Finding God in the Dark Roy Daniel

I've prayed a lot about this sermon and I'm going to pray again. If you're going to open up our Bibles to Psalm 23, just keep your Bibles open at Psalm 23. This sermon is titled Finding God in the Dark and you can bring this from two sides, either as an unsaved person or as a saved person who's struggling in the darkness of life.

The title is Finding God in the Dark and I just like to pray before we start and I do pray that God really works in our hearts and across his world. You know Spurgeon, Spurgeon before he died, his book All of Grace was not in published in America yet and he was worried that after all the prayer and effort that it wouldn't be used much and Dale Moody after his death, the very first book they published shortly before he died was All of Grace. It published in millions and many people saved and Spurgeon had this prayer that he didn't see answered in his lifetime, but I'm going to pray for this sermon and ask that God and mercy would work through it.

Well I want to ask that this sermon that I believe you've laid in my heart for this church and for other people, that you would help people, especially Christians through the sermon, to find Jesus in the dark. And as we go through illustrations dear father and as we go through different verses and concepts in the Bible on this topic and as we look at people who struggled with this and you gave them light in the darkness, that it will become clear to us what it is and what the devil's trying to do and what your message is concerning this topic and that your Holy Spirit would give a word and season to people and that you'll bind the devil and his demons in the name of Jesus Christ and that you'll work among the young people and old people and and let this be something that is remembered throughout their entire life as it has been a blessing to me too and I pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Now I'd like to read just one verse to you guys and then we're going to look at this topic finding God in the dark and as I said there's going to be a lot of illustrations there'll also be a section of theological concepts concerning this but there's going to be a lot of illustrations especially later on and I'd like to start just reading Psalm 23 on this topic. Psalm 23 verse 4 famous chapter and it says these words, Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil and then it gives this reason for not fearing in the shadows of death in this valley for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. He has Jesus the shepherd in the dark valley of the shadow of death.

Now there's a song that was written in 1942 by a guy called EJ Rawlings and EJ Rawlings wrote Standing Somewhere in the Shadows and when he wrote this song he had for many years been a pastor he used to be a policeman before he became a started a church in Detroit and went very well and he was known for encouraging people he's known for being a happy person and also for starting a church from scratch which became very strong but then he went through a very hard time in his life and he confided in somebody else and what he was going through and that person basically misused his trust and in the song you'll actually get words later on that indicate this and he felt betrayed by people and he was very down and he felt depressed and this time another minister from the same denomination it was a denominational church sent a letter to him and in that letter were just the words standing somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus and based on that and some verses in scripture he wrote this song and the I'm not going to sing the whole thing to you but the the chorus goes something like this standing somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus he's the only one who cares and understands standing somewhere in the shadows you will find him and you'll know him by the nail prints in his hands now this song became a great encouragement to a lot of people and it's not the focus but I would like to quickly bring to you where in the bible he got conceptually the idea for the song apart from the fact that he was going through a time of shadows and darkness and he got this letter from this person number one obviously is read to you from 23 verse 4 which says walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me interestingly he did not fear because someone was with them who knew the way and that was Jesus Christ and I'd like to remind all of you that God made the night before sin and God is not afraid of the dark and he's a very he's got very good night vision I like to say God has the best night vision he didn't just make the owl with good night vision God has the greatest night vision we'll see later in the bible it says this that God is great night vision but for now to do with the song the idea of finding Jesus in the shadows another portion of scripture he took this from was John chapter 20 because in John chapter 20 you have Mary and Mary comes to the grave and we read in John chapter 20 verse 1 the first day of the week come with Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark and we know from other times where the apostles and disciples met Jesus Christ that of them did not recognize Jesus