe it’s PRIDE. Or maybe it’s IMPATIENCE. Or maybe it’s UNFORGIVENESS.

LIFE IS ONE TEST AFTER ANOTHER! One of the things that God tests when we go through problems and struggles and difficulties, He tests IF what we SAY we believe is really WHAT WE BELIEVE. When the struggles come, I may say God is first in my life, but when the pressure is on, DOES MY COMMITMENT TO HIM GET SIDETRACKED? Does He get PUSHED off to the sideline of my life? Is it another lap around Mt Sinai? Ask yourself this question when problems come. . .

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IF I SQUEEZE A TUBE, WHAT IS GOING TO COME OUT? Could be cream for face, gel for sunburn, toothpaste…What determines what comes out of the tube? WHEN I SQUEEZE IT, WHATEVER IS INSIDE WILL COME OUT.

What Does This Problem Reveal About Me?

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We are like a TUBE OF TOOTHPASTE, He says, Let’s See What You’re Really Like On The Inside. SOMETIMES, HEALTH squeezes you, MONEY, PEOPLE. GOD MAY BE SQUEEZING YOU TO FIND OUT WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE! So, He directs us, He inspects us… So, EVERY TIME WE BRUSH OUR TEETH, I WANT US TO ASK OURSELVES THE QUESTION,

IF PROBLEMS, PEOPLE, CIRCUMSTANCES or GOD SQUEEZES ME

TODAY, WHAT IS GOING TO COME OUT?

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GOD USES PROBLEMS TO “PERFECT US.”

To make us more like Him. To help us to grow up spiritually and become like Jesus Christ in character. YOUR GREATEST SPIRITUAL GROWTH WILL BE IN THE DARK DAYS WHEN THINGS ARE NOT GOING GOOD IN YOUR LIFE, AND YOU TURN TO GOD FOR DEPENDENCE. So, God will use those days in your life for good if you let Him.

I don’t know what problems you’re going through, but I will tell you this, They’re Not An Accident. God wants to use them in our life. If we will respond to them correctly.

1 Peter 5:10 says this “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who calls you to share His eternal glory in union with Christ, will Himself PERFECT YOU and give you firmness, strength and a sure foundation.”

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OUR PROBLEM is not THE PROBLEM. Our PROBLEM is how we
RESPOND. When does your problem become a real problem? WHEN WE RESPOND IN THE WRONG WAY. When we lose God’s perspective on it. When we start blaming other people for the problems in our life. When you become bitter, angry and resentful. When you refuse to forgive.

OUR REAL problem is when WE don’t respond correctly to the problems that come into our life.

What should we do? We should say, “God, I know that nothing comes into my life by accident. So, I want You to use this circumstance, this situation to direct me, to inspect me, to correct me, and to perfect me.”

Prayer:
I’D LIKE TO CLOSE WITH A LITTLE SELF-EVALUATION. I WANT YOU TO ASK God these questions: Lord, are You using this problem to DIRECT me? If so, what do You want me to change? Where do You want me to go? Lord, are You using this problem to INSPECT me? If so, what does it reveal about my life? A weakness? An insecurity? A misplaced priority? A sin? Lord, are You using this problem to CORRECT me? If so, what do You want me to learn? I’m not going to ask why it’s happening. I’m going to ask what do You want me to learn from it? Lord, are You using this problem to PERFECT me? To make me more like You?

PRAYER
I don’t care what your religious background is. You may be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, no religion. Maybe you’ve gone to church all your life, or you’ve never gone to church. God wants you to have a relationship with Him not a religion. He brought you here today so you could know Him. Pray a simple prayer like this: “God, if You’re real I want to get to know You. Jesus, as much as I know how to open up my life to You, I ask You to come into my life and
make Yourself real to me.

AMEN

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