in the daytime but some people argue and this is where he got some of the inspiration for the song some people argue that that because she came there in the dark and then there was a little interaction with the other disciples and she thought it was the gardener standing inside that it was still pretty dark and that she had an added disadvantage in not recognizing Jesus and that was he was in the shadow and so standing some standing somewhere in the shadow you'll find Jesus was inspired by Psalm 23 verse 4 and this as she was weeping verse 14 says and when she had thus said she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and she knew not that it was Jesus and Jesus said unto a woman why weepest thou you know why she was weeping because she was in the dark in a very dark time in life and she didn't know where her savior was and I can tell you if you look through church history if you look at the greatest missionaries that ever there was if you look at the greatest preachers that we know of obviously there's some we don't know of throughout history if you look at the greatest men of God of the old testament the new testament you'll find that they went through times where they wondered where is God because life seems that dark and she was standing there in the shadows and she didn't know where Jesus was and she was weeping about it and she thought he was the gardener that bore him away and then he said these words like he likes to do it's one of his favorite things Mary and the moment she heard his voice saying Mary she'd already heard his voice when she heard her name she said Rabboni which is to say master now there's one other verse before we look at a few concepts here and psalm 139 is an amazing chapter on the on the knowledge of God the God is everywhere sees all things knows all things but one verse which I always used to use a little bit wrong is Psalm 139 verse 8 which says the words if I send up to heaven thou art there and if I as he was talking as a man of God not as a heathen he said if I make my bed in hell behold thou art there and I'd like to suggest this hell is the place of the dead this hell is she all in the Hebrew if if he as a man of God he realizes that if I go all the way up to God's day if I go all the way down to hell God's day and though he wasn't going to go to hell there's no dark place that you can face or go to in your spiritual walk and in life as a Christian that is as deep as hell and if the darkest place you can go to there's a deeper place where God is there too and and so God is there in the dark is what it's saying now Jacob's ladder we sang nearer my God to thee and in it is this concept and it's interesting so many things where God reveals himself is in the dark you'll find this in the New Testament and the Old Testament it was when he went to sleep that he saw a ladder from heaven with angels descending and ascending and in the dark there was the revelation of God's light of what Jesus would say this is a picture of me in the book of John you'll see angels descending and ascending on me this is the gateway to heaven the house of God and the way to heaven is to Jesus Christ but this was revealed first in the dark in the night I don't know if you've noticed but the three times in the New Testament that you have a jail break where God comes and opens the doors and sometimes breaks the chain every single time God didn't wait for the daytime it was in the nighttime that God opened the doors and broke the chains and said he's kept us free the apostles were all set free at nighttime Peter was set free at nighttime Paul and Silas were set free at nighttime and in this nighttime God revealed to the Philippian jailer that he could get saved too that his prison doors could be opened that his chains could be set loose that he could be saved and this was at nighttime when we look at Jacob's letter we just sang the song though like a wanderer the sun gone down darkness come over me my rest is stone yet in my dreams I'd be in this darkness nearer my God to thee nearer my God to thee nearer to thee and and when we think of that song which says standing somewhere in the shadows you'll find Jesus because of the way our emotions are made when we go through dark times in life the more we go towards the shadow the more we feel we're far from the light and because we feel we're far from the light when we go through hard times in our life whether it is with our families our church our health our business whether it is in our emotions if we've got depression whatever it is when we go through the dark times in life satan comes and he kind of tells us that there is no light in the darkness because we have to be in the light to be with the light and in the darkness it's hard to believe that there is light because you're surrounded emotionally by darkness and and this sermon is finding God in the darkness and I'd like to bring some very important concepts here which culminate in a psalm which is absolutely amazing on this but some very quick concepts here which is very important number one God dwells in I like to repeat that God dwells in the darkness. Psalm 18 verse 11 he this is God made darkness his secret place. 1 Kings 8 verse 12 the Lord said he would dwell in the thick darkness.

Exodus 20 verse 21 and the people stood afar off and Moses drew near under the thick darkness where God was and you'll see here that God reveals himself to Jacob at night time he reveals himself to Mary in the shadows of the morning he reveals himself as the one who opens the prisons at night time in each case and God dwells in the darkness in various verses in the Old Testament and then we have the fact that God makes a path in the darkness this is Isaiah 42 verse 16 and I will bring the blind by way they knew not I will lead them in paths that they have not known I will make darkness light before them Micah 7 verse 8 says when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me and the point of this is not only does God dwell in the darkness not only does God make a path in the darkness but God while in the darkness the Lord is your light and it doesn't say after you in the dark it says while I'm in darkness when I sit in the darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me not afterwards and then we have the concept in scripture that God knows what and who is in the dark and this is extremely important this is important to Job by the way we'll find in a moment it's very important encouraging us to know that God knows what and who is in the darkness he's got good night vision as we've mentioned Daniel 2 verse 22 he revealed that this is God the deep and secret things he knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him God knows what and who is in the dark now there was a time in Job 23 obviously we know that Job has lost his business he's lost his children he's lost his servants little children despise him people spit on him he calls to his servants they don't come he begs his wife to come to him at a stage and she won't even though he begs based on the children that she bore unto him his friends have been hounding him he's got boils all over his body when he goes to sleep he can't escape because he has these terrible dreams that torment him while he's asleep there's no escape for Job from what he's facing and in this time we read that he could not perceive God Job 23 verse 8 to 9 he could not see he could not feel God there's no way he could touch God he didn't know where God was he was like a blind person who could not perceive God where is God but then he says in the same chapter the most amazing thing he says in spite of the fact that I cannot see God I cannot feel God I cannot touch God I don't know where God is he knows the way that I take when he has tried me I shall come forth as gold and so what Job is saying here exactly what we said before God knows what is in the darkness it's so wonderful to know that even when I don't know where God is life is so dark God knows where I am and he cares and Job hung on to this he knows I don't and I mentioned that that God is a good night vision let's just read Psalm 139 verse 11 to 12 I if I say surely the darkness shall cover me even the night shall be light around me yea the darkness hideth not from thee but the night shineth as the day and yeah yeah when someone felt like darkness was just covering him he reminded himself of the fact that God sees this is a this is not just the this is a two-way street we'll see soon but he has a person who feels like the darkness is covering him and he said wait if I even if I say that God sees as if it was daytime the night shineth as the day and this and I mentioned this is a two-way street and it's a two-way street in two ways in in this sense that there's a lot of ungodly people in the bible who try to do this sin in the dark they lie still commit adultery and modern days look at pornography and they say God doesn't see me because I'm digging in my heart I'm digging my room no one sees me and uh it's very scary to them to know if they ever realize that God sees because he's the one that's going to judge them one day but the other side of the coin is that we as Christians those who follow God when we are in the dark and many times in the old testament there were there were people who accused the people of God in Psalm 31 and Psalm 22 and some uh many of the psalms it was said when they went through hard times that God doesn't see you and you're cut off from God they said it themselves and it was said to them by their enemies and so it's an encouragement to know when you don't know where God is that God knows where you are furthermore there's treasure in the dark so God gives treasure in the dark this is Isaiah 45 verse 2 to 3 I will go before thee I'll make the crooked way places straight and then it says I will give thee the treasures of darkness I will give you the treasures of darkness so um just to repeat this God dwells in the dark God makes a path in the dark God knows what and who is in the dark and this is a great encouragement to Job God sees in the dark even when if we felt like darkness was coming over us to hide our sin or because we're feeling very down God sees in the dark there's treasures in the dark as we'll find very soon and then also Jesus experienced the darkness when he was in Calvary and those nails were through his hands and the thorn of crown of thorns was on his head for three hours he experienced darkness before he said it is finished and he gave up the ghost and in that darkness in those three hours he said my God my God towards the end why hast thou forsaken me it got so dark to him that he felt like God had forsaken him but you know what's so beautiful about those words of Jesus Christ when he was in the darkness the words my God because he was acknowledging he didn't say my previous God my God why is that forsaken me and Jesus understood Psalm 88 which I preached here before where the very first verse of this chapter which is full of darkness and ends with darkness and there's no hope all the way through it feels like and just God you're doing stuff to me and you're putting waves over my head and you're sending me down into hell and I'm I'm just it's I'm dying and I'm dead and I'm worse than dead the very first words is oh Lord God of my salvation before he talks of all the bad stuff you see Jesus understood human who wrote this song and the very last verse is very applicable love and friend that's not put far from me and mine acquaintance acquaintance into darkness everybody that loves me everybody who's a friend everybody who could possibly encourage me has gone away into darkness and I'm just sitting in the dark a Lord God of my salvation and now I'd like to come to the key of this sermon because this is what the rest of the sermon is going to be based on so I'd like us to open up to Psalm 102 before we get to the illustrations we're going to look at Psalm 102 very very important Psalm on this topic finding God in the dark because yeah we find something that's a little bit surprising yeah we find a twist yeah we find something that's against our ego shall we say and which surprises many Christians that I've met and some sitting here based on conversations I heard for them several years back as applied as opposed to today what they say about the same things Psalm 102 verse 11 says these staggering words my days are like a shadow that declineth and I am withered like grass now it's one thing to be a young person with strength or maybe an older person with strength and your health is good and your business is good and everything else is great and then you as a strong person with strong mental capacities face some dark times whether it's a child that dies etc and you go through the darkness of life but yeah it's totally different yeah something we don't like you become the darkness and it's not a sinful thing but yes a person has said my days are like a shadow that declined I am withered like grass and we're going to find out what that means a little bit later in the psalm but before we do if we go to verse 17 we read these beautiful words it's almost encouragement right away and he God will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer so yeah we have a guy who feels like he's becoming a shadow maybe when he was younger he had good abilities to speak maybe he had a good abilities of business maybe he didn't get tired and he can work 12 hours a day and and just get away with it for weeks on end and other people got tired but I'm gonna do this and now you get to the stage of your life where tiredness has catched up with you and health has catched up to you and you can't do the things that you used to do and all those dreams you had across the country across the world across state across a town you can't reach anymore and you're becoming a shadow and when you become a shadow people are less interested in you and your dreams you're not as exciting as the young guys and you feel less important and you pray and guess what God answers your prayers because he hears the prayers of the destitute when you become a shadow you're not a shadow to God I'll tell you there's one reason you go the sun sets it's so that it can rise again and and the reason we said is so that we can rise in eternity and that's when our bodies go down and everything we planned for goes down and everything we long for goes down as far as us goes and we don't have the abilities that we used to have it's so beautiful to know that we will rise with him one day if we do set even if we die so that we can rise that's why the sun goes down but let's read on psalm 102 verse 23 and 24 he weakened my strength in the way and shortened my days who's making your body get older who's taken away much of your strength it's God I said oh my God take me not away in the midst of my days thy years are throughout all generations of oldest I laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of their hands and then these amazing words I don't know if you've noticed but that's where does that get quoted in the new testament hebrews chapter 1 verse 10 and in the next verse also quoted hebrews chapter 1 verse 11 or 12 and they shall perish but thou shalt endure thou shalt endure yet all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed that's quoted in in in hebrews chapter 1 and 1 corinthians 15 where it says they shall we shall all be changed it's talking about the resurrection you know what's amazing about this this verse two things number one we are becoming a shadow and as we've become a shadow we look back and we are a of the person that we used to be but there's a person that we cried to and the same chapter psalm 102 says there's another guy and he's not fading he's not becoming a shadow he's never changing you change not they change you don't and when you pray to God as you become a shadow you're praying to the one who hasn't changed number one he changes not my dad is dead but God is still there and he goes on to say when we do finally set that we die we're going to rise again if you it gets caught in the new testament in that context and and we're going to have a body just like his that's incorruptible we are fading to rise the bible teaches that's how it's quoted in the new testament this song but the main concept that i wanted to bring out of this and i said at the beginning life can be a shadow to you but what about when you become a shadow and i'd like to look at this practically from church history and the first person i'd like to bring out as an illustration is george matheson and we know the song i love that will not let me go that he wrote and george matheson was a brilliant man he had amazing intellect he got amazing studies that he did but when he was about 18 to 20 18 years to 20 there was a few things that happened he got engaged to a girl and then he started he already had been starting to lose his eyesight but he went totally blind and this girl looked at him and says i don't want you and so she dropped him she wanted him but not the shadow of him she wanted him with eyes but she didn't want him without eyes and as you lose your abilities and as you're not as exciting to people as when you were younger or when you're middle-aged and you had loads of time and whatever else you have resources there's people who will leave you just because you're a shadow of your former self then she had a he had a sister and the sister looked after him for another 20 years and she read the bible to him helped him with his studies helped him to preach help him to have ministry etc but after 20 years she left him now she didn't leave him because she didn't love him or because he was a shadow of his former self but she came to a point in life and says i'm not going to live in your shadow basically i need to make my own shadow and i want to get married so she got married and she left him and at that time he wrote these words i went through the most severe mental suffering and he sat down and he wrote a hymn about god when i become a shadow there's another one is not a shadow says song 102 and he said oh love that will not let me go unlike many people oh light that follows me all the way oh joy that seekers me through pain a cross that lifteth up my head and he rested himself in him now when i was younger believe it or not there was a stage when i was younger you guys remember some of you might remember those days when i was younger before i got married i went to a town called cockstat in the same area of about 10 million people that vienhaber who some of you support um is in and i was in cockstat there's about three or four languages that are spoken there many different cultures and i was in my car machine car and i drove not my car the mission car the missions car and i drove down the road and i saw a man walking and he was limping on the one side and uh he had some kind of crutch that he homemade and i remember his face was drooping totally down his eye was in many different i was in many different directions and the whole one side of his body was basically crippled it looked like he was paralyzed and so i came to him and i said to him i stopped and i said my name is roy etc and i said a few things i said i'd like to meet up with you would you like he looked like a poor person would you like to have a burger and so he told me of a restaurant that was in town or something and i sat there three o'clock in the afternoon or whenever it was and he arrived many people that i invite for a burger don't arrive and he was there and he sat down in front of me and we spoke he didn't ask for any money which impressed me but he told me a story and he said i was i was a very popular guy and i used to be the best at soccer and i was very fast and i married a beautiful girl he said but then i had a stroke and my whole half of my body doesn't function and i'm paralyzed and he said my wife said to me my wife said i don't want you anymore because you can't give me physical pleasure i wanted you when you had two sides to your body but i don't want the shadow of your former self he said all my friends left me i didn't realize they only wanted me because i was a good soccer player there was a preacher in south africa there was an unsaved person by the way there was a preacher wonderfully saved he spoke seven languages he preached so powerfully that his wife died and he married again to a woman and all seemed great but he had a stroke and he was paralyzed only his head could move and his wife said to him i don't want you anymore it's not just what you can't give to me anymore it's what i can't give to you looking after you basically but she didn't she wanted the preacher who went around and everybody loved she wanted the preacher who had at least a better car than people living in the slums she wanted that preacher but she didn't want the preacher in the wheelchair the shadow of his former self and so she left him one of my friends went to see him alvin knows him and um one of my friends went to see him and he was just praising the lord with that little bit that still moved and then got in a miracle the doctor said it was impossible and in one moment he got healed a few years later and someone said god sent her to that to save him from that woman but she didn't want the shadow of his former self there was a guy called h uh no there's a woman sorry hillen l h lamal and this is a wisconsin story how many of you like wisconsin stories and have you know where wisconsin is somewhere out there in the world uh she was born in wardy england 1863 at 12 years of age they came over as a family she was 12 years of age her family parents brought her to america they eventually settled in wisconsin that's so beautiful and then later on she started went back to europe and in 1907 she studied music in germany and then she returned to america with her husband in 1911 age 47 and uh in the next few years she got very sick she lost her eyesight she became a shadow of the person she used to be and her husband said to her i don't want you anymore he wanted what she used to be but he didn't want the shadow so he left her but he didn't just leave her with some money he left her with no money basically and she was blind without money she struck up financially she was a shadow of her past physically she was a shadow of her past and she wrote a song oh soul are you weary and troubled no no light in the darkness you see there's a light for a look at the savior we are and life more abundant and free turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace there was a man with the name of iris stand full and iris stand full was just 12 years old when he got saved he was 17 years old and he started writing hymns and spiritual songs he was on fire for the lord age 22 became a preacher age 25 he married five days after his marriage they ordained him as a minister head elder minister he thought he had a wonderful future because wow praise the lord i'm married i got a church i'm writing hymns then nine and a half years later his wife came to him and said dearest or my husband basically it came down to she was a singer too but she didn't want to be stuck in churches she wanted to be on the singing circuit of the secular singers where they get drunk and they have a lot of popularity so she left her husband after nine and a half years 34 years of age when he was 12 and got saved he didn't expect such a dark tomorrow and he wrote a song he was in depression he wanted to leave the ministry he felt like he was in darkness he didn't know where god was he basically said i'm leaving the ministry and this one goes like this i don't know about tomorrow i just live from day to day i don't borrow from its sunshine for its skies may turn to gray i don't worry or the future for i know what jesus said and today i'll walk beside him for he knows what is ahead many things about tomorrow i don't seem to understand it but i know who holds tomorrow and i know he holds my hand charlotte elliott charlotte elliott born in 1789 i don't want to go into church history too much but the beginning of the reformation you know with i mean you've got the morning style the reformation before you have you have you basically have a few people before the actual reformation in the time of luther and then in the 1500s but for the first 150 years you didn't really have women hymn writers i don't know if you've noticed that and that's because the church generally didn't even think about it they didn't argue against it they just didn't think that women hymn writers was a good idea because of that verse in colossians which is teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and so they thought that women hymn writers weren't the greatest idea but there were several hymn women hymn writers that rose towards the end the beginning of the 1800s into the 1900s and towards the end of the 1700s and a few of them were lynna sundell who wrote day by day fanny crosby have a girl francis livery have a girl died in her 40s and obviously we have charlotte elliott and eliza who it or one of the several big ones he wrote hundreds and hundreds of hymns praise the lord this morning we're singing mostly women's hymns i don't know if you've noticed and we've got quite used to it but just as i am without one plea was written by charlotte elliott and she was a very lively happy strong person who she had so much hope for and so much excitement at what is coming and then at right about the age of 32 she went became seriously ill and for the rest of her life she was an invalid she could do hardly anything and she went into depression she felt like she was in darkness and a year later she felt she had so much doubt god would never accept her because all those feelings were there and someone said to her come just as you are and at age 32 she 33 she did but even though she came to god and she got radically safe she still struggled because as an invalid she felt like she was a shadow of her former self and she felt like she couldn't actually be what she wanted to be in life and she felt that this would affect her spiritually and so she wrote the song anyway at age 40 something which was just as i am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bids me come to thee oh lamb of god i come not my feelings not my depression not what i'm going through in life not the fact that i'm a shadow of my former self i come just as i am because you said come and it's amazing to me i've seen this so many times in church history when people go through darkness and other people see them as a shadow when they become a shadow and people think that their ministry is gone and there's no hope for them and it's basically they're not important to the kingdom of god anymore god takes them and uses them whether it's through a book whether it's your sermon whether it's through him and thousands of people could say it through the song now one shadow that people go go through is old age and i've preached a few times mentioning stories of my dad but if i think of my dad i remember i was just thinking in context of the sermon when my dad had a stroke i just remember his body was going down anyway and i remember one christmas my dad yeah he used to walk for hours he used to do so many different things and he said one of the hardest things after the stroke is he couldn't walk very far and that affected his mental capacity to be able to preach with clarity because walking brings the blood to your brain he understood and it really worked that way with him remember once sitting at christmas and he used to phone a hundred people at christmas to encourage them he'd sit through the nights and phone people across the world just to tell them that jesus loved them basically and i asked him on christmas aren't you gonna do that daddy and my daddy looked at me with tears in his eyes and he said roy i don't know how to explain to this to you but i cannot do what i used to do i cannot do what i used to do he was a shadow of his former self in some ways but god still answered his prayers till his death god answered his prayers when my dad was having covid you guys know the story that they put the pipes in him and they wouldn't allow anybody to visit him in hospital but one of the things was said to my mother because my mother said to them just to the doctor please save his voice don't ruin his lungs because he wants to preach some sermons he told me before he entered the hospital i'm going to come out and i want to preach those sermons and the doctor looked at my mother and says he's probably not going to live but if he lives he will never speak again his lungs are so ruined you know when i heard that and i saw pictures of my daddy i struggled to remember the daddy who sang beautifully with a strong voice i struggled to see my daddy that wasn't just a shadow of his former self and i remember a time when my daddy died and i think it was aaron coles of all people one of the songs that he recorded in pennsylvania when my dad died i mean my dad's priest there and um it was just you've heard that song my dad be still my soul my dad sang and he sang it so strongly and in my weakness i just had something of a glimpse of my daddy in his strength again and isn't it beautiful because of jesus because of the one who never changes that though we become a shadow one day we will be risen with a new body and my dad will sing with a strong voice i remember my grandfather used to preach so brilliantly he could i he can do what i can't do now glenn base is a little bit of this you can captivate audiences with your voice and inflection all these amazing stories that my grandfather could tell amazing preacher and god used him mightily in many places in south africa many conferences many churches i went with many of them but then when he had quadruple bypass and then he had a stroke and then he had various cancers and they ripped out three quarters of his stomach and then eventually towards the end when he was fully dying from cancer and became a very thin person i know there's two things the one was that after one of the big operations for quite a few months he could hardly speak and so when he spoke it would be as he was groaning basically he'd say hello and then he'd wait a few seconds then he said my can we can we open and then there'll be these gaps long gaps heavy breathing and i remember one conference he stood at the front and he was preaching to the people in in this conference in the eastern cape south africa and i still about 150 people and there's some young people and these young people started mocking him and oh boy if ever i was not amish i would have hit them in the face but i'll tell you this they didn't know what he used to be he prayed for hours before he preached from that pulpit he wanted god to work but they had no idea that he what he was before he was the shadow of himself i remember grandfather used to throw me into the air he was so strong you couldn't believe and when he was old he could hardly walk because he was so thin from the cancer i told you cancer is a horrible thing i think it's like six or seven people in my family have died from cancer of the older ones and i remember many of them turning white and thin and dying my granny was the hardest of course you've heard this before because she choked herself to death with lung cancer she couldn't eat she couldn't breathe and she basically starved and choked to death over a month or two when we become a shadow of our former self it's not because we're not godly it's not because we don't love jesus it's because that's how it works in this sinful fallen world it's what psalm 102 says and then gives us a hope but i'd like us to open up our bibles to isaiah 46 very quickly my wife wrote a song about this i preached uh on this topic a few uh when i was preaching on prayer at this church recently and i just i did mention this before but it's so beautiful in isaiah 46 talking of your old age how the heathen gods you carry and when you're strong you carry them about but eventually they bear you down the bible says in your old age or in the desert and god then says so beautifully how can our house of israel and all the remnant of the which are born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb even to your old age and even to our heads will i carry you gray heads i'm going great it's good i have made i will bear even i will carry and i will deliver you and and the question i mentioned back when i was here was why why would you carry your god when when your god is willing to carry you but he's willing to carry you into your old old age you know jacob jacob in his old age i've preached on jacob before yeah and i did mention that when jacob had lost his child he thought his child was dead when he thought he was starving and he thought his child was dead and he thought it was the end basically that they all were going to starve he didn't believe when they said joseph was alive but you know what made him believe these words when he saw the wagons which joseph had sent to carry him the spirit of their father revived it was the empty wagons when he realized there was someone who was willing to carry him his spirit revived now i'd like to read one verse here before we have one last hymn story after commenting on this verse it says i got three minutes left i probably got about five six minutes left of the sermon so 11 uh in in the in the camp of the kids the kids camp sorry uh that we just had the boys camp this week uh the memory verse is for the week was chapter 11 of ecclesiastes open up your bibles to ecclesiastes chapter 11 ecclesiastes 11 verse 8 says these words if a man live many years and rejoice in them all in other words if you have strength all your days you never feel like you become a shadow yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many all that cometh is vanity now i'm not going to go into the word vanity i'm not going to explain everything about that verse i'm going to hone in on remember the days of darkness even if you go through good times you you should remember the days of darkness now there's a thing in the church that i find and i mentioned this at the boys camp um when i was preaching on on on ecclesiastes 11 and that is simply that there's a lot of people who take the verses that we must rejoice in the lord always and it almost becomes a spiritual thing that if you're walking closely to god and you write with god and you have faith you'll never feel down and i like to remember as you guys have heard that the same paul the same paul who um said we the rejoice in the lord always said in the book of romans weep with them that weep in fact in the book of philippians he said i am sorrowful and my sorrow is less so he was sorrowful when he wrote rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice there are people who say the words they say if you don't have a smile on your face always then people aren't going to get saved and and basically you're not going to draw people onto you if you just you don't always just rejoice and ignore the bad things in life then you're basically going to make the world not come to christ and then i asked him well jeremiah was the weeping prophet jesus was a man of sorrows go to jesus and get sending me while he bread drops and he was weeping before god and say to him the world's not going to come to to god because jesus christ you are feeling down right now in the garden of this enemy the bible says remember the days of darkness i remember preaching a sermon at family camp many years back when my dad was still alive and i went through different people in the bible in the old testament new testament and in church history who went through days of darkness who were godly and i mentioned john bunyan and i john bunyan being in in in prison and how in prison he was not just rejoicing all the time he said these words i feel like my flesh is being ripped from my bones as he thought of his wife and blind child starving outside i mentioned charles spurs and for 20 years of his life went into deep depression god used him the most when he was in the greatest doctors mentally god used him less when he wasn't strange how god does that how he wept in his depression and i could go into details of that but we don't have time i don't know i'm judson how he when his wife died and many of his children died how he was at the grave of his wife and for weeks he wept and he went into depression and became a hermit basically in the forest hudson taylor i mentioned and how hudson taylor was suicidal before he found the secret of john chapter 15 but then i've heard just last year i was at a conference and someone stood up and said when he found the secret of john 15 he never struggled after that he just trusted the lord you know what happened after he found the secret of john chapter 15 he was so frustrated by 20 million people dying around him in in the rebellion and was in in in in in china that he literally couldn't take it anymore of his wife and after his wife and children died that he basically got in a ship and went back to england because he could not mentally take it anymore that's after he found the secret and god still used him out of that darkness when he went back to china i was preaching this at that conference and they put the boys in one hall and they put the girls in the other my mother spoke to the girls i spoke to the boys my dad spoke to everybody and i got one chance to speak to everybody and generally i was just speaking to boys there was one girl she was thin she was white her hair was all out i didn't know it but she crept from my mother's meeting and she was curious and she came and she listened secretly to my message i came around the corner after i preached that message talking of the days of darkness and she was weeping tears were dripping down her face she said how she desperately needed that sermon she said it lifted her up she said everybody's just telling her to praise the lord all the time everybody's saying rejoice in the lord all the time and they're basically saying that she must she must trust god he said but i'd so it was so wonderful and meant so much to me when i heard the saints of god in the old testament the new throughout church history who went through darkness who struggled who had doubts while they clung to god who sought god anyway and god used them anyway and god never forsook them she needed to hear about the days of darkness we need more preaching on the days of darkness in people's lives my wife wrote the lyrics to a song which is of particular good application to end of the sermon and i'd like to add up to carry and serve them they topple and shatter the frames all breaking you search for salvation to the ends of the earth bearing the burden of false responsibility humility their lies cannot lift you your gods cannot heal your hurt come to the one who has made you and who knows your name i will carry you you i have made you and i maintain you i call you i will you when you pass the water i will be with you and through the rivers they will not overflow when you walk through fire you'll not be burned neither will the flames on you when your enemies come like a flood to overwhelm you i lift my banner up and i sustain your soul i have seen your every tear good shepherd who brought you back to the righteousness i will hold your hand and bring light to the dungeons calling all captives to come forth and to be free really share my salvation proclaim through the highways we'll share my holy name how can creation counsel the one who made it who can fathom my wisdom to whom will you liken me who is my equal who can count the grains of sand upon the shore who can number every head i will change you to your old age father i want to ask for this sermon that you would even though there's many more things that could be said we just don't have time for them i want to thank you so much that you live dwell in the darkness that you make a path in the darkness that you're a light while we in the darkness not just afterwards now we don't need to fear in the valley of the shadow of death because of the fact that you are with us not that we know the way father there is treasures in the darkness that jesus faced the darkness to the point of feeling forsaken of his father like many saints in the old testament new testament church history did too and father thank you so much that we are to remember the days of darkness and in that psalm 102 hebrews chapter 1 and corinthians so beautifully brings it together that as we fade and we become the shadow and our dreams go through our fingers like sand grains onto the ground father that you never change and while you never change when we pray though men have forsaken us despise us and mock us and don't treat us as when we were not a shadow father thank you so much that you the unchanging one still hear our prayers and that you the unchanging one as we finally set are going to be our resurrection the following day for eternity as it's taught in the new testament out of psalm 102 where we are a shadow father help this truth to sink in our hearts as we face aching legs and our businesses are hurt and our children and family and friends don't treat us the same when we become a shadow of our former selves father i pray this in jesus christ's name amen